© Claimed By Him ~ Elektra Orfanos

Suppose as the storyteller I better mention what happened to the other fallen brother. I cannot tell you about what he had really endured becoming a lone wolf, cutting his bond to his Pack, losing the trust of his family because how can someone explain such a misery, such pain of losing something your very life depended on.

A wolf is nothing without its Pack.

So welcome to the mind of Sam Nightly, a diamond in the rough.

~*~*~

*|Sam|*

People think they know what it's like to be lonely. However unless you've taken notice of the sound of water droplets falling from leaf to leaf, heard the buzzing of a single bee, really realised that there is no such thing as silence in nature then you have no idea what it is like to be alone.

Wind whistled, birds chirped... Well they did until I trespassed tainting the beautiful morning with my unbearable presence. I have not even transformed into a beast yet but they know, they can sense the predator even in my human form. Naked and hungry I stalked the forest crushing her beauty with a mouth drooling.

I need to eat.

All I have been eating is meat, raw meat with fur attached and sometimes with their eyes just watching me in horror. I no longer look at their faces I learnt how to ignore the crying and pleading. I have realised there is no point in trying to be good any more.

Before I knew it in my hand I held the neck of a dead red doe with her blood dripping from my chin. I lay her body gently into a patch of grass stroking her neck while wishing her luck in the afterlife. I began to pull out flowers from wherever they hid from me and decorated them around her body like I used to at home. I apologised and left her with good wishes before a shadow fell over us attached with a fruity perfume.

"And how long have you been living off raw meat?" A gentleman asked distastefully. I have never met a man so feminine in his looks and behaviour. He had a very disapproving look as he took in my naked dirty form and when he scanned his eyes over the blood on my mouth he pulled out a pearl white hanky. He covered his nose and mouth seeming to be swallowing back vile. "I honestly don't know how you wolves do it. Eat things with faces." The gentleman's eyes reminded me of a cloudy morning, his hair the sun and then there was the expensive long mauve coat with frills at the sleeves and a gold pendant belt. At first glance I thought he was a fairy.

"If you're here for a circus act I will gladly show you the talent I have with my fangs."

"I apologise my good friend." Good friend. "I did not mean to offend your kind. I have strong respect for your species." I averted my gaze away. "I see you are... lost."

"What is it to you?" I questioned angrily.

He leaned forward on his walking stick that had a silver dragon as the handle. The dragon looked like it was glaring at me. Clear accusation. "Just being a Good Samaritan. Besides you are hunting on my property and that is my deer you have ripped apart."

"You have a pet deer?"

"She was no pet. She was a deer friend." He didn't smile but I knew it was him being humorous. "A dear deer friend." When he realised I was not happy nor keen to share a chuckle for a petty joke he frowned. "Well how do you suppose to repay the life you just stole? I can't test spells on something that's dead."

"Find another one."

"Her soul was willing to be tested. Not many creatures like being magically trialled."

"I can imagine."

He looked ready to spit out more complaints but he didn't. He pointed his stick up at me. "I know you from somewhere." He suddenly said squinting his eyes at me as if the sun was blinding though we're hidden under the trees shadows.

Slightly concerned I quickly said. "No you don't." I sounded like a child. He should have seen straight through the lie but he didn't seem to notice the change of tone.

"I swear you look so familiar... Oh well can't be bothered reminiscing now. Come along Wolfie." I don't enjoy the pet names.

"Where?"

"I am afraid you have a debt to pay."

"What? For the doe!?"

"Yes."

If I were under different circumstances I would have been insulted and outraged. I would have yelled at him for daring to look down at me like that, for insinuating that I owed anyone anything. But I realised if I was under different circumstances I wouldn't have had to feed off the deer in the first place so I sighed and settled with whatever consequences were left for my poor choices. After all... "What have I got to live for?"

