Mate revealed

An unexpected guest.

Ester spent a moment gazing at the wolf at the bottom of the garden. Was it wise for her to go and stroke it, not because it was a naturally dangerous predator, but because it was likely a figment of her imagination? 

She caved and traipsed towards the creature, hunkering down before it. The grass was damp beneath her. The wolf let out a whine, and Ester’s face stretched into an unstoppable grin. He brushed against her, and she wound her arms around his neck. 

For a moment the wolf – RemusEster reminded herself, spent a moment licking her as if she’d rolled in honey. Laugher bubbled up from her chest and coloured the air between then happy. 

She signed, rubbing her face into his coat. “What am I going to do about you?” Ester whispered. 

Remus twitched at the sound of her voice, pulled away from her and tilted his head to the side. She continued to caress his eyes. 

“If I wasn’t so sure I was getting ill again, I would’ve never have thought my mind could’ve made up something as perfect as you”

The wolf nuzzled into her once more. His fur tickled her neck.

“If only you were real” She murmured glumly.

I am real Ester.

Ester stilled. Her breath froze in her lungs. 

That voice – it wasn’t hervoice – it was another, a masculine voice. One she’d never heard before.

Shit.

Ester pulled her back and buried her head in her hands. Sobs wracked her frame before she knew they were coming. They clawed up her throat. Her chest heaved over and over again. She sat like that long enough for the wolf to wind himself around her. Warmth enveloped her, the rise and fall of his chest brought her some comfort. 

Ester kept her face firmly fixed in her hands. After the tears subsided her head throbbed painfully. Remus nudged her with his huge head, a breeze ruffling her hair lightly. 

“I’m going, I’m going” She croaked. She stood, her legs shaky, Remus watching her carefully. 

She picked her way back to the patio doors, turning at the last moment “Good night Remus”. 

He replied with a low grumbled before padding away, being eaten up by the darkness. But he sat at the edge of the forest, waiting, watching as she locked the doors. He watched as her figure walked from the kitchen, disappeared briefly, until she reappeared in the bedroom. Lights off. Darkness fell. 

*                                              *                                              *

“Wake up sleepy head”

Ester shot up. 

And then sunk back down. A profound ache burst in her skull. She brought her hands to her head.

“Ester!” 

“Stevie?” She squawked. ”Where are you?”

The glass pane in her window rattled in response. She turned, and there he loomed at her window, grin carving his face into two.

“I bought breakfast!” He shouted, holding up a brown paper bag.

*                                              *                                              *

Ester’s hand curled around the mug, coffee fumes rising to her nose

“So, how was the lakes yesterday?” Stevie asked around half a waffle. 

“Oh” – yes, oh s**t. “Er, I got lost, ended up in the middle of nowhere.” She rolled her eyes for effect before taking a swig from her cup. 

Stevie stopped chewing. “s**t! Really?” He was thoughtful for a moment, his eyes wondering around the room. 

“Hey, what do you say to us going today? Might make you feel better?”

“Feel better? I’m fine!” Her nonchalant snigger which followed, came out more strangled goat. 

He snorted “You look like you’ve gone 12 rounds with Mohammad Ali”

Ester’s hand breezed over her still swollen eyes. She’d fallen asleep crying. 

“It’s the pollen” Lie- she’d never had hay fever, or any other allergy for that matter. 

It was now his turn to roll his eyes. “Sure, and my names Chris Hemsworth”

“Well, know you’ve said it, I can see-“

“Oh don’t you start! Come on” He lifts his brows “Lakes?”

Ester sighs defeated “Fine!”

He jumped up from the stool, “Right you’ve got 30, I just need to go fetch something”

“Fetch something?”

He smirked mischievously and turned to leave, “SEE YOU IN 30!” he yelled over his shoulder. 

Ester melted onto the kitchen top momentarily. The thoughts from last night suddenly crowded her head again, Stevie’s sunny energy slipping away. 

She’d never heard a different voice, other than the one usually harping on in her skull. This was new. 

This was scary. 

It hadn’t been this bad since… since she was little. 

And back then it was easier to deal with, wasn’t it? 

Why? Because she was a child. Children have adults who’re all knowing, all seeing beings. You unload your problems onto them, and they seamlessly fix them. Now an adult, Ester had no one to turn to. If she updated Penny on this… She wasn’t sure that would ever be a wise decision. She could ask Doctor Collins for advice? But she didn’t want to jeopardise her job. 

Her job. Was it really worth this? Was being here, away from her only relative and fighting off an impossible illness, worth finding a mother who probably didn’t want her anyway?

Ester’s eyes closed briefly, imagining finding her mother and her rejecting her, for a second time. The pain from the mere thought was worse than any physically pain Ester had felt. It spread out from her chest, much like Luca’s touch had, but this time instead of lighting her up, the thought trample down nerve endings as it bled through her body. 

She’s not the only reason we belong here Ester…The voice murmured quietly, and with it a pair of dark eyes were conjured into Ester’s mind. 

“He doesn’t what me here.” She whispered back quietly.

Really? And then her brain was awash with his smell, the feel on his lips on hers, his hand on her back, the sound of his laboured breathing.

A light feeling began to trickle. Back into her chest, washing away the damage done by the imagined rejection. A heavy feeling landing across her thighs.  

“He’s confused”

No, he’s not. He’s trying to scare us off, but he does have feelings for us…

“Why would he want to scare us” Ester sighed, “meoff?”

Because we’re like him…

“I don’t understand-“ Her phone buzzed, interrupting the preposterous conversation she was having with herself. Her voice. 

Stevie: T Minus 15 minutes. 

Ester caught her reflection in the window. s**t. She looked like she’d been dragged through a hedge backwards.

