The air outside was chill but calm. Hope pulled a blanket more closely around her shoulders and sat down in a well sculpted wicker chair. The oncoming sunset promised a marvelous display, and she hoped she would get to see part of it before she was inevitably whisked away to dinner by the vigilant household staff. She clutched a book thinking it would help her pass the time, but as Hope sat there thinking, the volume – Arabian Nights – lay on her lap unopened. The day, up until now, had been filled with events that weighed heavily on her mind.

The tour of the mansion had made her prison seem much less imposing. She quickly realized that her captor, the beast, fully intended to offer her every comfort of a villa as if she were on vacation. The knowledge that she wasn't allowed to leave, however, tainted these comforts. When she questioned the beast as to why he held her captive he had simply replied that she was important. Confused, Hope queried after his meaning, but Wolf answered just as cryptically. He said that he thought her to be special. And just what was that supposed to mean? Hope thought.

For a brief, irrational moment, Hope thought that maybe it meant he was in love with her. She shivered uncontrollably at the thought before brushing it aside. It was crazy to think that a creature like the Wolf would ever feel for a human that way. No, Hope was sure that her imprisonment was out of some natural malice in the beast or part of some complex political game. She snuggled back into her chair; her mind a bit more comfortable with this last thought. Now what could the political game be?, she speculated.

Her father, an ambassador and therefore politician, had often been wrapped up in games among the royalty and nobles, but nothing to this extent. She wondered if her father even knew this beast existed, and for that matter, what would Wolf have against her father? The feud must be pretty important to go so far as kidnapping his daughter.

Unexpectedly, the hunting call of an owl ghosted through the trees interrupting Hope's thoughts. Hope looked up to find the bird. He was surprisingly not very far away. He turned and flew out over the center of the meadow at the bottom of the cliff where the mansion was built. The owl still seemed awfully close, however, due to the clear night air and the elevated vantage point at which Hope sat. Intently the owl monitored the ground until locking his gaze on something on the ground unseen to Hope. He began to spiral downward, ever accelerating. In the last possible instant, her pulled up, wings flapping, claws fully extended to strike at his prey. Then he was airborne again. Hope strained her eyes to see if he held anything. The owl continued to rise in the air and then flew off to the west over the tree tops. It was then, lit by the ruddy background of the setting sun, that hope picked out the shape of a mouse in its claws.

Almost as if giving a brief eulogy a wolf howled. Hoped looked around startled, expecting to see the beast somewhere. When the wolf howled again, however, she knew that this was an ordinary wolf and not her beast.

Wait a second… my beast? She suddenly thought. No the beast… Why did I even think that? Just who is he, and what is this place? Clearly it's enchanted, but why? Hope's stream of thought led her to ponder over many questions like these for a while. However she discerned no clear answers other than the astute observation that Wolf was at the center of it all. Whether he was the cause or merely a result of the curse, she did not know.

If only I knew what happened to the baron who owns this place, Hope thought. I bet he would have many of the answers…

A thought suddenly came to Hope that made her heart beat with much excitement. What if the Baron hasn't truly disappeared? What if I could find him? I'm sure so many things would be made better then, and all of this mystery would be cleared up. But where to start; how should I find him?

The balcony door opened, ending Hope's contemplation. She could sense that an invisible servant had joined her. Looking around she noticed that the servant was offering out a notepad with writing on it. Hope took it and read, "Hola, this is Maria. May I join you?"

"Hello Maria," Hope said aloud. "Is it time for dinner yet?" She handed the notepad back.

"Not quite," Maria wrote. "I was hoping we might have some time to talk first."

"Sure," Hope said, "What shall we talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know," Maria said. "I was just hoping to get to know you better. After all, we'll be spending some time together and I haven't talked to, or even seen, anyone new in these parts for what seems like ages!"

"How long have you been here?" Hope asked.

"Oh, just about eight years; I'm only sixteen and a half," Maria replied.

"You're very close to my age then, I'm eighteen as of three months ago," Hope said. "But you've been here eight years! That's quite a while and means that you were here before the beast."

"He is not a beast!" Maria quickly retorted, and then said, "But yes, the curse began five years ago."

"So then you knew the Baron?"

"Yes, rather well actually, you see, I am his cousin."

"What?" Hope exclaimed. "You're related to the Baron of this land? Who is he? Do you know what happened to him?"

