Golden Rule

Chapter 12

Chapter 12 – Fernanda

             The next morning, I am up by seven. I put on some workout clothes and call Violet. In no time we are all around Miriam going over her prognosis and not much has changed since last night. If her wolf hadn’t had to leave, she would at the very least be awake by now. But she is healing almost like a human. I pray she will be able to make a full recovery.

             “What do you know about Jackie from the school board? We are having lunch today and I was wondering if there is anything specific I need to know her. She knows about werewolves and the pack. She’s familiar with the Alphas as well. Do all the humans in the village know about weres?” I ask mainly Rachel.

             “Her family is one of oldest human families in the village. The family was heavily involved in the war between the church and the government. Since then, they have been involved with hiding the existence of super naturals from hunters and poachers. Her brother works at the furniture factory and is pretty much the face of the company to outside humans. Uh… their father was the only human killed the night your family was attacked.” Responds Rachel and I’m taken aback.

             “What was her father doing here that night?” I ask.

             “He worked for your family as an advisor. He managed the accounts with the human banks and kept your family’s books and was in charge of all the filings with human authorities. He was a very trusted man by your father and even your grandfather.” Rachel continues.

             I cannot believe all the webs entangled at this place. Now I wonder if Ms. Jackie can be trusted and what her and her brother’s feelings would be regarding my true identity. How do they feel about their father being murdered at my family’s home? Rachel seems to notice my train of thought.

             “Both Jackie and her brother are honest, hard-working people. Both remember how close their father was to your family. They hold no ill will.” She says.

             “That may be true but I will keep my guard up around her. I want to try to get her to open up about the Alphas and what she knows, but she might be bias.” I say.

             “Fernanda, I am not bias and I don’t believe either of the alpha twins are capable of ordering what happened to Miriam or what happened to your family. I could be wrong, but I don’t think I am. They are good men, Princess. I believe if they had found out you were alive they would have contacted you themselves to bring you back safe to your rightful place.” Frida says.

             “I agree with Frida, princess. They are honest men, caring men. I also don’t believe they would do something so heinous as order someone’s death by beating. Especially a lone she-wolf. I just don’t believe that.” Violet says with so much confidence.

             “I appreciate all of your input but I am not going to rule them out just yet. Everything is happening so fast and Golden Cross pack is supposed to be the strongest pack around. Can you tell me who else would have the resources or motives to order what happened? Miriam is what throws me off, I will admit.” Rachel, Violet and Frida all nod. “From what we know about her, she is an educator from a friendly pack to Golden Cross. Why the hell was she attacked so brutally?” I pause. “Her wolf did a great job at healing what she could. It’s a miracle she didn’t die. She has a strong wolf. We should hook up another IV drip, her lycanthrope genes will be able to handle it and it will help flush out the wolfsbane faster.”

             Violet and Rachel get started on the IV as Frida heads off to rest. “So can you two explain to me how your magic of conjuring things works?” I ask the sisters.

             “Well,” begins Rachel, “we are white magic witches, and we use holy water combined with natural objects and an incantation to conjure what we need.”

             “Yes, that’s why we always carry things like pieces of wood, rocks, dried leaves, dirt, or we can use the holy water itself to do magic. Like I did with you last night to freshen you up.” Rachel adds.

             “Well, holy water, who would have thought that. Where do you get holy water from? Is it known that witches use it?” I ask.

             “Most churches have a font where parishioners can go gather small amounts of holy water. We do that when we must, but we try to always keep enough on us so we don’t run out. We do have a secure source.” Says Rachel glancing over at Violet. Violet’s face falls and she looks away. I get the feeling that there is so much more to these women than meets the eye.

             As we finish tending to Miriam we make plans to meet back up in the early evening to see what changes we can make to her care to at least make her more comfortable. Rachel again takes me back to the little cottage. By the time I am ready its 11:30 and there’s a knock on the door. There is Ms. Jackie with a huge smile on her face. We greet each other and make our way to the village in her small SUV, as we drive she is pointing out random things we pass. The bookstore, crafts/hobby supplies store, a few restaurants and other cute shops.

