Chapter 4

"Lexi!"

"Chesca! How are you, Sis?" The women embraced and began talking a thousand words a minute while Ariella trailed in behind.

"Hey, Aunt Ches. Where's Isaiah?" The teenager instantly looked for the baby, and Chesca loved how good she was with children. Emerald ran up to give her a hug, and even little Isaiah reached up his arms for her.

They settled down in the living room, and Lexi began asking questions about the pregnancy and carefully feeling her abdomen. Ever since losing her own baby, Lexi had made it her mission to ensure no other shewolf went through the same thing she had. Even though they had a couple pack doctors, Lexi developed the special touch and empathy of a midwife that calmed the expectant mothers. Chesca especially enjoyed having her friend alongside her for each step of her pregnancies. Lexi had never grown bitter or despondent in grief over her loss, but had somehow healed with the help of her mate and adopted daughter Ariella.

It wasn't long before it was lunch time, and the mothers prepared it together while the children played. Soon Savannah came bursting through the front door, throwing herself down on the couch dramatically and groaning.

"I nearly died!"

"Why, what happened this time?" Chesca rolled her eyes at Lexi and shared a smile.

"Justin challenged me to do a hundred push ups. A hundred! Do you know how many that is? And he said he'd let me do the girly ones, but there was NO WAY I wanted to look like a sissy. Now my arms are killing me. I will be the Alpha one day, so I have to be big and strong," she sat up and spoke excitedly, her skinny arms waving in big gestures. "But I think Justin is trying to kill me before then so he can be Alpha!"

Savannah finished her story with a grimace and flopped back down, throwing a hand over her face.

"Don't be so dramatic. Justin is a nice boy. When I met him last week, he even kissed the back of my hand," Ariella tried soothing the exhausted girl, yet she shared a knowing smile with the older shewolves.

"That doesn't make him nice. It's actually the opposite! He was just trying to prove to the other boys that he could talk to a pretty girl. I heard them talking about it later on behind the meeting house. So I walked up to them and said, 'What about me? You don't think I'm pretty?' Justin and Cale just laughed so I pushed them down in the mud. Both of them! Now that is some pretty good Alpha stuff if I can beat both of them!" Savannah grinned and hugged her knees to her chest, looking anything like an Alpha with her light brown hair in messy pigtails, her shins bruised and knees scraped from playing outside, and her eyes brightly glowing with the adventures of childhood enthusiasm.

The world would eat up an Alpha like her.

Chesca loved her eldest daughter, wondering if she'd ever grow up but at the same time never wanting her to lose her exuberance and sweet innocence.

"Why don't we draw some pictures until lunch is ready," Ariella suggested and pulled out her colourful pencils.

"Is this your art book? Can I look at it?" Emerald picked up the treasured book with gilt designs on the cover, and began flipping through before Ariella flung out her arms and gracefully extracted the book from Emerald's little fingers and prying eyes. "Maybe just one picture. But this is like my diary and I don't let just anyone look at it."

The two girls huddled up next to Ariella on the couch, and waited expectantly as she chose a picture. Everyone knew Ariella liked to draw and write poetry in her art book, and though most of it was fantastical images of places and beings, it was still beautiful, the tiny bit she shared with her friends and family.

"Oooh what is that?" Emerald pointed to a page.

"That is something you never want to meet, especially in your nightmares."

"It looks like a wolf, but with horns?" Savannah tilted her head sideways to inspect it from another angle.

"And what's on his tail? It looks like a kite," Emerald observed.

"His teeth are so big, they could eat three Justins in only a minute!"

This thought made the future Alpha grin.

"And what are those black things on his back? They look like wings. Is he a bird? Does he want to fly away like a baby sparrow?" Emerald started flapping her hands and gazing at the ceiling dreamily.

"I know! It looks like a demon," Savannah clicked her fingers and commented with a little too much excitement.

This made Ariella shut the book abruptly. "What do you know of demons? Who said they even exist?"

"Well, Justin told me a story once—"

"Cale said we shouldn't believe in demons!" Emerald interjected quickly.

"And why is that?" Her older sister raised her eyebrow and put a hand on her hip, daring her little sister to contradict her and ruin her good story.

"He said, if we believed in them, they would visit us at night, and climb in through our window and drag us back out by our ankles—"

"Nonsense. Cale is just a silly little boy—"

"He is not!"

