Switched Fates

Memories of you.

“I’m sorry” Elodie responded. “I wish I could say the same, but I don’t know much about you. I could only feel your pain on nights of the full moon. It took me a while to work out why and how. And even then, I was hoping that you would get help, or that it would stop, and that I well, I didn’t need to come back to that place. But after the last full moon, the agony you went through. I knew I had to try to help you. I couldn’t leave you to do another night like that again, alone. I’m so sorry Elara, when I cast those spells I didn’t know it would do this.” Elodie could feel her eyes start to water. She was so ashamed on what she had caused. Her power never seemed to help anyone. Someone always got hurt or worse!

Elara grabbed her hand.

“I know! It's not your fault!”

“I’m an Omega” Elara looked down as if she was ashamed.

“It means my wolf isn’t strong, and I am in the lowest rank of the pack”.

“Alpha Leonard, the previous Alpha, had very harsh laws regarding the treatment of each of the rankings, and let's just say I had a difficult time after 18 when I got my wolf and my ranking.

I found out that Leon was my mate when I turned 21, and I was petrified that he would reject me. I ran away as fast as I could. My heart breaking as I knew my mate bond was as good as gone. And then I heard this beautiful song it led me to your cabin. Inside I felt safe and cared for. Eira my wolf was also at peace there.

So we would keep coming back at least once a day or night I would find away to get to that safe haven in the woods. And one day I saw you, like the ghost of you. They came more frequently the more we visited.

I saw you gardening in the most beautiful garden I had even seen.

I saw you singing and talking to your growing belly. You have the loveliest singing voice.

I saw you conducting spells like making blankets out of nothing but leaves and bark.

I saw you talking to the birds, that always made me laugh, you were having full-on conversations with them arguing about politics, even though I knew you can’t actually talk to birds!”

“You wouldn’t want to, complete radicals!” Elodie chuckled, trying to hide her embarrassment at everything this girl had witnessed in her past.

“Haha you have not changed!” Elara exclaimed.

“For the first time in my life, I felt like I wasn’t alone, I would talk to you about my day even though I knew you couldn’t hear me”.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t actually there” Elodie said sadly.

"It makes sense that you saw the memories of that place though. I sealed them in the cabin when I left 7 years ago. Because they couldn't play out in me, they played out as ghost-like forms instead, and in doing so separated me from them."

“You don't have to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong. I know you are not dangerous that you would never hurt me, Leon is hard to convince though.”

“What happened on the full moon?” Elodie asked

“Why did you go through that much pain? It was so strong it erupted through my spells and pushed itself back to me.”

“Leon was convinced that he didn’t have a mate, so he let his ‘needs’ be filled on nights of the full moon.. I get it though your wolf’s urges are the strongest on the full moon it’s very hard to deny them. He didn’t know I was his mate, so I felt the pain of the betrayal when he did that, and it is why I tried to protect myself in the safest place I knew.”

“How did he not recognise you as his mate? You couldn’t have been in the cabin all the time.”

“Yeah when I started to go there, I noticed that people wouldn’t treat me badly anymore when I returned. In fact they almost completely ignored me. I think the spell was rubbing off on me, masking my scent when I left the cabin. So Leon didn’t smell me or recognize me as his mate.”

“I took it as somewhat a blessing to be honest, it meant he couldn’t reject me and I could just take in his scent as much as I could from a distance. Of course it’s all gone now that you disenchanted the cabin. I won’t lie. I will miss that place and seeing you, but I’m excited for the future with my Leon. He has accepted me fully.” Elara was practically glowing with happiness. Elodie felt a grin come to her face. Elara's aura was so warm and her smile was so contagious.

“I see.” Elodie responded, this was a lot to take in.

“Could you ask Alpha Leon to release me then?” Elodie asked.

“ I can, but… I have a few favours to ask of you.”

“O” Elodie said disappointingly and almost scared.

“Elodie, what happened to the baby?”

“You didn’t see that memory then?”

“No I didn’t, I could hear you cry in nights of the full moon, but I was so weak I couldn’t even lift my head to see and by morning it was gone. I feel terrible to admit this, but it was like comforting feeling you there with me. And I knew it was you I knew it was a ghost of you suffering, but I .. what happened.”

Elodie swallowed hard.

“He was stillborn. Never took a breath earth side.” Elodie closed her eyes. She never actually said that out loud before and in doing so it felt like she was actually confirming that the events happened. Her hands started to shake.

“O Elodie, I am so sorry! It is not your fault! I wish I could have been there.” Elara grabbing both her hands once again.

“You couldn’t. You would only have been a child it happened 7 years ago.”

“What happened to the father?”

Elodie just looked at her pressing her lips together. She had never spoken about her son’s father and didn’t ever plan to.

“I’m sorry I shouldn’t pry..” Elara whispered

“He betrayed me, not in the being with someone else way but in the burning of the stake kind of way. Besides my mother always said that witches don’t have romantic partners, or “mates”. We ensure the next generation and then we leave. I didn’t want or thought it would actually be that way, but that’s the way it is.”

“Elodie.” Elara tears started to drip down her cheeks.

“You deserve a family, friends a place to belong, I understand you think you don’t. I know I didn’t. But Leon accepted me. You can stay here in the pack, you can be safe have a place. “

“No!” Elodie cut her off.

“You don’t understand, and you don’t know me as much as you think you do.”

“I’m dangerous, Elara. Not just me and who I am but from the other worldly creatures after me and I have been in a well not a pack but “group” before, and I was lucky to escape when I did. Things go bad, power is addictive and dangerous. Please, you have to convince them to let me go. It's not safe, and no lives will be lost because of me. Not again.”

“Okay” Elara said in a hushed tone after a long pause.

“But” She cleared her throat and wiped away her tears.

“You should come out with me, to the fair that is on. It isn’t on werewolf territory, we will be surrounded by humans, so we will be safe, and we can just have a good time. Then you can leave.”

“Why?” Elodie found herself asking almost instinctively, to such an absurd request. Especially after everything she had told her.

“Because for the last year, whether you have known it or not you have been my best friend and I want one happy real-life memory of you before you go.”

Elodie sighed “Fine, when do we go?”

“We can go tomorrow if I get the clear from the doctor.” Her giddy smile stretching across her face.