Beastly Desires

Chapter Fourty-Four

The few weeks leading up to their wedding day, Gregorie courted Colette like a true gentlemen. His teasing turned into sincere compliments and he started to take interest in her love for painting, even asking if she could paint him something as a wedding gift. Colette found it easy to hold his hand as they walked through town. It no longer felt uncomfortable being so close to him. His height grew on her and she came to admire how tall he was. He looked like a towering coquelicot with his wild, red hair. He often visited her at the cottage and sat to have dinner with her and her father three times a week. Her father chatted away merrily in his chair which Gregorie found to be fascinating. Neither her or her father mentioned Sébastien or talked about their stay at the castle to Gregorie. It started to feel like a dream, but some nights Colette would wake from a nightmare with Sebastian's name stuck in her throat.

It was the same nightmare. She was naked, kneeling in the center of a clearing in a forest somewhere. She was hurt, but she didn't know where. She felt so cold. Like death hung on her shoulders and she felt watched. Like someone or something was watching her from the tree line. She would see glowing orange eyes between the bramble of fallen branches and tangled vines. After a minute of being watched her assessor would finally stalk out of the tree line. It was a huge, black wolf. She studied its large, lethal body as it circled her. She did not react to its presence but found its lingering gaze to be familiar. It wasn't until he made a full circle did she lie down on her side. She felt weak. Limp. A warm substance would flow down her thigh and after a few seconds the scent of lavender would fill her nose. She dreamt it's soft petals tickled her skin and she thought of her mother and the lavender stems they tossed in her casket. That's what it felt like she was in. A casket. The lavender snaked over her body and its fragrance seeped into her skin and she gave into its tight embrace. That dark presence outside of the lavender attempted to seek her out through the thick stems and she felt its frantic attempts to reach her, but she was already sinking. Sinking deep into the earth. Dissolving. Her body was returning to dust. As the last remnants of her soul disappeared, light trickled in through the stems and she heard her name being called out. Not voiced out, but in her mind. It spoke to her soul. Colette. Colette. Her soul reached out towards the voice but there was nothing left of her. Her voice was no longer as she called out it's name.

Sébastien.

"Are you well?"

Colette looked up from her painting towards Gregorie who sat in the tufted chair beside the hearth. His long body dwarfed the old chair and his hair was unbound, spilling around his face and shoulders. She had been thinking about the nightmare she woke up from this morning. It would seem the remnants of it lingered on her face.

"Yes. I just... I had a nightmare last night."

"Oh? What of?"

Colette dipped her brush into a dollop of orange- red she had mixed earlier and brought the brush to the canvas. She painted the ringlets of Gregories curly hair framing his face.

She sighed heavily. "I was in a forest." She glanced up at him then back down at the painting, readjusting the color. "Naked."

Gregorie raised an eyebrow. He had his hands clasped in his lap and she watched as he flexed his longer fingers before shifting slightly. She had him sitting in the chair as she painted a portrait of him. Her wedding gift to him. He wasn't very good at keeping still though and she scolded him twice now not to move too much.

"I was being watched."

"By who?" His voice dropped an octave as he stared at her with serious eyes. He's become more protective over her since accepting his marriage proposal.