The Moon Pulls Me Towards Her

I. 4

"The Mark will fade."

I cling to Dr. Angels words, saying them like a prayer.

The Mark will fade. The Mark will fade. The Mark will fade.

It is probably not a Mate's mark, as that would require me to actually have met my mate in the fight, and to meet my mate, I would need to be eighteen years old. So, it is not a Mate's mark. It is a scar. And most scars fade over time, and so will this one.

The Mark will fade...

Two weeks after the incident at the hospital, I am in the small garden behind the kitchen of the Pack House digging up potatoes - and talking to them as well. I tell the plants, the herbs and the vegetables, all the things I can't tell the other wolves. Those things I would tell the Moon.

"The Mark has not begun to fade," I told the onions, "yet," I added as an afterthought. "Dr. Angelica Porter says that it will." Dr. Angelica Porter is wrong, though, but she doesn't know that. I don't know that, but I have a feeling that she might be. I have begun to sense things I didn't do before. I smell things, I hear things, I even heal a lot faster than before.

"I think that I might be about to change, Madam Potato," I tell. "I have begun to feel the symptoms of being a wolf, rather than a human." That, after all, is what those are. Symptoms of my being about to shift. It might have nothing to do with the scar.

Yes, I think, that is what it is. Not a Mark, a scar.

I am in the process of telling the thyme about the dinner the night before, to which the thyme contributed, when Maia comes into the garden. She sees me, smiles and walks in my direction, giving me the impression that our meeting is not by chance.

"Isabeal," she says. "Just the person I want to talk to."

"This is Maia," I tell the thyme. "I had not planned to speak with her today, but evidently she has planned to speak with me."

"Isa!" Maia, exclaims. Then she gives me a mischievous look.

"Do the herbs answer you?"

"Not the oregano," I say, "but the rosemary is good convarsation for a worried mind."

"Oh," says Maia. "Are you worried, Isa?"

"Nooo..." I lie. "Well, not for myself," I add, which is not entirely true either. Maia nods. Now, when time has put some distance to the shock and sorrow of Olivers death, the rumours have grown.

Some of the Pack members blame Bryan, for not fighting hard enough. Those people are fools, and everyone knows that except for themselves - and maybe Bryan too, as he has been making himself very scarce of late.

It is the wolves, who blame Alec that worries me. Not those who claim that Alec is behind the rouge attack, everyones know those for idiots as well. No, it is those wolves in the pack, who still see Alec as an outsider, an imposter, in their pack, who worries me. No one has dared say it to his face, as Alec is one of the Pack's best fighters, but there are those who wisper about Alec wanting to be Alfa, and wanting it enough to either challenge Maia for the title, or outright kill Alfa Lucas. I don't believe either. Alec would never harm Alfa Lucas, whom he views as his second father. And he would never hurt Maia, by taking away her inheritance and claiming it for himself - he would defend her to the end, if Alfa Lucas named his daughter the Alfa-She of the Pack.

But then, I remember Alec's voice in the hospital. His words, softly spoken, but threatening and holding such great power that everyone obeyed, even Maia. She has Alfa's blood, and yet, he is the stronger wolf. And werewolves choose their leader based on strength.

Maia evidently remembers that day in the hospital too, and it is in her mind as it is in mine, for she asks me about the Mark.

"It's fine," I say. And then, moved by something strange, I lie: "It has started to fade. If it continues fading at the same speed as it has lately, it'll be gone by the next full moon."

"Good," Maia says.

She tries to smile reassuringly, but it is not convincing. She is pale, and her eyes are looking at something far away and possibly in her own mind. A thought suddently appears in my mind, and maybe it is the one that troubles Maia too.

Can Maia even be an Alfa-She now? She bend her head to Alec, as one bends to one's Alfa.

"Maia?" I begin. I don't get further.

"I have just realised that I don't like rosemary." Se says, snapping out of her own thoughts.

"It's all right," I say. "You are tired, and worried too. There is no need to apologize. Maybe you should get some sleep, though."

This time the smile is real, but then her expression is replaced by one of uncertainty.

"I... eh..." Maia begins. "We're a team, right?" She says.

"We are," I agree. "You and me and Alec."

"Which means that we've got each other's backs. That we trust each other."

"Yes." I say, in the confirmative. Then why do you lie to her about the Mark?

"And we are going to face this together?"

"We are going to face this together."

She hugs me.

"You are a wonderful sister, Isa." She says, and then she leaves me in the garden. And I am left with a feeling that Maia is hiding something, just like I am. Something definitely has happened to her of late. It is not Oliver death that troubles her today, though I know that she still mourns him. And Alec using the Voice... she hasn't mentioned it, and I have spoken to her several times since the incident, and she has not seemed so distraught before.

Now she seems fragile. This is something new.

You see, Moon. This is a huge mess.

Please, let Maia heal. Let me heal, let the Mark fade. Let the Mark fade...