Part 3
Mia
"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."
The sorceress's eyes gleam with a subtle brightness that elicits an eerie feeling within me, however, Madness doesn't respond negatively to it.
Well, Madness isn't responding to much at all. Not after that moment we've had with Merida. Now that my body and mind's calmed down after Alex woke up, that moment is all we could think about.
The want.
The desire.
The passion.
The secret.
Amongst all those swirling feelings was the one thing I couldn't get out in time. The one thing that I fear would tear Merida and I apart. Alex told me once we were done here.
Once Darkness was taken care of, I can go back to her. But now she's here. With me. Here, in the one place neither of us should be.
"Her name is Gentle." The sorceress states with excitement.
This woman is the complete opposite of the witch who named me. Her disgusted eyes bore in the back of mind for a moment before fading off. I have too much to worry about instead of focusing on the memories of a dead woman that Merida killed.
Merida killed for me once, but unfortunately, I can't trust her to do it again. Not when it comes to her own brother. Regardless of how many mate-bond swayed promises we make to each other.
A sigh escapes me, I need to clear my head.
"Mia, is everything okay?" I turn to Alex, who, along with Kristen is staring intensely at me. Though I suspect, Kristen's glare is more of a protective one. The same one that Merida often has.
"Yea, just reminds of Ma." I lie. Hoping to distract them from the truth that hangs on the edge. A truth that I know Alex knows, but no one else. "Her name's Patience."
Alex regards me for a moment. "Yea, I remember Dad told-"
Merida looks over to us quickly and Alex stumbles over her words before catching herself. "From a letter that mom wrote a while back."
Nice save. But unfortunately, Merida doesn't look convinced.
"It seems to run in the family." I laugh. "Well, except with me." I toss in changing the conversation.
The sorceress turns towards me, her eyes gentle yet piercing. "Why would you say that?" She asks.
"I - uh." Suddenly, a memory hits of something my father told me months ago. "The situation, regarding my change."
The sorceress takes a step towards me, which brings a warning growl out Merida. "The sorceress who named my mate... didn't do so with the best intention." Merida spoke for me. "Her mind was lost to blood magic."
"She named me Madness," I continue. "But I feel-"
"That's not the true name I see for you." The sorceress tells me. A wave of dejavu hits me as I recall that those were my father's exact words.
I look at her then, her bright eyes met mine and for a moment it feels like she's looking directly at my wolf. Her hand goes up to my face and with a flash she's surrounded by three wolves.
Merida who stands in front of her, Alex behind her and Kristen to Alex's right. The sorceress surprisingly keeps her composure in the face of three pissed off wolves.
For moment, I could feel my wolf grinning from the sight of her mate and sister protecting her. Even though neither understands the other, they can still stand unified when it comes to me.
If only I can trust that Merida can stay that way against her own brother...
"I'm not here to hurt anyone." The sorceress gestures towards my sister. "As you can see."
"I know." I grab Merida arm in a quick attempt to calm her down. Her icy colored eyes glance back at me. Think. What something I can use to calm her down. "Merida... I'm hungry."
It's a stupid lie, but almost instantly she softens. "I can order in.."
"No," I say too quickly. "I miss your cooking." There's truth behind that statement. Over the course of these last few weeks with death constantly breathing down my neck, I've come to miss a lot of things. Home, mother, the pack. And especially the meals Merida made for me almost everyday.
Merida sighs and turns, finally catching on. With a glance towards Kristen and Alex, they each take a step back. "I don't want to leave you by yourself." She whispers.
I give her arm a gentle squeeze. "I'll be -"
"Mia... Merida." The sorceress says calmly. "I came here today for Alexandria. However," Reaching out, air wisps around her outstretched hand and slowly a card forms from the breeze. Similar to how Jabari created my card for the Social Butterfly. "My number is here. When you’re ready," Her kind eyes regard me. "you can use this to reach out to me."
Now that Merida is out of killing distance from the sorceress, I grab the card she gives me with a sense of relief with an added sense of curiosity.
If the name of my wolf changes, would that mean she'll change as well? And what would that mean for me?
