Chapter 11

I felt the air get sucked out of my lungs real quick. "I am truly sorry." I just. "Please don’t panic," he said, looking like he was freaking out.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" I was panicking too. I couldn’t die this way. Not on the south side, definitely not here.

"Eric would kill me if I let you out of my sight!" Cousin or not? "I don’t know why, but the fact that I knew he was somehow connected with Eric calmed me down.

"What does he want?" I told him to leave me alone! I pretended to be pissed off. Secretly, I was happy it was him. Better him than some freak.

"Well, I am sorry." But I’m on strict orders. Orders? "There must be some military shit." I thought as I nodded.

"I would escort you home." He spoke in a polite voice. I nodded.

"Sorry to bother you, but... why don’t you drive?" He said this in a calm voice as he led me towards his car. I kept quiet. There was no need to say anything.

"Fine, then, there is no need to respond." He said that and kept his eyes on the road.

"Can I ask you a question?" I said, looking at him with wide eyes. He nodded.

"Eric," I said after a pause, loving the way his name rolled off my tongue. "Why did he send you to watch me?" I was curious and wanted to find out why.

"Because you are his Luna." I blink once. Twice, still nothing.

"Huh?" I answered, "Oh, so smartly."

"You’ve heard of wolves, right?" I knew about wolves. Those were one of the three species I was told to specifically stay away from. Vampires. Fairies. Contrary to popular belief, they were not as pretty and harmless as everyone thought they were. And wolves.

"You guys are wolves." I felt my throat cling to the word.

"I am guessing he didn’t tell you then." He said this, nodding to himself, and then opened his mouth to continue to speak.

"You know it’s a good thing." And he is pretty high up on the ladder. "You know, top dog..." He kept on talking, ignorant of my dilemma.

"Could you drop me off, please?" I spoke in a low voice.

"Come on now, don’t be like that." Besides, we are almost close to your house. You know, I don’t see the bad part of this. It’s a good thing, if you ask me. You met your soul mate. "There is nothing more perfect, if you ask me." He said this, smiling at me. Although his eyes did not exactly seem to be looking at me.

"I am sorry, but I don’t want him." You can tell it to him, right? It’s best that way." The smile on his face dropped immediately.

"Why?" Look, I know he can be a bit off with his emotions, but give it time.

I didn’t say anything anymore because I was not in the mood to argue. There was no point in arguing.

The truth was, I knew that he was my mate. I had the vision the day we met twice. But all I knew was that he was a shifter.

I was open to the idea of having a mate. Who wouldn’t? But my fear was that, with a mate, the prophecy of war was going to begin.

There was no way I could prevent it.

I sighed.

My mind went back to those nights when I would wish to never meet my mate, just so that I could stall the war a bit more. No one has ever listened to this side of my visions. When I was younger, my mother told everyone a lie to cover up why I always talked about war. But as time went on, I stopped talking about it. If I didn’t have a partner, then there’d be no issue, or so I told myself.

Now reality had come to bite me in the face. No matter how I tried to lie to myself, no matter how I tried to say that he did not affect me, the truth was that it did. It’s been two weeks since I last saw him, and it was taking a toll on me for sure. I started having visions of both of us more frequently, and I started hearing his name everywhere I went. It was becoming frustrating, to say the least.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ian spoke in a gentle voice.

"Yeah, sure. I just need to lie down," I said. Luckily for me, we were already at the front of my house. "Thank you," I said in a tired voice.

"No issue. Would you mind if I came to pick you up tomorrow?" I looked at him. He was offering a free ride. This was going to save me the stress of waiting for the bus. It gave me the irk. At the same time, it was going to make me spend more time with Ian. I didn’t want to be close to Eric or anyone close to him. I needed to keep my distance as much as possible. There was no telling what could trigger the war except my meeting with Eric, so it was best to just stay clear of him.

"There would be no need for that, thank you," I said with a polite smile I had mastered from talking to my boss through the years. "I would manage on my own. And please, tell Eric to stay the hell away from me. Or I’m calling the corps," I said, still with the fixed smile.

I walked down to the house, swinging the door, expecting to be hit with a heated argument. My parents rarely argued. My dad was the easiest-going person in the world, and my mom always agreed with him. That’s just how they always worked.

"No! You always do this. Push it around till no one wants to talk about it anymore!" My dad was yelling at the top of his lungs. I was more shocked by how much he was shouting than anything else.

"The girl is twenty-five!" He said that, stopping me in my tracks as I was about to break them up from arguing. How much more time do you need to tell her? The other day, it was vampires! What next? She only knows that she’s a seer because the god-damned visions will not stop coming! And even then, you tried to trick her into thinking they were just nightmares!"

"You don’t know anything!" my mother yelled back. "You think I like this? I just want her to be normal like the other kids!" Her words cut deep.

"What’s that supposed to mean?"

"What do you mean, normal?" my dad and I said at the same time.

My mom looked shocked. None of them noticed how much screaming was going on.

"You’re back. I didn’t... I just..." She looked to my dad for help.

"This is on you," he said, walking out of the room.

"How was your day?" she asked, trying to ignore the fact that she had just called me not normal.

"So, you wish you had a normal daughter, huh?"