11. The Mysterious Woman

eleven

The Mysterious Woman

*FLORA*

E lden only joins us briefly for dinner tonight before heading home. He says his father demands his presence. When Emilia is around, Alpha Caelum is always eager to play happy family. I’m not sure if he thinks he can truly trick her. Does she not see it? Elden and his dad never spend time with each other, and Elden is barely at home when his dad is there. A couple of years ago, Elder Samuel would try to make him join them for the rare times Alpha Caelum visited, but Elden never did. And the alpha didn’t seek him out either.

But ever since Emilia appeared, things have changed. She and Caelum still travel a lot, but sometimes she stays here at the pack, just to be there. She is nice to Elden and me. But I don’t get her. How did she and Caelum even meet? Why did she agree to be with such an asshole? Elder Geneva said that Emilia has a name in Italy. She is known as the elegant, diligent luna, who kept her pack together after her mate died, despite being heartbroken, until someone finally took over. They even offered her the pack, but she declined. Apparently, she didn’t want that kind of power, especially while she was still grieving her mate. How does a woman like her end up with a man like Caelum?

What does she see in him?

I’ve retired to my room now, and after doing my homework and reading my newest favorite horror novel, I decide it’s time to pester my lycan.

Celeste, what do you think?

Celeste pops up in my mind and curls her nose when she sees the beings of lights around me. Can’t you send them away?

No, I chuckle. They are part of us and have been there ever since I was born.

I’m your lycan spirit, she grumbles. Why do we need another entity around us?

She has always been wary about them. When I received Celeste, she was sleeping a lot, and we only started to connect a couple of years ago. At that time, I already had a connection with the light. Well, I’m sure she will come around. Emilia, I push, a nd Alpha Caelum, what do you think?

I don’t know why a woman like her even looks at a man like him. She says. I guess he is attractive, but surely she would see beyond that. Maybe she was lonely.

Maybe he tricked her? I offer. Or pretended to be someone he isn’t.

Technically, he lost his luna and mate, too, just like she lost her alpha and mate. Maybe that’s how he got her, Celeste says, tilting her beautiful head to the side. I can’t wait for Elden and Regis to see her. She is so beautiful, her fur looks white and light grey from afar, but it’s actually silver, and it shimmers in the moonlight.

You think he could have pulled off playing the mourning widower? I ask her.

I think he is more cunning than we give him credit for. He managed to get Carolina as his luna. Remember what Grandma said: everyone wanted her, and he wasn’t even the most impressive suitor. He became the alpha of this pack because of her, because her granddad didn’t have a successor.

She is right. I didn’t know that until Samuel and Geneva told Elden about it. Silverlake was actually Carolina’s inheritance. Her father had a successor for his pack far in the south, but her grandfather didn’t. So, it was set that Carolina’s future husband and mate would take over. She was beautiful, rich, and had a powerful pack attached to her name.

And Caelum happened to be her mate, and at the same time, managed to win over her family.

It’s still so weird, though. Caelum did rank alpha, and he certainly has an alpha’s strength and durability, and he does have a gift, but nothing special, nothing like Elden or other alphas. Yet, he managed to convince Carolina’s family that he was a worthy successor to the pack and a worthy suitor.

We don’t know what truly happened, Celeste says. Suddenly she perks up, sounding happy. Oh! We have a visitor!

There is some scratching against my window, and I jump out of my bed, opening it. Leaning out of it I can see Elden. “Can I come up?” he asks.

“Yes,” I giggle. “You can also use the door. Grandma says you are always welcome.”

“This makes it more exciting,” he says while jumping up and angling for a branch of the tree that grows right in front of my room. He climbs his way upwards until he has reached my window and jumps through it. I laugh while I try to catch him, the both of us falling onto my soft carpet.

I have a feeling Grandma knows that he is visiting me secretly. Sometimes, she makes teasing comments about my Romeo. But she doesn’t say anything against it. She really likes Elden, and everyone already knows we are mates. “How was dinner?” I ask him. “If it sucked, I have leftovers for you for tomorrow.”

He smiles. “Thank you. And it did suck, as expected. Then Dad wanted to talk to me in his office.”

“Talk about what?”

