“You don’t get it?” When he gave me a confused look I explained. “The land of the free is America, the desert, valley of the sun, great canyon? Duh, that’s Arizona. And it talks about a witch and shifter who break ‘the curse’.”
“So the baby?” he raised his eyebrows at me. “Yes,” I nodded. “Is going to be ours.”
“A girl,” he smiled. “What should we name her?” “Uh, hold on there cowboy. We just got married a
couple months ago and we’re only eighteen,” I said. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack at the thought of having a baby. Nick put his hand on my chest where my heart was racing.
“Shh… deep breath, Bella. I was only joking. I am almost nineteen though,” he smiled.
“Well, I’m not! Mamma was twenty-one when she had Luca.”
“Tell me about this Hecate. I’ve heard the name, but that’s it,” Nick said, changing the subject. I was grateful for the distraction. This was something I could handle talking about.
“She’s basically the mother of witchcraft, the first to use her powers. And did you catch how it said the baby would be able to shift to her true form?”
“Yeah, I noticed that,” Nick nodded.
“Well, Hecate is associated with dogs. And before you get mad, no I am not saying that’s what you are.”
“I know you have never thought of me that way. Even when you hated me,” he smiled and kissed me softly.
“I never hated you,” I said. He raised his eyebrows at me in disbelief. “I didn’t! I was confused and definitely thought you were annoying, but I never really hated you.”
“Okay, you’re right. When you kissed me back, you definitely didn’t have feelings of hate,” he grinned.
“OMG,” I said.
“What is it?” Nick startled.
“Dogs were associated with birth and very sacred. I just realized that we’ve always been connected to weres. I mean, Hecate thought they were sacred. How is it that our ancestors got away from that?”
“Scorned lovers ruin everything,” Nick laughed, referring to our discovery of the story of Henri and Adelina.
“This is big, Nick. I really don’t want to tell Mamma though.”
“Perchè?” he asked.
“Because she’s going to expect a grand baby now!”
Nick laughed at me. “Well she would eventually want one anyway.”
“I know, but I don’t want her thinking we’re going to start right now,” I argued.
“You have to tell her about it. You’ve been searching for weeks and she’ll be excited for you. I’m sure she won’t say anything about having a baby right now,” he reassured me.
“Hopefully not, but if she does, I’m blaming you.” I really couldn’t sleep after that, but Nick passed out again right away. I got up and went to the kitchen. It was close to five a.m. already and Nonna was sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of steaming milk.
“You found it,” she smiled.
“Yes! You knew it was there all along. Why wouldn’t you just tell me?”
“I wanted you to find it for yourself. You needed to see. I didn’t know if you would believe me about a baby. I know you are still young,” she answered.
“I might’ve been upset about that because I’m not ready, but I still would’ve believed you.” I sat down at the table with her and poured myself some hot milk. “Wait a second, are you the one who had the prophecy? Or is it just something you wrote down from somewhere else?”
“It was me,” she grinned.
“And you never told anyone about it?” I couldn’t believe she would have kept it to herself all these years.
“No one would have believed me. There was such hatred towards the wolves. They would think I was going crazy,” she said.
“I’ve wanted to ask for awhile now why our families all moved to America. Is this why?”
“Yes,” she smiled softly and put her hand on top of mine.
“And no one ever asked why they should go? They just listened to you?” I thought it was odd that half the coven would move to America just because Nonna said they should.
“I told them I had seen it. It was very important for them to go because great things would happen for our coven there. I am the leader after all. I say go, and they go,” she answered. She was right. Everyone would listen to the coven leader no matter what. If she told them things were supposed to happen there that wouldn’t in Italy or France where our coven was, then they would go.
“And did you know the wolves would follow?” “Sì, I did,” she answered simply.
“Do you know why the wolves went? I mean, obviously they wouldn’t have known about your vision and followed it,” I asked the question that had been on my mind since Nick and I got together.
“I’m not completely sure, but I believe it is because they stay close to witches to make sure we don’t ‘out ourselves’ as you might say,” she shrugged. “Maybe you could ask Aberto.” I nodded. It made sense. Nick didn’t know why, but maybe his father had never said anything about it. We were both born in America and it never occurred to either one of us to ask why our families moved there until now.
Nonno wandered in then and I asked him right away if he knew about Nonna’s prophecy. “Which one?” he asked.
“The one about Nick and I,” I answered with a smile.
“No,” he shook his head. “What is it?”
I was a little surprised that she wouldn’t have told him, so I explained it to him. He smiled and was thrilled for me that I found it. I asked him if he was bothered by the fact that she hadn’t ever told him.
“No, why would I be? She leads us, and when something is important, she tells me,” he answered with a smile. Though I had grown up with Babbo having the same attitude, it still seemed weird at times that our world put women higher than men. I wondered if Nick would have a problem with it since weres were a male dominant people.
I told my grandparents our plan to go to the beach for the day and asked if they had anything else to add to Mamma’s sight-seeing list. Nonna suggested the Cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta. “Make sure you go downstairs to see the crypt and baptistry,” she added. Nonno told us we had to visit the Roman ruins as well. There was even a museum that held quite a few statues, tombs and other ancient remains of the Romans.
