by Lola Gabriel
It was a home cleansing ritual they would do every solstice, but Asra was convinced it didn't amount to anything. It was supposed to declutter and cleanse the house, but her grandmother had so much stuff in her home that it would take forever to get rid of everything.
“Hey,” Asra said as she entered, and her mother and grandmother looked up at her.
“Hey, honey. What are you doing here?” her mother asked.
Asra smiled at her mother and approached them. “I came to talk to you about—”
“Did you do something different with your hair?” her grandmother asked.
“Uhm, no. I brushed it this morning,” Asra answered.
“No, there’s something different about you,” her grandmother said and regarded her appraisingly. “You look more radiant than usual.”
“Thank you,” Asra answered slowly.
“What did you want to talk to us about?” her mother asked.
“I think maybe you should sit down,” Asra said, and her mother studied her with a frown. “Both of you.”
Her mother and grandmother exchanged worried glances but walked to the couch closest to them and sat.
“Now, before I say anything, I don't want either of you to freak out, interrupt me, or walk out before I’ve said everything that I want to say to you. Okay?”
“Should we start worrying?” her mother asked.
“Mom, I honestly don’t know how to answer that,” Asra shrugged.
Her grandmother pursed her lips and nodded. “The floor is yours, dear.”
“Thank you,” she said and took a deep breath, hoping it would ease her pounding heart. “I’m pregnant.”
She watched as her mother and grandmother’s faces paled, and they stared at her blankly.
“Okay, I have to admit that I didn't expect you to actually wait for me to say everything, but I’m impressed,” she sighed a breath of relief, although she knew they were bound to say something after she told them about Cole.
Her mother raised her hand quietly and asked, “Can I ask who the father is?”
“His name is Cole Wylde.”
The two expressions on her mother and grandmother’s faces were completely different, but summarized both their feelings perfectly. Her mother’s shoulders slumped, and she glared at Asra with disappointment, and her grandmother simply stared at her, her face reddening with every moment that passed.
“I know that you both are upset with me right now. I can see it on your faces, but I’m done with you dictating to me what I should do with my life,” Asra stated with resolve.
Her grandmother stood from the couch and glared at her furiously. “And now you’re abandoning your family for a wolf? Do you even know what they are capable of, or are you too blinded by his charm to see him for who he truly is? He is a monster, Asra!”
“No! You’re wrong. He is not a monster, or at least not the type of monster you think,” Asra said.
“Do you even know what his father did? How many members of our coven had suffered and perished because of the things he had done?” her grandmother growled.
“That was his father. Cole is nothing like him,” Asra defended him.
“Sons of wolves are always like their fathers!”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” Asra declared angrily.
Her mother stood up and slowly approached her daughter. “Calm down, both of you.”
“Do not tell me that you are condoning her behavior,” her grandmother huffed, appalled.
“Of course not, Mother, but—”
“But nothing,” her grandmother snapped at her mother.
Asra stood perfectly still, baffled at the way her mother and grandmother were now arguing with one another, completely forgetting about her.
Accusations were flying all of a sudden, with her grandmother blaming her mother for tainting Asra by having her with a non-magical man, and in an unexpected turn, her mother accusing her grandmother of doing the same thing with her.
Asra gaped in disbelief at the blind hatred the two women had for one another at that moment—as well as the things she wasn't even aware of and was hearing for the first time.
Asra had lived with the knowledge that her grandmother completely despised her father because he was just an ordinary human, but never had she imagined her grandfather was also a normal human. She wanted to know why her grandmother hated humans so much, but that had to wait. She raked her fingers irately through her hair, on the verge of screaming out at the top of her lungs. Her mother and grandmother were behaving like children and Asra had had enough of all the accusations and their behavior.
“Enough!” she called out, and her outcry silenced them at once. “I’ve had enough of this, of all of this. I am not a child any longer, and I can make my own decisions. I have spent most of my life pleasing you, but no matter what I did, I was still unhappy.”
Her mother and grandmother stood in silence, watching her with wide eyes.
“I know you both love me, and you love each other too, but I love Cole, whether you like it or not. I don’t know how to accurately explain to you how this happened, and there’s no way to describe what I’m feeling right now. Every time I see him, or hear his voice, something deep down inside me goes crazy for him,” Asra sighed and turned to her mother. “And I know that’s not something you want to hear coming from your daughter, but—”
“There was nothing you could do,” her mother said simply.
“Exactly, just like there was nothing you could do to stop falling in love with my father,” Asra said and then addressed her grandmother, “and you from falling in love with my grandfather.”
Her grandmother scoffed and crossed her arms.
“You don’t get it, do you? I am finally happy with him. I don’t care what he is, what matters to me is what he feels for me, and the way he makes me feel,” Asra explained. “Don’t you want me to be happy?”
“Of course we do, Azzie, but we also want you to be safe,” her mother answered.
“But I am safe with Cole. He promised to keep me safe no matter what,” she explained.
“And you believe him? A wolf?” her grandmother asked.
