Witchery

Chapter 4

Werewolf legacy?? My internal head screams. What does he mean, werewolf? 

Okay, calm down, I tell myself. After all, I did know about magic, right? It is true, I knew of magic. The image of a caramel coloured wolf springs into my mind, and I suddenly hear something, or someone, whimpering inside me. Startled, I look up into Adriel’s eyes. 

“I know you have a wolf in there. I couldn’t feel it at all until we mated, but I instantly felt it as soon as it happened. However, it is faint. But you also have a faint smell of a wolf on you.” 

He stops talking, seeing my confused expression. 

“Okay I guess I have to tell you the basics then.” A weird smile spreads across his face. “But first, what about deciding on a name to call you until we discover your true name?” 

“Yes, that might be a good idea.” I agree, feeling that having a name also will give me a better grip on this new world of mine. I think for a bit, trying to force a memory up of my own name, but failing. The only thing that comes to my mind is the letter “E”, but that’s not much to go on from.  

“Do you have any suggestions?” I ask directly, curiosity of his mind getting the best of me.  

“Hmm since we have nothing to go with, what about calling you Luna? Luna is the position you get, once you’re mated to a pack’s Alpha, and that is a position I really hope you’ll take, since you are my fated mate.” I can’t help but smile at this. He wants me as his mate! And his Luna! Whatever that means. I open my mouth to answer to this, but he hurriedly says, “You don’t have to think too much about positions and packs right now, just what you would think about being called Luna?”

“I like Luna.” I say. 

“Luna it is!” He exclaims. 

A slow smile spreads to both our eyes and we can’t help but laugh a bit about the strange situation. It doesn’t feel awkward, it just feels good. Although I am not sure I can take much more information today. I feel my eyes grow heavy from the exhaustion of all the excitement, my fatigue, and probably the morphine. Adriel sees me trying to fight back a yawn and gets up. 

“You should get some rest, Luna darling, it has been a way too long day for you already.” He kisses my forehead carefully. “And don’t worry, I’ll stay here until you fall asleep.” Taking my hand and sending me a reassuring look. The last thing I notice before falling into a heavy sleep, is the door to the hall opening up again, Charlot and Lucas reentering, Lucas on his phone again, Charlot rolling eyes at him.  

When I wake up, the sun is shining bright through the open window. My first thought is confusion. Surely all of what happened yesterday can’t be real? But as I look around, I am still in the hospital gown, in a hospital bed with fresh, lovely smelling flowers at my bedside, and endlessly, embarrassingly white walls. 

I can feel my mate isn’t in the room anymore, however, another, similar presence to his aura is here. Charlot is sitting in a sofa I didn’t notice yesterday, hidden by the bedside table and all the hospital equipment. It is standing against the wall to my right, close to the window. Besides Charlot, a young woman is sitting, Charlot is reading a book I can’t make out the title of, and the younger woman is starring at her phone. I try to push myself up in a sitting position, struggling a bit, before giving up. The noises of me moving has the two women looking over. They both jump to their feed and hurry to my bedside when they see I am awake, Charlot immediately there, helping me sitting up and fussing a bit, the other woman a bit more hesitant behind her. 

She has the same long, dark, brown hair as Adriel, however a bit curlier. The same shiny, green eyes. Although shorter and a much more feminine look in both her face and her body structure, dressed in a tight camel colored, short dress, I instantly recognize her as Adriel’s sister. The two of them look so much alike.

“Hi, my name is Ariana White, I am Adriel’s sister.” She introduces herself before adding with a smile “Most people just call me Ari; you can do the same” 

“I am Luna” My answer sounds kind of hollow in my ears, but I push aside the nagging thought that this isn’t my right name, the fact that I can’t even say a last name or a nickname and try a little smile back. 

“How are you feeling?” Charlot asks me, once again checking my temperature and measuring my blood pressure. 

“My back still hurts.” I admit. Charlot nods and says, 

“I hadn’t expected any different, those are some serious cuts you got there. We will have a look at them after your breakfast, which I’ll go get for you now.” 

