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

by Lena Mae Hill

  “I know,” she says, smiling serenely at her reflection.

  For the first time, I wonder if she’s found someone, and I can’t help feeling betrayed that she didn’t tell me. I remind myself that we aren’t close, that I need to work harder to be a part of their lives, too.

  Chapter 32

  As we take the dirt path towards the community gathering place, I glance around at the trees, now awash in amber, gold, red, yellow, and rust. I send them a silent greeting, as I always do. A chill has crept into the air, and once again, I remember the last time I walked this path towards a coronation. At first I was trying to escape with Mrs. Nguyen, before I knew what she really was. And later, I walked this path in Elidi’s shoes, pretending to be her.

  Laughter wells inside me at the memory, and a warmth sweeps through me when I realize I can tell them the story. I’m not alone anymore. And so, as we walk to the clearing, I recount my nerves the last time I did this, how I couldn’t find Elidi’s sweater, how I was sure someone would spot my imitation. They laugh with me, Zora and Haven and Xela howling with it, apparently becoming fast friends, and Elidi chuckling quietly with Kale and Uzula. As ever, Yorn stomps along frowning.

  The moment we step into the clearing, Harmon’s head swivels towards us. Our eyes meet, his pale blue eyes capturing mine and refusing to let go. My heart leaps in my chest, and my feet tangle with each other. I bump against Haven, who slips an arm around my waist and squeezes. “Hey, I know that’s your man, but if these patriarchal weres ever start getting too much for your shifter soul, there’s always a spot in my collective for you.”

  “Thanks,” I say, laughing. “But I think I’m good. The only thing I’m missing is my tiger. So if you ever figure out how to undo that spell…”

  It’s true, too. Everything in my life is perfect—except my trapped tigress. There will always be a part of me that’s incomplete without her. But patience is a skill I’ve mastered well.

  Even an angry tiger cannot keep me from enjoying this night, though. Like last time, my heart hammers as I make my way across the clearing. But this time, I float in my gauzy white dress. My feet are bare, my toes sinking into the cool grass as twilight falls around us. The insects of summer still sing, though quieter now, and the hum of voices dies down when I approach Harmon.

  “You look like an angel,” he says. “White hair, white dress…” He sweeps me into an embrace, wrapping his long arms around me, and squeezes me against him. My feet leave the ground as he lifts me, bending his head and bringing his mouth to mine. When he pulls back, my head is spinning.

  “You look like an Alpha,” I say, running my hands over his broad shoulders, his simple white shirt stretching tight over his muscles. “When did you get so…manly?”

  “When I Chose a mate,” he says, cocking an eyebrow at me.

  “No, I think it just happened recently,” I say. “When you took your rightful place in the pack. Now come on, aren’t you supposed to dance with me?”

  Like last time, we eat, and drink cider, and when the band assembles on the platform, we dance. The night grows chillier around us, and Harmon holds me close, wrapping his warmth around me. Over his shoulder, I watch the moon. This time, nothing will go wrong.

  “What are you thinking about?” Harmon asks, lifting one hand from my waist to smooth his thumb between my eyebrows. “You’re frowning.”

  “I was just thinking about the last time we danced here, during the eclipse, at your coronation.”

  “Lucky me,” he says. “I get to Choose you twice.”

  I smile at the memory, resting a hand on his strong chest. “Are you sure you didn’t think I was Elidi that time?”

  “I’ve known that girl since the day she was born. She couldn’t surprise me if she tried.”

  “How’d I surprise you?”

  “The way you kissed me,” he murmurs, nuzzling my ear. “I still get shivers when I think about it.”

  I’m glad only the golden glow of the firelight illuminates my face, and I hope he can’t see me blushing. “You’re such a flirt,” I say lightly.

  “Only for you,” he says, pulling me against him.

  A while later, the music stops. Harmon steps closer to the fire, and one by one, the members of the pack fall silent. Harmon stands straight and tall, his chest out and shoulders back, looking proud and strong and every inch a leader. Looking at him, I must be as proud as he is. He earned this, and he deserves every bit of it.

