Eclipse Child

Serva me, Servabo te

My eyes are closed.

I don’t open them because I’m confused.

Warmth is spread through me. Warmth provided by a bed.

My hands tighten around the fabric, taking in the rough cotton-like texture. I lay there for several minutes, eyes still closed.

Pain pulsing within my side.

Until voices surface into the room.

“Can you sense it?”

“Yes... somethings off about her. You didn’t see her body, but when I dressed her- Dylan she’s covered in scars and her back...its uneven...curved...”

“Scars? Why would she... I don’t know if I like this. This is wrong.”

“They’re mates though Dylan. Finally. He’s finally... But I never thought...”

Silence continues in the room until I hear footsteps, followed by a low growl.

One that sent my flesh searing.

And then a voice.

A voice that had my heart speeding up to create a painful sensation within my chest.

“I know you are awake.”

I open my eyes.

Anxiety runs through me at the sight of the three people that stand over me.

Until my view catches on one person.

Everything within my vision blurs around me. The only thing I can focus on is the male before me.

I know immediately who he is.

Grey eyes stare back at me.

They are framed by long, shoulder length blond hair and an unkempt full beard. The male is tall. Taller than the other two who are in the room. Yet he does not have the build that I normally see within shifters.

Instead of hard thick muscles, his body is coiled in a thin wiry kind. His frame seems to be sunken in.

Hollow cheeks, hollow eyes and a hollow stomach as I take in the full effect of his appearance.

He, in turn, stares at me.

Examining me.

“Male,” I whisper the name I had been calling him within my mind, “so you finally appear.”

Those grey eyes flash at me, blinking twice before he steps away to lean against the wall. He crosses his arms, silent and watchful.

I frown. Not much about his attitude had changed from the transition of wolf to skin. Just like the wolf, he is wild. Everything in his presence, stance and look shows a rugged and unkept handsomeness that had developed over time when he had no care to maintain his outer appearance.

My attention is captured as the other two come forward.

A female and male.

I can tell straight away from their features and scent that they are the male’s parents.

“Hello,” the father whispers his words, caution clear in his eyes as he looks down at me. The mother is smiling, but I can also sense a weariness coming from her, “I’m Dylan. This is my mate, Camilla.”

I nod and look at the male.

“And what is your name, male?”

He looks up, grey eyes narrowing at my question, “Orion.”

A shiver runs down my body at the word.

Orion.

Camilla asks the same question in return, “Orion did not know your name...”

“Soraya,” I whisper, looking to take in the male’s reaction. He does not move. His grey eyes only flicker to me, before going back to staring at the floor.

“You...you found Orion in the mountains?” Camilla eyes her son in confusion.

I stare blankly at her, “Did he not tell you?”

They both look at me, a guilty expression entering their faces.

I glare at the male, “You didn’t tell them?”

He continues to look away.

“I still stand by what I said before male,” I refused to use his name. If he did not acknowledge me, then I would not to him, “Once I am out of this bed, I’ll kick your ass.”

A startled noise comes from Camilla.

“Oh,” I turn back to the mother, “I mean...I’ll lovingly teach your son a lesson...”

They both eye me with startled expressions.

Great first impression on the parents, I think.

“I found your son in the mountains. I shifted and stayed with him. Until an elk kicked me.”

My words only add more confusion to their expression.

At my own words though, I realize that I’m wearing a shirt. I lift it by the corners, taking in the large purple that stained my side.

“Broken rib?” I ask.

The male only nods.

“Damn,” I wince as I feel the sensitive area.

“Um...” I look up at the sound of the woman’s voice. She is looking at her son, a level of worry showing on her face as she glances back at me, “Orion, this female...”

The male looks at her, waiting for her question.

I too am waiting, but it never comes.

They seem to be communicating with their eyes alone.

It’s only then that I realize from where the male has inherited his grey from.

At the same time, all three of them turn to me.

Orion steps forward.

I watch him, almost eagerly.

Waiting to hear that voice again.

“Why were you in the mountains?” his voice is soft, almost inaudible. He seems to be struggling to form the sentence. I reflect on the time I had spent as the wolf. How hard it had been to transition back to skin.

I notice it now.

The way his body jerked and twitched.

How he seemed to shake his head, only to realize last minute that he had no fur to wear.

How he had not claws but hands.

No canines now, but instead regular teeth.

He was a wolf, trapped in a man’s body.

“I was training.”

This is obviously not the expected answer they are waiting for.

The male only nods though and quickly walks out.

I watch him leave, a sudden pain entering my chest as I do so.

