TO RULE RED RIVER

Part 33 - The White Wolf

FINN

The sun isn't too hot today, there's a small breeze that's just strong enough to carry the scent of the wildflowers swirling into the air around us.

It's perfect.

She's perfect.

I look down at the truly most beautiful white wolf curled up with her head on my lap as she hums with contentment whilst I run my fingers through her thick, soft fur. Her wolf has always been special to me, there is not even a speckle of colour anywhere on her, it's like she's been dusted in snow.

"Happy Birthday, my queen." I whisper to her as a low rumble vibrates in her chest and I lean down to brush my cheek against her head.

It's been just over a month since the tournament, and this is only the second time that Isla has been strong enough to shift. Though Astrid managed to remove all of that bastard's venom from her system, there's no escaping the fact he's damaged her irrevocably and she's growing weaker. Isla has been determined to shift, at least this one last time, on her eighteenth birthday and for us to come and sit in her favourite spot until the sun went down no matter how weak she felt.

So, as she's unable to walk far in her wolf form now, I carried her down to the meadow and we've sat like this for hours as I've hugged her to my chest. I feel her shake a little, as the sun starts to set in far distance over the mountains. I grab up the blankets I brought down her and wrap them around her. It's not a good sign that her wolf is feeling the cold now also, soon she will need to shift back, and I'm worried it will be for the last time.

Tonight, I will finally mark Isla as mine. We waited till she was eighteen, until her dying wolf had finally matured giving her the best possible chance of surviving my mating venom. But the truth is, I've no idea what's going to happen when I mark her. No one does. Wolf connections and bonds are fragile things, people are affected in different ways. I've told Isla that we can wait or even never mark one another as long as she stays with me, but she's stubborn and will not be swayed. She wants my mark to fully cover the last one, even though it's barely visible she suffers from seeing it in the mirror each and every day.

Nothing else matters today but Isla, my queen.

As I continue to run my hands through her soft fir, I rest my head on top of hers as she nuzzles against my chest.

"I hated the orphanage. I hated being alone" I whisper to her as I decide to tell her a story, I've never told her before. "After been there a year, I felt total emptiness and despair, I missed my mum, but I was angry for her leaving me. So, one night when everyone slept, I crept out of my bed and climbed up onto the roof and looked up to the moon and the stars and cried my eyes out. It was the second time I'd ever cried, the first being when my mom died. And as I looked up to the moon, I begged the goddess to send me someone to love, who'd love me back just as much because I couldn't take the loneliest any longer." I whisper as Isla's wolf snuggles into my chest even more.

"The very next day, a girl in a blue dress and long golden hair ran her hands over the tall metal spokes of the orphanages high fence. The noise of the tapping caught my attention as I sat up in my tree scribbling in my book like I always did and watched you as you wandered into my life, and I fell in love with you instantly. It was like butterfly's dancing wildly in my belly and I never wanted that feeling to end." I admit to her. "I've never loved anything like I've loved you. I don't know what's going to happen tonight, but I promise you that I will love you for ever. Because you were my wish, you were always everything I ever wanted. I love you my wild wolf whose always kept me on my toes, you can get me so mad one minute then make my legs buckle the next. No one does that but you."