Deadlier Than The Male - Exclusive for Steemit - serialised novel

A tragedy for one Wolf and revenge, bloody vengeance is sure to ensue.

At last Belafanta and Encresciuta left the house and drove away. Anton and Nichasin were looking for Santi and Elizabeth was still in her room. Hazel was at a loss, she didn’t really wish to spend too much time with Luke for she wanted to be more at ease with him until she got used to being a wife again. Luke had other ideas however and he followed her wherever she went in the house. Hazel avoided her own room so not to give him more encouragement. In desperation, she went out of the house towards the harbour. Luke followed her without attempting conversation.

Hazel came to the end of the dock and could walk no further, Luke was still close behind her and she had nowhere else left to go, she could not avoid him any more so she resigned herself to speak to him. She sat on the edge of the dock and waited. Luke joined her, he took her hand and she did not pull away from his touch, he took that as encouragement and kissed it.

“Hazel, why did you run? I need to know so that I can make it better, make it right again.”

Hazel sighed. “Darius hates me. I killed his wife; my best friend and he will not forgive me. I will not forgive myself for that either, but his hatred is obvious. Victoria knew this and we made a bargain. I don’t know what happened to that bargain, but it was not completed to how she promised it would be.”

“What do you mean by that? What did Victoria promise you?”

“I can’t tell you, I gave my word.” Hazel said, looking down into the water at the fish swimming just below the surface.

“Well, if she broke her word, then you may do the same.” Luke coaxed.

“No Luke, I will not. If I were to break my word then I would be as bad as she. If I don’t trust her even when she has seemed to have broken her word to me, and she has other reasons for that, then I may ruin any plans she has. I will let it go. But you betrayed me.”

“I did?” Luke asked.

“When I was attacked and made Wolf, I was not warned that I would become so. I was left bewildered with nothing explained to me. I thought I was falling in love with a man and that a man was falling in love with me. I had no idea of the horrors in store, you could have told me.”

“I couldn’t, Hazel, even as much as I wanted to. As much as I would have liked to hold you close and reassure you that everything would be fine. I loved you from the first time I saw you. I know that you did not see me for I was prowling as Wolf with Darius. Mika sensed me though and you abandoned your walk with him and went back in your cottage. I wanted to ask you if you would join me in my lifestyle – our lifestyle – but Oscar and Victoria forbade it. Darius, I know, would have scorned me so he didn’t know my wishes. It was suggested that Darius make you Wolf for me and he agreed. He didn’t even wait to find out what my intentions were and so he did not know I wanted to commit to you completely, to marry you and bring you to our community. That was why I was searching for you in the wood that night. Darius found Mika and tied him up so that he would not give an alarm, he didn’t realise that you would go out to try to find Mika and he had to hunt for you. If everything had gone to plan, you would have been in your cottage, Darius would have attacked you there or closer to your home and we would have carried you away to Victoria and Oscar’s house that very night.”

“And what of Mika, you would have left him to die?”

“I…” Luke was taken by surprise.

“That is why you killed him on our wedding night! He was in the way. Why Luke? I loved him; he was the only family I had left after my parents died. Please don’t say you had anything to do with their deaths for there will no longer be a chance of reconciliation if you did.” Tears gleamed in Hazel’s eyes but she held them back for now.

“No, I didn’t know your parents; they died before I had seen you. How did you know I killed Mika?” Luke couldn’t hold Hazel’s stare and he had to look down at the fish.

“I know because his wounds were the same as those Gypsies’ dogs on the night we met Emilio. They were killed the same way.”

“You are right of course, but he was just a dog…” As soon as he said the words, Luke knew he had said the wrong thing. Hazel took her hand out of his and stood up. Luke scrambled to stand too and Hazel walked away from him. Luke reached for her hand but she pulled it out of his grasp, so he took hold of her shoulder and turned her to face him. The tears had broken free from her eyelids and were flowing down her face but she was silent as she looked up at him. “Forgive me Hazel; I honestly did not know how much he meant to you. It’s such a long time since I was Hume; I forget how dearly Humes hold their animal companions. I was unfeeling, I know, but in reality we could not have taken him with us for he was too sensitive to Wolves, he could sense us from further away than other dogs and realised what we were. He was bred for that work; we could not have taken him to live amongst us, for it would have driven him mad.”

“Why did he not react differently with me after I..?” Hazel asked.

“You were not Wolf at that time. You didn’t become Wolf until the first Full Moon, remember? If Mika had still been with us at the hunting lodge and you had changed there, he would have attacked you and you would have fought with him and killed him. I saved you having to remember that you killed him, Hazel.”

“Yet he did not attack you when you were not as Wolf.”

“That is because I knew to cloak myself. He would have attacked me if I had not been cloaked and he would have attacked me if I had been Wolf, then I would never have been able to get close enough to you for you to fall in love with me. And you did fall in love with me Hazel, I know you did.” Luke held Hazel’s chin with a crooked finger under it and bent his head down to her and brushed his lips on hers. She did not pull away but she did not return the kiss

“Hazel, the Hume I bedded…”

”It’s not that Luke, I swore I would not mention that and I will not.”

“No, let me speak. That Hume, I hoped for her to rid me of my frustrations. Yet all she did was remind me of you, what I could not have… Damn, Hazel, I don’t have the words. She didn’t remind me of you in that I saw a resemblance. She was nothing at all like you. I wanted her to be everything that you are and more, but I was disappointed, bitterly disappointed. If I can’t be with you Hazel, I am to be forever alone, no one compares to you. Please don’t condemn me to a life of loneliness for if I can’t be with you then I will be with no one.”