I felt the need to let Nick sleep, but I was excited to start the day as well. I needed to make sure we gave ourselves plenty of time to go visit Nick’s family in the Alps as well and a week didn’t seem long enough. I wanted to spend time with my family, but we were there to see as much of Italy as we could in our short stay.
I waited until seven to wake him and we both got ready for the day. I thought it would be a better idea to end the day with a stroll on the beach, so we started at the church Nonna told me about, hit the museum before it closed for lunch (like half the town), and finished up with some prehistoric caves. Dinner wouldn’t be until 9 pm or so and we stayed on the beach until the sun went down.
When we got back to the house, my extended family was just showing up to begin the dinner preparations. They planned for us to have the traditional full Italian meal. It was rare to have anything so large at home with just the four of us and Babbo’s ever-changing work schedule, so I was excited.
I was surprised the women let Nick in the small kitchen to help. I think they wanted to see what he could actually do and he was happy to show off. I went out back to set the table while the younger cousins ran around and my uncles sat with Nonno talking.
Dinner started with a Caprese salad, fettuccine with prosciutto made by Nick for the main course, Nonna’s fish stew for the second course with roasted bell peppers for the side. To top things off, my aunts made hazelnut chocolate cake for dessert.
“Is it just me, or does anyone else need to unbutton their pants now?” I asked with a grin.
“You mean Giuliana doesn’t cook like this for you every night?” Fabrizia teased.
“She does i
t for birthdays and that’s about it,” I answered. “Well, I guess Christmas too.”
“Nico, your fettuccine was amazing,” Vincenzio praised in Italian.
“Grazie,” Nick smiled. “I’m glad I could help out.”
“Is it your own sauce recipe?” Gabriela asked. I didn’t like the wistful look she always got when she spoke to Nick, but at the same time, I couldn’t blame her.
“It’s close to my babbo’s recipe, but I tweaked it a little,” he answered.
“Do both your parents cook?” Nonna asked.
“Sì, they run the restaurant together. I’ve worked there since I could stand on a stool, so I’ve learned everything from them.”
“Do you think you’ll take over someday?” Pietro wondered.
“Most likely. It’s a lot of work, but I really enjoy it. I’m going to help in the kitchen now that school is done,” he finished.
After visiting for almost two more hours, everyone left and we went to bed. I asked Nick if he was doing okay without shifting, but he insisted he was fine. It wasn’t like he could wander around town as a were.
“Yeah, but my grandparents wouldn’t mind if you wandered around the backyard and house,” I insisted.
“That would just be weird. Besides, the whole reason I shift most of the time is because I need to run and stretch,” he answered. “I can shift once we get to Aosta. My grandfather lives in the mountains.”
We settled into bed instead and fell asleep almost instantly. I got a text from Jack around midnight that night. It was only four in the afternoon in Arizona and he was at the jewelry store. He had chickened out on the tattoo ring idea and decided to buy Nat a diamond ring instead. He sent a picture of the one he was thinking about.
u know her better. will she like? my phone chirped with the text.
“Who’s texting so late?” Nick asked, rolling over in bed.
“Jack; he’s ring shopping and needs my opinion,” I answered. “Go back to sleep.”
“No, I’m awake. Lemme see,” he mumbled. I showed him the picture of the ring. There was a single diamond in the center and small diamonds in the band on the sides.
pretty. she’ll like, I texted back.
“That’s really stunning,” Nick said over my shoulder. “Are you sure you didn’t want anything like that?”
I turned to look right at him. “No way. I’ve never been a huge jewelry person. And I love the necklace you gave me for my birthday. That’s good enough for me. Plus, I have your name on me forever,” I gave him a big smile and a kiss.
don’t want her just to like. will she love? my phone chirped again.
Nick started to kiss my neck as I tried to type a reply. of corpse.
??, Jack replied.
“Stop it, you’re distracting me,” I told Nick. He kept nuzzling my neck. course, I corrected. I turned my head to tell Nick to stop again, but he caught my mouth. The kiss deepened quickly and my phone rolled off the bed onto the floor.
here’s the band, Jack continued to text. I ignored it, and when I didn’t respond right away, he sent another one. u still there? is it ok?
“I need to get it or he’ll keep texting,” I mumbled against Nick’s full lips. He kissed me again in reply. I pulled away and reached down to grab my phone before he could stop me. The band was a plain silver one to match the diamond ring. It had the phrase “As long as love shall last” in Theban. “Ooh, I really like that,” I said out loud. That made Nick look over my shoulder again.
“Cool,” he said before moving his lips to my bare shoulder.
i love. perfect, I texted one last time and set my phone down on the nightstand. Nick’s lips moved back up to my neck and then found my mouth again.
The next morning, we slept in a little and then planned to visit the castle in Dolceacqua just outside of town in the morning and meet a few of the older cousins there for lunch.
On the drive to the castle, I told Nick the little about it I had already learned. “Monet was actually inspired by it and it’s in two of his paintings.”
“Really? That’s cool,” Nick smiled. “I love when you get excited about art.”