“Yes,” Asra answered and approached her grandmother, taking her hand. “I feel it inside me.”
“Have you told him about the pregnancy?” her mother asked.
“I have,” she answered with a nod. “He’s just as scared as I am, but as long as we have each other, we can face anything.”
“Don’t be too sure about that, Asra,” her grandmother warned and stepped away.
“What do you mean, Grandma?”
“If the elders were to find out that you are involved with a wolf, there will be consequences.”
“Like what?” Asra exchanged glances with her mother, whose eyes were filled with dread. “What?”
“Because of the nature of our feud with them, anyone who has any involvement with the wolves, whichever pack they belong to, will be denounced as traitors and...”
“And what, Grandma?”
Her grandmother sighed and looked at Asra with dark eyes. “Executed.”
Asra didn't expect those words coming from her grandmother’s mouth, and she took a step back. “They’re going to kill me?”
A deathly silence fell over the house and the only sound Asra could hear was that of her own heart. Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head. “I won’t let them do that. I’ll just leave the coven. They won’t ever know about it.”
“I can’t let you do that, Asra,” her grandmother said, and her eyes darkened even more.
“Mom, what are you doing?” her mother asked in a panic.
A strong wind rose up around Asra’s grandmother, causing the air to darken, and she raised her hands in the air. “As a member of the council of elders, it is my obligation to the coven to bring your crime to light.”
“Mom, no. She’s my daughter!” Asra’s mother called out.
“It doesn't matte
r. I have an obligation towards the council—”
“What about the obligation towards your family?”
Asra watched in horror as her grandmother chanted loudly, the wind turning into a dark smoke and crawling towards her maliciously. Even though she was terrified, she knew she had to do something to stop her grandmother from imprisoning her inside an inanimate object.
Asra had seen her grandmother do this a few times and she knew how to stop it from happening. As the courage rose up inside her, a courage which she didn't even know she had, she raised her hands up at her grandmother and softly said her own incantation to counter it.
“Stop it!” Her mother’s voice sounded far away as the smoke around Asra started to lighten into a snow-white smoke, feeding off the energy that was inside her. As Asra’s anger started to rise at the thought of anyone harming her, her unborn baby, or Cole, the smoke suddenly turned blood red, as if someone had violently stabbed it and allowed it to bleed out.
Asra began to overpower her grandmother, which she found unbelievable. She had never imagined being a stronger witch than her grandmother. Although she had seen her grandmother in action many times before, she had felt inadequate when it came to magic. Everyone assumed it was because of her human father, but Asra suddenly realized what it was. She realized that their emotions fueled their magic, and her grandmother’s motivation was hatred and control, whereas Asra’s was love and protection for the ones she loved. The smoke soon turned into crimson bolts of lightning, which surprised Asra, as well as her mother and grandmother.
“Asra, please stop.”
Asra chose not to. The overwhelming feelings inside her could no longer be controlled, just like when she was younger.
When Asra thought back to that day, she couldn't really comprehend what had happened to make her feel that way, but standing in her grandmother’s living room, deterring her magic with her own, it suddenly dawned on her. It was the day after her father’s funeral, and everyone in their home kept saying how much better off Asra and her family was without him. She remembered the hurt she felt, and she felt those feelings inside her once again.
“Asra, stop!”
Her mother’s warning was lost on her as Asra stepped closer to her grandmother, pushing her up against the wall. Her grandmother’s eyes were wide, filled with terror, and a tear ran down her cheek.
The cold-hearted bitch has feelings after all, Asra thought.
Asra repeated the incantation one last time, as random objects burst into flames around the room, and in the far distance, she heard her mother begging her to stop. Flames started to fill the room as Asra’s fury fueled her hate-fire. Her mother grabbed her arm suddenly, yanking her away, and Asra looked at her mother’s terrified eyes for a moment. Although she wanted to stop, she was at that stage of her anger when she was uncontrollable.
Dangerously so.
Not even the most skilled witch in the world could gain control of this level of anger. She pushed her mother away from her, and as she watched her mother disappear behind the flames, her whole world suddenly came to a standstill. At that moment she realized that she was no better than the wolves, or the council.
She was the monster now.
She glanced around and noticed the flames surrounding her. Asra lowered her hands and the red lightning immediately vanished. A tear ran down her cheek, and she fell down on her knees.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and lowered her head. Smoke from the fire quickly started to fill the room and Asra coughed, struggling for breath. “I’m so sorry.”
10
Cole listened intently to Orin giving his report on what had happened to the Crescent wolves as he and Mash stood in front of the Deltas and Gammas of the pack. It was customary for any member of the pack to give their accounts of what happened, providing a full description of the Crescent wolves and who was involved in the incident. As a former member of the Alabama State Law Enforcement Agency, Cole wanted everything to be documented and presented to the Deltas and the Gammas, whose interest lay solely in the preservation of the pack. Any wolf who killed another wolf without having a good reason to do so would be either banished from the pack or executed. For killing a Crescent, if the wolf in question could prove it was, in fact, a Crescent, he would walk away with a warning to be careful, and that would be it.
