A War inside me

Chapter 4

Evelyn’s POV

I darted up, my heart racing, with my body covered in sweat. “It was just a memory,” I chanted to myself.

I could have stopped it. I smelled something awful. I wonder if that’s what the smell was—the smell of poison—and I completely ignored it. I should have sat with Mom. I should have knocked the wine out of her hands.

My door flung open. Mira gravitated towards me and wrapped me up in her arms. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Whatever it was, it was just a dream,” she said lowly. Nightmares are a common occurrence for me. The pack doctor said it was because my wolf is dormant and angry, so that’s her way of tormenting me. But this was different. This had nothing to do with her.

I shut out the world after that sadness and anger took over every fiber in my being.

Dad shut down as well and kept me locked inside the pack house since we never found out who was to blame for the death of my mother, although we always assumed the poison was meant for the queen.

Still, the case has remained open. Luckily, these last five years have felt so lonely without her. Thankfully, Mira has come into the picture, and she became our light in the house and has helped run the pack like the soon-to-be Luna she is meant to be. She takes great care of Kaden and also has been like a sister to me.

“Come on. How about we eat breakfast?” She says, breaking me out of my thoughts.

A small smile forms on my face. “Food isn’t always the answer,” I sniffle.

“No one can stay sad when they’re eating my famous pancakes with chocolate chips,” she laughs.

I wipe the tears away. “Fine, but you have to teach me how to make them.”

“Deal,” she says, sticking out her hand to shake my hand.

We race to the kitchen. She grabs her stuff and lays it out, and that’s how we spent our morning cooking and singing Christmas songs since it’s just about that time of year.

Kaden joined in after a while, and for a second, everything had been forgotten—Mom’s death and now Dad’s death. It all seemed to fade away.

*

*

We finished eating, our stomachs now full.

“So now to get down to business,” said Kaden.

Mira and I rolled our eyes.

“I know you both don’t want to hear it right now, but we do need all hands on deck with Father’s Passing. We have not only a funeral to plan but our ceremony for official Alpha and Luna of Stone Brook.”

I sighed. He’s right. There’s so much to plan.

“I’ll take the funeral. You guys focus on the ceremony,” Kaden and Mira looked at each other. “No, sis. It’s okay. We…”

I shook my head. “I want to. I think it would help me grieve.” They both exchanged looks, but they knew better than to argue with me. My mind was made up.

*

*

The next week was spent getting all the preparations for the events in place. I even picked out Dad’s casket in a beautiful gold color, just like Mom’s was when she was put to rest. The funeral was going to be held first, with only the family and the pack. The Alpha ceremony is when other neighboring packs would be in attendance to celebrate the new Alpha and Luna taking over.

Everything was coming out perfect. It was just the finishing touches when I got a link from Kaden. “Please set up extra seats for the King and Queen’s arrival. They are said to be coming to Dad’s funeral to pay their respects.” I groaned. I hadn’t accounted for the King and Queen’s arrival till the Alpha ceremony.

“Are the princes coming to?” I asked.

“No, they are touring the world on some mission.”

“Oh, thank the goddess. Perfect. I’ll get extra seating,” I told him. He chuckled in the link before closing it.

*

*

At the end of the day, I plopped myself on my bed, exhausted with the day. Who knew planning a funeral was so stressful?

“Evie!! Where are you?” Mira linked.

“In my room, why?”

“Come down. We have shopping to do.”

“Mira, my feet really hurt. I’m not in the mood to shop.”

“Oh, come on. I don’t trust anyone’s fashion sense but yours, please, Evie! It would mean so much to me,” she linked.

“Fine, give me 5 minutes.”

“Yay!!” She shouted in my mind.

I threw on my shoes and headed downstairs.

I saw Mira already by the door with a huge smile. “Let’s go,” she shouted, and I’m immediately pulled into our SUV.

I normally wouldn’t leave the pack house. Dad had really strict rules for me after Mother passed. I wasn’t allowed in stores nor school. He hired private teachers to homeschool me, and if there was ever an event, gowns were brought to me. He was afraid of losing me, and I was afraid of losing him, so we stuck together.

I gazed through the window. The pack territory looked so different since I’d last seen it. Trees had grown, flowers had bloomed, and I had missed all of it.

We pulled up to the town. The pack members were in a shopping frenzy since they too had our special event to attend. We walked into Maison Étoile, a*****e known for their ball gowns.

“Luna,” Wendy greeted. “And is this?” She said with wide eyes darting from me to Mira. “Evie,” she gasped.

“In the flesh,” I said awkwardly. Wendy is the mother of Ashley and May. They are fraternal twins and were my best friends before my mother’s passing.

“Well, I haven’t seen you since you were but a pup. Look at you. You’re so grown up and beautiful, ” she squealed, going in for a bear hug.

I laughed as she squeezed me.

“Mrs. Wendy—can’t breathe!”

Wendy chuckled. “Shh, let me love you. It’s been too long!”

“Fine,” I giggled. She took her time letting go of me, but when she finally did, I could see her slight watery eyes.

“And what do I owe this honor, to have the Luna and Ms.Evie here today?”

“We are in desperate need of dresses. We both need two. One for the funeral and one for the ceremony.”

Wendy’s eyes softened. “I’m so sorry, I know he was our Alpha but he was your dad. I hope you’re doing okay.”

I nodded once, not trusting the right words to come out of my mouth.

“Come back here in the private suite. We’ll get you guys taken care of.” She said, gesturing to the back room.

Immediately, swarms of gowns arrived. After trying on what felt like hundreds of gowns, we finally decided on 4 gowns. All the gowns were beautiful, but these stood out to us..