Alexandre wiped at the sweat on his brow. The road to Beaumont was longer than he had anticipated. Rougher than he was use to. The pot holes and upturned roots of trees rattled the small cart as they slowly trekked over them. There was hardly any room along the narrow, winding path to maneuver around. The trees had grown closer in, their outstretched branches scrambling to pull each other up and over the path. Broken branches hung overhead like thin, scrawny arms. Their scraggily ends looked like crooked fingers ready to hook its next victim. The sun was setting and the air had chilled to a cold, damp mist.
"Well this must be the right way. What did that boy tell us a ways back? Keep straight along the thicket and... and, turn at the pass? Turn at the grass? Aye. I can't see a darn thing other than trees and bramble." He muttered into the settling dark.
Dolly brayed at the head of the cart. Her lowly head bobbed up and down in a knowing gesture.
"Well why didn't you say anything back there. Humph. Let us stop and rest for the night. Maybe tomorrow we'll find our way out of this wilderness." He clicked his tongue and pulled them toward an alcove up and off to the side behind the tree line. A flat stream of water poured over its edge into a small ravine below. The cart would not fit between the shackled tree trunks so he left it at the tree line and took Dolly by the reins and led her into the mouth of the recess.
Night had come and the forest seemed to grow louder. Small animals rustled in the tree canopies, knocking down leaves and twigs. Rodents scurried across the forest floor, chasing their dinner with squealing determination. Toads croaked. The forest itself seemed to have come alive at night.
Alexander didn't find the chittering sounds to be worrying as much as he did when he found the remains of bones in the alcove they walked into.
Small animal bones littered the weathered, stone floor. Just below the lowest part of the ceiling was an opening to a narrow passageway. The dirt that spilled from it had visible tracks leading into it. Alexander clutched the old donkeys reign tighter.
They had walked into a wolf's den.
YOU ARE READING
Beastly Desires
RomanceNo. It couldn't be. Why would she desire him and in that way specifically? He was a beast. He wasn't entirely human. He was going to let her father die in a cell. He mared Aarvas face. He stole Celeste's maidenhead. There were plenty of reasons to h...
