#48

Blake
I was standing outside a makeshift paddock watching the angry filly kicking up dirt. Evan and Elijah stood outside the ring leaning against the fence. When I told them we had backup coming, they immediately abandoned the quest to attempt to groom her for the hundredth time. She hadn’t been with us long, but she sure as hell has been a thorn in everyone's side since she's been here. But maybe deep down, Evander sensed something that we didn't. Fate must have guided his hand because this spitfire would be the therapy my sister needed to control whatever she had become. Those wild and free summers with our grandparents away from the eyes that forced her to limit her greatness, she would never fall to fever and she would bask in the open plains with the herd. They always congregated to her and it was almost as if she could speak to them, but she would always tell me that the animals spoke through energy. She said they would tell you stories and ask for help just by the push and pull of the world around us. That they could make your soul feel a peace you could never find in the human world. When she talked to them, her soul would sing and the melody would come through her voice. Even the skittish and raging stallion would follow her around allowing her to climb his back as they kicked up dust across the prairie. Those were good times.

I had become lost in the childhood memories pulled into a past I had forced out of my mind for over half a decade. She nudged me glancing up. “I have shadows,” she whispered nodding her head to look behind her. Amy and Alex were looking through the trees. I smiled shaking my head at those two rug rats. “I hope your gran and your mother know where you are, you two,” I said crossing my arms and facing them. They bowed their heads in shame coming from the forest. “We just wanted to see if Luna would be talking to the horses honest it was on our way to get Shelly a batch of eggs for tomorrow's bread,” Amy tried her hand at diplomacy. Aurora bent in front of them, looking from one to the other. “Now, let me tell you two what curiosity will do,” she started. “I know,” Alex scoffed, kicking some dirt with his shoe. “Curiosity killed the cat,” he said, resigned to being sent away and his interest being squashed.

“Well, that must have been a pretty stupid cat,” she said eyeing the two. Evan and Elijah were watching with interest but ready to step in if she overstepped a boundary. “How so?” Alex asked. “Well, if he didn't learn from his first 8 lives, he sure wasted his last.” Alex looked up at her buying into her perspective. “Now we are out in the wilds. So your parents need to know where you are at all times, and you should never be wandering off alone out here.” She continued. “The better option would be to ask to watch so I can make sure Evander checks with your mom and your gran if it's ok. You don't have 9 lives, you know,” she finished. “But you can't talk to Alpha like that yet, Alex,” said. Amy was scrutinizing Aurora. She reached forward, and I saw that she knew what was coming, but allowed the girl to do it. I wouldn’t doubt those two would soon form an unbreakable bond. When she pulled the shoulder of her sweater down, I could practically feel the men off to my side gasp. She eyed her again, “but you can't return it yet,” she said, still puzzled.

Aurora took in a deep breath choosing her words. “Some people are different Amy. just like you are different, so am I. I could talk to Evander since I met him. I don't know why but sometimes we just have to accept the world's curiosities as just that, a beautiful oddity, a one-of-a-kind thing, and let it be what it is and not question it.” Amy threw herself forward, little tears escaping her eyes as my sister embraced her back. Facing a child had just concurred something within herself. If she demoted who she was she would be demoting who Amy was and that was not who my sister was. I smiled before eyeing the men, who looked on in awe and interest. Amy had now found someone who could understand her inner struggles. Someone who could maybe help her chase the dark things that wandered into her seer’s mind. “Luna?” Alex asked. “Alex she chided. “I'm not the Luna yet. I told you to call me Aurora,” she said. “But you will be,” he said. “What's the difference?”

She glanced back at me before looking at the kids trying to explain something complex to them. “Well, your parents came out here with Evander because they believed in what he was doing and who he was. I want them to do the same for me. I'm different. Not everyone likes that or can accept that. But I hope they do because I'm falling in love with this place and its people.” she said, pulling them both into an embrace and they clung back to her.

“Now,” she said, pulling away teary-eyed. “If you want to watch, what do you say?” “Please,” they shouted in unison. She smiled standing and leaning back against the fence, her mind drifting to Evander, and I watched as her face contorted into a contented smile, then a shy gasp. That I didn't want to know about. The paint nudged her shoulder, and she pulled an apple out of the bag she had. “You have 30 mins then back to your chores,” and they cheered as she fed the filly the apple, stroking her.

