The Crow and The Wolf

Chapter 1

1.

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Valeria always enjoyed the morning cold, the small hue it brought into her room, and how chilly it made the wooden floors. She liked the smell of snow in the morning and how it felt when it fell on her cheeks and how the heat from her skin would melt it.

She loved it that way.

She didn't quite hate the summer, but she wasn't a fan of the heat. With the constant sun blaring through the window and the heat that came along with it, it was no wonder that during the summer and spring, she preferred her curtains closed.

Although it made her mother worry about her non-wolf ways.

Valeria was reading one of the many books that her neighbour would often bring back on his trips when she turned to look at the door, waiting for her mother to show up at any moment. Seconds passed, and a knock echoed through the room. She mumbled a small come in and her mother's scent filled the room.

It was broken, but not to a point that worried her but enough to know that she was a widowed mate.

"How long have you been awake?" her mother asked. Valeria met her brown eyes before turning away from her mother and toward the book in her hands.

"That depends; are you asking if I slept?" she mumbled.

She heard her mother sigh as she moved around the room. She pushed books off the bed that went tumbling and hitting the floor with a thud and sat with her daughter on the blue fitted sheets.

"What are you reading?" Her mother wondered out loud while trying to get a good look at her daughter's health.

"Humans' idea of gods," Valeria mumbled, pretending not to notice her mother's feigned interest.

Her mother hummed and laid back on her daughter's bed.

"Is it any good?" she asked with her eyes closed.

Her daughter laid down next to her and hummed, "It's humorous at best."

They sat in silence and stared at the roof before Valeria shifted her eyes to her mother's melanin-rich skin, and she couldn't help but admire her beauty.

Looking at her mother now, she couldn't deny it.

Her mother's eyes met hers, and although she could see a tinge of red in those brown eyes, she knew that at that moment she was with her mother, and she bathed in it. Afraid that someday she may have to look back at the memory.

She had taken in her mother's soft features, from her soft eyes to her small lips. She could make out some small freckles on her cheeks and nose, but her mother would never believe her, even when she tried to tell her so many times before.

She sighed and looked back at the ceiling and then to the window outside, where the sun was beckoning her to begin the day. She got off the bed with a grunt and walked across the floor to the small closet located right next door to her bathroom.

"What, so we don't shower now?" Her mother's voice echoed in the room, and she could hear the smile on her face.

"Who says I didn't take a shower?" Valeria retorted with a snort.

"Sure you did," she rolled her eyes at her mother's sarcasm and left the closet wearing some loose jeans, a long-sleeved vest and a jacket.

"You working today?" she asked her mother whilst putting on her shoes.

Her mother nodded, getting up from the bed, "Yeah, Marie's mate, Jonathan?" she asked, making sure her daughter understood who she was talking about.

"The redheaded warrior working at the northern borders?" she remembered scrunching her nose up.

"Yeah, that one. Well, he doesn't like that his mate is working and on her feet during her last trimester, so he's forbidden her from coming to work, and so her shifts get added to mine."

She could hear the annoyance in her mother's voice, and she couldn't help but snicker, making her mother feign a heartfelt look.

"Hey, you wanted to be a nurse," she said with a shrug.

"Says the ungrateful daughter," she smiled and they both descend downstairs where she packed some grapes and leftover pasta for lunch along with a bottle of water.

She left her home after wishing her mom well. As she walked out the door, she was greeted with a gentle breeze, the scent of wet grass, and the sounds of the world around her.

She passed her next-door neighbour's house and noticed that he was not washing his driveway in the morning sunlight as routine. He was usually chirpy and willing to give her advice. Always ready to tell her about the late Mrs. Edgar or how his mate would cite anything when she thought he needed it.

It would bring a grin to her face before she said thank you and promised to come back before heading down the trail.

She was concerned because he was a punctual man.

So she waited a few minutes for his garage doors to open and see her before smiling and beckoning her over to tell her a good morning, but that didn't happen.

"Absence sharpens love; presence enhances it."

His voice flooded her thoughts, but it was only now that she realised what he truly meant.

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