Chapter 6
“Open your eyes, Jacquelyn,” a soothing voice, one that most definitely didn’t belong to the Fates, said from behind where she knelt. She blinked several times to clear her vision and looked up into the night sky. Stars, more numerous than she could count, stared back at her.
Jacque stood slowly and turned to face the Great Luna. When her eyes met those of the goddess, Jacque felt as though she’d been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. The cold mountain wind felt even sharper on her skin as she felt her face heat up with the guilt that had been building inside of her.
“It never ceases to amaze me how selfless my children can be.”
Jacque felt as if there was a very distinct but that was headed her way.
The Great Luna began walking slowly, her steps measured and smooth, in a circle around the area Jacque had claimed as her destination for the ritual. Her hands where clasped together in front of her and her posture was relaxed, though her shoulders didn’t slump and her back was perfectly erect.
“Before you decided what was best for your mate, did you stop to consider what the effect of your actions might be?” There was no accusation in her voice, no condemnation. It was simply a question.
Jacque hated to admit that she hadn’t considered anything except how it would benefit Fane. She hadn’t considered any other factor, because she feared that if she thought too much about the decision, then she might not be able to go through with it. Her silence was answer enough.
“If you will permit me,” the goddess continued, “before you proceed any further, I would like to take you on a journey. I will warn you now that it will not be an easy one, but then,” she said and turned to meet Jacque’s eyes, “we both know you are no stranger to challenges.”
“Do I have a choice?” Jacque asked.
“Of course. You always have a choice. I will not force your will.”
Jacque didn’t know why she’d asked. She knew that she would go with the Great Luna because she genuinely believed the goddess had her best interest at heart. “Well,” she heaved a tired sigh, “might as well face the firing squad.”
The Great Luna reached out her hand and Jacque took it without hesitation. There was a sudden gust of wind and then a pulling sensation that took Jacque’s breath away. It lasted only a moment and then, abruptly, it was over and all was still around them once again. But they were no longer in the forest.
Jacque’s eyes widened as she realized she was standing in the living room of her house back in Texas. She watched as her mom walked out of the kitchen, and Jacque had to hold herself back from running to her and flinging herself into her mother’s arms. She hadn’t realized how much she’d missed her mother over the months or how badly she needed to be held and told that everything would be alright. She realized that it didn’t matter how old a person grew or how their life changed, there was just something about a mom that no one could replace.
“She cannot see or hear you,” the Great Luna warned before Jacque could attempt to say anything to Lilly.
“Is this like the Canis lupus version of the whole Christmas Carol thing?” Jacque asked as she watched herself walk into the living room. “Holy blowholes, are my hips really that big?” she muttered, momentarily distracted.
“This is what could have been,” the goddess answered. “If you and Fane had failed to meet, to complete the unique bond that you had with only one another, then these are the events that would have come to pass.”
Jacque didn’t like the sound of that because she was pretty sure it meant that she was going to be seeing more than just her own could-have-beens. “So what day is it? Should I have met Fane already?”
“This is several days after you would have met Fane. But in this reality, he did not come to Cold Spring as an exchange student. And since Fane was not here to stop him, another has stepped in ready to make a claim on you.”
There was a knock at the door and her mother walked over and answered it. Jacque’s eyes widened as she watched her mother speak cordially with none other than Lucas Steele.
“He’s dead,” she whispered and instinctively took a step back. To her shock she watched herself walk over to the door and smile―bloody hell, she actually smiled at the jerk! “What am I doing? Don’t smile at him, you shameless hussy,” Jacque growled at her past self.
“Trent still broke off your relationship because he was still threatened by Lucas to stay away from you. You met Lucas at a gas station. You were having trouble with the pump and he saw you and came over to help you.”
“How kind of him,” Jacque huffed as her eyes narrowed on Lucas and herself chatting like old friends. Jacque feels a warm hand on her arm and then the pulling sensation is back. In a matter of seconds they are no longer in her home watching herself flirt with Lucas.
Jacque looks around and realizes immediately where they are. “This is Jen’s room.”