“Get me that damn curry comb. She's a mess,” she growled out before stepping through the fence. This was the assertive Aurora, confident in what she was doing at the moment. Evan walked over, his dark chocolate skin shining in the sun as he handed it to her. “Good with kids and animals. The moon goddess chose you as our Luna. Who am I to disagree with her? So far you got my vote,” he said with a wink, walking off to move the bales of hay to feed the other animals in the barn. Aurora stared in disbelief. He dumped one over the edge and the filly sniffed at it unimpressed, but as Aurora began singing and brushing her out, the filly took to eating it. When she did this, her voice was always so ancient, so eerie, yet beautiful beyond measure. Evan and Elijah came out of the barn observing her as she worked. It was wonderful therapy for them both. I’d seen her nurse so many broken and abused animals back to health and vitality. She had been out of nature too long, it would lull the power within her soothing it. Her anxiety, her doubts, her hang-ups this was where she needed to be to calm the storm within her. Here could be the end to her suffering. We just had to find the rest of the pieces of the puzzle.

Once she was done, the paint looked beautiful, and she swung up on her bare back. I opened the pen and the filly choose to fly over it, my sister expertly holding on as she took off at high speed down the trail. The kids cheered, and I ushered them back to their chores as Evan and Elijah stood with mouths agape. “So,” Elijah said with a grin. “That's your sister, right?” “Yes,” I said eyeing him coldly. It would be a pun or a jab, I was sure, with this one. “You got any more of them?” he asked. I shoved him ruefully into a pile of hay before collecting Stone, a dappled grey gelding I usually rode, and went tracking after her. I was sure once she let the filly burn some energy, she would settle down somewhere. She landed in a meadow after jumping a few creeks. She had picked a dead flower and her fingers trailed over the tops of the dying now October grass. The filly followed her nibbling here and there as my sister hummed along to the tune of her soul. Birds to beasts they all called to her. They all basked in her presence as I did now. I watched in wonder as she revived the flower and then let it wither again, becoming dust. She sighed dusting her hands off and looking back at me. Nothing got past her.

I trotted down from my vantage point meeting her as she pulled herself gracefully back onto the filly. “You should name her,” I suggested. “She doesn’t belong to me,” she countered. “Nobody could own her.” She said simply. “But doesn’t she deserve to be called by something other than a demon horse?” She scoffed. “What should I call her? The Morrgain? that's just as bad.” I shook my head. “You are missing the point, Dove. She only belongs here if you're here. If you don't accept this as your home in your heart, then why else are you here?” She gazed over at me. “Fate you, Evander, family, I never wanted to be more than that. It's even more than I could dream of. I’ve lost everything only to gain this place, this love, this family, and now people I need to convince. I'm right for a role. I'm not even sure what it will be. Luna to the Alpha of Alphas? I guess we will find out when the rogues are brought home,” she said ending with a sigh. “You need to give these people a full-hearted chance. Stop holding yourself back, no more hiding who or what you are. If the werewolf council can't find us, then the witches' alliances won't either. Dominic is very meticulous about the one thing that keeps him Alpha and right now that includes keeping his brother's future Luna safe,” I retorted. “What? That fruitcake?” she shot back. I couldn't help but laugh. “Let's just hope the wolf has changed my essence enough that they can no longer track me. We started looking for you a week out and it just never worked.” I shrugged. “I had already met Whinnie by then and was lost in her love. Letting it consume my grief,” I confessed. “I'm not proud of how I handled things but I cannot change my choices,” I said looking back up at her. She just nodded in acceptance as we made our way back toward the settlement. “Evander said that your wolf surfaced, and that she is strong. Maybe she will convince you that this is your place and your home,” I suggested.

“I might as well tell you she showed me that the mating went as fated. Then we went hunting and Evander and I took out an elk,” she told me. “Really? And how did she show you this?” I asked. “Well, at first I should tell you that though she's dormant she's very present,” she said rolling her eyes. “What’s that about?” I asked nudging her as she rode close to me. She sighed. “You really want to know because I'm going to tell you it will be too much information.” I scowled at her hoping I wasn’t going to hear some intimate detail. “I apparently had the audacity not to get knocked up,” she said rolling her eyes again. “Wow, that's a first impression,” I said, caught off guard and very uncomfortable. Even though I knew generally what had happened between them, I wanted no details. As long as he treated her right which I had no doubts I would stay out of their business. “I will spare you the first,” she mumbled as we found ourselves on the trail leading past the barn. “We should go straight to lunch or we are going to miss it,” I told her picking up the pace. And she followed suit.