How The Wolf Lost Her Heart

by Sarah Brownlee

  Raphael stared at her in amazement and then suddenly threw his head back with a bark of laughter.

  “That? We weren’t kissing – Skye, she kissed me!”

  Skye gulped.

  “You don’t have to lie to me, it was weeks ago –”

  “Lie? For God’s sake, I am not lying! She grabbed me before I had a chance to react and she kissed me full on the lips and I was in total shock; but I pushed her off! Why would I even lie?” His face contorted in anger as he continued to see disbelief and doubt on Skye’s face. “Look, I’ll prove it to you. Transform!”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because I’m going to do a Memory Transference! Prove to you that I’m not a liar!”

  “There’s no need –”

  “There is every need! Go behind that curtain, undress and transform.”

  He looked so fierce that Skye didn’t dare object. All this information was still sinking in and she felt as though she was wandering about in a complete daze. Robotically, she undressed behind the curtain and morphed into her inner beast, the smell of oil paint overwhelming her nostrils. She emerged slowly from behind the curtain and placed herself in a submissive position before the tiger, who gave her the usual snarl and then composed himself. The electric current she had experienced only once before was immediate as she was thrown into Raphael’s memory …

  The jazz band was playing one of its smooth pieces as Sasha approached him near the bar.

  “Raph!” she said, a great beam on her face as she stretched out her arms. “So wonderful to see you! You wanted to see me?”

  “Hey Sasha. Yeah, my dad was wondering if your dad was available next weekend for a game of golf? He said he’d been having problems getting through to your dad’s tag device so he asked me to ask you.”

  There was a brief flash of disappointment on Sasha’s face which she quickly masked.

  “Of course! I’ll ask him. Would you like to dance?”

  “Sure.”

  Raphael finished off the last of his beer and followed Sasha onto the dance floor.

  “You know, Raph,” said Sasha, her voice descending into a low purr as Raphael twirled her round. “I’ve been doing some thinking. I think we should reconsider our … options.”

  She leaned towards him, her face inches from his. Raphael stared back, blinking in a confused type of way.

  “Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean?”

  “I mean this.”

  And before he could react, Sasha had pulled his face towards his and locked his lips onto her own. Stunned, Raphael was momentarily frozen on the spot.

  There was a sound of shattering glass somewhere behind him. It was this sudden noise that broke him out of his reverie. He wrenched his face from Sasha’s and pulled her hands away, holding her at arm’s length.

  “Sasha – I think you’ve got the wrong idea –”

  “Of course I haven’t, Raph.”

  She tried to kiss him again, but Raphael shook his head firmly.

  “I don’t see you in that way, Sasha.”

  Sasha stared at him in disbelief, her mouth pulled into a sulky pout.

  “Raph, it was a mistake that we broke up. I’m giving you another chance to be with me. What’s wrong with you?”

  “I told you, I don’t see you in that way. Look, I’m sorry, you’re a great girl, but I’m not the right guy for you. There’s someone out there for you, but it’s not me, and the truth is, there’s someone I like …”

  “Oh, let me guess? Is it that filthy little Morpher friend of yours?”

  “Don’t talk about her like that.”

  Sasha’s eyes widened in shock, disgust showing plainly on her face.

  “Oh my God, it is her! Are you blind or something? She’s ugly!”

  “She’s not ugly … I’m going to let that slide because you’re upset. Anyway, Sasha, I’ve got to get going, so enjoy the rest of the evening, OK …?”

  “Raphael!”

  Raphael turned to see Skye’s friend, Daphne, racing towards him with an anxious look on her face and a Hispanic man following closely behind her.

  “Have you seen Skye? She’s disappeared!” said Daphne worriedly.

  “No, I haven’t. Wasn’t she with you earlier? I saw her mum and she told me Skye met up with you.”

  “She did, but now she’s vanished!”

