章 4: Chapter 4: Under the Willow Tree.
Phoenix’s POV.
“The Blood Moon Clan would ask that their future Luna be present during the discussion of the ceremonies,” Maddox firmly stated as he sat down in the overly plush chair across from the head of the small pack’s desk.
“We are not accustomed to keeping our women separate from talks of more…delicate discussions.” George Monet’s sh*t-eating grin spread so wide on his mouth that I could practically count his pristine teeth from my spot across the room.
“For people who claim they're so cultured you all sure as sh*t are backward around here.” I swear the words weren’t spoken out of my own accord but that of my wolf. He practically preened with pride.
My brother, however, was not proud of my outburst. The action is so unlike me. The need to flee from the room was overwhelming. The itch to shift. To run free in the woods of our homestead was all-consuming.
“Leave us, brother,” Maddox said as his face softened, recognizing that the words weren’t mine but that of Fin, and my practiced control over my wolf had slipped under the sheer exhaustion of being around so many people. “Mr. Monet and I have much to discuss.”
Wordlessly, I tipped my head in recognition of being dismissed from the private study, and hurriedly found myself in the spacious and empty hallway. Muted sounds from the party attendees were held back by the heavy ornate doors of the small library. I wondered if Adel had waited still in the small dimly lit room, sipping on her lukewarm champagne or if she had taken Maddox’s leave as an excuse to retire to her room.
Imagining her in her room sent my brain on a mental scavenger hunt of where they would place her in this rolling labyrinth of an excuse for a home. If she would find herself even at home in a place like our homestead, just strategically placed craft homes built around trees, connected with paths built around the nature we immersed ourselves in. Would she find comfort in the sun that bleached through the trees in the midday as I did or find it magical right after the rain when the trees seemed to come alive?
“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re stalking me.” Her voice was like a wood spirit from an old fairytale, it skittered and skipped through the air leaving a trail of tingles across my skin.
“To be honest I am not sure how I got out here,” I admitted, my eyes finally finding her in the muted starlight.
Adel Monet, future Luna of the Blood Moon Clan, is sitting propped up under a willow tree wrapped in a blanket of moonlight. For a moment, Fin and I both forgot we were alive.
“Deep in thought?” "Adel tipped her head to the side. When I saw her earlier in the night, her hair was bundled in a tight knot at the base of her neck. Now, it's hanging loosely around her shoulders."
“Something like that.” I found myself admitting a lot openly to this woman to whom I had no rights too.
“Was it the meeting with my father? Or my secret?”
“How do you feel about this?”
“This?” she asked with a soft laugh that didn’t sound quite real.
“Being told to marry,” I weakly clarified.
“Aren’t we all destined to marry someone, Phoenix—”
“Nix,” I interrupted her, selfishly wanting to hear my nickname on her lips if nothing for these quiet moments where her attention was only mine.
Where her attention was only on me. Where I didn’t have to share her with my brother. Where I could imagine that it would be my name she would call out. My name she would vow to be tethered to for this life and the next. Maybe I was a sick masochist. But I would die with a smile on my lips at the pain inflicted by this goddess.
“Nix,” Adel said my name and it was the sweetest symphony.
Fin preened, whispering how he wanted her to say his name, showing me images of all the ways he wanted her to use his name. Shutting out my wolf, I closed the gap between myself and my brother's mate a little more. Even if it was to see the smile on her face a little clearer.
“Tell me, Adel. Would you choose the same fate if… Fate wasn’t involved?”
“Why are we to question fate, Nix? When it’s not just fate who aligns people? It’s more than that. It’s our wolves seeking their second halves just as much as it’s us seeking those who complete us. It would be selfish for us to demand someone different when we are just the ones who are given the skin the majority of the time.”
“You’re very wise.”
“I may have borrowed that from someone,” Adel admitted.
“Then they are very wise.” I found myself feeling like I had been in the library. Free of all my inhibitions.
“She was,” Adel replied, sadness coating her voice.
“Was?”
“My mother.” Adel audibly swallowed, her throat bobbing from the force.
‘Be gentle with her pup,’ Fin encouraged me harshly.
“The loss… I can only imagine how that must have felt... Feels.”
“It’s okay.” Adel smiled at me from the base of the tree. “No one really knows what to say to someone. How can they? What words are there to say to express how sad you are that your life is void of the one person who can make sense of the things that don’t make sense? Her absence will always be close, and her death will always sting. But life. That’s where her memory lives. In these moments. She would have loved all of this.”
“The white dresses free of Cheeto finger stains?”
“She would have snuck me Cheetos just to spite the white dress,” Adel laughed. “Marta would be crapping herself if she knew I was sitting under this dress on wet grass…”
“Why are you? Sitting under this tree in wet grass?”
“Waiting.” Adel’s bashful answer caused my eyebrow to shoot up as it dawns on me what I stupidly stumbled on.
“Maddox.”
“We had this pact,” she explained, biting her lip as she paused for my reaction.
My heart fractured slightly that this woman has been treated with such assumed dismissal all her life that she’s afraid of eating Cheetos let alone admitting to sneaking out with the man she’s been promised to since she was a kid.
“I’m not going to be mad, Adel,” I assured her.
“It’s stupid, really. Actually, I’m certain that Maddox forgot…”
“Trust me,” I say, sitting down next to her on the damp dirt, resting my back against the broad stump of the tree. “My brother isn’t one to forget things, especially where you’re concerned. Now… Tell me about this pact.”
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