The Great Luna simply nodded and looked at the door of Jen’s bedroom which suddenly flew open with a loud thud as it hit the wall.
“I’ve had it!” Jen snapped as she stomped into the room. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and tapped the screen a few times before putting it to her ear. “Sally, she’s done it again,” Jen yelled without bothering to say hello. “We were supposed to have a girls night, hang out, and do our nails and all that crap. And what does little Jacquelyn Pierce do? She texts me, TEXTS me, Sally, that she forgot that she’d already made plans with Lucas.” Jen sneered the name as if it were a toxic waste she was talking about and not a person.
Jen listens to Sally, all the while nodding her head ferociously. “I know. I know. Girl you aren’t telling me anything. We both told her that if she didn’t cut this crap out we were going to take matters into our own hands. They’ve been dating for four months and he’s like a freaking baby cat attached to its mother's teat. Yes, dammit, I said 'teat.' That’s not the point, Sal. The point is there is something not natural about the guy. He gives me the heebee jeebees.”
Jacque was speechless, not that they could hear her even if she did have words. How could she possibly be dating Lucas Steele? How could she pick him over her friends? Even with Fane, her friends were still mega important and he totally understood that.
More nodding was coming from Jen as she was apparently listening to Sally give a similar opinion of the situation. “I’m thinking a major intervention is in order,” Jen barked into the phone. “I’m talking full blown, tie that bitch up, and drag her away from him so that we can talk some sense into her.” Jen was pacing the room like a mad woman, her hand clenching and unclenching at her side. Jacque hadn’t seen her friend that mad since Decebel decided it was his duty to die for their child.
Again Jen was listening intently to Sally on the other end of the phone. This time she added grunting and cat-like hissing sounds to her continued nodding. “Oh, don’t even get me started on the secrets she’s keeping,” the blonde suddenly spat. “She thinks we don’t know her well enough to know when she is hiding something from us? I swear he’s doing voodoo on her or something. When has our red-headed friend ever, EVER, not told us everything? I mean our whole friendship has always been based on full disclosure. It’s like in the best friend code of conduct or some crap like that. Best friends don’t let best friends drive into stupid boyfriend situations.” She paused, listening to Sally again. “Exactly. I say we ambush her at like four in the morning. If that’s the only time we can get her alone, then so be it. Operation knock some bloody sense into our red-headed friend who’s got her head shoved so far up her butt she doesn’t even smell a rotten douche bag when he’s standing right in front of her is now under way. Yes, yes, I know that’s a ridiculously long name. Sue me, I get wordy when I’m pissed. K bye.”
She jerked the phone away from her ear and tossed it on her bed. Jacque continued to watch the Jen from the past pace while muttering under her breath. It sickened her to think that she had caused this. She’d put a rift in their relationship for a guy that wasn’t even her soul mate.
“She loves you,” the Great Luna said placing a hand on Jacque’s shoulder. “That is why she is so angry, because she loves you and wants what’s best for you.” Once again they are pulled from the room but this time when they stop Jacque doesn’t recognize her surroundings.
“I’ve never been―” she begins but her words get stuck in her lungs as she watches Lucas carry her into the room. He tosses her playfully onto a large bed and she giggles.
“I do not sound like that when I laugh,” Jacque snarled as she watched herself smile up at him. She wanted to walk across the room and smack the grin off of her own face.
“I really need to get home. If I break curfew my mom will make me work every weekend from now until I graduate,” the past Jacque said still smiling like an idiot.
Lucas let out a low sigh. “Our time together goes too fast.” He laid down beside her and played with a tendril of her hair. Lucas stared at her with such intensity that Jacque nearly had to look away from them, and when he leaned forward she understood clearly that he was going to kiss the Jacque laying with him.
“Please don’t make me watch,” Jacque pleaded as she placed a hand on the Great Luna’s arm. “Please.” She closed her eyes and when she opened them again she was back in her room. Her eyes widened as she looked at the three girls standing next to Jacque’s bed.
“I guess this is the intervention?” Jacque looked over at the Great Luna.
“You three friends have a rare blessing in each other. You don’t find such devotion in many relationships.” The Great Luna turned back to the group.
