Ghostly Snow: A Dark Fairy Tale Adaptation (Girl Among Wolves Book 3)

by Lena Mae Hill

  “And here I thought my love would always be unrequited,” she says, hugging me back.

  I pull away, laughing and trying not to cry at the same time. “Your collective doesn’t know where you are,” I say. “They’re beside themselves. They never heard anything about you. They had no idea where you’d gone.”

  “They better not have joined another witch’s collective,” she growls, scooping her fox into her arms. It sits on its hind legs in her lap, staring at me with bright, shiny eyes.

  “At least she let you have your fox,” I say, slumping against the end of the couch that, for so long, was my bed.

  “The only reason she let me have him is because she wanted to force me to use my magic, and she knew I wouldn’t be able to do much without my familiar.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me she was your aunt?”

  Haven laughs and strokes her fox’s head. “I thought you’d be weirded out that I’m related to a sorceress. She lived next door when I was a kid, and she taught me to protect her during her projections.”

  “Good thing, too,” I mutter.

  “She made me call her Auntie. Gag.” Haven shudders dramatically.

  As much as I love Haven, it’s a relief that she’s not yet another one of my sisters. I keep waiting for more to pop up at any moment. “Actually, she lived next door to me, too,” I tell Haven. “But she was in an old lady body at the time.”

  “I can imagine how much she hated that,” Haven says. “She was always trying out new potions to make herself younger and prettier. She used to have me come over and check on whatever body she’s dragged home to make sure it was still alive when she projected into something else. Talk about childhood trauma.”

  “I wish you’d told me.”

  “I didn’t want you to think all witches were like that,” she says with a shrug.

  “Wait, are you saying you care what someone thinks of you?”

  “No,” she says with a scowl. “And anyway, it wouldn’t have made any difference. I didn’t know she’d possessed your mother. I might not have even known if I’d met your mother.”

  “You’re right,” I say. “I didn’t tell you I knew her, either, and for pretty much the same reason.”

  “Cool. Now that we’re all good with each other, you think you could get me out of this chain?”

  “Oh, I’m so sorry!” I say, jumping to my feet. “Let me ask my sisters for the key. I’ll be right back.”

  “You better,” she calls as I rush down the stairs. After seeing Mother chain me up for years, it must not have seemed strange for my sisters to see her do it to someone she claimed had tried to kill her daughter. When they give me the key, I race back up to let Haven go. She promises to visit, but wastes no time in returning to her collective and the hive.

  When she’s gone, I accept Elidi’s shy invitation to stay for a dinner of overcooked vegetables and unidentified meat. While we eat, my sisters fill me in on how Haven ended up there. When Dr. Golden declared that someone had given me some kind of sleep potion, Yvonne suddenly and miraculously recovered a memory of Haven casting a spell on me. The wolves returned to their valley, but Yvonne snuck up and somehow retrieved Haven from the tower. No one knew she was there except my sisters, who were sworn to secrecy, and her precious Astrid.

  “I should have known it wasn’t Mother,” Zora says, sloshing her spoon back and forth in her bowl. “She’d never bring a witch into our house.”

  “You couldn’t have known,” Elidi says, patting Zora’s hand.

  “I’m going to lie down,” Zora says, pushing back from the table. “I don’t feel so good.”

  “You need me to sleep in your room with you tonight?” Elidi asks, her eyes full of concern.

  “Your cooking is probably why I feel sick,” Zora says, stomping out of the room and up the stairs.

  Elidi casts me an apologetic look. I feel like an intruder who witnessed a private moment between sisters. I get the feeling this isn’t the first time Elidi stayed in Zora’s room to make her feel safe. After all, they have been living with a crazy sorceress for months. They share a bond I’ll never be a part of, no matter how many dinner invitations I accept. They have been sisters all their lives.

  My chest tightens, and suddenly I’m not hungry, either. “I better go check on Harmon,” I say, pushing back from the table. “I want to be there when he wakes up.”

  Before I go, I retrieve the padlock from the chain upstairs and throw it down the outhouse.

