Chapter 3
2081 Words
It’s the day of the Yule festival and the bright colours are everywhere! People are dancing and singing in the streets, and Circe feels overwhelmed by it all. She was incredibly excited to go to the first festival at home, but when she didn’t meet her mate after the second festival, her excitement died down.
After Isobel met her mate, Circe started making peace that it wasn’t meant to be and festivals lost their spark for her. She became the calmer sister who saw herself as the future, responsible sister that would be the Alpha and that didn’t have time to waste on silly festivals.
But now her life is different, and she watches the young children run through the streets squealing happily with ribbons flowing through the air as they hold them up high.
She also had dreams once.
“Stop it!” She reprimands herself.
“What?” Ariel looks at her wide-eyed, and she remembers that she’s not in the city alone.
“Not you, these… Children!” She softly growls, pretending to be slightly agitated. Ariel laughs at her, telling her that she can try and fool herself, but she should try and fool Ariel, but Circe simply rolls her eyes.
“I’m simply here to keep an eye on you, old woman. What if you break your hip? Who is going to take care of you then?” Another young girl runs down the street, but she trips and hits the ground in front of Circe, who rushes to grab her and help her up.
After dusting her off and wiping away her tears, she stands up to see an amused Ariel staring at her.
“WHAT? I couldn’t just let her be trampled!”
They buy something to eat from one of the street vendors, and Circe can swear that the food tastes better than usual. Then she feels a shiver run down her spine and Ariel frowns at her, asking her what is going on. She explains that she’s not sure, but it almost feels as if someone is watching her, but that she’s been very careful and has even checked.
They shrug it off and move on to check in with the little royals before finding a spot to watch the royal procession from. Another first for Circe will be to watch the royal family walk through the streets and hand out gifts to the people. It’s still a little strange to think of her sister as the queen, but she is happy for her.
She admits that she was a little jealous when she found out originally and definitely relieved to think that Tabatha wouldn’t be at the pack grounds to challenge the position of pack alpha… but now neither would she.
Ariel wanders off and talks to people all over the place, making Circe roll her eyes as she tries to keep to the shadows, but she can’t help stepping into the light when the prosession steps into the street where they are. As she expected, her sister isn’t in a car or on a horse away from the people. She is walking beside a wagon, personally handing gifts to their subjects, and she looks really happy with Erik by her side.
Circe’s niece and nephew are riding on the wagon with the retired king and queen, and to Circe’s surprise, so are her parents! They must have come through to the city to spend the holiday with their grandchildren, but it’s a shock to her system to actually see them, and she feels a pang in her heart as she realizes how much she’s been missing them.
Her entire family, in fact.
She turns her back on them, and Ariel’s gaze catches her eyes, making her decision to walk away and disappear into one of the alleys. Ariel rushes after wanting to know why she disappeared after she was so excited to be there, and all she can think of is that she was scared that her parents might recognize her.
Thankfully, Ariel doesn’t prod any further. She seems to notice Circe’s discomfort, however, and Circe wants to burst out laughing when Ariel clearly fakes being tired, and they leave the festivities early.
Ariel can fly home, and Circe can shift and run, but they decide to walk through the forest and enjoy the scenery of the day. The happy sounds from the city carry for a while but eventually disappears into the silence of the forest and only their voices can be heard.
That’s when Ariel starts to dig in her heels and asks about Circe’s dreams.
***
Harro is surprised to see the woman’s reaction when the royals pass them, especially after seeing her go to the castle every day. What could she be hiding? Is she planning on assassinating the children? Kidnapping them from the castle? But then her dreams make him think otherwise!
She isn’t trying to hurt them; he is sure of that. Her dreams tell him that she is a woman in terrible pain, and he has this feeling that she is related to the royal family. But today a small little sliver of information about her is revealed, making him both excited and a little more nervous about following her in her dreams.
She is friends with a witch… And from what he could read about the witch, she is a pretty old one. Although she doesn’t look it, her magic radiates off her with such power, he would have to tread incredibly lightly in the woman’s dreams.
That is if he can stop himself from running around them! He hasn’t been able to figure out why he is drawn to her dreams so naturally, and although intriguing, it’s also concerning.
He remembers from his lessons as a young child, that when a dream walker is drawn to a person like this, they usually have to help that person with something very important, but she has this powerful witch by her side, and he is the last of his kind.
If he is found, he will definitely be killed and all that after he has been working so hard to stay out of danger.
