Her steely gray eyes made contact with mine.
She looked shocked for a nanosecond but she recovered from it so quickly I almost thought I had imagined it.
"Adrianne dear." She tried to look weary. Tried. "You have to help me, something got me and has me locked up-"
"Cut the crap."
And she immediately shut her mouth.
Good.
"What do you want from me? No really, what do you want from me?"
"Hm, skipped right past the pleasantries, diving right in."
I stayed silent, watching her.
Studying all her minute movements with great precaution.
She was here, but not fully. That I knew. But you wouldn't be able to tell from her mere physical appearance.
By all standards she looked present, fully present and living.
I noticed how her chest rose and fell gently, steadily with every breath she took.
I noticed her throat move gently as she swallowed.
I noticed her her pupils dilate and constrict as she occasionally glanced around the room, her eyes adjusting to the light.
I noticed that little vein at the side of her temple and that little depressed notch above her sternum that meets her clavicles, both pulsating as her heart beat.
She's got an actual heart?
"What are you?"
She moved slowly around the room, not coming in contact with anything.
Her movements seemingly very deliberate.
"Let's just say, I'm a force of nature."
"You're evil."
"Still a force."
"So you're a witch?"
"It's not as simple as that, but you could call it that.
"So what, your boss told you to come get me?"
"Boss? I have no boss." She almost looked offended.
Ah. So then she's the boss?
That prompted me to a thought. One that I hadn't had much time to dwell on yet.
"So you're floating white eyes?" I was now considering this myself for the first time.
"What?" She almost laughed.
"The leader. The one who sent her cronies to come 'get me'" I seethed.
She just smiled, feeling smug, and confirmed my statement.
Giving me even more resolve to do what I have to do.
But she must not know what it is that I'm planning.
Peaches.
"So how is it that you decided to come and carry out this plan of yours yourself?"
"Important things require my attention, and you, if it isn't painfully obvious by now, are very important to us."
"So you're this force, and a leader at that, that's riding her existence on a mere wolf?"
Her eyebrows shot up.
"You're no ordinary wolf. Surely you must know that."
She, or well, her consciousness kept moving around the place. Her shadow following her as she went.
Her shadow.
She had a shadow?
She took another step to the side, and I noticed the fine/minute bristles of the plush carpet sway and bend from the applied pressure of her feet.
Actual pressure. Actual footprints.
As if sensing my current dilemma, she gently picked up a book from the shelf and then put it back in place.
Discreetly, I looked over at the candle on the coffee table.
It wasn't there anymore.
It wasn't where I left it.
"If you're looking for this," She said, pointing to the candle that was now beside her, "It's still covered." She knocked off the glass. "Well, it was."
I stirred.
"And don't for a second think I don't know you've got people stationed outside those doors waiting to pounce on me."
I didn't say anything.
Peaches.
"Luckily for you and mostly them, I didn't come here to fight. Contrary to what you believe, I actually want you to come peacefully. Willingly even." She had her sardonic smile plastered on her face.
"Willingly to be killed?"
She nodded, feeling smug.
"Are you really that dense or just too damn ancient?"
Her smile faltered.
But she recovered quickly.
"Believe it or not, I need you to come without fighting me Adrianne. Initially I had planned this by getting you to come away with me on a trip to go see the grave of your supposed cousin, but things got in the way of that." She said looking annoyed.
Of course that had also been a lie. Her story of how she'd buried her son past few mountain or something. She was going to get me to go on that trip?
I wonder how she would have ended me had I gone with her at that time.
Wait, I wasn't even Alpha yet, would that have worked?
Is that why she couldn't do it then?
"I can feel you. You are a strong Alpha. Surrendering doesn't mean you're weak. It means you're smart."
Smart? That's a new one.
"I believe you will make the choice once you know the full story."
"What stupid story would you make up that would make me give myself up to you for your evil purposes?"
She smiled.
"As I'm sure you know by now, I am not your long lost aunt from the golden moon pack."
"I figured." My voice was cold.
"While she did, in fact, exist, she died a long time ago, shortly after the colossal wipe out of your pack. I took on her body, her form and her memories. Or at least, most of them. Sometimes her memories would overwhelm me with emotions that were foreign to me, akin to care and compassion and even hurt, and I loathed every minute of it." She scowled. "But I did what needed to be done. I needed to be as realistic as possible, but that is all it was, pretense. You are indeed the last living member of the Golden Moon pack."
I knew that. I've known that for a long time. And then, for a short while, I thought I wasn't, and then I found out I had been right all along.
Even so, deep down, I wished she had just possessed my aunt and that the real her was still there, ready to be saved.
But she wasn't.
And I was alone again.
Okay, no, I can't let my feelings sidetrack me.
Okay, let's keep going, just like we said.
Okay.
Peaches.
I studied her. She was like ten feet away from me, maybe even more. And she made sure to keep that distance even as she moved around the room, keeping a steady radius around me.
I acted uninterested while trying to inch towards her.
