Sira's POV:
I finally surrendered to my mother's calls,
which were sneaking into my consciousness like warm sunbeams on a morning.
"Sira, wake up.. Siraaaa"
Her tender voice was hitting the walls of my
ears, carrying tranquility with it.
I opened my eyes with a heavy slowness, and I felt the corners of my mouth rise in a faint smile, a smile filled with instinctive affection:
"Good morning, Mom"
She didn't give me time to process my awakening; instead, she pulled me from the bed with a firmness wrapped in tenderness and led me, holding my shoulders, toward the bathroom.
"And to you too, come on, come on, you lazy girl.. You're late!"
She said it in a playful tone that was not devoid of urgency.
I said, surrendering while trying to balance my stumbling steps:
"Alright Mom, stop pushing me"
I turned to her and saw that triumphant smile lighting up her face, and she pointed her index finger at me, warning me against being late.
I hummed a response to her as I closed the bathroom door behind me, but as soon as my eyes fell on the mirror, my eyes widened in real terror; my hair was disheveled like a bird's nest, and the dark circles under my eyes made me look like a walking corpse that had just come out of the grave.
I muttered softly:
"Good Lord, was I in a battle or something?"
After a warm bath that brought life back to
my limbs, I put on my black sports clothes that provide me with freedom of movement, and I wore my white shoes.
I went down the stairs toward the dining table, where the smell of breakfast filled the place.
"Good morning"
I said as I took my place.
"Good morning, Sira"
Jack answered me, but his tone carried a question that didn't wait long.
His gaze moved between me and my sports clothes, raising an eyebrow in disapproval:
"Sira, again?? You know that today is a rest
day, right?"
I felt a prick of annoyance, so I shot him a sharp look while cutting a piece of the cheese omelet:
"This is none of your business"
I continued eating my breakfast with a calculated calmness, sipping my morning coffee which began its effect in chasing away what remained of laziness.
Jack let out a long sigh, trying to absorb my tension, then said in a tone he tried to make normal, but it was not devoid of a hidden sorrow:
"So.. what do you think of a tour.. umm, a party.. or rather a gathering for the Alphas? Since I haven't found my mate yet, it would be good to take you with me.. I hope you won't refuse"
At that moment, my heart tightened.
I felt the lump in his voice at the word "mate." I looked at his face; he was strong with his usual handsomeness, his sharp jaw and his hazel eyes that resemble a forest in autumn, but behind that strength, there was a void that lasted for five years of exhausting searching.
My sharpness faded, and I looked at him for a long time before saying softly:
"Fine.. The appointment?"
His smile widened to the point that it lit up his tan features, and he said proudly:
"In two days"
I replied to him playfully as I left the table:
"I have to go, see you later.. oh, lady-killer!"
He laughed lightly while flexing his muscles with the usual Alpha confidence:
"It's not my fault that I am irresistible!"
I rolled my eyes in mock boredom, thinking to myself about the extent of his madness, and pointing with fake pity to his future mate who would endure this lovable arrogance.
I left the house, I am Sira, 22 years old, from the Red Moon pack.
In the middle of this world buzzing with werewolves and mysterious creatures, I was looking for my own calm in training.
I stood in front of the training hall, breathing in the morning air, but a familiar voice pierced the silence of the place:
"Siraaaa!"
I turned to find "Zoe" standing in front of me, her hand on her knees, panting, and her chest rising and falling from the exertion of running.
I asked her with concern:
"Zoe, is there a problem?"
She looked at me with wide eyes, her gaze moving between me and the door of the hall, and before I could utter a word, she grabbed my wrist tightly and pulled me behind her while shouting in disapproval:
"Have you lost your mind? You're going to train on your day off? You're truly crazy!"
I tried to interrupt her:
"Zoe, I was jus—"
But she interrupted me firmly as she continued her run:
"Leave those things now, and focus with me, Miss Sira!"
Her face was burning with excitement and anxiety, which made me realize that what she was planning would not be just a passing training session.
Zoe stood in front of me, staring at me in a strange way, her eyes shining with a suspicious glint I know well; it's the look that always precedes storms, the look that doesn't bode well at all.
I felt a weight pressing on my chest, so a long sigh escaped my mouth, loaded with despair, and I said in a weary tone:
"What disaster is going to fall on my head this time?"
Zoe burst into loud laughter that shook the corners of the place, then approached me, speaking with extreme excitement that almost drove her out of her mind:
"Sira, have you heard about the party? Oh my God, I can't believe my father allowed me to go! Umm, what will I wear, I wonder?"
