Destiny Revealed
For my Papa Punkin, who stays up all night reading my books. Chapter One
Being newly bound to Nick was more than I hoped it would be. It still felt weird to be eighteen, a senior in high school, and have a husband and my own apartment. But it was a relief to know that we could live out in the open now. No more sneaking around or running away.
Ky and Marco had been shunned by all of us, and they continued to sit alone at lunch every day. Fortunately, neither Nick nor I had any classes with Ky. I honestly think I would have switched classes if I did—even though there was only a month and a half of school left.
“I can’t believe we’re finally gonna graduate,” Nat squealed at lunch one day.
“I wish I was,” Jack’s little sister, Helene said.
“Yeah, stop rubbin’ it in our faces already,” Matty added. Matty and Tristan from the pack, and Helene, Jack’s little sister, were only juniors.
Dash made it a habit to sit next to me more often than not at lunch and he leaned in and whispered, “Do you really think Jack would kill me if I asked Helene to prom?” he wiggled his eyebrows at me.
“Why don’t you ask and find out,” I grinned.
“What trouble are you getting into now, Dash?” Nat teased.
“I’m never in trouble,” he pretended to be offended.
“I’m not so sure you should do it while he’s around though,” I whispered to him. He nodded in agreement. “And, hey, she might not even want to go with you. So better to wait until she says yes before you say anything to Jack.”
“What are you two conspiring about over here?” Nick asked from my other side.
“Just his prom date,” I answered.
“Do I want to know?” Nick raised his eyebrow at me.
“Probably not,” I smiled. “Though, you better be prepared to protect Dash from Jack at some point.” Nick shook his head at me and turned back to the conversation he was having with Jack and Rene. They were planning where we were going before prom. It was still two weeks away, so I was impressed that they were thinking so far ahead.
The bell rang just then and we all stood to leave for classes. I noticed Dash in his, “Every great idea I have gets me in trouble” T-shirt, pull Helene aside. Nat gave me a questioning look, but I just pushed her and Jack along in front of me. We may have started out hating each other, but Dash had really grown on me. He actually looked nervous. “He must really like her,” Nick whispered. “If he just thought she was ‘hot’, he wouldn’t smell like that right now.”
“He smells?” I scrunched my face up.
“The pheromones he’s giving off right now are seriously overwhelming,” he smiled.
“Well, that’s good. Because if he hurts Helene, not only will Jack kill him, but I’ll help,” I laughed.
“No, I can tell he really likes her,” Nick assured me.
We hadn’t even made it through the doors yet when I heard Dash shout, “She said yes!” as he pumped his fists in the air in victory.
Jack turned at the commotion and saw Helene smiling at Dash. “Oh snap,” Nat said. She held Jack’s hand as tightly as she could.
Dash looked over at Jack and went stiff. “Oh crap, dude. I swear I really like her,” he had his hands up in surrender as Jack stormed in their direction. He was practically dragging Nat behind him.
“Do something,” I told Nick. “They’re gonna cause a scene.”
He was chuckling. “No way, and miss this?” The lunchroom was pretty empty now. Only a few of the circle/ pack members had lagged behind to watch.
“Well, if you’re not going to rescue him, I will,” I pulled away from Nick and ran over to stand in front of Dash.
He just stood there, hands still raised. Helene was smiling. “Dude, Jack. You’re my boy. You know that, right?” Dash said.
Jack stood silently glaring at Dash. “Jack, look at me for a sec,” I said.
He turned to look at me, but kept one eye on Dash. “Sof, you can’t let this happen.”
“Me? What am I supposed to do about it? And besides, he really does like her,” I told him.
“You’re his boss aren’t you?”
Dash laughed out loud, “My boss?”
“I might be Alpha female, but that doesn’t mean I can, or even want to, tell him not to ask your sister to prom,” I argued.
“But…” Jack sputtered.
“I swear man, I’m cool. I really like Helene,” her face lit up as he said it. “I just want to take her to prom. We’ll all be in a big group so you can even keep an eye on me.”
“Jack, you have to admit, he has grown up a little in the last couple weeks.” Jack looked at me like I was crazy. “Okay, so not much, but I do believe him. Just let it go.”
“Fine,” he gave in. “But so help me, Dash, if you so much as…”
“I know. You’ll sick Sofia on me,” Dash said.
Jack actually laughed and slightly relaxed. The bell rang to signal that we were all officially late to our next class. We hurried out of the cafeteria after the drama was over. I noticed Dash walk Helene to her class, but didn’t point it out to anyone.
Nick hated to let me go every day after art. Nat always came over to our apartment, and now that I was no longer distracted about my feelings for Nick and the drama between our families, I spent the time catching up on homework.
“So, do you really think Jack will let Dash live?” Nat asked while we were in my living room doing homework on the sofa.
I looked up at her from my laptop. “Yeah, I think he’ll survive. I know Dash really likes Helene. He’s been asking me about her since the first day we all sat together.”
“Really?” she seemed surprised. “By the way, it’s so cool that we can all sit together now. I’m glad you made us do it.”
“I know. It feels right somehow,” I agreed.
“All thanks to you.”