  “We’d better look for her. Sasha, enjoy your evening, OK? Come on, let’s go …”

  He turned away from Sasha and her furious expression, hurrying towards the door, Daphne and the man following swiftly behind …

  The electrical current rushed through her again and Skye’s fur stood on end. Raphael chuffed very quietly and conveyed to Skye to transform back. She paced back behind the curtain, morphed into her human self and changed into her clothes, reeling from the memory she had just seen. When she returned, Raphael was back to his human form and sitting on the floor, wearing only his trousers, his head lowered and his eyes closed.

  “So … there you have it,” he said, not looking at her. Timidly, she sat down opposite him.

  “I just …” She gulped. “This is so much for me to take in. You don’t understand … I didn’t expect this, any of it. I – I didn’t know you felt this way about me.”

  “I’ve felt this way for a while,” Raphael raised his head and his deep green eyes penetrated hers with an intensity so great she couldn’t maintain her gaze. “I liked you from the start … But it was the night we ran together in Hampstead Heath … That was when I … Well, put it this way, that was the night I came home and first painted you.”

  Skye swallowed hard; breathing was difficult.

  “Why did you never say anything?” she whispered.

  “How could I? You’d made it clear from the start you didn’t like me in that way. I had to work really hard just to get you to join me for tea! I tried to tell you in other ways … but you never gave me any sign of feeling anything in return and I wondered if I was just making a fool of myself. At one point, I thought you did start to feel something for me; that time when you blew up at me when you asked about when I dated Sasha … But then that all changed. I remember taking your hand when you were in the hospital and you pulled away. That confirmed it for me; you didn’t have any feelings for me. But it was OK, as long as I could be around you and have you with me, even if it was just as a friend. I wanted more, but I was willing to settle for less if that was the way it had to be. But then we argued … And during those two weeks, I missed you more than I could say. Everyone kept asking me what was wrong, but I just ignored them. Paddy was the only one I told about you, about how I felt. He urged me to go out and socialize, to try and get you out of my head. So I went to a few house-parties, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I just stayed in my room and painted, it helped a little. Then Ricardo mentioned it was your birthday and a group of you were going to this new bar on Richmond Hill. I wanted to see you so badly, but I was afraid to contact you; you’ve rebuffed me so many times in the past and after the argument I wasn’t sure I could handle anymore rejection. I – I wanted to give you a present, one of my paintings. So I decided to go to this bar, to see if I could talk to you, to straighten things out. But I couldn’t just turn up alone, that would look suspicious. I took Sasha because she’d been calling me, wanting us to give it another shot. Obviously that’s the last thing I wanted, but I had to bring someone. And when I got there, you didn’t want to know me … When I saw that boy try and kiss you, I just got so angry … I couldn’t control myself and … Well, you know the rest.”

  He took a deep breath and his handsome features looked beaten.

  “I can’t help how I feel about you, Skye. I’ve never felt like this before. There’s no one else I can talk to the same way I talk to you … Or run through the grass with … There isn’t anyone who can get me so angry, but make me so happy at the same time. Just you. It’s not just because we’re both Morphers. It’s you, everything about you, from the way you list
en to me, right down to your moodiness. Good or bad, I don’t care. I love you and that’s that.”

  He fell silent, his cheeks flaming. Skye actually had a lump in her throat as she stared at him, and she moved closer, reaching out and placing a hand on his. She recalled all the times he had wanted to protect and look after her, not realizing it was out of a yearning love, not friendly concern; the times he had playfully flirted with her, not knowing there was something deeper behind it; she recalled catching Sasha’s eye the other day, the girl who had glared at her with such hatred, now knowing that this hatred had mingled with jealousy also, because she knew how Raphael had truly felt; Skye saw all these things and more, and when she looked at him it was as though she was looking into a mirror.

  “I love you too,” she whispered, so quietly that she could hardly hear the words herself.

  Raphael stared at her.

  “You …?”

  She nodded, terrified yet compelled to respond.