When she leaves, a small silence falls before Ari walks a bit closer, curiously looking at me. Even though she looks so much like my mate, I can’t help but shiver a bit, feeling a frightened knot in my stomach. Now that Adriel isn’t in the room with me, I can even start to wonder whether I can actually trust him at all, I don’t really know him.   

“Looks like there is someone out there who deserves to get their ass kicked!” She exclaims, abruptly shaking me out of my wandering thoughts. 

“I would love to do it for you.” 

The offer is generously said, but I can see her clenching her fists. 

“So, are you, like, a fighter of some sort?” I ask her, letting my curiosity about her take over me.

“Well yes, I am the Lead Hunter of our pack.” She answers proudly, and although I am still not entirely sure what all these things mean or imply about her status, I can tell she is good at what she is doing. 

“How old are you?” Is my next question. 

“I am as old as you, 22” She replies, coming closer and sitting down at my bed. 

“And you are already the Lead Hunter?” I ask, amazed. 

“Well I guess it helps having an Alpha as an older brother”  

We both can’t help but chuckle a bit.  

“So… how old is your brother then?” This time my voice sounds a bit embarrassed when I ask.

“He is 26 years old.” 

I lean back, feeling less uptight around that question at least. I couldn’t tell how old he was yesterday, feeling as if though he could’ve been anywhere between 25 and 32. 

“So how about your parents. Are they… are they Alpha leaders of the pack, too?” Hoping my question is an innocent one, I am hurriedly contradicted, when dark clouds roll into Ari’s eyes. She looks down, and I am just about to tell her to skip the question, it was silly and private of me to ask, when she says,

“My father was the old Alpha of the pack, however he… he died in a fight a few years ago. My mum was, and still is, absolutely heartbroken. They were fated mates.” 

Hesitantly, I ask, 

“Like Adriel and I?”

“Yes, exactly. Now, she just sits at home, spending most of her time starring out the window, feeling an empty hole where my father used to be. Or so I believe at least, I don’t know much about it, since I haven’t met my fated mate.” 

“So, will you meet him soon, you think?” 

Trying to change the subject from this very sad story, I ask a question that resembles the only positive thing I, myself, know about. Ari laughs a bit.

“No, it is not even sure you ever get to meet your fated mate. You and Adriel are a lucky pair out of a thousand! But I do have a very sweet girlfriend, and I am very content with that. I don’t need the Moon Goddess to tell me when or who I am supposed to fall in love with. Although, it is of course a very romantic thought and amazing when it happens. I am so happy for my brother, and you as well, he is such a good man.” 

I blush, totally embarrassed for just assuming she would want a male as her romantic partner. And the way she gently avoided the fact that I just made a huge talking mistake. I promise myself to never do that again with anyone. She clearly can tell what is going on behind my red face, giving me a reassuring smile, as if though she is very used to these assumptions. Thinking a bit about what I should respond, not knowing whether I should address my obvious mistake or not, I end up settling on a confession of mine,

“Well, I guess I need to know a bit more about this mate situation.” 

Feeling the heat in my cheeks growing even more, embarrassed of not knowing anything at all. No, I reason with myself, of course you don’t know anything, you can’t remember anything.

“Don’t worry, you and I will be spending the next few weeks together, so there will be lots of time for me to fill you in.” 

She smiles brightly at me, at the same time as the door out of the room opens up and Charlot comes back in with a tray stuffed with food and cups on it. 

Ari helps Charlot unload the tray. They get croissants, porridge, and hot coffee, while I get yoghurt and some herbal tea that should be good for my health. After eating, Charlot helps me to my dose of pills. Once again, the morphine makes me sleepy and I fall asleep. 

The next few days go like this. I get used to being called Luna, although I still try to search my memories for my real name. Charlot and Ari rarely leaves my side, unless either doctor Meyer, Lucas or Adriel is in the room. However, Lucas only comes to relieve Ari from time to time, and Adriel only comes in the evenings because of his busy work schedule. He usually stays the entire night, sleeping on the couch, but most days he is gone before I wake up.