Her phone vibrated again:

Stevie: Also – bring swim stuff.

Double s**t. 

Ester made quick work, showing in record speed and stuffing her bag shut just as she heard Stevie call from the front door.

She locked up, but when she turned around, she stopped dead. Eyes wide.

“What the hell is that?” A laugh gurgled from Ester’s chest.

Stevie grinned from behind the wheel, window open, his strong arm resting on the frame. 

“That old thing?” He pointed to the offending item strapped onto the roof on his truck, “Oh I just threw it on, come on! Get it!”

Ester chuckled “This will be interesting”.

They drove in a comfortable silence, music filling the car. Stevie hummed. Ester watched the world pass the windows. Climbing evergreens on one side, the other open plains, with swaying grass.

Much like him, Stevie’s driving was unhurried and calm. Ester couldn’t help but draw comparisons between the two; Luca and Stevie. Her sister’s words came back to her. And as always, Penny was right. Stevie would definitely be a more suitable choice. Without him, her experience so far would’ve been so different, he’d gone out of his way, time and time again, to include, entertain, and feed her.

“Stevie, why’re you so nice to me?” Ester asked as they pulled in a parking bay. 

He frowned at her question, taken by surprise. “You’re new around here, that’s what people do around here I guess” He turned off the engine, “Help me take the canoe off?”

She nodded with a smile. As she worked the knots loose on the opposite side of the truck, she persisted “Surely you have mates you could be spending your Sunday with?” 

He poked his head around her side of the truck “Mates?!” He shouted in a fake English accent.

Ester erupted into giggles. “Do not, I repeat, do not quit your day job – whatever it is”

They slid off the canoe carefully, then he began unloading things out of the back. 

“Well,” He came back around, a life vest in hand, indicating Ester put one on. She struggled into it. “yeah, I’ve got a few ‘mates’ hanging around, but not many here anymore” He murmured. 

Wordlessly he stood before her, pulling at the straps on her vest, clasping them together. Ester looked up at his face whilst he focused at the task in hand.

“How come?”

“It’s mainly old folks that stay around here, you know, the quiet life” His breath wafts across her forehead, and he looks into her eyes. For a moment she returns his gaze, before she pulls away. Her cheeks warming. 

“Come on, let’s get her in the water” He nods to the canoe.

“Her?!” Ester squealed.

“Yes” Stevie responded superiorly, “Her name is Cassie”

She gasped mockingly “And you take the mick about Monty and Pegasus!”

He scrunches up his nose “’Mick’?” The trees clear and the lake opens up before them.

Ester’s feet slow “Take the Michael – take the piss, it’s an expression” She mumbles too taken by the view to care about that now. 

The lake stretches before them, it’s surface a heavy mirror finish. Evergreens swarm the edges, and at the far side, peaks rise impossibly high, their tops capped in white. 

“Something huh?” Stevie gently begins to tug of the canoe again, prompting her to begin walking.

“It’s beautiful.” She breathed.

Quietly they pushed the canoe into the water, which gently lapped against the sandy shore.

Without a sound, Stevie held out his hand to help her in, before pushing the canoe in the last bit of the way, and slipping in himself. 

The ore felt heavier than Ester thought it would. For a moment she let it dangle above the water, closing her eyes, letting the peaceful motion of the water sink through her. 

“Oi” Stevie’s voice cracked open the moment, “You better now be a slacker”

Evie cranes her head to look back at him and his smirk. 

“I don’t think I could ever get used to this… this” Words failed her.

“I am lucky” He murmured quietly.

“Then why do people leave Stevie, you said…”

He sighed, “I guess there’s not much to offer young people”

Ester begged to differ, her eyes grazing over the vista before her. 

As if he could read her thoughts he said, “There aren’t many job opportunities, there’s no glamour and excitement” Ester detected a slightly bitter edge to his words. 

“And that didn’t appeal to you? The glamour and excitement?”

He was quiet for a moment. “No”

His single word spoke many. There was more than that, but she decided to let it go unspoken. It was his demon to consider, not hers to expose. God knew she had lots of her own. 

“So, why the bug eyes this morning?” 

She hummed quietly in response.

“Ok, you don’t have to tell me. Just,” he huffed “Just let me know if you need someone to talk to”

She smiled back at him “Thanks Stevie.”

“You’re welcome” And with that, he pushed his ore forward and flicked water at Ester’s face. 

Her face distorted into one of shock, before she crocked an eyebrow, “Right.”

“Oh s**t” he whispered. 

The next few hours saw them both drenched and their stomachs aching form laughing so hard.

Conversation flowed easily on the journey home, the sun slowly slipping behind the trees. Rain began to dapple the windscreen.

When she got home, Ester swung out the truck, noting the wet print her body had left behind, like her shadow was too tired to get up with her. She tottered around to his open window, “Thank you for today Stevie”. She reached in and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He stilled beneath her touch. She pulled away, “You made me feel so much better”.

“Anytime” He smiled softly. Ester trotted back to her front door, fumbling with the keys as his truck rumbled away back down the lane. Rain making her fingers clumsy. 

Ester’s mind creased. Why, oh why did she kiss him on the cheek? 

The key turned in the lock. She stepped in. 

Suddenly her pulse quickened. Goosebumps rose across her skin. 

He’s here…

She turned on the threshold. 

There he stood, between trees. Chest heaving. Rivers of rain carving through his bare chest. 

His face was cut into agony and pain. 

“Luca?” She called, her voice shaking. 

She took a footstep out into the rain. But she couldn’t feel anything other than the heat flaring in her now. 

He began to stride towards her, his legs eating up the distance easily.