  Chapter 29

  For the next week, Harmon recovers in his new place. I hate that he lost his big Alpha house, but at the same time, I don’t really want to live in any house where I was held captive—even one with good memories as well as bad. I hang around Harmon’s bedside until I get on his nerves by asking if he’s okay every ten minutes. Finally, when he’s fully recovered except for a bandage on the back of his neck, I ask if I can go out.

  “You don’t have to ask permission,” he says, looking at me strangely.

  “Right,” I say, forcing a laugh. “I guess I’m still not used to living among wolves. When I lived here before, I would never have just gone out and walked around the community.”

  “I’m sorry about that, Stella,” he says. “I should have done something about her a long time ago.”

  “That day,” I begin, sinking onto the foot of his bed. “When you fought her. What did she do to you?”

  “She made me see things I didn’t want to see,” he says slowly. “It was like having a blindfold over my eyes, with the worst things I could imagine pictured on it. I couldn’t close my eyes to it. But luckily, my other senses worked just fine.”

  I take his hand and squeeze. I can imagine what she made him see—she put those thoughts in my head, too. Still, I feel silly saying the next words. “When she left my mother’s body…I heard you speak.”

  Harmon shrugs. “We have a bond, too. You may not be a wolf, but you’re my mate.”

  “When she stopped…do you think she died? What if she entered someone else’s body and we don’t know?”

  “I don’t want any distrust within the pack,” he says. “But I’ll keep an eye on them if you’re worried about it. I don’t want you to be afraid.”

  “I want us all to be safe, that’s all. I want her gone.”

  Harmon squeezes my hand, his face serious. “I’m sure after what happened with your mom, it will be hard for you to trust people. And I don’t just mean Yvonne.”

  “It’s over now,” I say. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not mad at Talia anymore.”

  “That’s big of you,” he says, pulling me to him. “That’s the kind of thing that makes me know I Chose the right person. Despite everything that’s happened to you, you’re still good.” He pulls me down on his lap and draws me in for a kiss.

  “I don’t know about that,” I murmur against his lips. “Sometimes I can be as bad as all you big bad wolves.”

  His teeth graze my lip. “Is that right?”

  “Mmmhmmm.” I nip at his lip in return.

  He pulls back, and his blue eyes lock on mine. “I love you, Stella. The good side, the bad side, every side of you fascinates and captivates me. And I know I’ll keep finding more sides to you all my life, and they’ll still catch me by surprise. I’m always going to want to know more about you. I’m always going to want to be the person you tell your stories to, the person you cry to, the person you run to when you need protection. Let me protect you. Let me comfort you. Let me listen to you.”

  “Okay,” I whisper.

  “Let me make you my mate,” he says. “Officially. There’s an eclipse in a couple months. We’re going to do a coronation of sorts. Everyone is eager to retake their oath of loyalty. I think I can wait that long.”

  I swallow hard. “For…?”

  “For you,” he says, winding a strand of my frizzled hair behind my ear. No matter how much I comb it, I can’t undo the damage of the heat that day and leaving it unkempt for so long.
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  “You have me,” I say.

  “For us to be officially mated,” he says. “To have the mating ceremony.”

  “We don’t actually have to, you know, mate in front of people, right?”

  Harmon laughs. “No, kitten. It’s like a wedding.”

  “We’re so young,” I point out.

  “I know you’re the only one,” he says. “I’m sure. I’ve Chosen. It can’t be undone. My bond with you won’t change when I’m twenty, or a hundred and twenty. I have no reason to wait. But if you do, I’ll wait. Like I said, mine never changes. So for me, it doesn’t matter when we have the ceremony. You’re the mystery.”

  I hesitate. I’ve been hesitating for four years. I’ve been timid, meek. I’ve let other people make my decisions. I’ve let people decide what I can be, who I can be, what freedoms I deserve. This time, I want to make my own decision. I want to do something wild, like the animal I am. Something bold, worthy of my tiger. I’m tired of being weak. I’m ready to do what I want. And I’m finally free to do it.