If Hope could have seen Maria's face, she would see a vibrant smile break across it. "Wolf was right; you do ask a lot of questions."

"You talk to him?"

"Of course, he's my master and a good one at that," Hope noticed that Maria wrote these words confidently with no sign of hesitancy.

"But he's a wolf creature," Hope said sounding shocked. "He's not even close to being human, and he is very mean. Why do you respect him?"

"Because he is not that way all the time," Maria wrote and then quickly added in a scribbled hand, "Cruel, I mean. He's not always cruel. It just takes time to get to know him."

"I bet," Hope said. "He seems very complicated."

"Aren't we all?"

"Good point," Hope smiled in Maria's direction, still not entirely positive of where the invisible servant stood. It occurred to Hope that Maria might be able to help answer some of her questions about the baron, although her outlook wasn't overly optimistic. She figured at least trying wouldn't hurt though, so she asked, "You told me the curse started five years ago. Wolf told me earlier today that he has been here for five years. Can you possibly tell me how the two tie together?"

"I'm sorry my lady, but I cannot," Maria said. "That is one of those questions no one here can answer for you."

"Of course not," Hope sighed. "You know I find unanswered questions to be the most annoying thing in the world. Just ask my papa; we were having this same issue right before the crash. He wanted to get home in such a hurry but wouldn't tell me why. I'm still upset over that…"

"I'm sorry," Maria said again, "but I guess you'll have to add another mystery to your list because I really am incapable of telling you the answers."

"It's alright," Hope said, "I kind of had a feeling that would be your response anyway."

Hope felt rather than saw Maria take a seat next to her in a nearby chair. The two women sat in silence for a moment, and then Maria wrote, "Tell me about your father and your family back in France."

"Well, Papa is my only family," Hope said. She told Maria about her mother's tragic death and the way life had been ever since.

"I haven't had many friends these last few years," Hope said. "I simply haven't had the time. With all of the responsibilities of the household I don't have much time to socialize. My closest friend in the world is Claire, my maidservant back in France. She's also the closest thing I have to a sister. After all, we grew up together. Her mother was servant to my mother, so we've always known each other." Hope looked sadly out over the unfamiliar horizon and sighed deeply. "I miss her."

Maria wrote, "Oh, I'm sorry ma'am. I wish there was some way I could help you, or at least assure you an equally good service here, but I haven't been a maidservant very long and you're the first personal assignment I've ever received. I may not be as good as your friend Claire."

"I would not say that," Hope said smiling. "I think you are doing just grand. Your effort in wanting to make friends is most certainly an excellent start, and I think it is working." Hope winked at Maria, or at least where she thought Maria sat in the chair next to her.

Maria giggled and wrote, "Oh good."

The two girls talked straight through the sunset. They discussed interest like their favorite books, music, dances, food, and even men. Any on looker would have clearly been able to see that the girls were very quickly become fine friends.

The darkening sky eventually caught the girls' attention and the conversation broke off. They both panicked with the thought of being late to dinner. Hope hurriedly checked her hair and dress at a mirror inside her boudoir and then rushed to the dining hall. There, she was grateful to see that again only one place setting had been prepared and the beast was nowhere to be seen. An invisible servant pulled out the chair for her. She took the seat trying to appear dignified and not rushed.

The meal served to Hope was of extraordinary quality as had been all of the meals so far. However, the high quality of the food did little to calm her nerves. She consumed her food in a very edgy mood, expecting that at any moment the beast would come. She figured Wolf would be angry and feared he might even do something to make her punishment worse. After all, she had made him fairly mad earlier that afternoon with all of her questions and poor attitude.

Once her meal was over the servants cleared her plates and left her in silence. Doing her best to maintain sanity by carefully breathing in and out to the slow count of ten, Hope waited for the inevitable arrival of the beast. Mentally, she tried to prepare herself to block out the fear that almost always rose in her breast when she looked into the human-like eyes of the animal that was her captor. When Wolf finally did come in, despite her initial surprise, Hope found herself more taken aback by the beast's attitude. Unlike what she expected, he was not angry. Instead, Wolf seemed confused, as if he did not know how to proceed with the meeting.

/\/\/\

The servant door from the kitchens to the hall opened abruptly and seemingly by itself. Wolf could not see who it was who approached him, as all the servants in the household were invisible, but he sensed that it was his chief of staff, Antonio.