“All I did was force everyone to start talking to each other,” I said.
“Exactly. And now another werewolf is asking a witch out,” she smiled.
“I still don’t understand how it all happened,” I furrowed my eyebrows.
“How what happened?” I heard Nick from the doorway. I jumped up and ran to hug him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he picked me up.
“How you guys got together,” Nat said, without pretending to barf for once.
Nick put me back down and walked to the couch, where he sat on the arm. “It is strange, no? In however many hundreds of years, that we would be the first witch and werewolf to be drawn together.”
“I wonder if it says anything about it in your nonna’s book?” Nat wondered.
“Like if maybe we aren’t the first? I don’t think Mamma read all the way through the book yet,” I said.
“Or maybe it says why it would happen now,” Nat said.
“Maybe I should ask her to look at it just for fun. I’m still really curious as to what this strange force was that literally pulled us to one another.”
“Literally?” Nat laughed. “Are you sure you don’t mean that figuratively?”
“Whatever, grammar police. You know what I meant,” I smarted. “I’m serious though. Nick felt it, too. Maybe even stronger than I did. It was nearly impossible to stay away from him after we kissed that first time.” I smiled at him.
“Sὶ, exactly,” Nick agreed. “Do you really think there might be something in the book about it? You kept saying that you knew we were supposed to be together.”
“Well, could be important. Maybe we’re supposed to do something more,” I said.
“There are sure a lot of ‘maybes’ in this conversation,” Nat said. “Well, I’m outta here for now. You kids have fun.” She grinned at
me.
After art the next afternoon, Nick ditched his last class and came with me to Mamma’s store. I wanted to talk to her about Nonna’s book. “Ciao, Mamma,” I said as we walked in through the back door. She was alone, reorganizing the candle shelf.
“Ciao, Piccola, comme va?” she stood up to greet us. “So, I was wondering. How much of Nonna’s book did you read? I, well we, have some questions.”
“Well, I started at the beginning and skipped over everything Luca already found. I haven’t had time to look through it for over a week, so I’m still about two hundred years before now. Why? What are you looking for?”
“We were talking with Nat yesterday, and I’m still curious about this ‘force’ that brought Nick and I together. Do you think there would be anything about it in the book?” I asked.
“Hmm…” she thought for a minute. The bell on the front door dinged before she could answer and someone walked in. “I’ll be right back.”
Nick hadn’t been in the store before so he wandered around. “Do regular people actually use this stuff?” he asked me.
“Yeah, there are a lot of New Age people in town who believe in the power of crystals, herbs, oils, all that stuff.”
“Would they ever really be able to make anything happen?”
“Not really. I mean oils and herbs can help people with mental and physical health, but that’s not really magic,” I answered. The customer quickly found the one thing she was looking for and Mamma was back.
“I thought about it and it’s worth a look. You described a very powerful force. There might be something foretold of in the book,” she said to me.
“Well, do you mind if I pick it up and go through it? I promise to be careful with it,” I asked.
“Of course, Piccola.”
“Oh wait, it was in Florentine. I can’t really read that,” I remembered.
“No, the newer parts are in modern Italian. You should do fine with it.”
“Awesome. We’ll go pick it up,” I said, kissing her on the cheek.
“Ciao,” she said. “And good luck.”
We left the store and drove to my parents’ house where we found Babbo in the living room watching TV.
“Eww, that is so gross,” I said as I looked over at what he was watching. He had one of those real life ER trauma shows on.
“It is helpful,” he said. “They always show extreme cases, and it is always good to be prepared for the unusual.”
“Whatevs, it’s still completely disgusting. Anywho, we’re here for Nonna’s book. Mamma said we could borrow it.”
“Ciao, Signor Morini,” Nick said politely.
“Ah, no. Call me Francesco,” my dad shook his head. “What do you want the book for?”
“Well, we were just wondering if there would be anything in it about Nick and me. I mean the whole ‘destined to be together’ thing,” I answered with air quotes.
He chuckled. “Well, I think it is in our room on the dresser.”
“I’ll grab it and be right back,” I told Nick. I went down the hallway to the bedroom and grabbed the book that was actually on Mamma’s nightstand. “Got it, let’s jet.” I skipped over to Babbo and kissed him on the cheek before saying goodbye.
Nick and I went home and sat on the couch to go through the book together. “How far back do you think we should go?” he asked as I flipped the book open.
“Well, probably two hundred years since that’s where Mamma stopped. She would’ve said if she’d seen something before that. This could take a looong time,” I dragged the word out.
“Do you want my help? I can read one side if you want,” Nick offered.
“Nah. There might be stuff in here you don’t understand. Mamma used the word ‘foretold’, which would indicate there could be prophecies in here.”
“What? You guys can see the future?” he asked, surprised.
“Very few witches can. Usually it’s someone who is already a coven leader. Though not always. It can also be one of the older witches. As far as I know, there’s only one every generation,” I explained.
“So, it’s only women?”
“Yep, pretty cool, huh?” I smiled.
“Not if you’re a guy,” he laughed. “How do you know who it is? And do you have one now?”
“Well, she will start to have visions, but the only way to know for sure she’s the one, is if the visions actually start to come true. And to answer your other question, we do have one now. It’s my nonna.”
