Authors: Blair Aaron
“My Elsie,” a small and diminutive voice said from behind her. She turned around to see Father O'Grady staring up at her from his short height, with an expression that approached disdain. “You're on a bad path, little miss.” Father O'Grady was a loving minister, truly looking out for the best interests of his people, that much Elsa knew. And even when he did his best to show anger and disappoint, Elsa never once doubted his love for her and desire to protect her from harm. He resembled a jovial, cooperative elf whose compassion was matched only by his difficulty in getting things done.
“How am I on a 'bad path', Father?”
“This community needs you. I know your reasons for following Theo. I can see what is in your heart.”
“You cannot, Father. Why do you make him do things he doesn't want to do?”
“Who says he doesn't want to be at this party?” O'Grady asked, his curly white hair spilling out from underneath his tiny cap.
“That's not what I mean, Father,” Elsa said, getting anxious. “I mean that girl. She's not right for him.”
“That man and woman share a connection through their circumstance, Elsie. We cannot get in God's way. Please, your town needs you, and you're interfering where you do not belong.”
“And what if I don't want my community to decide what is right for me?”
“Then--” O'Grady stopped, looking behind her. Elsa turned around, just as the guardian at the watchtower sounded a bell, which rang out over the whole of the village. In an instant, Elsa forgot the conversation with Father O'Grady, as a great plume of fire and smoke entered the village. The whole town was chaos and confusion, as the drills instilled in Elsa's bones took over. She could not think of anything as she ran to her home, to hide under her bed. But in the process, she passed Lili's house, and caught an image of Theo standing on her porch, his arms crossed over a large canvas that was his chest, his darkened figure in the night causing doubts to flower in the dense soil of her mind. Elsa pushed past a sea of people screaming and hollering, and she saw whole building in her town burning with a raging fire. In the distance, near the forest, she heard a creature squeal with a demonic madness, not out of pain, but anger, pure anger.
And Elsa herself felt the same anger, as she pushed the key into the lock on her door, rushing into the house. She could see the reflection of the fire in her window, as people bounded across her field of view left and right. Elsa knew she had to hide from whatever beast came from the forest to destroy her town, so she did, climbing under a small cupboard in the bedroom, taking all the necessary precautions. But the image of Theo standing on the Lili's porch burned in her mind, and followed her into her dreams that night, her pillow damp with the tears of betrayal.
CHAPTER 11
The stench of burned wood, rather than burned flesh, permeated the entire town when Elsa woke up the next day. She crawled out from underneath the cupboard in her bedroom, thankful for being alive, but wished for some sort of death after what she saw last night. She could not figure out what Theo wanted, but looking around the various burned houses and cabins, she saw at last just what that was: to destroy all that she had ever known. The feelings Elsa had for him were all but gone, or so she told herself, and she joined the picketing angry mob that had formed since last night outside his house.
“We want answers!” a man yelled.
“My house is gone. What fire-breathing monster have you sent our way! Tell us!” another shouted. Elsa prodded someone next to her for answers.
“Do you know who sent the monster?” she asked the woman standing next to her.
“It was Theo, of course! He wanted to kill us all along.”
Elsa found it hard to believe, given the undeniably kind impression he made on Elsa when they first met. She was angry and wanted to protect herself for what he did to her, but she didn't want to encourage the people around her that Theo meant them harm. She just couldn't bring herself to do participate in the witch hunt. She bowed out of the crowd when they picked up stones to throw at his window, an image that resonated with Elsa's own childhood troubles with Freja Stein.
CHAPTER 12
That night, Elsa found herself feeling lost and alone, while she worked in silence through her duties at the tavern. The night was dead, as all the villagers were too busy picketing Theo's house. Several people, including Priscilla and the twin sister, came through the tavern during intermittent hours in the night, to give Elsa new information about Theo, whom they told Elsa had all but disappeared. The townspeople wondered if Theo had escaped back into the forest, and the idea disturbed Elsa, because that meant she might never see him again. Although she did wonder what Theo's motivations were for attempting to assimilate himself into the town permanently, there was nothing in her gut that told her Theo wanted to harm the townspeople. By the end of the night, when her feet were throbbing and toes were sore, her exhaustion and anger from the night before finally took its toll. For some reason, the feeling that she was being watched overcame her again. When she had completed her duties, she requested early leave from her manager Mitch, given the lack of customers that night. He agreed, and Elsa made her way out the back entrance to the tavern, in order to avoid the rioting crowd in the front. The night was cold and biting to her naked ankles when she stepped out onto the alleyway. She rubbed her arms from the sides, trying to warm herself. A voice from behind her spoke in the darkness.
“Hi Elsa.” Theo was standing in the shadows of the alley, waiting for her. She started to scream, but he cupped his massive hand over her mouth. “Listen, I'm not trying to hurt you. It wasn't me last night who lit the town on fire.” Then he let her go for a second. Elsa's mind told her not to trust him, but her heart said otherwise.
“Then who was it?” she asked.
“My brother.”
“Theo,” she said, taking a breath, ready for the big fight, right there in the alley. “Tell me what you want. Who are you? Why are you here? I know it wasn't just to save Lili. You did that for another reason. Now tell me what it is,” Elsa said. She was fed up with beating around the bush.
“OK, but not here. Please come with me. I have a lot to tell you,” he said. He looked down the alley when a few hushed voices whispered in the darkness. “We aren't safe here. They want me dead, I know that.”
