Status: Alive and Kicking!

The Ripple Effect

Her Story, Part I

We traveled in complete silence for the rest of the day. I carried Zeya in my arms as she slept, exhausted from her now-healing injury. The pain in my back was a humbling reminder in the back of my mind, but it was not causing enough discomfort for me to call to Eliana.

The woman was walking far ahead of us, with at least five metres of distance between us. No matter if I sped up or slowed down, she kept the perfect pace to stay away from me. She clearly wanted to be alone. That was clear, especially with the way she kept her head down. Her necklace remained wrapped around her hand, as if she hadn’t the strength to even put it back on.

I remembered thinking she was a strong creature, hardly plagued by the weak heart of a housewife or mother...but she was surely just as broken as anyone else. Maybe even more so than anyone else on this planet.

“Papa,” Zeya murmured up at me, her eyes only half-lidded as she reached up and brushed her tiny palm over my cheek.

“Yes, my love?” I whispered back, smiling at the sleepy angel.

“Is Ellie okay?”

I glanced back to the silhouette before us, and I sighed.

“I’m not sure, Zeya. And I don’t know if she’s sure either.”

The little girl did not seem to disagree with my answer, but she only smiled gently before closing her eyes.

“I was lost once,” she mumbled sleepily, curling into my chest. “But then you found me.”

My heart burned in my chest, and I was almost winded by her response; but she was already snoring quietly once more. I took in a low, deep breath.

“I was lost, too,” I murmured to the sky, smiling to no one in particular. “But then I found you.”

Elaina's silhouette stopped, and I immediately halted as she slowly turned around. She was looking right at me, but her eyes were glazed. She was surely not on this earth. But she started closing the distance between us. Her eyes slowly came back into focus, and she parted her lips. Surely she was enlightened by something, and she was going to tell me the secrets of the universe.

And she said, so quietly, “We should set camp here.”

I stared after her in disbelief, but she just dropped to the ground and began unpacking. There was nothing philosophical about the way she unfurled her wadded-up blanket!

But with no better options, I followed suit and placed Zeya carefully onto the grass and started a small fire. Sleep would not be my top priority tonight, not when my pup had just been ensnared in one of the humans’ traps.

I collapsed gracelessly in front of the pit, poking at the glowing embers with a small twig and sighing as I tried to get comfortable. But the burning sensation was slowly creeping up my spine again, and I was not looking forward to another night of biting on my knuckles.

I cast a less-than-sly glance backward, and Eliana’s glowing eyes met mine immediately. Embarrassed, I whirled around quickly and resumed prodding the flames.

“Does it hurt again?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin, but I managed to settle back into my body as Eliana dropped soundlessly beside me. She was wrapped in her blanket like a butterfly in a cocoon, but she continued to huddle by the fire as if she was sitting in the arctic. But I had to turn my mind off before I continued snooping.

“A bit,” I replied quietly, reaching around and running my fingers over the raised bumps. The stitches still felt in place at least.

“Shifting probably wasn’t the best for your back,” Eliana mumbled, but the tsk-tone of her voice was only very subtle, hidden by a newly found timidity. She shuffled around me, and soon that wonderfully soothing sensation wrapped itself around me.

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” I finally sighed, rolling my shoulder to work the wonderful gel even farther up my spine. “Even if I had wanted to keep Iah down, I’m not convinced I could have. Not after hearing Zeya...”

“Luca... About today... I—”

“I already told you that you don’t owe me anything. You were worried about Zeya, so you half-shifted. It happens to me all the time.”

“That’s...not just it.”

I glanced to her, curious. “Then what is it?”

“You handled that situation so well, even when your pup was the one that was hurt. And I...fell apart. All I could think about was killing the entire human race, but you were...in control.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

“More than I was, at least.”

“Eliana, is this going somewhere? I know you’re not feeling really comfortable right now.”

She gave me an exhausted look, and I smiled in apology. Her body language was just too loud to ignore right now!

“This is ‘going somewhere,’ I assure you. You saved Zeya’s life today, even if you don’t want to think about it. And if you weren’t there, I think I would have done more than just killed one man. So in a way, you saved me from making a huge mistake.”

“Eliana—”

My eyes crossed as I tried to stare at the hand that had just thrown itself over my mouth.

