Chapter 10 - Willow
The moment I open my eyes, I notice that the house is quiet this morning.
So quiet that it becomes unsettling instead of welcome.
It’s the kind of silence that hums beneath my skin, like the memory of Thane's fingers where he touched my cheek last night. The silence is nearly deafening, filled with the bleating cry of two people who share the same roof but not the same peace.
I’m grateful that Thane isn’t hovering around, trying to fix what he doesn’t understand. He’s kept his distance, kept his word about giving me space, and it feels like I can breathe again. The space allows me to remember who I was before he came crashing back into my life.
It wasn't much, but my heart was safer when he wasn't around, and I prefer to keep it that way.
Still, I can’t seem to escape the way last night lingers in the back of my mind.
The heat of his hand on my face had spread through my body, and for a moment, left me vulnerable and susceptible to becoming a victim of desire.
The softness that shouldn’t belong to a man like him, a man who'd shown me how cruel he could be. And then there was the way he looked at me, as if he wanted to apologize for the past, but couldn’t find the words.
I shake my head fervently and pull the thin shawl tighter around my shoulders. The bedroom smells faintly of his scent, and I can’t stand it anymore. It's everywhere in this house, wrapping around me like a reminder of what I’m trying to forget.
The walls feel too small, as if they're closing in on me again, the air too stifling.
I need out.
Luckily for me, Thane has already left by the time I pluck up the courage to step outside, the cold air hitting me like a sharp and grounding embrace. Snow blankets the ground, melting slowly under the weak morning sunlight, and the quiet hum of the forest beyond the backyard feels almost peaceful.
Almost, because my emotional state is still in unrest after everything that's happened. Officially, the sub-alpha's mate, swearing to never sleep with him, I'm not sure how or where I fit in.
Nothing has changed.
The garden behind Thane's house is small, but it’s alive. Patches of green fight against frostbite, determined to survive the cold. I kneel near the flowerbeds, tracing the fragile stems with my fingers, finding a strange comfort in the life sprouting from the frozen earth.
For a moment, I almost feel free.
Until I hear footsteps approaching behind me.
“Don’t tell me you’re actually gardening,” Rissa’s playful voice slices through the silence, warm and teasing.
I close my eyes briefly, exhaling a tired sigh before glancing over my shoulder and smiling when I see her.
Despite everything, there's something about her presence that remains calming, familiar, even if I barely know her. She stands at the edge of the garden, her red cloak dusted with tiny specks of snow, her green eyes full of the kind of knowing I’m too weary to acknowledge.
“I needed air,” I say simply, turning back to the patch of flowers in front of me.
My fingers brush over a cluster of pale purple blooms. The irony of their growth behind the alpha's house isn’t lost on me, but I recall how much the males in the pack enjoyed the lethal plant in lower, safer doses.
The petals gleam faintly under the natural light, soft and deceptively beautiful.
Rissa hums, stepping closer. “Hm…wolfsbane…too much of that, and you’ll drop faster than a deer caught by an alpha,” she chuckles.
I turn to her with a flat expression. “Sounds fitting. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing.”
She laughs lightly, crouching beside me. “You’ve got a thing for plants, right? Thane told me about the greenhouse you used to keep behind his grandfather’s house back in the day. I also find myself gravitating toward plant medicine. I guess we have that in common. That's why we're both witches.”
“I’m not a witch.” The words come out colder than intended. “And if you came here to talk about that, you can leave.”
Shocked at myself, my eyes widen with horror as I stare at the poisonous plant. I turn toward Rissa slowly when she doesn't immediately respond, and she sighs instead.
“You don't need to worry, Willow. I’m not here to chant spells at you. Just…checking in.” Her eyes flick to the wolfsbane again, a mischievous glint appearing. “Though, if you hate Thane that much, that stuff would make a great tea for him,” she chuckles, and I jerk my head up, startled.
“That’s not funny.”
“I’m just kidding,” she says quickly, holding up her hands. “Mostly. But you did storm out of the ceremony last night. I'm guessing there's trouble in paradise.”
The thought of poisoning Thane with wolfsbane leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. I might hate him, but not like that. Not enough to harm him.
“I could never hurt him,” I whisper before I can stop myself.
Rissa tilts her head to the side, studying me quietly, and for the first time since meeting her, I could swear I see understanding in her eyes.
“Fate is a funny thing, isn't she?” Willow offers with a smile. “But I know you'll figure it out, just as we all have.”
“I'm not mating with him, if that's what you're here about,” I say bluntly. “You want me to emerge as some powerful mystic when I do, but it's not happening. These demons you speak of, I haven't seen anything, anyway.”
“You think I'm lying?”
I shrug. “I honestly don't know what to think.”
Rissa purses her lips, seemingly contemplating her next words as she stands up.
“The demons are real, Willow. The only reason we've been safe all this time is ‘cause of the traps set around the village to protect us.
Traps that were placed there using our magic.
Magic that can only fully be discovered once you've mated with your alpha.”
I gulp hard at Rissa's sharp tone, and I know it isn't coming from a bad place. But forcing me into mating with the man who hurt me, the man I've come to hate, isn't going to work.
Feeling like I've been backed into a corner again, I stand up. Just as I'm about to say something, Rissa beats me to it.
“Whatever happens, I want you to know that you can come to me. You can speak to me, Willow. Not just as a friend, but as a sister,” she offers as she turns to leave.
Staring after her, there's a part of me that wants to call out after her, but I bite my tongue to stop myself, knowing there's no way I can get out of this.
The pressure is too much to bear, and despite Rissa's warm offering, there's no way I can ever sleep with Thane.
It's just not happening.