“Has she ever seen anything? Maybe we should ask her about us?” he asked.
“The only thing I know of that she’s ever seen was all the families moving to America,” I answered.
“Weird. Why did our families all come over? And why the same town if everyone hated each other?”
“That’s an excellent question and I have absolutely no idea what the answer is. We should ask our parents one of these days. But let’s focus on the current task.” I looked down at the book in my lap and Nick went into the bedroom for his laptop. “No way, is Nico Bartolini seriously going to do homework right now?”
“Hey, I do homework all the time,” he pretended to be offended. “Okay, so maybe not since I met you and turned into a newlywed.”
“This is still so strange. We’re only eighteen. How is it that we’re married? We haven’t even graduated,” I said.
“Well, first of all, you’re the one who proposed to me. And secondly, your parents were bound at eighteen. What does it matter if we’re still in high school? We can finish school and be married at the same time,” he smiled.
“I know, but it’s still weird,” I mumbled as I looked down at the book again. We sat in silence for a long time; the only sound was the clicking of the keyboard.
“Anything yet?” Nick asked awhile later.
“Some cool spells and a little bit of history, but nothing that looks like a prophecy. I need a break. My eyes are going all wonky from this tiny, fancy script,” I answered.
“Do you want me to order dinner?” he offered.
“How ‘bout we go to the restaurant?” I suggested.
“Sure, if you want.” I nodded and we left for his family’s restaurant, Aberto’s. They had absolutely the best Italian food in all of northern Arizona.
“Sofia!” Nick’s mom, Daniela yelled across the restaurant as soon as we walked in.
“Mamma, don’t embarrass her. You’re being loud,” Nick told her.
“Oh, nonsense,” she said, walking over and hugging me. It was amazing how quickly she and Aberto had given up on the whole Beth thing—she was Nick’s werewolf ex. Once they found out Nick and I bound ourselves to each other and the feud ended, they adopted me into the family with open arms. It still blew my mind.
Babbo and Mamma had gathered her circle and Aberto’s pack the morning after our ceremony. They took the book with them, explained the story of Henri and Adelina, and insisted the feud end. Some of the older leaders struggled for a while. Within the week, Aberto and Daniela wanted to meet me.
They had accepted the binding—well they had to—but as soon as they saw us together, they fully supported us. His mom practically said the same thing as Mamma, insisting she saw the connection between us right away. “You cannot deny this,” she had said to Aberto. And she was the one I worried about the most because she had been so dead set on Nick being with Beth because she was a were.
“Sit, let me get you something,” she said now. “What sounds good tonight?”
“Mmm… how about your lasagna,” I answered.
“Roberto!” she screamed across the restaurant for Nick’s little brother. “Bring Nico and Sofia some bread.”
“Mamma, seriously. Inside voice,” Nick chastised.
“I am Italian. I have no inside voice,” she laughed as she walked away to the kitchen. “Aberto, the children are here,” we heard her yell again.
“Good grief, that woman is louder than my mom even,” I laughed.
“Try
growing up with her. Every conversation sounded like she was mad at me,” Nick rolled his eyes.
Robby came out with the bread and practically dropped it on the table. “What’s up with you?” Nick asked.
“Sorry. Mamma won’t stop yelling at me. ‘Roberto, set table forty-four.’ ‘Roberto, you didn’t fold the napkins right.’ ‘Roberto, they need more water’. You get the idea,” he frowned.
“Sit down and eat with us,” I offered.
“Are you kidding? I’m banished to the kitchen when I’m finally allowed to eat. And even then, I get like two bites before she’s bossing me around again.”
“Who is bossing around?” Daniela asked as she walked up to our table with dinner.
“Daniela, do you think it would be okay for Robby to have dinner with us tonight? I haven’t really had time to ask him about school,” I asked as sweetly as possible.
“Sὶ, that is okay. But don’t be too long,” she said, pointing her finger at him. I laughed when she walked away.
“So, how is school anyway?” I asked as I started to eat my lasagna.
“I can’t wait to be a freshman,” he instantly got excited.
“Good thing we’re graduating. I won’t have to see you at school next year,” Nick teased. He and Robby actually had a strong relationship.
“That’s not very nice,” I said. “He is your little brother after all.”
“Yeah, but he’s like Dash Jr. I don’t know if Mason High can handle another one.”
“No. Sweet Robby? No way,” I smiled, rubbing his head and messing up his hair. I knew he was a troublemaker at the middle school, but I doubted anyone could be as bad as Dash.
Robby chattered on about school and some cute were girl his age while we ate. He seemed excited to be able to sit down and talk to people. He complained that he could never go anywhere because he was always at the restaurant.
“Let me get my violin,” Nick scoffed. “I had to do it before you were old enough.” Robby mumbled something about how much it sucked anyway. Just like he said, Daniela didn’t let him sit for long. She was back to shuffle him off to the kitchen after only a few minutes.
Nick and I didn’t stay too long. I looked through the book a little more before bed that night, but it was so huge that it took forever to get very far. “I’ve still only gotten through about thirty years,” I complained as Nick turned the light off.
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