Lunar Eclipse

Chapter Seventeen

(Annette’s POV)

           Getting to sleep last night was rough, I just couldn’t get my brain to turn off enough to drift off into sleep. Last time I remember before falling asleep was 3am, but I woke up feeling refreshed enough. When I woke up I immediately looked at the time thinking it must be 12pm or later in the afternoon but nope to my dismay it was only 8:30am.

           Getting out of bed I got dressed in some pj’s and went to the bathroom. After I was done in the bathroom my stomach growled, I knew I didn’t have any food in the house so I decided to go to mom’s.

           Not bothering to put on real clothes I trudged over to moms to raid her fridge. Beta Astor had gone easy on me last night so I wasn’t too sore but my muscles did have a dull ache to them. Not knocking I walked into Mom’s house and went straight into the kitchen. Mom was still cooking food when I walked into the kitchen. Pancakes, eggs, French toast, and some sausage. Plopping my ass in a kitchen chair I watched her puttering around the kitchen.

           “I figured you would be here this morning so I made some extra, Camilla is bringing over the pups in a couple of minutes. Alma might also come over; Freyja will defiantly be over as well.” I was debating on making this a to-go breakfast after I found out pretty much all the family would be over but I needed some family time to take my mind off of the meeting later today.

           “You really should lock your door though mom, someone might break in” she gave me a sarcastic look as she set down a cup of steaming coffee in front of me.

           “Nanna!!!!” Annika was heard well before she was seen, wincing I took a big swig of my coffee. I needed more dirty bean water to deal with this on the amount of sleep I got.

           “Annika inside voice only or no chocolate chips in your pancakes!” Mom flipped a pancake on the stove, she probably already made her some chocolate pancakes but Annika didn’t know that.

           “Yes Nanna” Annika lowered her voice and walked into the kitchen after taking her shoes off. Hilda, Camilla, and Asbjorn walked in not long after Annika.

           “Oh hey Annette, didn’t expect you to be here” Camilla set down her coat on the back of the kitchen chair.

           “Trust me I debated taking off when Mom said your brood was coming but I guess I love you so I stayed” I shrugged trying to hide my smile by sipping my coffee.

           “Well thanks, I guess I love you too” Camilla gabbed some coffee too with another mug for Asbjorn. They both took a seat at the kitchen table, Camilla across from me and Asbjorn next to her.

           “Nice to see you again Annette” Asbjorn spoke in a soothing calm voice as he nodded to me. If someone could bottle him, no one would stress about anything ever again.

           “You too Asbjorn” I looked around for Hilda, and found her silently helping Mom by getting out the condiments from the fridge.

           “Hilda how are you doing?” she smiled at me after she set down the condiments on the table.

           “I am doing good Aunt Annette. How is Jakob doing?” she blushed slightly, in the past years Hilda developed quite a crush on Jakob.

           “He is doing good, he went on patrol with me recently” I smiled at her, always eager to get the slightest information about Jakob. Blushing again she walked off to help Mom with something else.

           “She has such a little crush on him but he barely notices her, she is too quiet.” Camilla sipped her coffee again waving her hand around, Asbjorn next to her smiled.

           “Hilda will get the hang of it, she will learn” I got up to refill my coffee. I could hear Annika talking a mile a minute to Mom. The rest of the time went by with no hitch, Alma didn’t end up coming over, she had bad morning sickness. Freyja did come over before her shift but didn’t stay long, we had to tell her to leave or she would be late, she had no concept of time and was frequently late to everything.

           After a couple of hours I left, I had my fill of Camilla and her brood. Getting into my house I looking around thinking of things to waste time. Walking upstairs I decided to pick out the clothes that I would wear later today. After tearing through my whole closet I settled on a light blue button down sleeveless blouse, black jeans, and some simple black flats.

           Looking in the mirror I looked at the damage, my eyes had dark circles under them again, not as bad as yesterday but still noticeably visible. I would need to put on makeup, my nerves were through the roof so putting on some makeup might help.

             The clock read 2:45pm and there was nothing else productive to do so I decided to watch some tv, I didn’t watch much tv to begin with so there was nothing particular that I wanted to see. When 3:45 rolled around I figured it was time to start getting ready so I hopped into the shower, washed my face, applied makeup then got dressed.

           When I left the house it was 4:30 plenty of time to get down to the cells for the meeting with Soren. Walking to the packhosue I tried to go through topics of conversation, ice breakers just things to talk about so there wasn’t awkward silences but they all sounded awkward in my head.

           “He is our mate; it won’t be awkward” Gia was jumping around in my head at the thought of finally interacting with our mate.

           I got down to the cells, walked right past the guards with no trouble, they had obviously learned their lesson from yesterday. I walked past Soren’s cell, I could hear a heartbeat so the guards must have already put him in the visiting area. I did hear a heartbeat on the other side of the hallway, it must have been his companion who I still didn’t know their name. I made a mental note to ask Randve about the companion as well, he would require the same help as Soren when all this was over.

           Pausing in front of the visitation door I tried to calm my heart, it was thundering in my chest, so loud Soren could probably hear it on the other side of the door. My hand rested on the door knob not having the strength to turn it but not letting go of it either. I had made the decision last night, was confident in it last night but I was struggling now, why? Why was I so nervous?

           Psyching myself up I finally pushed open the door, harder than I meant to, the door hit the wall behind it with a bang. Wincing I looked at the only person in the room who stood up at the sound of the bang. Soren’s clothes were different; he was dressed simply but it didn’t matter to me what he was wearing my eyes were locked with his.

Then is scent hit me, yesterday his scent had been strong but muted, muddled. Today his scent was so clear that I could smell pine, and aged whiskey. Inhaling deeply my eyes fluttered and my stomach flipped, his scent affected me so much, opening my eyes I saw that he looked affected too.