Chapter Five
It was the noise that attracted her.
After what had probably been the anxiety attack of the week, Freya hadn’t been able to leave the house, not even to go into the backyard that sorely needed a new landscape.
The backyard was fenced but needed someone with a greener thumb than hers to give it a proper makeup.
Yes, it had an apple tree and a barbecue, but other than that, it was as if nature had exploded everywhere.
Even so, when the sound of rambunctious laughter and excited shouts reached her ears, she dared to peek through the curtains of the living room window.
Evelyn was hugging two men, their wide frames and heights almost swallowing her whole.
Tara was nearby, her arms around a woman in her twenties with short dark hair, her shouts echoing in the empty street.
When they entered the house, the noise dropped by about ninety nine percent, and the sound of silence became deafening to Freya's ears.
She curled up in the chair, her head tilted back. She needed to do something. She was getting sick and tired of being locked up in her house, afraid of living. In a way, it was as if she was still a prisoner of Lewis.
She wanted to do something with herself. But how? Where?
The sound of someone knocking at the door made her curl into herself even more. She didn’t want to see anyone; she just wanted to be left alone.
“Frey? You home? Nanna’s inviting you to dinner, my cousins are here. Frey?”
Tara. Without making a sound, she tried to disappear into herself, hoping the teenager would just give up.
But you wanted to do something for yourself.
To leave these walls, to free yourself from him, said a nagging voice inside her head.
A voice almost like her mom’s, as if she was pulling her up from beyond death.
With a sigh, she unfurled herself from the sofa, walking stooped, as if carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders, until she reached the door.
Part of her registered the fact that she looked like an old woman dragging herself along ... or Quasimodo.
“There you are. Were you sleeping or what?” chirped the teenager, oblivious to the fact that the door had only been opened a crack.
“Or something...” she muttered, avoiding eye contact.
“Did you hear me? Nanna wants you to come and eat with us. My cousins are here. Please, come...”
“No, I don’t think I can... Headache...” she said. “Tell her maybe some other time.”
Clearly disappointed, Tara turned and skipped down the stairs, returning home.
Freya closed the door and curled up on the sofa again, thinking about her elderly neighbor.
Evelyn was sweet and was always checking on her.
Was it something that Mace had ordered her to do?
Impossible, he said he was going to relocate her to a coastal town far away from wolves.
And now her panic was rising again ... what if he’d lied? What would be ... no, he had never lied to her. During her long convalescence at the High King’s castle, he had always been respectful, keeping his distance. His wife—mate?—had helped her through it all, both as a medic and as a friend.
She just needed to learn to live in society again.
The sun was setting and the sky was painted with the colors of the approaching dusk.
It was one of her favorite times of the day.
Before it usually meant her torment was about to begin.
But now, she found she liked to sit in her backyard, listening to the gentle sound of the waves crashing against the rocks in the distance, or the sounds of the nearby forest when the diurnal animals were preparing to sleep and the nocturnal ones just awakening. It was the sound of peace.
Lulled by the sounds of nature, she fell asleep in the chair.