Wolf's Fate

The curtains were barely enough to filter the bright street lights. But when Leah awoke just a little before three in the morning, she spied a thin slat of light from the bathroom. She reached for her husband's arms but found his side of the bed empty. It was not an unusual occurrence, but something didn't feel right. Her nostrils caught a faint smell of metal. Leah's eyes opened wide; she was too familiar with the scent of blood.

"Nanuq?" she called, hurrying to the bathroom.

Leah gave a short scream when she found dark bloodstains on the bathroom tiles. Each drop on the floor was as fresh as the smears on the walls. There was barely a spot left white on the floor alone. "Nanuq?" she called again, tearing her eyes away from the blood to look for him. There, at the corner of the bathroom stood Nanuq, holding a knife with one hand and lifting the front of his shirt with the other. His clothes bore even more blood than the tiles.

He was murmuring something Leah could not understand. Leah guessed he must be speaking in Inupiaq, his native tongue. He was examining his bloody stomach. There were several cuts there, alternately deep and shallow. But each slash shrank slowly before her eyes.

"Nanuq, what are you doing?" sobbed Leah, who gripped the wrist holding the knife.

That was when he learned she was there. He abruptly stopped murmuring and looked at her with bloodshot eyes. "It just keeps healing," he told her softly. His eyes widened and his lips curled into a seemingly triumphant smile. "It just keeps healing!" he repeated, as though this piece of information was something new and foreign to him.

#

Leah opened the trunk and took out two miniature trolley cases for her children. "Be nice to Uncle Seth and remember to clean after yourselves, alright?" said Leah sternly.

Eight-year-old Joel and five-year-old Dinah nodded automatically. "Yes, Mommy," they said.

Both Joel and Dinah had round faces and slit eyes like their Inupiat father. But they had also inherited their Quileute mother's firm nose, shapely lips and strong chin.

She smiled weakly at the children while her brother went out of the house to pick up their things. "Oh, you both have grown so big!" exclaimed Seth, as he bent down to kiss and hug Joel and Dinah, both of whom he hadn't seen since Dinah's third birthday.

"You don't need me to carry your things, do you?" asked Seth.

"No, Uncle Seth," said Joel, who held his sister's hand as they both dragged the cases into the house. Seth watched the two momentarily and then glanced at Nanuq, who was waiting patiently in Leah's van.

Once the children were inside the house, Seth asked Leah, "Is he okay now?" He recalled her frantic phone call from earlier that morning.

"He was not quite himself when he did it. Moments after I entered the bathroom he snapped out of it. He even helped me clean up. But his consoling me just didn't comfort me. That had never happened to Nanuq before!" said Leah, her voice shaking. "Had I found him later, who knows what else he could have done?"

"How long has it been? … I suppose being a werewolf—transforming like that every month for twenty years would take its toll on him. Dr. Cullen, he—" Seth abruptly held his tongue and looked worriedly at his sister's eyes, as though wishing he hadn't said it in the first place.

"What does Dr. Cullen know about Children of the Moon?" asked Leah in a low voice. When Seth hesitated, Leah roughly shook her brother, demanding, "Tell me!"

"He heard this from the Volturi, so this might be biased," warned Seth in a single breath.

"What's going to happen to Nanuq?" urged Leah.

"A-a-according to the stories he heard, most werewolves lose their humanity …" Seth tried to explain. He grimaced when Leah became shocked. He hastily continued, "H-h-he said it-it's like they go crazy, wild even in human form, usually by the fortieth or fiftieth year."

"So it's a gradual thing?" asked Leah softly.

"I suppose," said Seth, glancing at Nanuq, who was watching them innocently.

Leah looked like she would faint. But she drew a long shuddering breath and held firm. "No … not my Nanuq …" she whimpered. She remembered the day she first met him, in a café below their apartment where he told her she was beautiful. She remembered their first kiss in the elevator and the first coupling that followed. Although their ten years together had indeed been punctuated with occasional rages during Nanuq's heroin withdrawals, there was no question that Nanuq loved Leah. The way he'd held her hand and kissed her when she'd borne each of their children proved it. He was not perfect, but Leah had sworn repeatedly that she would give herself to no other man. Things had been going so well! Death was not stealing him away from her but his own ruin is? Leah would not have it!

"Leah, I'm sorry!" pleaded Seth, not for his brother-in-law's grim tidings but for having said it.

