Lunar wolves: The Dream Catcher (Book 4)

Chapter 6

She knows in which part of the country she is now but going to see her family was not a good idea. It just made her feel even worse about what they might think of her, and all she has left is her own mind and what she thinks of herself. Keeping a watchful over the little ones didn’t affect her as bad.

Why she doesn’t know. Maybe because they haven’t been tainted by everything that’s happened, and they wouldn’t judge her, or it could be because they aren’t part of the pack life. They are royal children, and they will live differently from what she and her sisters did when they were young.

Circe smells fresh meat and immediately hits the deck before slowly lifting her head. She looks in the direction that the scent came from and prays to the goddess that it is something big and juicy and not a rabbit that Ariel can complain about. Unfortunately, it catches her scent and makes a run for it faster than she can get away.

Taking a couple of steps to try and go after it, she soon decides that it’s not even worth it. She may just as well make peace with eating the nuts, just like she’s made peace with everything else in her life.

She thought she was meant for more, but it’s clear that her entire way of thinking was wrong. Maybe if she had been a little humbler, and perhaps not thought of herself as the next Alpha of the pack, things would have been different? She shakes her head to get the thoughts out of her mind.

None of that really matters anymore. She can’t go back to the pack, and she sure as hell can’t go back in time.

“Wow, Circe… You are becoming a second Ariel.” She mumbles to herself as she walks through the forest in her human form for a little while, feeling the soft, wet dirt under her bare feet.

“Did I hear my name?” Ariel appears next to her, and Circe nearly wets herself.

“Lady! What the hell are you?!” Circe softly growls at her, feeling her heart race after the sudden jolt.

“Don’t be silly, Circe! What is this I hear about you wanting to be more like me?” Ariel grins at Circe, holding her hand over her heart and fluttering her eyelashes.

“Your hearing must be going.” Circe shifts back to her wolf form drop to the ground and starts to roll around in it.

“I’m not rubbing your tummy!” Ariel tilts her head at the silly wolf rolling around before they walk along in silence.

A couple of meters from their house, Circe disappears behind a tree and comes back dressed.

“How do you disappear and appear like that? I’ve never seen witches do that.”

“Well, when you are as old as me, you have learned a few tricks of the trade. I will teach you one day when you are all grown up. Say when you are around 150 years old.” She steps onto the porch and flops down on one of the two rocking chairs pretending to be out of breath and kicks off her shoes.

“Don’t do that!! You will poison me all over again with the smell!” Circe pinches her nose and Ariel rolls her eyes.

“There is nothing wrong with the way my feet smell. They are clean.”

“They might be clean, but from what you’ve told me they are ancient!” Circe’s voice goes up an octave and a bright grin forms on her face.

She makes it just through the door before the lightning strikes hit her butt and laughs, knowing that she didn’t really touch a nerve. Ariel isn’t shy about her age; however, she is pretty difficult about her looks.

“Some ice tea would be lovely!” She hears the request from outside.

“Who do you think I am, huh? Your own personal servant?” Circe grabs two glasses and pours them both iced tea. This is something that she had to get used to out here. There aren’t any soft drinks like at home, and she really loves her soft drinks, but nothing beats Ariel’s ice tea!

Bringing the glasses outside, she joins Ariel on the porch, and they sit in the late afternoon sun. Circe appreciates the fresh air of the forest. The city is so stuffy compared to being out here. Being the future Alpha was such a big part of her life that she never really thought about what it would be like to live somewhere else.

Her sisters all had big dreams and especially what life would be like having a mate, but when her time to find her mate came and went, that didn’t matter anymore. Not that it mattered much in the first place.

She is the nurturer. The big sister. She had to help her mother take care of them and help her father protect them, while her sisters dreamt of traveling the world, leaving the pack to study at university, and getting married and making brats, while Circe trained, did patrols and sit in on elder meetings with her father.

Now she has this entire world stretched out in front of her. She can go anywhere, and literally be anyone. Start with a clean slate and nobody would ever know who she is or what she is, that’s if she is careful.

“What did you do today?” Ariel’s voice drifts into her mind, bringing her back to the present.

“I was hunting wabbits.” She mimics her favourite animated character, and Ariel frowns at her.

“And did you catch any?”

“Like my character impression, in a word… No.” She sighs.

