Page 41 of Bound By the Moon

“I wish I knew what the future held for all of us,but in this, my guess would be as good as yours. It’s possible thatyou two will be the only time in history, or in the future, that wewill see two white wolves together. It’s also possible that eachone born in the line will become something more from here on out.”She shrugged. “That wasn’t very much help, was it?”

“Not really, but I didn’t think I was going to get adifferent answer. I guess I just wanted someone to reassure me thateverything would be alright in the end.”

“My sweet girl, you’ve raised your daughter well. Ihave all the confidence in the world that between the two of you,our people-both yours and mine-will know peace for a long while tocome.”

“Thank you, Serena.”

“Being able to share this with you is thanks enough,Jessica. I wanted you to know, I spelled the book. It will neverrun out of space. For each new white wolf born, new pages will beadded. Let your history, my history, be passed through eachgeneration, so that they may always know, and learn from theirancestors.”

~*~

“Okay, enough with the suspense already, why onearth are we here?” I remembered sharing that same impatience whenI was Willow’s age. It gave me hope that she’d one day outgrow alittle of it too.

“I don’t know if you can feel the change coming, butI have, for months.” Willow just looked at me like I had lost mymind, so I assumed she indeed had not felt the changes starting. “Ibrought you here, under the full moon, to show you yourlegacy.”

I took the book out of the bag I’d carried to thecliff face. The silver gilding caught the moonlight perfectly,casting it’s own spell of beauty around the book. The air was crispthat night, and I could still hear the rustling of the leaves inthe forest below us as the pack ran by. I longed to stretch my legsand run with them. I was actually chilled to the bone up here onthe cliff like this, and to be honest, I wished for the warmth ofmy fur, but this moment was far more important than anything else Icould be doing or comfort I wished to seek. Jack stood, a ways backfrom us, in his ethereal wolf form. It would never fail to awe me,seeing him like that. He was magnificent. He had also learnedvaluable lessons about distance, and the difference betweenexcitement and emergency. One more thing he learned was that inwolf form, all he had to do was think of one or the other of us,and he would be transported there in the blink of an eye. Nobarriers could withstand him. I had often wondered how Jack wassupposed to watch over so many of us at once, but the answer camewith his abilities.

He didn’t stand back there alone. I noticed thatjust a little ways past him, Jack Jr. stood. His wolf form was alight gray shot through lighter hints of that electric blue. Hisblue markings didn’t shift and move with him as Jack’s did, but itwas clear that our trip to the other side had left his mark on himas well. Jack Jr. was also lucky enough to receive what we alldubbed as lighting speed. He couldn’t quite flash to one of us, buthis run, when he needed to be somewhere, wasn’t much slower.

Willow was still standing there, looking upwistfully at the moon. She had not noticed the book I held in myhands yet. I moved then, to get her attention, and once she sawwhat I had in my hand she remained silent for a heartbeat or two,stunned by the fact that I was finally giving her the book she’dbegging me to look at since she learned to talk. “This is thehistory of the white wolves!” She finally trilled outexcitedly.

“I know, I helped write it.” I smiled at her,knowing I would have been just as excited to receive such a thinghad it been available to me.

“I’ve been begging you to show me for years. Whynow?”

“Because now, you are ready.”

Willow plopped down on the smooth, cool, rocksurface of the cliff and opened the book to the first page. Herearlier arguments about wanting to run with Ashley’s daughter,Drea, were lost to her then. I stood there, watching her for amoment, seeing her dark chocolate locks bounce freely over hershoulders and rain down her back as she skimmed the pages of thebook. Each of her movements, as she flipped the pages, making thecurls in her hair ripple like lake water on a breezy day. Heremerald eyes found mine then as she offered up her thanks tome.

I sat down beside my daughter then, and put my armsaround her shoulders as I spoke. “You’re going to transition soon.You should know everything before then. There is no need to thankme, sweetheart. I wish someone had passed something like this on tome, it sure would have made things a whole lot easier.” Willow satthe book down in her lap, so that her hands were now free to returnthe hug.

“Will we both be white wolves once I transition?”She asked.

“Yes, we will be the first pair of white wolves toever live at the same time.” I smiled at her. “That makes upepically awesome, my dear!” I said to her, channeling a bit of myyounger self and a bit of Serena, who always seemed far older andwiser than I could ever understand being.

“I’m glad I get to do this with you, mom. I can’timagine how scary it must have been for you, not knowing your ownhistory. Thank you for not keeping me in the dark the way yourparents did.”

“My parents had their reasons for hiding things fromme. They meant well. I chose to do things differently, andhopefully, that will mean it works out better for you.” I laughedthen. “Not that it worked out horrible for me, though. My mate wasthe talk of the packs, everyone wanted him.” I winked at mydaughter. “And not to mention, I got a pretty great daughter fromthe whole ordeal. One who has had a bit magic in her since birth, Imight add.”

“Well, we can thank Aunt Natalia for that one.”

“Yes, her blessing certainly did come in handy a fewtimes.”

Willow’s cheeks turned red, because one of thosetimes, she had been making out with her crush, a boy two yearsolder than her, who was a complete jerk, not to mention a totalmoron for even thinking he would get away with trying to deflowerthe White Wolf Ruler’s daughter and walk away. In thinking I wouldunderstand, he forgot about her father, who totally didn’t. Wheneverything got a little too hot and heavy, Mikael was there, havingseen what we called Willow’s anxiety glow, from the bushes behindthe house. “Let’s not bring that up ever again, okay?” Willowasked, humiliation still straining her voice to this day when shetalked about it.

“Let’s not mention what?” I teased.

“Exactly. There’s nothing to mention, except thisbook…” And just like, my little girl was almost lost to the pagesof our history again. Then she noticed Jack’s movement out of thecorner of her eye, as he shifted into a different position. “We owehim a lot, don’t we?”

“We do, and our entire line will as well.”

“I owe him more than the others ever will.” Shesaid, turning back to me.

“Why is that?”

“He is the reason you came back to us. What would Ihave done without you here?”

“Well, your father would probably have you underlock and key 24/7 so I see your point. You do owe Jack a greatdeal.” We both laughed at that, especially when we heard Jack’swolf snort. He had, of course, heard our entire exchange, and wouldno doubt torment us relentlessly over the next few days about howwe owed him, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

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