The Werewolf Order (Erotica)

Mora sinks down to the ground. She uses her good hand to latch the chain on her right wrist but is forced to use her stomach to lock the second one. Without looking at anyone, she turns herself away from them and faces the wall. Her whole body throbs with the pain in her shoulder. Though she wants to cry, her anger doesn’t let her. She scoots further away from those behind her and leans forward to rest her forehead against the cool wood. Eyes squeezed shut, she tries to force the rage out but it refuses to leave.

It takes a few minutes but she hears five sets of feet travel out of the tavern. When they get outside, she can hear them shouting.

“You mean to tell me that you knew about her? I thought you were my friend!” Rick’s muffled voice screams in agitation.

Sari doesn’t hold anything back when she growls in response, “I am your friend-that is why I told her to tell you. She is still the same person she was when she got here, she is still the same person you–”

“Don’t you dare defend her,” his voice is softer now, harder to hear, “In a few days she will be gone and married to the one man I hate with all of my being.”

The pitch of her voice raises high with frustration, “And it means nothing to you, that she would rather die than marry him? She could have had her wish if she just killed you but she didn’t! Maybe you should stop to think why.”

“So she can leave here and get her revenge on me,” he says, but unconvincingly.

“You are as thick-headed as they come,” Sari makes a noise of exasperation before her hard steps retreat from ear shot.

With normal voices now, James, Daniel and Lucas talk to Rick; she can’t distinguish what they are saying over the heavy, loud steps hesitantly coming towards her. Mora welcomes Todd’s voice, “Come now, Princess, let’s get you up.”

She opens her eyes, vision still pulsing with the rage in her body. She feels his hands turn her around. Cautiously, like she is a wild animal, he unlocks the shackles around her wrists. He takes care to avoid her right side, helping her to her feet. Pulling her left arm over his shoulder, he wraps his right arm around her waist. Taking most of her weight, he guides her to a chair, where he sits her down and hands her a glass of wine. She doesn’t want it but she takes it anyways and drains it.

“Even though Rick had no reason to talk to you like that, I hope that you can forgive his outburst…”

Mora looks at Todd, shocked. He sits down in a chair across from her, fumbling for a moment before he finds the right way to begin, “It was about seven years ago that Rick decided he was not fit to be royalty. No one knows why exactly but we think it has to do with the Queen expecting more of him than he was willing to give. He left the castle and bought this tavern. Shortly after that, I moved here with my wife from a small ranching village to the west. I became his barman. My wife and a few other women went to the neutral ground near the public road that divides Alumenia and Sceadu, to trade for a few things that they needed. Guards from Alumenia captured all of the women and took them away. That was when I began my training to become like the creatures of darkness, so that I could go after her.”

“I do not understand,” Mora says quietly. Her body continues to shake uncontrollably. Todd shifts uncomfortably, “We Sceadu do not share much about our secrets. It is hard to explain to an outsider and I am sure it will sound barbaric but you must try to keep an open mind. The people from Sceadu have the ability to survive months at a time without nutrition, allowing us to hone our fighting abilities, making it easier to sneak around silently in the darkness. It is a survival technique that is passed down from parent to child. It takes training to perfect and though it is possible for all, not everyone has the will power to make it. The wine you drink comes from the sap of one tree, sheltered deep within a cave in the northern mountains. It lives in total darkness.”

She thinks of the tapestry above Rick’s fire place but she still finds this difficult to believe, “Then how does it grow?”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“It grows with the sacrifice of humans. Those that trespass in our lands are first paralyzed and then taken to the tree where they are killed. The tree feeds from their blood.”

She looks at her glass, suddenly disturbed by how much she has drank. Todd continues, “The pure sap of the tree makes up the entire wine, nothing is added to it. No one knows how it works, but once a person has consumed enough of the wine, they no longer have an appetite for cooked food. They can survive weeks or even months at a time without nourishment. While it has the added benefits of not needing to eat, it also changes a person so that their saliva when mixed with their own blood can heal wounds. They become quicker, stronger and meaner. The downfall is, that like the tree, they are sensitive to sunlight and while they don’t need it, their hunger for nourishment is ravaging.”