“We’re doing this for your own good, Jacque,” Jen told the Jacque standing in front of her. “You haven’t been yourself since you started dating that best friend thief and we’re tired of it.”
“Lucas isn’t the problem,” her past self responded.
“Are you implying that we are the problem?” Sally asked pressing a hand to her chest.
“Look, I know that I’ve been spending a lot of time with him, and I’ve canceled on you guys a couple of times.”
“A couple of times?” Jen scoffed. “Are you living in an alternate reality or something, Red? Try every time for the past two months. You are with him constantly. You don’t return our calls. You text us when you want to cancel instead of growing a pair and looking us in the face when you bail. I don’t even know who you are anymore. And don’t even get me started on the crap we know that you aren’t telling us.”
Jacque watched as the face of her past self paled. So she was keeping something from them.
“Now you’re just letting your vivid imagination fill your head full of crap, Jennifer,” the other Jacque huffed as she folded her arms across her chest. “I have no secrets. And I honestly don’t mean to blow y’all off. Lucas can just be really persuasive.”
“I frankly don’t give a damn if Lucas pee’s gold and craps twenty dollar bills. He’s making you keep things from your best friends and that is not cool, Jac. Not. Cool.” Jen looked as though she might reach across the bed and strangle her best friend.
The past Jacque stood there staring at her two friends and, after several minutes of tense silence, she seemed to deflate as if all the air had been let out of her. “They aren’t my secrets to tell, Jen.”
“Maybe not, but it was your lie. You could have just told us instead of lying to us about it all together.” Jen’s voice was full of hurt. Her shoulders slumped forward as she shook her head. “I know you think he’s perfect, but he’s not good for you, Red. Why can’t you see that?”
“How can you possibly know what’s good for me when you won’t even take the time to get to know him?”
“Excuse me?” Sally jumped in. “We tried, but if you can recall, your precious Lucas was a complete and total ass to us the couple of times that we were with you guys. And you just made excuses for him. He’d had a bad day, or he just doesn’t share well, or blah, blah, blah. Don’t you dare lay that on us.”
“You know what?” Jen asked as she met the past Jacque’s hard gaze. “I’m done. If you can’t see the truth when it’s slapping you in your stupid face, then I’m not going to waste my oxygen on you. When you realize that Lucas Steele is not who he seems to be and come running back to us, you had better hope I’m in one of my forgiving moods.”
Both Jacque’s snorted, though the girls only heard one of them. The past Jacque added, “You don’t have forgiving moods.”
Jen turned for the door with Sally on her heels. “Then I guess your screwed, Red. Have a nice life.”
The bedroom door closed behind them and it was as if a prison door had been slammed shut and Jacque was on the wrong side of it. She watched her past self slide to the floor as the realization of what had just happened fell heavily on her shoulders. Her body shook as she tried to hold in the tears.
“I’m an idiot,” Jacque whispered to the Great Luna as her own heart broke right along with her former self.
“You were blinded by a charming, handsome man who caught you at a vulnerable time after Trent broke up with you. The most difficult thing in this whole situation is that though Lucas’ good intentions will only have ill effects, he genuinely cares for you.”
“Can we go?” Jacque asked her as she watched the past her fall apart. She didn’t want to hear about how a wolf that wasn’t her mate cared for her, especially when that relationship was tearing her friendships apart.
The Great Luna looked over at her and nodded. “Perhaps, now is a good time to show you how your true mate fares without you by his side.”
Jacque’s stomach dropped. She truly hoped she wasn’t about to have to watch Fane with another girl the way she’d just watched herself with Lucas.
“What if I tell you that I’ve seen the error of my ways? Can we just go back to our time?”
The Great Luna smiled as she took Jacque’s hand. “I want to believe you, but it is my experience that humans never learn that quickly, and you, my child, are half human.”
Jacque attempted to steel herself against what she might see. She didn’t know if she could watch Fane have a life without her. In fact, she was pretty sure that if she watched Fane smile at another female the way she’d just watched herself smile at Lucas she might attempt to claw the chick’s eyes out. Wouldn’t that be dignifying?