  “As you remember, the last time we did this, it didn’t come to a very satisfying conclusion,” he says. “Unfortunately, my father is not here to hand the reigns to me, but we will hold the confirmation ceremony tonight in his memory. We will transition and hunt with our brothers and sisters, as always. I am already your Alpha, but the ceremony will be performed by our elders as is tradition. Also, I have already Chosen a mate, but tonight, Stella and I would like to complete our mating ceremony. As your leader, I promised to unite our pack with the neighboring peoples and create peace and unity. Already I am learning these things take time, so please be patient. And remind me of that when I’m not being so patient myself.”

  A few wolves chuckle.

  Harmon smiles. “Some other young wolves are anxious to Choose their mates as well, so let us proceed.”

  The pack closes in, forming a circle around us. Their eyes sparkle in the firelight, and a chill breeze scatters leaves across the clearing. I shiver, suddenly nervous, but Harmon takes my hands in his, his grip warm and reassuring.

  “Stella, you are my mate,” he says. “I’ve known it since the moment you crashed my coronation and tried to pretend you were Elidi. Badly, I might add.”

  “Hey,” I protest, but everyone else is smiling.

  Harmon’s expression turns serious. “When you walked into the clearing that night, so obviously lost, I knew that you’d found your way there for a reason. I knew in that moment that you were my mate. I admit, it took me by surprise. Instead of dancing with my mate all night, I spent most of the evening avoiding you, mulling over this impossibility. But my wolf knew, and it refused to let me Choose an easier path. This is my destiny. You are my destiny.”

  I can’t hold my tongue any longer. “You knew that whole time? And you let me go on making a fool of myself? Thanks a lot.”

  He shrugs. “Even if I couldn’t tell by how different you were, you didn’t have the pack bond. I knew you weren’t of the Lunessa pack. I’d like to change that tonight. The beginning of an alliance between shifters and wolves. You belong here as much as anyone. You are one of us.”

  I waited so long to hear those words. Now, my eyes threaten to spill over with tears. “I can’t believe you knew all along,” I whisper. “And you still picked me.”

  “As always, my wolf was right. The wolf knows, even when the man does not. I didn’t know how it would work, but I knew you were the woman I’d spend the rest of my life loving and protecting. I guess that will have to be good enough.”

  “It is,” I say, and I throw my arms around his neck and pull him down for a kiss. When I break away, the pack moves in closer, joining hands.

  “We join this pair by calling upon the Lunessa pack’s founding father, Alpha Oberon Shoals, to unite these two souls as mates,” they say. “May your union bring happiness, joy, and plenty. May the Goddess Diana bless you with children to increase this pack and prosperity to share with your neighbor. And may you love and nurture each other, this pack, and our land with willing and grateful hearts.”

  “We will,” Harmon says, and I repeat the words. Everyone cheers, and a hundred people seem ready to embrace me and hand me cider.

  This time, Harmon says we’ll take care of all the business before the eclipse is total, since it’s later this time, at nearly two in the morning. A few other wolves Choose mates, and we all cheer for them. They will wait a few full moons before their official mating ceremony.

  After that, the wolves all pledge their loyalty to Harmon again, though he says it’
s not necessary. The others seem to disagree, and the elders say it’s better if it is done properly now. “In case anyone has a mind to question your authority again,” an elder says, and I know we’re all thinking of Yvonne. After the battle, Harmon explained to them what had happened, and they had a funeral for my mother. But sometimes, I still catch someone looking at me a certain way, or I feel someone watching me, but when I look up, I’m alone. Her shadow still lingers, the horror of what Yvonne did. And I still find myself looking around from time to time, wondering if she’s still here, mirroring another wolf, biding her time.

  When the elders have made the decision that we will do the whole ceremony as if Harmon were taking over for the first time, they join us in our circle around the fire ring, where embers glow softly among the ashes. Harmon stands up and clears his throat. “Brothers and sisters,” he says. “I gave you all a choice when I fought the sorceress, to stay with me or leave. Again, now that you’ve been under my command, I offer you the chance to find another pack if this one does not satisfy you. I will not force you to stay in my pack. I will not order the pack to shun you, and you are welcome to visit or return if you choose. I am releasing you with good will and peacefulness.”