  A slow smile spreads across my face. “No,” I say. “I’m done waiting. I’m ready to live. So…yes.”

  “You’ll be my mate?”

  “I’m already your mate,” I say. “I always have been. You just didn’t know it.”

  He quirks an eyebrow. “And you did?”

  “I might have,” I tease, remembering the jolt I felt the first time we met. “But I guess you’ll never know. Since I’m such a mystery and all.”

  Harmon laughs, and when I join him, it’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

  Chapter 30

  The next weeks pass in a blur. I take walks around the community, letting people see me, get used to me. I call out a greeting to everyone I see, and most of them answer.

  A few weeks later, the wolves go out hunting on the full moon, and for the first time since returning to the valley, I feel alone. Lonely.

  But just when I’m ready to start feeling sorry for myself, a knock comes at the door. I rush to open it, hoping Harmon has come back from hunting early. Instead, a troop of misfits marches in, dropping dirt and leaves on the floor as they go. A red fox darts in with them and begins sniffing around the legs of all the furniture.

  “You’re domesticated,” Haven says, giving me a sly smile.

  I feel my face warm as they examine my new house. Harmon assures me it’s our “starter house,” that we’ll fill a big lodge full of children one day. But I’m happy with my tiny log cabin.

  “Not bad,” Yorn grumbles, hooking his stubby thumbs into the straps of his overalls and rocking back on his heels.

  “What? Did Yorn pay me a compliment?” I ask.

  “I think he did,” Xela crows.

  “I said the house looked okay, not you,” Yorn says.

  We all burst out laughing, and something twists in my chest. At first, it’s so foreign I almost don’t recognize it. I think it’s a pain from missing them. But then I realize it’s a fullness so complete I feel like I’ll explode. I may never have the family I yearned for all those years—a conventional family. But I have this family.

  I have my wolf family, too, which is warming up to me.

  I have my shifter family, which I haven’t even begun to explore.

  And I have Harmon. In just a few months, we’ll be mated. Someday, we might get married, but for now, we’re doing the wolf version. One day, we’ll have a family of our own. No, it’s not what I pictured all those years, when I wanted to be my mother’s daughter, beloved as my sisters, or my father’s daughter. But all these people have adopted me, in their way. I belong.

  Chapter 31

  Finally, Coronation Day arrives. I can’t help but linger on thoughts of the one that was disrupted almost two years ago. My life is so completely different, I couldn’t have imagined it, let alone believed it, if someone had told me then. And I’m not the only one who is different. The community is different.

  Harmon is a warmer leader than his father, more compassionate. After he’d recovered, Harmon swallowed his pride and asked the witches forgiveness for the wrongful accusations the wolves had cast on Haven. In turn, the witches apologized for Yvonne, who had caused so much mischief.

  The mountainside is still blackened from the fire, but the witches allow the wolves to come and go, hunting in the First Valley. In return, the witches come to dig roots and collect herbs in our valley and get water from our springs. The lines between the territories aren’t gone, but they are beginning to blur. Some witches even come to visit and bring medicines and tinctures, and the wolves’ suspicion is thawing. And, of course, my motley crew of rogues visits every few weeks.

  The only thing that hasn’t changed much is our relationship with the shifters. Although they no longer attack, they do not mingle with the wolves. Harmon often ponders ways to reach out to them, but I’m too angry at Astrid for her evildoing to offer much help. At least I know my tiger is still alive inside me, even if I can’t let her out. One day, when we do the witches a favor, Harmon says he’ll ask for help reversing the spell. But we don’t want to ask for too much, too fast.

  On the morning of the eclipse day, I’m just beginning to comb out my hair when footsteps cross the floor of our living room.

  “You can’t see me in my dress,” I tease. I’ve told Harmon I want a real wedding one day, with all the traditions. But not yet. Tonight, there will be no rings, no legal documents. This is a bond inside us.

  But I still want the fun of surprising him.

  “It’s us,” Elidi says, sticking her head around the door of the bedroom. “Can we come in?”