To some, it might be a flawed system, as some wolves claimed that not all Crescents were as bad as their pack members, but Cole still had yet to meet a Crescent who wasn't. He was definitely not going to give a Crescent the benefit of the doubt, especially not after what had happened a few decades ago.
Cole had met a young wolf named Saron who had the Crescent tattoo, but she seemed harmless. She managed to convince him that she wanted out of the Crescent pack and he offered her a place to stay. He called for a meeting of the entire pack near Broken Top Peak, but midway through the meeting, Crescent Zetas attacked his pack, taking out more than thirty of his pack members in the process. He killed more than twenty Crescents that night, but it was a blow to his pack, and it took them a long time to recuperate from that attack. Ever since that day, he instilled the policy of the reports, and also not trusting anyone with the Crescent tattoo. He also gave any member of his pack the freedom to kill any Crescent on sight, and it had to be reported immediately.
Cole clenched his jaw as he listened to the detailed manner in which Orin described the wolves, and nodded every so often, confirming the details.
A strange feeling suddenly rose up inside him, and he straightened up in his chair. Mash, who stood beside Orin, glanced at Cole and frowned.
Cole stood from his chair and the pack members swiveled to look at him. “I’m sorry, I have to go.”
“What’s going on?” Mash asked.
“Are you done with Mash?” Cole asked the Gammas, to which they nodded. “Great, let’s go.”
Mash nodded obediently and followed Cole through the long hallway. An urgency inside Cole caused him to run down the stairs and out the side doors of the old warehouse where they usually held their meetings. He ran to his bike, but Mash called him over to his car.
They quickly climbed inside, and Cole ordered, “Plantation Road.”
Mash’s car roared to life, and he stomped on the gas, making the tires screech as they peeled out of the parking lot.
“What’s going on?” Mash asked again.
“Asra’s in trouble,” Cole said firmly. “Step on it.”
“Already on it,” Mash confirmed.
Mash’s sports car sped through the streets of Bend as if it was their own personal race track, and Cole nervously tapped his fingers on the armrest. Something was very wrong, he could feel it, and there was a bitter taste in his mouth. As they drove into her grandmother’s neighborhood—he only remembered where it was from her brief description of it—he immediately noticed smoke in the distance.
“Oh, shit,” he said in a panic. “Faster, Mash.”
Within a minute, Mash had stopped the car in front of Asra’s grandmother’s home and Cole gasped as he opened the door of the car. The whole house was ablaze, reminding him of their family home in Minnesota.
Cole’s memories swooped on him unexpectedly and all the pain, anger and guilt following the fire, as well as from the death of his parents, suddenly broke to the surface. It had been his fault that the Crescents had snuck around their property in the middle of the night. It was his fault that they had figured out he was the one who killed the Alpha’s son and had taken the gold coins. Before he could get the coins out of the house—as he had made the horrendous mistake of bringing the coins into their home in the first place—the Crescents had ambushed them with the attack.
Fear bubbled up inside him, reopening the wounds he had fought so desperately to stay closed.
“Cole?” Mash asked breathlessly.
Cole snapped out of his trance-like state and directed his gaze at Mash. “You don’t hate witches, do you?”
“They’ve never done anyth
ing to me, so, no, buddy,” Mash answered with reassurance and gave him an encouraging slap on the shoulder. “Come on.”
Cole took a deep breath, and they ran up the front steps. He kicked down the door easily, and he and Mash proceeded into the house. It made him anxious that Asra was somewhere there, and he searched for her between the flames, the smoke and the falling debris.
“Asra!” he called out into the inferno.
“Cole!”
He stopped suddenly and looked frantically around him. “Where are you?”
“Cole!”
He followed her voice as he made his way through the house, his heart beating in his throat. As he entered the next room, he saw her lying in the middle of the room on the ground. He rushed over to her and quickly scooped her up in his arms.
“My mom...”
“It’s okay. I’ve got you,” Cole whispered in her ear as he moved out of the room, hurrying towards the door. He wasn't sure where Mash was in all the chaos, but he was pretty sure Mash would be okay.
Mash was a natural fire deterrent, which would have come in really handy a few decades ago. Mash’s father was a firefighter, and the gene was passed down, but Mash never really had the desire to follow in his father’s footsteps, which was completely relatable to Cole.
Cole rushed outside and set Asra down on the grass. She gasped for air, coughing sporadically as he rubbed her back.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
She nodded and looked at him. “My mother and my grandmother are still in there.”
“I’ll be right back, okay?” he said and as he turned, he watched as Mash came out of the house, carrying Asra’s mother over his shoulder, as calm and collected as he had always been.
“I found one!” he announced triumphantly and laid her down on the grass.
“Cole,” Asra said with urgency as she grabbed his sleeve. “Please find my grandmother.”
Cole dropped a kiss on her forehead and said to Mash, “Stay here with them. Call an ambulance.”
