Heir of the Curse Read online

  I looked at Nikkan specifically to see if he could understand that Grace feared the wolves. She wasn’t with me to play house. She was staying safe, away from the sick wolves so that she didn’t get ill or become their next meal. Grace was smart, and Nikkan had to know that much. He had spent the past two winters pining over her; he had to know this wasn’t some whim. She’d thought it through. If he wasn’t just thinking with jealousy, maybe he could have understood better that she was scared.

  Micco seemed to understand why Grace was afraid, but the men behind him didn’t. I could hear them grumble amongst themselves, but I ignored them. I focused on Nikkan. He was the only one that needed to be convinced.

  “Grace came here for my protection from the sick wolves,” I began, pleading with my eyes as much as I could. Nikkan had to know that protecting Grace came first. He would have done the same if he wasn’t so resentful.

  “No one is so sick that you have to run away,” one of the men interrupted me. I didn’t rise to his challenge as I focused just on Nikkan.

  “Not according to her. Someone was killed yesterday in the wolf village, and she feels safer here.”

  That got their attention. None of them spoke for a moment. Micco seemed lost for words. I could tell that was a secret they were trying to keep hidden. I wasn’t trying to get Grace in trouble with all of them, but she didn’t feel safe, and they had to know it was true. She probably wasn’t safe. In fact, most of them probably weren’t safe. Micco, the strongest of them all, went head to head with a cursed wolf and had to fight a hard battle to win. None of the weaker wolves stood a chance against a cursed wolf.

  “You told an outsider,” one of the men accused her in barely more than a whisper.

  Grace was now right behind my back, partially hidden but close enough to hear everything. I could feel her hand on my back, and she was shaking. It seemed I was right in that it was a secret.

  “Castiel isn’t an outsider,” Micco corrected the wolf. “He’s welcome any time in our village, and I keep no secrets from him. He’s spent more time with us in the past three winters than his mother.”

  “He’s a tree human,” the same man spat out like the word ‘tree human’ was a dirty word. How ironic that he was acting the same way that the tree humans were acting towards the wolves.

  Nothing was ever going to change if the people didn’t start seeing themselves as citizens of Elder, not one kind of human or another. We were all part of the same kingdom, but it seemed like neither side wanted the other ones there. It surprised me that the wolves continued the hate when it was them that faced being killed for being what they were. I wanted them to have more compassion, but then again, they were wolves. Compassion wasn’t one of their greatest traits.

  Micco nodded to me like he understood why Grace was at my house. I kind of had the feeling if he didn’t have all the responsibility to keep the wolves safe, he might have had an extended visit with me also. He nodded his head to the men behind him, and they all stepped back away from the doorway to my place. Everyone except Nikkan.

  “But Grace needs to come home with us,” Nikkan told everyone that had moved as he glared at me. He couldn’t just give up.

  This would have been much easier if he had stuck around long enough for me to explain to him what was going on. Heck, if he had been home, he could have slept with Grace on the floor instead of me. He could be the one protecting her. There was no way he would listen to me right now, but I wished I could go back and get him to see it the way it truly was.

  “Grace has already said that she doesn’t want to go with you,” I reiterated her position. It went over as well the second time as the first.

  “It doesn’t matter. She’s a wolf, and you’re a human.”

  Nikkan was trying so hard to keep Grace from me that I almost wanted to laugh. She had as big of a crush on him as he did on her. There was nothing going on between us. I had to keep my laugh hidden as I stared back at him, or I was pretty sure the fight would turn physical as he wouldn’t see the humor in the situation.

  “That didn’t seem to matter at any point in the past three winters to you,” I reminded Nikkan.

  He huffed and didn’t respond. He couldn’t argue with that.

  Grace finally peered out from behind my shoulder. She frowned at Nikkan as he stood by himself, still trying to confront me. The other men were moving back away at Micco’s command and no longer threatening to Grace. She knew she was safe and was going to be able to stay. Micco was with the men as Nikkan continued to stand on my doorstep.

  “Castiel is your best friend? Why don’t you start acting like it?”

  The other male wolves with Nikkan now were standing a good two or three saplings away from him. A couple hid their smiles as Grace started to lay into Nikkan. Everyone knew that the female wolves had more than a little fire in them.

  “You ran away before we could talk to you yesterday, and if that was any indication of why Castiel is living here alone, I get it. You must have run away before too. Instead of dealing with your problems, you pretend it’s everyone else’s fault. Grow up Nikkan. Real men take care of their own problems and don’t have to drag five men along with them. Deal with it.”

  Grace moved and was now standing side by side with me just inside my house. She was just getting going, and I planned to make sure I was back far enough away to not have that anger directed at me, from either of them. I slid back a bit more, so she was now in front of me.

  “You don’t have the right to come here and make demands of me. I can go where I please when I please. I’m a grown woman. I don’t need a man to tell me what to do.” Grace looked over Nikkan’s shoulder and was glaring at the men with him. “And to bring a group of wolves with you? Really?” She was now shaking her head like it was the craziest thing Nikkan had ever done.

  Personally, I knew Nikkan could and would do a lot more crazy in his life, but for her, this had to be the first time she saw him act before thinking. That was a way of life for my best friend.