“Shut up, Luca! Just let me talk.” I nodded quickly, and she removed her hand. “I know I said I wasn’t looking for friends—and I still stand by it. But I see now that it isn’t going to help our situation. So I want to tell you something. I’m not exactly comfortable with my whole story, but I’m willing to tell you one thing. One question, and then I’m going to bed.”

I thought for a moment. Yes, I could ask her about her mate and what happened. Or I could ask which pack was her original home. Maybe I could even ask why her wolf seemed so lustful for blood and vengeance. But the woman was squirming in her skin as it was. So I asked something that was seemingly innocent enough.

“Do you love all kids, or is Zeya just special?”

Her eyes bolted to mine, and her brow furrowed. As if she wasn’t quite sure she had heard me.

“Luca, you’re not doing me any favours here. If you don’t ask me a serious question, I’ll tell you a story so horrible it will keep you up for the rest of the week.”

I gulped.

“A serious question. Not my best colour, not my fears or my hopes. A serious question. I know exactly what you want to ask, Luca. You want to know about my mate.” I looked away. Was I so obvious? “It’s understandable, I mean. I wanted to know about yours, too, and I told you that I can relate. It’s a very long story, though, and it’s not something with which I can skip around.”

“I just don’t want you to feel pressured—”

“My mate is an Alpha,” she told me quickly, staring into the flickering fire. “I was born in a pack not far from here, but you didn’t ask that question. So I’ll just say it was a pack. My father was a warrior, and my mother died when I was young. It was just my father and I for a while.

“But when I turned sixteen, my wolf started changing. She was more aggressive and demanding, and she was always taking over without my permission. I didn’t understand it, but I would always wake up in the middle of the forest—at the foot of a large oak tree. The smell was just too inviting, and I shook it off as my wolf liking the scent.

“One day I awoke and the scent was so strong that I couldn’t even move. There was a wolf standing beside me, eyeing me cautiously and curiously. All I wanted to do was run, but my wolf wouldn’t let me. He was the Alpha’s son, and the son of a man who made my father and his fellow men cower with mere eye contact. So of course I wanted to run!

“But Ara wouldn’t move. She told me to stay put—she demanded it. The wolf just kept circling me, demanding to know why I had come here. Ara made me say I came to see him, and I was mortified. He gave me a disapproving look, and then he took off. My wolf was so depressed that I no longer awoke in strange places, and I couldn’t even shift when I tried.

“Then, when I was seventeen... The pack sentries told me my father had died in a pack raid. He received a promotion from his bravery, and my social status was bumped. But that didn’t bring him back. While the other social elitists chatted happily at the mandatory social events, I just by the old oak tree and stared into the forest. I had half-convinced myself that my father would walk through the brush, and maybe—just maybe—he would have found my mother, too.”

I placed my hand on her shoulder, but she shook her head.

“I’m fine,” she insisted, shirking away and hunching closer to the fire. “Anyway, I was just sitting by my tree, sulking as I had done for the past two weeks. And who should show up but the wolf who all but rejected me? He met my gaze with hard eyes, but then he just...dropped beside me. He stared into the forest with me, not saying a word. We went on like that for the next week, but by then I just couldn’t take it. My wolf was all but gone, but when she did resurface it was because I was so enraged that I couldn’t even see straight; and now, here was my ex-mate, hanging around like he wasn’t just an ex.

“I screamed at him, told him to leave me alone. So he... He bit me. The pain was something I can’t even describe. They never told me it would hurt so badly, but I guess the marking usually happens between the human souls; his wolf had bit me, and it took a week for my body to heal itself. I was kept in the infirmary for that time, but as I drifted in and out of consciousness... He wasn’t there. He was never there.

“When I was finally able to leave, I did without hesitation. I returned home to pack my things and leave. But he showed up, and he told me I was moving into the pack house. He said his father had ‘finally died,’ so he was Alpha now. It had happened while I was ‘sleeping,’ so he said. I tried to tell him to bugger off, but Ara wouldn’t let me. She was finally happy again.

“So I moved into the pack house, and I became Luna. I was the perfect Luna, because my wolf kept me in check. My mate and I had our first and only pup all but immediately. She was a beautiful girl, so sweet and innocent. We named her Aylin. And my life was devoted to her, and she was the reason I was finally able to take over my body again. My wolf couldn’t overpower me when it came to my sweet baby girl. But my mate could...

“And he did.”