“I don’t know. Her words brought me untold peace, surely that amounted to something on her end.” Serena moved away from the book again, to look out my bedroom window.
“Serena, will it always be like this for our line from now on? Or do you think the reign of two will end with Willow and I?”
“I wish I knew what the future held for all of us, but in this, my guess would be as good as yours. It’s possible that you two will be the only time in history, or in the future, that we will see two white wolves together. It’s also possible that each one born in the line will become something more from here on out.” She shrugged. “That wasn’t very much help, was it?”
“Not really, but I didn’t think I was going to get a different answer. I guess I just wanted someone to reassure me that everything would be alright in the end.”
“My sweet girl, you’ve raised your daughter well. I have all the confidence in the world that between the two of you, our people-both yours and mine-will know peace for a long while to come.”
“Thank you, Serena.”
“Being able to share this with you is thanks enough, Jessica. I wanted you to know, I spelled the book. It will never run out of space. For each new white wolf born, new pages will be added. Let your history, my history, be passed through each generation, so that they may always know, and learn from their ancestors.”
~*~
“Okay, enough with the suspense already, why on earth are we here?” I remembered sharing that same impatience when I was Willow’s age. It gave me hope that she’d one day outgrow a little of it too.
“I don’t know if you can feel the change coming, but I have, for months.” Willow just looked at me like I had lost my mind, so I assumed she indeed had not felt the changes starting. “I brought you here, under the full moon, to show you your legacy.”
I took the book out of the bag I’d carried to the cliff face. The silver gilding caught the moonlight perfectly, casting it’s own spell of beauty around the book. The air was crisp that night, and I could still hear the rustling of the leaves in the forest below us as the pack ran by. I longed to stretch my legs and run with them. I was actually chilled to the bone up here on the cliff like this, and to be honest, I wished for the warmth of my fur, but this moment was far more important than anything else I could be doing or comfort I wished to seek. Jack stood, a ways back from us, in his ethereal wolf form. It would never fail to awe me, seeing him like that. He was magnificent. He had also learned valuable lessons about distance, and the difference between excitement and emergency. One more thing he learned was that in wolf form, all he had to do was think of one or the other of us, and he would be transported there in the blink of an eye. No barriers could withstand him. I had often wondered how Jack was supposed to watch over so many of us at once, but the answer came with his abilities.
He didn’t stand back there alone. I noticed that just a little ways past him, Jack Jr. stood. His wolf form was a light gray shot through lighter hints of that electric blue. His blue markings didn’t shift and move with him as Jack’s did, but it was clear that our trip to the other side had left his mark on him as well. Jack Jr. was also lucky enough to receive what we all dubbed as lighting speed. He couldn’t quite flash to one of us, but his run, when he needed to be somewhere, wasn’t much slower.
Willow was still standing there, looking up wistfully at the moon. She had not noticed the book I held in my hands yet. I moved then, to get her attention, and once she saw what I had in my hand she remained silent for a heartbeat or two, stunned by the fact that I was finally giving her the book she’d begging me to look at since she learned to talk. “This is the history of the white wolves!” She finally trilled out excitedly.
“I know; I helped write it.” I smiled at her, knowing I would have been just as excited to receive such a thing had it been available to me.
“I’ve been begging you to show me for years. Why now?”
“Because now, you are ready.”
Willow plopped down on the smooth, cool, rock surface of the cliff and opened the book to the first page. Her earlier arguments about wanting to run with Ashley’s daughter, Drea, were lost to her then. I stood there, watching her for a moment, seeing her dark chocolate locks bounce freely over her shoulders and rain down her back as she skimmed the pages of the book. Each of her movements, as she flipped the pages, making the curls in her hair ripple like lake water on a breezy day. Her emerald eyes found mine then as she offered up her thanks to me.
I sat down beside my daughter then, and put my arms around her shoulders as I spoke. “You’re going to transition soon. You should know everything before then. There is no need to thank me, sweetheart. I wish someone had passed something like this on to me, it sure would have made things a whole lot easier.” Willow sat the book down in her lap, so that her hands were now free to return the hug.
“Will we both be white wolves once I transition?” She asked.
“Yes, we will be the first pair of white wolves to ever live at the same time.” I smiled at her. “That makes up epically awesome, my dear!” I said to her, channeling a bit of my younger self and a bit of Serena, who always seemed far older and wiser than I could ever understand being.
“I’m glad I get to do this with you, mom. I can’t imagine how scary it must have been for you, not knowing your own history. Thank you for not keeping me in the dark the way your parents did.”
