Rising from the Ashes
Chapter 12

Elenora can't exactly describe the way she feels in any certain terms. All she knows is that she feels something and it isn't anything good. It’s a strange thing, to not know the feeling inside of herself though normally she's very knowledgeable when it comes to emotions. She can feel them. Connect to them. Except when it comes to her own apparently.

Seeing her daughter only makes it worse. Elenora didn’t think Charlotte would be miserable in the pack. Elenora only hoped she was happy through the years and on occasion she’d replace herself writing to Nix just to check up on her little girl. Not very often, she couldn’t afford that and her paranoia didn’t allow it. Well, is it even paranoia if she was right all along. Vermont is alive.

Elenora is certain she knows Vermont better than anybody and she’s certain he won’t give up. If he ever replaces out about her weaknesses -weaknesses such as Charlotte and a certain blonde haired best friend- he’ll kill them off as well. Gone will be the last of the people she cares for. If Vermont replaces out about her mate -though they are not yet real close, lust aside- Elenora is certain Vermont will use him against her as well.

Except, the voice in her head whispers

Vermont knows about Charlotte after all.

“Are you going to tell her you’re back or just stare at her like some stalker?” Alpha Bardrick murmurs, his warm breath fanning the side of her face. She can feel him to an unsettling degree. She hadn’t even heard him as he climbed the tree but man did she feel him. In a way she sensed him coming, not by emotion but by something more. Now she feels the heat of his body, warming her with how close he is. It’s almost like some sort of embrace and shockingly she doesn’t mind it one bit.

“She’s just different.” Elenora manages to tell him. It’s not a lie. She is different. She’s different in the way she grew up. Her once short red curls had turned to something long and wild and absolutely beautiful. Her lips a bright red and her once sickly pale skin still pale but not to the point she looks unhealthy. The freckles only seem to add to her beauty and she moves with grace, even as she fights. She turns it into some sort of dance and it makes her unbeatable. Charlotte wins the fight and Elenora watches the boy laugh as the pale skinned girl helps him up. They talk for a moment before he heads off leaving Charlotte alone in the field of flowers.

The thing that stands out most is the smile, wide and happy. Wouldn’t it be a terrible thing to do to take her away from the place she learned to call home? Does she even see Elenora as a mother or has she found a new family in this dreadful pack? Has she moved on? What sort of life could Elenora provide for her anyways? Except the thought of Vermont is enough to have her mind set on the matter. She might be happy right now, but she is not safe. In the end, Elenora will do anything to protect her daughter and she cannot do that from a distance. “What would you choose? Happiness or safety?” For a moment the Alpha is silent, the only noise being their breathing, the rush of the wind, and the happiness of the birds as they sing a soft song.

“Why choose when you can provide both?” Elenora can only swallow. It doesn’t tell her what to do. Not at all. It just reminds her that there are other options. Options she doesn’t want to admit to seeing. The truth is this pack can protect Charlotte and if she has already found a family here it would be selfish to steal her away. It would be selfish to destroy the life she had created for herself here “The only way to get answers is to swallow your fear and talk to the girl Elenora.” Alpha Bardrick tells her and with a strange kiss to the back of her head he disappears just as silently as he had appeared. Elenora is tempted to ask him to train her to detect his kind. Now that she knows vampires are not just some myth or story, there’s an urgency to learn how to protect herself from them.

Elenora wouldn’t call them an enemy, but they certainly can be and she wouldn’t know how to defend herself against them. She’d be almost useless in a fight against one too. Alpha Bardrick had proved that even if he hadn’t presented himself as a threat at the time. With a sigh Elenora starts her climb down the tree. It is time to face her daughter.

When she gets close enough to Charlotte, she hears one hidden talent she knew nothing about. Charlotte sounds like an angel with the way she hums, and when she sings it’s something almost hypnotic in its beauty. “When did you become a siren?” When Elenora’s voice cuts through the air it’s a lot colder than she meant it to be. Not to be unexpected. Elenora had learned to hide her emotions and her fears quite well as a rogue. Her breathing comes shaky as she steps beside Charlotte who can only stare, her emerald eyes wide and green and her mouth opening and closing. Elenora tries very well to shove the curse deep inside of herself.

Not only is it an invasion of Charlotte’s privacy but Elenora isn’t sure she wants to know exactly what her daughter feels towards her now. “Music speaks to me. It’s only polite to return the favor.” Charlotte mutters, twirling a wild lily between her slim fingers. “Are you here to visit?” Charlotte manages.

“If you still think of me as your mother I’m here to take you home.” Elenora tells her and she prays to the God grandmother swore existed that Charlotte still feels she deserves the title, even if Elenora isn’t absolutely sure.

“What took so long?” Charlotte asks after a moment, and Elenora doesn’t even need the curse to hear that pain in Charlotte’s voice. She had hurt the one person Elenora swore to protect no matter the cost. It leaves a sick feeling in her chest.

“Do you want the long version or the short?” Elenora stares down at the beautiful young lady Charlotte had grown to be before deciding to explain what she can to the girl. Charlotte deserves answers if nothing else “At first it was because I thought myself too dangerous for you. I found out about some secret abilities I had.” Elenora waves her hand in the air, the flames following the path of her hand as she does before simmering out “I couldn’t control this ability and that posed a danger to those around me. It destroyed any and all plans at joining the humans as we talked of doing.”

“You smell like a werewolf now.” Charlotte cuts in, sniffing the air.

Elenora nods the confirmation her daughter doesn’t really need. She is a werewolf, they both know it full and well. She reeks of it. “Yes, along with the fire that came bursting out of me I shifted for the first time as well. I was so out of control back then I wouldn’t have been able to go to a pack if I wanted to and I would never accept a life where you lived as a rogue. It’s dangerous and horrific and so very traumatizing. I wanted you to have all the options in the world, all the options being a rogue would have stripped you of.”

For a moment it is silent. Completely silent. Until Charlotte asks her last question “But did it really take four years for you to learn to control yourself? Four years with only a few letters? Four years. There are packs that will accept rogues, take them in if only they do a ritual.”

Elenora turns away from Charlotte. She can’t face the tears streaming down her pale face. She can’t face the pain. The…something. Maybe anger? She looks to the sky instead, watches the gray clouds roll in. It’ll storm tonight. “It took two years before. By then I thought you might be better off without me. By then, I was already too scared to come back.”

“And yet here you are.” Charlotte cuts in, voice hard and far too serious. Far too old in a way.

“Vermont is alive.” It’s all Charlotte needs to understand “And my fear of you turning me away is far outweighed by the fear of losing you completely. I’m not deserving to be your mother but you are my little girl nonetheless.” Charlotte only nods and she presses her lips together before her bones start to crack. With that, she runs towards the pack without so much as another word.

Elenora wishes she knew what that meant. Does it mean she isn’t forgiven? Is she just thinking? Does she just need time?

For a moment Elenora imagines leaving this hell hole without her daughter in the backseat. She imagines going back to the small cabin that belongs to Mia and her. She imagines walking into the room she had Mia prepare with her instructions while she went to get Charlotte.

She imagines worrying over Charlotte constantly.

She imagines not being able to handle questioning whether or not Charlotte is safe here. Then she imagines herself moving back. Away from her mate. Closer to her daughter. Straight into this prison of a pack. She imagines living at Nix's. Protecting Charlotte from a distance because clearly the red haired girl wants nothing to do with her.

What a miserable thought.