Luna, Make a Wish

Maybe...

Emma’s POV:

I fumbled with the key to my apartment once I reached the door. Door… I blinked and looked around, for the first moment the realization that I had made it home sinking in. When did I make it home? How long had I been walking for? I can’t even remember what route I took to get here or how long it had taken me. My mind was so clouded in questions and theories that everything else had just been a blur.

Once the door was open I walked straight for my bed and plopped down on it while staring at the ceiling. Serla was finally able to push through the wall that I had built up, and I no longer had the will to try to keep her back. Her projection was sitting on her haunches next to me. I could see her form out of the corner of my eye, but not her expression. I assumed it was judgmental.

“WHAT are you doing?! Get up. Right now. March your pretty little paws back to that house and—” Yep. Judgmental.

I rolled over on to my side and put a pillow over my ear. I wasn’t going back. Not anytime soon. Maybe not ever. Yes. Not ever sounded good. My eyes drifted to a stack of romance novels that I had standing on the corner of my bed. My body froze as I looked over the titles. No…

“What’s wrong?” I sat up so quickly that even Serla jumped.

“Do you think the Goddess takes wishes seriously?” I asked Serla as I began thumbing through one of the books in my pile.

“Emma… You know that birthday wishes are more just a fun thing for humans—”

“No, no… Look!” I shoved the book in front of Serla, open to the page I had been looking for. She tilted her head at me. Right. Wolves didn’t read. “The maiden’s eyes lifted slowly as she stood in the Alpha’s dining hall. All these years, she had never met face to face with the Alpha, had never seen his eyes. When she finally dared to look upon him, their eyes locked, and her breath hitched. It was him. He was the mate she had been searching for.” I closed the book and dropped it in my lap. “Doesn’t that seem a little familiar to you?”

Serla was quiet for a long moment that felt like an eternity before she spoke. “You really think that the Goddess granted your wish to make your life like a romance novel?” There was no hint of sarcasm in her voice, and I could tell she was also truly considering this now.

I nodded my response.

“What else usually happens? I admit… When you read those I generally tune you out.”

I rolled by eyes but caught the small upturn of her wolfish grin. “Usually? Guy meets girl. They fall in love. There’s always some kind of dire tragedy. Some kind of battle, or war, or…” I swallowed before I spoke the next word. “Kidnapping.”

“Kidnapping?!” If I didn’t know better, I’d half swear Serla barked as she spoke.

I nodded again. “Mhm. Or amnesia… Oh! There’s one book where an evil witch puts a hex on the couple out of jealousy an---”

“No… No. No.” Serla shook her head. Funny thing most people don’t know about wolves. They can facepalm. It’s a learned behavior, but Serla always made a spectacle of it. “You’re not getting kidnapped. The other packs are at peace, and you don’t know any witches. So long as you don’t fall and hit your head, we’ll be fine.” She looked at me more sternly now. “We both know the Goddess did not bless you with agility and balance, so we’ll really have to watch that one…”

I rubbed my closed eyelids with my fingertips, and then my temples before dropping my hands in to my lap. I was taking slow measured breaths now. In 1… 2… 3… 4… Out 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10. In 1… 2… 3… 4… Out 5… 6… 7… 8… 9… 10. Once I felt a little more grounded, I stood and walked to my counter. There I filled up my kettle and flipped the switch to let it boil. While I waited, I leaned back against the counter and crossed my arms.

“Do you think he’ll be mad at me?” I finally asked to the silence in the room.

“Mad? No. You’ll find it’s actually very difficult to be mad at your mate. Surprised, however? Most definitely.” Serla had once again taken on her normal mothering tone now that we both had calmed a moment. “I wouldn’t give it too long before he comes knocking on the door to take you back to the main house.”

“But I don’t want to live at the main house…” I mumbled in a childish, pouty way. I truly couldn’t see myself there. With all those super confident she-wolves roaming around. Many of which used to pick on me as a child. The air was different in that house. It was always tense. Stifling. At least that’s how it seemed to me.

Once my kettle clicked, I poured some coffee grounds and the hot water into a glass carafe and set my watch to four minutes after I gave it a good stir. When the timer went off I topped the carafe with the French press lid, and pushed down to separate the grounds from the coffee. I poured myself an extra-large cup today, and added a little more creamer than normal.

With another deep steadying breath and a mind full of thoughts, I meandered my way to my back door. This is one of the things I loved about this little duplex. It had a lovely covered back deck that I was allowed to decorate. So of course, I filled it with plants. Mints, cherry tomatoes, peppers, rosemary, basil, chives and more. The old man laughed at me when I first planted it, but quickly became impressed at how well I got everything to grow in little containers. Eventually he asked me to plant him some things on his porch too. Our decks faced the woods, but it just felt so peaceful to be surrounded by these little living things.

“Do you think he’ll reject me?” I asked once I had settled into my seat and crossed my legs with coffee cup in hand. Serla had taken to laying on the deck itself, resting her head on her paws.

“Does that happen in any of your books?”

“Well…” I looked down into my coffee mug. “Actually… it does.”

Serla’s ears fell back some and she stared out into the woods. “What happens when a mate gets rejected in your books?”

“Sometimes they find another mate. Though that only happened in one. The other times the girl either doesn’t know she has to also reject her mate, or refuses to also reject her mate and they end up falling for each other later on.”

Serla lifted her head to look at me. “So there’s always a happy ending?”

I nodded solemnly. “Unless it’s a series, then sometimes it’s a cliffhanger for a few books.”

“But in the end?”

I nodded again.

She stood and moved to sit next to me and laid her muzzle on my lap. “Then it sounds like you have nothing to worry over little pup.”

I sipped at my coffee mug slowly and stared out into the woods for a time. I took comfort in Serla’s words and relaxed. I had almost drifted off after a few moments when I saw movement behind one of the trees. Serla’s ears perked and she sat up as soon as she sensed my tension. “What is it?”

“That’s the border beyond those first few trees on the line, isn’t it?” I asked, still staring out there.

“Yes.”

“So no one from our pack would be there, right?”

Serla stood and padded down the deck steps with her nose high in the air and her ears twitching on alert. “Unless…” She sniffed a moment more and once satisfied, came to lay curled at my feet. “Patrol. They’re likely just walking the border since it’s census day. They smell of our pack whoever it was.”

I nodded, as I often did when I couldn’t think of anything in particular to respond with. I would think that if it had been a patrol, they would have kept walking by. I could swear they stopped and went back… almost as if they were hiding. Perhaps it was just my half-asleep state that had imagined it.

I took another sip of my coffee and set it on the small circular glass table next to me. I wriggled and scooched down in my chair with my legs hanging over the side until I was comfortable and closed my eyes once more. Maybe after a nap I could figure out what to do. Maybe I’d call Darren and actually talk to him.

Maybe…