****
“How did it go?” Catherine asked sleepily, as Galeren sat on the edge of the bed and began to remove his boots. The meeting had ended cordially and Galeren couldn’t have hoped for a better outcome, now he just had to be patient.
“Well actually.” He said smiling at her. “Really well.”
“Tell me,” she murmured as she sat up and stretched.
“It can wait for tomorrow if you are tired. It is late.” He said.
“I am awake now and I have missed you.” She nudged her face into his hand as he touched it. “Besides you seem in good spirits and it makes me happy to see you so.”
“Ha,” he said climbing into the bed beside her. “I have been a miserable bastard these past days I know, but you know why.”
She nodded soberly. “But,” he continued, “so much has happened in such a short space of time. We only met in September and yet it feels like a lifetime ago. I feel like I have found and lost you time and again, yet here we still are.”
“Stronger than ever.” Catherine affirmed.
“Aye, ’tis because we are alike. You are strongly allied to your wolf half, like I am.”
“I am?” she said thrilled at the prospect. “Your father told me you were dominated by your wolf half and that De Floyran is dominated by his human side. I am like you then?”
“Yes. It is why our bond is strong despite De Floyran’s mark.”
She smiled. “Does he know that?”
“I don’t know. He will though, before I kill him.”
“Tell me about the meeting.” Catherine said, swiftly changing the subject as she saw a dark shadow cross his face as De Floyran’s mark came back to haunt him.
He pulled the blankets over them and began to tell her of their plans for the future. He told her about the Viking expeditions to Vinland and his hope for a future there, away from the oppression of Europe and its religion.
“So what do you think? Would you like to go?” he asked, but he could see the answer in her eyes even before the smile beamed across her face.
“I would love to!” she said passionately. “What an adventure! We would be free.”
“I hope so. It would not be easy settling a new and distant land. We know little about what the Vikings endured, only about the infighting and difficulty maintaining supplies and contact with their homeland. It would be different for us though.
I hope we would go in great number. Our instincts and survival capabilities should ensure our success. I believe many of our women would want to go, if for anything their freedom to be with their men and not hidden away in convents.”
“Where are the women that came over from France?”
“They are scattered amongst our convents here, at the moment. It will be difficult to maintain this pretence in Scotland.” He said cynically. “Our presence there has always been minimal. We may have to shed our mantles and disperse a little. Many knights who chose to stay and weather the storm sent their families over here with De Villiers. There are several hundred of us dotted about England now and half of them are women and children. We are not an easy group to hide with our garb. It may be time for us to disappear in terms of name. The Temple is over but the werewolf is not.”
“What about those still in prison. What about your father?”
Galeren told her of his plans on that matter too and she listened to him with both pride and trepidation in her heart.
“You didn’t think I would forget about them, did you?”
“No, not for a moment but if you go back to France you know I will come with you.”
“Don’t be foolish, you know that I will never allow that.”
“And you know that I will not wait here and fret.” She returned stubbornly.
“I will not risk you getting into his hands again. I may not be able to get you back. He may claim to desire you and want to keep you for his mate, but mark me he would sooner kill you than allow you to be forever free of him. He will do it to spite me. If he cannot have you, he will make sure that I cannot either.
I am not willing to take any chances on that score. I will tie you up and put you in a dungeon here myself to prevent you from coming. Don’t test me on this.” He said seriously.
She knew his mood well enough to not press him any further on it. It would only lead to a fruitless argument and she didn’t want to give him any cause for grief, she knew that he was still devastated by what had already been done by De Floyran.
“Enough said.” She smiled. “I am no longer tired, let’s go for a run.”
He looked at her and the light returned to his eyes. “Really?”
“It seems so long ago since we had that freedom, let’s do it before we have to leave this place.”
“It is a good night for it, come on then.” He said and jumped out of bed enthusiastically.
They dressed simply and made their way out of the preceptory and across the bailey to the gatehouse.
“You make me feel like a girl on her way to a secret tryst.” She said, her heart beating with excitement.
“You are a girl on her way to a secret tryst,” he smiled. “We wish to leave for a run, ’tis not a problem?” Galeren asked the guard on duty.
“Not at all,” the guard smiled and nodding released the bolt on the gate and slid it free. “It seems that the whole of Temple Bruer is on a run tonight. If we are besieged, there’ll be no one here to take up arms.”
“Oh don’t worry,” Galeren said, “we’d be back before swords were drawn.” The guard swung the gate open just wide enough for Galeren and Catherine to slip through the opening. They moved quickly across the estate and towards the cover of the trees. A wolf’s howl pierced the night’s quiet and Catherine turned to Galeren.
“Richard,” he said, “he can’t help himself.”
“You could tell that was Richard?” Catherine said amazed.
“Of course,” he smiled, “I’ve known Richard a long time.” But Catherine still looked perplexed.
“Stop thinking like a human when you are in the wolf’s domain.”
“But I am in human form.” She said puzzled.
“Yes, but you need not rely on your human senses when your wolf’s are stronger. To a human one wolf’s howl is as indecipherable as another’s. But you can recognize a wolf’s howl as well as a human can recognize someone’s voice, you can do both of these things. You know my voice.”
