Visionary Wolves

Chapter 5: Enter Lucien

Hadleigh stared into his olive eyes and admired him. His thick, blond hair rested stylishly on his forehead, his jawline was square, and his body's strength had noticeably increased. He was more handsome to her than ever.

“Maybe a little," she said. Evan's face was alight with excitement.

"Yeah?" he asked. His eyes began to dart all over her face.

"But I'm still trying to work out everything I'm feeling. It's all so new."

"I think I understand."

The two parted with smiles and promises to meet the next day. As Hadleigh got into bed, she felt bad for not being honest with Evan. While he was indeed more attractive to her, Keiron was the one who she saw in her visions. He was the one who was penetrating her soul whenever they interacted, especially lately.

As she fell asleep, she wondered what Keiron was going to say about her mentioning their mate status before Evan came over. Had he even known?

After a couple of hours of sleep, she awoke feeling oddly energetic. It was almost 4 am. Instead of pushing herself physically, she decided to take a leisurely walk to start her day. While strolling she noticed a familiar scent to the northeast. It was one that she had known her whole life.

Hadleigh rushed toward where the source was strongest in the direction of an island near the lake. She dove into the cold water and began to swim to the small patch of land about a mile out. Her swimming speed improved as she got closer, despite retaining her human form.

She got to the island and began exploring. Two old wooden cabins stood side by side. She followed the scent until she happened upon an old journal.

Hadleigh wasn't sure if she wanted to see its contents or not. It hurt her to have hope and then have those hopes dashed. As she decided to pull it out of its partial burial, she took a deep breath. She wiped her hand across the cover removing the gritty sand to see better but she already knew whose it was.

Her father's handwriting was on the front. It was a notebook she had seen many times in the past. He used to enjoy taking notes about work, jotting down a few words about a fun experience, poetic lines, or just thoughts. And Dad jokes, of course.

When she opened it, the ink had been smudged from water damage, however, the condition was too good for it to have been out there for two years.

Was this placed here recently?

She spent a little while longer searching the island but there wasn't another trace of him.

As the very first rays of sunlight were peeking over the horizon she decided to hitch a ride to shore. She didn't recognize the helpful person in the canoe who stopped by but he was friendly.

He explained that he enjoyed coming out to fish when the sun was barely up. The canoe was full of his catch as proof.

When they got to shore he introduced himself as Logan. In thanks, she ran to her den and gave him what little bit of bait they had. He was gracious and off he went.

Hadleigh spent several hours trying to find anything that was legible in her father's notebook. More than anything, she wanted to see her name mentioned and she did, albeit nearly transparent. She stared at the letters for a long time. When she drifted off to sleep in her bed, she hugged the notebook to her chest.

While she was just beginning to dream, it felt like something hit her in the head. Then several flashes of white light blinded her. Sitting up, she closed her eyes and pressed her temples with her right thumb and index finger.

When she opened her eyes, her room had changed. The landscape was white, and pink feathers were floating down to the ground. She stood up and saw a large tree in the middle of the room. The rest of her four walls fell aside and she was now in an open world.

Once closer, she could tell the tree was a lilac. It was nearly bare of all its flowers. A huge pile of petals had gathered at the base. She reached down to pick up a clump but when she did, they slowly faded away in her hand. Sudden movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention.

There was none other than her depiction of the Moon Goddess, Selene. Her long medium brown hair had strands of gold intertwined with them in two small braids. She walked gracefully toward Hadleigh. Her white silk dress flowed behind her though there was no wind.

“Hadleigh, one of my chosen. You're finally here. I've been waiting."

Hadleigh stared at Selene but then turned away, respectfully. Selene touched Hadleigh on the chin. Hadleigh peered into Selene's eyes.

“Speak, please."

“What is this place?" Hadleigh asked.

“It's your connection to representations of me. When you have visions, you can walk in my world."

“I'm grateful, Goddess."

“I sense that you have questions."

“Do you have any idea about what happened to my father?"

“I can't see anything about him here," Selene said and shook her head.

Hadleigh was quiet as she pondered what that could mean. In a way, it gave her hope.

“Have you seen my mate?"

“Yes. You will be wonderful together."

"I'm not sure what he thinks about me," Hadleigh admitted.

"I choose Visionary mates carefully. You two are meant to be."

Visionaries?

Just as she was about to ask, something drew her attention.

In the southeast corner of the room, there was a noticeable dark spot. As Hadleigh kept watch, it slowly morphed into a person. The figure was wearing a dark hood and when he turned his head, he pulled it down to reveal a head of platinum hair.

