Even the water in Girdwood tastes different, like the way the garden outside Thane’s house felt different this morning. The open expanse had me feeling free, but like a snowflake caught by unexpected sunlight, Rissa had come over and turned my world upside down.
Again.
“How are you feeling now?” Rissa asks as she pulls up a chair beside the bed. I notice that I’m not in the guest bedroom I used last night. The walls in this room are more sophisticated, with ivory and black trimmings, whereas the room I used last night had yellowish walls, as if it signified hope.
That hope is seemingly lost now, after everything I learned this morning.
But I can find it again if I choose to ignore everything Rissa told me.
“I’m fine,” I tell Rissa as I straighten up, handing her the empty glass as I tilt my head to one side, inspecting her round face framed by voluptuous golden-brown curls, her eyes as green as Thane’s. “You know…I remember you from before. I used to be in Snehvolk until five years ago.”
“Oh, I remember you,” Rissa giggles lightly. “You’re the girl who had a greenhouse behind Elder Charles’s house. I stopped by once for some nettle when I just started practicing.”
“Ah…that’s why I remember you. You’re one of the pack healers.”
“And a witch, apparently,” she chuckles, but I purse my lips, averting my eyes. Rissa notices my hesitation to go there and clears her throat.
“Thane must have had a soft spot for you if he let you have that greenhouse behind his grandfather’s house,” she comments. “Why did you leave?”
I turn to her, my voice catching in my throat. “I—I don’t—”
Rissa immediately places a hand on my arm when I hesitate to reply, smiling reassuringly. “You don’t have to give me an explanation. You don’t owe me one, especially because I might know what happened.”
“How would you know?” I ask with a frown, to which Rissa sighs.
“We all have some history with the alphas. The witches, I mean. And I think you may have history with Thane.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I blurt with a nervous chuckle, shaking my head slowly. “I’m not a witch, and I’m not Thane’s fated mate.”
“You might not believe it, Willow, but it is true.”
“You’re wrong,” I scoff, pushing out the dream-turned-nightmare I just woke up from, hiding any reaction to the way my fingertips tingle as if the sensation from the nightmare is bleeding into reality.
Rissa sighs beside me, pulling her hand back. “If you don’t believe any of this, I can show you my powers,” she says as she lifts her palms for me to see.
“You don’t need to show me anything,” I chuckle as I dig my fingernails into my palms. “I wouldn’t believe you, anyway. I mean…a witch? Thane’s fated mate? I’m nothing more than a wolfless omega. I—”
“That’s what he told you, right? In the past, I mean,” she points out, but I turn my face away quickly, crossing my arms.
“I don't know what you're talking about,” I sniff, feeling tingly sensations in my fingertips again. The sensations are so strong that I’m biting my tongue to keep a semblance of composure, control over whatever is going on.
Beside me, Rissa sighs. “Well, whether you want to believe it or not, it is true,” she says as she stands up. “Thane is preparing for your mating ceremony, and your magical powers will be unlocked when you mate with him.”
“Mate with him…?” I turn incredulous, wide eyes at Rissa. “I amnotmating with Thane!” I suddenly roar, slamming my palms on either side of the bed, a surge of energy rushing through my fingertips and extending into my palms. I notice a flicker of gold, the same color I saw in the nightmare that woke me up.
Too shocked to look at Rissa, my breath catches on a gasp, and I stare blankly ahead.
A moment of terse silence passes before Rissa speaks up, softly, gently, clearly not wanting to rouse my anger again.
“I'm gonna go now. Thane will be back soon. You can discuss things with him,” she says. “When you need me, I will be here, because the truth is,weneedyou,Willow.”
With that, Rissa turns and leaves me to mull over what just happened. Lying in Thane's bed feels as suffocating as I'd felt in the nightmare, and I quickly throw my legs off the bed anddecide that I can't sit around and wait for Thane to come back just to bind me to him.
Become his mate to fulfill some prophecy?
I'm not crazy.
I may be a wolfless omega who's accustomed to being a prisoner, even of my own mind, during most of my life, but this is something I can't accept.