"You're not an ordinary wolf. We've already established that. It's one of the reasons you were able to cross the barrier and find me and my sisters that day in woods. Even though we did call you, we didn't expect you to get into our actual sanctuary."
What? Barrier?
I thought about how I stumbled upon them in my dream state, but I don't remember crossing any barriers. Then again, I didn't remember much from that night.
"You also know that your mother i- was a white wolf."
I nodded.
"Well, you also happen to be from the Golden Moon pack. The pack that most liked to call the 'moon blessed' pack because of some unnatural abilities. We called them the bane of our existence."
"The bane of your existence?"
"We're old, very old, ancient, as you so eloquently put it." She sounded sour.
I guess grandma over here doesn't like being told she's prehistoric.
"And it takes a certain type of 'energy source' to survive this long. And we've had access to these sources for so long, no issues."
She spoke as though she meant double A batteries, but I knew it was something far more sinister than that.
"Until the ancestors of your pack started attacking us. And when wolves start attacking shadow movers, things get messy."
Shadow movers? Is that what she is?
Peaches.
"What do you mean messy?"
Her eyes momentarily flared up like she was trying to reign in her anger.
"They were getting in the way and the source of our power, so we had to get rid of the problem."
"The problem being-"
"Yes, your pack. And it's a war that has been going on for centuries past, and we neared our tolerance limit, so it needed to end. Once we came to terms that we couldn't actually fight them off ourselves, we devised a new course of action."
Her movements were so infinitesimal that I almost didn't catch it, but I did.
That subtle and fast flickering look at her arm that was covered by her sleeve.
The wound that I inflicted on her no doubt is still festering under there.
The wound I was counting on.
She moved further away again as she moved around.
Peaches. Peaches.
I inched towards her again as I shifted on my feet, feigning unease.
"We couldn't fight them, so we got someone else to get rid of them."
I stilled.
I didn't like the way in which she was going now. I shouldn't believe a damn thing she says. She's trying to rile me up and throw me off my game.
Peaches.
"What do you mean someone else?"
"You know what I mean."
And I did. But it wasn't making any sense.
I didn't understand.
"Your pack was wiped out. Every last person taken down. You know who did this, yet you share his bed."
Peaches.
"It makes me wonder if I should question your own morals..." she looked amused.
I wasn't.
She was bringing those things up again to mess with me. I couldn't let her do that. I needed to start doing something now.
She then held my gaze for a couple of minutes, looking intently at me. Looking a bit perplexed as well.
Then she spoke up almost as if by accident. "What's peaches?"
"What?"
"Nevermind, look, I know you're not at ease right now."
"Shocker."
"Let me finish. I can see it all over you that you're very tensed up and I need you to be relaxed and receptive to hear this story." Picking up the cover of the glass she covered up the candle again.
Was that supposed to do something for me?
"I'm sure you can tell that I might have more influence than you might have intended. Even though I can make contact with your items, keeping it covered ensures that I cannot have contact with living things. It will remain covered."
"You're missing out on something vital."
"What's that?"
"I don't trust you." I spat.
"That's fair, but you should hear me out anyway."
"And if I don't want to?" I said inching closer to her.
"Oh you will, once you know what actually made your pack disappear."
Again, I stilled. There was something. I knew there was. Something big.
"Even though I judge you for forgiving him, I also gotta admit, maybe it's because deep down you know the truth."
"What truth?"
"Damon didn't start the fire, we did." She paused.
I didn't say anything.
Peaches.
"Damon had a darkness, one that he was trying very hard to reign in, one that suited our purposes perfectly well. Like I told you, we couldn't get rid of your pack. So we had Damon do it. From start to finish, we made him our puppet. An obedient puppet up until he let you go. Now why am I telling you all this? So that you can run into his arms and make your relationship stronger?" She scoffed a laugh at me while I narrowed my eyes at her.
"No. I'm telling you this because even though we couldn't fight your pack, we could easily control the one that could. I want you to understand the extent of our influence. The fact that everything that catalyzed that event, we controlled." Her gaze was dead set and serious, focused on me.
I stared right back.
"Now you miss golden sunshine, might be impervious to our magic, but the rest of your pack isn't. And now that you're Alpha I'm sure you feel some sort of connection to the people here... and even if not for them, for the others from your past." She waved her hand about as though she was gesturing to the pack all around us.
"Regardless of where you draw your inspiration from, draw it now. Because it won't take us much to take control over your pack and basically have them annihilate themselves until you give in. We can do that. We can make Damon do it himself."
Suddenly everything started to fall to pieces.
"Complete and utter devastation. It can be so easily replicated here. You know we can. But you can avoid all that. You can save them."
"By being a sacrificial lamb?"
"Call it whatever you want, but I recall you telling me that you loved your pack and that you would be willing to fight for them. Well do it now, because if you don't, they will, and it will be horrible."
There was a small pause. "Sure," she shrugged, "you might survive it, but I can assure you, they won't. No matter how many times you try to ambush me," she said gesturing beyond my room walls, "they can't catch me. They can't fight me. So the suicide mission they'd be going on in a quest to save you, can be avoided. Make the right decision Adrianne."