He makes his way home, chewing on a blade of grass as his mind dwells around why this is happening when the rogue wolf leader pops up in front of him.
“You are late!”
“I was just getting your money.”
“Good, because you are late, and you know that when you are late, I get angry.”
Harro rummages through his cloak pocket and pulls out the bag of coins.
“What the hell is this?”
“Your payment.” He grins.
“Ten percent of everything I earned in the past week. That’s what we agreed, right?”
“This can’t be all of it?!” The wolf growls and Harro bites his cheek.
Unfortunately, it is. He has been so busy following the girl, that he hasn’t been doing his best to earn some proper money to give to the rogue as payment for living on his territory…
“It is, people were spending their money on Yule, not on dancing beggars like me.” He shrugs in the hopes that the rogue believes his playing a dumb act.
“Do you take me for a fool?!! I will be back in two days! I will expect more than this then!” He grabs the bag of coins from Harro and turns around, shifting on his way. Harro breathes a sigh of relief and walks into his house.
If he didn’t need the place to hide, he would make that wolf mad!! But for the moment he requires his protection, for what it’s worth. After that enlightening experience, he needs to clear his chakras and sits down next to the fire, breathing in the steam and aromas of the essential oils.
Something feels strange… And cold, and he pops open his one eye, only to realize he is no longer in his hut in front of his fire.
“Damn!! This girl is addictive!!” He gets up and takes a look around the dark wooden area. It’s nothing like the dead, dry area he was in before. This one is lush, and the air is clean and fresh, filled with the scent of a flower he can’t place… He hears people laughing and some howling, and a soft light burns in the distance.
Softly moving closer, he realizes that this has to be a dream of when she was younger. Could this be a dream of her home and her family? His curiosity gets the better of him, and he moves closer.
***
Circe dreams of the night she met Leloo. She was so excited that she nearly turned her parent's entire house upside down on her way out to the celebrations. It was before her father had the huge pack hall built, and they were still having the celebration outside in the pack square.
A simpler time.
They danced around the bonfire, and she had friends. A time before everyone thought of her as the stuck-up warrior daughter of the Alpha, and before she felt like she had to protect them all.
She just wanted her special friend with who she could share her secrets like she always dreamed of.
When she shifted the first time, it wasn’t nearly as painful as her friends because of her blood, and when she heard Leloo’s voice for the first time, she felt like jumping out of her skin with excitement. Leloo was so calm and collected. It was as if she knew that they were meant to play a very important part in the pack one day.
They talked for hours while doing their patrols, and while they were training, whether it was for the pack or for the coven, Leloo would always push Circe to do more, be better. She is truly Circe’s other half, and the reason Circe’ so easily made peace with the fact that she would probably never find her mate.
She is Circe’s complete opposite, but they complement each other perfectly, so when she was hurt by the poison, it felt as if Circe was about to lose the most significant part of herself.
Dreaming of being together when they were younger brought back all those special feelings they shared, and Circe stretches and yawns, happily waking up as the sun’s rays shine through the open front door of the cabin.
“ARIEL!!!!”
“No need to shout.”
“What time is it?” Circe sits upright, feeling confused.
“Mid-day. You seemed so tired that I let you sleep.”
“Are you insane?! I had to check on the children!!” Circe feels her heart race as she rushes to make her bed and get dressed.
“They will probably not have been in the garden this morning. It’s Yule, Circe. The royal family always spends the morning having a late breakfast and then handing out gifts to the palace staff.”
“Oh, wait, how do you know that?”
“I know a lot of things. Come on. I’ve found us some nice food of our own for our first Yule breakfast feast.” Circe sniffs the air and is surprised when she finds the table filled with sweet pork, mashed potatoes, green beans, and a bunch of other stuff.
“This looks more like dinner.” She takes a seat and starts to dish up.
“It usually is, but I thought we could eat it for breakfast. You haven’t eaten a proper meal in a long time, and with it being a special occasion, and the fact that we are clearly not going anywhere today. I thought a hot meal and a long day of lying about will do us good.” Ariel laughs, making Circe tilt her head.
“And what exactly are we going to do while we lay about this old hut of yours?”
“I can conjure up a television if you want. Maybe watch a Christmas movie or two just for the hell of it?”
“There’s no electricity.” Circe’s face is blank as she looks at the insane witch in front of her. Their pack grounds were pretty isolated, but they at least had electricity.
“Girl! Are you ever going to learn anything about being a witch?”
- Writer
