Wolf’s Bane

“Helena! Come downstairs, you have a visitor!” her mother said right at the bottom of the stairs, as she stood on the first floor of the large house.

It was not even a week after her 18th birthday, and she and her wolf, Kira had been spending all the time they could getting to know each other during this time.

“Who is it Mom?” she asked aloud, completely sure that she was not expecting any visitors. In fact, Helena was the social but distant kind of girl. Many people knew her and got along with her, but not a tenth of them talked to her outside of the very impersonal environments that they shared, which were mainly elementary, middle, and high school.

And, to make it more interesting, at the time, all of her three friends were already sleeping at that hour, so she knew it wouldn’t be any of them.

“There’s a boy at the door, and insists that he’s your friend. He said that he needs to talk to you,” the lady said to her daughter with a very thick accent. “I don’t think I’ve seen him before, Cara… Vai bambina, presto. Lui è molto bello e se lo fai aspettare, quando uscirai sarà preso da un’altra donna.”

“Mama che dici? Perché un uomo così dovrebbe cercarmi?” Helena retorted, still in her room.

“We have to go see him,” Kira said to her loudly and had been the most uneasy she’d ever seen her.

They were barely getting used to each other, but she could easily notice that her wolf’s behavior was completely out of the ordinary.

“Kira… we were minding our own business, and I really would like us to stay like that. I don’t believe we know him, and I’m not interested in just any guy… we’re supposed to have a mate… aren’t we?”

“I know you’re not really used to pack life because your father keeps moving because of his work, but I strongly suggest that we must go AND. MEET. HIM!”

“Alright, alright… COMING!” she said to her mother, and her wolf at the same time.

“By the way, did you notice that funny smell? It’s like… incense…” Helena sniffed. “Like pine woods, but… very gentle… comforting, not strong like when my mom turns that scent thing on and I feel like she’s trying to choke me… and it’s mixed with something… I think it’s chocolate… like you know, the bitter kind of chocolate…? But it can’t be… or maybe someone is smoking hookah around here,” she said to her wolf who was not paying the least attention to her.

Helena shrugged her shoulders, and finally got dressed in more than her underwear, which she was just wearing a few minutes before. Now she was wearing very short blue denim shorts and an oversized white blouse with a dreamcatcher and a howling gray wolf on the left side. She kept her socks on instead of wearing her shoes, and she wore her hair in a tall messy bun as she walked down the stairs.

“Mama, stai facendo i biscotti?” she asked as soon as she got downstairs.

“No Cara, perché?”

“Because the whole house smells like… choco… late?” She finally turned towards the door.

He was older than her, that she could tell, and his light and well-trimmed beard made him look even older.

She walked towards him, making an inhuman effort not to show the signs that she was strongly feeling the mate bond.

“Hello. You’re looking for me?”

“I am, and I’m very pleased to find you,” he said with a smile. “I didn’t know what was appropriate for the occasion, so I brought a bottle of wine… for your family,” the very handsome man extended the expensive-looking bottle that her mother rushed to take.

“Helena, why are you still seeing your visitor out here? Please, come sit in the living room,” the slim lady, dressed in a cream flowery short sunny dress with very long, black, straight hair and the greenest eyes that the visitor had seen said enthusiastically as she pulled both of them inside the house and left them standing in the living room.

To Helena’s surprise, she was not protesting over her mother’s embarrassing matchmaking manners.

No, it wasn’t the bottle of wine or the expensive clothes that he was wearing.

Helena’s family was in a very good economic position, so her mother wasn’t gold-digging. The matriarch was sincerely hoping that her daughter found her mate, and the biggest hint for this eager mother was the question her daughter had recently asked about a strong smell inside the house.

It was very hard for Mrs. Altieri not to take a peek or eavesdrop, but this was a very important moment for her daughter, and she couldn’t allow herself to ruin it.

That is if her motherly gut feeling was indeed correct.

“Sorry about that,” Helena apologized as she blushed, still standing in the middle of the living room.

“Don’t worry. She seems to be very strong, cheerful and energetic. I actually like her,” he replied calmly.

Helena smiled at his positive comment. Not everybody understood the ways of her mom, but she was the most well-intentioned person in the world. She was secretly happy that the handsome man that was making the world shake under her feet, seemed to understand that.Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.

She walked to the sofa, sat and extended her hand inviting the stranger to sit with her.

He smiled and took her invitation.

“Pardon my question, but what were you talking about in Italian? I believe I understood a couple of phrases, but it’s too funny to believe it…”

“Well, my mother believes that you’re really handsome, and warned me that if I let you stay out the door for too long, someone else would have already taken you when I’ve come out to greet you. I guess you noticed that she likes to play matchmaker… but it’s the first time hat she tried it with me… I wonder what happened for her to act like that…”

“No coincidences,” he muttered.

She looked at him a little weirded out, perfectly hearing what he said, but not very sure that she should ask about it. After all, he was a stranger.

And now that she thought about it, she was so focused on him that… she forgot about him being…

“By the way,” she said, blushing due to the small mistake in manners that she hoped he’d oversee. “What’s your name? Uh… and, why are you looking for me?”

“Oh…” he said even more embarrassed, noticing that he forgot the most basic part of what he had to do upon first meeting her.

“Damn it, Virgil, what the hell…”

“Kodan, can you not do what you always do, right now?” It seemed it wasn’t enough for him to beat himself over his error but his wolf Kodan had to add to it.

“It was pretty simple. We’ve been practising for days already!” Kodan reminded him, his wolf’s voice echoing in his head again.

“My name is Virgil, and uh… I needed to meet you,” the twenty-two-year-old and inexperienced V said to his mate.

“That’s it!? What’s about what we repeated for hours in front of the mirror!?” Kodan spurted once again deep inside his head.

“So why would you… need to do… that?”

“Well… I…” he said, trying hard to continue. “I… the place where you applied for work a few days ago… I was there, and I thought you were a really interesting person,” V finished, trying to avoid making more of a mess with his lines.

“You were there? At the SilverClaw Enterprises building?”

“Yeah, I… yeah…”

“And you got my address by bribing an employee? Threatened? This is getting weirder; you know?”

“I… Helena… I’m your mate…” he said, immediately feeling his own face getting hot and red.

And finally, for just a moment, she shut up.