His Forbidden Soulmate

Freya

If I had a choice to become an animal, it would likely be a wolf. Not just any wolf, but a lovely she-wolf with snow-white fur and sky-blue eyes. I'm sure I'd be OK. As much as my love life. If I'm fortunate enough to have one. It would not be as tragic and agonizing as my mother's.

Tears streamed down my cheeks from my eyes. It tickled my skin and drove me to respond by wiping it away from my face, but more tears streamed down as I did so. It was something that happened all the time before going to bed. It was similar to a bedtime routine. I'd stand by my bedroom window, staring out at the moon in the dark sky, and it would end with me begging the moon to turn me into a wolf, as if the moon had ears to hear before going to sleep. I used to laugh at myself for being crazy and having a big imagination from reading too many romance wolf-shifter novels. I believed it to be true.

Before heading downstairs, I got out of bed and went to the bathroom mirror. I would check to see if my eyes were puffy, and they were. As usual, I was red and swollen. I cleaned my face and began to apply makeup. I applied enough foundation, blush, and eye shadow to conceal the fact that I'd wept myself to sleep the night before. Before going, I took a close look at myself. I made sure my appearance was appropriate for a seventeen-year-old, not that my mother would notice. She was too preoccupied with her twentieth lover, whom she felt this time was the one who would never leave her. I laughed at the concept. When will she learn?

When I arrived downstairs, Mom was all comfy, sitting on her boyfriend's lap around the dining table. My eyes rolled, angry. She giggled as Jack fondled her and kissed her on the neck and down to her bosom.

"Teenager in the room," I felt embarrassed about their demeanor.

They made me feel like I was the parent in the house, and they, the adolescents, assumed they were madly in love with each other.

I dashed past them into the kitchen before Jack, whom I despised, could say anything to me. I stopped liking any of the men my mother dated after realizing they were all the same. Heartbreakers. They treated her well until they became tired of her. Forsaking me as usual to deal with her tears and the anguish of a broken heart.

I returned to my room after pouring a bowl of chocolate cereal and milk. That's how I spent the summer: hiding myself in my room while I ate and read werewolf romances about good men who never cheated on their mates. If only humans mated like wolves. I wouldn't be so depressed by my mother's miserable love life, and I wouldn't be so terrified to fall in love. My mother would have been content with her soulmate.

When I heard my mother chuckle downstairs, I got up and slammed the door. I couldn't wait for summer to end so I could go back to school; school was a type of escape for me. To avoid having to cope with my mother and her men. Unfortunately, school resumes in two weeks, and I couldn't wait that long.

I lay down and placed the empty bowl on my bedside table. As I turned to the next page in A.K. Knight's Werewolf Crush, I laughed at Jenny, the female lead character.

As I heard my mother yell, I tossed the book aside and bolted from my room. Jack was twirling my mother in the air when I arrived downstairs.

When he saw me, he put her down, and my mother hurried towards me.

"Honey, Jack has asked me to accompany him while he works!" she exclaimed, her face beaming.

"What!" The news shocked me.

"I'm sorry to say to you that you will not be completing your senior year at Castle High." You'll have to stay with your grandmother and grandaunt."

What I was hearing was unbelievable. I was left dumbfounded by the terrible news.

I witnessed my mother bounce with pleasure and return to Jack, kissing him.

My mother's comments were too difficult for me to grasp. There was no way she was going to put me off in a town so she could travel with her boyfriend.

"Mom, you can't do this to me." I started crying. "You can't let me transfer to a new high school when I'm almost finished with Castle High."

"Jack, please give my daughter and me some time alone."

I kept staring at Jack until he was out of sight.

My mother took my hand and led me around the dinner table. She sat right next to me.

"I know, honey, that this is a big change for you right now, but I have to do it because I love Jack."

"He's no better than your exes; he'll soon get bored with you as well," I replied as I withdrew my hand from hers.

"I'm sorry, Mom. I didn't mean to say that; I'm only trying to keep you safe."

"No, I'm the mother; you're the daughter; it's not your responsibility to protect me. It's my responsibility to protect you," she argued. She then went away, distraught.

"Mom, I didn't mean to." I wept.

Freya

It was futile for me to beg my mother to let me stay. She'd already decided to depart with Jack first thing tomorrow morning.

I packed my stuff while in tears.

"Are you done yet?" my mother inquired, leaning against my door.

I threw my last pair of clothes into the suitcase and zipped it closed, not reacting to her.

"I called Mom and Zira, and they are overjoyed to have you," she let me know.

The suitcase crashed hard on the floor near my bed, and I dragged it past her outside to the car.

She followed me.

"Fine, I'll put up with your immature behavior. "I've been dealing with it for years," she complained as she closed the front seat of the automobile and buckled her seat belt.

When I saw Jack approaching the automobile, I rolled my eyes.

"Are you certain you don't want me to accompany you? It'll be lonely coming home alone," Jack said, lowering his head to hers.

"I'll be fine, babe," my mother assured him as she kissed him.

I felt like I wanted to hurl. I was so glad when the engine started.

"Take care, Freya," Jack had the nerve to wish me goodbye.

I pretended he wasn't there while I looked at the houses across the street, and I was soon on my way to a town I didn't want to be a part of.