“I know your howl too.” Catherine said smugly, raising her eyebrows to remind him of the night she had come looking for him when they were in Ashby.
“Mmmm,” he teased, “that was a lucky guess that time.”
“’Twas not!” she protested. He laughed and pulled her into the trees and threw off his cloak.
“Do you want to join the others?” his eyes were bright with anticipation.
“Are they hunting?” she said almost whispering.
“Yes.” He answered with an eager edge to his voice.
She looked around unsure but full of excitement. “Won’t they be cross if we interrupt them?”
“Not at all. Besides, we’re not going to interrupt them. We’re going to help them.” Galeren said removing the last of his attire and changing. She quickly followed suit and with a keen look in her eye they made off through the trees towards the direction from which Richard’s cry had come from.
The night was crisp and clear and the moon was a waxing gibbous, lighting the forest with a pearly white light. Catherine raced to keep up with Galeren, his white form only a few steps ahead of her with his tail swishing as he ran. She felt her body released from the shackles of its two legged prison and felt every muscle and sinew stretch out beyond their confinement as the blood pumped through her wolf body.
She could feel the rhythm of the Earth beat in time with her heart and felt relief as the weight of her human existence and the trials she had recently endured lifted and almost dispersed into the white light of the night.
Her paws crun
ched over the litter of the forest floor and her ears prickled at the faintest sounds that radiated through the forest. Her nose smelt the night and was acutely aware of Galeren’s scent ahead of her. How comforting it was to her, such a unique smell, difficult to explain in human terms, but it was him. She could identify his scent when she was human too but it was stronger when they were in wolf form.
You must hone your senses as a wolf so you can use them when you are human. Galeren interrupted her thoughts and slowed to run alongside her.
You rogue, she scolded, my thoughts are private!
I told you before I cannot read your thoughts. I was merely imparting advice. Why? What were you thinking?
Of how you stink! she mocked and knocked into the side of him, throwing him off balance. Sure now of where they were heading and trusting her wolf senses, she made to escape him and have him chase her. He did what she expected and she revelled in the thrill of it. She had not gained much of an advantage and he was fast, she could feel him snapping at her heels as she ran for her life.
She knew the human Catherine could never have lasted at this pace and would have collapsed into a heap after just a hundred feet or so, but as wolf she knew that she could keep this up for quite some time, provided that Galeren didn’t catch up to her. Foolishly, she looked round to gauge where he was when she sensed he had dropped back. But it was a mistake. It slowed her down just enough for Galeren to make a lunge forward and grab her hind quarter with his mouth.
He bit down on it, not enough to hurt but enough to stop her in her tracks and lose momentum. She lost her feet and fell clumsily to the ground. As she hit it, she realized that they were upon the edge of a steep verge and with Galeren still attached to her they slid awkwardly down it. Galeren released his grip and they rolled over each other several times and came crashing through the trees and shrubs at the bottom of it. Regaining her feet as she came out of the roll, she stopped to find she was faced with a pack of about twelve wolves just as Galeren skidded into the back of her, knocking her off her feet again.
Great, Richard said irritably, that’s the element of surprise gone then!
Oh cheer up, Galeren retorted as he got to his feet, didn’t you eat enough at supper?
That’s not the point Galeren and you know it. Richard grumbled.
Sorry, Catherine said sincerely. She certainly did not want to become unpopular with the pack and it appeared that they had just ruined their hunt.
It doesn’t matter, Richard said, his irritation dissolving. There is plenty to hunt this evening. Are you joining us? he directed the question at Galeren.
Are we welcome?
As long as you behave yourselves! Richard growled and then turned to direct the pack.
Later, after the hunt and after they had left the others Catherine found out just how seriously werewolves took hunting.
“You take it in turns to lead the hunts?” she asked, as they went to find their clothes.
“Yes, we all have different strategies and it is good practice to lead and coordinate the hunt. Richard is particularly good at it. As pack animals we work well as a team and this has resonance in our human lives. It is the very reason why the Templars have always had such a fearsome reputation on the battlefield and why we are so difficult to defeat. We are stronger than humans but it is how we synchronize and fight as a team that has made us unbeatable.” He said modestly.
They dressed and made their way back to the preceptory.
“Did you enjoy the hunt?” Galeren asked.
Catherine thought back on it and revelled being part of the pack, her input as important as any other members. Though the quarry of rabbits, having changed from the original deer that she and Galeren had put pay to with their fooling around, was not the preferred choice of the pack, it had still been exciting to her. Even eating part of one of the freshly killed and still warm creatures had been an experience that she could only term as exhilarating.
“Yes,” Catherine said enthusiastically, “I loved it, I . . .” she broke off as they reached the gatehouse.
“You what?” Galeren asked, stopping to look at her.
“I felt like I didn’t want to change back,” she lowered her head as if she felt ashamed. “Is that wrong?”
“No!” he said raising her chin so he could meet her gaze. “I feel like that too sometimes. But much as I love you as a wolf, when I see you thus,” he motioned to her present state, “I would miss your human form.” He pulled her against him.
“I would miss yours too.” She smiled and accepted his kiss.
“We’d better get back inside before we get into more trouble.” He said and wrapped his knuckles against the gate. As the gate swung open they walked back into the preceptory bailey hand in hand.
Chapter Twenty Six