The next thing I knew, I heard a faint knocking on my door.

It had to have been them. Someone who was after my mother, again. I opened the front door to see a tall, dark, handsome man with the greenest eyes standing on the other side with a few others surrounding him.

“Hello?” I exclaimed nervously, leaving Cecilia well behind me.

“Hi, I’m just here to check in on you. Are you alone at the moment?”

But as soon as I scanned the room to search for Cecilia’s presence, I realized that she was nowhere to be found.

“Cecilia?” I called worriedly, hoping against all hope that she hadn’t left.

“Cecilia!” I cried, my voice rising to a shout. I didn’t want to be rude, but I truly wasn’t comfortable with this unexpected visitor.

“We are only looking for you,” he said firmly. “You alone are the reason for our trip here. We need you to kindly step out so that we can bring you to safety quickly.”

“Safety?” I replied in sheer confusion. “But what am I being rescued from?”

“We think that you are being harmed. It has been brought to our attention that your life is in mortal danger. It’s quite urgent, really.”

“But what would I need rescuing from, exactly? I’m sorry but I just am so confused and I’d need a bit more of an explanation than that.”

I frowned slightly but I could still feel myself shaking vehemently. I was almost afraid that this strange man was going to enter my home unexpectedly or uninvited. It was a bit too much for me.

“I am not here to harm you, believe me. The reason for our visit is confidential, but believe me, you will thank me completely when you are at last away from here.”

“What does that even mean?” I frowned worriedly. “And who exactly are you?” I was about ready to slam the door in his face when he prevented me from doing so with his hand. I wondered how he had such fast reflexes, privately, to myself.

“My name is Nadir. I will surely help you to understand yourself more with time. But for now, please just relax and follow me.”

“And if I don’t?” I snapped. I didn’t really have much patience for this.

“Then you will sorely regret it,” Nadir scowled, clenching his teeth and his fists at me.

At that, I quickly slammed the door shut in Nadir’s face. I didn’t really understand what was going on but I didn’t like it.

Next thing I knew, Cecilia was back. She must have come in through the back entrance, but still, it quite shocked me to see that she was there.

A few moments later, however, I heard another knock on my door. Nadir, I thought miserably. Who was this strange man, anyway? And why was he at my house?

Nevertheless, my curiosity got the best of me. As I opened the door, I was met with the most hideous image I had seen in a long while. It caused me such a scare that I slammed the door shut just as soon as I had opened it.

“Aren’t you going to leave it open?” Cecilia threw me a skeptical glance, and walked over to the door in my place, pushing me out of the way. She opened it right when I was drawing it closed.

“Cecilia!” I screeched in horror. “What are you doing?”

“He has to come in,” she insisted, pushing me aside roughly. “If he doesn’t, then you really won’t want to know what happens next.”

“Cecilia, I said no!” I cried miserably as she allowed the feral stranger entrance into my home.

“Who are you?” I questioned icily with pure resentment in my eyes. I wasn’t about to be led astray by some strange man whom, for whatever reason, had it out for me.

I began to faintly tremble. I was never going to be safe now…

“Please,” Nadir snarled as he began to show quite a different side to him already.

“I’m sorry, but I did not invite you into my home. She did. Now get out. Please! Now!” And with that, I grabbed Nadir and hurled him outside. I surprised even myself with my own strength.

“How could you?!” I shouted, once I was at last alone with Cecilia. “You are supposed to be my friend.”

“I am your friend. I was only trying to help you.” Cecilia examined me thoroughly, and I could feel her desire to help me, but something just didn’t seem quite right. “Ashlee, I am sorry. But maybe we just disagree too much to be friends, at least right now.”

I nodded my head fervently, in a rush of silent rage. There was no way that she could possibly do this to me, and yet, her nature was proving itself to be volatile all along.

“Please… Cecilia. I’m begging you. I don’t really get it, or what’s going on with you. But honestly, I just miss having you in my life. The old you, the you that I used to love.”

Nodding her head slowly, Cecilia seemed to have received the message. It wasn’t something that I was necessarily proud of.

But still.

“Well, I guess I’ll just be on my way. But I don’t quite get how you’ve interpreted my actions.”

