Soulmate

Chapter 3

ALISON

There was a bedside portrait of my mother always by my side in my room. She was blonde, the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. I had her looks now and my father told me everyday that I grew to be more and more like her in all ramification of characteristics. As I retired back to my bedroom, I held this portrait of her in my hand, and I gently ran my fingers upon the glass frame, sniffing slightly.

It would take a lot to go back to sleep now, I knew; especially after being woken up by the boys as they came back from hunting. Though I loved the cool state of sleep, the sense of excitement it gave me; that beautiful repeating dream it put me through.

I knew those dreams meant something. A message I could not quite decipher yet. The howling from the wolf that sent me into that state, that call; it was a call of destiny, I knew. A purpose to live for outside these stone walls of the Montana mansion. My destiny was out there somewhere, and it called out to me every time I closed my eyes.

My father had told me how his romance with mum was raw and undiluted, how it would never be like anything else he had ever experienced, not even with my stepmother Brenda, who was right by his side in bed now. Maybe that was the experience my own universe had conjured for me too. And I just had to reach out for it; to listen to that howl, look to the skies and reach out for those stars. Those never-ending southern lights.

I sighed and put down the portrait back on the bedside table, and there was a knock on my door.

“Come in” I called, and my brother Uriah stepped in.

“Hey” he sat by my side on the bed.

“Hey” I said “How’s Brandon?”

“He’s a werewolf” he chuckled “He’ll heal”

“Uh-huh. So the Southern tribe werewolves again…what was it this time?”

“We were hunting and uh, we encountered them in their packs…”

“They attacked?”

“Mason did actually. They were on our territory” Uriah said “I would never just get why they won’t let us be…”

“You just said Mason attacked”

“They were on our territory” Uriah replied with a heavy sigh this time “I would never understand these turf wars”

“Well, it’s a little more complicated than ‘turf wars’” I said.

The Southern tribe were a pack of werewolves rival to ours, the Timberline pack. Our rivalry had spanned for centuries, so long now that the main reason for the feud seemed to have been lost in time or now inaccurate; but it all drew to land dispute. Due to my confinement in this house, I would spend my night and days reading books and history about Cilantro Falls which I learned a lot from. The Southern tribe pack were werewolves native here in Alaska many centuries ago, even before Cilantro Falls was founded in the nineteenth century. The Southern tribe people were Native Americans, indigenous people of Alaska, while our people settled here after 1867; after Alaska had just been bought from the Russians, and established as an American state. Our family bloodline and ancestry stemmed from Medieval Europe, particularly Germany and Eastern Europe, and when my forefathers had settled in Alaska, they found Cilantro Falls, along with the other werewolf families of the time, coming together to form the Timberline pack. Meanwhile, the Alaskan Natives who had been here had felt cheated of their land and claimed we had come to drive them away. There had not been any peace between the Timberline pack and these Southern tribe pack of werewolves since then till today. The feud had thickened and grown complicated with time.

My father had tried to make peace and reason with them over the years, including by a trial of a pack leader duel, which was werewolf tradition to settle disputes. It still never proved futile and got heated with time. Now almost with every hunt, there were attacks. I feared that there would never be peace between both packs.

“Mason thinks dad is weak” Uriah said “He swears to destroy them all when he becomes pack leader”

But to be fair, Cilantro Falls is their land, I wanted to add. But I just kept it in instead. After all, as communities, there was certainly a way to work out living in peace. I swallowed my thoughts with a sigh and turned to see Uriah staring soulfully at me.

He said “So…you can’t sleep huh…those dreams…”

Uriah had been the only person I had been telling about my dreams of the blue eyed wolf. I’d detailed every experience of these dreams with him because I had always needed someone to talk to about them. Uriah had followed me through and I always left no details. These dreams were recurrent, every night.

Now, I nodded to him “It was the same thing again. Just us surrounded by mountains, and the aurorae australis. He looks even more vibrant, more beautiful with every appearance…the dreams, they get more real with every occurrence, like it’s a reality. Every single time, I’m drawn closer and closer to him”

“Wow” Uriah said “And you think it takes place here? Here in Cilantro Falls?”

“I guess so…I mean, the surroundings, the mountains…it’s winter but…I can say it’s here. I can feel it, it’s not so far away” merely talking about the dreams sent my mind into a kind of pleasant trance. Now, I was daydreaming it. Talking about him pricked the hairs on my body.

“I…I dunno what to say” Uriah remarked “But I say you follow your heart. I believe some kind of message is trying to be passed across and I… well, just go on along with whatever it is. It might be…. he might be your soulmate or whatever”

I smiled at my brother tonight “Thank you Uriah”

And I was looking forward to getting back to sleep again.

I was looking forward to meeting him again, because I knew whenever I closed my eyes and departed this corporeal plane, I would always have him there in wait for me, gazing down at me.

Calling out to me.