Page 90 of Red's Beast

I must be dreaming again. This can’t be real.

Crunching leaves behind me pull my attention away from the oddly angled trees and I look to my right, only to see falling leaves of various shades of colors. Then all goes quiet and I see her.

“Hello again, Lucian. I bet you thought you’d never see me again.”

Emmeline?

I take off running as fast as I can through the woods, looking for anything that’s familiar, but all I find is the cottage that lookslike my family’s old home. Instead of running away, I run right to it, only for the door to open up and Emmeline step out.

She offers me a warm smile as I come to a skidding stop.

“Well, hello. I guess you came to find me before I could find you.”

I gently nod, but that isn’t what I had planned. Where am I?

“Poor Lucian. I bet you feel lost. You see, this is where my sister sent me two hundred years ago when I made you that deal at the creek. This is our realm. I guess things have changed since then and you probably didn’t break your curse for her to be able to send you here. You should have paid attention to the words of the curse she cast. I bet you used those two nights up too before being able to claim a white wolf descendant of Emily’s. What a shame.”

No. I can’t stay here. I need to get back to Lillian. Will you help me leave?

Her eyes soften. “How do you expect me to help you? My powers haven’t been a match for my sister’s in a very long time. Not since I cast the original curse because of what she did eight hundred years ago. I don’t know that you will ever be able to go back. If I knew how, I would leave as well.”

Emmeline gazes at me, waiting for the next thought to cross my mind. I realize that she can hear my thoughts, but I guess that ispart of the magic of this realm. But there are some things I don’t want her to know.

“It’s okay. I’m not like my sister, so you can talk to me.”

I hate this.

“Well, I completely understand why you do, but how about this? If you talk to me, then maybe I can prove that I’m not a bad person. Do we have a deal?”

What other choice do I even have?

“None,” she says with a laugh. “You might as well learn to love it here because you may never escape this realm.”

She motions for me to enter her little home, but I am skeptical. This might be another trap, but I really don’t have much of a choice in the matter. Slowly, I trot through the open door and she closes it softly behind me with a tiny click.

A sweet smell fills my nostrils, and I instantly drool. I haven’t had any kind of baked treats in so long and it reminds me of the muffins my mother once made. Oh, how I miss her cooking.

“Your Ma is something else.”

I miss her. When I woke up as this beast all those years ago, I returned to the house and they were all gone. I never knew what happened to them.

She only shrugs. “That is probably my sister’s doing. She was set on getting your family line back because of the rejection she received from Liam all those years ago. She just couldn’t let it go. But, as far as I know, she probably cast a spell over the pack to make them forget your family and probably cursed the alpha line as well. She had spoken of it in case you rejected her as well. Of course, I didn’t expect to be sent here as well”

Everything suddenly makes sense. That’s why no one ever thought much about the cottage nor did they ever ask about who once lived there. They went on like nothing happened after the alpha family moved the books from their home into our old cottage. It was all a setup.

Emmeline nods as she moves toward the stove and stirs a pot sitting there. “She never wanted anyone to discover who you were or break your curse, especially the alpha family.”

How does she know this? She wasn’t there.

She pauses, her spoon in the pot as she turns to look over her shoulder. "I just do. Sisterhood and all that."

Then what else do you know?I prod her, hoping she'll spill some important information.

"Well, I know she disguised herself and used her charms to woo Corbin's great grandfather. Then, she hid herself all these years, killing his mother after he was born, and took her place. The pack never knew otherwise either, which was sad, but necessary to keep the illusion over them."

Why would she do such a thing? I get she was mad at me for not choosing her, but what good does it do to keep a pack separated from the world? There are five other packs out there. It has doomed Dark Moon and eventually, they will all die out.

Emmeline pauses again, before resuming stirring the pot absentmindedly. "Power, why else? Plus, she wanted to make sure Lillian's family never broke your curse. I think deep down she always hoped you'd beg her to be changed back, but you are one stubborn beasty."

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