Coming Herte
Insomnia is a great company to griet. Like two old friends unable to part, they mingle with each other, never letting the other go completely.
“Couldn’t sleep” My mentor is sitting by the fireplace that holds no fire, with a cup of tea in her hand, looking at me with caring eyes.
“No I couldn’t sleep. Big day today.” I can’t even disguise my sadness. “Are you all packed up? Do you have everything?” Her voice cracks as well. Mentor and student at first, but once my training was completed, we became good friends.
“Rya, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” I wish I could believe that
“It’s going to be okay.” I say it out loud over and over again, trying to fool myself.
“I just need to thank you for everything you’ve done for me. Lappreciate all your teaching, but especially your kindness when I needed it the most.” Standing up, she walks toward me, opening up her arms so I am pressed against her ample chest, cheeks rubbing together.
“You’re going to be great, my best student I have ever had the privilege to teach. You’re a beautiful female inside and out. Remember that.” She wipes away my tears as I try to control my breathing like she taught me
“I nood to go. It’s a long drive. Thank you again.” Walking out of the house we shared for the last four years is so hard. This has been my fantasy land, protecting me from a life I am not forced to go back to.
In the rearview mirror, I see her waving in the open doorway. I give a little wave as I pull out. I start to drive toward what gives me my nightmares at night.
Pulling up to the pack house,I need to sit in the car to gather my wits. I need to check in, get the keys to my new home. The Luna felt it’s better if I just take over the old midwife’s house, seeing as it’s empty now.
The day the phone rang was like any y other day for me, a birth in the early morning hours that went well for both mother and pup. I was just coming out of the shower when I picked up the phone. It was the Alpha. I almost dropped the phone.
You’re needed back here. That’s all he said to me before the Luna took over the conversation, telling me the midwife has passed back to the moon. How I need to come home, I knew this was inevitable. I just thought I would have more time. 1 haven’t seen my father in four years. My mother and sisters have visited once, but there was an awkwardness to us that never existed before. My mother wanted to visit me more, but I just pretended that was too busy, that thad lots of work, that it is impossible for me to get away
As soon as I open the door, his scent hats me hard, so hard that I need to go back inside my car and close the door. 1 hold the steering wheel, gripping it so tightly my knuckles are white. I wasn’t prepared for it. Thaven’t even seen him yet, and I’m reduced to immobility. I stay like this for a few minutes, or ten, I’m not sure. I try to give myself a talking to, scolding my own reactions to something that is so natural like breathing
How do you tell yoursell not to breathe?
Unclenching one hand, then the other, I wipe sweary palms on my shorts. The car is starting to heat up with the sun’s hot rays beating down on the metal. Big breath In I open the door, making my shaky legs take me toward the front door. I lock, waiting for it to open. The Luma greets me with a smile on her face. Imile a decaying smile back
“Look at you, Rya.” She lets her eyes roll over my body. “You have grown into a beautiful female.” She presses her cheek against mine in welcoming. I’m not the small juvenile I once was. I’m a full–grown female woll
few years.
“Your eyes, Rya, stunning” Glacier blue, my greatest asset as I was told once. Almost the color of a blue moon that only comes around every “Thank you.” His scent has tentacles that wrap around my body, seducing me with something that I sometimes dream about. It’s extremely hard to concentrate on anything she tells me. Her mouth as moving, smiling I just nod my head, pretending she holds my eyes
walks me inside slightly; her office is the first door to the right. Isit in the chair across from her, and she pushes an envelope toward me
Book Chapter
“Kees. One set is to the house, and the second set is to the clinic. You’ll be working alongside the doctor until he feels you’re okay to be on your own She has her hands folded on top of her desk.
Rya, is sorry it has to be this way.“I look into her eyes, she appears sad, but looking around her office, I see pictures of her immediate family, all smiles for the camera. She’s not sorry. I can’t look at him for too long. My eyes will start to water.
“Thank you, Luna Catherine, for the opportunity to serve the pack.” I keep it extremely formal, back straight in my chair, hands on my lap, head bowed in submission.
The office door opens. “Cathy, look at these. Arm’t they so cute?” Kennedy, by the first glimpse of her the full–grown female, standing in the open doorway, her reddish hur wish glints of copper and rust from the sun shining; on her through the open blinds. Her freckles are just a shade darker than her suntanned skin. Eyes are brown, not a good feature. Her neck holds the red angry marks of a male who claims a female who isn’t his. That, at least, gives me some satisfaction that she cannot hold his mark no matter how much be tries. The moon doesn’t allow impostors to hold claims from another. It must cause her pain to have his mark, the mom’s punishment, Looking away at my feet,I keep my head bowed, not saying a word.
“Oh, I didn’t know you had company, Cathy.” Lie one. Clasping my hands more firmly together, I try to keep the fur that wants to raise along the ridge of
my spine down
“Rya?” The way she say
ays my name, и
, it’s like she’s surprised to see me. Lir two. She had to have known I was coming today
“Hello, Kennedy,” I’ve practiced the voice in front of the mirror so many times, it comes out naturally, devoid of any emotion. It’s held flat in the air. I dan’t make eye contact, it’s better for me this way. I keep my head bowed down to the future Luna of the pack in a show of respect that is expected of me,
“Hello, Rya “Her voice cannot hold her emotions in. It’s slightly shaky, like the way my body feels at the moment. She smells just like him. Bile wants to rise up. I force it down.
Standing, I bow slightly to the both of them.
“Thank you, Luna Catherine, I should be going.” Taking the envelope from the table,I walk out, not breathing in until I’m outside.
The alpha is leaning on the driver’s side door, waiting for me. I don’t focus on what’s in front of me, the sensation of being watched has the hair on the back of my neck raising Heat, hot burning sensual fire from the spot that holds his attention, my back blazing with warmth his sight moving down my back, over my ass, caressing my legs, back up my body…until I feel it no more. It reminds me of having a suntan, my skin keeping all the warmth I felt from his eyes.
“Rya, It’s good to see you‘
“Thank you, Alpha. It’s good to be home.” Monotone. That’s how I keep it. No need to show inflection. I can be who they want me to be. I can be nothing but a ghost floating on the outskirts of the pack. This is not the life I pictured for myself so long ago, while still a small pup being rocked to sleep by my
“We won’t have any trouble, right, Rya?” He waits for my reply. He doesn’t have to wait long, I reply instantly without a second thought. “No, Alpha, no trouble. I’ve learned my lesson. I respect his choice.” I keep my head bowed, tail tucked under
It’s as if I’m the mistress, hell–bent on destroying their made–up bond. The only consolation is that they can’t broed; only true mates are blessed with the moon’s gift of pups.
“Rya, I’m sorry about all this. I don’t understand his choice, but it’s his to make, no matter how wrong it is. Maybe one day
“It’s all night. I really don’t want to talk about it. What is done is done. I’ve moved on.” Still not meeting the Alpha’s eyes, I open my door, getting in before more can be sold.
I know exactly where I’m going as I pull away from the pack house to the little cottage on the curve of the lake. Not far away from the hustle and bustle of the pack house, but far enough to give me the privacy I crave
