The Emergence Of The Wolf - Completed

8. Maria

The guard unlocked my cage, and I followed Mr. Jules outside. I didn't know if I should thank him or hate him. I guess both still applied. He threatened my friends and family and took my freedom away from me. There were a lot of conflicting thoughts in my mind. I had many questions, but I was also exhausted emotionally, even more than physically.

Jakob, the handsome, hairy man who was holding my hand earlier, met us outside the courtroom.

"Take her to Maria's house. She always wanted to have a child," he chuckled. "So here is one for her. It is now yours and Maria's job to teach her our ways."

"Yes, Master," Jakob replied.

I looked at Jakob again and noticed that he also had a collar. I hoped he would treat me better than the guards or Mr. Jules.

We went down the staircase, following him, but then turned to the left instead of following Mr. Jules to the car.

I wanted to ask Jakob many questions, but my voice was still not cooperating. I pointed to my mouth and looked at Jakob.

"Follow me," he said, "We don't have much time. We need to get you to Maria before she leaves for her shift in the mansion."

I kept pointing to my mouth and my neck.

"You will have to earn your voice back," he said. "You must have pissed off the Master. Consider yourself lucky that he only took this away. Now, follow me."

He walked really fast. I almost had to run to keep up.

We were passing through an extravagant city. There were old buildings made out of marble, granite, and limestone mixed with new designs made out of glass with different shapes. Some were domes, some globes, cylinders. There were many similar statues of men killing wolves made out of thick glass, metal, and stone. I could not imagine ever seeing a city like this up-close. There were never any pictures posted of Agora. However, it didn't excite me since I knew it was run by an evil society that almost voted to kill me.

"Hurry up!" I heard Jakob's voice.

We crossed a small bridge and ended up in a trailer park. It was sitting on a vast open area with a forest growing behind it. The garden looked very clean, and there were not many people around. Anyone who saw us respectfully nodded to Jakob while we were passing by.

We finally reached a blue-colored trailer with handprints and flowers painted on the sides of it. Jakob knocked on the trailer door.

The friendly face of a middle-aged woman looked through the glass window, and the door creaked open.

"Hi, Alpha Jakob. How can I help?" That woman stood on the top of the trailer stairs.

"Hi, Maria! The Master brought this new girl. She is not from around here. Your job is to educate her in our ways or our pack and the rules of our masters. Just assume that she knows nothing so far. She will be staying with you in the meantime, at least until her job and place are decided," he replied.

Surprise showed on her face, but it was quickly replaced with a genuine smile. "Of course," she replied. "Come on in. My name is Maria."

Jakob nodded with appreciation and left abruptly without explaining anything to either of us. I was really hoping he would tell her more about me, so then, in turn, I would learn something valuable about my situation.

She let me into her trailer. Finally, nothing had that terrible stench for the first time in the last two days. Instead, it smelled like herbs and cooking. It reminded me of the aromas of my parents' house. Oh, I hope my parents are OK. I would not want anything like that to happen to them.

She took me to the kitchen to the left of the entrance. It had a stove, a little table, and three chairs. There was also a little couch there. All the furniture looked old, but everything was clean and taken care of.

"What is your name?" she asked.

I tried to say something, but I still could not.

"Oh, you poor thing, you must have done something that our Master disapproved of. Well, I hope it will not last longer than a month."

A month went through my head!!!

"Are you hungry?" she asked.

I nodded. I realized I was starving, as my last meal was probably twenty hours ago.

She quickly got up and warmed up some stew and potatoes for me. It smelled amazing. I gulped everything down so fast that I even burned my mouth.

"Would you like some more?" she asked.

I nodded again.

She gave me more stew and bread. It was possibly the best food I had ever tried.

"It will be hard to teach you, as you can't tell me anything about yourself or ask me, but I will manage, she said."

I was hoping that maybe she had a phone and I could call my parents just to hear their voice or call Michelle.

I tried to put my hand to my ear, gesturing and signing that I needed the phone.

"I am not sure I understand, sweetheart," she said.

Then I had an idea. Maybe she had paper and a pencil? So I pretended to write on the table, but she was still confused and shook her head.

Tears started running down my face. It was not because I could not speak, but rather because I felt there was a person taking care of me for the first time in so long.

She hugged me and kissed me on the forehead. I felt so grateful but could not say anything and didn't know how to express myself.

"You are going to be OK here. Just follow the Master's orders. I do have to go work for my shift. Maybe it's best if you rest for now. You might not get this chance again. I can tell you are not from around here, and I don't know the customs of your pack or your Master's. Our pack is in a very safe place, but you should probably stay at my house until I get back, just in case. You can use the bathroom here and eat some more if you are hungry. I got to run now." She changed into a black skirt and a white blouse, then she grabbed her bag and left.

I looked around. The sun was picking out through the trailer shades. There was an ancient cuckoo clock on the wall. It was 12:30 in the afternoon.

I was alone without supervision for the first time. I wanted to feel the freedom and stroll around for a bit, but I was also exhausted. Looking out of the window, many of the trailers looked similar, and I decided not to take the chance of wandering off. After all the food I ate, my eyelids got heavy, and I lay down on the couch and was out in no time. I didn't dream. The wolf didn't even come to me. Maybe the collar had something to do with it.

A hard knock on the door woke me up.