*Sasha*
“Your hair is so beautiful,” Trina gushed as she brushed through my long, blond locks. Another new friend was doing my nails, as I had done for her.
“I wish I had those tight curls you have,” I responded.
Phoebe sipped her mimosa and then raised her glass to us. “Pedicures next!”
“I like the way you think,” Trina said.
It was a lovely afternoon, in a series of lovely afternoons. The won of New Dianny had welcod with open arms. I’d never been so pampered, nor felt so much like I... belonged. There were more dream dancers in New Dianny that I could exchange experiences with. None of them had my kind of power, but it was still nice to talk to people who “get” it.
“You know,” Trina mused, sharing a wink with another girl, “you should stay here, like, permanently. Make New Dianny your ho.”
I blinked at her, startled. “You... you’d really like to stay?”
“Of course, silly!” Trina said. “You’re the coolest person we’ve ever t!”
“But I bring... a lot of trouble with ,” I replied with a wince.
Trina shrugged. “Our Alpha was an accomplished pirate. I’m sure any trouble you bring will just end up walking the plank.”
Laughter bubbled up in and soon we were all giggling. “Yeah, I got that impression about him,” I said.
“There’s nothing Alpha Robbie can’t handle. Just think about it, okay?” Trina asked.
“Okay,” I agreed with a nod. “I’ll think about it.”
“Oh!” Trina exclaid. “How excited are you for your birthday?! Luna Alison and Joy have been planning the bash of the century!”
I blushed. “They really shouldn’t go to so much trouble.”
“Sure they should! It’s not every day a dream dancer cos into her wolf,” Trina winked.
“Well... I suppose not, though it must happen here more frequently than anywhere since Lycennia,” I said.
“Probably. But it’s still a big deal.” Trina finished my nails and flopped back on her lounger, soaking up the sun. “And you’ll find out you’re mates with that handso devil you pal around with.”
I pushed my hair behind my ear nervously. “Actually, I’m kind of worried about that. I have feelings for him. But what if he’s not my mate?”
“He’s your mate,” every woman there, including Phoebe, insisted.
“And... you know... there’s all the stuff we have going on back ho and in the Dark Realm and....” I went on.
“Ugh. Honestly, people in love are SO silly sotis!” Trina sighed. “If he’s your mate, and we all know he is, that stuff isn’t going to matter. Really. You’ll just want to be together all the ti.”
“I already want to be with him all the ti,” I admitted softly.
“Then you should tell him so,” Phoebe said. “I an, what does this mate business even an? If my true mate walked right in front of right now, you know what I’d be doing? Racing right back to Brady. It’s biological, yeah, but it’s also a choice. Why don’t you two just decide to stay together regardless?”
I gave that so thought. “Yeah. We could decide to stay together regardless.”
“Exactly,” Phoebe replied. “Love is love. It might not be a huge rush of wolfy hormones, but it’s sothing deeper and more important.”
“You’re right. You’re right,” I agreed. “I....”
Trina got up and tugged out of my lounger by the wrist.
“What are you doing?” I asked, stumbling to my feet.
“Well, obviously you have to go talk to him now,” Trina said.
“Now?” I repeated.
“Oh yes. Right now. Get it all ironed out before tomorrow,” Trina confird.
I looked at Phoebe, who was also nodding.
“Best course of action, really,” Phoebe said.
All the won were nodding now. I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. “Alright, I’ll go talk to him now.”
A cheer went up as I went back inside the packhouse from the patio.
Lucas was not hard to find. He was brooding in our bedroom, staring at the orb as though it were a snake that was going to bite him.
“Afraid to touch it again?” I asked, rapping my knuckles gently on the bedroom doorfra.
“How did you guess?” Lucas responded with a lopsided smile.
“Well, considering the fact that it nearly blasted you right out of our cabin the last ti....”
Lucas chuckled and covered the orb again with the silk. “I was just wondering what the other orb is going to look like, where it is, and what the hell we’ll be doing with THAT one once we have it.”
I sat down on the bed next to him. “That’s a lot of questions.”
“It is. We’ve got so much hanging over our heads, and besides that we’re both trying to be Royal Engineers,” Lucas said.
“True.” I twisted a lock of hair behind my ear. “Um... Lucas?”
“Hmm?” he asked, nestling the orb back in his bag among his clothes.
“I... you know I love you, right?” I began.
Lucas turned back to look at , frowning in confusion. “... yes...,”
“Do you love ?” I asked him.
“Sasha, you know very well this isn’t a conversation we should be having until tomorrow night,” Lucas said sternly.
I put my hand on his knee. “I an it. I an, Brady’s not Phoebe’s true mate and they’ve decided to stay together. If... if WE’RE not mates, we could do the sa. I can’t... I can’t imagine loving anyone but you.”
Lucas patted my hand. “Sasha. I could never deprive you of your true mate. Let’s just discuss this tomorrow night, okay?”
