The Price To Pay

"Hello there, Addie."

Those were the words that froze my soul. The voice that spoke those words had not been welcoming or pleasant. As soft and soothing as the voice tried to sound, there was nothing but cold malice filling its deep, rumbling tones.

Why was he here? What did he want? Why today of all days? Why couldn't he wait? Why couldn't he come and spoil a different day? Why did he have to come to check on things on my birthday?

It's not like Mr. Boberre didn't know that it was my birthday today. He had shown up here last year on my birthday, seemingly coincidentally. He knew that today was my birthday and I just knew that he came today on purpose. He wanted to ruin our festivities.

Also, Dad and I still have another two months before he is supposed to come collect his payment. I was sure that today was just another one of his visits to make sure that we weren't running away to skimp on the payment.

We weren't stupid enough to run away. If we did, he would have us declared criminals and we would be captured or killed on sight. Running wasn't an option for us at all. It just wouldn't end well.

"Happy birthday." Those were the same two words that he said to me last year too. Nothing much more than that, just an intense and sort of concentrated look that told me he was focusing on me and only me.

Why did he pay so much attention to me? Why did he seem like he was coming here just to see me? Was I reading too much into this? I had to be, right? I mean, if I looked at this through just the eyes of the Addison version of Addie, then this was just a wolf intent on making sure that their payment was secured and that they would get to the money they were due at the proper time.

I was sure that I would be able to convince myself of that with no problem at all. It would be easy, if I was just Addison. I wasn't just Addison, though, and I felt like there was something more, something off about all of this. What did he want with me?

Oh no! Don't tell me that he is going to ask my dad for my hand in marriage or something? That would be the end of the world for me. Would we even have the right to refuse him?

Wait! That can't happen. I'm human and he is a wolf. We could never be together. Phew! For a moment there I thought that I was going to be forced to leave my family and never see them again.

I was happier now than I had ever been, knowing that I was safe from that future coming true. This was just going to be another one of those awkward, very uncomfortable visits that we periodically got from the man that had helped us so many years ago.

"Welcome, Mr. Boberre." Dad smiled at him since I was still frozen with fear since the moment that I had heard his voice. I could tell that my dad was just trying to be polite and keep things calm so that the werewolf didn't get angry with us. "Would you like to join us for some cake?"

There was just a little tension when he asked that question. I guess even he couldn't keep the nerves out of his voice at the moment. I also noticed that Catherine was shaking a little as she sat next to me at the table. I took her hand and squeezed it tightly, intent on protecting her as best as I could.

I smiled and rose to my feet slowly. I needed to compose myself and make sure that I handled this properly.

"Hello, Mr. Boberre. I am surprised to see you. To what do we owe the wonderful pleasure of your visit today?" I gave him my most friendly smile and my kindest tone of voice.

"Heheh." He chuckled softly before he spoke. "I am here to collect on the debt that you owe me." That grin on his face was making my skin crawl and the look in his eyes told me that he was clearly hiding something.

"W..w..what?" I stuttered out the question after I momentarily forgot how to speak. "I..I..I thought that we st..st..still had t..two m..months." I was the one that was shaking now, fear and dread settling over me.

Were we going to have the money to pay him? Dad bought me that dress, that really expensive dress. Were we going to have the right amount? He never did tell us how much money we needed to give him. Not once over the last five years did he tell us what the sum was.

"Are you telling me that you refuse to pay me?" There was a growl in his voice now, his anger that I knew he was always hiding was finally showing.

"N..no! No Sir. We will pay. F..father and I have been making sure that we have the money set aside so that you can be properly paid."

For some reason, Mr. Boberre laughed long and loud. It wasn't a happy laugh, more like he was seeing something funny that the rest of us couldn't see.

"You have been stockpiling money even though you didn't know what the debt would require you to pay." He was still chuckling as he stepped closer to me. I wanted to back away from him and put some space between us. Actually, I wanted to run away screaming and look for someone to protect us.

"Y..yes. Isn't that what we should have done? We needed to be able to pay you. We needed to make sure that our debt would be paid."

For some reason, Mr. Boberre continued walking toward me with an evil grin. My heart sank when I felt the table bump against my back. I can't get away from him now. I couldn't put any more space between us. This was not good. What was I going to do now?

"I find it funny that you all thought that the debt would require money. If it was going to be money that I wanted, why would I wait so long to collect it?" That had always seemed strange to me. Why was he waiting all this time to collect on the debt? Why wait so long to take the money?

"I..I guess I thought that you wanted to let us earn more money so that you could request even more from us." I shrugged, trying to rationalize it all in my mind. Still, it didn't make sense to me. Not one bit.

"No, silly girl, I gave the time frame that I did because I planned to come for my payment on this very day." He was grinning but all it did was make my skin crawl.

"W..w..what is the payment? W..w..wh..what d..do w..we owe y..y..you, M..M..Mr. B..B..Bo..Bob..Bob..Boberre?" I was genuinely terrified now. What was he going to make us do for him now?

"You, Addie. You are the payment that must be given."