15. Monica

15

MONICA

" W hat the hell…?"

I looked around me in sheer wonderment, at the witch who stood in front of me, Raul was on my right. We were in a wide hallway that had torches in golden cups along the walls. Shadows from the flames danced across the oak floor.

"I won't be long," Helena announced as a plume of red smoke shot down over her head. Just like that, she disappeared, making my heart plunge into even deeper confusion.

"I suppose you know more about this than I do," I addressed Raul. My voice was riddled with frustration.

He didn't look any less frustrated than I was. He half-shook his head, half-shrugged, then sighed.

"All I know is that this used to be my grandpa's sanctuary," he said. "Which is a fact that I found out last week. I always knew he had a lot of secrets, but it seems there were a ton that he either didn't want his family to know about or that they didn't want to know. Like his relationship with Helena."

"That's another thing that doesn't add up." I pointed out. "How old is she? Thirty? Thirty-five? She can't be more than forty."

"Monica, she's a witch," Raul repeated the fact as if it wasn't already known to me. "She's been using spells to stay young, but Helena's not the problem. My pack is."

When he said the word "pack" there was a rough growl to his voice and his eyes flashed with what I could only define as murderous intent. He balled his hands into fists and his lips curled back far enough to reveal his canines.

"Okay. Let's focus on that," I suggested. "What can you do to ensure your survival? Or, more importantly, both of ours?"

"The same thing I've been doing since my early twenties," his response was swift and certain. "Fight. The night you found me outside your house I'd just fought those two wolves you saw tonight."

And look how you fared with that. I thought but didn't say. I may not know much about shifters, but he was a man, and no man wanted his masculinity questioned. It was clear to me that this wasn't the kind of problem you could tackle head-on.

"I understand that, but don't you think you should do something more…" I paused, thinking of ways to phrase it properly. "Final?"

His eyes widened with surprise and the snarl faded. He grimaced but still didn't speak. My heart thumped hard in my chest as I waited for his answer. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to give me one. Once more there was a red plume of smoke that sprang up from the floor. As it cleared, I saw the witch first then I noticed two other familiar figures on either side of her.

"What?" I asked, surprise raising my voice an octave.

Erica and Stacy both looked as bewildered as I felt.

"She wasn't lying…" Erica muttered, letting go of Helena's hand. "Girl, what are you doing here? What is this place?"

"I don't know but I am a sucker for medieval castles," Stacy exclaimed as she took a step closer to the nearest golden cup and ran her fingers along the sconce.

"Follow me, ladies," Helena urged, gesturing them towards her.

She couldn't have timed her intervention any better. I was too frustrated and too confused to have the will to even try to explain anything to them. I was deep into struggling to fathom this dynamic between Raul and me, then add in the witch Helena on top of that. And now my friends too? How could I talk to my friends about things I was having such a hard time understanding? Helena led them down the hall and out of sight, leaving Raul and me alone.

"Final, huh?" Raul mused, ignoring the arrival of my friends as he pursed his lips. He shook his head. "I've thought about it."

"And?" I asked.

His eyes flashed and his lips curled back once again.

"I'm not afraid of my Alpha or his little bitch," he says with certainty. "But the stakes are too high. If I lose… once I'm dead, they'll go after my family. There'd be nothing to hold them back. In the best-case scenario for them, they flee Dawson. But we love that place. It's been our home for generations and leaving it isn't something any of us want. And the worst-case scenario? They are all killed."

It was clear that he had thought this through. I couldn't even pretend to know what the odds were against him. The night I found him, the wounds were serious enough that he should have been dead. But something about the entire situation had my hackles up and I had never been one to back down from a fight.

"Let me get this straight," I said. "You're already at war with your pack's leaders. You live in turmoil, and yet, you don't want to escalate things because you might lose? It sounds to me like the fight is already happening, whether you want it or not. I don't understand your reasoning."

"That makes two of us," Helena's voice resounded through the hallway as she rejoined us. "Your friends are nice and cozy downstairs. Raul…" She paused, reaching into her cloak. "The other day, I warned you about a great peril. Take a good look at this," she said, revealing a black orb that she held in the palm of her hand.

The flickering light of the sconces reflected off its surface. She tapped it to the top of her staff with a flourish and it sat there as if somehow mounted to it. The orb started to spin, then began to sparkle and finally turned a soft, greenish shade.