  “We need help with our makeup,” Zora says, pushing open the door and marching in. She’s carrying a large, flat box in front of her like a shield.

  “Yeah, see, you can’t order me around anymore,” I remind her. “In fact…I guess since I’m marrying the Alpha, I’ll be able to order you around.”

  “Ha,” she says. “Don’t count on it.”

  I laugh. “I won’t.”

  “Give it to her,” Elidi says, nodding at me.

  Zora sighs. “Fine, we brought you a present. It’s not wrapped. And you have to open it now.”

  She thrusts the heavy cardboard box at me. I peel the tape off the end and tip it onto the bed. The heavy mirror slides out, and for a moment, my breath catches. I remember polishing the ornate curls of wood around the edges until they gleamed, and how betrayed I felt when Mother let her take it. I remember hauling it up and down the stairs when I cared for Zora when she was injured, how it felt like she was rubbing it in my face that she had the mirror and I couldn’t do a thing about it. I remember how many times I considered “accidentally” dropping it so I didn’t have to endure her smugness. I remember seeing my father in it.

  “Thank you,” I say, standing and throwing my arms around her.

  She stiffens and pats my back. “Now can you help with our makeup?”

  I laugh and set the mirror on the dresser. “Sure. And thank you. I mean it.”

  “Whatever,” she says. “Don’t spy on me.”

  “I hope I don’t have to,” I say, turning to Elidi. “You know you can come visit any time you want. Not just when you need a favor. I’m just down the path.”

  For the rest of the day, Elidi casts odd glances at me, and that only makes the sense of déjà vous more intense. For all the years I was at Mother’s, Elidi gave me those looks. Looks that said she wanted to talk to me, but couldn’t. But when I ask her what’s going on, she just looks away and says she’s nervous. I wonder if she’s afraid the shifters will attack again, as I am.

  By evening, we’re all dressed up and ready to go. The group from the mountain has joined us, though they’ll have to leave before the pack transitions, which is a sacred time that is supposed to be witnessed only by wolves. Even I don’t stay past dinner at the monthly lunar meetings. I tell Harmon that’s my time to spend with the rogues, which is partly true. But I also do it out of respect
for the pack. I don’t want them to have to ask me to leave, don’t want them to have to wonder if it’s acceptable. There are things we don’t share, and I’m happy with that.

  Tonight, Haven is in one of her crazy outfits, her hair filled with feathers and fall leaves, her dress an odd assortment of fabrics and textures all patched together, and her fox serving as a scarf. Xela wears a dress, too, but with her leggings, she manages to look as much like Robin Hood as ever. Uzula wears a tunic that is made entirely of fur, and Kale stands stiffly inside a powder blue leisure suit.

  “They don’t share the same fashion sense as humans, do they?” Zora whispers to me when they’re busy fixing Yorn’s twisted suspenders.

  Zora wears a backless royal blue gown with a slit up the thigh, sexy as ever. Elidi wears a simple, pale pink cotton dress, as far from the frills and tulle of the last eclipse as possible.

  “I told her to get something nicer,” Zora whispers to me when Elidi’s back is turned. “It’s like she’s trying not to be pretty.”

  I watch Elidi looking at herself in the mirror, and a pang of sadness goes through me. I’ve been so busy trying to adjust to one crazy circumstance and then the next, that I almost forgot that she once wanted to get out of here as much as I did. When I found out I was a shifter, I decided that life outside these valleys was over for me. Instead of wanting to escape, I wanted to find out more—about my family, my abilities, myself.

  I never imagined I’d end up here, as the Alpha’s mate. There is still so much for me to learn, though, so much to find out. And I’m happy I’ll be doing it with Harmon by my side. But as happy as I am now, Elidi’s circumstances haven’t changed. She’s never found her mate. She’s never gotten away. More than anyone, I know that’s the reason she’s not putting in any effort.

  “You’ll find your mate one day, too,” I say, slipping up beside her at the mirror. Her white hair is still smooth, unlike mine, which is wooly and damaged. Tonight, though, mine is pulled back in an up do, while Elidi’s hangs long around her shoulders.