Returning to the lodge, the group were relieved to be back in the safety of the thick-walled structure, as even in the mid-day, the threat of a wolf-attack now loomed outside. All of the researchers were now convinced they had seen the transformed David and possibly Julie and Lara while encountering the pack of wolves in the wild. Crissa was especially convinced they had made contact. She was just not prepared for how looking into the animal's eyes made her feel, knowing how her affections for the Alaskan university student had grown, and how he had admitted only days before his romantic feelings for her.
Crissa left the group in the dining area to go back up to her room to wait out the afternoon and eventually the evening. She felt she needed to prepare for the long night when it was everyone's fear the wolves would return outside. Meeting Jannick at the foot of the stairs, she asked to speak with him alone and privately.
"Yes, Crissa. I heard. You had troubles with them out there today."
"We found them. And I know one was David," she said, taking in a long breath. "I just wanted to ask you about your sister, Jannick. How it is when Lara returns. Does she. . . well, is she . . ."
"Yes. It is Lara once again. But it takes a full day and night for her. To feel she is back and one of us. She has told me this. She said the feeling of being a varkolak is powerful. And each month it is something she has accepted."
"But doesn't she hate . . ."
"No. She told me privately she does not hate it. She has learned their ways now. And she loves her mate. It is a boy like me from our village. He is cursed as well. His name is Martin. But his parents to not approve of her seeing him while they are . . . like us."
"That must be difficult for them."
"As I said, she told me how she adores him when they are together. Each month as a varkolak."
"But why would his parents not approve of them together when they are . . . human?"
"Because it was Lara who brought him to it. Cursed him with her bite. They cannot forgive her and will not accept what he has become. Some like my parents . . . Lara's Mother and father, have."
"Yes. I see. But how tragic that is."
"It would be different if Andreas' father and mother would just let him be with Lara when she is here with us. But they are suborn and afraid. They will not accept a future like this for their son."
"And your parents, Jannick? How do they see Lara now? And her love for this boy?"
My parents, Horst and Helga, are practical people. Loving people. We all have accepted Lara's new life. Though we are also sad for her. She is a good girl. It was her bad luck that she was attacked on that day by the river and bitten. My parents feel responsible for it happening, as she was alone."
"Yes, I'm sure."
"But when I talk to her, she tells me of her life with the wolves. They are close like families, she says. And they love their mates and children. As we do."
"Yes, it's true. Wolves have this. Like few other animals."
"But you must expect now that David's and Julie's lives will never be the same, Crissa. They must live in two worlds. Where ever you take them. This curse of the moon and the bite of the Varkolak wolf knows no place where it can be defeated. It is a force in nature older than our people here now."
She looked into the young man's serious eyes.
"And it will remain and continue to spread," he said sadly. "Our village is slowly changing, as you see. My father brought Professor Dekker from America to see what could be done. But as you now know, there is nothing he or you can do to stop this. It is impossible for us to even understand it."
Crissa was silent for several moments, trying to let this powerful revelation sink in. But she still longed for Janick's opinion.
"I will be very honest with you, Jannick, as I may never see you again in a few days. You see, I think I 'm in love with David. And it seems he has such feelings for me. At least he did before this whole nightmare happened to him. And I fear all is lost now. Forever. Our future has been turned upside down by this."
Jannick just looked down at the wooden floor, silently.
"Is it possible," she asked in a heartfelt voice, "that if he returns these next nights or days . . . he can or will feel the same as he did for me? Before he and Julie left us?"
The young man looked back into Crissa's eyes. There was a glimmer of hope in them, but at the same time a look of how this was simply no dream, but a harsh reality.
"It is very possible, Crissa," Jannick said softly, "that he will be the same David in many ways when he returns here. But we cannot know how strongly he has taken to the others in the clan. If he will not even prefer one of them . . . to you."
Crissa was stunned at this prospect, though it had entered her mind that Julie would possibly be more bonded to him now. Yet, as she remembered on both occasions, where she had made eye contact with the wolf she believed was him, he was solitary in his gaze. And very focused on her and only her.
"We will just wait and see," Jannick finally said, placing a hand affectionately on her shoulder. "After seeing many cycles of this, I can say that Lara, along with David and Julie will probably be back . . . not tonight, but the next night. When the moon shows its first signs of leaving full brightness."
"I'm very anxious about that," she confided in him, as she prepared to ascend the stairs to her room.
"But you must expect them. . . and other wolves to come here again tonight. To howl at us and warn us of their power. Of their determination to conquer the village. Family by family."
Crissa left Jannick after a brief hug to thank him for his sincerity. She entered her room and, though the sun was just setting outside and dusk was approaching, she felt she needed to get into her bed and brace herself for the emotional strain of what was all to come, both this night and the next.
As Brad was obviously staying with the others in the dining room, to further discuss events of the day, Crissa felt he would now give her the solitude she needed following their harrowing day. For this she hoped, he would sleep this night in his own room. As a signal of her desire for this, she locked the door and made her way to her bed, where she would remain, hopefully undisturbed by wolf or man until morning.
As the exhausted Crissa got into her pajamas and under the covers, she began with little effort, to drift off into a vivid dream:
* * *
It was totally dark when the sound of someone or something suddenly caused the floorboards near her bed to creak. Waking in fear at the sound, she was too terrified to move or call out. Brad had not knocked on the door all evening and she was convinced that she had indeed been alone, asleep in the darkness. Suddenly, she heard soft words being spoken near her bed to carefully awaken her. Her body jerked into a greater consciousness at the sound, and though terrified and unmoving, she recognized it was David's distinct voice!
"Crissa. It's David. I'll not be sleeping in my room tonight. I've chosen rather to be here with you."
Again, she noted the paralysis of body and was too shocked to even try to speak. Next, she felt him pull back the covers in the darkness and gently enter the bed next to her. Immediately she felt David's warmth, and as he moved his strong body against hers, she could sense he was for the most part naked.
"Please understand, Crissa, that I have come here in secret. As a promise to you of my love. No matter what will happen to either of us, I just feel you needed this assurance tonight. For you not to worry."
Crissa was trying to move and respond to him when she felt David's hand caress the side of her face. The smell of his distinctive cologne, which she had noted the other times they were intimate, was again redolent in the room.
"But David . . ." she was able to whisper.
"Don't speak. There's no need for words here. Especially tonight."
Crissa allowed his hand to turn her face gently toward his and then felt that familiar sensation of his soft lips against hers. Still in shock and unable or unwilling to be evasive, she just allowed this intimate expression of affection to quickly morph into a more passionate and deeper kiss, verifying both of their strong feelings. David then pulled her body closer to his and she felt him slide a bare thigh between her pajama-clad legs. With the next breathless kiss and a hypnotic caressing of her breasts, she found herself, as if beguiled by some magic, removing her pajamas to feel his total body as one with hers.
Just before the act of sexual union was about to happen, and willfully on her part, Crissa heard a key loudly jam into the locked door from outside the room. The door quickly swung open, filling the room with bright light. At that moment, a large wolf which had been in bed with her, sprang out from under the covers and lunged for the threshold of the open door, knocking Brad, who had just entered, to the floor. The gray wolf was gone from the room in an instant, leaving both a horrified Brad and a naked Crissa shocked and incapable of speaking or comprehending what had just happened.
Crissa was instantly awake from the dream in the darkened room. She was drenched in sweat from the fearful reverie, yet still feeling the mesmerizing sensations of arousal, brought on by the enigmatic David—ostensibly now part wolf and part man.
* * *