His father follows him.

It’s only the mother that stays now.

She lingers next to me. “Do you...need anything?”

I rise from the bed, earning a gasp from her, “You shouldn’t-,”

I wave away her concern, “I’ve suffered worse.”

Her hands fall limply to her side as she watches me stand.

“Those are my clothes...but they are a little short.” I laugh at the expression on her face. She does not know what to think of me.

My time with the wolves had not deteriorated my muscles. If anything, it had only made them harder. Learner and more dangerous looking.

Like the male.

She eyes them now, before her gaze darts to my uneven hair.

I turn away from her stare.

“Is there food?”

“Ah...yes, yes food,” she moves forward, leading me away.

The male and his father are nowhere in sight.

Camilla sets me down at a short wooden table.

I take in the small house.

It had a cozy feel to it, something that resembled a cabin I would find in the woods.

“What pack are we in?”

“No pack. We’re Close to the mountains. Orion brought you to us after you...” her words die away within her mouth as she moves around within the kitchen.

My eyes narrow at her words. No pack?

She was obviously uneasy around me.

I could guess why.

It was something I was used to seeing from others.

I ignore it though.

We sit in silence before she sets a plate of meat and cheese before me.

I eat the food, my mind going back wishfully to Sandra’s cooking and the warmth of fresh meat from the mountains.

Camilla sits down across from me, her hands nervously folding in and out on her lap.

“You and my son are mates.”

I nod my mouth too full of food to answer.

She is nodding her head, an unreadable expression on her face.

“Orion is...he is....” She struggles for a word. I watch her battle, shoving more food into my mouth as I wait for her to finally say what exactly my mate was.

“Awkward.”

I cough, choking on the food that I had been swallowing and trying hard to regain my breath.

Camilla looks at me with concern until I finally can wheeze out, “what?”

“You must have noticed it?”

“Well I guess...”

Awkward would not have been my first word choice.

“Please don’t reject him.”

“Say what?” Words are hard to find in my mind. I was struggling to process what the female was saying. My time in fur still sticking to my thoughts.

Camilla puts her hands together, almost like she is in the act of praying to me, “He has been with us for so long that I never thought he would find a mate, and he just...he lacks in communication skills I know, but he is a good man, I swear as a mother- just please, please don’t reject him.”

Tears are starting to form within her eyes.

I look wildly around, for some reason feel a rising sense of anger at the male for leaving me alone with this emotional female.

“Well...” I keep my face neutral, shoving more meat into my mouth.

Camilla’s face pales, “I know it’s strange that he goes with the wolves. He has always gone-...done what is different.”

I smile at her words, “I like different.”

Camilla’s head rises from my words, “What?” a tone of disbelief laces her voice. She cannot believe it.

“You should know first my situation.”

Camilla nods her head, “Yes...there is something different about you. I can’t tell what, but your scent and...appearance.”

I swallowed the food I was eating and nod, “I’m of Alpha blood.”

The woman’s face drains of color, “you are?”

“I am. And I will be Alpha.”

“You?”

A low growl fills my chest from the astonished look she wears.

“Yes.”

“So Orion will be a Luna?”

We both turn to find the father- Dylan- standing in the doorway. I expect anger to fill his voice- to contort his features and twist them. I never expected the calm silence to follow that question though.

“No.”

Dylan walks further in, as the male follows behind him. I connect with the grey, not breaking contact until he looks down.

Dylan sits beside his mate.

The male sits next to me.

I look at him, taking in the wildness and lingering scent of the forest that seemed to constantly surround him.

He doesn’t say a word though and instead remains stoic in staring down.

“No...” I look back up to meet the eyes of the parents, “he will be my partner. My equal.”

I feel the male move beside me, but I do not glance to look at him.

“What pack are you from?” Camilla asks.

“Alba Rosa.”

They both inhale sharply. They have heard of it.

It was no surprise that they knew of it.

The Alba Rosa pack is the fifth largest pack within the North American region.

“You can’t be serious....”

I grin wickedly at the look of pure bewilderment that their faces hold.

A sudden thought falls into my mind as I ask, “what month is it?”

“February.”

I feel all air leave me as I take in the information.

I had been gone for a little over three months.

“I need to go back,” I turn to the male, “I ran with you male. Now your time has come to see my world.”

A twisted smile forms on his lips as grey rises to meet me. So strange. It felt strange to watch the skin side move now instead of the wolf. It felt even more strange to hear words leave him- and break his steady silence- as he whispers to me, “if you say so.”