As it spun, the interior of the orb showed a home fade into view. It was an exterior view of a tall cabin. On the front porch were four big men, all of whom were laughing hard when the front door was kicked open. Two others emerged dragging out a blonde girl, curls of her hair cascading past her shoulders. Thrashing, she shouted and called them names, like "assholes" and "motherfuckers."

"Three down, one to go," The one clutching her left wrist said with a smirk. He shoved her against the wall.

"Nora!" Raul shouted. He banged his hand into his forehead, looking at Helena. "Where is she? I have to go to her."

"Who's Nora?" I asked, confused.

"My sister," he growled.

"Yes, ," Helena spoke her voice but a whisper. "Her fate is a direct result of what you'll see next."

Finishing her sentence, the witch tapped her staff onto the orb for the second time. Nora and the shapes of everyone inside of it blurred into a sea of gray, white, and green, then the ball spun again. A gentle shade of blue dominated the glass, revealing a rather picturesque sight. It was the bank of a tranquil lake. There were large footprints of wolves all over in the muddy soil.

As the vision coalesced, I recognized Raul's wolf's brown fur and the other wolf was reddish, it was the one we had encountered earlier. Raul seemed to have his opponent overpowered, he had him pinned down with his teeth sunk into the other wolf's neck. Agonized cries of pain mixed with fear filled the air.

The pinned wolf was desperately scratching and clawing with his rear legs to try and kick Raul off of him. His massive paws smashed into Raul's haunches to no avail. Raul was going for the kill. My heart raced watching it happen. It was exactly what I had suggested to him. Was this because of me?

Suddenly there was a symphony of yips and tremendous snarls that drowned out the noise from the two wolves' fight. The scene expanded and I saw five more massive wolves loping along the bank. They were led by a black-and-white lupine and as a unit, they charged Raul.

The black-and-white hit first, but it wasn't enough to knock Raul off of the one he had pinned. I assumed, though I had no way to know, that the one on the ground was the Alpha. The black-and-white was leaner than the rest and something about its appearance made me think it must be female. Again, on an assumption she must be the ‘bitch' lieutenant that Raul had spoken of. I heard the impact of her body hitting Raul, but she didn't knock him off his arch-rival.

One after another the rest of the pack jumped onto Raul, trying to break his death grip on their Alpha. It was too much, no matter how strong Raul was, the numbers were on their side. There was nothing he could do about the combined momentum of the pack. As the last wolf leaped and hit, Raul rolled off the Alpha and came to a stop on his side lying in the mud. He was struggling to stand.

Raul was covered in mud, teeth exposed by pulled-back lips as a low, deadly growl filled the air. I knew what would be next. There was no doubt, and it terrified me. I did not want to see him be killed, but I couldn't tear my eyes away from it, but I knew what was coming.

"Alright, I've seen enough," Raul said in a low, soft voice hardly more than a whisper. He tore his gaze away from the orb as his Alpha leaped onto his wolf's chest. He clenched his eyes shut, balled his hands into fists, and was breathing heavily as if from hard exertion. For a moment I thought I saw his form shimmering as if he were about to shift, but then it stopped. He opened his eyes slowly, locking gazes with the witch. "Here's what I don't get. I've been fighting Brad and Kenny for years, and you never bothered showing up. Why did you take so long to show yourself? Why now?"

"Good questions," Helena praised with a wide smile and a nod of her head. "I'm afraid my answers are going to take an even bigger toll on your human friend, but she has to know."

Helena almost looked as if she regretted what she was about to say but I couldn't be sure with her. She had one hell of a poker face. I heaved a deep sigh. I couldn't imagine what else she could say that would shock me. I've already been exposed to shifters and witches, what more could she have in store to surprise me with?

"What is it this time? Flying bears? Talking elephants, maybe?"

"I like your sarcasm, Monica," Helena said in a calm tone with a tight smile. "You can rest assured that it's going to come in handy when you see what I mean. Come with me, you two."

I glanced up at Raul in bewilderment, but the look on his face made it clear that he was just as baffled as I was. Somehow, we had both been caught up in this, and neither of us had a clue about the situation or what was going on. All that seemed certain was that we were both in danger, extreme danger, and if this witch wasn't fooling us, Raul and his sister at the very least were going to be killed.

I can't let that happen. She knows more than she's saying and right now she at least seems to be on our side. Worst of all, I think she's our best hope of surviving what's coming.

The witch turned left down the hallway and led us into a large library. I couldn't keep myself from gasping in surprise. I had been a bookworm since childhood. Books had been my escape from the worries and pressures of my day-to-day life. Walking in, I immediately fell in love with the view of the hundreds upon hundreds of books.

