Switched Fates

A quick shower

“What you got there Em?” She heard another man say as he entered the foyer. Elodie saw a quick glance of him before Emerson turned around, and she once again stared at the floor. He was also a solid build, like Emerson, over 6 feet and had scruffy brown hair. He had a mischievous look to him with dark eyebrows and a broad grin. She recognized him from the photo in Emmerson’s room.

“ Maleficent thought she could escape”. Emerson responded.

“My name is Elodie!” she cursed at him.

“Oo Elodie! I’m Danny, Beta of the Silver Thorn Pack. It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance”. He walked around Emmerson and grabbed her hand and gave it a kiss. Elodie was too shocked to even respond. This was insane.

Emmerson grunted and quickly turned around, basically giving Elodie whiplash.

“You know Em, if she is too much trouble, we can lock her up in my room”.

Emmerson growled and shoved past him, making his way up the stairs.

“Or you know you could put her in the holding cells, that is what they are sort of there for”.

Emmerson sighed “Where is Alpha Leon?” That was a nice change of subject, Elodie thought, as she was also curious as to why she wasn’t being held in a prison-type facility.

“No response to my question, cool... Well he is with the future Luna. She is still healing, and they are fixing their bond.”

“Wait!” Elodie piped up.

“Future Luna?! The White she-wolf? Her mate is the Alpha?”

“Yeah she is, and you trespassed on our territory and cut her foot,” Emmerson responded bluntly.

“I found her! If it was left to you guys she would have died! Not to mention she is your future Luna! I am actually surprised that I didn’t just get to walk out the front door! You lived with her and still couldn’t find or help your own future Luna!”

“Ooof! I like her. She’s feisty and has a death wish. Please put her in my room”, Danny laughed.

Emmerson growled and stomped away up the stairs to the room Elodie was just in.

He put her down, almost too quickly once they were inside the room again. “You can’t just talk to the Beta like that!” he growled, looking over her.

“Do you want to die? Is this what witches do, behave stupidly and get themselves killed?”

“Is this what werewolves do? Put anyone they don’t understand or doesn’t like locked in a bedroom, take their things and sleep on the floor next to them! After they saved the future Luna of their pack!” Elodie argued, completely furious at that point.

Emmerson looked away from her, there was a tinge of guilt that hit his face.

“Take a shower, you are a mess. And Alpha Leon may want to see you tonight”.

Elodie wanted to respond and fight back. Say that she isn’t an object that needs to dress up for anyone, especially werewolves that are keeping her imprisoned. But she looked at her dirty hands and touched her tangled hair. Perhaps it would be nice to take a shower and clean up a bit. Allow her to think of her next move.

“Fine” she sighed. Emmerson looked a bit surprised.

“Towels are by the shower, and I’ll be in the hall.” He swiftly left. Leaving Elodie alone in the suite again.

She grabbed her spare clothes out of her shoulder bag and headed for the bathroom.

The water hit her skin and started to wash the dirt away from her long hike the day before. She took a big breath and tried to relax, and think clearly about her next move. She needed to find her lantern, or go through her Grimoire and see if there was something she could use to escape. With werewolves’ sense of smell, Emmerson probably knew what she was up to as soon as she walked out on to the balcony, and there was no way she could out run them either.

She ran her fingers through her hair attempting to detangle it. She had extremely long hair that went all the way down past her elbows. Her finger made its way down to the ends. When a debilitating pain shot from her heart. A flashback of her lifeless baby being held in her arms. She fell to her knees, tears started streaming down her face, gasping for air. The memory is now completely raw and her own. Not like it was before where it felt like it happened to someone else.

Banging erupted from the door. “Elodie! Are you okay!?” It was Emmerson.

“I’m okay” Elodie replied, but also trying to reassure herself. Trying to regain her breath and center herself.

“I’m coming in!” He shouted.

“No!” Elodie gasped, turning off the water. “I’m fine, I'm fine” she said, trying to reassure herself aswell. Grabbing the towel she quickly dried herself off as fast as possible and got her clothes on, a long skirt and long sleeve shirt.

Her hair still dripping wet as she opened the door to see Emmerson there. She could feel his eyes examining her.

“Are you sure you are okay?” He said almost in a whisper.

“Yeah. Yes. It was nothing”.

“You need to stop with the lies Elodie.”

Elodie raised her eyebrows at him questioningly.

“You really think I’m stupid enough to tell you everything!”

“Well you were stupid enough to try an escape a werewolf pack house in the middle of the day using a tree.”

“Not my brightest moment, I will admit. But I need to leave, it’s not safe for me here. It's not safe for you for your pack”.

“Listen, we aren’t going to hurt you, we just want answers. The cabin, the future Luna, it happened in our territory, to our pack.”

“I didn’t do this on purpose! It wasn’t always in your pack territory”.

“I know the pack has grown its territory by a lot in the last 5 or so years.”

“But why did you come? How did you know about Elara?”

“I’m assuming Elara is the name of the she-wolf. Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’s healing and mending her mate bond as Danny said, it might take her a couple of days to be 100% again. Mate bond betrayal is a deadly thing, or so I have heard.”

“I’m glad she’s okay”. Elodie smiled softly.

“You are avoiding my questions” Emmerson said sternly.

‘Fine! I could feel her pain. Every full moon for about a year she had been escaping to my cabin. I couldn’t let her suffer anymore. I had to help her. I enchanted that cabin years ago, to protect ..us..” Elodie flinched using that word.

“Then when I left, I sealed it out of desperation along with all the pain I felt there. I didn’t realize it at the time but it stayed as a part of me.”

“It makes sense though…” Elodie trailed off. “Some events change you as a person and will always be a part of you, no matter how much you try and shut it off, magic included”.

Emmerson didn’t respond. There looked to be pain in his eyes, he moved his hand towards her an inch before returning back to his side, and turned away.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Elodie.”

He really did sound sincere, she thought.

“Why did you stay? After I found her, you could have run, but you didn’t.”

“I don’t know” Elodie replied honestly. “I wanted to, I just didn’t.”

“Why didn’t you come to Alpha Leon directly?” Asked for permission to get access to the cabin?”

Elodie didn’t want to answer this question at all. The answer would show how vulnerable she was and how much power they had over her.

“O yeah, like mighty Alpha, Leon was going to allow some witch entrance to his pack territory, no questions asked. For a cabin that he would have had no knowledge of.” She answered, knowing full well it was not even half the real reason.

“We aren’t as… biased as you think we are,” Emmerson said as he turned back towards her.

Elodie rolled her eyes.

“Do all witch’s …” Emmerson paused. Elodie was staring at him, waiting for him to finish his sentence. But also wondering how on earth could someone be as attractive as this man. This irritated her to no end, it definitely made interactions difficult.

“Do all witch’s have eyes like yours?”

Elodie swallowed and tried to subtly hide her face with her hand. Feeling the blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Not from what I have seen.” She said becoming flustered at the tense pause that followed. To be fair the only other witches she had known was her mother. She met a friend of her mother's once who she suspected to be a witch too, but wasn't sure. Both of them had brown eyes, not gray like hers. Eye color was just a heredity thing like it was for humans. It had no relation to power or anything. Elodie was confused about why he had asked such a question. Was it some kind of tactic to get her to lower her guard? She wasn't sure.