How The Wolf Lost Her Heart

by Sarah Brownlee

  “I – I’m glad,” said Skye. There had not been an option really … To leave the boy to be brutally killed? She couldn’t have lived with herself. There was already one death on her conscience. She could not bear another. Now that she knew what it was to save a life she wondered, even if she was not a Morpher, could she truly have just stood by and watched an innocent person be murdered in cold blood? Ability or not, was there ever an excuse not to do the right thing?

  “What time are you going to be home?” said Daphne anxiously, throwing a pointed look towards Raphael. “I’ll come by and drop your stuff off.”

  “Thanks, Daph. I’ll be home in about half an hour.”

  The call ended and Raphael dropped her home, parking outside her house and telling her quite firmly that she should get some rest.

  “Are you still going to come to the celebrations tomorrow?” he asked her as she prepared to leave the car. “Think about it … You might want to stay in bed. What happened today was pretty shaky for you.”

  “No, I’ll be fine. Besides, I’ve got to help my mum with her food stall. She’s selling Filipino food – my great-great Grandmother, the Morpher, was half Filipino and the recipes were passed down through the ages.”

  “Hmmm, sounds good. Well, I look forward to trying some. Take care, Skye. And please …”

  He looked at her imploringly.

  “Don’t forget that what you did today was heroic and valiant. You used your power for the greater good. My only concern was for your safety. Luckily, no one has made the association between you and the wolf who attacked the thugs; I went past the restaurant and heard people talking. But you have no idea how pleased I am that I could sense you were in danger.”

  “Thanks. You have no idea how pleased I am that you could sense it too. You saved my neck – or at least, the complete embarrassment I would suffer if I had to transform without any clothes to wear.”

  “I can imagine,” said Raphael, his eyes twinkling.

  Blushing furiously under his gaze, Skye coughed. That raging feeling of passion that she felt for him pumped even more furiously within her. As she gazed into his beautiful green eyes, she wanted to tell him how grateful she was to him for helping her, for making her feel safe, even though she so fiercely defended her pride and claimed she could look after herself. Well, earlier had proved that sometimes help was exactly what she needed … and he had provided it when she needed it most. She wanted to tell him how much she needed him, finally able to admit this to herself … The longing she felt, the urge to hold him, to touch him, to stroke his cheekbones and run her fingers through his hair, to feel his lips upon hers … Why not tell him? This feeling was so strong, so strong and powerful that surely it could not be wrong. Could he possibly feel the same way? Despite all obstacles, was there a chance? There was only one way to find out …

  Leaning an inch forward, completely lost in the moment, practically melting into his eyes and her heart thumping with fearful excitement, she said,

  “Raphael, I –”

  There was a sudden sharp knocking on the side of the car.

  Skye snapped out of her dream-like reverie and her eyes shot towards the window. Daphne was there, a wide grin on her face, holding Skye’s bag up so she could see. Skye rolled down the window.

  “Daphne!” she exclaimed.

  “Skye! I’ve got your things. Oh – hello there,” said Daphne with a giggle, waving at Raphael.

  Raphael smiled.

  “Hey there, nice to meet you. Skye – what was it you were about to say?”

  “Oh, nothing, nothing!” Skye trilled. “I’d better go. Thanks Raphael. For everything.”

  She opened the door and left the car, taking her bag from Daphne while Raphael drove off. Skye’s heart felt a slight pang as he left and she could not believe that she had come so close to revealing how she felt. Yet again another sign of just how crazy this love business actually was.

  “He is so gorgeous close up,” sighed Daphne, staring in awe after him.

  “Er … yeah. Listen, thanks so much for bringing me my things. I was afraid I might never see the tag device again.”

  “No problem. I wasn’t about to just leave your things there – not to mention the outfit you’d bought, it looked so good on you! I still can’t believe what you did, it was completely unexpected. But you know what, if it wasn’t for you then that boy would probably be dead. You were really brave! How did you end up with Raphael?”

