The moon was waning, yet his eyes glowed electric blue. Letting me know his wolf was close to the surface. Maybe on purpose? He struck me as truly feral. Fear tightened my throat.
I darted right past them toward the baby’s room. Not because of any great skill on my part, as it turned out.
When I attempted to slam the door behind me, I discovered they had been playing with me the same as one of the St. Ailbe barn cats toying with the mice they found. Letting the smaller creatures run, just to see how far they’d get before they slammed a paw down on their tail.
In my case, the male in the bear hood slapped a palm against the door, which prevented me from slamming it in his face.
“Was planning on taking ye outta here, nice and easy," he said through the door crack.
I immediately regretted watching The Shining on my forbidden laptop. The only thing scarier than Jack Nicholson eyeing his wife through the large splinter he’d made in the door was now knowing how Shelly Duvall’s character must have felt when he called out,“Here’s Johnny!”
Or in Bear Hood’s case: "But if ye want to play, Flower, sure, we can do that.”
Flower. Why did he keep calling me that?
He pushed the door the rest of the way open before I could give that question any further thought, and I went flying back on my butt.
Oof! Pain rattled up my spine when I landed on the bedroom’s hardwood floors.
But Ellie! I had to protect her. I scrambled back to my feet as quickly as my skirts would allow me and ran over to the crib to grabthe sleeping baby.
Thank goodness, she remained blissfully unaware of the transfer into my protective hold, even as I held my knife out in front of me to fend off the two invaders who had entered her parents' bedroom.
“Oh, the fire in this one." Bear Hood grinned at his companion.
I noticed then that he'd smeared both his face and chest with black paint — like some kind of ancient warrior who wanted to blend in with the night. "How much fun are we going to have with her, C?”
The male Bear Hood called by a single letter didn't appear to find this situation as much fun as his counterpart. He just stood there, still as a statue, staring down at me with a tightly clenched jaw and narrowed eyes the color of amber.
Was something wrong with him? He’d followed me in here along with his companion, but his face was tight. He wore the same expression my father did last spring when one of the community's cows had a calf turned around inside her, and he had to hold her down while Abel Flosswulf repositioned the babe inside poor Bessie’s womb.
The heavily tattooed pirate appeared to be struggling with some animal that I couldn’t see.
“C’mon, Flower, don’t be cruel. C's barely holding on to his wolf," Bear Hood said, confirming my suspicion. Unlike the Scots, he spoke with a sonorous growl that might have fascinated me under different circumstances. "Put the knife down and come without a fuss. We don't want to see either you or the babe hurt, now do we?”
Before I could answer that the best way to avoid Ellie or me getting hurt was for him and his she-wolf-snatching companion to leave, a voice called from beyond the door, “Naomi? Are you in here?”
My heart skittered at the familiar soft tones of my best friend. “Sadie, don’t…”
But too late.
Just when I thought the situation couldn’t possibly get worse, Sadie came padding through the bedroom door.
Bear Hood and Pirate froze. They looked more shocked to see her than she did to see them.
“What’s…?” Sadie startedto ask.
“It’s her!” the Pirate said, his voice full of something akin to awe.
“What’s she doing up here?” Bear Hood asked, his expression almost comically confused.
Instead of answering, the Pirate began advancing on my best friend.
“Sadie, run!” I screamed.
I should’ve been paying attention to getting Ellie and myself out of harm’s way, though. Bear Hood used my moment of distraction to lunge forward and grab the knife out of my hand.
“What is happening?”Sadie asked me in Wölfennite as the Pirate grabbed her by the arm.“Why are these mossy wolves attacking us?”