“What, exactly, do you mean by nourishment?”

“They either need more wine made by sap…”

“Or?”

“Blood.”

Chills run up her spine; Todd presses on, “It takes a person years to get to the point where they no longer need cooked food. More people fail than succeed. I failed. I am barely able to stomach even one glass of wine; Lucas, Daniel, James and Sari have all been training for years and they can consume two glasses before getting sick. That is why they look at you odd.”

“Because I can drink it freely and eat food?”

He nods, “After I failed, Rick pried it out of me why I was so desperate to become a creature like him. His mother, the Queen, had forced it upon him when he was a child; I suspect that is why he dislikes her. I told Rick that my wife had been captured by the Alumenians and he disappeared the very next day for over a month. Later I found out that he went to the border and tried to talk peacefully with King Irron but instead the King captured him and took him hostage. Rick was tied up in the Alumenian castle courtyard and left out in the sun, every day for almost a month. While it didn’t kill him like King Irron hoped, it caused him a great amount of pain and suffering. Rick managed to escape but he didn’t leave Alumenia until he set free every one of the King’s slaves, including my wife. Since then, King Irron has tried several times to get back at Rick. That is why he was so enraged when he found out you were the Princess and due to marry King Irron.”

Mora nods, understanding Rick’s reaction. She still has a hard time forgiving him for judging her solely on this fact, despite what that he knows her. They sit in silence, letting Todd’s words linger in the air like a cloud of smoke. Seconds or minutes or even hours tick by-Mora doesn’t know how long as she is lost deep within herself-before Todd interrupts her thoughts.

“It is almost dawn. Do you need me to help you upstairs?”

“No thank you, I will be fine Todd.” Mora welcomes the pain in her shoulder as a distraction from her life.

They part ways. Mora drags her body across the room. She stamps her feet into the stairs, each one sending a jolt of pain through her shoulder but she doesn’t care. This physical, tangible pain is something she can deal with. The pain that comes inside, the kind she cannot heal with a bandage, is hard to bear. As she walks across the balcony she knows that her choices, poor as they may have been, are all she has left. She wonders if this is how it feels to be trapped in a snare; regretting your own stupidity for not being more careful before finally coming to the full realization that there is nothing more you can do but wait to die.

Her right shoulder has swelled, making her hand useless. Sitting on the chair behind the dressing screen, Mora focuses on getting her boots off one at a time. She is able to untie her vest and use her left arm to remove it. Her shirt and undershirt don’t come off as easily; after a great amount of agony, she stands half naked with only her pants remaining. She doesn’t even bother to take them off but instead attempts to put the night gown on. First she threads her useless right arm into its sleeve, then the left and then she tries to get it over her head; she cannot. It fits her form so well that the only way she can slide it over her body is by lifting up both of her arms, something she isn’t able to force herself to do through the pain.

She doesn’t know what to do as she cannot get changed by herself. She contemplates putting the ruffled shirt back on and just sleeping in her clothes. Tears start coming to her eyes; she is frustrated at her own weakness. She bites down on her lip to suppress the sobs while she makes another failed attempt to lift her arms up.

The floor creaks behind her. She doesn’t need to look to know that Rick is watching her. Though she is half naked and injured, Mora feels more vulnerable in front of him now that he knows her true character-a woman who is to be married to his enemy, a woman who lied to him, a woman who lost his affections.

His warm hand wraps around her right wrist; she can feel his breath on her neck. She wants to be lost in his arms, to be consumed by his passion but she knows that it will never happen. Slowly Rick raises Mora’s arm into the air; she bites down hard on her lip, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of crying out. With his other hand he pulls the gown over her bare skin before he brings her arm back down.