Under the Blood Moon

Back to a new reality

Scarlet

Has it really only been 3 days? My mind is spinning as I dry myself off from our rather energetic shower. With my hands tangled in a towel rubbing my hair dry, I let my mind drift into thoughts of the past. I don’t remember this place at all, but I was only 3 when we left, so that isn’t all that unusual really, I suppose. Dad was with us for another 18 months after that. I remember him not being there anymore, but what do I really remember from him being around?

“Red?” I hear calling through my thoughts. I turn and smile at the gorgeous half-dressed man behind me. “Where’d you go there my love?” He asks with deep concern lining his face.

“Just trying to remember.” I murmur softly, I lift my eyes to his face again, smiling to show that it’s nothing terrible when I catch the sight of a small stuffed wolf on his shelf. “Mr Bark!” I yell pointing at the teddy. “Where did you get Mr Bark?” He’s so confused as he follows my finger to the shelf.

He heads to the shelf and picks up the wolf. “This guy?” he asks, “I’ve had him forever, he’s called Emerald though not Mr Bark”, he chuckles roughing the fur on the small plushies head. I shake my head vehemently, “No he’s Mr Bark, look.” I take the wolf, flipping him upside down to show him the tiny Daisy with an S embroidered on the paw. “Dad gave me him when I was tiny.” I sigh “Mum sewed this on his paw for me, she did it with all my teddies.”

“hmm” he softly exclaims. “How did he get here?”

“Let’s ask the mothers,” I exclaim and begin to dress in earnest, not letting go of the wolf until I have to. Once we are both dressed, Stefan takes my hand and we head downstairs to where our mothers are sat chatting over coffee.

I pop my head around the door to see if all is calm before we join the two. Mum beckons us to join them. Stefan’s mother looks a little flustered but a huge smile spreads across her face as we both step into the room. I spy a tiny, wicked glint in her eye as she teases her son about the lack of soundproofing in the house and fight against the blush flooding my face. My grip tightens around Mr Bark as I take a seat across from my mother, placing him in front of her on the coffee table.

Mum smiles and Cathy chuckles.

“Mr Bark” Mum says.

“Emerald” Cathy corrects her. “When you left this little man sulked for weeks, the only thing that calmed him was cuddling up with this little guy.” She looks at the two of us, her eyes soft and gleaming with unspilled tears.

Mum takes over. “You two met for the first time earlier that day”, Cathy squeezes her hand a little. “Unfortunately we hadn’t been able to spend a lot of time together for quite some time, and we simply bumped into each other at the market. I couldn’t stop to chat, I knew Cathy would talk me out of leaving, but when we finished packing up you came to me with Mr Bark and asked me to leave it for the little boy in the market.”

I am sat there a little aghast that I had met Stefan before, even briefly, and that he had made such an impact that I had been willing to leave him my favourite toy. Stefan squeezes my hand, looking deeply into my eyes when I turn to him. “Fate” he whispers. I nod and smile back, my heart feeling squeezed by the feelings rushing through my body.

Taking a moment or two to breathe, I centre myself before looking up at Mum’s face. “Why did we leave?” I ask.

“Let me answer that” Cathy interjects. Mum nods her face poised as though she’s about to hear the answers to her life’s greatest mystery.

“Life used to be very different here” she begins, “Wolves and witches shared the land but didn’t really integrate. We’d visit each other when there was some mutual benefit, but we were actively encouraged to stay separate.” The sadness in her eyes is overwhelming. “My family were seen as pretty progressive and when I made friends at school there was no pressure to stick to my ‘own kind’. So meeting Anne was not a big deal for me, and we did pretty much everything together. I went to coven events, and she joined me at the pack parties.” Mum is smiling at the memories.

“So when she met George, they didn’t really see each other as different, and their relationship blossomed on this equal footing.” Mum nods along. “We never realised that some of the elders and our parents weren’t actually all that happy with this. After we finished school, life went on as normal for some time and then Anne told us that she was pregnant. George was over the moon, and they started planning the wedding.”

“He was so happy that you were on the way”, Mum tells me.

“We all were”, Cathy smiles “As you know, Stefan, babies are becoming more and more rare for us as a species so to have a little one on the way was the ultimate blessing for the pack as far as we were concerned. What we didn’t know is that not everyone believed this.” She takes a deep breath before continuing.

“George’s parents, along with a number of other elders, didn’t believe that the baby was George’s.” Mum looks up, her face red with anger.

“I always suspected that they thought as much, but George would rush me out of the room when his parents were around, so I never knew for sure.” She says.

Cathy nods sadly “Yes, they didn’t believe that it was possible for the two species to breed to start with, and then their distrust and disrespect for the witches filled in the blanks for them.” She sighs deeply. “No one ever actually looked at the relationship the two of you had, or who you were as a person.” She wraps her arms around her friend and holds her to her for a moment before continuing.

“George was furious and fought with them all repeatedly, it was almost war between the family members for the full pregnancy, until the day you were born, the spitting image of George’s grandmother. Your birthmark helped seal the deal though.”

Stefan looks at me curiously “Birthmark?”

I nod, it’s in my hairline now, but it was quite prominent on my neck growing up, I scooch my hair up into a high ponytail and turn my back to him so that he can see.

“It’s so cool!” he gasps, tracing the outline with his fingertips “It looks just like the crescent moon and morning star!” his breath tickles my neck, stirring so many bad thoughts. I let my hair loose to stop the heat before I jump him in the living room. “mmhmm” I reply, words not with me at that moment.

“It’s a family birthmark.” Cathy interjects “the first born of the first born always carry it”

“So that explains why I was suddenly back in their good books again”. Mum says bluntly, she still looks angry.

“Yup” Cathy nods. “Unfortunately, their belief didn’t stretch to a second pregnancy, which is unheard of in wolves in the last 5 or 6 generations. This was all they needed to hear to try and convict you as an adulteress in their minds. They expected George to cast you out and keep Scarlet here with them.”

Mum growls lowly, for a woman without a wolf she sounds almost feral at this news. “So that was what that argument was about.” She stands up and walks out of the door calling “I need a moment.” Cathy looks sadly after the departing back of her friend “it’s a lot.” She sighs.

“I’ll go after her.” I pat Stefan’s knee and get up to follow my mother.

Anne

‘How f!cking dare they!’ I am whisper shouting as I pace the garden. The sky is growing dangerously dark overhead as my internal rant builds. It has been a very long time since I was this connected to my magic. Being back in the grounds of my coven is obviously drawing the energies straight to me. As I hear the crackle of electricity start to build in the air, I hear Scarlet’s footsteps step out on to the lawn.

“Stand back” I shout at her as the lightning crackles though the air, the electricity pools around me as the bolt lands at my feet. Swelling in a bubble around my body, I take a deep breath, not wanting to scare my child. I blow out my rage, the wind following the flow attacking the trees at the edge of the garden. The electricity disperses with the wind and huge drops of rain begin to fall around us. Scarlet flies into my arms panicked at the show of power.

“Mum!” she yells as she grabs at me “are you OK?”

I nod, her touch calming me further. “Just angry honey, just angry.”

“s**t” she exclaims, “I thought it hit you.”

“Language, young lady” I say sternly, “It did, but I called it so it would never hurt me.” I need to explain this to her and soon, now that she has found her mate her emotions would start to influence those things around her and god help us if pregnancy hormones started to come into play before she had some control of it all.

“We need to talk about this witchy stuff mum.” She says softly to me.

“We do indeed.” I pull her in close. “We do indeed.”