Gulping hard again, I check my surroundings as if I'm not supposed to be caught outside, as if I'm doing something, when really, it's just that everything feels wrong. A hand flies to my neck, a spark of something awakening in my fingertips, catching me off guard when it simmers at my throat.
My eyes widen with horror as I lift my trembling fingers, watching a spark of gold shoot from my index finger to my pinky.
“What the—”
Another lightning bolt sparks in my palm, the sizzling sound bleating through my eardrums as shock freezes me to the spot. I can't move physically, while the sparks surging from my fingertips elicit a million racing thoughts in my head.
The weight of everything surfacing in this moment of hesitation, resistance, tightens around my throat, the claws of doom from the nightmare I had the other night about to choke me.
“Your love is meant for destruction….”
The words I heard that night during the nightmare echo all around me now, an imaginary dark cloud settling over me where I stand outside.
Is that why I've been resisting Thane, subconsciously clinging to an imaginary doom if I ever allowed myself to find pleasure in his arms?
I can't harm him….
But neither can I harm myself when I don't even trust him enough to let him in.
Or is it that I don't trust myself?
Suddenly, my breath turns to uncontrolled pants as I shove my hands under the shawl, needing to hide them from myself.
I have to escape this, I have to run as far away from fate as I can, before it consumes me.
Before it changes everything.
As soon as I've packed my things, I wait until the dark shadows spread across the garden, covered in a light dusting of snow, before deciding to slip out. Thankfully, Thane hasn't returned for the day, sticking to his word and allowing me to escape without him stopping me like last time.
My hands tremble as I tighten my grip on the strap of the worn sack carrying a few of my belongings—a spare dress, bread, water. Just essentials to get me through one night of figuring out a route to my next stop.
Hopefully, I can find shelter, away from any pack, somewhere secluded, somewhere isolated, where no one can badger me about being a wolfless wolf, or pressure me into mating with an alpha to emerge as a witch.
I'd like to bury all that nonsense for good, and fleeing again is my only way out. The silence of the house feels like a trap closing in on me, and I can't get out fast enough.
By the time I reach the back door, my heart races faster than my thoughts. I push it open and step into the biting cold, my breath misting in the air as I break into a run.
Freedom stretches out in front of me as I spur my feet into the fastest run I can achieve in human form. I really wish I had the ability to shift, to let wolf paws navigate my escape through the forest.
But my agile human form does allow me to stick to the shadows without being seen, hiding amongst the trees until I'm crossing the invisible border around Girdwood. Beyond Girdwood are the snow-covered hills and treetops that map out my escape, and I continue my trudge ahead.
I slow down once I reach the frozen lake, checking for a way to cross it, when I discover a newly built log-bridge that will allow me to cross. Just as I grab the wooden balustrade, I hear a distant growl that stops me from moving.
It’s low, deep, and unmistakably familiar. I've heard that sound before, when I followed Thane into the woods to spy on his training before he left for Alpha Camp.
Back then, I thought it was the most majestic sound I had ever heard. But right now, it causes me to freeze on the spot, chilling my spine as it becomes a signal of concern.
Turning my head slowly, I see the silhouette of Thane's wolf emerging from between the trees, raven-black fur gleaming with silver accents under the moonlight, his green eyes burning through the dark.
“Thane…” I whisper, a natural response to witnessing the might of his wolf, the prowess of his large paws as he stalks forward, and the fierce, intense glint in his eyes as he stares into my soul.
When my heart recovers from the beat it just skipped, I turn and run.
Snow splatters around my boots with every lightning-fast step as my feet carry me over the bridge, my heart pounding, my lungs burning with every tedious pant. I notice the way the air I'm rushing through has turned icy cold, but in my quest to put distance between the alpha and me, I don't stop.
Not until a screeching cry rips through my eardrums, forcing me to stop and look up just in time to see a dark apparition floating toward me.
Black, ghastly tendrils of smoke follow the shadowy figure as it whooshes forward, the sight of the horrid creature freezing me on the spot as my eyes widen.
My palms suddenly tingle, my hands the only part of me that moves of their own accord, rising toward the creature just as golden sparks ignite from them and burst out at the malevolent being swooping in.
The golden light that emanates from my hands hits the screeching creature, knocks it out of the way, but ripples across the earth.
The forest floor splits open with a flash of light, the impact forcing me backward as I'm sent flying through the air, knocking into a soft, furry cushion that becomes a safety net against the impact as we both crash to the floor.
“Willow!” Thane calls out urgently as he flashes into human form, strong, protective hands grabbing my shoulders to turn me over to face him. Intense green eyes penetrate my soul with his worry, his face hardening with the expression only an alpha can wear.
Stern. Protective. Determined.
“The demons are here!” Thane yells as he grabs my arm and pulls me behind a tree stump. “I need you to stay down while I fight them off!”
Thane immediately shifts back into wolf form and leaps over the tree stump before landing on cushioned paws that quake the ground on impact. The trembling of the ground vibrates through my frozen body, and my jaw drops as I process that the demons are real.
A real threat.
Not just something made up to force me into the mate bond with Thane.
Just like the powers they've been speaking of—my witch powers—have somehow been unlocked from my palms, even though I have no control over them.
The demon's appearance forced my hand, and now I'm left watching Thane fight two shadowy masses that begin morphing into the shape of a deranged wolf-like creature, my heart pounding with adrenaline as it suddenly shoots through me.
I may have been denying the unseen all this time, but now that I'm witnessing the truth, there's no more denying it.
And when sensation stirs in my palms again, I know what I have to do.
I have to help Thane, even if I was just trying to escape him. Watching his claws go through the demons as if they're untouchable makes me quickly realize the extent of the danger.
All this power, all this energy, it has to mean something.