Chapter 25

Anna

 

“Anna,” a sweet voice called to me from afar. I struggled to wake up from a lingering nightmare and tried to follow the voice. A hand gently stroked my hair as I cracked my eyes open. “There you are, I’ve been waiting for you,” a blonde woman said brightly. I stared at her for a second until realization hit me.

“Mom?” I asked in confusion. I recognized the woman from the picture that James had found for me, but… this was impossible. My mom had died when I was just a babe.

“Oh, honey,” she sighed. “I’ve been trying to reach you for so long. Every time I felt your pain or your fear I would try to soothe you, but I could never get through to you. Not until now.”

I just stared at her in confusion. “Where are we?” I was lying in a bed with fluffy pillows and a lacy pink bedspread. The room looked like it belonged in a little girl’s daydream. There were ruffles and pink things everywhere. Off to the side of the bed was a princess vanity which was the perfect size for a little girl. The table next to it had a castle-like dollhouse with a collection of princess dolls.

My mom blushed. “This is what I had planned for you,” she said sadly. “I guess it’s too late now, but I can’t always control the dreams I create. They take a lot from my subconscious.”

I sat up and leaned toward her eagerly. “Mom, there’s so much that I-”

She pressed a finger to my lips. “I know, but we don’t have time for everything.” She glanced around nervously. “I don’t know how long we’ll be alone and I don’t want them to overhear.”

“Who?”

“Just listen,” she said softly. “I left journals in a storage locker in-”

“I know,” I interrupted. “I have them, but I can’t read them. What language are they in?”

My mom smiled. “The language of the heart. If you could get in the heritor box, then you can read the journals.”

I frowned. “That-”

My mom’s head snapped up and she looked off in the distance. “They’re here. Anna, you won’t remember this dream,” she said urgently. “But please, listen to your heart.” The room started to fade around us and I reached for her hand. I felt the warmth of her flesh for only a second before she started to fade as well. “Remember…” Her voice faded away and I was left in darkness.

I struggled to hold on to her memory, her scent, but it all slowly faded until I was left with only a vague sensation of a pleasant dream.

I woke up with a nagging feeling that there was something that I had to do. The bedroom was dark, but with my enhanced wolf vision, I could see the sleeping forms of Austin and Cody. Austin was on his back with a sheet haphazardly flung across his hips and Cody was on his side, with one arm extended in my direction as if he was reaching for me in his sleep. I didn’t hear or see anything that would have woken me, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that was tugging me to get out of bed.

I extricated myself carefully from the bed to avoid waking either of my sleeping wolves. Cody stirred and extended his hand toward the spot I had just vacated, but he didn’t wake. I shut the bedroom door quietly behind me with a click before I walked down the dark hallway. The house was silent except for the occasional slight creak of the floor beneath my steps. I could sense one other person awake in the house, and the nagging feeling was leading me in his direction.

The door to his office was closed, but I knew he could feel me coming, so I didn’t bother to knock before slipping in. James looked up at me without any surprise in his dark eyes and his nostrils flared as he took in my scent. I’m sure that he could smell both Cody and Austin on my skin, but he didn’t say a word about it. I had expected to see jealousy or a similar emotion on his face, but there was only acceptance.

James raised an eyebrow, probably because I was staring at him with a question on my face but had yet to say a word to him. I opened the bond between us so that he could get a sense of my thoughts and emotions. I was slowly getting better at this, and it sometimes seemed easier to communicate this way when I couldn’t find the right words. Understanding flashed across his face and he opened up to me. I felt his trust in Austin and Cody, his affection for me, but also doubt in himself.

I stepped closer and in a rare show of emotion James embraced me. He laid his head against my stomach and wrapped his arms around me to bring me closer. I sent love and assurance through the bond until I felt a sense of peace from James. He closed his eyes and breathed in my scent, and I gently ran a hand through his dark hair.

James pulled away and I perched on his knee to see what he was working on. He had a map of Seaside spread out in front of him with all our houses and businesses marked. I examined it with curiosity. I knew that Austin had the teams spread throughout our territory but had never put it all together with exact locations. I ran my thumb over the star that marked the location of my old house. The twins had helped me move out all of my personal belongings in anticipation of one of the overseas teams taking over the house.

“You look like you’re preparing for war,” I said quietly.

James cleared his throat. “Austin might still see Justin as a brother, but I see a festering hatred in him. My job is to prepare for the worst, to prepare for a war.”

“His territory borders ours to the north?” I ran my hand along the border, thinking about what might come our way. James didn’t answer, because the answer was clearly written on the map. “Austin might be able to smooth things over with Justin. Maybe he just needs time after what happened with their father.”  We still didn’t know for sure what had happened to Austin’s father. He had disappeared after we discovered he was an enemy, so I could only assume he was on the run. Hiding from us and from the council that he used to lead.

“You came to find me at three in the morning for this?” James asked gruffly.

“Not just this, I have my own battles to prepare for,” I told him firmly. I stood and looked in the direction of his safe. “You have your weapons, and I have mine.”

James nodded with a glint of respect in his eyes as he stood and crossed the room. He accessed the hidden panel in the wall to reveal a safe and quickly entered the code. The door popped open and he withdrew my heritor box. “I assume you need this?”

I took it from him and sat in the chair opposite from the one he had been occupying when I came in. I held out my palm. “Knife?” James never went anywhere without multiple weapons, so I was pretty confident he had more than one sharp instrument on him.

He smiled and reached down into his boot to produce a wickedly curved blade. I was proud that I didn’t flinch when I pricked my finger for the blood I needed to open my box. James watched as I carefully took out the two journals and studied them. I was more confident than ever that I was simply missing something; there was a way for me to read these. I laid the knife down beside them so I could pick up the older journal. Blood dripped down my hand and I started to wipe it away to avoid getting blood on the journal, but I stopped. If blood was the key to the heritor box, why couldn’t it be the key to the journals as well?

I let out a small pulse of my magic just as the blood dripped onto the cover of the journal and it warmed in my hands. For a moment it felt almost alive, but quickly faded back to just a book. I opened the cover apprehensively and joy flooded through me when I found the mysterious scribble had transformed into spidery handwriting that I could actually read.

I settled back into my chair and pulled the book closer. The very first page was an open letter to descendants who would read the journal and I licked my lips in anticipation. This was what I had been waiting for ever since I found out that I was something other than a normal wolf. I wanted to know what I was and how to navigate the new role that I had been thrust into by virtue of my birth.

I could feel James’s eyes on me and I looked up to meet them. Whatever he saw on my face was enough for him because he gave me a nod before turning his attention back to the map. James and I sat quietly in the room for hours, each working separately but together in spirit.

My broken spirit wasn’t completely healed, but my sense of despair had been replaced by determination. I might have failed and let my pack down, let Talen down, but my enemies wouldn’t get the drop on me again. This time I would be ready for them, and I wouldn’t hesitate to kill to protect my pack.