"Is too! I bet Justin is way smarter and could beat him—"

"Justin is a mean pig! And I wish a demon would—"

"Savannah! Emerald!" Chesca interrupted her two girls and the argument that would surely escalate. They loved each other, but sometimes their strong wills clashed and they'd both end up screaming until Savannah pulled her Alpha card. She never intended to be mean to her sister, but sometimes Emerald just didn't have the respect for her older sister. "That's enough talk about scary things and silly boys. Why don't you girls run along and wash your hands before lunch. You don't want to miss out on eating and politely visiting with Lexi and Ariella before they need to head home, right?"

They both sighed and shut their mouths, glaring at each other a moment before one laughed and the other giggled. Wrapping their arms around each other, the fight ended and they skipped off upstairs hand in hand with little Isaiah trailing behind.

"I don't think so, little man," Ariella leapt up and grabbed him before he could go anywhere.

Chesca smiled at the young woman who had babysat him enough times to know he'd end up following the girls no matter what they got up to. Climbing trees or wading through mud or riding bikes at breakneck speed, he would try to keep up as fast as his chubby legs would allow, usually resulting in bruised shins or a bump on the head. "You can stay right here and colour me a picture, okay?" Ariella sat him on her lap and opened her book to a fresh page, handing him a colourful crayon from her case.

For the next hour, the best friends chatted and ate and caught up on news while their babies kept each other company, Isaiah giggling every now and then when Ariella blew on his tummy or tickled his toes, and the girls sharing stories of their friends that made everyone laugh. These afternoons warmed Chesca's heart, and made her almost forget all the pain and heartbreak from the past. Her present was so beautiful, and her future was so much brighter, that there was no time to dwell on past pain. Learn from mistakes, use them to make you stronger, then move on and become the person your loved ones needed you to be. That's what she had learnt and that's what she lived.

___🌺___

For the whole walk home, I couldn't take my mind off one thing.

He looks like a demon.

Is that what the wolf thought he was? Or wanted to be? I've never seen a demon before to compare what he looked like, but maybe I have.

Mom let us walk slowly instead of jogging home like usual, as I am still recovering from my crazy and dangerous adventure last night. My body still aches in places, but I am nearly all better. I dare not limp or let on on that my ankle hurt more than I admitted. Mom would surely ground me for a week, then I'd be back at square one. I'd be itching even more to explore that part of the forest where I saw that thing.

I know he was just a normal wolf, perhaps a powerful one, but I had seen something else, hadn't I? The Alpha's girls even pointed out just how similar he was to those myths that people talk about only at Fire Nights to scare their children.

No one really saw demons, the spirits that roamed around us in an invisible plane called the Interealm. None of that really existed, or so the smart wolves believed.

So what had I seen? What had prodded me to take that path down the forest I'd never been into before? Why do I feel I missed something when I ran away from the horrible wolf?

"You'd be happy to do that, wouldn't you Ariella?"

My thoughts are snapped into the present as my Mom asks me a question. I have no idea what she had been saying so I just nod my head, "Sure," and am left wondering what I just signed up to.

I let her keep chatting, as I nod and hm-mm in the appropriate places. I often get lost in my own mind, and I don't care if people call me dreamy, aloof, weird, or absent-minded. I gave up caring what people thought long ago. My mind and what I can see is so much more fascinating. Which is why I'm going to inspect the northern border the first chance I get for the mysterious wolf who still snarls at me in my memory.

When we reach home, the beautiful little cottage that is tucked on the side of a hill and overlooking a forested valley, the sun is nearly setting and my feet are weary. I help Mom prepare dinner before Dad gets home, using vegetables and herbs from our garden out back. As I'm restocking the fireplace with chopped wood, I watch from the corner of my eye my mom and dad hugging and talking quietly. I smile to myself. If anyone wanted to see a true fairytale romance, it would have to be those two.

They've been through so much together, and have stood by and continue to support each other. Even though they have never been able to have a pup together, it hasn't driven them apart but rather strengthened their bond. The love I see glowing in their eyes is something I can only hope I'll find one day with a mate of my own.

Dinner is relaxing and usual, as beeswax candles cast a rosy glow over the atmosphere and conversation, but I am still unsettled. I can't seem to shake an uneasy feeling that someone or something is calling me, waiting for me to follow and uncover some sort of information.

Maybe I'm imagining it, I wonder as I brush out my hair before bed. But why does that leave me feeling afraid? Maybe my wild imagination is finally catching up with me, I consider as I crawl into bed after kissing my parents goodnight.

But the noise I hear later when the rest of the night is black and silent, has me bolting up in bed.

I watch with dread as my window slides open by invisible hands, and a dark silhouette of a head appears in the open space. 

"Pssst! Want to have some fun?"