“Actually, it was the old man and Samuel,” he explains. “Dad wants me to finally pick a beta. He even presented me with his own choices.” He grimaces. “There is no way, I will pick anyone he wants me to choose. It can only be a terrible decision.”

“Do you have anyone in mind?” I ask him.

“Do you?” he asks in return.

“No,” I admit. “We don’t mingle that much with the pack kids.” We get along well with the other teens here, and both of us have made friends, but it’s nothing on such a deep level that I’d consider anyone suitable to be a beta.

“Some of the other kids aren’t bad,” he pauses. “But a beta needs to stand out to me for their qualities. They need to be loyal to us, but also to the pack. They need to be able to read the mood, to understand smaller issues, and to mediate. I don’t need someone to kiss my ass, I need someone to have his own opinion while still having my back. I need a connection to my beta. The only one I have such a relationship with is Jace, and Jace is going to be alpha himself, a fucking amazing one, I bet.”

“True,” I frown. “We’ll find someone,” I say with conviction. After Elden’s mom died, he kept much more to himself and only let Jace and me in, which is probably why he lacks that special connection to someone else. But he is right, it’s not just that we don’t have friends that could fit the role, it also needs to be someone who is going to do it well. “We’ll keep our eyes open,” I reassure him. “I bet there is someone.”

“I wish I had your optimism sometimes,” he sighs.

I elbow him. “Have faith in your luna.”

He chuckles, turning to the side and kissing my cheek. “I have.” He jumps up from the floor and pulls me up with him. “Oh,” Elden eyes a small plant in the corner of my room. “That one is new.”

“I found it yesterday,” I tell him. “It was dying.”

“And you saved it,” he says with a smile, his eyes moving towards the ghost orchid, the plant he and I saved together many years ago. The beginning of our friendship. "It grew so much," he says in awe. "Is it just me or did it grow even more during the last couple of days?”

“It did,” I say. “Grandma says it’s not unusual.” I spread my arms and twirl around. “Because we are approaching a blue moon again. She said the plant always gets a growth spurt around the time of a blue moon.”

“Really?”

“Yes, once she mentioned it, I actually made the calculation, and she is right.”

Elden steps closer, inspecting the plant curiously. The orchid is full of buds now, just waiting to burst open again. It blooms once or twice every year for two weeks, but never have there been that many buds. “That one,” Elden points at a particularly full-looking bud. “Why is it so big? It’s bigger than the others.”

“I don’t know,” I whisper, scooting closer. “Isn’t it mysterious?”

“You don’t think it’s weird?” he asks.

“I think it’s magical,” I beam.

Elden looks at me for a moment, then a smile curls his lips, but he doesn’t say anything. I take his hand, pulling him towards my bed. “It’s late,” I say. “You are staying, aren’t you?”

“Is that okay?”

“Of course.”

I’m already in my nightgown, so I’m set. Elden has also brought his pajama pants and swiftly changes into them, while I sneak back under my covers, waiting for Elden to join me. His body feels so warm against mine, soft tingles erupting whenever our arms brush against each other.

Elden lies on his back, looking up at the ceiling. “Sometimes I want to see the world like you do,” he admits.

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“You see magic everywhere,” he says. “You see the good in everything.”

“And you don’t?”

“I only do when you remind me to,” he says.

I smile. “That counts.”

“I wonder what it is you are seeing when you look at a flower or an animal, or at another person. The light you see, the magic.”

I’m surprised by his words. It’s the first time he’s said something like this, and the first time I realize that it might be true. There is something different about me, something I see that others can’t. As a child, I hated to be different, but with Elden and Jace, I learned that it doesn’t matter. “Do you think it’s bad that I’m different?”

“No,” he says. “I think it’s beautiful the way you are.”

“Elden,” I turn to the side to look at him. “You love me, don’t you?”

“You know the answer to that,” he mutters, looking flustered. “Besides, we are mates.”

“Yes, but I want you to like me even if we weren’t mates,” I claim.

He groans.

I snuggle closer. “Come on.”

He brushes his hands over his face. “Of course, I love you,” he mutters. “I told you already.”

“I can’t wait for when we are eighteen,” I beam, smiling when he turns his head to kiss me gently, and feeling more light tingles on our skin. “When we are eighteen, we will feel the full mate bond.”

With Elden next to me, I doze off into a comforting sleep. I always do when he is with me, which is why it doesn’t surprise me when it happens again tonight.