I shook my head solemnly, but at last gave in to the atmosphere of what surrounded me. It was no use trying to fight back with magic, for I knew that what she believed would be far stronger than anything I had to offer.

“You don’t have to go,” I began to protest, but before long, she had left completely. And I was all alone.

Alone in the cold, experiencing utmost, indescribable anguish. I needed this time for myself.

“This can’t be happening…”I moaned helplessly, feeling an onslaught of magic attacking me with pain.

“It can and it will,” a voice snarled gruffly. It must have been him.

Nadir. He was back. But how?

“Why do you want me? What is it that you have to gain from doing this to me?”

I nodded my head slowly back and forth from where I now lay, fallen, on the ground. It seemed as though I had a long road ahead of me, and that I wasn’t about to make an escape anytime soon.

“Keep quiet. I think you know why we want you…” A shifter-like creature with claws protruding where there should have been hands, piped up from nearby me. His face appeared as mangy and beaten up as I had ever seen in any living creature before.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t.” That’s when I caved and regretfully, began to use my magic again. Even if I had vowed not to use it again for Cecilia’s sake, it was worth all the fire and fury, at the end of the day, for me.

It wasn’t until I realized that there was someone hypnotically, rhythmically, breathing right beside me that I began to lose control of my powers, almost as soon as I had obtained a hold of them.

“Christian?” I mouthed, not wanting to make myself too obvious. “Christian. What are you doing here?”

The drama of all that had ensued was far too much for me to put into words, but at least he had come when I least expected him to.

I didn’t even know him. I just…. f*ck.

D*mned if I did, d*mned if I didn’t. It seemed like all the fun had been sucked out of my life lately. But my magic would put me back on track again.

At least, I had hoped, inside my mind.

The magic was happening. And quickly.

“Come here, love,” Christian motioned toward me as I began to stare at him. The other wolves in the room terrified the hell out of me. It’s all I could focus my mind on, and yet, here Christian was, ready for love games.

If only I could get inside his mind a little.

But it seemed that even the infinite nature of magic had its limitations.

“What is it?” I whispered sharply. Deep in my heart, I worried and feared for the worst possible of all circumstances.

My mind immediately went cold as I imagined that maybe Christian actually was behind the darkness of this entire episodic drama after all.

But there was only one way to find out, and it wouldn’t look pretty for him.

From where I sat on the floor, I emitted a darkened screech — one that was both hollow and empty, but also entirely emotional and intentionally planned to ignite a sense of terror.

I don’t know what I expected, but it certainly was not to be ignored, or shunned, or treated like I was nothing more than a dog.

I rose to my feet and began to pound vehemently on the windowpanes. Nothing felt true or right or real. My heart ached for my mother, for as tormented as she had made me feel. For as evil as she was, as thoughtless and thankless as her soul had been, I still desired the familiarity and comfort that she provided me.

“Let me out!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, unable to take the pain of the silence anymore. It felt like someone was torturing me with a thousand knives, over and over again, ripping them through my skull, divorcing me from the love that I once felt searing through my soul.

“It’s okay, please, just calm down,” Christian whispered as he coddled me. “Screaming about it is only going to make your time more miserable.”

Slowly, desolately, I shook my head as my eyes caked with tears. I could not begin to describe the amount of pain that shot through my entire body as I heaved, sighed, trembled, to the point of near convulsion.

“Christian, I can’t do this,” I murmured as I felt a wave of nausea coming on. “I’ve been traumatized.”

It was true: for as long as I could recall, even before I truly trauma bonded with my mother, in a type of familial bond, or whatever it was…

Maybe I had feelings for Christian in a past life. For as long as I could recall, the feelings were even there before I was born. It just seemed to be wrapped up in one great supernatural chain of events, beyond my control.

“I think I might get sick,” I continued as I gazed into Christian’s eyes. Part of me felt shame that he wouldn’t accept me or just generalized fear that he would choose someone else over me.

After all, it seemed that he was so beautiful, and I was unworthy of it. I couldn’t blame anyone for loving him, really, since Christian truly was one of the most beautiful souls I knew, and would likely ever know.

I may not have known, but I could feel it in my bones.