Mesmerism (o.h.)

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One long month as a werewolf had been Madelyn's fate after that night. All she could think about was the Original who had saved her life. Of course, she was just a lone werewolf; meek and unimportant to a man of his stature and his nobility.

He'd come around the bayou a few times, but she remained a wolf and he remained unaware of her presence as he would only be around to see Hayley—one of the only werewolves in the bayou who was lucky enough to remain a human every day of the month.

He was there, as was Madelyn, when Hayley and Eve kidnapped the witch that Hayley and Elijah both called 'Celeste'. He nearly destroyed Madelyn'spack's one chance to be humanagain. But, something happened after he took the mixture and Celeste. And he returned it to Hayley. Much to Madelyn's dismay, she had to watch from the cover of the bushes as he pressed a kiss to Hayley's forehead before leaving the bayou.

She spent the better part of an entire month feeling like a teenage girl again, with a silly little crush on a man she couldn't have. She spent most of her time as a werewolf in the bayou. And Hayley was beautiful, baby belly and everything.

Even as wolves, her cousin always sensed that something was wrong with her, and she knew he'd ask once they were human again, but she didn't want to talk about it. How could she tell her cousin that all that she spent most of her days thinking about was a man who was a mortal enemy to the wolves? Not only was Elijah Mikaelson a vampire, he was an Original vampire.

She knew it was ridiculous to have a silly crush on the man.

As she expected, on the night of the next full moon, Jackson had spent some time of the night trying to get Madelyn to open up to him. But, she didn't. She mostly sat around on her own, waiting as he and Hayley cooked the gumbo with the elixir that would hopefully revert their twenty-something year old curse back to the way it was originally.

And once the gumbo was consumed by every single member of the pack, Madelyn waited in the shadows of the forest as the moon was covered by clouds in the night sky. When nothing happened and everyone remained human, the others started to cheer and clap and embrace one another in hugs.

She watched her cousin hug Hayley, and she couldn't help but feel envious toward the girl. She had Jackson's undivided attention—although he had been waiting all of his life to meet Andréa Labonair; his betrothed.

Madelyn was in the background to everyone's life. She never wanted that, but as it proved to be something that was inevitable in her life, she stopped trying to fight it. And, now, after eleven years of being the only girl in her cousin's life, Madelyn was being pushed to the sidelines once more.

The young girl sighed softly and made her way deeper into the woods. In that very moment, she wished that she could change on command. She wished that she hadn't eaten the gumbo. She'd be a wolf again. No one would expect her to talk about her unrequited feelings for an Original vampire. She could run as far away as she could. Something she wished she had done a long time ago. She was starting to figure out that she was better off alone.

"Maddy, where you goin'?" she heard Jackson's voice approach her from the direction she had come from.

She ignored him and continued to walk into the forest. She wanted her own little escape. She wanted to get away from everyone. She was used to the silence of being a wolf and she suddenly wanted it back, after spending the past four years as a wolf. She never thought she'd actually miss being a four-legged furry animal.

"Oh, no, you don't," Jackson protested. She listened as his footsteps behind her sped up. She sped up her pace, too, but because he was tall and had longer legs than she did, Jackson caught up to her. He grabbed her elbow to stop her footsteps and then he jumped in front of her to block her path. "You're not going to do that thing where you push me away. Not this time," he denied her.