“They are all way too clever for me…” Ariel bursts out laughing at Circe’s pretend serious face, and then Circe tries to find out where Ariel was, but she gets a cryptic answer in return.

“Feel like making dinner?” Ariel looks at her, and Circe knows that the witch is trying to read whatever is going on in her mind.

“Not yet, this is nice. Can we stay here for a little while longer?”

***

Sullivan steps out of the cave, hearing the howl of one of his men. Another comes rushing towards him, looking panicked, but because he was a rogue for so long before becoming part of Sullivan’s pack, he lost his tongue and can’t talk.

“Oh, hell, what did Saint Patrick do this time?” Sullivan rolls his eyes, shifts, and follows Mute. Saint Patrick is a wolf he met in a bar, duh, that’s where his nickname came from.

Sullivan was trying his best to drown his sorrows after yet another loss against Frank when he met a werewolf that actually got drunk, and not just drunk as in a little. He actually reeked of alcohol. Almost as if he had been soaked in it for months.

Unfortunately, with his drinking habit, there also came the odd bar fight.

Sullivan follows Mute to where saint Patrick is lying on the ground, howling in pain and clutching his stomach.

“What did you do this time?”

“I ate a rabbit!” He howls in reply.

“That’s it, let me smell your breath!” But to Sullivan’s utter surprise, the wolf doesn’t smell of alcohol at all.

“Where did you find this rabbit?” But before he can answer, Tsura, Mia’s mother, comes running.

“What is wrong with him? We could hear the howling all the way to the cave!”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out! If you will just keep quiet!” Sullivan cuts her short, then turns his attention back to the howling wolf in front of him.

“Did you chew your food?!” It looks as if he takes a moment to think about it, and then starts to nod profusely. He is almost doubling over in pain and to be honest, Sullivan has no clue what to do.

The only thing he can think of is that a bone from the rabbit got stuck somewhere! But then Tsura steps closer and without hesitation rubs her hand over Patrick’s head and ears.

“It’s okay, it will be okay. I just need you to calm down as much as possible, so we can get answers to help you.”

Sullivan rolls his eyes at the turn of events.

“Great, you are going to treat him like the baby, he won’t learn his lesson!”

“What do you expect me to do then?! Let him suffer?!” She turns to glare at Sullivan, and he is surprised at the bite in her words. Could she even help the poor i***t? If she’s a healer and has been hiding the fact, he has a double whammy he can dish out.

The first is because she hid it from him, and the second is because he can now have her heal all his wolves that aren’t fighting fit at the moment.

“Fine, do what you must.” He sighs, then watches as a small, soft blue light forms between her right thumb and forefinger. She explains to Patrick while rubbing his head still, that she is going to check where it hurts the most with this strange light and everyone’s attention is suddenly drawn to her like a magnet.

She moves her hand over the cringing wolf and back again, and in the movement, his stomach starts to swell.

“You are going to kill him, and so help me goddess if you do…” But she cuts Sullivan short with just one glare, making him realize that she has definitely hidden a lot more from him than he could ever have guessed.

She somehow places the blue light between her hands and softly rubs them before placing her hands over Patrick’s stomach. For a second it almost looks as if Patrick has a small heart attack as his body shakes a couple of times, and then his legs pull completely stiff.

Something gives a horrible squealing sound and within a mere two seconds, something jumps into Tsura’s arms. She quickly stands up, and to Sullivan’s utter amazement there is a live rabbit in her arms, that she carries away from them and lets go, before returning to Patrick.

Sullivan takes a couple of steps closer, fully expecting the wolf to be dead, but Tsura moves her hands over his stomach again and the blue light shines a little brighter than before. It takes about a minute before Patrick jumps right up as if a bolt of lightning had struck, and he starts to lick Tsura.

She protests at his gesture, gives Sullivan a little bow, and then disappears back to the cave.

“What the hell was that?” He looks from Mute to Patrick, but neither seems to be able to answer him!

“Great! Just great! The drunk and the mute just saw the most important thing that’s happened here in a long time, and neither of you can tell me exactly what just happened!”

Well, it’s not as if he can really say what happened. A dead chewed-up rabbit appeared alive and well, seemingly coming from Patrick’s stomach! Is she a witch? What the hell has she been hiding from him?! He storms off in the direction of the cave, fully intending to find out, but not before giving Patrick instructions never to ever eat a damn rabbit again.