Chereads / Alpha David and the High Priestess Sinead / Chapter 31 - You learn something new every day

Chapter 31 - You learn something new every day

I was having a nightmare and must have thrashed around so much I woke myself up. When I opened my eyes, I had no chance to calm myself, I screamed. I covered my mouth with my hands as I looked around me.

This was not my room, and I was not at home. I had never been in this room before; in this bed before.

I sat up further to better see where the door was, and the bedding fell away. I gasped. These were not my clothes!

In fact, when I looked at them closer, I got the feeling they were men's clothes- grey sweatpants and an oversized black t-shirt, to be precise.

So many questions ricocheted around my brain: Where was I? How did I get here? Why am I here? Where are my things? Why am I wearing these clothes?

With effort, I consciously pushed the questions aside as I moved to standing at the side of the bed.

I saw a door and went over and opened it. It was only a closet, so I shut it again. The next thing I lay eyes on was a window. The curtain was closed on it.

I opened the curtain, and sunlight rushed in. A quick guess, based on the light and rough position of the sun, said it was 11:00am.

I opened the window and stuck my head out. I was on the second floor of a building- a house- if the early 1900's architecture was anything to go by.

I assessed the situation and decided to go out the window. The window was a bit small, so I had one leg out and one leg in, rear sat on the ledge and was about to duck my head through the window, when the bedroom door swung open.

A man stood there breathing as if he had run here. He looked around, spotted me and gasped "Are you ok? I heard you scream and came as fast as I could."

Figuring that the escape out the window wasn't going as good as I planned, I untangled myself from the window and stood with my back to it.

"No." I said looking at him with suspicion. "I am not ok. Nothing here is ok."

I grabbed the lamp near the window, yanking the cord out of the electrical socket. It was a table lamp, just the right size and weight to become a projectile at his head.

Getting a good grip on the lamp, I demanded of him "Where am I? Who are you? How did I get here? Where are my things and my clothes?" I put extra emphasis on the word 'my'. I positioned myself to make it obvious I could hurl the lamp at him.

"Right." He said in a matter-of-fact way. "You were near the lake. You stopped dancing, and the fire went out. You were walking through the grass, and you tripped...do you remember any of that?" He gently asked.

"Yes." I mumbled, then said louder, "But I don't remember seeing you there." I narrowed my eyes at him again.

"I was walking towards you when you tripped." He told me. "But I wasn't fast enough to catch you. Maybe if I had, you wouldn't have hit your head and have that bruise now."

'What bruise?' I thought. I reached up to touch my forehead, and there it was. The flesh was hot, swollen, and painful and I could only imagine the kaleidoscope of colours it would be a couple of hours from now, if it wasn't already.

Too bad for me that the symbols had already faded from my skin- they would have helped camouflage the bruising. But then another thought hit me.

"No." I said aloud. "No, you weren't there. It was a wolf that was walking towards me, not you."

"You do remember seeing me, then." He said. "I apologize that I hesitated when you tripped. If I had changed to human form right away maybe I could have stopped, you from hitting your head." He smiled at me sheepishly.

There was something about his smile...and suddenly realization dawned on me. I had seen him before!

"You...you were at the Red Goblet, last Friday night." I said in an accusatory tone.

"Yes, I was." He stated simply.

"What," I began, but cut myself off with "Did you just say, 'changed to human form', like a minute ago?" I shifted the lamp in my grip as my palms grew sweaty.

"Yes." He said quietly. "As I was saying, you hit your head, and you were unresponsive, so I assumed it best to not leave you there alone. Sara and I decided to bring you here so you would be out of the rain, safe and hopefully, comfortable. It was in my human form I was able to carry you here. I decided this spare room would be fine for you to sleep in, no one would bother you."

At this point, I went to interrupt him, but he held up a hand to motion me to wait.

"As to the clothes you are wearing, they are in fact some of mine. Sara wanted to lend you some of hers, but the fact being my sister is on the slender side, even for a teenager...so that wasn't a viable option."

I looked down again, at the clothes I was wearing.

"I asked the pack to collect up your things and bring them along. They are now safely in the laundry room, with your clothes that were hung to dry. A nurse had a look at you as soon as I brought you in. She decided you were too cold, that you needed to be dried off and put in dry clothes. She looked at your forehead and said there was nothing she could do for bruising, but if we located some arnica, that would help. Once I got the towels and those clothes, my sister helped her get you dried off and dressed. She said she would come by this afternoon to check on you if we wanted."

There was a long pause, where I just thought about all he had told me. He didn't say anything, just watched me with curiosity.

"You never really answered all my questions." I said slowly. "I don't know who you are."

He let out a chuckle. "My name is David, although the only thing I have ever heard you call me is 'wolf'." He smiled as he looked me in the eye.

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. This man was telling me he was the wolf I met in the national park the day before.

But there was no way he would know that I called that wolf 'wolf'. Unless...unless he was telling the truth. Feeling shaky, I set the lamp down.

There was one way I would know for sure, but that meant getting closer to him. I took a few hesitant steps towards him, unsure of this plan. I stopped, I was searching for something in his face, but never found it.

He took a step forward and I jumped backwards. He froze, then went to his knees.

"It's ok. I am not going to hurt you." David said. "Look, how about we go downstairs, we can get you some food. I'll even hard boil some eggs for you, since you carry those around…"

"Hard boiled eggs?" I asked, interrupting him. 'How would he know, otherwise?' I wondered.

"Yes." David said slowly. "Do you want some hard-boiled eggs? I…"

His voice trailed off as he noticed me taking steps towards him. He didn't move. I was fairly close to him now.

I sniffed the air, I thought, but no, I must be mistaken. I got just a bit closer and smelled the air searching for… and I jumped back. This man- David- he smelled exactly like the wolf.

"It is you!" I said to him. "Your scent is the exact same as the wolf. You have to be the wolf, it doesn't make sense otherwise; no two living creatures have the same scent, no matter what realm you are in."

I pause, realizing I said too much.

David only chuckled. "Would you like something to eat?"

I thought for a moment and said "Yes".

He stood and turned his back to me. "Ok, well, I am going to go down to the kitchen- where the food is." He said over his shoulder as he exited the room.

I shook myself from my thoughts and started after him. "David!" I called down to him.

He stopped halfway down the stairs and turned to look at me. "Yeah?"

"My name is Sinead." I said feeling suddenly almost shy.

He only smiled and said "Well, Sinead, let's get you some breakfast."