It had been a long journey to The Town of Forgotten. A land that few people had heard of. But those who left there for a better life. The ones who were attached to it by birth.

I remember going there for the first time when I was six years old. My parents were getting divorced at the time. My mother drove me there because she needed emotional support. It was the first time her heart had been broken. I know because she won't let me forget.

I remembered how large and lush the land my grandmother and grandfather lived on was and how lovely it is. Anyone who enjoys nature would like to live there. A place that felt more like a forest than a city full of polluting factories. The air is crisp and clean, and the sound of the wild birds is calming.

"It will be better for you to stay with them," my mother murmured as we drove.

Yeah, so you can be alone with your man, I thought to myself.

As I saw the sign indicating that I was now in town, I tightened my seatbelt.

As soon as we arrived at our destination, I stepped out of the car and collected my suitcase from the trunk. Grandaunt Zira and Grandma Zoey were waiting for us on the porch. They came to greet us.

"Look how grown up and beautiful you are." Grandaunt embraced me. She smelled like earth and flowers, mostly soil, like her garden. Zira loved her garden. Mom once told me that when her husband left her, she sought solace in gardening, and my grandmother keeps hens. How unfortunate my mother's family is when it comes to men.

"You look exactly like your mother." It was my grandmother's turn to hug me, and she did so by first pinching my right cheek.

I detested how similar my mother's and my appearances were. I wish that weren't so. I was concerned about ending up in the same circumstances as her.

It was now my mother's time to be hugged.

"You look so happy." Grandaunt and Grandma studied my mother's features.

They had to make that remark since the last time they saw her, she was unhappy and shattered.

"I am!" Mom exclaimed, laughing.

I dragged my suitcase right up to the home. I needed to cry. It was the first time I'd been separated from my mother.

"Freya, I love you!" My mother yelled from behind me.

I swung around to look at her, and tears streamed down my cheeks.

"I'll call you every day. I promise," she said as she went into the car, as if she couldn't stand being here or away from Jack for too long. As her car drove away, I sobbed.

"Don't cry, darling." Zira came up to hug me. "You'll be fine here," she told me.

Grandma carried my suitcase upstairs while Zira and I trailed behind.

"You'll be staying in your mom's room," Grandma added as she set my suitcase down.

As I took in my new surroundings, I wiped my tears away. A modest blue-painted room with a picture that haunts me of my mother when she was younger and how similar we looked.

"Take your time and get settled, darling." Zira patted my back. "We'll be downstairs whenever you need us."

I gave a nod.

The door shut behind them as they left, and I went to remove the picture from the wall, hiding it in a drawer, and then went to sit on the bed. I sobbed. I didn't want to be here, nor did I want to be attending a new school.

Freya

The moon is remarkable considering that it is constantly visible in the sky, no matter where you are. It's almost like it's keeping an eye on us.

Why are the things that are out of your reach the ones that are closest to you? Like the sun, moon, and stars, but the ones closest to us appear to be the furthest away.

I cried by the window the first night in my new house, just like I did at home. Looking up at the half-shiny moon in the sky.

I didn't hide my puffy, red eyes from wailing all night in the morning when I went downstairs. There was no need to because what had happened to me was too sudden.

As I walked into the kitchen, I was greeted by the overwhelming aroma of pancakes and chocolate syrup.

Zira touched a strand of my long, black hair as Grandma brushed my cheek, sensing my gloom.

Grandma brought my pancake and a steaming cup of peppermint tea to the dining room. I trailed her.

"There you go, Hun," she said as she set it in front of me as I sat.

"You'll be merry soon," she said as she walked back into the kitchen, as if she could see into the future.

My fork drew the moon on top of the pancake with the chocolate syrup. A moon made of chocolate. I've grown so attached to the moon from staring at it every night while crying that it's sometimes all I can think about.

"Grandma, I'm going outside for some fresh air!" I yelled, feeling the need to.

"All right, Hun, don't go off into the woods; there are wild and dangerous wolves out there!" She responded from the kitchen. I could soon hear her and my grandmother conversing.

My bed slipper was quite comfortable and silky. My feet felt like they were enveloped in the softest cotton. I wore them outside, refusing to exchange them for an outside slipper.

I inhaled deeply and exhaled, already enjoying the fresh air. My body relaxed as I stood on the porch, enjoying the pleasant wind.

It felt nice to see so much green. A wide field that seemed unending, with lowly cut grass and gorgeous flowers at the side of the house. That was the garden. My grandmother's home was the only one in the area. I reached into my pocket and strode to the back of the house. The back was the entrance to the densely forested woodland. There was very little light in the small area of the tree that allowed you to see that there was a path between them. I stood back from it, near the back of the dark blue house, peering into the forest. I felt the desire to sit, so I sat down on a large stone closer to it. My body curled into a ball, and both of my feet rested on the enormous stone's side.

My gaze is drawn to the woodland by a snapping sound. When I saw that it was a wolf, I bolted from the rock. A shaggy wolf with a light gray and black coat. His yellow and black eyes gazed into mine, asking, Who are you? Why am I seeing you here for the first time? My gaze matched that of awe at seeing my first actual wolf.

"Freya," Grandma called, prompting me to turn away from him.

"I'm coming," I responded.

When I turned to look back at the wolf, he was gone.