  “I still have no idea,” replied Skye, a mystified expression on her face. “Apparently, because I was calling out for help in my mind, he somehow heard me and came to help me out. Lucky he did because I was in a pretty bad position …”

  Daphne said her goodbyes with the promise that she would see her friend at the celebrations tomorrow and the two girls parted ways. Skye pulled her key out of her bag and entered her house. Her mother walked out from the kitchen to greet her.

  “Ah, Skye, there you are! I’ve been wondering where you got to, I need you to help me prepare the rice cakes. And why in the world are you wearing men’s clothes?”

  “Oh, ah,” said Skye, in response to her mother’s baffled query. “I, erm, bought them.”

  “Bought them? Why?”

  “Oh, just felt like a change,” said Skye in a would-be cheery voice. “OK … let’s get cracking on those rice cakes.”

  “Felt like a change? Oh Skye … Please tell me this isn’t a sign that you’ve lost interest in the male species!”

  The rest of the evening was spent preparing rice cakes for the celebrations tomorrow. Skye did not tell her mother what had happened that day for she knew it would completely traumatize her and she might not allow her to leave the house in future. She said goodnight around midnight and prepared herself for bed. But she did not remove her clothes. She slept in the hooded top and tracksuit bottoms that night for the fabric was masked with his scent and she snuggled up under the covers, burying her nose in the jumper, her thoughts only of him, before drifting off into a deep slumber.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Come and try some tasty Filipino rice cakes! Delicious yam pudding! Buko pie! Taste the glories of the exotic!”

  Mrs Archer was holding an assortment of cakes and pies on a silver tray above her head, her voice oozing with enthusiasm as she attempted to entice people into purchasing her food. Skye, standing next to her with an apron around her waist and an enormous chef hat with a mini flag of the Philippines glued to it (something her mother had insisted she wore, regardless of her protests) had a strained grin upon her face. They had already been there for three hours and the gigantic venue ‘Jinxes’ was fast filling up with people. The entire bar had been decorated for the occasion with colours of red, blue and white to signify the union jack and the excitement that flourished in the atmosphere was highly contagious, latching on to each person who entered. Food stalls such as Skye’s mother’s had been set up at various points within the bar, each containing a variety of cuisines from around the world which were being served by smiling, happy people; Skye even caught sight of a mini bubble tea bar in the distance and wondered if it belonged to Bert.

  “Oooh, what is that?” said a little boy, pointing to a large glass of ice, milk and boiled sweets on Mrs Archer’s counter.

  “Halo Halo!” Mrs Archer informed him. “A delicious dessert! There are even sweeties at the bottom of the drink. Would you like to try one, young man?”

  “Oh, can I, Mummy? Can I?” said the little boy excitedly, tugging on his mother’s arm. His mother smiled and nodded, pulling out her purse.

  “Chef! One fresh Halo Halo!” said Mrs Archer with a great beam, turning to her daughter and shoving a glass into her hands.

  Skye unsuccessfully tried to mirror her mother’s fervent grins and instead managed a rather painful smile. The fun of mixing Halo Halo had worn off within the first half hour, as the pudding proved to be quite popular and she had already made over a hundred. Not to mention that her head was boili
ng underneath the suffocating hat, which not only boasted of a miniature flag that kept drooping into her eyes, but also read: “I am a Filipino Chef!” which was highly inaccurate considering Skye had a very miniscule amount of Filipino blood in her at all (her ancestor had been half English and half Filipino and that was as far as the Filipino bloodline went for Blaise had married an Italian man and, later on in the years, Scottish, Macedonian and German were also thrown in there.) Plus, Skye was anything but a chef. In fact, she was an abysmal cook who was particularly skilled in burning sausages.

  “So … what time you going to let me off?” said Skye, blowing the flag out of her eyes for the umpteenth time and sipping on a lime juice she had brought from one of the other stalls.

  “You can go in an hour or so,” said Mrs Archer, who was in an extremely good mood because she had made a fantastic profit already from the sales of her food. “Who would have known that Halo Halo would be so popular! What time is Daphne getting here?”

  “About seven,” replied Skye.

