Amber Eyes

Sitting in front of her mirror and wiping the blood off her face, Selene thought about the elk and it's will to survive, and how it wasn't that unlike her mothers. Would she have the strength to be able to walk down that path too?

A knock at the door brought her back from her musings and she straightened as her mother walked in the room, her expression somber.

"Lucian is here to bid you farewell, would you like to come out?"

Selene almost said no, but stopped herself. Hopefully he was leaving and she could have a few days peace before she needed to pack.

She stood up and her mother led her down to the foyer at the main entrance. All of their clothes were still bloodied. Lucien looked absolutely maniacal crazed with his face still full of blood and his attire spotted with dark splotches she knew were blood. None of them had time to clean up properly yet. 

Lucien took her hand and kissed the back of her blood smeared hand, letting his lips linger just a little too long. 

"My dear Selene," he said, lowering her hand. She could see Tavian holding his side and her eyebrows raised in alarm. She thought back to the wolf who had taken a hoof to the ribs and frowned. Lucian chuckled.

"I must depart, but don't worry, he is not the reason. His carelessness on the hunt will be a lesson." 

"Will you be visiting again soon?" Selene asked, confused by his sudden and hasty departure. He gazed at her and the intensity of it made her look away. She could sense his enjoyment of her discomfort.

"I won't be visiting again."

"Oh"

Selene was visibly confused but the expression on Lucien's face made her instincts prickle and she got that familiar feeling she could not articulate. 

"You will be leaving tomorrow morning and coming to live with me. We will complete the second part of the ceremony tomorrow night."

Stunned and unable to speak, Selene's gaze darted over to her mother, whose serious expression had not changed.

"Tomorrow? So soon?" she managed to sputter.

"Do not worry, we shall have your things packed for you and sent after you. For now I bid you a good night, and we shall see each other tomorrow." He bowed slightly and gave Selene a wide smile that was much more wolf than human, and more savage than made her comfortable. 

She watched him turn on his heel and quickly walk out the door, his entourage in tow, Tavian walking quite a bit slower than the others. Estrella slowly closed the door and looked apologetically back at her daughter. 

Selene fled up to her room. 

Flinging herself onto her bed, she found she had no more tears. In fact, she felt very little. She wondered where that determination she had felt earlier fled to, replaced by numbness and detachment.

Estrella knocked on the door and didn't wait for an answer before she opened the door and walked in.

"I'm sorry Selene, I did truly try to delay things, but he was very insistent."

"I thought I had more time," Selene said. She hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to any of her friends, and her younger siblings were away for the duration of the ceremony. 

"I know, I'm sorry," Estrella said, sitting on the bed next to Selene. 

"Things come to pass at their own pace. All we can do is work to accept it. We anticipate the worst while hoping for the best."

They sat in silence, listening to the far off thumps and muffled voices in the dining hall of those who had not yet ended their revelry. 

"I will say this. Be careful. Do not always believe your ears, or your eyes, or your nose. But always trust your instincts, your intuition is never wrong," Estrella said and rose from the bed, giving Selene's leg a soft pat before walking out of the room. 

Realizing she was still bloodied and laying on her nice clean bedding, Selene immediately jumped off the bed. Her mothers words gave her no comfort in light of the conversation the previous night. Selene felt that something was going to happen, and she had no knowledge or control of it.

She looked down at her blood smeared bonding gown, the crystals that covered it dull with blood. She put a hand to the necklace her mother gave her, astonished it had survived the hunt and was secure in its place. She sighed, too many thoughts and feelings swirling around in her mind, and decided a bath was in order.

* * *

Selene slept fitfully, tossing and turning, wandering through a world of not quite awake, not quite asleep. A strong wind whipped around her, a cacophony in her ears, leaving her deaf and a stinging on her skin and face that left her almost blind. Her mothers face ebbed in and out of her dreams, her expression worried. She mouthed words that Selene could not make out, her arms beckoned for someone she could not see. 

Lucian's face also appeared from the shadows, contorted in rage, shouting things she could not hear before fading back into the shadows. 

A warm light suddenly washed over her, bathing her in peace and when Selene looked down, she could see it came from her lower stomach. Puzzled, she put her hand over it, and it pulsed, warm and comforting. 

Through the torrent of darkness and chaos swirling around her, Selene could see a figure in the darkness walking towards her as the winds calmed. A tall woman with hair so pale it was almost silver wearing a simple white gown with gold trim. Selene blinked and suddenly the woman had ebony dark hair and wore a gown of midnight black with silver trim.

"Hello, little one," said the woman, whose voice was both as light as the morning on a spring day and deep as the ocean on a moonless night. "And I am sorry."

Selene furrowed her brows as she looked up at the mysterious figure. 

"For what?"

"For the anguish, the suffering, and the trials that you will face," she said, her form ever shifting.

Selene felt slow, sluggish, like she couldn't comprehend what was happening. 

"We must burden you with a gift. A precious gift. Please treat her well," the figure said. She turned and walked away and the turmoil and chaos around her ensued.

"What do you mean trials?" Selene screamed and froze. On the other side of the storm, a pair of amber eyes watched her until everything went black.