  Everyone seated around the fire shakes their heads and murmurs in protest. Harmon stands silent, waiting another second, two, three. Just when I begin to relax, sure that no one will stand up, clothing rustles to my left, drawing my attention. Someone is climbing to her feet. My gasp is drowned by those of the rest of the pack.

  “My Alpha,” Elidi says, bowing her head. She swallows before going on. “I ask to be released. You are kind to make such an offer, and I know not all Alphas would do so. I am grateful to you, and I hope one day to return and join the pack again. But I’ve always wanted to see what else is out there, and now is the right time for me.”

  Harmon looks like he’s been punched in the gut. “Ellie,” he says, the nickname that is reserved for him alone, that not even Mother or Zora used.

  I sit frozen, my head spinning. It shouldn’t surprise me, but it does. It stuns me senseless.

  Elidi holds up a hand. “You have always been fair to me,” she says to Harmon. “It’s nothing that you’ve done wrong. You haven’t failed me. It’s my own failing, if anything. They say my mother was always rebellious, so maybe I got it from her. Or maybe it’s my shifter side. I love this pack, and I hope you will accept me back if I come home. But I need to do this on my own.”

  “You can’t,” Zora cries, her dark eyes seeming to spark with firelight as she glares up at her sister.

  “I’m sorry,” Elidi says. She reaches down to stroke Zora’s hair, but Zora shoves her hand away.

  “What am I supposed to do?” Zora demands. “Mother’s dead, Stella’s gone. And now you?”

  “You can come home with us,” Fernando’s father says quietly. “You’re my daughter, too.”

  “Fine,” Zora says, crossing her arms over her chest. “Elidi’s cooking is so bad she’d probably poison me if I kept living with her, anyway.”

  “Alpha?” Elidi asks, turning her attention to Harmon. The pack sits frozen, waiting for Harmon’s answer.

  “I…” He croaks out the word, his eyes flooded with so much betrayal I think he might cry, or tear her to bits. His Adam’s apple bobs once, twice, as he swallows. His cheek twitches.

  “I will hunt with you tonight,” Elidi says quickly. “But I would like you to release me in the morning.”

  “I will stand by my word,” Harmon says stiffly.

  “Thank you,” she says. “Since I won’t be a member of this pack, I’ll go home and pack while you finish the coronation ceremony. I’ll be back for the hunt.” With that, she turns and starts down the dirt trail where, so long ago, she told me this was what she wanted. She has a dream, and I’ve always known it. I just never thought I’d be the one staying, and she’d be the one leaving.

  I want to run after her, grab her shoulders and shake her. I want to ask how she can do this to me, leave when we’re just getting to know each other. At last, we are free to do just that—know the sister so much like us that most people couldn’t tell us apart. I thought I’d have years to befriend her, to make up for all the lost years when I didn’t even know she existed.

  But that’s selfish. I can’t keep her here just so I can have a family, the one thing I’ve always wanted more than anything in the world. The thing I want so much that all those silly childhood dreams I used to have are washed away by it.

  But Elidi doesn’t have the same dreams as I do, I remind myself. We may look alike, but we’re not identical on the inside. She grew up with a sister. To her, it may not hold the same allure as it does for me. There is something else she wants more than anything. Not to belong—she’s always belonged—but to be alone. The one thing I’ve had way too much of.

  For a solid minute after she leaves, no one speaks. Then Zora snorts. “She’s crazy if she wants to be a lone wolf. Who’s going to protect her from all the dangers out there? Other packs aren’t so nice, and humans could find out, and Diana knows what else. And who wants to be alone, anyway? Being alone sucks.”

  “You know, you can come visit me,” I tell her. “Not to hang out. I mean, we have nothing in common. But I am kind of your sister. Just half, not like that counts or anything.”

  She rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I might, if you’ll make me dinner when I come.”

