I am Wolf (The Wolfboy Chronicles) (21 page)

She woke up to the sound of footsteps. She braced
herself for more pain and humiliation, but this time all the men did was to
remove her bandage and untie her hands so she could move them. Then they left
her again and locked the door behind them. She blinked her eyes in the
darkness, but even if there wasn’t much light in the small room it felt too
bright for her eyes. She closed them, then waited a few seconds before she
opened them again. A dark stone wall was in front of her, unclear and blurry.
She blinked again and again and soon she was able to see it clearly. Then she
turned her head and looked at the end wall. There was a small window under the
ceiling that let in a small ray of daylight. Her eyes hurt but she walked
towards it anyway. She wasn’t tall enough to reach it, but still she felt the
power of hope rise inside her young body. She put her palm on the wall and felt
it. Right out there, she thought. Right on the other side was freedom. It’s
right there.

Her hand touched the wall and felt it stone by stone,
like was she scanning it, but in reality she was just so thrilled to be able to
see something, anything that she wanted to see everything, she wanted to study
this room, every inch of it and count every stone if that was what it took to
keep her sane. As she touched the wall she came across something. Something
that had been carved into the stone. It was letters, letters forming a word.
She looked down and I saw it in my dream as her eyes laid upon it.

It said Sami.

I
woke with a
start gasping for
air.

“Sami,” I whispered. It had said my name on that wall.

I was shivering with cold and my hands felt numb. My
heart was beating fast now and I felt the adrenalin rush through my veins. I
knew where she was. I knew exactly where my name was carved like that. It was
in the cellar of my childhood home, where I had played so often with my older
brothers.

I got up on my feet and tried to keep calm. Could it
be? Could they have brought her to my father’s property? I gasped again at the
realization of things. Wouldn’t that mean that ... ? I didn’t dare finish the
thought. What had they done to my family? What had they done to my mother?

The mere thought of them having hurt my family forced
the change to come and my wolf appeared. I embraced the warmth of being a wolf
and enjoyed the speed of the animal as I sprinted across the country towards my
father’s property to the west.

I travelled for days through the mountains, only stopping to drink
water or hunt for animals. I kept my anger intact so I could remain the wolf
throughout the entire journey and didn’t have to endure the discomfort of
changing back and becoming the weak and slow human. As the wolf I could travel
hundreds of miles a day and after hunting I could continue most of the night as
well. I didn’t need to rest, I was too angry, too furious to sleep. So in two
and a half days I was back close to Bucharest. I ran through the forests and
found that my father’s property had been taken over by soldiers who were
guarding the entrance. I feared my family was still in the castle and maybe the
soldiers would kill them if they knew I was coming, so it had to be a surprise
attack and I feared they would somehow be alarmed if I killed the soldiers at
the front gate. Luckily I knew many ways to get in even if they had put up a
fence surrounding the entire area and forest. I found a secluded spot where I
knew no one would see me and then jumped the fence like it was the easiest
thing in the world. My hind legs had grown strong from all the running. No
fence was high enough to keep me out.

I landed on the soil of my father’s property and then
ran through the dense forest that I had known all of my life and soon found my
way to the castle. I stopped on a hill and looked at the many cars in the
driveway of the main building. There were at least ten soldiers with dogs,
maybe even more. They were heavily armed with rifles.

I decided to wait till nightfall while I watched the
guards and cars from a distance, preparing myself for what and who was waiting for
me down there. As I did I spotted Alexandru walk out of the building. I hid
between trees while studying him as he walked down the stairs, the soldiers
saluting him, then walked into a car and drove away. I watched his car as it
drove towards the exit, then went through the gate and disappeared. An hour or
so later it came back. This time two men stepped out of the car. One was
Officer Alexandru, the other was huge. He was much taller and bigger and
appeared to be of higher rank than Alexandru. The soldiers all humbled
themselves before him as did Alexandru. He yelled at the soldiers to hold the
door for the big man in the long black coat and big hat. Once through the door
I saw him take off his coat and hand it to someone. He had many stripes and
medals on the jacket underneath. This was without a doubt a very important man.
What was he doing here? I wondered. And why had they brought Catalina here, why
this place of all places? Why my childhood home? As I was wondering the man
turned and I got a good look at his face. His eyes were almost purple, the skin
and eyebrows fair like an albino. His face was rough and he wore several deep
scars across the left chin. At that second I stared into his eyes with my
enhanced sight, I was suddenly certain that he was staring right back at me. It
made me jump backwards while my heart beat faster. Had he seen me? Was that
even possible from this distance? With a smile the man turned and disappeared
into the castle.

It didn’t take long before I picked up Catalina’s
scent and was assured that she was still in there. It was fresh and very
strong. I didn’t however seem to smell my parents or anyone else from my
family. They were all old smells mixed with those of the soldiers and
especially Alexandru’s that I knew a little too well.

There was only one thing that really worried me as I
waited.

The strong scent of another wolf.

A
s night came I
prepared myself for my attack. I knew this
place like the back of my hand and knew a way to enter without being seen
through the basement. I wasn’t worried about the guards outside but I was
concerned that if they were warned inside that they might hurt Catalina. So my
attack had to be subtle and discrete. The guards patrolling outside had dogs
and they would pick up my scent immediately if I came too close or if I didn’t
consider the wind direction. So I sneaked up from the south west part of my
father’s property. Coming out of the woods I ran across the fields towards the
back of the castle. A soldier was lighting a cigarette and the fire glowed in
the darkness. As I approached him his dog became alert. It lifted its head and
ears and stared in my direction. I stopped immediately hoping that I didn’t
have to kill it. Luckily the soldier didn’t notice. He pulled its leash and dragged
it to the other side of the main building.

