Seven: Ellery Corbin
1218 Words
Seven:
Ellery Corbin
Before her eyes, Landry Thayer went from being an attractive, twenty-something to a wolf. His eyes flashed yellow before it happened. When he morphed, the wolf before her was larger than an ordinary one. His fur was brown. Landry’s wolf walked over and nudged her hand with his wet nose. When he did, an image of Landry’s human form flashed in her mind. She saw him standing alone, in the forest. He walked slowly towards her and reached out to stroke her face gently with his fingers.
They were long, thin fingers, and his hands were rough. But when he touched her, Ellery shivered. “Landry,” she murmured.
There was a flash, and she was back standing before the Crescent Manor entrance. Landry was standing before her as a human again. Naked, she realized with a blush. He was muscled, the kind of muscle that came from working out. There was also a tattoo on the right side of his chest. It was a crescent moon, with a fleur-de-lis over it.
Ellery couldn’t help but reach out to touch it. “What is it?”
“It’s our pack symbol,” Landry explained, “the tattoo appears when we’re eighteen. Every member has it. Once we mate, you’ll get one too.”
Ellery pulled her hand back. “Mate?”
Landry smiled at her. “Why don’t you come in? I can explain this better.”
Ellery glanced over her shoulder down the driveway. She had just seen a man turn into a wolf before her eyes. Her hand inched towards her pocket where her cell phone was, and she thought about calling Deacon to pick her up. “This doesn’t make sense.”
Landry nodded. “I know that it doesn’t make sense. I know it’s a lot to take in. Let me help you understand this world. Please.”
Ellery had never been inside Crescent Manor. The Thayers didn’t really spend that much time in Glacier Falls. There were rumors they spent a lot of their time in France, where the family was originally from. The brothers, of which there were four, and one sister that had died mysteriously when she was a teenager. If she stepped foot into Crescent Manor, she entered into the world of creatures that had killed her dad.
Maybe not them directly, but they were still like them. Creatures that could turn on you. You never had any idea when you would be the one they were tearing to shreds if you did something wrong. As for the idea of mating with one?
Landry was pulling on his clothes then. They’d fallen off when he was in wolf form. There was no denying that he was good-looking. But Ellery wasn’t very experienced in the ways of the world. She was twenty and would be twenty-one on Friday. She’d kissed a few boys, gone on a few dates, and had a total of two serious boyfriends. At that time though, she hadn’t had s*x. It wasn’t something that had come up because they’d been so young, and she had no idea if she were even ready for that step.
“This whole thing,” Ellery said, “I’m the one that gets to decide if it goes forward, right?”
Landry opened his mouth as if to speak and seemed to think better of what he was going to say. “The Huntresses exist to help make humans safe from the Moon Children. The goddess likes balance. You’re the last of the Corbin Huntresses, as far as we know. You decide whether or not we’re allowed to stay in Glacier Falls. That’s how it’s always worked. Your grandma knew that there needed to be more Huntresses, and she wasn’t sure that would happen if you mated with a mortal. To be safe, she arranged for you to be my mate.”
“How long do I have to decide if I want to do this?”
“Until your next birthday,” he said.
“What happens if I decide not to be your mate?”
“Then, the treaty between the Huntresses and the wolves is broken. The Moon Children will have to leave Glacier Falls, and our own little community of Moon Falls will cease to exist.”
“Moon Falls?” Ellery scrunched her nose. “What’s Moon Falls?”
“It’s where all of the Moon Children live. It was built by my family. I can show you it today if you want. I can show you everything.”
“What does being a Huntress mean?” Ellery asked. “Does that make me a killer?”
Landry hesitated. “I’m not the best person to answer that. I haven’t had too much experience with them. My dad will know more. He’s been alpha for ages, and he knew your grandma.”
“Did he know my aunt?” Elle asked.
Landry raised an eyebrow. “Your aunt?”
“My mom says that I have an aunt. She left when she was eighteen. She hasn’t been back since, but mom says she’s going to call her to bring her back so I can get some help with all of this mess.”
Landry hesitated. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Why’s that?”
“From what I know of your aunt, she’s not a Huntress. She was rescued by your grandma when she was a kid. There was an attack that was blamed on wolves, like your dads, and she was the lone survivor.”
“So, she wouldn’t know anything about being a Huntress?”
“Probably not.”
Ellery’s face fell. There had gone her last hope of getting answers from someone in her family.
“But there’s plenty of creatures that can help assist you.”
“Why would they?” Ellery said. “I’m supposed to kill creatures like you.”
“Yes. But to be a Huntress isn’t just to kill indiscriminately. To be a Huntress is to be a keeper of justice. The only time you would kill another creature is if they had hurt another human.”
“Like the wolf that killed my dad?” she asked.
Landry ran a hand over his scruff. “Yes, exactly like that.”
Ellery didn’t know if he was saying this to appease or, or because he truly believed that a wolf-like him had killed her dad. Whatever the case, Ellery appreciated that he didn’t try to insist that all wolves were incapable of something like that. Or that it was something else that had killed her father.
It was a year of her life she had to invest in this. No more and no less. She could do that for her dad, couldn’t she?
“Okay,” Ellery said, “okay. I’ll…come into your world, I guess.”
Landry smiled at her. “Good. I was hoping you’d say that.”
He reached out to take her hand and pulled her inside. Once she was in, the door to the house slammed on its own.
Elle jumped. “What the hell was that?”
Landry smirked. “First lesson. We live in a magic house. Things move on their own.”
- Writer
