Chapter 5: Whispers

Waverly sat on the floor of the empty bedroom and stared out into the lively town below her. Wolves and humans alike moved ahead with their day; a short, yet well-kept man sat on his lawn mower and began trimming his slightly overgrown lawn while a woman a few houses down called to her children, who were racing down the street in wolf formation.

Two days had passed since her arrival to Trinity Mountains and she hadn’t seen a single person besides the people that came in every so often to clean her room and bring her meals. Questions turned over in her head: how did he expect to discover if they were mates if he never let her out? Maybe that was the point; maybe he didn’t want to test their bond.

She remained motionless, glancing out the window, as the sound of the door clicked open for the first time that day.

As Waverly watched the village below, a person dressed in all black with an apron, who Waverly had come to know was a servant, entered. A whoosh from behind her created a nice breeze, which reminded Waverly of the outdoors. She let the feeling overcome her while the faint noise of pillows being fluffed let her know that the servant had finished her task.

“Is there anything else I can do for you before breakfast, miss?”

Waverly kept her eyes forward. “Yeah…” she replied, without facing the woman behind her. “I want to go outside.”

The servant dropped her hands to the ties on her apron. “I…” she hesitantly answered. “I can’t allow that.”

Waverly turned around in her spot and looked at the woman, who glanced up at her.

“What’s your name?” she asked the servant.

The woman let go of her apron and flattened it out. “I’m not supposed to share that with the ladies of the house.”

“The ladies?” Waverly asked. She spun her entire body around so she was fully facing her companion.

“The women who come here each year. They—” she stopped herself short.

Waverly sat up, intrigued by their conversation. It was the first real interaction she had had in what felt like eternity. “They what?”

But the woman only walked to the table, leaving behind another letter. Waverly watched as she returned to where she was previously standing.

“Can I do anything else for you?” she repeated. Waverly’s expression fell and she slid into a slouch.

“No. Thank you.”

The servant lightly bowed her head and headed out the door, locking it behind her. Waverly let out a sigh and reverted her focus back to the scenes that were taking place outside the mansion. Her thoughts drifted towards the past two days; she had so many unanswered questions, but no one would give her the answers. It was the same response every time: I can’t tell you.

The clouds moved rapidly across the blue sky, suggesting that a storm could hit in the next day or two. Waverly glanced around the room and caught the letter sitting on the table out of the corner of her eye. What could it be this time? Another note telling her to ‘enjoy her stay’, or was it far worse?

She stood up and took delicate steps towards the table, fear of the unknown shooting through her body. Her hand reached for the letter, but halted when she heard muffled voices coming from the hallway outside of her door.

Waverly quickly and lightly made her way to the door, pressing her ear against the middle. Through the frosted stained-glass, she could faintly see the flecks of colour coming from their clothing while they moved about in front of the room.

“Did you remember to leave the letter?” a female’s voice asked. She sounded young, possibly around Waverly’s age, potentially a bit older.

“On the table,” a second replied. Waverly immediately knew it was the servant who had just left her moments ago. There was a pause before she spoke again. “She asked me my name this time.”

“And did you tell her?”

“No,” the second woman answered. “But I wanted to. She’s different than the others. She’s observant…and will find out.”

Waverly’s ear pushed firmly against the glass. She heard a shush come from the other side of the door.

“Well, she will if she hears you!” the first female said, her voice a loud whisper.

They stopped speaking and for a minute, Waverly only heard the clinking of glasses as they were set down on what seemed to be the outline of a push-cart.

“The Alpha…” the second woman began, her tone lower than before. “Do you think this one will work?”

A sigh came from the hallway. “It’s been 10 years, Felicity. I’m not sure if anyone knows anymore…”

Another clink interrupted their discussion.

“But he still has time,” the girl, whose name Waverly now knew was Felicity, stated. “The Lunar Eclipse is still a month away. There’s plenty of time for him to break the curse.”

For a moment, Waverly stopped breathing. A curse? Wizards and witches existed much like wolves and often hid in plain sight, but no one Waverly or her family knew of had ever met one. They were almost like folklore, just as werewolves were to humans.

Suddenly, the sound of an engine starting outside blasted through the silence causing Waverly to lose her footing.

“Did you hear that?” the first speaker reacted. Waverly caught herself and held steady as the hallway fell still. Her breathing laboured as she attempted to remain unnoticed.

Felicity broke the stillness. “It sounds like it’s coming from outside. We should go. Chris is upstairs waiting for us.”

After they left, Waverly sunk to the floor, absorbing the information she had overheard. The Crimson Wolf was under a curse? What could he have done that was so terrible that he paid the price this way? More questions clouded her mind the longer she was in this room and no one would provide her with a straight response.

Mentally defeated, Waverly stood up and saw the letter that was still atop of the table. She made her way to it, praying that it held some sort of answer. She picked it up and flipped open the piece of paper to find no solutions, only one short word:

Tomorrow. CW.