  “Ah, OK! I guess you two just want to go have a dance and enjoy yourselves. What about Raphael? He’s certain to be here.”

  “Oh yeah he is, but I don’t know where he’ll be exactly, I had no plans to meet him,” said Skye airily.

  “What are you going to wear? I assume you’re not going to be wearing your chef’s costume!”

  “No, I’ve got an outfit that I bought from the shops yesterday.”

  “Not the men’s tracksuit, surely!” said her mother, horrified.

  “No, no, a different one. I’ll change into it when I’m done here.”

  An hour later Skye had rushed into the nearby conveniences to change into her outfit and also fix her hair and apply her make-up. She decided to go for the usual funky wild look for her hair, making it rather spiky and ‘rock-chic’, choosing a gothic sort of effect with heavy eye-liner and very light foundation. Pulling on her boots, tightening the bodice and spurting her hair with hairspray, she checked herself out in the mirror and had to admit she looked pretty good. Outrageous, but good.

  Hopefully I won’t bump into Mum! She thought as she received a message from Daphne who was letting her know she’d be there in about ten minutes.

  The place was really starting to liven up now. The bar consisted of about fifteen different rooms and several of the rooms were specifically reserved for dancing, neon lights flashing everywhere, different music playing in different areas, some with the mellow sounds of jazz drifting through, others with the cooler beats of hiphop blasting out, some emitting loud rock music. Several of the rooms were simply for sitting around luxurious tables, sipping drinks, while others were reserved specifically for eating. By the time it was 7pm, it already seemed jam-packed and Skye couldn’t help catching onto the excitement and zeal that everyone felt as she made her way through the crowds, attracting some admiration as she passed.

  “Hey foxy lady!” grinned a man who walked past her with his friends. “Nice boots!”

  Normally, Skye would have grimaced, but today she felt pleased at the compliment; if they liked it, maybe Raphael would too … if she bumped into him at some point, of course …

  “Skye, there you are!”

  Skye twirled round at the sound of the yell behind her, just as she was about to advance into the jazz room. Daphne was strolling towards her looking absolutely stunning in her lilac dress, her hair weaved into a beehive style.

  “Wow!” exclaimed Daphne as they excitedly greeted one another. “You look great! Love the way you’ve done your make-up!”

  “Haha, me? What about you? You look like a doll!”

  They grinned at each other as music blared out from all corners. They could see people dancing in the rooms and others eating and laughing jovially. Men were attempting to chat up women, women were giggling shyly and other men were in trouble for hitting on women that were already taken, as boyfriends advanced forward threateningly.

  “Come on, let’s go dance,” said Daphne eagerly, grabbing Skye’s hand and pulling her into the hiphop room which was to their right. This room was already jam-packed and it was pretty dark with yellow lights flashing, giving it the impression of a striking thunderstorm.

  They danced for about an hour, during which time they had to fend off several slimy hands from males that were trying to dance with them (Daphne even stomped her heel on the foot of one guy who kept persisting and Skye roared with laughter). Skye was absolutely shattered at the end of the hour and her feet were killing her so she asked her friend if she wanted to grab a couple of drinks in one of the lounges, plus take a trip to the bathroom to freshen up.

  They entered the toilets, giggling about the way Daphne’s lilac heel had slammed into the guy’s foot, but Skye’s blood ran cold when she caught sight of who was standing in front of the mirror with her group of friends, preening herself in a tight red dress and talking in loud tones, so that even those outside the bathroom could hear her.

  “Yes, Raph asked me if he’d be seeing me here tonight. You all know what that means, girls!”

  Tinkling titters emerged from the mouths of Sasha and her four friends. Skye swallowed and held her head high in the air as she walked past them, along with Daphne, who was looking curiously at the clique of girls before them.

  “Oh – Skye!”

  The crafty voice of Sasha could not be eluded so, with very great reluctance, Skye stopped in her tracks and turned around to face her.

  “Girls, have you met Skye? She knows Raphael. She helps him pick out shoes. Sort of like a personal valet.”

  “Nice outfit,” said one of the other girls slyly, and there were some unsuccessful attempts to hide snorts of laughter.