  “I – I love you too. I never thought you would like me … let alone love me. I just – I didn’t think I was good enough for you. I kept trying to force myself not to feel that way about you but it didn’t work. And when I saw you with Sasha … I was so depressed that it affected my morphing.”

  Raphael’s eyes widened as realization hit him.

  “That was why you couldn’t transform when Pearson showed up,” he said in amazement, mortification clouding his eyes.

  She nodded.

  “I tried to stop loving you. I buried it as best as I could. But – but I loved you then and I still love you now …” Her voice faltered and she gulped, her gaze dropping to the floor.

  Raphael leaned close to her, clutching the hand that had tenderly touched his own.

  “I wish you had said something – I wish I’d said something. But I’m glad we’ve told each other now. You don’t know how it makes me feel, to hear you say these things …”

  And with that, he raised his hand to her cheek and stroked it gently. Her brown eyes gazed into his green ones; they were inches from hers and it was as though time stopped in that one moment, for he moved forward and kissed her tenderly on the lips. It was as though fireworks had set off inside her, for the explosion of love and excitement that raged within was so great she thought she would burst. She kissed him back with an ardent passion that he returned, his lips pressing fiercely against hers as she clasped the back of his head, stroking his hair. How long that moment lasted, no one could say, but the deep passion and love that each had towards the other felt enough for an eternity. When they finally pulled apart, he was gazing at her so affectionately, with such adoration in his eyes, she felt as though she would melt in that very instant.

  “I should go,” she whispered, not wanting to leave. “It’s getting late …”

  “No,” he whispered back, cradling her face in the palm of his hand. “Don’t go … Stay …”

  He stared at her, that same fire palpable in his eyes, a plea that she could not resist. She knew what he was asking of her. She was scared, yet that deep bubble of ardour within her felt the same as he did; the longing and desire was mutual. Slowly, she consented and he rose from the floor, taking her hand softly and guiding her back to his main room. He dimmed the lights further and a warm, incandescent glow engulfed them. He laid her gently on the bed, finding her lips once more, his strong, sculpted body brushing against hers.

  “Is this OK?” he murmured in her ear and she nodded as he kissed her earlobe. Together they undressed and moments later Skye realized, among the passion that emitted from them both, just how much she loved him as they moved in time with one another, his lips kissing her face with a hunger he could not suppress, her nails scratching his back with a ferocity she could not contain. The strength of their longing was illustrated by the sudden colour changes in their eyes; his green turned to orange, her brown switched to blue. Fur grew all over their bare skin; her features grew longer, his face stretched wider. Faster and faster, they synchronized their urges and, as the ultimate pinnacle hit, it was not human cries of desire that spilled from their lips, but the great roaring of a tiger and the shrieking howls of a wolf … Noises that echoed for miles around as the two great beasts lay, shattered, tangled in the fur of their four-legged bodies and lost in the purest essence of their love.

  Chapter Nineteen

  When Skye woke up the next morning she immediately recalled the events of the night before and wondered, with breath-taking stupor, if it had all been a dream. But the strong arms that were cuddling her and the face that was buried in her hair were definitely real and she realized, enthralled, that it had happened exactly as she had remembered. It had been one of the most remarkable experiences of her life.

  Shifting slightly and clasping the hands that were so tightly wrapped round her, she gave an almighty yawn that was followed by a growl and turned on her other side to face him. Besides her, Raphael’s eyes opened and he smiled at her tenderly.

  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said, kissing her on the cheek.

  “Good morning,” said Skye, highly bashful. “Not sure what you mean by ‘beautiful’ though. I just woke up.”

  She pulled the covers over her face, embarrassed.

  Raphael chuckled.

  “You’re always beautiful to me,” he said, squeezing her tight.

  A loud knocking sound rapped several times on Raphael’s bedroom door. Raphael removed the covers from himself and walked over to the door, while Skye marvelled at the beauty of his physique, tall, toned and sturdy. He grabbed a pair of boxers from his drawer, pulled them on and opened the door, about to step outside but, as soon as he did so, Joey burst into the room, his voice layered with excitement.