“Not just art, but it’s European history, too,” I added. “It’s been there since 1177 and belonged to a royal family.”
The town was small and charming with it’s cobbled streets and medieval architecture. We spent a couple of hours walking up to the castle and around the town before we met up with Pietro, Gabriela and Carolina at a small café facing the bridge that was featured in Monet’s painting.
Pietro brought his girlfriend, Isabella along. She hadn’t ever met a were before and was excited to meet Nick. Just like Pietro had when he first met him, she fired questions at him for most of lunch. Nick took it all in stride and answered everything.
After lunch, we went back to their house to hang out some more. We played games and watched a movie, just enjoying each other’s company. Gabriela had finally convinced her mom to let her come to Arizona for the summer. She had already spoken to my mom and planned to stay with them.
“I can’t wait to meet all your friends, Nico,” she smiled wistfully. “Oh my gosh.”
“What?” I asked.
“Maybe I can go to school there!” she said excitedly. “That would be so awesome. And I could meet someone and fall in love and live happily ever after like you guys.”
Nick laughed, Pietro rolled his eyes and I said, “Don’t get too anxious. You’re still so young. Enjoy your life first. And besides, Arizona is not nearly as exciting as you think. I would much rather live in Italy.”
Nick turned to look at me, “Would you really?”
“Well, I guess not really. Both our families are there, Nat, your babbo’s restaurant,” I answered. “Really it’s just the idea of it. It’s so beautiful here.”
“True, but we have the mountains and forest that you love so much.” I loved the forest even more now because it made me think of Nick. He always smelled like the woods and it quickly became my favorite fragrance.
We had a late dinner at their house and headed back to my grandparents’. We told them about our day and talked with Nonna about the Friday market the next day. She told us to make sure that we went really early because it got rather crowded quickly with all the summer tourists.
In the morning, Nonna decided to come with us to the market because she wanted to get some eggplant, sun-dried tomatoes, salami and parmigiano for another large family dinner that night.
I found a cashmere scarf and a hat to wear in the winter and some leather boots for Luca. I remembered I had promised Robby I would bring him something as well. “What does he like?” I asked Nick. “I have absolutely no idea what a fifteen year old boy is into.”
“Hmm…” Nick wondered. “Other than girls?” “I already told him I can’t bring him a girl,” I rolled my eyes.
“Leather jacket?” he suggested. “He would be the coolest wolf amongst his friends if he had a genuine Italian leather jacket.”
“Ooh, that’s a good idea. Anything to make my sweet Robby one of the cool kids,” I joked.
“I don’t know why you insist on mooning over him.”
“Because he’s sweet,” I said, wandering over to a tent with everything and anything made of leather. “And don’t try to pretend you can’t stand him.”
He sighed and said, “I know. I just like to give you a hard time. He was the only one I told about our binding beforehand.”
“What? You did? You never told me that. I thought you weren’t going to tell anyone,” I was surprised.
“Despite the age difference, we’ve always been close. He was genuinely happy for me and I knew he wouldn’t tell our parents.”
“Wow, cool. I have new respect for him. He deserves an extra kiss next time I see him,” I grinned. Nick rolled his eyes and moved on to the next booth while I picked through the jackets.
He bought some pesto, tapenade and chili jam to bring home to the restaurant to try and replicat
e.
After another amazing meal with all the extended family that night, we said our goodbyes since our plans were to visit Aosta the next day up in the Alps where Nick’s family lived. I was eager to see the picturesque mountains where the weres originally came from.
The drive to Aosta was incredibly beautiful. It should’ve taken us close to four hours to get there from Ventimiglia, but with Nick’s driving, we made it in nearly half the time.
“I wish you wouldn’t go so fast when you have no idea where you’re going,” I complained.
“Sure I do, the car is telling me where to go,” he grinned.
“Yeah, but you have no idea what the terrain is like or how safe other cars on the road are here.” He laughed at me and told me not to worry. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. “You can’t know that for sure,” I mumbled under my breath.
Nick had called his aunt, Liliana the night before to let her know we were coming. He wasn’t sure what his grandfather’s reaction to me would be so he wanted to make sure she prepared him for our visit.
When we got there, Liliana greeted us at the door with hugs and cheek kisses. “It’s so wonderful to see you Nico and to meet you sweet Sofia. Let’s go out for lunch.”
“Uh, okay,” Nick frowned.
“Babbo doesn’t want to see you yet,” she smiled softly as she led us down the street to a small café. We chose a table out front in the shade and ordered some pasta for lunch. “I’m so sorry Sofia,” she turned to me. “He is a stubborn old man and has never known anything other than the hatred he has toward the witches.”
“That’s not fair of him,” Nick complained.
“It’s fine,” I said. “I completely understand. My babbo was the same way. We did our binding ceremony in secret. My mamma came around almost from the beginning though. She said that she could see a connection between us.”
Liliana smiled, “I’m sure he’ll come around by tonight. And if not, you will stay any way and he can stay in his room.”
“Is there anything we can do or say?” Nick asked. “To convince him? Maybe if he just met Sofia.”
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