“I do not understand,” the woman murmured in confusion.

The Taupe Lady reached forward and touched the woman’s cheek gently.  “It is not for you to understand, dear one, but for the child you carry.  She is wise, and her knowledge will last through the ages.”

I woke with a start as a train rumbled to a halt mere feet from my bench.  The air swirled around me...reminding me of the Taupe Lady’s dress. I stood on shaky legs and glanced around the shelter.  A few other people waited with us as several passengers disembarked, no one I considered suspicious.  Still my skin crawled.

A man sitting on the bench a few feet away caught my attention.  His focus wasn’t on me, but on a figure growing smaller in the distance.  My stomach did a crazy flip when I looked.

“Nice of him to see you off,” the man said as he stood up to get on the train.  “Should have stayed just a few more seconds.    “Boyfriend?”

Instead of answering, I reached into the pocket of my duffle and found my boarding pass along with more cash.  He’d put it there.  How much did this guy have on him?  Ticket in hand, I climbed aboard and chose a seat away from most of the passengers.  The ticket would take me two states west, but I wouldn’t actually ride the train that far.  When I’d closed my eyes on the bench, I’d anticipated he’d find me.  And just as I’d hoped, he’d look at the ticket.

Leaning my head against the glass, I thought of the two dreams I’d just had.  Though I’d only dreamt a portion of a past life in the first dream, I recalled how that life had ended.

The boy’s arrival before the rest of his pack had been unique and had spared me from torture.  Instead, the men had focused their efforts on finding him.  After searching for a day, they carried me east to their settlement.  There, they shoved me into a rough half-buried hut already occupied with several other young women.

The women had looked up when I’d arrived but made no move toward me until the door closed.  When they did approach, they began sniffing me and asking questions.  They were werewolves like the men, but not as vicious.  I’d lived with them for five years while the search for the boy who’d run continued.

During that time I had feelings that were not my own.  Gradually, based on information from my cohabitants, I’d come to understand that it was the boy I felt.

Finally out of patience, the leader had forced me to bite someone else. It was then that they learned something very significant.  The bond created with Claiming could be broken without killing one of the pair.  You just needed to Claim another.

That memory, along with the latest one of the Taupe Lady, had me questioning what I thought I knew.  The werewolves wanted me to bite one of their own and complete the mating bond.  Typically, I didn’t live long after that so the purpose behind their insistence to choose still remained a mystery.

Likewise, the boy in the dream confused me.  He’d been the only one I’d Claimed who had left me.  How ironic that I sat on a train heading west...the same direction he told me to run.  The thought settled over me for a moment before I realized the potential full message of the dream. It wasn’t just the direction.  Maybe the werewolves that kept killing me weren’t the sum of what they represented.  Could there be a few of their kind out there different from the rest?  Some who were willing to help?  Could Luke be like that boy?

I opened my duffle and ate the sub Luke had purchased for me.  The same thing I’d ordered for myself.  I thought back to the times we’d met while I was awake and the times I slept.  He treated me the same as the boy had.  With kindness.  Sighing, I watched the scenery as the train rumbled west and fought the ever-increasing pull of sleep.

*    *    *    *

I stepped off the train with blurry eyes and scanned the crowd. Thankfully, I didn’t see any familiar faces.  I’d stayed on the train as long as possible but hadn’t even traveled halfway to my destination. I knew I needed to crash soon and hadn’t thought my fellow passengers would understand my thrashing and screaming when I did.

Stumbling forward, I left the station as other passengers boarded.  This stop, a decent sized town, had several hotels near the station.  I picked one at random, paid for a room, and trudged up a flight of stairs.  Sliding the room card through the pad, the door clicked open.  I didn’t look around as I stepped in and closed the door.  The duffle, barely clinging to my weary shoulder, fell to the floor.

I fell face-first into the firm mattress.  I bounced once but barely noticed.  Sleep had already wrapped its arms around me.  Fully dressed and laying on top the covers, I gave in.

Absolute darkness surrounded me.  A low distant rumble filled the cool, dank air.  Lying on my back, I attempted to stretch out my arms, but they didn’t move.  Bindings bit into the skin of my biceps and forearms.  A small noise escaped me.

“She is awake,” a voice rumbled nearby.

“Untie her,” another voice responded.

My heart hammered as two large hands lifted me and set me on my feet.  A light exploded in the darkness, blinding me.

I could remember dogs trotting into the village.  They had rolled onto their backs, vying for father’s attention.  He had laughed and thrown them some meat scrap.  They, in turn, had hunted down two rabbits to set at father’s feet.  He’d piled straw outside the sheep pen, and the dogs stayed there for three nights.  On the fourth night, when father sent me out to feed them, they changed into men.  One had scooped me up while the other gagged me.  Then, they’d run.

But something had gone wrong.  While running, three dogs crossed our trail.  The one carrying me had dropped me to the ground as he shifted and launched at one of the new dogs, tearing into it with deadly force.  Then, whirling, he had gone after another while his partner fought the remaining one.  The fights had inched closer to me, and I’d scrambled to my feet to try to run, but someone had caught me up from behind.  When I’d looked up, the man who held me had a horrible gash where his right eye should have been.

The same man stared at me in the dim light while his partner untied me.  Dried blood crusted his face, but I noticed the gashed had closed a bit.  His eye socket, however, appeared sunken.

“Do not dwell on it, child,” he said.  “Your life is worth an eye and more.”

With the simple thoughts of youth, I didn’t understand how I could be worth such an injury but kept quiet.

“My name is Roulf, and I have searched for you these last fifty years.”

Since I’d just reached my fifth year, I couldn’t understand why he’d looked so long.  “Why did you bind me?”

“We could not allow you to run.  The cycle ends in a few days.  They are still looking for the last one. You.  This is your third life in this cycle.  My son helped you in the last life,” he nodded at the man beside him, “and felt when the bond was broken.”

His eyes didn’t leave mine as if he waited for me to answer.  I shrugged at him, my younger-self not understanding while my older, dream-self did.  An ache grew within me.  I wanted my father.

“You do not need to understand now, just listen.  What I tell you will matter later.  They must have all of you alive at once.  It does not matter to them if you are Claimed.  You saw what they did to me.  If they take you, they will do the same to you.  They will hurt everyone you ever loved, and people you never knew.  You cannot let them take you,” he stressed with a slight growl.  He sighed and rolled his shoulders.  His son set a comforting hand on him.  Roulf reached up and patted it as he turned to smile sadly at his son.

“We will stay here as long as we can.  If they find us, you must run that way,” he said pointing toward one end of the dark tunnel, “and remember my words.”