  Daphne, who was standing there with her mouth wide open at this blatant bitchiness, stood shoulder to shoulder with her friend.

  “It’s a great outfit,” she said, a hard expression on her face. “Skye’s one of those lucky people who doesn’t have to go around half-naked to look good.”

  A surge of gratitude shot through Skye towards her loyal friend just then.

  One of the girls in a revealing white dress peered closely at Daphne.

  “I’ve seen you somewhere before. Is your name Daffy?”

  “Daphne,” was the cold reply.

  “Oops. Silly me. It’s just I recognized you because I’m pretty sure that the Churchill College football team pointed you out as the girl they’d all had a go with at some point or another.”

  The girls shrieked with laughter; they didn’t bother to hide them this time. Daphne flushed, her eyes watering furiously. It was not a secret that she had gone through a lot of boyfriends, but to have it so callously and exaggeratedly thrown in her face clearly upset her. Skye felt the rage rush through her and her eyes flashed bright blue.

  “You’re the ones who go around with your breasts out and your thighs on display,” she said in a quiet, dangerous voice. “You’re like a bunch of chickens in a fast food restaurant. Go do your make-up and try squeeze into some more tight tops – that’s all you’re good for.”

  The girls each had identical expressions of amazement on their faces which soon dissolved into amusement.

  “At least we don’t look like you,” said one of them sweetly. “Seriously, get a stylist.”

  “And you have really weird bone structure,” said another in disbelief. “Makes you look like a dog.”

  The group burst into fits of giggles again.

  “Careful, girls,” said Sasha, who was hugely enjoying this altercation. “Skye is a dog. She’s a Morpher. Look at her eyes. She’s a little werewolf. But don’t worry – she can’t hurt you. If she does, she’ll be put down.”

  “Don’t test me!” snarled Skye. Daphne placed a hand on her shoulder.

  “They’re not worth it,” she said quietly, glaring at the girls. “Come on, Skye. It’s not worth it.”

  Amidst screeches of laughter and a lot of hair flicking, Sasha and her clique picked up their bags and made way to ex
it the bathroom.

  “Raph’s here by the way,” Sasha said, turning to face Skye for one last time. “You know he asked me if I’d meet him here, right? Anyway … see ya.”

  She blew a kiss at them and sauntered out, hips swinging. Skye stood there, her nostrils flaring. Daphne shook her head and ran the tap to wash her hands.

  “Wow,” she said. “Wow. What a bunch of cows!”

  “Tell me about it,” Skye muttered, pulling out a hairbrush and fluffing her hair up again, which had become slightly matted due to the sweaty dancing.

  “When you told me about that time she was rude to you, I didn’t realize she was that bad! Why is she being like that?”

  Shaking her head, Skye returned the brush to her bag, leaning against the sink.

  “She’s really into Raphael … I guess she just doesn’t like me talking to him.”

  “Ha! She’s jealous! Well, keep talking to him. It serves her right. Besides, he clearly likes you.”

  “No, he doesn’t,” said Skye quickly, though inside she tingled. Voicing such a thing out loud was far too daring. Certainly, it was something she dreamed about on a regular basis. Her feelings for him grew stronger by the day.

  Daphne grinned.

  “Sure he doesn’t.” Her tag device beeped loudly to indicate she had received a message. “Oh! Edge is here! I’m going to go meet him at the entrance. You coming?”

  “No, I’ll wait for you in the jazz room,” replied Skye. “I’ll grab us a couple of drinks, too. What do you want?”

  “Hmmm, make it a cherry juice. Right, I’ll see you in a bit!”

  The girls left the bathroom and parted ways. Skye first made her way to one of the lounges to collect the drinks. It was a bit quieter here, though there was a great deal of raucous laughter coming from the nearest corner. Skye turned her head as she approached the bar and recognized Raphael’s brothers, Joey and Ricardo, seated on a plush sofa and surrounded by about seven girls. She decided to go over and say hello.

  “Hey there,” she waved, approaching them.

  Joey whistled when he saw her.