My Alpha Lycan

Chapter 3

Rayna’s POV:

"The honey worked. I'm feeling so good now."

Carly was practically jumping up and down on her bed. I had come to check up on her after a couple of days. I'd come because I wanted to see her, but also because I had little else to do. I had painted the background gradient for the doe and fawn painting in the morning, so till the colors dried and were set, I had lots of time to kill. So, I decided to visit Carly.

"That's great," I said. "Then I think you can stop taking the syrup."

I repeated my words to Marilla, her mother, who gave me a couple of lemon cookies bundled in a small cloth as a gift of thanks, which I accepted with a smile. I had one on the way back, and seeing they were incredibly delicious, decided to wrap them back and savor them for a few days with my mother as well. As I passed by the butcher, I saw Marc there, handing over a dead wolverine to the butcher. Just before I turned away, he glanced over, so I had no choice but to give an acknowledgment. I waved to him without pausing my stride and smiled. He reciprocated my gesture, albeit with more enthusiasm.

I had arrived back on my street still too early for lunch in spite of my slow walk, kicking pebbles off the curb and greeting the people I knew. When I saw Thea, my neighbor, and friend, out in the small garden in front of her home, an involuntary grin rose up my lips and I walked to her. She was crouched on the soil, her hands bare and tending to some plants. At the sound of my footsteps, she raised her head, and her face broke into a wide smile. Thea had brilliant auburn hair, with freckles splayed across the bridge of her nose and under her chocolate-brown eyes, and a highly infectious smile.

"Rayna! It has been an eternity since I've seen you last! How have you been?" she asked, engulfing me in a bear hug, which I happily returned. I answered after I pulled back.

"I'm great. I've started a new painting. How about you?"

"I'm good as well," she said.

"How are your parents?" I asked delicately, lacing my words with worry and lowering my voice. Her smile slipped lightly, to be replaced with a sad one instead.

"They're the same," she said. "There is always so much tension in the room if we're all together, which is a rare thing in itself. Father is out most of the time and mother keeps to her room mostly. There was another breakout this morning, so I decided to spend time outside."

I gave her a reassuring side hug. "It will be all right, Thea. Don't worry too much."

She nodded, returning to her plants. "What are you planting?" I asked to diffuse the sour mood.

"Oh, these are some thulenia saplings I found by the forest side. They'll bloom beautifully in the winter," she said, her mood brightening up at once. "You can paint them after they bloom. I'm sure some rich snob will buy the painting."

We laughed and talked about how we would split the money from the thulenia painting, deciding upon getting ourselves some fancy boots for the winter.

"I've been eyeing those black ones in Quentlin's Leather shop. Of course, I never thought I'd be owning them, but it seems I can now," she said.

"Hold on, Thea. The flowers have to bloom first, then I have to paint them, and then we have to find a rich customer who'll pay us well enough."

"Yes, yes, but it gives me something to look forward to in the future," she said.

"Speaking of the future, and perhaps yours, I met Marc a couple of days ago," I said. I noticed the crimson flood her cheeks at the mention of his name. She suppressed a shy smile and pretended to keep working on planting the thulenias. I grinned. "I was in the forest, sketching a doe and her fawn, and he happened to be there too, trying to shoot down my muse."

She gave a small chuckle. "Did he succeed?"

"Fortunately, they escaped. He turned his arrow towards me then, because I had accidentally rustled the leaves of the bush I was sitting behind," I continued. Her head lifted, her eyebrows lifted up and a small smile played on her mouth. "I stood up and told it was me. I accompanied him back to the village."

"Oh, I wish I could run into him like that. Can I come with you next time you go into the forest?" she asked.

"Sure. But I don't think I'll be going any time soon. At least not as far into it as I did last time," I said.

"How far did you go? Rayna, you should be careful," she said, worry creeping into her voice at once.

"That's funny! Marc warned me about the same thing," I said, ignoring her question. "Don't worry, I'm not dumb enough to wander too much."

"Hopefully," she said. "That reminds me. Rayna, a mysterious stranger came to your house today, while you were out."

"What?"

"I think it was a man; he was tall and dressed in black with a hood over his head. I saw your mother welcoming him into your house. He left after a while, I'd say after a quarter-hour at least."

Who could it be? Where did he come from? What did he want? Or was it even a he? A million questions rose in my mind, some of which I posed to Thea, but her guesses were similar to mine, and they were just guesses.

"Did he come by horse?" I asked. It would have been pretty obvious, if he was from the outside, to have come by horse.

"I didn't see any nearby. Could it have been a villager, who wanted your mother's service in secret?" asked Thea. I hadn't thought of that. But it seemed unlikely. In our small village, there was only the count who was of importance. He had no enemy here and surely would require no service in secret.

"I don't know," I replied, unwilling to dispel the theory completely from my mind though.

"Wait, Rayna, what if he is a friend of your mother from her childhood? She wasn't born here, was she?"

"Yes, that might just be it," I replied. My mother wasn't born here, in the village. She didn't speak much of her past, but she'd told me that she'd once lived on the outskirts of a prominent city, barely making ends meet. She had had me then, and after a few years, when I'd been around three or four, she'd packed up and left with me to the forest where she'd wandered until she'd reached our village. I couldn't remember any of her descriptions of the forest. My mother's aunt had lived here, in the village, though she'd died a couple of years after my mother and I had settled here. My mother had learned healing from her aunt and carried on practicing it after her aunt had passed away.

"But he wouldn't have left so suddenly if he'd met her after all this while," said Thea, stirring my own suspicions about the whole matter.

"I'll ask Mum who he is. We'll get to the bottom of this mystery," I said, getting up. My stomach was grumbling, and I was hungry. Thea mirrored my movements, wiping her muddy hands on her grubby work skirt. We hugged again and with a final promise of telling her when I would be going to the forest again, I left.

