One of Them
The evening went by fast as the horses neighed and the carriage wheels crackled over stony ground. I sat on one side of the carriage and Bella sat on the other. Her eyes steady, facing the floor, forlorn and lost. She looked almost blue, like she had swallowed a bee. As we were both headed to our slowly unravelling doom.
Her enthusiasm to join me had faded now, and gradually returned back to the reality of the situation. As she was going to face the same wrath as I was. And for nothing. She wasn't called, she wasn't captured, and she wasn't taken or hunted down. She was just being a friend… and I respected her more than ever for it.
I faced the floor too in a sigh, my brows furrowed and my head down, cross-legged as my dress was revealing. I felt ashamed and stupid being here. And I could feel the regret grow in my heart as wished I never came to the ball in the first place. I wished I had just stayed back in my quarters and slept through the night. As all this wouldn't have happened if I had never met Alpha Darren. If I had never even known or let him know that I was his mate…
And now I was used as a scapegoat, a simple pawn in a chess game where it seems I had always been destined to lose…
I bowed my head wishing I hadn't tried on that dress—and as I craned my head to look at it now, it had lost the beauty that attracted me to it. The appearance had suddenly faded as the results of it's adornment was brutal. And my mind banged with a headache as I wondered why I even confronted the Alpha and Shelia in the first place, rather than just find somewhere to hide, myself?
“I'm sorry Bella…” I said now, remorseful.
I knew I had to apologize. Because it was all my fault. As neither of us would have been taken if I had just made wiser decisions. If I had just not answered Sheila's call to see me. And with her fake crying just hours ago, I now realised first hand why Bella called her a witch…
“It's nothing serious, Freya…” Bella shrugged a response. Her eyes still facing the ground in a hundred yard stare.
“We’re just unlucky…” she said, raising herself now, and resting back on the wall behind her—releasing a sigh. “As we always have been…”
“C'mon don't say that…” I said, trying to help. “It's hard not to…” she replied. “Everything has always been hard for us. Being here is hard for us. Working as maids is hard for us. And now we're being taken to goddess knows where, as slaves because our so called Alpha acts like a damned fruitcake!”
“Are you okay, Bella?” I asked, surprised now at her rage. Her face was visibly livid but she tried to keep a level head as she talked. Her voice was raspy and she sounded indignant. Not at me, but seemingly at the world…
“I'm fine, Freya. Just tired…” she said, wiping her face with her hands, and seemingly a tear from her eyes, as she sniffled. I stared at her as the lantern that hung between us on the ceiling rocked and swayed in the motion of the carriage. I watched her expression as it's frame cast a golden light across everything, and the mood was as gloomy as it could get.
It hurt me to see her this way. And I reached forward, leaning my hand into hers, holding it tightly and shaking it in reassurance. She looked up and smiled faintly, with a glitter in her eyes that seemed to be fading out gradually.
And I sighed now too, resting back myself. With my head drawn back against the wall, now praying for the goddess to change my mate. I closed my eyes tightly now, and squinted in frustration; groaning and pulling away from the wall, placing my head between my hands, clueless.
The top of the carriage had its canvas torn slightly. And the light of the moon suddenly peeked inside and landed on my feet. As I strangely saw a ray of white that shone even brighter than the lantern. And pierced through its golden aura.
I looked up as Bella now had her eyes closed and her body laid back; with her arms folded, surprisingly in slumber. And I was alone with the moon now somehow calling out to me. As I could hear a faint voice. A hollow whisper, carried by the wind; audible one moment, and inaudible the next. Not hearing it's words in either phase.
I could feel a strange presence around me, like a force was building up inside me. It tugged at me and I felt the urge to follow it. I hated being in this pack. I had fled here when I was young, and as an orphan I was always considered valueless. The least of any bunch. Even though that sounded bananas…
But I remembered the stories my mother used to tell me when she was still here. And a story about the moon. Where, on some nights, when it shone at it's brightest, that I could make a wish and it would come true. That I could say a prayer and it's answer would surely come.
And my eyes lit up at the memory as I stood up to my feet—raising my head up to the sky, with my hands by my side staring directly through the canvas and into it's suddenly blinding light.
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. As Bella had already slumped on her seat now completely lost in sleep. And I made a silent request, as the carriage continued its bounce and tremble on the road. My head closer to the lantern now, yet the light of the moon still overpowering it; turning it's golden hue into an emerald crystal tinge…
I smiled slightly as I remembered mother had talked about these special nights when I was little…
And I smiled wider, assured that this was surely one of them…