Alec’s

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After Sadie left my room, I got up, showered and got dressed. I usually take a few minutes in the morning to just meditate. It helps me channel and anchor my powers. This is something that my mother taught me since I was a little girl.

Once I was done with that, I checked on Aspen. She was still asleep, with Martha curled up on the sofa opposite the bed.

Today I didn’t plan on much except visit my mother’s grave. It’s been so long, and I miss her so much. Before Sadie and I fled, I used to go and visit her at least once a week. It helped me feel closer to her even though she was no longer around.

“Morning,” a cook says when I walk into the kitchen “What can I get you for breakfast?”

I stare at her. A smile was plastered on her face as she looked at me expectantly. She seems so warm and inviting. It’s been the same with the few pack members I’ve come across since we arrived yesterday.

I look at them, and it makes me wonder how such seemingly warm people can have such a dark side to them. The pain Sadie endured is embedded deep inside me. Her screams are still etched in my memories.

I dreamed about her. About what she went through. But it all felt real. Like I was the one going through the torture. It’s like I had switched bodies with her.

“Miss?” her voice calls me.

I shudder as cold shivers rake through my body at those memories. Not wanting to think about them anymore, I push them to the recess of my mind. Shutting them in a place where they can’t

haunt me.

“Just toast, eggs and coffee,” I mumble, trying to hide my irritation and disgust.

She serves me my breakfast in minutes. I dig in, not really wanting to be here longer than I need to. I feel angry and bitter that they went on with their perfect little lives after they ruined Sadie’s.

She tries to hide it most of the time. Tries to pretend that she’s fine, but I see it. I know her… And I know that she’s still struggling with what they did to her. She’s struggling with putting the pieces of her shattered heart back together.

Once I am done. I leave without even a thank-you. Back at our pack, I would have thanked our cook and probably given her a hug, but I just can’t master the energy to be kind to these people.

I leave the pack house and head straight for the woods. When she was alive, my mother and I didn’t live all that far from Alec’s pack.

We never ventured near the borders though. My mother always warned me to stay

far

away from

1031 Thu, Aug ở

this pack. Werewolves and witches have relatively good relationships, and even though I was drawn to this pack for some reason, I never once disobeyed my mother.

1

It’s only after I met Sadie that I realized that she might be the reason why I was so drawn. It wasn’t the pack I was drawn to like I’d thought. It was Sadie.

It takes me about forty minutes to get to her grave. When I do, I drop on my knees, my tears falling down my face as I lay eyes on her headstone for the first time in three years.

“Hi mom,” I begin, my voice clogged with emotions. “I miss you so much.”

I’ll never forget the day she died.

Just like always, we spent the day with her teaching me how to use my powers. When my lessons were done, she sent me to go pick some herbs that would come in handy in making potions.

I did get the herbs, but I decided to take a swim. It wasn’t unusual for me to do so. My mother knew that I liked to take a dip in the creek. She was okay with it, as long as I got back home with whatever it was she’d sent me to get.

I didn’t know my father, and my mom refused to talk about him. For as long as I can remember, it was just her, me and our small cottage.

When I was done swimming, I headed back home. I think I’d been gone for like only an hour.

I remember nearing out cottage and just knowing that something wasn’t right. Something didn’t feel right. I rushed inside our home to find my mom on the floor with her chest ripped open. Her heart next to her body.

I fell down on my knees, my legs no longer able to keep me upright. I was shaken and broken as a scream tore from my lips. I remember crawling to her and pulling her body into my arms, as I wailed for her to come back. Willing everything to be just a nightmare.

The pain that consumed me was like nothing I’ve ever felt. I felt like my heart had been shredded into pieces. I felt lost and dead on the inside. Like I had nothing to live for. Everything became dull

and lost its color.

I cried for what felt like hours before burying her in a shallow grave I’d dug by myself. I ran after that. Trying to escape the pain I was feeling and the images of my mother’s dead body.

I was confused and didn’t understand why someone would kill her. Was it an accident? Was she just in the right place at the wrong time? Did someone intentionally kill?

My mother kept to herself. She didn’t have enemies, not one I was aware of anyway, so I doubted someone would want her dead.

It was days later that I came across Beth. She welcomed me into her home and comforted me. She even took me back home where we held a proper burial for my mother and gave her a proper grave.

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1031 Thu, Aug 8

“How have you been?” I ask, pushing those memories back, so I could focus. “I’m sorry I haven’t visited in a while, but I guess you already know why

I swipe away the dry leaves that had fallen on her grave, while I fill her in on everything that has been going on.

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Being here with her after so long calms something inside me. It brings a certain peace that has been lacking since we fled this state.

“I’ll bring Sadie and Aspen the next time I come,” I promise, sitting cross-legged on the ground. “You will love them. You left me, but I believe you brought them to me. Beth, King, Sadie and Aspen. You didn’t want me all alone, so you gave them to me. Thank you, mom.”

“I wish you were here though,” I continue. “Maybe you could help me figure out this curse that has been plaguing Alec’s pack.”

I sit quietly after saying those words. I just bask in the peacefulness for a few minutes when it hits

me.

O

I shoot up, staring at my mom’s headstone in wonder. “Oh, my goddess! Thank you, mom. I promise I’ll be back.”

Ican’t believe that I’d missed it and that it took coming to visit her to remember what she always

told me.

Giving her headstone a kiss, I rush back to the pack. This time I get there in under thirty minutes because I was in quite a hurry.

When I break through the forest and get on pack land, I scan my eyes around looking for a central place. I hurry up when I spot an area near a pond. It’s a few distances away from the pack house.

Sitting down in the middle of the field, I cross my legs and close my eyes, focusing on the surrounding energy.

My mother always told me that every spell cast leaves a sort of remnant behind. A residue, if you must. Something that you can trace. She told me that you can use those same residues to figure out the kind of spell used. The type of magic that was used.

Armed with that knowledge, I push my powers out. Feeling the energy around me. Separating them, trying to isolate the one that I am looking for. I dig deep, feeling the air, water and earth around me.

My eyes snap open when I get a lock on it, and feel it.

“Oh s**!” the curse flies from

my mouth.

This isn’t good. This isn’t good at all.