I must have walked for half an hour before a little, blue light catches my sight. It was jumping from one leaf to another, almost like it was trying to catch my attention. When it concluded that I'm watching it, the little light jumped on an unbloomed flower, before disappearing inside of it. I approached the illuminated bud, and just as I touched it, the forest was covered in light. Just as pushing a switch, a myriad of little, blue lights cast aside the darkness of night. Seeing the scene before my eyes, I'm reminded of a legend I've found while studying about the fairies for my last hunting test on supernatural folklore.
Will-o'-wisps, I believe they're called, and for what I've learned it's not smart to follow them as they lead travellers towards deceptive goals and hopes. Unfortunately, I can't use them as my lantern. My phone battery died somewhere between my hurried leave of the pack this morning and my stupid return this afternoon, so I'm blind as a bat right now.
"If I say that my deceptive goal is to return to the halls, will you lead me there?" I silently talk to the will-o'-wisps, aware that I'm speaking to ghostly lights. They glitch when I speak, which weirds me out. I decide it's safe to go now before whatever is waiting at the end of the ignis fatuus corridor in the woods decides to come out of the shadows and bite my head off.
I'm not able to take a step further from them, before the will-o'-wisps start glitching again and only stop when I turn on my heels to face them. I take a step towards the wisps and new lights start showing deeper in the woods. I've made many dumb decisions in the past and I'm pretty sure that following these fairy lights will be one of them, but I can't see the alternative now. So I push back all the warning alarms inside my head, stepping cautiously on the dimly lit path.
I don't walk much before I hear the familiar sound of a speeding car. And another one. And another one. I must near the highway now, which is the best thing that could've happen right now. I didn't know how to thank the ghostly lights for getting me out of the woods, but I keep the gratitudes at bay when a low growl makes my skin crawl. I stop and watch my surroundings, spotting a very large shadow right next to me. I hide behind the tree and watch as the monstrous beast takes back the form in which I recognise him.
"Mum..." I hear his whisper carefully escaping his lips, his tone full of disbelief. But suddenly his eyes grow big and his face glows up in happiness. "I missed your voice so much, mum."
I approach him, wanting to figure out whom he was talking to. I was surprised to see that he was all alone there, only a dim light surrounding him. I remember Asher telling me about the Moon-Wisher-thing, but just as I wasn't expecting to be the chosen one, I didn't believe I'd witness this becoming true right before my eyes. But I'm glad Hayder was chosen, not only because he is the least insufferable shifter I've met in this pack, but also because he seemed in real need of a miracle like this when I've met him this afternoon.
"You already know what my wish is..." he says, clearing his throat before continuing. "I wish to know her; when will I meet her, mum?"
I imagine he was not meet by the same silence as he frowned after a second and shook his head forcibly. "I don't care if I won't meet her before the competition! I just want my mate, mum..."
My mouth opens in wonder, shocked by the seriousness in his voice. He seemed repugned by the fact that his mother believed it was important for him to meet his mate only to be able to compete for the Lycan Throne and not because... well, I'll stop right here. Because if I further think about this, I may start making comparisons to the fight I just had with Asher because of this very reason. And I'm in no mood for an internal conflict after the day I had.
"But that's impossible!" He shouts, stopping me from walking back to the will-o'-wisps and their lit path. "People will hate me, they will believe I'm a liability. They won't accept a..."
I wished I didn't step on that bloody twig, so I could know what he was about to say. But it's too late now when his red eyes are looking exactly at me, his whole body emanating waves of anger. It would have been smart to run for the hills when he started approaching me like a raging bull, but I didn't. I just stood frozen in place, waiting to see how my fate unfolds.
"What the hell are you doing here, Aline?" He asks me, crossing his arms around his chest and watching me annoyed.
"Ahm," I sigh when I'm sure he won't attack me for disturbing his talk with the Ancestors. "I'm going home. Sorry for the interruption."
"How much did you hear?"
"Do you want me to be honest or lie?"
"I'd prefer you to lie if someone asks you about what you heard tonight," he tells me and I nod. I knew right away that his discussion was supposed to be secret, so I'm glad he trusts me enough to keep this secret. If it was the other way around, I'd have reacted way worse.
"Where is my idiot cousin? How did he let you out of his sight once again?" He asks me, going behind a tree and scooping a backpack from underneath some fallen leaves. He comes back to me and now he has dressed in a black shirt, which I believe is not his as it looks a tad too tight on him. He also wears a pair of straight jeans that look like leggings on him. He is barefoot and I only assume that whatever shoes were there, mustn't have been his size.
"Do people hide clothes in the woods?" I ask, diverting the conversation.
"Only in the bits of the forest that belong to the pack. They have marked a tree where they leave clothes for the shifters." He simply responds and I'm once again amazed by how organised packs are. "Did you have another fight?"
"I decided to leave before it turned into one," I say, not wanting to give many details, especially after hearing his confession. "Anyway, I should be going before the sun rises."
"Do you want me to accompany you back to the pack?" He asks and I immediately refuse him.
"I'm not going back to the pack, Hayder." He frowns at my words and I just sigh. "It was nice to meet you, Silveira. I wish I could say that I'd like to see you again, but I know it's highly unlikely to happen under good circumstances, so goodbye."
"I wouldn't be so sure that it'll be the last time we see each other unless my cousin proves himself to be as big of an idiot as I believe he is."
"I doubt he'll make me come back, after tonight," I assure him, ready to make my way back to the ignis fatuum.
"Make you come back?" He laughs at my words like they were the best joke he ever heard. "Goddess, you have a higher opinion about my kind than I assumed. Adeline, we never let our mate leave us. No matter how stubborn they are at keeping themselves away from us, it never happens. You have no idea how much we depend on the mate bond and how sacred it is to us."
"Oh, but Asher told me." I talk back at him, anger slowly building up inside of me. "He told me how you Lycanthropes are so desperate to have a shot at the Throne, that you'd make anyone your mate."
"That's what your human mind understood, but it's not true," I scoff at his words because he can try all he wants to change my mind. It will be in vain. "I know we have our rotten apples; fools who mate to just any girls to become Lycans, but they are the exception. Most of us are not that stupid to ruin our chance of finding our soul mate. And not only in order to become Lycans or to win the Throne."
He pauses a moment, before continuing. "You can say that Lycans are helpless romantics; we rely on the mate-bond as it gives us strength, hope. It makes us who we are: the better wolves, the children of the Moon. We don't exist without our promised ones, without our true mates.
"I know you are a hunter and that you come from a well-known family. So you must have heard the legend about the wolf and the Moon; how the wolf howls at the night sky to call for his beloved mate. And although the story is mostly a fairytale, it is based on the profound need the Lycans have for their mates. It is greater than any relationship they can have on this world and can't be replaced. A shifter whose mate was taken from him is a dead man walking, an empty shell of whoever he used to be." He explains me and although I try to find arguments to counterattack his words, I'm unable to. "So think about that before you decide to abandon your mate, Adeline."
"He's not my mate," I state before I turn on my heels and head directly to the dimly lit pack. The will-o'-wisps were still waiting for me and I recklessly followed their ghostly glims.
The sun was up and shining before I arrived back in the campus, but the will-o'-wisps didn't leave me when the first rays of sun crushed the darkness of the night. They assured I was safely in front of the halls, before all disappearing. I carefully climb up the stairs, when an uneasy feeling coated my heart like a claw made of ice. But I ignored it and jump right on my bed, drifting off to the dream realm... even though I was feeling like I never even left it today.