Norse Wolf Rising Rosie Chelsea-Black

3

"Jeremy, my office in ten minutes, bring coffee and breakfast. " Startling Jeremy has become my secret pleasure since I have been locked up in the office. Rosie is NOT a living being that enjoys four walls surrounding her, she prefers the fresh air no matter the weather. Yes I did just talk about myself in the third person, you see THIS is one reason why a concrete and glass cage is not good for me, at least dogs trapped in kennels.... no not even remotely better than my situation, oh great now I am rambling.

Sitting on the sofa in my office, my phone in hand and laptop resting on the arm of the sofa, I check to see if Matthew has sent a reply to my 999 message. He has, he sensed this was about Jackson, 'already have the babysitters for the kids, flight booked. I will bring the wanderer home. Will message you when I have landed, just make sure the kids are not the next victims Rosebud'. Happy that a weight is off my shoulders, my phone is placed on the coffee table, body shifted so my legs are on the sofa and laptop on my lap. Pulling up the details of this case, my eyes drift over the notes I made last night.

"How much oat milk and sugar Rosie?", Jeremy brings me back to the land of the living with his questions

"Splash of oat, no sugar," my eyebrows raise at him.

"I know you're sweet enough," he laughs while adding a dash of oat milk then takes his seat.

" I have looked over the document you added to the system, did a little research myself and found a few things odd." Pressing a few buttons, my screen is shared on the wall for him to see what I have discovered as we discuss my findings.

"Is it custom in this country for an abduction case to be announced in another town if the child was not abducted there?. Look, Jessica was taken here in NOLA yet in under twelve hours it is reported in Minnesota, her home town."

"Yes, it is normal. In the U.S. we have a system set up that alerts the national news networks when a child under ten years old goes missing." He looks at me with an apologetic look on his face. "You and I are going to have to have a crash course in legislation Rosie. This would have been your brother's side of the job. I am sorry!" He hangs his head, knowing I hate the legal and paper side of the business.

Shaking my head I reach over to grab a pencil then throw it at him, laughing when it lands on his head, "This is not on you Jeremy, this is on my brother. I would have still read her file before going on the hunt."

We spend a few hours dissecting Jessica's kidnapping then comparing it against the others. Apart from the children having blue eyes there is no other similarity. Jeremy makes a comment about Jessica being a younger looking me, but I brush it off, even though I thought the exact same thing. Explaining the scent I had found where Jessica had gone missing, we know we were dealing with wolves. However the scent was not at the locations of the other children, so we decide to treat Jessica's case as an individual case. I will do the ground work for him but he has to put the pieces together while I work on the other two missing children. This way he can still work with NOPD and I can focus on the paranormal side of the cases.

There is one person who I know would be interested in helping me, so instead of meeting at her office I send a text asking for her to meet me at Café Du Mond, where we could have breakfast and talk while studying the influx of newcomers. Yes people watching is something Antonia and I love to do, not bad considering our history/past we shouldn't even tolerate each other, let alone like each other.

A few months after my nanny died, Jackson and I discovered she was a witch. We always knew she had a problem with the witches in New Orleans, to be exact, she had a problem with the witches of the French Quarter, but she never told us the reason for this. When we found out our parents were not only here in the French Quarter when they died but were setting up an agency, my grandmother was horrified and banned us from ever coming to this side of the world. The day after my eighteenth birthday I flew out here to discover the reason for my parents dying. Nanny may have understood my need to find answers, but she hated I not only stayed here but also dragged Jackson to New Orleans to run the agency our parents had started while I did the grunt work.

Two years ago, nanny died and our lives changed again which is how I discovered Ástríðr. It turns out nanny had cast a protection spell over Jackson and myself when our parents had flown to New Orleans. Our mother, Madeline, has requested a binding spell as well as a protection spell but nanny had disagreed stating the binding spell would not be beneficial, however she did it anyway.

Upon nanny's death, her spells had slowly unravelled, leaving our true selves to be revealed, which is why I am still learning about my heritage, my wolf and this world I have found myself walking through. The French Quarter Witches will not tell me the reason they and my grandmother have had trouble between them. I know the answers will come, but they do not hold the grudge against me.

Antonia and I have been working hard on a shelter her and Iona have built to protect children and women in the paranormal world from abuse and any other turmoil they may have suffered. A lot of funding and work has gone into this centre that is hidden in plain sight from the human world and the paranormal world, but now I need some answers that only she can give me, I hope.