"Is it time?" Wolf asked before the servant had finished pulling a pad of paper and pencil from some unseen pocket. "Has she finished eating?"

"Yes," Antonio wrote. "She has just finished her dessert, and the staff awaits your decision on if they should bring out wine for the both of you."

"No, no, Antonio. I don't feel up to staying that long, but thank you."

"As you wish my lord," Antonio said, leaving with the orders. Wolf took a deep breath trying to calm his anxiety before he entered the dining hall.

The doors were opened by two unseen servants. Wolf walked in, painfully aware of the clacking noise that his claws made on the polished wood floor. There before him at the dinner sat Hope, whom he preferred to call Esperanza, with her back to him. For a moment his knees felt week under the weight of his massively muscles chest. The dim light of the hall glowed off of Hope's skin and seemed to highlight the sensual curves of her neck and corseted torso. The warm pink color of Hope's dress suited her skin tone well, Wolf silently approved.

Wolf took another step trying to remain quiet so that he could savor Hope's beauty as long as possible. However, this was not to be. Hope heard the sound of his approach and turned around sharply. The look on her face of mixed fear and anger brought Wolf crashing back to reality. She did not love him the way he loved her. She hated him. After all, he admitted silently, he did imprison her with some extremely stringent restrictions. Still looking into Hope's eyes and seeing so much accusation aimed at him, hurt.

"You know," Hope said, "the silence of this place is really starting to get to me. The fact that you like sneaking up on people most certainly does not help."

"I'm sorry," Wolf said. "I did not mean to startle you. I guess the silence just kind of grows on one after a time."

"Yes, but now that you have a guest," Hope seemed to stress the last word, "you should really be more considerate and warm me whenever you approach."

"Please, Esperanza," Wolf said controlling his instinct to snap back, "I did not come here to fight any more. This afternoon is still too fresh in both of our minds." He paused for a moment as if deciding something and then said, "But I have done my best to dismiss the situation. For now let us talk of something else."

"Like what?" Hope asked, breathing slowly in an apparent attempt to control her angry and confused emotions.

"I don't know," Wolf said dejectedly as he took his seat across the table from Hope.

"Well that's helpful," Hope mumbled. Wolf glared at her, knowing she was right but not wanting to admit it.

Almost painfully time ticked by as they sat in awkward silence. Wolf rooted around in his mind, trying to come up with something to say. Hope was certainly doing her best to be difficult, he thought, but the last thing he wanted was to lose what little trust of hers he had gained that day. He looked up and noticed that Hope was openly watching him with a curious stare on her face.

"Is everything alright?" She prompted. "I've never seen you at such a loss for words."

"Well, it's just… You see, Esperanza…" Wolf attempted to say something, but his thoughts kept becoming muddled whenever he looked into Hope's eyes. Oh, this was all just coming out so wrong! What should he say? What should he do? This whole situation just was not working.

Suddenly feeling very awkward and wanting very much to get away from Hope's piercing gaze, Wolf said, "Esperanza, with your permission, let us just forget this conversation and retire for the evening."

Hope looked startled. "But you've just barely come in."

"I know," he quickly said. "We haven't really done much talking, but I think it would be best if we just went our separate ways for now. I look forward to seeing you again tomorrow," he said as he stood up from the table, preparing to leave. "Hopefully then we will both be better prepared to talk."

"Um, ok," Hope slowly said taking in Wolf's words. "I guess this is goodnight then."

"Indeed," Wolf smiled. "Goodnight Esperanza." He moved past her to the doors. The invisible servants opened the doors for him, but before he left he turned around to see Hope standing up and turning to follow him out. "Oh, and Esperanza," he said, "I'm sorry about this afternoon." Then he turned and walked on, keeping his gaze forward until he reached his room.

AN: Another update in under two years! I'm doing well; I think. :) Please note that I had to change the style of my page break icon for point-of-view changes because for some reason the document program on this site will no longer allow me to use asterisks. Hopefully that didn't confuse anyone too much.

Thank you for you patience and please feel free to leave me a review, ask a question, or make suggestions. Hopefully I will have another update for you soon, though I haven't started writing it yet, so please bear with me.

With much appreciation for you getting this far,
Leigh Wolf