  “Raph, you’ve got to come downstairs, it’s – oh!”

  He had just spotted Skye. Skye, in response to his shocked gaze, shrieked and threw the duvet over her entire head. Joey looked at Raphael (who started to usher his brother out of the room) with a thoroughly mischievous expression on his face.

  “Sorry, didn’t realize you had company!” he exclaimed. Then in a lower voice, he added, “Someone got lucky then, eh? Eh? Eh? Knew I heard some crazy noises last night!”

  “We’ll talk outside – out!”

  Raphael pushed his grinning brother out of the room, told Skye he would be back in a moment and followed him out of the door, closing it behind him. Skye, for her part, was so horribly embarrassed at being caught in such a position that her cheeks burned flaming red and she had no plans on removing the covers for a while.

  When Raphael returned and Skye was still sweltering underneath the bed sheets, he carried with him a bag and a great beam on his face.

  “Skye?” he said, pulling the cover from her face.

  “It’s OK – Joey’s not going to say anything. Though he blurted it out to Ricardo before I could stop him, but don’t worry about those two. Here, I’ve got your bag.”

  Skye removed the sheets further down and released her arm, taking the bag from him, a great sense of relief washing over her, not just because the twins were not going to broadcast how they caught her naked in Raphael’s bed, but also because she had been feeling deeply concerned about her bag and the contents inside it.

  “Oh – thank God! How did you get this?”

  “Your friend, Daphne,” said Raphael, climbing back into bed next to her. “Apparently, after our … confrontation yesterday at the bar, a fight broke out between Ricardo and your friend’s boyfriend. Ricardo’s got a broken nose; your friend grabbed your bag and accompanied Ricardo back to our house. When she left, she told Ricardo to give you the bag because she had a feeling you would turn up here. Also, she managed to persuade your workmate not to try and have me arrested for when I transformed. That’s a good friend you’ve got there.”

  “Yeah, she is,” said Skye, gratitude for Daphne sailing through her. Whew! Her tag device was safe, her money, her keys. And thankfully Lucas wasn’t going to try and extract any vengeance on Raphael
. Skye had a feeling he would probably want to just forget the whole thing happened, but she would still apologize and explain things to him next time she saw him at work.

  “There’s something else too,” said Raphael. “My eldest brother, Trey, arrived here this morning from China. The Chinese reinforcements are going to be secretly scattered all over the country so that they’ll be on call for when we go to war with the Pearsons. There’s a whole army of them. For the past two weeks, I was thinking about what my dad said … About what you said. And about the risks if I destroyed Pearson right away. I realized you were both right. And now that Trey has returned, things are definitely looking up. I have a feeling that a big change is going to occur sometime in the near future. But I don’t want you to be here when it happens – it’s too dangerous.”

  Skye shook her head.

  “Don’t even think about going all over-protective on me,” she said. “When it comes, I’m going to be fighting along with everybody else.”

  “If Pearson touches you –”

  “Then I’ll take care of him. I’m going to make sure my mother and Daphne are out of the city and I’m going to be the biggest, baddest wolf the thugs have ever seen.”

  “I’ve no doubt of the fear you can strike into a man’s heart,” teased Raphael. “But until that day arrives, we need to be extra vigilant. No more situations where Pearson has you cornered. You have no idea how scared I was that day.”

  “It’s OK. Everything will turn out fine.” And she knew that everything would be fine, now that she had Raphael by her side. She knew that the time would come when she would leave and work with the endangered animals; that was something she could never back away from. There was nothing that could ever prevent her following through with her convictions to save the animals. She also knew it wouldn’t be for at least three months and, in the meantime, her city needed her to help protect it against the thugs and lowlifes. She and Raphael stared at one another, their expressions conveying more than words ever could. They had each other and, in that one moment, they realized they needed little else.