“My parents had their reasons for hiding things from me. They meant well. I chose to do things differently, and hopefully, that will mean it works out better for you.” I laughed then. “Not that it worked out horrible for me, though. My mate was the talk of the packs, everyone wanted him.” I winked at my daughter. “And not to mention, I got a pretty great daughter from the whole ordeal. One who has had a bit magic in her since birth, I might add.”
“Well, we can thank Aunt Natalia for that one.”
“Yes, her blessing certainly did come in handy a few times.”
Willow’s cheeks turned red, because one of those times, she had been making out with her crush, a boy two years older than her, who was a complete jerk, not to mention a total moron for even thinking he would get away with trying to deflower the White Wolf Ruler’s daughter and walk away. In thinking I would understand, he forgot about her father, who totally didn’t. When everything got a little too hot and heavy, Mikael was there, having seen what we called Willow’s anxiety glow, from the bushes behind the house. “Let’s not bring that up ever again, okay?” Willow asked, humiliation still straining her voice to this day when she talked about it.
“Let’s not mention what?” I teased.
“Exactly. There’s nothing to mention, except this book…” And just like, my little girl was almost lost to the pages of our history again. Then she noticed Jack’s movement out of the corner of her eye, as he shifted into a different position. “We owe him a lot, don’t we?”
“We do, and our entire line will as well.”
“I owe him more than the others ever will.” She said, turning back to me.
“Why is that?”
“He is the reason you came back to us. What would I have done without you here?”
“Well, your father would probably have you under lock and key 24 hours a day-seven days a week, so I see your point. You do owe Jack a great deal.” We both laughed at that, especially when we heard Jack’s wolf snort. He had, of course, heard our entire exchange, and would no doubt torment us relentlessly over the next few days about how we owed him, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
I sat with Willow on the cliff’s edge for a while, giving her time to read through everything when I heard footsteps approaching from just beyond where Jack was positioned.
Jack Jr. had long since run off to join the pack, and Jack’s demeanor never changed, so I knew I didn’t have anything to fear. Mikael stepped into the clearing then, looking just as handsome as he had on our first official date together, the one that changed my mind abo
ut him in the first place. He still had a scruffy five o’clock shadow covering his jawline, and his eyes shown like two jewels in the moonlight as he closed the distance between us. “I came to see if the two of you were going to join us on the rest of the run.”
“I don’t think so,” Willow called back over her shoulder. “Did you know that Aislynn had two daughters of her own before she was killed?” I could see the blush of embarrassment on Willow’s face as she continued to prattle on. “Of course you did, you wrote all of this.” She continued to mumble under her breath when she thought my attention was back on Mikael. “Way to be a dumbass, Willow. I’ll just prove to mom how totally unworthy of this book I am…” she blew out a sigh, and flipped the page, entranced once more, and embarrassment forgotten.
“What about you, my love?” Mikael held out his hand to me. I took it, and allowed him to pull me in closer. “Would you like to get naked and go run wild with me?”
“Ewww, I can still hear you, you know?” Willow called out as she flipped another page.
“Let’s leave her to it then.” I offered, and winked at Jack, who I knew would stay put while Willow was out there reading through the book. His wolf head bobbed in agreement, as if he had read my mind, and I took off with Mikael. Once we got down the trail that led into the forest of our pack lands I willed my wolf to come forth, and we were running side by side in an instant. My white wolf, and his black wolf with silver markings were a deep contrast to one another, and yet we moved as one unit. My partner. My mate. One third of my life. Happiness had found us at last, and I would do everything in my power to keep it that way for another lifetime, if I could.
The Awakening Trilogy
Birthrights
Revelations
Incarnations
The Ancients Series
Shadows of the Ancients
Falling into the White
Branches of the Willow
Bound by the Moon
Death Viewers Series
Breathless
The Voodoo Follies
The Voodoo Follies
Falling Star Series
Catch a Falling Star
Replicas
The Daniels Clan Trilogy
Becoming One
Christine M. Butler was born in a Naval hospital in Virginia, and while she was staring into the doctor's eyes as he marveled at her exceptionally long umbilical cord, all she was thinking was, 'I need to write this stuff down so I don't forget it.' Hey, believe what you want, that's her story and she's sticking to it! As soon as she could pick up pencil and paper and get those stories and poems out of her head, she was doing it. Christine is the author of multiple paranormal fantasy books for both adults and young adults. She currently lives with her children and dog in Greenville, NC. Go Pirates!
Find out more about her in the following places:
www.moonlitdreams.org
www.authorchristinembutler.moonlitdreams.org
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/M00nlitDreams
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/354490.Christine_M_Butler
The Ancients Series Page 82