  Grace’s red hair was now flying around her as she whipped between each man behind Nikkan, and she gave them each a glare to send them on their way. Her fear of them was utterly gone since her anger had taken over.

  “You should all be ashamed of yourselves. Matthean? Liam? Really? Bill, don’t you have a wife and kids to take care of? Running off to help Nikkan pretend he’s in charge when you all should be back in the village helping those that need new homes, and if that’s all done, then making the fence. You don’t have time to run off and play backup to some guy’s jealousy. Why in the world are you here and not being the men you’re supposed to be?”

  Nikkan opened his mouth like he was going to protest, but Grace didn’t give him a chance. Her anger flowed freely from the men and back to Nikkan.

  “You aren’t my father, and you don’t get a say in my life. Go home, Nikkan.”

  She emphasized her last three words slowly and carefully before slamming the door shut in his face. I froze where I was just behind her and listened to the space outside my house. Nikkan must have been as much in shock as I was. He wasn’t moving an inch.

  “The girl isn’t coming back with us tonight,” Micco said loud enough for me to hear. “And she’s right. We need to head back and keep building. There’s still much to get done.”

  Not a single guy with Micco disagreed with him as they all trudged back into the woods. I heard the breaking of bones as Nikkan must have turned back into his wolf form. He gave a growl at the closed door and then followed the men back to their village.

  Grace turned around and leaned her back against the door. She slid down to the ground and let out a breath like she had been holding in the whole time. Her hands shook a little as if the adrenalin had worn off, and she was back to sweet, quiet Grace.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said as she covered her reddening cheeks.

  “Sorry for what? Making them go away?”

  I pulled her hands down so she could see
my face. She had done a great job of getting them to leave. I didn’t need to do a thing once she got going.

  “Never be sorry for standing up for yourself. Never.”

  Grace’s cheeks stayed red, but silently she nodded her head.

  “Now, what do we do from here?” I asked, though it was more for me than her.

  I wasn’t sure what to do. I wanted to go back and help the wolves build houses and the fence, but Grace didn’t feel safe there. So, I couldn’t go and bring her back. I couldn’t leave her in my house alone while I went to the wolves. What Micco needed was more help, but I couldn’t offer anything like that. Unless I talked with my mother.

  “Do you think what Micco said was true?”

  I wasn’t sure what she was talking about.

  “About the wolves that turned and stayed wolves the whole time during the last curse.”

  She was talking about the day before. She must have overheard Micco and I talking.

  “I don’t know. I could ask my mother, but I’m not sure.”

  Grace bit her lip and nodded.

  “It’s not that I like my wolf form so much. Kind of stinks to be naked all the time and unable to talk to people when you can understand them. But if it would keep me from turning into a monster, I’d do it.”

  While I knew the wolf Grace was, I couldn’t imagine her as a wolf all the time like Nikkan preferred. Grace was a girl and a human.

  “It could be many, many winters before the curse is broken again. Would you want to be a wolf that long? What about the rest of your life? The last time the curse lasted hundreds of winters. You could spend the rest of your life trapped in a world you could see, taste, feel, understand, but you could never talk back. Would you truly want that?”

  Nikkan loved to be a wolf, but most of the wolf humans would rather be human. To lose that side ultimately was something I wasn’t sure anyone would volunteer for.

  “Would it be fun? No,” Grace explained. “But it would keep me and everyone around me safe. I can do that for everyone else. I want to do that.”

  I looked at my friend that had been around as long as I could remember. Most of her family was taken by the last curse and never recovered, hunted for the monsters they became. Her mother was left alone and pregnant with Grace, spared from changing into a beast, but having to raise a baby on her own once the curse was gone. Grace was only a child when her mother passed on. The village had taken care of her since.

  It was strange to see her not as that child that pestered me and Nikkan when Red would take me to the wolf village. Grace endlessly followed us around and tried to do whatever we were doing. We spent half our time trying to get away or hiding from her. She was almost three full winters younger than me, but right now, she seemed so much older. She was making a life decision without any hesitation.

  “Is that what you truly want?”

  I knew she had a crush on Nikkan. If she turned into a wolf right now, she’d never had a chance to tell him. Her life as a human would be over.

  “It doesn’t matter what I want. That was taken away from me the moment I was born a wolf. I don’t get choices often, but I know this is the right thing to do.”

  I tried to smile, but there was no happiness in what she was suggesting she was going to do. Essentially, she would be gone. The friend I couldn’t remember meeting since she’d always just been around would be gone. Human Grace would possibly never come back.

  I would have loved to change her mind, but I understood. She wanted control of her life.

  “Okay. If that’s what you want. But let me talk to Red first. She might be able to tell us if that’s true or not.”

  Grace nodded as she finally stood back up, full of strength she didn’t have before, a new determination in her eyes.

  “Tomorrow at first light, I’ll go visit Red. If you promise to stay here, I’ll see what she knows, and then we can go from there.”