~*~*~

The odd magical gentleman turned out to be a very unimpressive warlock who has big dreams to impress a certain powerful crowd. He spoke of things I had no knowledge of and as I sat on his golden couch in his bright meticulously decorated parlour I muttered profanities under my breath. "Eternal damnation has to be better than this. There are frills and ribbons everywhere." He is a lonely man I soon found out. No sign of any parental figure anywhere which is odd for a man so young and though I was tempted to ask. I wanted to give him no reason to ask about me. Crates and open parcels were cast about the room as well as bottles of colourful liquid I could only imagine were potions or venom from some mythical creature.

"Mr Blanchard?" I called for that is his name. "I-I have no money or anything to offer." He stepped into the room carrying another large parcel in his arms with several different coloured stamps all over it.

"Money?" He seemed offended. "I have plenty of that thank you very much." He dropped the parcel on a wooden table covered in a white sheet with all this different coloured powder stains.

"Then what do you..." He interrupted opening up all his boxes in search for something. "I need an assistant as well as a guinea pig I have so much to do and not enough years in my life so I must work quickly. Also I'll need a guard."

"A guard?" I pulled at the sleeve of the shirt he gave me finding his clothes to tight and fancy for my liking. I stood up and walked up to him trying to see inside his containers of unfamiliar objects. He let me revealing he had nothing to hide and it didn't matter what I saw because I didn't understand what anything was in the first place.

"There are some people who interfere in things they do not understand and well I'm in no mood to be burned to the stake. Hold this for me." He held out a some long dead creature, it looked like a giant worm but this had brown scales and a sinister smile.

"What is it?" I asked taking it hesitantly in my hand and holding it very far from me.

"It's a little snake. Don't worry it's dead so it won't poison you." I dropped it when the word poison was said. "Honestly do you have no respect for the dead? Pick it up and leave on the table if you're so frightened." I didn't want to appear scared but I didn't want to be holding it either so I did as he commanded.

"What will you do with the snack?"

"Snake." He corrected. "Bring it back to life of course." He said as if it were the most obvious thought.

My eyes widened. "How will you do that?"

"Don't know yet. But I'll figure it out. Aha!" He pulled out a vial with some kind of green liquid inside. He ran around the table where I noticed a little cauldron bubbling some purple potion of some sort. "This should do the trick." He spared one drop of the green liquid into the pot and potion roared to life making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. "Pass me the snake." I gripped the tip of the tail and carried the body to him lying it next to the cauldron.

"How long has it been dead?"

"At least an hour. I caught this little brat hitting her with a rock as she was protecting her eggs. Strong little fellow but not strong enough. You can see the dent in its head." I could see the deformed part of the snake but it made no difference. I couldn't sympathise with a venomous creature. Its dead eyes seemed to be staring at me accusingly as if I killed it.

"You're going to bring it back now?"

"I'm going to try." He said his brow creasing as he concentrated on what he was brewing.

An uneasy feeling stirred in me for I have strong beliefs when it comes to spirits and the dead. You do not purposely wake them unless you're desperate. She always said that death is needed, without death there can be no life. I never understood what she had meant by that and I now probably never will. "You... You could bring anyone back to life if I were to help protect you?"

"Yes." He replied not wavering his focus. "Depends on how they died and how long they've been dead."

"Oh." I sighed disappointed. He stretched out his arms and gave me a split second side glance then returned to his work.

"Long lost lover?" He asked.

I snarled. "None of your business."

"Depending on how long your friend has died my friend and of course how amazing my skills are I could bring back the person you miss."

"You wouldn't trick me would you?"

He held up a tube thing with a sharp metal needle attached to it. "I'm not cruel. So are we in agreement?"

"I have a choice?"

"Considering you have claws that could rip me apart from my groin to my chin. It is all up to you but at least stay for the burial of the doe."

"I don't agree with your little project." I paused. "But if you were to do really well it would benefit me."

"It probably would." He stuck the needle thing I between the eyes of the snake injecting the little potion.

Nothing happened.