Before I could head over to one of the bookcases though, something else caught my attention. On an ornate desk in front of me was a wide-open book. Time had left its deep-yellow mark on the pages, giving evidence of the book's age. As I approached, I saw there were beautiful, intricate, yet delicate calligraphic letters that graced the open pages. On the bottom right corner of the page, there was the stain of an ink spot.

"This tome was written by a very powerful witch, Penelope. She was quite likely the most powerful witch of her time and was blessed with the power of foresight. That means she could foresee the future, without using an orb like me. Her visions have proven over time to be incredibly accurate. Now, please read this."

Raul and I stood side-by-side in front of the book. I took pride in the fact that I was only a little distracted by him. Though I will not deny I was acutely aware of the slight contact of our arms and the heat that radiated off of him making me want to touch a lot more. Focus, Monica, read like you were told.

In the year 2021, on the snow moon, a human healer shall save ‘wise as a wolf' from the jaws of death. In turn, he will save the human healer on the very next day.

Double fives and triple twelves shall adorn her name. ‘Wise as a wolf' shall be smitten. His heart will yearn for her. His desire shall lead to greatness for him and his bloodline. No matter the brutal wars he will fight, he shall not forsake her.

For all her desire to be with him, the human healer shall face inner turmoil. Her heart and mind will clash within her, threatening to curse ‘wise as a wolf' to an untimely death. Yet despite this, he shall have no other as his mate.

"Snow moon is February's full moon," Raul broke his silence first. "And my name is Spanish for ‘wise as a wolf.'"

"Double fives and triple twelves. Monica Greenwell." I spoke in a trembling voice, waves of shock coursing through my system. "What does she mean by ‘his desire shall lead to greatness for him and his bloodline'? And what's that curse she's talking about?"

"There's only one way for shifters to achieve greatness," he said, turning his head left to face me. "By becoming the Alpha. In the event of an Alpha's death, if their reign is successful, leadership of the pack is naturally passed on to the next in line of their blood. So, if I'm Alpha when I die, Sammy would take over. That curse…"

He faltered, trailing off as his face twisted into an expression of concern. He dropped his eyes back to the book, clearly avoiding looking at me. Every muscle in his body was tense to the point that tension radiated off of him.

"What? What is the curse?" I ask, placing my hand on his forearm.

He shifts his gaze from the book to my hand. I would swear it felt as if his gaze was a heater, warming the skin of my hand and making my heart beat faster.

"We may be blessed with the powers of a wolf," he said, speaking so soft I leaned closer to hear him better, "but we have the wolf's one weakness too."

He stoped, leaving me hanging, waiting. I was distantly aware of Helena watching us but she was barely in my thoughts. Fear edging towards terror was building in my guts and made a swirling mix with the hormones that were flooding my body, made me want nothing more than to kiss him and so much more. To take away the pain he was feeling in the best way I knew how, by making him forget it all with pleasure. That was stupid though. Now was not the time nor was that the answer.

"Wh—" my throat was too dry to get the word out, I cleared it and tried again. "What is it?"

"The wolf in all of us has… a frail heart."

"Frail heart?"

I tried to wrap my head around what he meant. Wolves have what? A genetic tendency towards an a-fib heart? What did he mean "frail", cause that's not natural, but then none of this was. He nodded, still staring at my hand, then he raised his eyes to meet mine. The fire burning in his warmed my soul and added more fuel to the hormonal desire that was trying swamp all rationality.

"Yes," he said, as he slowly covered my hand with his free one. I swallowed. Hard. "Monica, when we choose our mate, our one, it's for life."

"I got news for you there Raul, monogamy is not unique to shifters," I said, trying to shield myself with sarcasm because in my heart I knew what he meant.

"No, Monica. Not like that. This is… more. If our mate dies, we wither and die a slow, painful death."

"Oh, my God…" I whispered, putting my fingers over my mouth. "You can't be serious."

"I'm afraid he is," Helena's feathery voice filled the room. "When Penelope merged man and wolf back in 1564, she didn't know about the wolf's weakness. She found out once she witnessed the deaths of her first creations. Men and women died from a mysterious illness, which sounded eerily similar to heart failure. She described that in her journal in detail. You can read it if you like."

"No, thank you," I rejected her proposal, my voice thick with emotion. I was light-headed. The room seemed to spin, and I could barely form a coherent thought. I pressed the palm of one of my hands to my forehead. "Are there, uh, any bedrooms in here? I think I need to lie down."