His skin had a slight purple tinge to it and his fingernails were long and pointed. When he smiled, his fangs showed, and upon his lips there was blood.

“Visionary!" he said. His voice echoed in waves as he spoke the word. The sound of his voice reverberated across the entire dimension. Without warning, Selene abruptly pushed Hadleigh. In slow motion, Hadleigh tumbled into a backward somersault for two rotations and then landed in her bed.

When Hadleigh fully awoke, once she got her bearings, she wondered what had happened. She decided to go to their library to see if there was any information about people who were chosen by Selene to have visions.

In her experience, there were vampires who were good and some bad but the one she saw in the vision with Selene was not as simple. Whenever she thought about him, she shivered.

She sensed a level of evil within him that she hadn't encountered before. To get her mind off the terrifying experience, her thoughts wandered to more pleasant experiences with his kind.

It wasn't often, but she had come into contact with them. The first time was from afar. Once, in the city on the coast with Evan, they had happened upon several sleeping in a houseboat. Evan was itching for a fight that day and was fully committed to taking them out.

Hadleigh hadn't wanted him to engage, even if she'd had the skill. The vampires were vulnerable and not causing any harm. Besides, they were people once.

It was about a year after when she met her now friend, Celeste.

Hadleigh liked to search for her father secretly at night. She was out on one of her explorations when she literally bumped into Celeste. Celeste had been picking blueberries of all things. When Hadleigh cast her eyes upon the vampire, she was bigger than Hadleigh in every way and nearly knocked Hadleigh over with her unexpected jump up.

Hungrily eyeing Hadleigh's neck, Celeste immediately bit her. Hadleigh stood slouching, slightly annoyed.

“Um," Hadleigh said and tapped Celeste. “You're going to regret that." Celeste backed up and spit out the blood.

“What the?" she asked, repeatedly sputtering. “Ugh, gross!"

“I tried to warn you."

“s**t. You're a wolf who hasn't shifted yet."

“It's an evolved survival mechanism specifically for your kind. No offense."

“None taken. I'm sorry. That was totally rude of me. I'm just really hungry and we're trying to stay away from murdering humans lately."

After their awkward meeting, Hadleigh and Celeste spoke for a while in the woods and eventually, they arranged a trade between their villages. Hadleigh's pack would provide them with blood left over from their hunts and Celeste would bring them grapes and other berries.

When Hadleigh had it arranged, it was the first time Alpha James was truly proud of her.

That very agreement between Hadleigh's Eyres pack and Celeste's Viktor clan had been in place for a while until another wolf pack noticed what was going on. From what Hadleigh heard, Celeste had been run out of town.

It wasn't a written law, but unspoken that wolves should not mingle with vampires. There were several reasons for this but most of all it had to do with the idea that vampires were not as straightforward as wolves.

With wolves, what you saw was what you got.

It wasn't as if wolves couldn't play strategic mind games or plan out encounters but vampires commonly opted to use nefarious methods to get their way. At least that is what many thought. Being friends with them sometimes brought a wolf's reputation down, or worse.

It was strange that vampires were viewed as lower class. They were essentially immortal and with all that time to accumulate skills and make money, they were usually very well off. Plenty lived similarly to the Ramseys, but someone like Keiron was likely to look upon them as peasants.

It was horrible how many times Hadleigh had heard about wolf-on-wolf crime especially with her Eyres pack. The Eyres had no desire to shun people based on their species. Being farmers had made them more easygoing and helpful. But other packs thought they could hand down judgment about this choice.

Hadleigh came back to reality and stared at the book in her hand. She shut it, feeling let down. The search was fruitless. There were stories that were similar sounding to Visionary legend, but nothing based in fact.

She wondered more about Keiron's visions and what they were like. He seemed to trust them implicitly but she was less inclined to. Perhaps she needed more time with Selene now that she had shifted.

As she peeked outside, the afternoon sun was casting shadows against their compound. Her stomach was growling. It was time to get some food to refuel.

***

Because of all the recent distractions with Keiron and Evan, Hadleigh didn't realize that the rest of her pack was preparing a feast for her until she got to the dining hall. When she walked in, people were cheering for her. Evan walked to her and sat beside her.

Alpha James announced officially that this was a celebration meal for Hadleigh's shift. She blushed profusely, smiling. When she glanced at Evan he was congratulatory and smiling in a suggestive way. What would he think if she told him about her mate?