“You don’t want to stay with even if we’re not mates?” I whispered, feeling my eyes sting.
“I didn’t say that....” Lucas said.
I snatched my hand out from under his and stood, deeply hurt by how calculated he was being about all of this. “Never mind, Lucas. If being true mates is sooo important to you, maybe I shouldn’t be depriving YOU of YOURS.”
“Sasha....”
I grabbed the orb out of Lucas’s bag over his protests and stomped toward the door. “Don’t you dare follow , Lucas Black!”
Disappointnt washed over when Lucas didn’t follow. Sotis, n were SO dumb.
I made my way down to the beach, finding a little, hidden alcove just for . If Lucas was going to be so disappointing today, then maybe I’d have better luck with the orb.
Tucking my legs under , I sat lotus-style in the sand and held the orb in my hands, letting my dream dancer powers unfurl.
Initially, everything seed to be working as usual. My vision swirled and brought sowhere... else. Only this ti it was a place I recognized.
I saw myself, sitting in my little clearing all by myself, perched on an old stump. I was perhaps... nine years old? The book in my lap nearly dwarfed , but that was the sort of thing I read in those days.
Fondly smiling, I started heading over to see what I’d been reading that day, only to freeze when a bunch of boys wandered into my clearing.
“Hey, bookworm, haven’t seen you around the playground much these days,” one of them snarked, filing into a line across from . In the line were Lucas and Brady.
“Didn’t know you cared,” nine-year-old replied with a shrug, not even looking up from my book.
“I don’t,” the boy stuttered, glancing around at his cohorts to make sure the others also knew he didn’t care.
“Good. Now you can go away,” nine-year-old sniffed, turning a page.
The boy who’d been starting to taunt turned bright red. “You trying to tell what to do?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” nine-year-old deadpanned.
“Sass. You’re sassing right now,” the boy said while the other boys snickered at his predicant. He must have been twelve or older, yet this little wisp of a bookworm was telling him to go take a flying leap.
“Well spotted,” nine-year-old grunted, turning back a page. “Could you just go, please? You’re interrupting an important Chapter.”
The boy marched up and slapped the book out of my hands, landing it right in the rich, wet dirt around the roots of the stump. “What did you say to , freak?!”
Then another boy marched up and sucker-punched the bully in the jaw.
Nine-year-old looked up from carefully brushing mud off the book to see Lucas squaring up with the boy.
“Hey, Lucas, what gives?” the boy snapped, rubbing his jaw. “You got a death wish or sothing?”
“Co at and let’s find out,” Lucas said, his fists held up in front of him.
The boy growled and swung at Lucas, who punched him in the nose this ti.
Blood rolled out of the boy’s nose and he made a sound of rage in his throat. “Damn it, Lucas Black! You’re dead, you hear ? You’re fucking dead!”
“Haven’t seen any signs of that yet,” Lucas snorted.
The boy took another swing at Lucas, who deflected the punch, then got the boy in the ribs.
With a grunt, the boy went down to a knee, holding his ribs. “Fu-uck....”
“Lucas,” Brady said. “Maybe you should lay off him now. You don’t want to get in trouble.”
“Maybe I do. Besides, it’s too late for that. This coward’s going to go run to his mommy and tell her what big, bad Lucas Black did to him,” Lucas taunted the boy.
The boy snarled. “Hit with your best shot, Lucas. Go on. I dare you.”
“Lucas... really... don’t....” Brady begged.
Lucas kneed the boy right in the face, forcing his head to snap back and his whole body to land on the ground.
Then Lucas settled himself on the boy’s chest and began punching him rcilessly.
“Lucas... LUCAS!!!” Brady said and he and a few of the other boys ran over to pull Lucas off the bully.
“Sweet rcies of the White Queen, Lucas....” Brady hissed as we all looked at the ss Lucas had made of the boy.
The boy struggled up to his feet and weaved a bit.
Two boys went to him, each putting an arm around their shoulders.
“I’m not telling my mom,” the boy said, spitting blood and raising his chin defiantly. “I’m telling my DAD.”
“You can go whine to the Goddess herself, for all I care,” Lucas barked back. “You just make sure you’re listening–that all of you are listening–when I tell you that NOBODY CALLS THE FREAK A FREAK BUT !!!”
The boys all looked at each other, then nodded in unison, even the bully.
“Nobody calls Sasha a freak but you,” they said, almost in the sa cadence.
“Good. Now get to a healer. I think I might have stubbed my toe kicking Jordan’s ass,” Lucas grumped.
He winked at as he passed and the others shuffled away.
Nine-year-old stared after him. Then, true to form, she sat back down and started reading again.
My vision went black and the orb stopped revealing anything to , even though I tried to direct it back toward the people of the past I was probably supposed to save. I tried and tried, but nothing happened. No visions ca.
Frowning, I set the orb aside, wondering why it had shown that particular vision.
Was my whole life really wrapped around Lucas Black?
#
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