Chapter 3 Blackwood's Legacy

Riley's Point of View

"Sit with me, child." I passed by the kitchen window and heard Grandma Elena call out. "We need to talk."

Her silver hair was braided with wildflowers when I sat down with her at the old wooden table. The herbs she was brewing into tea perfumed the air with secrets and moonlight. My wolf stirred restlessly at the scent.

"Is this about my Alpha trials?" I inquired, sitting down in the chair across from her. "Because Dad already gave the lecture on not taking pity."

Grandma Elena gazed into my face as if she were reading a book in her wan eyes. She'd always been able to read more than anyone else. I'd wondered in the past if she knew what I was thinking before I did.

She whispered, "This is about the festival," "Riley, things change with the Harvest Moon. Significant changes that impact generations.

There were unexplainable butterflies in my stomach. "What kind of changes?"

"The kind that question all that you think you know about yourself." Grandma Elena filled two teacups. "The kind that causes you to choose between duty and destiny."

The tea tasted of wild berries and moonlight. Her words gave me shivers but warmed me from the inside out. Riddles irritated me, especially if they made my wolf pace nervously.

"I'm afraid of you, Grandma. What's happening at the festival?"

"I'm not sure, actually. I see shadows on the moon instead of clear images. She reached across the table and took my hand. "Granddaughter, I sense a decision coming. One which will forever alter our family.

The kitchen was warm, but her fingertips were cold. I rubbed them gently, trying to get her to just say whatever it was. My head hurt from all this beating around the bush.

"What if I make the wrong choice?" I said.

"There is simply a list of decisions; there is not a right or wrong decision. Some decisions, however, are more difficult to walk than others. Grandma Elena's eyes widened. "Sometimes the heart knows things the mind will not accept.""

The front door closed before I could catch a glimpse of what she was about to do. "I'm back!" Jake's voice called out. Although he did sound strange. I was dubious about how they seemed happy.

"Where has that boy been?" Grandmother Elena said under her breath. "He's been disappearing every day this week."

I had also noticed. Jake would disappear after breakfast and only return in time for dinner. He just shrugged and spoke of something else whenever anyone asked him where he had been. He was not the sort of person who kept secrets.

"Maybe he got himself a girlfriend," I suggested. "He has been acting very dreamy."

"Hmm." Grandma Elena didn't sound so certain. "People do crazy things when they're in love. Recklesshings.

With pine needles covering his clothing and his sandy hair dishevelled, Jake stood in the kitchen doorway. I hadn't seen him smile that broadly in months. He was having a good time doing whatever he'd been doing.

Grandma Elena, hello. Riley, hello. He took an apple from the bowl on the counter. "What are you two discussing?"

"The festival," I muttered, observing his reaction. "Are you excited about it?"

Jake's smile hesitated for a second. He looked at me and then at Grandma Elena and back again. Yeah, sure. It'll be okay.

"Dad says all the packs will be there, even Red Canyon.", I said it casually. "He wants me to stay away from them altogether."

Jake said, "That's probably a good idea," but his voice was tense. "No point in going out of your way to find trouble."

Grandma Elena was also keeping a close eye on Jake with her piercing eyes. She knew something, too, I could tell. Normally, the first one to utter something negative about the Steeles, Jake was apprehensive about the topic today.

"Jake, sweetie, where have you been hanging out during the days?" Grandma Elena gently asked. "Your mother is worried."

"Running just along the trails. Getting prepared for the party. To avoid more questions, Jake took a large bite of the apple. "I should go shower."

Before either of us being able to say anything else, he quickly exited the kitchen. I turned to glance at Grandma Elena across the table. Something was clearly incorrect.".

As I talked, "He's lying," "Jake doesn't do hours of trails daily. He detests exercising.

"That boy is concealing something big." Grandma Elena took a reflective sip of tea. "I can smell it on him."

Jake had been smelling different lately, now that she brought it up. Like fresh air, like pine trees, but like something else also that I couldn't place. Something which, rather than warning my wolf, made him interested.

"Should I follow him tomorrow?" I asked. "See what he's really doing?"

"No, child. When the time comes, some secrets are told. Grandma Elena put her cup down. "But at the festival, beware. People will do what they never would have dreamed under the full moon."

I shuddered. "You're really scared of something, aren't you?"

"Riley, I know you fret about decisions. I know you fret about hearts desiring the wrong things. She looked at me with weary eyes. "I fear history repeating itself."

"What do you mean, history repeating itself?"

Grandma Elena simply shook her head and occupied herself with removing the tea cups. It's not my place to tell some stories. At least not yet.

I recognised that look, but I wanted to press her for information. There was nothing that would get Grandma Elena to talk when she did not want to talk. Still, as I returned to my bedroom, I had her words ringing in my head.

Decisions have repercussions on generations yet to come. Hearts that desire things that they ought not. History is repeating itself.

What was it in my family's history that she feared would occur once more?

I sat on my bed and gazed at the ceiling while I pondered Grandma Elena's warnings and Jake's odd behaviour. With six days to go before the festival, nerves were on edge.

My best friend Sarah sent me a text message, and my phone buzzed. "I am so excited about the festival! Maybe I'll finally meet my soul mate."

I typed to reply, "Maybe we both will." But I felt a pang in my chest of fear even as I wrote it.

What if my partner wasn't from our pack? What if he wasn't even from a pack that we were allied with? I was ill with concern over the thought, but I couldn't let it go.

I dreamed that night I was wailing to some unseen person across a valley. A voice wailed back in the dream, lonely and sad but somehow, somehow familiar. My pillow was wet with tears I had no recollection of shedding when I awakened.

Jake left before breakfast the following morning. This time, I was determined to follow him, even though Grandma Elena warned me not to. I had to find out what was making him so secretive and jubilant.

I tracked his scent through the woods, staying back far enough that he wasn't aware of me. My stomach twisted with worry as his path led toward the border of our land. What was Jake doing near enemy territory?

At the edge of a new meadow, the scent ended. There was no sign of Jake, but I could hear voices shouting from the trees opposite me. Jake's was unmistakably one of them.

My blood ran cold as I heard the second voice.

It was a Red Canyon accent and young, and male.