             “There are plenty other clothes shops in town, but they don’t really seem to be your style dear. I don’t mean that in a rude way. Just that no one dresses like you around here.” She says.

             “How do people dress around here Ms. Jackie?” I ask laughing.

             “Jeans and t-shirts for kids your age. Boots or trainers. You have a very different style, you do come from a pack of professional educators, so its not too surprising but um, you look very, expensive? I don’t know if that’s the word, but you are very fancy.” She adds with a light blush.

             Damn I hadn’t thought of that. It would make sense that people living along the mountain wouldn’t wear a damn blazer or ballerina flats. Designer at that. “Well, while my classmates and I were at university we did pick up different habits from the humans.” I say hoping that she will buy that excuse.

             “Of course, and you look gorgeous! But you mean your packmates.” She says.

             “I’m sorry?” I say confused.

             “You went to university with your sister and some of your packmates.” She says, and I feel like there is a meaning behind the way she says it.

             “Right, my sister...” I trail off.

             “I’m sorry, it was your first night away from your family, I bet you miss them already.” Says Ms. Jackie.

             “Yes, I do really miss them already.” I say trying to cover up my confusion. Damn this is not going the way I wanted it to go! s**t!

             “We’re at our spot, you’ll love this restaurant, Miriam.” She says as she pulls up to a quaint bistro on the main square. I immediately know its Rachel’s restaurant. Fer’s Bistro is painted in a golden yellow color. They could have warned me. I can’t help but let out a small chuckle as my eyes begin to sting from the tears that are trying to form. I immediately think of Noah, he was the only who called me that.

             I notice Ms. Jackie looking at me. “Interesting name, I’m excited to try it, let’s go!” I say to her. She smiles at me, and I let her lead the way inside. Once we’re inside, I notice there isn’t many people here since it’s not quite lunchtime yet. Ms. Jackie leads me to a table in the middle of the small bistro and sure enough as soon as we sit, Rachel walks up to our table.

             “Hi Ms. Jackie, I see you brought the lady of the hour. Miss Levy so good to see you again so soon!” Greets Rachel acting all surprised to see me.

             “Hi, um, Lady of the hour?” I ask her while Ms. Jackie merely smiles.

             “Of course, everyone is talking about the beautiful teacher that Canon Mountain sent us. Everyone is speculating about a potential Luna!” Rachel says all too excited. I know she is playing a role right now, but her statement literally makes me feel sick. Potential Luna? What the hell?! Rachel continues, “the delivery guys from the market and the kitchen staff have been talking about it all morning, a beautiful she-wolf for the pack. Someone strong and loyal, right Ms. Jackie?”

             “As it should be, Ms. Rachel.” Responds Ms. Jackie.

             “I think some of the guys are quite smitten with you Miss Levy.” Rachel looks at me in the eyes and points with her eyes towards what I assume is the kitchen. I look to where she signaled and there are three young men spying on us. As soon as I look in their direction, they try to scurry off behind the door with one of them falling back on his butt. I’m almost certain the other two pushed him back. Poor guy. Their actions have the two ladies laughing. My smile falls as I think of how many times Noah would tell me that he caught a guy looking at me. Damn I was missing him so much lately.

             With the arrival of Frida and Violet, and everything they brought into my life, I had put my mourning on pause. It was hitting me like a freight train now. I wanted to curl up in a dark room under blankets and cry. f**k I missed them. Nana would know what to say, Maddie would tell me to take her for ice cream. Noah, damn I missed him. His hand to hold. His lips. His body. Our bodies. Damn it!

             “Excuse me ladies, I just need to wash my hands. I’ll be right back.” I say as I stand and head towards the back looking without really looking for the ladies’ room. I open a door and realize I walked into an office. I feel someone behind me and I turn to see Rachel with a look of sadness on her face.

             “I didn’t mean to upset you, Princess. I was trying to make casual conversation. I never thought it would bring memories of your fam-“ she starts to say.