I knit my eyebrows coldly, and crossed my arms in front of my chest trying to absorb her excess excitement:
"Why all this excitement? It's just a silly gathering, what's special about it? I really don't know"
Her laughter stopped suddenly, and she looked at me with great surprise that soon turned into features of doubt and suspicion, she raised her eyebrow and said:
"Wait a minute.. you.."
I didn't let her finish, but interrupted her with a desperate cry:
"Yes, yes, I'm going with my brother!"
At that moment, Zoe let out a scream that echoed in the place like a thunderbolt; I felt a sharp ringing invading my head as if my eardrum had already been pierced.
"Aaaaaah! I can't believe it! Really? We must go shopping right now!"
My eyes widened in terror and I said:
"What? No please, not again!"
But she wasn't listening, she was dragging me while rambling with fast words:
"Come on, come on, we have to wear sexy and elegant dresses; because the party is in the King's Palace.. who knows? We might meet our mates there!"
I froze in my place as if a thunderbolt had struck me, I felt a coldness running through my limbs, and I stammered with difficulty:
"The.. the.. King's Palace?"
My limbs suddenly trembled, and my heart began to beat the drums of war inside my chest with a violence that shook my being.
I tried to breathe deeply, I closed my eyes while murmuring to myself:
"Sira, calm down.. it's just a silly party, nothing will happen"
Zoe, the daughter of the "Beta" and my companion since childhood, was jumping around me with childishness and endless chatter.
Despite her foolishness and her chatter that is sometimes unbearable, I cannot imagine my life without her, and I secretly pitied her future mate who would suffer from a never-ending energy.
The long journey of torment that lasted for hours under Zoe's mercy ended.
I dragged my steps behind her while she invaded the stores like a storm that doesn't calm down, acquiring everything that crossed her path with a strange skill, arguing with her famous phrase that she didn't stop repeating:
"Sira, this will benefit us in preparation.. and this will make us stunning!"
I looked at the horizon and saw the sun's disk slowly sinking behind the hills, announcing the end of a hard day, while Zoe was still overflowing with excitement as if she had just started.
My body could no longer endure, so I murmured in a faint voice from exhaustion:
"Enough Zoe.. truly, this is enough"
Despite her childish grumbles, and her lips that shriveled in a funny pout, she finally obeyed me when she saw the features of my face that had lost the ability to show any reaction except exhaustion.
After I accompanied her to her house while she was still chattering about
"matching shoes"
I returned to my home and my feet felt like the weight of lead, as if every step I took was a final battle.
I pulled my exhausted body toward my room, almost unable to believe that I had finally survived the Zoe shopping hurricane.
I closed the door behind me and leaned my back against it for a moment, eyes closed, enjoying the sacred silence that suddenly fell.
I got rid of my clothes and headed to the bathroom.
I felt the warm water flowing over my tensed shoulders, as if washing away with it the noise of the day and Zoe's loud laughter.
I stood under the shower, and saw the reflection of my face in the steam-filled mirror; my eyes were withered, and my skin was a little pale, but I felt a comfort creeping into my depths.
I got out of the bathroom, and didn't bother to do anything else.
I threw myself on my bed with all the weight I had, as if falling into the embrace of a warm cloud.
I sighed deeply while burying my face in the pillow, closing my eyes tightly as my limbs began to relax completely.
It didn't take long until my consciousness began to fade, and I sank into a deep sleep, escaping from the noise of the world, and preparing for what fate holds for me in the King's Palace.
Suddenly, the scene changed.. I found myself running in total darkness, my breaths coming in succession and cut off, and tears burning my cheeks from the intensity of fear.
I look right and left, and the trees look like monsters stretching their branches to bind me.
I stopped for a moment to regain my stolen breath, for something to flutter around me with the speed of lightning.
A wicked laugh, a distorted voice as if coming from hell, whispered near my ear, freezing the blood in my veins:
"You won't be able to escape your hell.. my mate"
Every cell in my body trembled, and I began to turn around myself in terror, searching for the source of the voice while it echoed in the horizon:
"I am your hell.. your eternal hell.. you won't flee from me.. hahahaha.. Siraaaa!"
I gasped loudly as I sat up in my bed, my chest rising and falling violently, and sweat pouring from my forehead to soak my pillow.
My hand was shaking as it held the glass of water; I drank it all at once as if I were trying to extinguish an internal fire.
"The same dream.. what is this curse?"
I lay down again, staring at the ceiling of the room with lost eyes, watching silently the golden sunbeams as they sneak through the window, to chase away the darkness of the room.. but they couldn't chase away the darkness that had settled in my heart since those words.