I wake up to the moonlight shining above me, a light warm breeze around me and the soft sound of water in the distance.

I’m here again! I jump up to my feet, happily eyeing the beautiful rose garden around me. These roses are so beautiful, I love them. Maybe one day I will have a rose garden, too. The rustling of leaves pulls me out of my awe, and I turn around, opening my arms. Celeste breaks through the bushes, her beautiful silver fur shining under the moonlight.

Here you are, I say, cuddling her.

She is a beautiful, majestic wolf, and rather big for a female lycan. I’ve seen the female warriors in Silverlake, and Celeste is definitely bigger than they are. Female pack members weren’t allowed to become warriors at first, but since the elders arrived that rule has changed, even more so when Emilia was suddenly here.

I know it makes Celeste proud that she is stronger than them.

They are here too, Celeste grumbles, glaring when one of the beings of light settles down on her snout. Tell it to go away.

I laugh. Come on, don’t be grumpy and enjoy the moment.

Celeste has nothing to say against that. She might hide it sometimes, but she enjoys our little meetings as much as I do. Side by side, we walk through the garden, looking at everything. The roses are still blooming, although it’s night. I don’t know where we are, where my dream takes me to, I just know it’s always the same magical place. It’s a place I can meet Celeste at, where the roses bloom when they shouldn’t, and a place where I can hear water, although there is no stream around. I look down at my arms, noting how I seem to be illuminated. It’s not clear if I’m glowing from inside, or if something is on my skin that makes it glow.

This is also the place where I always meet her .

Celeste dashes ahead, and I follow her, laughing when we finally reach the beautiful building with its white stone walls. At the stairs, an elegant woman is waiting. She is the same who appeared to me when Luna Carolina died, and when I met Celeste for the first time.

I’m so happy to see you two, she says, opening her arms to hug me, before kneeling down and tousling Celeste’s fur. You are both getting more beautiful, and stronger daily.

They will be so surprised when I shift, I say. Right, Celeste?

Celeste tilts her beautiful, majestic head and looks at the woman in front of us, before turning to me. We should only shift in front of those we trust, Celeste finally says.

Why? I ask, surprised.

I don’t know, Celeste admits. It’s a feeling. She turns to the woman. Am I wrong?

No, you are right. The woman says with a gentle smile, taking a few steps away from the building and sitting down on the grass. She pats the area next to her, and I sit down; Celeste lays down, resting her head in my lap. The woman takes my hand gently. I won’t tell you what to do, no one can ever order you to do something against your will. But Celeste is a powerful lycan, and sometimes it’s better not to reveal to the world who you are.

I try to let her words sink in. If she thinks Celeste is safer when I only shift in front of Elden and others I trust, then I will do that. It’s enough for me when Elden sees me, and when Regis has his counterpart. Won’t it be difficult for my work as luna if I don’t shift a lot?

The woman laughs. You and Celeste don’t need to shift to be powerful. You will soon see.

I understand, I say, although I have no idea what she is talking about. It must be connected to my 18 th birthday—as usual.

Tell me, the woman says. How was your day?

Oh! I beam. Something wonderful happened! Elden said he loves me.

How often do you want to repeat that story, Celeste grumbles.

Don’t worry, I pat her head. I’m sure once they meet you, they will love you too. Regis, in particular!

At that, Celeste perks up. I hope you are right.

The woman just chuckles. I’m glad he makes you happy, she says. That’s why he was picked for you, and you for him.

I stay quiet, nodding at her words and smiling, while thinking about Elden. We chat for a bit longer, until I feel my body getting heavier, a sign that I’m either going to wake up soon or being dragged into a deeper sleep that won’t allow me to stay here.

It seems you have to leave, the woman says, while brushing over my hair. She pats Celeste’s fur, smiling at both of us.

Can’t you tell us who you are? I blurt out. I’ve asked her so often now, and she always rebuffs my question. Please, anything. I don’t even know your name.

My name? She tilts her head, sighing slightly while she and the garden start to disappear. Before she can disappear completely, she opens her mouth again. On your birthday, I will visit you and tell you who I am. My name included.

You promise? I manage to ask before I feel myself dragged back to sleep.

In the distance I can hear her voice. I promise.