Now I had my chance to reach the small wooden door
leading to the basement before the next soldier walked around the corner. I ran
as fast as I could while hearing boots stepping in the gravel approaching the
corner of the building. Then I leaped soundlessly towards it and as he turned
the corner I hid in the small dent where the wooden door was hidden deep behind
bushes that had grown wild and covered the entire entrance. I held my breath as
the footsteps came closer. I could hear the dog sniffing and soon I spotted the
boots of the soldier standing close to my face. The dog was close to me now and
I knew it sensed me. Luckily its owner wasn’t aware of the dog’s behavior and
the same instant the dog began to growl someone called the soldier from the
other side of the building and he dragged it away from me and disappeared.

I exhaled and caught my breath. Careful not to make a
noise I pushed the bushes aside and found the door. With my snout I pushed it
open and slid through it into the house of my childhood that had become the
fort of the enemy.

I put my snout on the cold stone floor and immediately
caught Catalina’s scent. It was fresh and so close. In my dream she was locked
in what used to be a storage room where my mother would store dried food and
where I used to hide from my father’s disciplinary spanking with his belt. I
remembered specifically having hidden there for hours behind the big bags of
flour when he wanted to spank me for taking my horse and riding into town even
when he had forbidden me. That day I carved my name into the stone wall while
waiting for him to calm down with the knife that my father had given me. It had
made me proud to see it afterwards. I liked the idea of leaving a mark, of
marking my territory. That was when I for the first time thought about my
future and about life. That was when I decided I wasn’t going to waste it. I
wanted to become somebody. I wanted to leave a mark, an impact on this earth.
Back then I guess I already knew I was destined for something bigger than the
life I had then. I had somehow known and that made my brothers furious thinking
I thought I was better than them.

As I ran through the hallway towards the storage room
Catalina’s scent grew stronger and fresher it was almost intoxicating. I knew
then that being close to her was somehow my destiny that looking for her had
somehow provided me with something, it had made me grow up.

I found the door to the storage room unguarded and
felt a fear rise in me that she had been moved again. But her scent was still
there and it felt so fresh and soothing to my soul.

I growled and hit the door with my paw. It opened to
my surprise. I felt my heart race as I pushed it and peeked into the room.
Everything had been removed from it, all my mother’s things were gone, all the
food and the shelves. Nothing but the barren, cold stone floor was left.

In the corner of the room, I saw her. She was sitting
crumpled up with her head on her knees. It was the most enchanting sight to my
eyes. Finally, I had found her. A sense of relief went through my hairy body. I
stared at her while my heart was racing in my chest. Would she recognize me?
Would she know who I was?

Her small body seemed so weak, so wounded yet she
glowed with a strange light. She lifted her head and her eyes gazed at me, but
they didn’t smile. Neither did her mouth. I was so happy to finally have found
her and felt an extreme love for her as I had done in the first seconds our
eyes had met in the forest when we had first met. She stared at me and shook
her head and I wondered if she was afraid, since she had never seen me as the
wolf.

“No ...” she said. “No.”

I pushed my thoughts at her to let her know who I was.
I threw pictures of Sami the human, the boy she had met in the forest and as
she stared into my eyes I knew that she recognized me. Tears rolled down her
cheeks and she reached out and touched me gently. Then she stared into my eyes.

“I know you. I saw you in my dreams, while I was still
in darkness,” she said. “I saw you searching for me. You gave me hope. Knowing
you were looking for me filled me with hope and strength to endure.” She smiled
gently and caressed me. Then her face grew weary and her eyes worried. She
shook her head with a sigh. “You shouldn’t have come,” she whispered.

“You really shouldn’t,” I heard a voice say behind me.

Everything inside of me froze as I recognized the icy
voice of Officer Alexandru. I turned my head and stared into his eyes. He was
standing in the door, smiling widely.

“We have been expecting you, Sami,” he said.

I turned and stared at Catalina. “I couldn’t do
anything,” she said crying. “They have wanted you all along. It was you they
wanted. I led you right to them. I am so sorry.”

I turned my body and let out a growl that echoed in
the hallway. I wasn’t afraid of them. Now that I had Catalina there wasn’t
anything they could do to harm me.

“Now you’re probably thinking that you could just kill
me, right?” Alexandru said with a grin. “Because you’re so strong that no bullets
can harm you.” Then he pulled out a gun and stared at it in the dim light.
“You’re right, except for the fact that I know a little something about your
kind.” Alexandru leaned over and looked me directly in the eyes.

I growled again loudly.

“Unfortunately for you I happen to know the old myth
about silver bullets is actually true,” he whispered. Then he leaned back and
smiled again. “Who would have thought that old nonsense and superstitions
turned out to be accurate, huh?”

I stared at him with contempt yet backed up slightly
remembering Caspian’s warnings about what could harm me.

Alexandru looked at the gun, then looked at me again.
“Besides you can’t hurt me,” he said. “I’m the only one who knows what happened
to your parents.”

I let out a huge growl that startled Alexandru. He
pointed the gun at my head. “Shut up!” he said. “You are mine now and you will
do as you are told.”