Leah threw her arms around her brother's neck. "I love him so much!" she wailed.

Heartbroken by his wife's grief, Nanuq got off the van. But Leah threw him a piercing look, silently ordering him to stay in the vehicle. Nanuq instantly obeyed and went back inside.

"So what do you plan to do?" asked Seth.

Leah composed herself and nudged the dust with her shoe. "If I could at least postpone what you were saying about Children of the Moon, I'm doing whatever it takes," she said. "If we don't make it back by the end of summer, I'm sending you money to get the kids to go to school here."

Seth glanced at Nanuq again. He looked a bit nervous this time as he observed Leah's body language. "Alright, I'll be taking care of your kids," promised Seth. "Just be careful."

Leah had imagined never leaving Nanuq's side. They might stay away from densely populated areas for several weeks. Leah envisioned still being there while he transforms into a gigantic arctic wolf. She clenched her fists. She might have to summon her shape-shifting powers again; she might have to protect him from passing vampires. … "I will be careful, Seth, for my husband's and my children's sakes," she said. She hugged her brother again, gently this time, before going to the van.

Joel and Dinah were at the door, waving at their parents. Leah smiled and waved back. "We're missing you already!" she called.

Leah turned serious again when she started the van.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Nanuq anxiously.

"I'm not losing you," said Leah in a low voice without taking her eyes off the road.

Nanuq didn't know what to say. Even he had seen the blood on the floor. There was no way he could say that she ought to not worry about him anymore.

They have traveled past Seattle when Leah asked, "How many times do you take heroin?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Just answer me!" snapped Leah.

"As many as three times—why?" asked Nanuq nervously.

"From now on, you'll take only twice a day," commanded Leah.

"Two shoots a day!" exclaimed Nanuq. "Are you—?"

Leah glared at him and interrupted, "On the week after next, you'll have it only once a day."

Nanuq was rattled. "What the …? Are you trying to kill me?" he demanded.

"Don't shout at me!" said Leah. "And even if I were trying to kill you, it is not possible: you can't die."

"That's not the point! … Leah, you can't do this to me!"

Leah grimaced and pulled over the van. She struggled to maintain composure as she faced her husband. "What do you think I should do?" she said. "I think your habit is making your mind deteriorate fast. It might not be disintegrating your body but your mind. I will not lose you that way! I think if we control your drug dependence, we could at least postpone your losing yourself. And if we go to Alaska … maybe, if we go to where you became infected, we might get help.

"In any case, I've already bought you some maintenance drugs and alternative painkillers. I've been doing a lot of research on how to help you without having to go to the rehab center. …"

"How long are we gonna do this?"

"As long as it takes," said Leah, gritting her teeth.

Nanuq was barely listening. He was close to panicking. "I'm gonna die. … I'm gonna die. …"

Leah cupped his face with her hands. "No, Nanuq, you will stay with me. From here on out, I will not leave you. I will not leave you," said Leah. She kissed his trembling lips to seal her promise.

Back in La Push, Seth was watching his nephew and niece playing with the kids in the reservation. Leah's children were distinguishable by their Inuit eyes.

Jacob arrived at Seth's porch with Renesmée, almost seventeen years old. "Hi, Seth," he said. "I heard Leah stopped by. She didn't even say hello."

"She was in a hurry," explained Seth. "She made her kids stay with me while she takes Nanuq out of town. I think she intends to sort of self-rehabilitate him. Something's wrong with him."

"Those are Leah's kids?" asked Renesmée, her soft brown eyes gazing at the two children she had never seen before. "They look beautiful like their mother."

"I don't see much of Leah in them," said Jacob softly. Then he became stern, asking Seth, "Are you saying Leah is going to put Nanuq off drugs? Dude, the guy has been taking heroin for twenty years! And he's a werewolf! He almost killed Leah one time. What if the withdrawals make him go crazy? What if he actually does kill her?"

"I wasn't able to convince her not to go through with it. I let slip that Children of the Moon lose their minds as time goes on. She became more determined than ever to save him. She was so upset that she left as quickly as she came. I didn't know how to react when she was crying about—"

Jacob groaned angrily. "Why does she have to be so impulsive?"

Seth grasped Jacob's arm. "Jake, I'm worried about her too. But I trust my sister. She's been there for me all my life. I know that she's stronger and braver than what we give her credit for."