Her Heart or His Desire

Familiar Faces

(Minka P.O.V.)

Dawn was my favorite time to run.

Maybe it was because my wolf Astra was named after the stars and we could still see them twinkling in the horizon. Maybe it was the way the land around us came to life as the sun rose over the mountains. Whatever it was I always made sure we were out on our favorite cliffside overlooking the pack house when the sun came up.

Astra found a patch of snow that hadn't started to melt as the seasons transitioned from winter to spring and laid in it. We loved the winter and now that the last remnants of it were slowly disappearing we found whatever joy we could in what little was left of it. With the way we loved the cold months and how Astra looked, you'd think we were an arctic wolf. Like the she-wolves that were Alpha before me, my wolf's size was unusually large for a female. Our fur was white with silver and gray undertones with black on the tips of our tail and paws so blending into the snow was an easy task. What caught everyone's attention though wasn't the fact that our fur sometimes looked silver under the moonlight but it was our eyes. My eyes were a hazel with gold hues and Astra, her eyes looked like gold pearls.

The stars started fading as the sky began to brighten into a brilliant blue. Despite the first rays of the sun already out it was unusually quiet.

Astra sat up suddenly alert.

"It's too quiet," she said, taking in her surroundings.

"It feels like someone is watching us," my heart was beating uncontrollably.

We could sense an incredible amount of power coming from the woods. What if this was the man in my nightmares? Would he be brazen enough to come all this way after staying hidden in the shadows for so long? Not likely but he would have probably hired someone to come get me. This presence I was sensing was strong but nowhere near as strong as the man that comes to me in my sleep.

"Calm down, child,"Astra tried talking to me soothingly, I was beginning to panic as the power signature began to get closer.

I took two calming breaths to steady my nerves and as soon as I did the invader started coming closer at a blinding speed. Twigs and branches snapped as they flew from one tree to the next until finally they jumped down in front of me, inches from Astra's face.

The shock of someone suddenly appearing made my powers send out a protective surge, blasting the tall dark figure back into the trees. The power I used immediately depleted any energy I had. Before I passed out I sent a mind link to Deianira letting her know I was in trouble. I was hoping she would be able to create a portal here before the intruder came back for me. Thankfully she appeared just as I was shifting back.

She crouched next to me and covered me with a sweater just as the intruder appeared behind her. My eyes must have widened in fear because she turned around quickly but instead of sending them off with a blast of magic she yelled at them, "What the hell happened?" She had her lecture tone and everything she was saying was starting to become muffled when finally I let the darkness consume me, confident that Deianira would take me home safely.

I expected the black out. Deianira and mother had warned me about them long before my powers had started to awaken. What I had not expected though were the visions that had come with it.

Astra was standing guard next to me. Her golden eyes were scanning the horizon and her ears twitching for sounds of any kind. I took a step forward and heard a familiar crunch of ice under my feet. I looked down and saw I was standing in a few inches of snow. I looked around and saw that the area we were encompassed in was shrouded in white. A white mist, white snowy floor and even a blinding white light when I looked up into the sky.

"Where are we? And why can I see you?" I asked, running my hands down Astras' back.

'We are in your subconscious. You are seeing what I see when I am in your head. But this doesn't feel the same somehow,' she said without breaking her concentration, 'Come. Something is waiting for us in the distance.'

"I can sense it pulling us to. It doesn't feel dangerous, so what do we think it could be?"

'Only one way to find out," she laid down and waited for me to climb on top of her.

"I'm not riding you like a horse. We'll run side by side." I snorted unamused by her offer.

I could feel her smiling, 'You have no idea how glad I am you said that. Let's get going then,' she said, as we started running towards the mysterious pull.

(Genevieve P.O.V.)

When I crossed into Crimson Woods territory I hadn't expected to shoot back into the woods with so much force that it nearly broke my back. I also hadn't realized it had been almost twenty years since I had seen Alpha Anya, Simon and Deianira and my power signature was unfamiliar to the Alpha heiress. With everything going on that I was now caught up on, it was no wonder she had panicked and sent me flying. The problem with that was she is untrained in her magic and used way more in one sitting than she was physically able to handle and passed out.

"She's lucky you weren't a real threat to her," Anya mumbled as she paced the floor of Minka's room.

I raised an eyebrow and she stopped and rolled her eyes, "You're not a threat as in you mean her no harm not that you can't... You know what never mind, you know exactly I mean," she huffed in annoyance as I ruffled her feathers.

"Yeah, yeah," I smiled. I loved giving these wolves a hard time, "So do we know when she'll wake up?"

"Unfortunately not. Her powers are new and she has no training in how to control them so she expelled a lot of it when you scared the crap out of her. When Jace and Gemma told me about their journey in getting Crimson Woods back and they were helping Alpha Sadie train, her powers were coming in slowly so she rarely over exerted herself. When she did use too much power they said she would be passed out anywhere from a few hours to one or two days," Deianira said looking at Minka nervously, "With the amount of power I felt her release I have a feeling she won't be waking up anytime soon. Once the twins get here, they'll be able to tell us a little more."

"Twins? Christina and Noel are coming down to," I asked, excited to see the kids again after so long.

"Dylan is coming down too. Whoever is after Minka is powerful and we need as many people as we can get to help train her."

"Speaking of brothers and training and stuff Nikolai is also coming down. He was a few days into an assignment and will be here after he's done but I have a feeling that we are going to need his help with Minka as well."

Nikolai was my younger brother and not a fan favorite among wolves, or anyone really but he was far more experienced than I was when it came to killing unknown monsters that go bump in the night. Deianira and Anya didn't say anything but then again if the expression on their faces was any indication on how they were feeling on the subject they were not happy.

"Fine. But if he causes any problems with the Council I'm personally kicking his ass out through our gates regardless of how old you guys think I look now," she said looking at Minka's sleeping body and subconsciously tucking a gray hair behind her ears.

Minka looked like Deianira and Anya, her inherited red wine colored hair from Sullivan, their times whatever great grandfather, wizard turned wolf. But Minka was also related to Sadie and she had the same caramel colored skin and peach colored lips. But her eyes... both she and her wolf's eyes were something I hadn't seen in a wolf before. Minka's eyes were clearly brown but in the light of the sun they shined like she had a million little pieces of gold thread in them and her wolf, her eyes reminded me of Sage except instead of silver they were a pearlized gold.

I felt a little guilty that my arrival caused her to pass out the way she did but it might end up being for the better. Without even having formally met her yet I was already able to get a brief assessment of the kind of power she has access to. I looked at the ladies and shook my head, "Everyone hasn't even arrived yet and there's already drama," I muttered leaving Minka's room so they could make preparations to care for her in case her sleep was longer than a few hours. Whatever was coming I hoped she would be ready for it because until it does she was going to be busting her ass to make sure she can protect herself from anything and everyone.