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I caught sight of the youngest brother running away from the clearing as a scuffle ensued behind me, but I was still so focused on breathing I didn’t dare look over my shoulder.
“I thought I told you fucking bastards to learn your place,” A deep baritone voice I hadn’t heard before chided before the middle brother went flying through the air, landing along the tree line in a wad of limbs and screams.
“Fuck you!” Diego screamed, as I finally got my arms to work and pushed myself over onto my back to see what was going on.
A man as tall as a tree and as wide as a truck stood over the boy that had decided to kill me because of someone called the wolf and was currently squeezing his hands around his throat. Diego’s face was molten red and purpling more by the second as he swung his fists towards the bigger man’s face and arms, trying to dislodge his hold, but they simply bounced off like he didn’t feel them at all.
I watched in horror as my attacker’s body went limp before the newcomer finally released his throat and let him fall into the dirt. The middle boy had scurried away at some point, unnoticed, and now it was just the three of us in the clearing.
And I feared the big man even more than the three others combined.
As if sensing my fear, he turned and finally looked at me where I cowered on the ground, covered in blood and dirt. His green eyes were so vibrant that they glowed through the dim forest lighting.
“Are you okay?” he barked at me, and I flinched, scurrying back on my hands and rear end. He groaned, rolling his eyes and sighing before wiping his hands on his black suit pants and walking towards me. “I won’t hurt you.” He held his hands up as he got closer.
I shook my head in fear, unable to force words out of my dry mouth. He crouched down at my feet and slowly brought his hand up to my face, using only the back of one finger under my chin to turn my face so he could see my battered cheek.
“Is this all they did to you?” His green eyes darkened, and his jaw clenched when I stared at him dumbly, “Did they touch you anywhere else, Little One?”
“No,” I whispered, finally understanding what he meant. “They just threw me to the ground.”
He nodded his head once and then dropped his hand from my chin, “Let’s get you back to the house.”
“Are you the wolf?” I asked as he helped me stand up. He looked way older than the older brother of the trio, but not old like my dad. He looked like the men my father paid to guard us though; tall, strong, and powerful. “They talked about me belonging to the wolf, but I don’t understand what they meant.” He didn’t respond, but pushed the tree limbs apart for me to walk through and I froze, finally remembering what started this all to begin with. “Wait! The kitten.”
I turned back to the center and searched the dirt floor for the orange banded kitten that had been trapped as a sacrifice, as I had, but it was gone. I lifted up the rope tied to the stake and found the end frayed and untied.
He got away.
“Is that why you were here to start with?” The man nodded to the rope in my hand.
“They were going to kill the baby,” I said sadly, dropping the rope back into the dirt and looking around for the little thing. “Do you think it’ll be safe from them?” I looked back up at him, hopefully.
One side of his lips pulled back in what I thought was his attempt at a smirk, but I couldn’t quite tell. His dark features were so serious and hard to discern. “You narrowly escape your death, and you’re worried about someone else’s life? A cat’s?” he questioned before sighing and nodding for me to go through the trees he still held open.
“My life has already been written out for me,” I shrugged. “Nothing will change what is already planned.”
He stayed silent as I walked out through the trees, wincing slightly as my tired body bent to get through the limbs.
“I’ll have the groundskeeper look for the cat and protect it. What did it look like?” He finally said as he fell into step beside me. I tried to figure out who he was as we walked; he was well dressed and sharp looking and he looked a little like the trio of boys who had terrorized me, but their eyes were opposite colors. And they didn’t act related.
The trio were the Don’s sons, but who was this?
“It was an orange, tiger cat,” I finally said, shaking off the family tree trying to paint itself inside of my brain.
Cousins, maybe?
“I’ll do what I can.” He replied gruffly.
“You never answered my question.” I turned and looked at him as we got to the mouth of the trail leading to the patio. He stopped walking like it was the end of his path and I was supposed to go the rest of the way alone. “Who are you? And what about him?” I nodded back to the forest where the unconscious boy hopefully still lay.
He put his hands in his pants pockets and rocked on his heels, looking at the house before us. “I’m nobody.”
“You’re the wolf, aren’t you?” I challenged. I didn’t know who this ‘wolf’ was, but it sounded like the boys were intimidated by him, and that matched the vibe this man was giving off. The man I supposedly belonged to.
He sighed like I was annoying him, something Cristian did all the time when I berated him with questions, and then looked down at me. “Don’t worry yourself with Big Bad Wolves, Arianna.” He replied cryptically. “It never ended well for Little Red Riding Hood.” He nodded towards the path once more. “Go inside before you freeze to death. Make sure you tell your parents exactly what happened out here.”
“They wouldn’t care either way.” I looked down at my feet and made them start moving towards the castle and away from the man who intrigued me and scared me all in the same breath. “And you got my fairy tale wrong.” I turned in a circle a few feet down the path, holding out my mud-streaked dress and soiled skin cocking my head to the side, and giving him one last look. “I’m the forgotten daughter who lives in the attic with the mice.”