Hazel looked at Luke for a long time, searching his face for deceit and looking deep into eyes, which were - she was surprised to see - brimming with tears. “And what of Darius?” She said eventually.

“What of him?” Luke asked.

“Does he stay as your constant companion, knowing that I am uncomfortable in his company, that he hates me or does he go his own way and leave us to try again?”

“You are making me choose?” Luke stepped back from Hazel. “Why? He’s my mentor; he has helped me since... almost since I was Wolfed. If it were not for him I would have been dead times over. He is my friend!”

“And now I must be those things. I must be your friend, your companion. I am your wife.”

Luke looked at Hazel for a long time. Then he bowed his head and nodded. “Yes, you are my wife. If you make me choose between you and Darius, I must choose you. I hope that neither of us comes to regret that choice.”

Hazel had imagined that she would be happy at Luke’s decision but she found she was not entirely. She knew Darius would now have something else to hate her for. They walked back to the villa in subdued silence.

Darius was in the garden talking to Nichasin and Anton when they arrived back. Hazel could see there was something amiss and asked what was wrong.

“It’s Santi.” Anton said. “He has been severely miss-used at the party. When you and Elizabeth left him, he was tied to a rack?”

“No Anton, he was being embraced by Belafanta and Encresciuta when we left. It was when we returned as Wolves that we saw him tied to the rack.” Hazel explained. “Why?”

“His back has been laid open; the flesh is torn almost to the ribs. He has been whipped severely.” Anton said.

“Is Elizabeth administering to him?” Hazel asked.

“Yes and the doctor is here.”

“Who did it?”

“We’re not sure. The wounds would have been excruciating and would have caused him to make a great deal of noise if he had not been gagged. That’s why no one knew of his plight and unfortunately, no one found him until we went to search for him this morning. Of course Belafanta and Encresciuta were here for most of the morning but they arrived just as we were loading his unconscious form onto a cart, they gave us their carriage to bring him home in. Elizabeth is distraught, he may not survive.”

“Can we do nothing?” Hazel asked.

“The doctor is seeing to him now, we will know in a while.” Anton told her.

“No, can we do nothing as Wolves? Is there no means to help his healing? If I were to make him Wolf would he not heal as we do? Can we not give him glands to heal him quicker? You are studying this Anton! Do you not know?”

“Hazel, calm down. No, I have not studied the effects on Humes I am afraid. I do not know what would happen if we were to make Santi Wolf now, he is very weak; he was left for a long time. If he had been ministered to immediately, who knows, maybe he would be better able to withstand the Wolfing, but as it stands now, I don’t think he would survive. He may not survive anyway, but any decision lies with Elizabeth.”

“Does Elizabeth know the choices?”

“Of course she does.”

Later that afternoon, Hazel went up to see if she could sit with Santi for a while in order that Elizabeth could get some rest and food. She knocked and Elizabeth said to enter.

Santi was lying on his front, the flesh on his back was torn to ribbons and his breathing was very shallow. Elizabeth was sitting by his side, on the floor, watching his breathing.

“Hazel, he is not going to live.” Elizabeth said in matter-of-fact voice.

“Don’t think that way Elizabeth. He is strong and young.”

“But he was left, just left. How could someone beat another person to such an extent and then just leave him? Humes!”

“Can I make him Wolf, will that help him?”

“Soon, just before he dies, I will do it Hazel. I want that to be the last gift to him. If he survives then I have given him his life, if he does not, then he would not have survived any way.”

“Elizabeth, but you will never be able to…” Hazel said.

“I know Hazel, but if he does die, then I want him to know that I gave him his wish, not another Wolf.”

“As you think, Elizabeth, but I think you should do it now. He has a better chance of surviving now than when he is at his weakest.”

Elizabeth looked up at Hazel, then back to Santi and nodded. “Will you help me Hazel?”

“Yes with all my heart Elizabeth.”

Together they manoeuvred Santi so that Elizabeth could bite him without causing too much more blood loss.

“Santi, my love, can you hear me?” Elizabeth whispered. “Santi, I am going to make you Wolf my darling, are you ready?”

Santi moaned a little but did not move. Elizabeth took his hand in hers and brought it to her mouth, moving with great care and tenderness so as not to hurt him more than necessary. She cut the skin across the back of his hand with her sharp teeth and licked and sucked at the blood that seeped from the vein. Then she placed his hand back on the bed. Elizabeth stood up, stretched her legs and bent forward to stroke Santi’s hair.

“I will stay with him if you would like, or I can go fetch you food?” Hazel said.

“I will stay, Hazel, thank you. There is no need to fetch food, the servants bring it, but please stay with me for a little while. If Santi survives to moonrise he may be all right.”

Hazel nodded and sat at Elizabeth’s side.

After a time, Santi moved and Elizabeth put her head close to his. “Erzsébet, I cannot hold on, my love. It was Clara that ordered this; avenge me. I will be waiting for you in the Elysian Fields.” As he grew ever weaker, he held Elizabeth’s hand and slipped into unconsciousness. Soon his breathing stopped and Elizabeth put her head on his hand and wept.

Hazel stayed with her, doing her best to comfort her but to no avail. At the rising of the moon, Elizabeth left the side of the bed and went to the window. She threw back her head and howled, not caring if she was heard or seen.