  “Always the haggler.”

  Our exchange seems to thaw the group, and we move on. I slip up beside Harmon while the others are gossiping about my sister.

  “I need to go talk to her,” I say. “Just for a minute.”

  He leans in and kisses my forehead, then smiles down at me. “Go.”

  Chapter 33

  The darkness is deep around me as I jog down the path towards Mother’s house, but I’m no longer afraid of the trees or the creatures in the woods. The ghosts might snatch me up to give me a message to pass along, or reach out and touch me out of mischievousness or boredom, but they are not malevolent.

  When I turn down the path to Mother’s house, I can sense and smell its emptiness before I walk in. My heart cramps painfully inside me. I’m too late. She’s gone.

  I turn and race back up the drive. She said she’d hunt with us. She didn’t even tell me goodbye. Not that we’re close, but I thought our blood bond meant something even to her. Our twin bond.

  Remembering that, I hesitate, send out my energy along that channel. It’s not strong, like I can read her mind. But I seem to be able to feel where she is, maybe even sense when she’s in danger. That might come in handy when she’s a lone wolf. I know Harmon wouldn’t hesitate to run to her rescue, whether or not she’s officially a member of his pack. She’ll always be more than that. Now that we’re mated, she’s family to him, too.

  I race up the steps to our cabin and burst in, throwing open the door. Relief floods through me when I see the figure standing at our window, looking out at the moon.

  “You’re here,” I say, sinking to the couch in relief.

  Elidi turns and braces her hands on the windowsill behind her. She’s changed into jeans and a hoodie. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before,” she says, looking at her bare feet. “I had to know if he’d let me leave before I made a big announcement.”

  “I just can’t believe you’re leaving,” I say. “I mean, I can. But I can’t.”

  Elidi scuffs her toe against the rug. “Did he say anything when I left?”

  “No.”

  “Listen, I know this seems sudden, but…”

  “Not really,” I say. “We tried to escape two years ago.”

  “There’s more,” she says. “Come and look.” She motions for me to follow her into my bedroom, where she steps up to the mirror. “Show me the faces of all my sisters by blood,” she says, staring intently into the mirror. The picture begins to swirl, and chills race up my arms. My face remains where it is, but three other faces form out of the mist besi
de me—Zora, Astrid, and a girl I’ve never seen before.

  “I think I know when Mother was possessed,” Elidi says. “I think it happened a few times before it became permanent. She started getting up at night, saying she couldn’t sleep.”

  I turn away from the mirror, rubbing my arms to warm them. “Because Yvonne could invade her body when she was sleeping.”

  “One time, she came in my room and woke me up. She asked me to feel through our bond if you were still alive. I told her you were. I’m sorry.”

  I shrug, wishing I could think of a reason for her to stay. “It doesn’t matter.”

  “After I told her, she told the whole pack. People lost a lot of respect for Harmon when they found out he’d lied about that. Wolves…we don’t really lie to each other. Not within our own pack.”

  “That was my idea,” I admit.

  “It wasn’t a very good one,” she says with a little smile, sinking onto the edge of my bed.

  I realize now what a huge thing I asked of Harmon, to betray his own pack to keep me safe from my mother. And he did it.

  My heart breaks a little knowing that. He was willing to risk losing the respect of the pack, maybe even their loyalty, for me. It’s not just that the wolves have to obey him. I didn’t understand that for so long, how everyone could want an Alpha ordering them around. But it’s more than that. It’s trusting him to do what’s best for the pack, respecting him enough to let him make decisions, make mistakes, and learn from them.

  I’m proud to be one of the Lunessa pack, proud of the leader Harmon will become. Still, I’m damn sure not going to obey him all the time. He let me make my own mistake that time, even took the fall for it. Suddenly, all I want to do is be with him right now. I should be there on our night, on his coronation night, not chasing after a sister who doesn’t want to be chased. What if something happens like last time, and I’m not there? I’m sure he’d rather I not be—I can’t protect myself, and it would probably put him in further danger to have to fight for me. But I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to him while I’m gone.