Short Lived Freedom

Hazel

I laughed in amazed disbelief. The magic was perfect, my wings were hidden, and I was free, for a few hours anyway. Gera looked me over, the concern was still heavy in her yellow eyes. "Go on, Gera. Have some fun, spend a few hours not worrying about me. I'll see you soon." I shooed her away, before I hopped out from behind the tree and started walking toward the sidewalk. "I better not see you watching overhead, either." I called over my shoulder as my feet hit the pavement.

Pavement, I read a book about it once, interesting stuff, like stone you could spread. The buildings were shorter than the trees, but this was only a small town. I dreamed of going to a big city where there were buildings that touched the sky, skyscrapers sounded amazing, but this was pretty great too. I never stood in an open space like this before without trees encroaching on all sides. The cool air blew across my cheeks and the smells of the town crashed over me. I’d never felt so alive.

People walked around me in all different shapes and sizes, none of them were the one I hoped to see. It was amazing to see the variety in humans. Nymphs were all tall and slender with more or less the same shape. Nymphs and Fae were all a big extended family of magical beings. Different types of fae tended toward different coloring, but all wood nymphs had blonde hair and green eyes.

My eyebrows pushed together in concern as I realized how different my dress was from the clothing everyone else wore, the viny sandles on my feet were barely shoes. At least with my wings hidden, the fact I was different wasn't dangerous just attention grabbing. Some of the people even smiled at me. I smiled back and tried to act normal, from the looks some of the others gave me I didn't think I was doing the best job of it.

Thankfully, the center of town was a straight shot and I didn't have to spend any of my precious time asking for directions or finding a map. I saw something gleaming on the sidewalk and stopped to pick it up. Shoot! I didn't even think about money. How was I supposed to do anything I wanted without money? Four of the coins said twenty-five cents and the other two said ten. I didn't know much about human money, but I was sure this wouldn’t get me far.

I tucked it into my pocket with a regretful sigh and kept my eyes peeled on the sidewalk for more. By the time I made it to the bookstore I had two hundred twenty-five cents. I wasn't sure exactly what that added up to in dollars, but I thought it would be enough to buy myself at least one used book. The wooden sign over the door read "Edison's New and Used Books".

I was nearly salivating in my excitement as I pushed the door open and smelled the air filled with the aroma of books. I smiled at the old man behind the counter and waved. He gave me a hard look before returning his eyes to the book he read. I was used to people being upset to see me, so I didn’t think much of it.

I walked along the rows of shelves running my fingers along the spines, stunned at how many they had. Little signs stuck out in regular intervals indicating the types of books. I stopped at ‘Cooking’, and flipped through one of the books. I’d never seen anything like the confections pictured. I had to try human food.

 I barely contained my squeal of delight when I saw the section titled ‘Romance’. I picked up a brand new book with a big human man on the cover, he held a princess in his arms like he was about to give her a passionate kiss. My heart beat a bit more quickly as I opened it up to sniff the pages. I smiled at the wonderful smell of the new book, so different from the ones that came from the library, but lovely in its own way. I knew that one was far outside of my price range, but I flipped through the pages until I got to the more interesting bits.

I didn't have all that much time, so I put the book back and found a box on the ground marked ‘Used Romance’. I kneeled beside it and dug through them until I found a couple I liked. They were all marked as ".50", so I could get four whole books to bring back with me. I was so overjoyed I nearly pranced on my way up to the cash register. The old man looked up from his book, and gave me a hard stare with his steely gray eyes as he wrote the titles in his ledger. "You're not from around here." He spoke with an accusation in his voice.

"No, I'm not." I agreed. "Just visiting." My hand played nervously with my hair, as I hoped he wouldn’t question me further.

"Hmph" was his genius response. I paid him and left wishing him a nice day, even though he didn't have the same wish for me. That seemed like an odd interaction even for a human, but I only knew what I read in books and what the nymphs had to say. Maybe they were all jerks. It didn't matter to me, I was just happy to be free.

I only had one of the big coins with the word "quarter" left, but I still wanted to at least see the coffee shop in town. I had no idea how much the hot drink that gave the human’s energy would cost, but what was the harm in going to see? The worst thing that could happen was that I didn't have enough and left. I had been through far worse embarrassments, and I was still better off than I had been this morning. I couldn't wait to read my new books and maybe even see my witch friend again.

I walked into the coffee shop, and a mouthwatering scent filled my nose. I didn't have words to describe it, nymph food was exclusively derived from the forest and something told me there was little to nothing here that could be found near my tree. Glass cases were filled with little treats and morsels, my mouth popped open at the sheer number of them. 

The walls were white and big blackboards hung from the ceiling with pretty white writing. Many of the things they listed I didn't recognize, but I'd read about coffee plenty of times. It was two dollars for one cup. I looked at the quarter in my hand, sure that wasn't enough. I pouted slightly, I knew it wasn't going to happen, but part of me still hoped. 

I turned to leave when a familiar soul-shaking scent struck me, it was more intensely delicious than anything baking here. It was masculine and clean, like rushing water and crisp air. My stomach clenched with a delicious pain in response to it. My core heated, and my juices flowed, ruining my panties and wetting my thighs. A man standing across the room was staring at me, and I realized I recognized him, my wolf.

The tousled golden brown hair, the perfect planes of his face, the broad lips that looked like delectable pillows, he was definitely the wolf I saved that day in the woods seven years ago. He smelled just as good back then as he did today, but the power radiating off of him was much different than when he lay dying on the forest floor.

I helped him because it was in my nature as a healer, even though I feared the wolves. He was near death and something inside me couldn’t bear to leave him hurt. I left before he even woke, and I'd always wondered what might have happened if I stayed. It was a silly thought, why would he want me?

I didn't understand what was happening, but our eyes locked and it felt like our souls touched. I never saw his eyes when I healed him, but now I could see they were amber, warm, and golden, so similar to his hair. I felt myself melting into the swirling gold. When he spoke the word “mate” from across the crowded place the sound reached me like he spoke directly into my ear. I shivered in response.