Memories

LAKE

Oliver lights candle after candle, bringing into light a silver table with restraints and straps. I look around the room to see intricate paintings of wolves fighting each other all over the walls.

The floor beneath my feet is old and faded. It looks as if it hasn’t been cleaned since the day the laminate was put down. There’s a smell of mold and water in the air.

“Come lie down here, my dear,” Oliver gestures to the table. She sees that I’m hesitant about the restraints.

“In case your wolf is triggered, these are to ensure my safety and your own. This is a very delicate procedure.”

“Okay.” I nod and make my way to the table. The metal is cold against my skin as I lie back and allow Oliver to strap me down. Lynne is unsettled by what’s happening but doesn’t try to resist.

“Now, Lake, the most important thing about this entire process is that you keep a level head.” Oliver leans over my face so her eyes are looking into mine.

“Any memories of your family that pop up are probably going to be triggering.”

“How would I have their memories?” I ask. “They’re different people.”

“A wolf’s mind is something of a mystery.” Oliver puts her forehead to mine and closes her eyes. “I’ll explain the best I can as we go along, okay?”

A flash of bright light goes over my eyes, and I’m suddenly standing in what looks like my parents’ living room. I look around.

The old knickknacks on the shelves above the couch and TV aren’t as old as they looked when I was growing up. The carpet is a bright white rather than the darkened brown as I remember.

A picture of my parents standing in front of a lake with their arms around each other is in the place where newborn pictures of me and Landon were.

My mother looks so happy with her wide smile, and my father is kissing the top of her head in another picture just beside the lake picture.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Oliver appears beside me. She looks completely different with her hair in a pixie cut and no sign of the disease that was just on her skin.

“Long story.” Oliver waves off my curiosity at her appearance.

“Phil!” A voice squeals from the kitchen. I walk into the room to see a much younger version of my mother standing in front of the stove. She’s crying.

“Fae?” My father comes in behind me. His face is much more angular than I remember. His dad bod is replaced with a more muscular form.

“We did it...” My mother shows my father a white stick with a pink cap. As they embrace each other, I glance over the small stick.

“This is when they found out about me and Landon,” I mutter.

Another flash, and I’m standing in a wooded area with the full moon creeping over the tree line. It’s an area I’ve never seen before, with dead grass and old tree roots sticking out from the ground.

“Phil, I can’t stop it.” My mother is leaning against a tree in front of me with her hand over her swollen stomach. “She’s pushing through. I can’t hold her back anymore.”

“Oliver, what’s happening?” I ask as she puts a hand on my shoulder.

“Fae, there has to be something we can do!” My father holds my mother as she slowly slides down the tree to the ground. My heart races as the moon begins to beam a bright red.

“Find the White Witch, my love,” my mother puts her hand over my father’s cheek. “Make sure our little girl has a future. No matter the cost. I love all three of you.”

Tears pour down my cheeks as the scene changes once again.

We’re in an old cave with potions, skulls, and even organs scattered across the ground. In the back of the room sits a large cauldron with green fire underneath it.

The scent of my father fills my lungs.

“Please, I don’t have much time before she finds out I’m gone,” my father says to a woman wearing white. In his arms is a small form wrapped in a pink blanket.

“You need a spell to give this little pup a mate?” The woman in white raises an eyebrow and eyes the blanket. “That will be a heavy cost to your sanity. Your family will surely perish, just for her.”

My father looks down at the blanket with tears in his eyes. A smile comes across his face as the small pup reaches up to his face and coos for his hand.

“This is what my mate wanted as her dying wish, Blissful.” My father nods. “Any cost is worth this girl’s happiness.”

“Dad, no!” I reach out, but the scene changes to my parents’ kitchen. Broken glass is scattered across the counters and tiling.

“What did you do?!” My mother strikes my father to the floor. Lynne and I start to battle for control.

“Breathe, my dear,” Oliver soothes me. “We’re almost there.”

“I let you have my mate!” my father growls. “My daughter wasn’t going to endure the same fate, Luna!”

I walk to look my mother in the eyes. Her once emerald eyes are now crystal-white. Rage is planted all over her face.

“She’s rogue now, you stupid man!” my mother growls loudly.

“Landon is dead, and Riley is on the verge of it! This is your fault! You’re no longer under my protection! I reject you as my subject’s mate, Phillip J. Mavris!”

I turn to watch the light fade from my father’s eyes as the smell of burning flesh fills the air. My father screams in agony as he rips the shirt he’s wearing to shreds.

My mother’s mark just over his heart is boiling his skin.

“Dad!” I scream. I fall to my knees as my father loses consciousness. My mother’s form looms over him for a short moment.

“What…” Her eyes turn back to an emerald-green. My mother looks around, then looks back to my father. “Phil?”

“Oliver, what happened?” I cry. The room turns dark as I cover my eyes with my hands. I can feel all the pain of my parents.

“That was the moment Luna released your mother’s soul.” Oliver takes me into her arms. “All these years, you were raised by her. Fae was dormant as your Goddess took control of her body.”

My heart squeezes at the thought of my family going through this over the course of eighteen years because of me.

I wail for what seems like hours until the darkness turns to my mother staring at herself in the mirror in her and my father’s bathroom.

“Lake…” She turns to me and looks at me with loving eyes. “I finally get to meet my little girl. Thank you, Oliver.”

My mother kneels down and takes Oliver’s place, soothing me. “I’m forever indebted to you.”

I look at Oliver as her eyes turn from sour to sad. I blink a few times as more tears rip through my eyes.

“My Lake… I’ll be with your father and Landon soon…” My mother smooths my hair before standing back up with a razor in her hand. Oliver holds me as the blade digs into my mother’s wrists.

The blood streams down her wrists onto the floor. Everything goes mute as white noise clouds my hearing. As if in slow motion, my past self rushes in and holds my mother’s faint body.

Her blood drips onto my knee, and Oliver grabs a vial, catching a few of the drops before they fall. How did I never notice that happening?

“Mom!” My eyes bolt open to see the dirty ceiling of the dark room Oliver had led me to. My body is sweaty and cold. My limbs are shaking.

“Lake!” Derrick comes to my side as Oliver undoes the restraints. This allows me to pull Derrick into a tight hug. His heart is racing as fast as mine.

“You were screaming the entire time.” Derrick pulls away and looks at my face closely. “Now I know why Oliver didn’t let me in. Drax was clawing at the door until the spell she put on it disappeared.”

I look over to see the door completely shredded and splinters of wood all over the floor. Derrick’s scent then rushes through my system.

“Away,” I growl to Oliver as she gets close to us. My claws dig into Derrick’s arms when she doesn’t obey.

“Firefly…,” Derrick groans. “Let up on the claws, please…”

“Welp, you better go to that room I mentioned earlier.” Oliver walks to the door and glances back at us. “She’s ready to mate.”