My stomach plummeted when I saw an older woman with long gray hair on the other side of the parking lot. She stood tall, and all her attention was locked on me, as if she had been waiting for me. I had a horrible suspicion that she had been.
As I expected, the woman walked toward me. I thought about bolting, but I knew it wouldn’t do any good. Instead, I stayed rooted to the spot, watching as her wrinkled face broke into a warm, grandmotherly grin, one that I couldn’t return.
“Hello, Liv,” the Oracle said. Her voice was soft and soothing, just the faintest hint of her age showing around the edges of the words. “Why don’t we go on a walk?”
I chewed the inside of my cheek as I glanced around. A wild, impulsive urge to spin on my heels and race away washed over me. I shoved it down. There was nowhere in town I could run to get away from the conversation I knew was coming. I forced a smile on my face and nodded.
“Of course,” I said.
We walked in silence through Silver Falls, the town that had been my home for my entire life. We wandered down the narrow streets, past the cute boutiques, the ice cream store currently overflowing with kids, the local diner. It was a small town, but I loved it.
Eventually, we came to the oasis, the heart of the town. A waterfall trickled down from a great mountain, spilling into a crystal-clear basin. At some point long before I was born, the elders had decided to turn the oasis into a sort of swimminghole, creating a stone pavilion around it and lining the edges of the pool so people could relax beside it. When I was a kid, I hadn’t come here often, too self-conscious about my body to even consider wearing a swimsuit. It wasn’t until I grew older that I started lounging by the oasis, enjoying the ambience and the water. I wished I’d had the confidence to do so sooner.
It was a warm, early summer evening, and the oasis was full of people. Kids and adults bobbed in the water, splashing and swimming. Others sat at the edge, their feet dangling in the water as they chatted and spread gossip. The yellow-orange light of the dimming sun bathed the oasis and the pavilion in gold, giving it an almost magical, ethereal quality. The pack had always believed the oasis and its water had healing properties, and, standing here, feeling the sun on my back and watching the light spread across the lush greenery and the water, making it glitter like sapphires, it was hard to argue with that.
The Oracle watched with a small smile, leaning on her cane like a shepherd might their crook. “This place has always been special,” she mused. “Ever since I was a little girl, I felt the magic thrumming through here.”
I turned to look at her. There had always been rumors that the Oracle had some witch blood somewhere in her family tree. It was the only thing that explained her ability to get glimpses into the future and help guide the pack. But the pack also had a stigma against witches, even now, and so the Oracle had never confirmed it one way or the other. This was the closest I had ever heard the Oracle allude to the fact that she had known about her powers since she was a child.
“That must be interesting to feel,” I said.
“Oh, I think everyone can feel it,” the Oracle said. “At least a little, even if they don’t realize it. There’s a reasoneveryone believes the oasis has healing properties. I think they all sense something at their core.” She gestured at the group with a fond smile. “It’s why I think people feel so drawn to it.”
I didn’t answer, instead staring out, trying to see the oasis through her eyes. I tried—more on a skeptical whim than because I believed it would work—to sense that magic she was talking about. I felt nothing.
“I’m guessing you know why I wanted to speak with you,” the Oracle said, pulling me back to the present.
I took a deep breath, fingers flexing as I stared out at the water. “I have a guess,” I admitted. “My mate?”
The Oracle cracked a smile. “You always were a perceptive girl,” she said. “Yes. The fates have decreed it’s time for you and your mate to bond.”
Those few simple words clanged in my head like an alarm as my insides constricted. I had known it was coming, but I had held out one last time in the hope that maybe I had been wrong, that the Oracle had come to talk to me because of some other reason. Those words snuffed out the last bit of hope.
“I see,” I managed to choke out.
“Do you know who it is?” the Oracle inquired.
Of course I did. I had known for years. I shook my head, anyway. If there was the faintest chance I had been wrong all this time, I would take it.
“Drake Greystone.”
I had known it was coming, but hearing it come from the Oracle’s lips felt different. It gave it a solidity that hadn’t been there before. I had been right all this time. But I didn’t feel any sort of vindication. I only felt dread. I stared out at the water, watching the kids play as I let it all sink in.
Drake. After all these years, after making myself move on and live my life, after learning to love myself despite him, I was being dragged right back to where I had been. Back to him.
My mouth felt like a desert as I licked my lips, taking a deep breath. “Does he know yet?” I asked.
The Oracle shook her head. “I was about to tell him once you and I finished talking,” she explained.
I didn’t say anything for a moment. I considered saying no, or asking her to pick someone, anyone other than Drake. Except I knew what had happened with Rachel, and I knew that trying to change the Oracle’s mind once she had decided was almost as effective as telling a mountain it should budge a foot to the left.
“When?” I asked.
The Oracle shrugged. “I will leave that up to you and your mate.” I hated hearing Drake being referred to that way, even if I knew it was true. “I would suggest sooner rather than later, though.”
I tried to keep the frustration off my face as I nodded. “Okay,” I said.
A thousand different words pressed at my lips. I wanted to argue, even though I knew how pointless it would be. I had grown up being told that I always had to at least pretend to be happy. Showing negative emotions wasn’t becoming for a woman in the pack, at least according to my parents. Normally, it wasn’t an issue because I could find a bright spark in most things. Right now, though, I wanted nothing more than to scream.
