Anja

“Anja?” My little sister’s hushed, painful voice pulls me from thoughts of the past and my possible future.

I pull myself into a sitting position against the tree, dragging Dania with me and holding her close to me.

“I’m here, Dania.”

“I am so cold.” She’s crying again.

Ever since we left Kulumi, Dania has done nothing but cry and beg me to take her back to her father. She’s never had a mother, but Leopold never blamed Dania for Mother’s death. In fact, the King loved Dania so much more because she was the last link to his soulmate.

I know how hurt the King must be, and I know how much it’s killing me that my sister begs the way she does, but I can’t take her back. If I take her back, I’ll be torn apart.

The bears will rip me limb from limb because I mean nothing to any of them any longer. They don’t care that I’m out here fighting to survive like a wild beast. Dania will have just a few short years before she gets the same treatment as I got.

In all honesty, I can’t help but think that Dania would be better off at home. She’s safe there, even if only for a few more years.

Until they realize Dania is never going to transform, but by then, I’d be able to take care of her. My life will be sorted. I’ll be in a position to care for Dania the way she needs. I could go back for her. They may banish Dania, but I will find her.

I don’t know what to do for the best.

How could I have not known Dania wasn’t a shifter?

I have specific abilities that make me not like anyone else I know. I can sense a shifter and who they are, even when they’re masking it. I can heal anyone, no matter their injury or ailment. I can bend the elements to my will, though I was warned never to show this ability to anyone as a child.

Leopold believed unsavoury people would come looking for me to use my power against me. There are other things that I can also do, but I’ve always kept them to myself.

With all the things I’m capable of, and to this day, I don’t know all I can do; I never sensed anything but the bear within my sister.

Back home, Dania complained about being cold as much as everyone else. Not much at all. It’s only now that I think about it do I realize my aunt would rush my sister away when she said she was cold. The little things a human would do are now apparent to me because my sister would do them. That still doesn’t explain why I couldn’t sense it.

‘Why are you worrying about it, Anja? Nothing can change that now.’ Asha is right, but it doesn’t stop me from wondering.

“When can I go home, Anja?” Dania asks me every day, and every day I tell her, Soon.

How much longer can I keep this up?

How much longer will she last in this cold?

It’s winter out, and a tiny little girl shouldn’t be sleeping rough like this.

We have no home and no food. We’re living in the wild, any wild shifter could spot us, and I don’t know that I’d be able to fight them off.

I have to be able to protect my sister, but I can’t do that out here. She needs a warm bed, food, water, a bath, and all the comforts of home. I don’t know what to do.

“I want Daddy Bear.” Dania sobs.

I close my eyes and hold her tighter. 

Dania has no idea how much it hurts to hear her asking for her father. Since the moment Dania could talk, she called him Daddy Bear. She also called Brody Brother Bear and me Sister Bear. 

It made the King laugh, and he would hold Dania close to him with his eyes closed. All the while, I knew he was wishing Mother could have seen how her little girl was growing. 

Dania was everything to the King, but he hasn’t a damn clue of the reality of it all, and it’s killing me inside.

“Please, Anja. Please let me go home to my Daddy Bear. I miss him, and I need his hugs and kisses. I love you, Anja, but please let me go home.” She sobs harder.

A tear falls from my eye as I kiss her head. I want to protect Dania from what’s undoubtedly coming her way, but I have to put her first. She needs to be taken care of in a way I’m not able to right now. I have to take her home to her father.

I’ll keep an eye on her from afar, and I’ll keep her safe the best way I know-how. We’ll be together again soon. I know we will.

Until that day. . .

“It’s okay, Dania; I’ll take you back to Daddy now.”

I only hope I’m making the right decision.

I lifted Dania into my arms and ran the fifty miles back to what used to be my home. I have a lot more strength than I used to have, so carrying my sister that far was easy. It also didn’t take me long to reach my old home because I’m a lot faster these days.

I stood in the shadows, waiting to see if a Royal family member would turn up, meaning the Prince or the King himself. I hoped it wouldn’t take long before someone came out of the castle-style mansion; only then would I let Dania go. I had to make sure she was safe before I left.

Dania woke up after we’d been waiting for a little over an hour. The second she woke up, the King walked out of his front door. It was like she knew somehow that he was near.

I wondered for a moment just how I’d gotten away with keeping Dania from him for as long as I had. Anyone else and the pack would have found them in less than a day.

I don’t know who I am yet, but I know that I have powers beyond that of a simple shifter, and they’re growing stronger by the day. I was able to block the King and his pack from finding us, and I imagine he believes us to be dead.