             “its not your fault, I feel like I’m getting overwhelmed with so many emotions all at once and being here and everything that’s happening. Everything that I’m learning about my family. And I don’t want to be here, I want Noah and Nana back. Maddie should be living her life, she was so young. I just don’t know what I’m doing here. My wolf is going insane. I don’t know who to trust here. And–“ Rachel stops my rant by hugging me. I let go and cry it out. I cannot help it. This was long overdue. I hadn’t realized how badly I needed to speak to someone about my feelings and let it all out. Everything was crazy in my life right now and I missed the normalcy of barely even a month ago. All those millions of dollars Frida had shown me on my parents’ bank statements I would reject just to have Maddie, Nana and Noah back. I had lost my parents when I was too young to really remember them, this hit me harder. This was crippling to my soul. I didn’t feel strong enough anymore to keep up this charade.

             When I had finally calmed down, Rachel spoke. “What do you want to do Princess? We can stop all this and you can start a new life elsewhere. Whatever has happened here, will stay here. We can do whatever you want.” She said with so much tenderness.

             Suddenly my wolf pushed an image into my mind. Miriam. I couldn’t leave her here now. She was a victim just like my family. She would be left without protection and a war between her pack and this one would be inevitable. Too many lives would be lost and that would be on my decision and mine alone. I couldn’t do that. I thanked my wolf and told Rachel, “We should move forward, I just needed a moment to myself. That’s all.”

Rachel looked at me with uncertainty. “We will do as you wish. But I’ll have you know right here and now, Princess. If you ever feel you want the madness in your life to stop, we have ways to do that. We can manage any and all fallout. You only need to say it and we will make it happen. Is that fine with you?”

I look at her straight in her eyes and nod my head in agreement.

“Ok then, I’ll fix you up before we go back out there.” She says and takes out her holy water that is in a small bottle that looks like hand sanitizer. She proceeds to say the same chant as last night and again I physically feel renewed.

I stop her as she is about to open the door and ask, “why is the name of your restaurant my name?”

“Well, to make a long story short. Your mother and I were very close. Violet and I grew up with your father. We were all very close. Your parents asked me to stand as your godmother for your presentation into the pack.” I smile at her and give her another hug and she hugs me back. She whispers, “We would do anything and everything for you Fernanda. You and your family mean so much to us.”

As we walk out Jackie is waiting patiently at the table, when she looks up at us she smiles while giving me a kind of sympathizing look.

“I apologize Ms. Jackie, I don’t know what came over me.” I say.

“No need to apologize, I remember last night about you having a story about your chosen mate. You wear a ring, that’s telling. You don’t need to say anything, I understand.” She said looking into my eyes.

“Thank you for understanding.” I say to her.

We finally begin our lunch and have light conversation throughout. I don’t know if Rachel uses magic on her food, but it was the best turkey and avocado panini I’ve ever had. I tried the hibiscus water and wow. The flavors of the meals I’ve had here since we landed are amazingly, tongue melting delicious. It definitely beats any top-rated restaurant in Chicago.

After lunch, Jackie tells me we can walk around the square and maybe visit some shops to meet the townspeople. That is the perfect distraction I need. We start walking out down the sidewalk and it feels like a picturesque mountain town. Like Asheville, NC or Aspen, CO. That’s the vibe I’m getting from it. The square is literally a square. Four strips of buildings that are very colonial looking and are three or 4 stories tall; they make up the sides of ‘the square’ and the roads are stone paved. In the middle is a huge park with playground equipment scattered throughout and seating both facing the playground and facing the street. Its magical. I’m sure I drove through it last night but I didn’t get to look around as I was so nervous and had my eyes on the pup leading me to the alpha’s residence.

Jackie walks me down the first street and introduces me to several families out doing some school shopping. They are all very polite people and everyone seems so friendly. Some look at me curiously. I might need to change my wardrobe, but that might be suspicious. They might wonder why I’m trying to fit in. I’m supposedly from a friendly pack a few hours from here. We walk into shops of all kinds and meet all the shop owners. Many high school aged kids have jobs at these shops. It’s the perfect set up for werewolves to blend in with humans.

“Ms. Jackie, I am curious about something. How does the dynamic of mixing with humans work so well here? I’ve never heard of anything like this.” I say to her.

Then I hear a deep voice behind me.

“I can answer that.”