Putting On A Brave Face
1563 Words
Her body felt stiff and extremely sore; it felt like it wasn’t her body anymore. Nothing felt right. What happened? Why did my body betray me?
Then a chuckle sounded in her head-one familiar yet completely strange to her. Her eyes immediately shot open and she looked around, taking in her surroundings.
"Your body has not betrayed you, dear.” The voice said in a throaty manner. “Your body is simply….upgrading.” The raspy tone turned dual sounding.
Immediately in attack mode, she jumped out of bed, frantically searching her surroundings, wondering where this voice was coming from and who was playing tricks with her mind.
“Who-who are you?” She asked. The voice chuckled again but did not answer. “Who are you?!” She screamed, her power becoming erratic as she shattered every window in her hospital room. “What do you want from me?!”
She felt herself suddenly losing her mind-her sanity. She had never felt so alone. She needed her brother. She began to weep….she needed her big brother. She collapsed to the ground, weakened and overwhelmed.
Vulnerability took over and she couldn’t hide it because once again-just as in every moment of her life, she had to figure it out for herself-she had to go at it alone.
“Aunt Ro?”
When she heard the voice call to her, she looked up to see Mags standing there, her eyes wide and full of concern. Magdalyn rushed to Aurora and wrapped her arms around her.
“Oh, thank goddess.!” Mags gasped. “What happened? Are you alright? What-” Her sentence paused when she felt the strong grip of her aunt’s hand against hers.
Aurora’s frightened gaze looked at Mags. “There’s something...wrong with me….I’m….I’m hearing a voice.” She said with confusion. “I-she taunts me….” She whispered.
“They do that from time to time.”
Aurora looked up and saw the Alpha Crescent standing there. Suddenly their presence called her attention. Aurora had the feeling that it was that way wherever they went.
“Alpha!” Mags quickly stood, seemingly unsure of how to react to him.
He nodded and so did his Beta as she acknowledged him as well. Aurora watched as the Alpha held his hand out for her to take.
Aurora was reluctant at first and she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that she was expecting to see Godfrey around. After all, he was the first person that Aurora saw when she had awakened from her resurrection.
“Come.” Alpha Crescent’s voice softly said.
She knew that she could trust him-that wasn’t the reason behind why she was so reluctant. In truth, she didn’t even know why she was so hesitant.
“Oh, you know...you know well and good why you are hesitant.” The voice mocked. Again Aurora was caught off guard, her eyes shifting as she tried to figure out who or what was inside of her mind. “You wish that it was another, standing there holding their hand out to you.” The voice said.
“Shut up!” Aurora screamed, her power escaping her again, cracking the wall from the base to the ceiling.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fix the room up,” Warren muttered to Bazni before he returned his attention to Aurora. “She’s talking to you.” He finally said to her.
“Her beast!” Mags came to the realization.
“Yes.”
“What?” Aurora passed a glance to Mags then the Alpha Crescent and his Beta. “What are you-what are you talking about?”
Warren took her hand gently lifting her, and helped Aurora up from the floor, ushering her toward the bed.
“Your wolf...or lycan.” He said. “Do you know which one you’d have.?” He asked.
“I...I don’t know-I-I never…” She couldn’t even get her thoughts together. “The Arctic Pack is-”
“Right.” The Alpha Crescent grimaced, his gaze averted as if in frustrated thought. “I’m not sure how the Arctic Pack operates-I don’t even know how their beasts communicate-if there’s a difference.”
“Why would there be?” Mags asked.
Warren looked at her. “You’re not like normal lycans or wolves.” He said. “The Arctic Pack is the only pack of their creation. You were the first of the Goddess Moon's creation, but when she realized the potential of your power, she decided to separate the species into two instead of creating them as one.”
“If the Arctic Pack is that powerful then why didn’t she destroy us?” Mags asked. “Sounds like a big mistake to me.”
“The most powerful ones were killed off-the Alphas.”
‘Then how-how are we an Alpha family?” Mags asked.
“Well, considering the fact that there has been a myth of only two Alphas in the Arctic Pack over the last thousand years, I don’t think that your line is long-running, but then again, I never was really sure that the Arctic Pack was even still alive until now.
”Well, how did I find out more about this-”
“I don’t care!” Aurora snapped. “I just want it out of my head!”
Aurora felt like everyone in the room was forgetting that this all was new to her and that she didn’t know what to do about this new creature spewing undesirable thoughts in her mind.
“Unfortunately, it does not work that way, Aurora,” Warren replied. “You have to learn to accept and live with your beast. When you do, you’ll be better off for it.” He reassured her. “FIghting against her will only cause you to go insane and maybe even feral.”
“Feral?” Mags said. “You mean like those things that-that I faced outside of your borders?
Judging by the look on Mags’ face, this news was quite disheartening. “How? How am I supposed to….” Aurora's voice trailed off as she became overwhelmed by all of this.
Suddenly, Aurora locked herself up emotionally and stood from where she sat. “I have to get out of here, her expression suddenly stoic. "Now,"
“Aunt Ro-”
“What happened that day? Why didn’t I fully transition into the beast?” She asked.
“Because you didn’t know about her-let alone fully accept her. The transition will only work once you both accept each other”
“Thank you, Alpha.” She said before grabbing the clothes that must have been brought by Mags.
“Guess, we’ll leave you to it,” Warren said and gestured a goodbye before he and Bazni left Aurora to her own devices.
“Ro,” Mags doubtfully called to her aunt, to her aunt as she barely waited for the Alpha Crescent and his Beta to leave before she started snatching off her gown.
“Yes, Mags.” Aurora stoically responded as she shimmied into her distressed jeggings.
“Are-are you alright?” Mags asked.
Aurora started to snap when she thought first. Mags had done nothing wrong and that was aside from the fact that while Aurora was afraid, Magdalyn was probably twice as afraid as she was, having no idea where her father and whether he was alright. And now her aunt had just come back to life, with was almost a completely new body and mind. Aurora knew that she needed to make things better. She needed to be Magdalyn'ss aunt and reassure her that everything would be alright. But, Aurora had to get out of that hospital first.
She turned around a small smile on her face. “Nothing I can’t handle.” There was no one to reassure Aurora but that didn’t matter. She may have not been reassured but she needed Mags to be. “Now, let’s go see if we can find your father.” Aurora placed her soft vividly dark hair up in a bun, the frost silver birthmark of hair falling across her eye.
Aurora saw the sudden relief on Mags’ face when witnessing how confident Aurora seemed to be. Seeing that further encouraged Aurora to keep her cool and face her own problems head-on.
As they left the room, that voice surfaced again, calling Aurora out on the question that she refused to ask.
“Why don’t you ask her?” The voice in her mind said. “Why don’t you ask her where Godfrey is? That is what you want to know, right? You have every right to ask. So do it.”
Aurora shook the voice away, refusing to show interest in his whereabouts. Besides, her gut had already told her where Godfrey was. He was with her.
- Writer