  Grace gave me a small smile and nodded. With one choice, she was possibly going to be gone forever. Human Grace would cease to exist anywhere but inside her head. My friend would be gone, and everything she had ever hoped and dreamed would go with her. There wasn’t a right answer; there wasn’t a good choice to make. This was life in Elder and something no one had wished to come back. Now, Grace had to deal with it, and I was going to have one less friend in the world.

  8th March

  I woke before the sun the next morning. Grace was still sleeping on the couch as I finally convinced her I wasn’t going to use it as long as she was visiting me. She was too peaceful, and it was too early to wake her, so I quietly snuck out of my house to make a run back to see Red.

  Grace had returned to her quiet self as soon as the wolves left yesterday, but that could have been because of what she planned to do. There was the very likely chance that Grace was going to be a wolf for the rest of her life. Where Nikkan loved his wolf form, Grace wasn’t as happy being a wolf. It was a sacrifice she was willing to make, but it didn’t make it any easier.

  I wasn’t sure what was going through her head, but I knew she was thinking about it after the wolves left. The curse being back didn’t just mean life-changes for the tree people; it meant the wolves had to make a choice also. I wasn’t sure how many would want to leave their human loves behind. Mothers wouldn’t see their children grow up, siblings would never hug one another again, and couples would never be able to tell each other they loved them.

  Life, once all my friends were furry and never able to speak to me again, would be different. When Grace and Nikkan became wolves, I would be alone. The tree people of Elder never cared much for me. They knew I wasn’t a wolf, but I was still not one of them. They never let me forget it, no matter that my mother was the Red of Elder. I had no friends in the tree village. The wolves until yesterday were always welcoming to me, even if most kept their distance. They didn’t shun me like the tree people.

  It was going to be a lot quieter without my friends to talk with. Nikkan wouldn’t be there to argue with me over everything he could think of, and Grace wouldn’t be in the village every time we went back to visit. But I guess that wasn’t completely true. I was still going to be able to talk to them; they just weren’t going to be able to respond to me.

  I watched Grace sleep a bit. It wasn’t in a creepy way, but just in knowing that soon, I wouldn’t see her human form again. Part of me was mad at Nikkan. She was never going to get to tell him her feelings for him because he was a jerk. They would never get to have the time together that I knew both of them wanted. It was hard to remember that being human would be over for her if Red confirmed what Micco had said.

  And with that thought, I quietly left my house and Grace behind asleep.

  My jog through the woods was quiet as a regular morning would be. I was glad to find that it was clear of wolves or the carnage of their hunger. As soon as the cursed wolves got near my place, I was pretty sure Red would send hunting parties out to keep the rest of the people safe. Both sides would lose with that.

  The wolf village had more going on than either Red or I had known about. I hated to see that the wolves had been upset with Grace for sharing with me. I understood that the curse was their problem to deal with, but if they were running around and killing without memory, it was the problem of everyone in Elder. We needed to know the truth, even if it wasn’t going to put the wolves in the best light.

  Birds filled the air with their morning greeting as the crickets and night insects began to go to bed for the day. Sounds of nature surrounded me on every run I made in the woods, and I was thankful that the sounds were still there. I had grown used to the forest and all its sounds when I left the village. It seemed the animals kept away from the tree-dwellers as much as they stayed away from the wolves.

  The run was quick as I jogged at my new-found speed. I would arrive early, but the tree city began their day early, so people were bound to be up and around—the same people that tolerated but never accepted me. Lucky for me, Red prefe
rred her cottage, and if I got there early enough, I wouldn’t have to see any of the tree dwellers.

  It didn’t take me long to make the run to Red’s cottage. It seemed like I was getting faster every time the sun rose. I really had to wonder how much faster I could get. I was beyond a normal human, but with all that was going on, I didn’t have time to wonder what it meant. Nikkan and I always wondered where I came from, but Red wasn’t one to share details about anything with anyone unless she chose to.

  As I got close enough to smell the hyacinths that dotted the cottage grounds of my mother’s place, my jog turned into a walk. The deep floral scent was easy to pick up on as I was pretty sure she was the only one that wanted her place to smell strongly of flowers. Red was like that. She was tough, barely smiled, and yet loved to grow flowers. Hard, rough, and floral, all mixed into one. A bit of a mess of ideas all bundled into the leader of Elder and the woman that raised me. I gave up on trying to understand her many winters ago.

  Red was at her kitchen sink as I stood just inside the tree line. I was well hidden by the branches and the early spring foliage growing around her cottage, and it gave me time to watch her.

  The day was just beginning, but that wouldn’t mean a thing to Red. She was an early riser and always had things to get done. Red was doing dishes. It seemed like an ordinary task but threw me for a loop. Red was meticulous about everything in her life. She had to be. Chores were one thing she never put off until morning, and yet here she was washing away. I watched as she soaped up another dish and then rinsed it off. I wanted to think it was just a breakfast dish but knew better. Something was up with her.

  Growing up as the child of Little Red Riding Hood was more than a little intimidating. She was bigger than life, even if she was only a sapling tall. There was nothing Red couldn’t do. She beat the curse that no one else could. She fought for and saved her people time and time again. She was amazing. Everyone in Elder knew her name, and heck, other kingdoms knew her too. She was that famous.