By the end of the week I can walk all the way to the bathroom without any help, take a shower, and walk back again, however always feeling exhausted afterwards. 

Ari and I immediately become good friends. She explains the werewolf situation to me. That she, her brother, Lucas, and apparently also me, are werewolves. This means we can shift from our human form to our wolf form. Charlot, however, is human. Our wolf is our instincts, our inner voice, our tommy feeling. My wolf is me, the pure version of myself, but she has her own voice, the one I hear in my mind from time to time, mostly when my mate is near. 

I ask Ari how she knows I am a werewolf, but she answers she can smell my wolf, even though it is a very secluded smell. 

This is the second wolf’s ability I notice about myself; I can actually smell the differences between Charlot and Ari or Lucas. There is a distant smell of sunshine over the humans, whereas I can smell a bit of wet dog on werewolves. All these new impressions are very strong and a bit confusion for my senses.

Along with the werewolves, this world also has witches and warlocks, who prey on werewolves. I shiver at this thought, knowing it to be very true indeed. Werewolves, however, prey on vampires, vampires prey on humans and humans prey on witches and warlocks. 

Ari explains to me that all creatures are created by the Moon Goddess. However, Moon Goddess means something different to each species. 

Moon Goddess is the one who pairs fated mates, and she is never wrong. Any pair should be a perfect match, one way or another. But the world is big and so, most wolves never find their fated mate. This, however, doesn’t mean you can’t find another incredible love. Ari adds the last part while smiling faintly at something I can’t see. 

“You can also mate with humans however they can’t feel the bond like you can.” Ari says. 

“Can you also mate with witches or vampires?” 

I ask, avoiding asking directly whether you can mate with warlocks. That is one creepy thought to me, and a chill runs down my spine. 

“I’ve never heard of it, but I guess you can. I don’t think they can feel the bond either though. The feeling of the bond is incredible and only for werewolves.” 

“Also” She adds a bit hesitant, “you should know, not all witches and warlocks are evil like the one who held you. Some of them use nature or their own energy to do magic and truly want to do good. We have a witch protecting our city, actually.” 

I look at her with choked eyes, but she doesn’t really notice, checking her phone and smiling corny. 

“I am going out with my girlfriend tonight.” Her voice sings excitingly.

“Oh, I wish I could go out too” I mumble. 

“You can barely stand.” 

“Thanks for pointing that out to me, that makes me feel so much better.” 

“Oh, come on, when I leave, Adriel will come in my stead. That has to be something, right? Also, I am going shopping tomorrow with Elise, I could buy you some new close so you could get rid of this old sack, what do you think?” 

She pulls at my hospital gown, frowning. Ari loves fashion and hasn’t hesitated to fill me in on the area. I too, love her different outfits, always fashionably styled, and I can’t get enough of scrolling down her i********: feed. 

I’ve never met Elise, but Ari has shown me pictures of her, clearly very much in love. Elise has short, dark hair, styled in a fifties inspired look. With a big, chunky nose piercing and cat eyes, she looks very bohemian. She always wears dresses that looks somewhat out of a twenty’s movie. I love her big, red, smiling lips, and I can definitely understand why Ariana is so in love with her just from the pictures and her endless talk about her. Elise is the manager of one of her father’s businesses, a small vinyl record shop. He has promised her, she can take full control of the place, as soon as he retires. Also, Ari told me, she is human, which has Ari feeling slightly overprotective. 

“But I guess it runs in the blood, you should hear my brother talking about your security measures.” She says, laughingly. 

“I’ll go soon, and Adriel will take over, okay?” She adds, jumping down from my bed, where we have been sitting most of the day, talking about werewolves and the general pack life. 

Someway it makes me feel really good that he is so intense about my security. I really appreciate the way it clearly shows he really cares for me. Even though I rarely see him, because he is mostly here at night, guarding me, just his presence is enough to calm me down from my worst nightmares. 

And I haven’t really had any good nights after the coma. Each night I am woken by my own screams, the nightmares hunting me.