CHAPTER 4 - MEET THE PACK - AURORA'S POV
1666 Words
I woke hours later in an unfamiliar bed before I remembered that I couldn’t remember anything, so everything would be unfamiliar to me now.
Sweet scents filled the air all around me.
I blinked and sat up slowly, aware of how every movement sent sharp pain through my body.
I looked down at my body. one arm had been fully wrapped up, no question now that my arm was broken. The other was also wrapped but only around the bite mark.
I scanned the small room, it appeared to be made of wood, there was a large opening and once small open window but no door, I was lying on a soft bed on the wooden floor, the sweet scents I’d smelt were from bunches of flowers lying on silver trays on the ground next to me, someone had lit them and white smoke was billowing from them.
Slowly, I got up out of bed and saw that my clothes had been changed, my blue gown I had been wearing yesterday had been replaced with a long black dress and shoes. I sat on the edge of the bed and removed them. I didn’t understand it, but I knew that I didn’t like having things on my feet.
I took a deep breath that hurt my throat and crept to the opening of the room and peeked outside.
A large fire was lit in the center of the camp. Surrounding it were more huts like the one I was in, but they were larger and much nicer. There were two women sitting by the fire, one younger and the other slightly older. The younger woman was humming a tune to herself, and she stroked the flames with a long stick.
A man sat next to the other women. He held her hand as they looking into each other's eyes. They were speaking quietly to each other, it was one of the men from last night.
Suddenly, the girl by the fire stopped humming and sniffed the air. She smiled and looked over at me.
I jumped in fright and moved back into the hut.
"Amelia!" The man from last night rang out, "She's awake!"
I didn’t know what to do. Should I run? I wondered. Surely they wouldn't go to all the effort of saving me and tending to my wounds, only to wait for me to awaken so they could kill me themselves.
I took another breath and walked out of the hut to find nine sets of eyes on me as I emerged.
The three people from the fire, the witch from last night and a man standing protectively close to her, another couple stood behind them holding hands and another man and women were also holding hands, but they were closest to me. I took them all in as we all stared in silence at each other. No one spoke.
A movement to my left made me jump again and spin around. It was the other man from the clearing last night, but I could see him a lot better now in the light. He had short black hair that fell over his face towards his bright green eyes, his skin was pale like most of the others behind me.
He stared at me with the same intense look he’d given me last night. I felt nervous as I looked at him, but I also felt the same sense of familiarity that I'd felt last night when I'd seen him. I knew him somehow. I trusted him.
I felt my brow fall in confusion. Did I know this man?
"My name is Amelia," A woman spoke from behind me. I turned and saw that it was the women from last night. "I am the leader of this pack."
I looked at her, but I couldn’t think of anything to say, and she just stared at me, they all stared at me.
"I had a vision of you." She continued, "I saw that you were in danger last night."
"What is your name?" The man behind me asked, interrupting Amelia as though it was the most important question in the world.
I turned to look at him again, his voice made me relax, but I couldn’t understand how. If he didn’t know my name, then I didn’t know him and I shouldn’t feel so comforted by his presence and voice.
"Aurora," I whispered, unable to look away from his face. "My name is Aurora."
He smiled, and I felt my heart go crazy.
"You have a beautiful name," He said as if he’d forgotten about the other, someone cleared their throat, and he continued more casually. "My name is Jasper."
"How do you feel?" Amelia asked, she’d moved closer to me, and her mate, I assumed, shadowed her. His dark brown eyes never left my face. "We tried to heal you, but your body didn’t respond."
"Heal me?" I repeated stupidly.
She looked at me confused but answered in a gentle tone, "Heal your cuts, and broken arm and the bite from the vampire." She spoke slowly, but her words rushed around my mind at a great speed.
"Vampire?" I whispered again, mostly to myself. That word rang a dim bell in my head, but I couldn’t remember clearly, it hurt to try and remember. I clutched my head, but the pain was brief.
"That man that bit me was a vampire?" I asked.
"Of course," Amelia said, she was looking confused. "You haven’t heard of vampires before?"
The others exchanged weary glances before composing themselves again.
"I'm not sure," I confessed, "I have no memories before I woke up in the woods yesterday, I don't remember anything, just my name, and a face of a woman."
I let my gaze fall to the ground, I felt suddenly conscious that everyone was still looking at me.
"Nothing at all." The young girl from the fire shouted, clearly unable to contain her curiosity.
I looked up in time to see the man from the clearing last night look at her. The young girl fell silent under his glare.
"Please forgive my daughter," He said, "She is still very young and curious."
His daughter? I thought. My eyes narrowed, he looked barely over twenty-five and the girl looked at least twenty. How was that possible?
"My name is Tobias," He continued, "This is my mate Delia, and our daughter Temperance."
I nodded at him, but couldn’t think of anything else to say. No one spoke this time, they waited for me to find my voice.
"Thank you," I said to them, finally able to speak, "For last night. I would be dead if you."
I couldn’t finish. I looked down again until a gentle hand touched my shoulder. Slowly, I looked up into Amelia’s stunning face.
"You are most welcome, Aurora." Amelia said as she smiled at me, "This is my mate, Stephen."
Stephen nodded at me once in acknowledgment of his name. I smiled at him nervously before looking away again.
"You’ve met Jasper." Amelia continued, pointing at him. I looked over to find him staring at me still, though his stare was different from the other's weary glances, he seemed... I couldn’t put my finger on it, but his face seemed tender as if he was trying to take in as much of me as he could.
"This is Cody and Simone." She continued, pointing to the closest couple near me. I turned away from Jasper and smiled at the man and women Amelia had spoken about. "And this is Carson and his wife Evangeline."
We all looked at each other, but they kept their distance, they seemed scared of me.
"You had a vision of me?" I said to Amelia, focusing on her words from earlier.
"Yes," She answered, watching my reaction.
"The," I started to say, but I paused to get the word out without my voice shaking. "The vampire said you were a witch."
"Yes," She told me, "That is true, as are Cody and Simone." She pointed to them again.
I had been planning on asking her about the vision she’d had of me, but I got side tracked by her answer.
"You’re witches too?" I whispered in shock.
"Yes," Cody told me firmly.
"I’m a werewolf, well I will be once I turn." Temperance claimed proudly, but she fell silent again once I took a step back.
I felt my mouth open in shock. "Are you a wolf too?" I asked Tobias.
"Of course," He answered, "As is my mate."
Delia smiled at me comfortingly, and I found myself relaxing.
No one spoke for a few seconds while I processed this information. Finally, I had to ask.
"And the rest of you are human?" I asked thoughtfully, taking in their pale skin.
"No, we are vampires." Stephen said, speaking for the first time.
I couldn't believe what he was saying. I didn’t want to believe him, I looked around wildly at the others, waiting for someone to start laughing or correct him, but they all looked at me sadly as they read the distress in my face.
"But," I stuttered, walking backwards, away from them, "Why did you save me, why?"
Again I was lost for words. Maybe the reason I couldn’t remember anything was because I’d wanted it that way, maybe I just wanted to forget what kind of world I was born into and then a sadder thought struck me.
I mustn't be human either. I told myself. No normal human could throw a force field of wind at someone.
"Why wouldn’t we save you?" Amelia asked, confusion on her face once more.
"Because vampires kill and drink blood, don’t they?" I said, holding up my arm as proof of my statement.
"No one here will hurt you, Aurora." Amelia said soothingly as she caught the hidden meaning in my words, “We didn’t save you so that we could bring you back for our friends.”
- Writer