The thick aroma of freshly baked bread hit my nose the moment I opened the door. I took off my shoes and went in, closing the door behind me. My mother was in the kitchen. She seemed to be in a better mood than she'd been the past few days. In fact, she was humming while she took the bread out of the oven with her gloved hands.

I broke the subject after lunch, just when we were having the last few mouthfuls of the pumpkin stew. "I visited Thea earlier," I started.

"Oh?" said my mother. "How is she doing?"

"She's well. She told me she saw a visitor visiting our home," I ventured. My eyes never left her, intent on catching the slightest of movements or behavior that would be out of the ordinary. But my mother being my mother; she would never give herself away like that.

"Yes," she said.

"Who was it?" I asked.

"He is an old acquaintance of mine," she said. So it was a he, though there had been little doubt about that.

"From the city you'd lived in?" I asked.

"It wasn't exactly a city I used to live in," she laughed.

"What did he want?"

"My, Rayna, where are all these questions springing from suddenly?" she said. That was suspicious in itself. First, the parchment, now the stranger. If I didn't have strange ominous feelings in my gut, I would have guessed we were invited to a ball, like those mystical fairy tales I'd read when I was younger.

"It's not like a stranger visits our home every day, Mum, so I just wanted to know," I said, easing myself back into the chair. I didn't want her to get uncomfortable. If she dodged the questions, there must be something. Something I couldn't get out of her mouth.

"It's all right, curiosity isn't wrong. You'll come to know things when the time is right," she said, with a serene smile. I didn't talk after that. What would I say to that? Ask her when the time would be right? I'd only get more scanty answers. So, I closed the topic, for now.

***

I'd never seen my mother as unhinged as I did on that night, a few days after the mysterious stranger had come. She'd been fine the whole day, but as dusk fell, she kept pacing up and down, and could no longer focus on anything. She tried knitting and gave it up after a couple of minutes. She spent a little time in the kitchen but prepared nothing. She restocked the grains and spices, muttering something under her breath all the while. But worst of all, she waved away my questions on her abnormal behavior.

"Mum, let's sleep," I said after a quick dinner where she suddenly fussed over me. She shook her head. I felt fear rise up in my stomach, the fear that had grown slowly over the day seeing my mother's state. It had something to do with the letter and the stranger; there was no doubt about that. Would he come again today? Was that why she was so nervous? Perhaps she didn't want me to meet him.

"I'm going to bed," I said. Maybe, once I left, she would feel more calm. But I was wrong.

"No, Rayna, you can't. It's tonight," she said.

"What is?"

She looked at me, stopping in her pacing, and with a sigh, came down to sit next to me on the couch. Turning to face me, her arms reached out, and she engulfed me in a tight hug.

"Mum, what happened?" I asked, returning her hug. I felt the lightest of a sob next to my ear, and my eyes widened. Never in my life had I seen, or heard for that matter, my mother cry. "It's okay," I said, my heart constricting painfully. What was my mother going through that made her cry?

When we drew apart, I could see a layer of tears coating her eyes. Seeing her, I gulped down my own tears. I had to be there for her, not bawl myself. She gave a small smile and walked away suddenly. Shortly after, she returned with some clothes. My clothes.

"What is–"

"Put these on, Rayna," she said, her voice stern and devoid of any indication that she was on the verge of tears. "Ask questions later."

I obeyed at once, confusion masking all other emotions. They were a pair of stockings, thick traveling trousers, an undershirt, a sweater, mittens, woolen socks, and a fur coat with a large hood. An attire to wear outside. I put them all on, my mother helping me with the socks, something she hadn't done since I'd been a little child.

She kept peeking outside the window and pacing back. When I was ready, she came to me with my leather boots, helping me put them on too. Then, she led me to the front door.

"Aren't you dressing?" I asked finally. But she ignored my question and instead embraced me again, but with more fierceness.

"I love you, daughter. Much more than you think," she said, her warm breath on my neck. I shivered.

"Tell me what's happening. Please!" I begged her, tears streaming down my cheeks. She drew back, holding me at arm's length. Her eyes were red too, and she had a smile on her face. One of sadness and pain.

"Rayna, you are not safe here. You must go into the forest," she said.

"But–"

"Go straight by Wren's cow shed, cross the creek, and run. Run like your life depends on it."

I stared at her. "Aren't you coming?"

"No, dear. You must go alone. I'll be safe, don't worry. They're only after you," she said, tucking a stray hair behind my ear.

"Who is?" I asked frantically.

"You'll get the answers soon, Rayna. When the time comes," she said. "Oh, I almost forgot!" And she ran into our bedroom and came out with a book. Her handbook of healing potions. She thrust it into my gloved hands.

"Something to remember me by," she said with a smile.

"Mum, what are you talking about?" I said loudly. She was surely out of her wits. This all had to be a joke.

"Just go, Rayna," she said, opening the door and practically pushing me out. With a final smile, she shut it and I heard her lock it.

I stood dumbfounded on the porch, the almost-winter wind blowing icily across my face. I put on my hood, tucking my hair inside it. My mother was the last person in the world to play such a cruel prank. So that meant it wasn't one. Tucking the handbook into the coat's pocket, I walked towards Wren's cow shed. Perhaps there would be some clue there. Maybe that mysterious stranger would be there, waiting for me, having planned this with my mother. No, what was I even thinking?

I arrived at the shed at last, and there was no one there. Standing by myself in the dark night, I felt a chill go down my spine. What if it was all true? What if I was in danger? My mother's words came back to me.

Run like your life depends on it.

I jumped out of my skin when I heard wolf howls in the distance. An irrational fear engulfed me and I ran into the forest at a speed I never had before.