Baseball cap sat on my head with the brim slightly pulled down to cover my eyes, my black hair pulled into a ponytail which I have hanging out of the cap. Black jeans and white t-shirt with the slogan, "I heart New Orleans" is how I am dressed while waiting on Antonia to arrive. The idea is to look like a tourist, no one has been bothering me, unless you consider the odd look bothering. The smells teasing my taste buds is intoxicating, not only is the hickory coffee seducing my nostrils but the sweet smell of spiced sugar on a beignet is ensuring my tongue not only salivates but my blood is pumping hard and loud. If not for the concentration on my surrounds I would have ripped apart this café for the delectable treats waiting to overload my system. Feet hitting the pavement, children's cries of excitement and punishment fill the air. The drunken threats given by the patrons of the pub nearby, (Americans call it a bar, but I am English so we will stick to my English vocabulary thank you), adds to the ambiance of the French Market.

With the appearance of ease given to humans surrounding me, I find it funny when a child comes behind me and strokes my hair, "pwetty mom look" she strokes the ponytail as if it is a horse's mane. Forcing my shoulders to remain low, my head turns slightly to the left then to the right allowing the pony tail to swish for her. She giggles when the ends of my hair brush against her skin. With the sound of her mum telling her to leave the pretty lady alone, I turn and smile at her before looking down at the little girl.

"Is my hair soft little one?," the look of horror on her face shouldn't warm my heart, but she needs to learn it is not safe in this city to approach a stranger, no matter if the stranger is a female. Yet instead of barking at her, I decide to practice a lesson Antonia had taught me and engage with her politely before issuing a warning.

"Um," she looks over her shoulder to her mother then back at me. "Yes, it sparkles like the night sky too." Worrying on her lower lip, she reaches out to stroke my arm but pulls her hand back as if she has touched the flame of a fire.

"Thank you for the compliment little girl." Slipping out of my chair and lowering myself to sit on the ground, my eyes are now at her level. Holding her eyes I speak to her mother, "My name is Rosie, as you can tell I am not from around here but if you allow me to I would like to speak with your daughter about strangers." The tone is friendly so not to scare the little girl but I have laced my words with a warning to the mother. From the corner of my eye I notice the slight nod of her head.

"What is your name, you precious girl?" Still with her teeth nibbling on her lower lip she stands before me trying to decide if she should answer the question. While she is deciding how to answer, the floral scent is tickling my nose before I hear the footsteps of Antonia. The little girl looks over my shoulder when she notices someone taking a seat at my table, she blushes then gives Antonia a little wave before looking back to me.

"Mommy says I shouldn't talk to strangers, so I am not telling you my name." The reply she has given me is the correct answer and she knows it, her scent has changed to that of pride but she is still a little uneasy, which is a wonderful thing for her to be feeling.

"Your mummy is correct, and well done for not telling me. But if you know you are not meant to talk to strangers, why did you think it was okay to come over and stroke my hair?" To keep her at ease my head is turned onto it's side while my face is scrunched up into a funny face. Licking her lips she ponders on her answer, looking over to her mum then back to me she takes a few steps away from me then climbs into the chair she should be sitting in.

"I am sorry for being naughty miss, your hair is sooooo shiny and I wanted to try and touch the stars." Tears are growing in her eyes, the sadness in her scent is overwhelming my heart and soul. With everything inside of me, I remain in position and keep the anger from my voice.

"Precious girl, let me help with your sadness." Reaching into my bag, I pull out a knife and I cut some of my hair from the ponytail. Reaching behind me I pull the hair tie from my ponytail and bunch the hair together. "It is a dangerous world we now live in precious girl, approaching adults is never a good idea, even if they are women. Okay?. If you find yourself wanting to stroke someone's hair again, ask your mummy to walk you to that person and ask permission okay?" My eyebrow is raised while I await her answer, which is given to me with a few nods. Smiling at her I hand over the hair I cut from my ponytail. "It was obviously important to you to be able to touch the stars, so here take this and always have the stars within reach".

With that over my attention is then turned to Antonia who is smiling at me while she watches the sweet little girl and her mother leave the Café. "Oh my goodness, that was adorable." As usual this witch is nothing but cheerful.

"Annoying more like it, with little girls being harmed in this city, it pissed me off her mother allowed her to walk up to me like that", the growl from Ástríðr that is mixed in my tone isn't missed on either of us. Ástríðr, it seems, is in a maternal mood these last few days. We leave that conversation where it stands before my wolf forces me to shift and follow the little girl in order to protect her. The waitress arrives and takes our orders for coffee and a platter of mixed pastries, we can never decide what to eat thanks to everything on the menu being too good to be true. While we wait for the order to arrive we discuss the weather and our personal lives . Just as the conversation was taking an awkward turn, the waitress arrives with our order. The taste buds on my tongue are dancing with delight, Ástríðr is howling with anticipation that her sugar and spice rush is drawing closer with every second. Chuckling I lean forward over the table, "Ástríðr is dancing in circles, licking her lips and howling with delight. All that is missing is the full moon." I whisper to Antonia who can't help but laugh hard, the way she holds her sides is as if I had told her a perverted joke about her brother.

With our senses on a sugar overload, we ask for our second coffee to be a take away, the next conversation needs in a safe space were we can be surrounded by people but also be private. That location is Jackson Square.