The air wisps around me as the sorceress exits the room and then the apartment itself, leaving a lingering trace of her warm magic. Something about it gives me the comfort that regardless of my overbearing thoughts, that it'll be okay.
"So," Merida breaks into the silence. "What do we want to eat?"
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Scents of garlic and boiled pasta fill me with the hunger that I didn't even realize I had, turning my quick lie into a blatant truth. As Merida took it upon herself to utilize our kitchen to cook me a meal upon my request as she'd done once before followed by Alex, Kristen took a spot on the couch. She'd been flipping through channels randomly until she landed on one that she liked.
"Mates?" Alex states quizzically as she preps the ingredients. "As in friends?"
As two brothers with flashlights begin searching an abandoned house for god knows what on the television, Kristen tries to get Alex caught up on the 'Werewolf 101' oral guidebook.
Kristen looks down sheepishly from her spot on the couch as Merida laughs while turning the pasta. "No, well, maybe. It depends." The chapter that Kristen was stumbling on was titled: "Mates, and mating."
Alex cocks an eyebrow. "Depends on what exactly?"
Sitting in one of the chairs that I moved from the dinner table to the living room, I turn the red wine in hand thinking back to all the small moments between Merida and I. As the bitter taste hits the back of my throat, I ponder our bond.
We're mates. But something tells me, that our mate bond could be more than just the small moments of light touches we've shared.
That, maybe just maybe, if we'd strengthen our bond somehow then perhaps I could change the uncertainty that lies between us. The uncertainty that holds the secret I long to tell her in the back of my throat.
"It's an agreement." Merida tells us. For the past thirty minutes, she'd been filling in the things that Kristen and I couldn't. "A bond between two wolves that easy to break if you aren't careful and difficult to strengthen. However, the moment you've settled on an agreement with each, things can become easy down the road."
Surprisingly, it turns out that no matter how much I learn about it, there's always new information that pops out every now and then. I knew we had an agreement, but I didn't realize how badly I wanted that agreement to change.
"An agreement?" Alex questions as she carefully brings a knife across a wooden board full of basil.
The feeling of Merida's eyes on my skin made me look up from the glass I held. Our eyes connected for a second before she pulled her attention away and towards Kristen and Alex. She moved from the kitchen and beckoned Kristen over.
"It'll be easier to show you." Now, this caught my attention. "Kristen, did you tell her?"
Turning to watch the scene before me, Kristen nodded as both her and Alex came before Merida. Not too close but not quite far.
"Alex. Kristen. You both are mates. Agreed?" They both nodded. "Now, that the easy part is done, you can decide upon an agreement that appeases both yourselves and your wolves. We can start with Alex. What do you want and what does your wolf want?"
My sister bites the inside of her lip, thinking hard about her end of the agreement. "The wolf - Gentle wants to hold her." Kristen's eyes light up at Alex's confession, something I know she's been waiting a long time to hear. "I want... to be close to her, but since this is all so sudden. I want to be friends for right now."
"We want to kiss you." Kristen says with Misery behind her. "Misery wants that as do I. But we also know that with everything that has happened, the one thing we both want is to protect you. To do that, I need to close to you and I won't do anything that would make you push me away."
Alex peers into Kristen, before nodding. "I can do that. Friends, for right now."
"Agreed." Kristen nodded. A buzzing sound broke into the silence, as we'd wrapped up the 'sort of' friendship wedding between my sister and my best friend.
Merida went over to her phone, as I cracked a lighthearted joke to ease the air in the room. "Do you two hummingbirds want to sit down and watch a show about angels and gods?"
Kristen rolled her eyes and laughed, "It's about supernatural creatures. Not about angels and gods."
"It's the same thing." I retort. "I bet five dollars on it."
Kristen plopped down on the couch. "When I see a god strolling the street with a witch, I'll give you a hundred dollars."
"Deal."
Merida placed the phone down, slightly harder than attended. Madness turned towards our mate from our spot in the living room.
"Merida," I asked. "what's wrong?"
"Apparently, Carlos was tipped off by a noble vampire family." Her face was stern as she turned to us. "The vampire who attacked the pack... was the same one who attacked Alex."
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