Erasmus calls out for someone, anyone, to come forward and explain what has happened.
My heart pounds, and my mouth has grown dry. Something is not right. I do not know what it is, but the night has certainly not gone the way I have planned, not at all, and I find myself stepping back, stepping back again, stepping back once more and then turning around and racing back the way I have come.
My pack has never made me feel like this before, wounded and afraid. In fact, being scared like this is a feeling I have never experienced before.
The happiness and joy I had with the lady are what I crave now, and I do not even truly seek to find her. All I want is to forget what the pack is forcing upon me.
I do head back toward the ball. It is a struggle to keep my wolf within me, but when I hear the music and laughter from the still-open doors of the viscount’s manor, I find myself able to control myself and my wolf.
A few deep breaths have me starting forward. Perhaps I should have never left and entered the manor and enjoyed the ball after all.
I start forward, seeking to do just that when the wind alters slightly.
I do not even have to turn. From the corner of my eye, I notice her approach from the side of the manor. Without consciously deciding to go to her, I already head to meet her partway.
“You did not leave after all,” I say. “Have you gone inside?”
“You did leave, but you returned.” She tilts her head to the side. “Where did you go?”
“Do you think I will answer your questions when you have answered so few of mine?”
“Very well. I have not yet gone inside. I have been working up the courage to, but…” She lowers her head. “I do not wish to be… I would rather observe than take part in all of the dancing.”
“Is that so? Why, then, dance with me?”
“Because I do enjoy dancing.” She smiles at me, her entire face aglow.
“We could dance inside. No one would need to know that it is our second dance and not our first.”
“I suppose, but then others might ask me to dance.”
“And you could decline them if you wish.”
“True, but with some gentlemen, if you decline, they want all the more. They can make a game of it, even place wagers about whom I might dance with, if I will even dance… Has that happened to other ladies here?”
“Not that I know of, no,” I assure her. “Have you experienced this before?”
She nods. “I have. Elsewhere, granted. Perhaps it will be different inside, but you might tell me now why you left and then returned?”
I swallow hard. As much as I try to tell myself to be wary of her, that is proving most difficult a task indeed.
“I did not think you would return,” I inform her, not quite answering her question.
“I was not certain if I would return either,” she says, lowering her gaze before looking up at me. She appears shy, uncertain, and not at all like herself. “You… There is something about you that I did not expect to find.”
I flash my teeth as I laugh. “No? Did you not expect to find someone such as yourself here?” I ask, choosing my words carefully so as not to reveal our true nature to those around us.
“I did not expect that at all, not with someone of your… fine upbringing.” Back is her playful manner, and I know she does not care about my being a duke, not truly.
“Might I have your name finally?” I ask.
“Perhaps. After a dance.”
“Inside?”
She looks down at her ungloved hands. I noticed during our dance by the tree that she had no gloves on. As I did, I could not feel her skin against mine, but for her to be here without gloves does suggest that she never intended to dance with anyone.
For us to dance away from prying eyes with one of us ungloved is one matter, but inside with all eyes upon us…
“A moment,” she says, dipping into a curtsey.
“How do I not know that you will not flee and never return?” I demand.
She smiles at me, very much looking like a cat who finally caught her avian quarry. “Do you have issues with faith, Your Grace?”
“Not at all,” I murmur.
Her smile stretches even wider now, and she disappears inside the manor.
I trail behind her, not so much following her as mingling now with the other genteel. A dance is already underway, and by the time it has finished, I stand near the edge of the dance floor.
A soft cough sounds behind me, and I spin around to see the she-wolf with white gloves on.
“I do believe you have a question for me,” she says.
“Yes,” I say.
She beams at me, clearly waiting for me to ask her to dance.
I take her hand in mine. “I seek to ask your name so that I might then ask you to dance with me.”
The lady shakes her head. “You surprise me at every turn!”
“Oh, that I might surprise you on the dance floor.”
She wags a finger at me with her free hand. “Florentina Lockhart, at your service, Your Grace.”
“Call me Leonard.”
“Leo,” she teases.
I shake my head at her. “No one calls me that.”
“No one but me,” she corrects lightly.
“Then might I call you Tina?” I ask as I guide her out onto the dance floor.
She wrinkles her nose, faint lines appearing on her brow. “No, not Tina!”
“Then perhaps Flora? Or Florence?”
“Do you not like my name as is?” she questions as I spin her.
“Do you not like mine?” I counter.
“Quite the contrary. I think your name rather suits you, although it is also a bit ridiculous, given that Leo means lion, and well, you are not that.”
“No? I am not a proud beast?”
She giggles. “You are very much a beast of a man,” she teases.
I roar with laughter, which makes her giggle all the more.
The dance winds down, and I do not wish to allow her to leave my side. Thankfully, it is now time for us to sit down for a meal.
“Might I sit beside you?” I ask.
“I suppose you can, yes,” she says.
“If you wish for another to be beside you,” I start.
“No, Leo. There is not another I wish for you to sit beside.”
“Ah, I see, Flora.”
She shakes her head, her smile faint. “No one else shortens my name.”
“No one has for me either.”
“I truly do think it suits you.”
I reach up and dare to touch a lock of her dark hair to tuck behind her tiara. “If you had a flower in your hair, Flora would suit you as well.”
She touches her cheek, which has colored so prettily.
I want to find her some flowers.
I want to find her books and gifts.
I want to find her anything and everything that she might even consider wanting.
My father told me that one could be like this. Some werewolves believe in fated mates, that it can take even a chance encounter and one’s life be forever changed.
As I guide Flora to sit beside me, she looks up at me, and I can see in her dark eyes that not only she knows what I am thinking but she is thinking it too.