“Yes, the crowd is mad. But my village is not violent. We do not want to kill anyone,” Elsa said, correcting him. “But they do want some answers. And so do I.”
“No my brother wants me dead.”
“What is going on?”
“I can explain somewhere else, but we have to move, ok? Do you not trust me?” Theo asked her. She crossed her arms, thinking that if he admitted to using Lili, maybe he would tell her that he had been playing with her as well. “No,” he said, reading her thoughts, “I do love you. I loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.” Elsa's heart burst into a million pieces of joy, and her tears from the night before transformed themselves into diamonds. She was elated beyond words. “But you have trust me. Where can we go?” he asked Elsa. She grabbed his hands with no hesitation.
“My place,” she said, as they jogged down the opposite end of the alley, past Freja Stein's house, to Elsa's lonely little palace.
CHAPTER 13
What happened next defies explanation, for Elsa trespassed into secret areas of her heart she never before dared to tread. Her identity fundamentally changed the moment she stepped through the threshold of her home. Theo's weakness and frailty seemed more pronounced than ever, second only to the softness and heartbreak emanating in vibes from his soul. Had it not been for this keen perception on Elsa's part, she'd never really given Theo the time of day. Something told her to listen and that he was a safe confidant, although he lacked any remote chance of being romantically involved with her.
“Are you okay?” she asked him, as he sat down on the bed, taking off his shirt, revealing a sculpted mass of muscle, a beautiful torso delicate and wide.
“Yes, I'm fine. I just had a rough night of sleep. There's…something I'd like to share with you if you don't mind,” he said.
“Honestly, I have no reason to trust you. You said you loved me, but that doesn't mean much given that past two days,” Elsa said.
“Madam I wouldn't push this if it weren't so important. There's something I need to tell you.”
“Why did you play me last night? Do you dance with other girls as well?”
“No.”
“Then why are you here? What do you want from me?” she asked him, red-faced.
“My brother was after me, and I figured the first place he would think to find me, was at Lili's house. I didn't want to put her in danger, Elsa. I come from the Forbidden Forest. But there's a reason no one escapes. Because it will only let you go if it wants you free. I just want a normal life. I want to be a person again. But the Forest wants me back. My brother, Dorien, wants me back.”
“Dorien, the beast that destroyed half our town last night?”
“Yes, but he was looking for me. He knew I was getting close to being free forever. Because...I saw you,” Theo said, blushing, the first hint of vulnerability Elsa saw from him since she'd met him.
“And what's so special about me?” Elsa said, as if he'd never to convince her. Theo leaned back on the bed, shirtless, sweating, and breathing heavily from the run. He looked over out the window, as the fires from last night still smoldered in the distance.
“I never wanted this to happen, Elsa. I never meant things to turn out like this. But you are special, whether you realize it or not. I've had dreams about you, even though we'd never met, even though I'm far, far older than you are.”
“Oh, really? What kind of dreams?”
“I do apologize for the damage I've brought to your village. My brother is a dragon, and I am a lion shifter. We are magical creatures from the Forbidden Forest.”
“And what does this have to do with me?” Elsa asked, getting frustrated.
“You, my dear, are my soul mate, and the way I'll be able to stay out of the Forest forever.”
“Is that why your brother is mad, because you left him?”
Elsa found herself capable of the most magical stirring in her heart.
“I can see past your exterior, into your soul, and I know you're hurting. But what I want you to know is that I'm hurting too. I'm sad too. And that means you're not alone,” Theo continued, even though his words cut to the core of Elsa's heart. Theo got up from the bed and placed a single kiss on Elsa's lips. A warm tingling sensation radiated from her mouth out to the rest of her body. Her soul took a few steps into deeper waters, and she felt more whole and complete than she could remember. All the sadness and separateness melted away, and she was home.
She stared at him, dazed and mesmerized, and he went over and got down on one knee, and laid his head on her knees, completely still. Elsa was numb and shocked, and looked down at his beautiful hair on the back of his head, feeling his face pressing her thighs. In all her burning anxiety, she needed to feel the softness of his face on her hears and the tenderness of his lips.
And he looked up at her, locking her gaze with his doe-like eyes. Her heart called out to him. From her soul flowed the protective, everlasting yearning over him, and she answered him with permanent loyalty. He was without a doubt a very nervous lover, trembling as if he'd never made love before, completely focused on her, but at the same time, painfully aware of his surroundings--the warmth of the fire by their bed, the soft rocking of its frame, the howling of the wolves in the forest, the soft and purring wind, and even all the stars in the sky, twinkling softly with harmonious permission. She could meet him only partway at this point. Once he knew that he lay quiet and calm, very calm. She placed her hand softly on his head. Peace.
CHAPTER 14
The nocturnal werewolf, his heart humming and leg muscles pounding the wet forest dirt, ran full force into the night. He could smell change in the air. He looked through the teal maze of the misty morning, the sun rising in the distance. There were neither birds in the sky nor beasts on the ground to chase through the forest, but a paranoid crack in the distance struck his interest. He bolted in the direction of the sound, knowing in his gut another twist of fate waited for him in the future, a fate which would reverse all the damage he had done to the ones he loved.
CHAPTER 15
If there was ever a time you could call yourself married without having actually gone to the wedding, Elsa only experienced it once, then and there, when she made love to the dark, mysterious, but-ultimately-good half of twin warlock brothers, named Theo. For the first time in her life, she felt whole. Her relationship with Theo was not something she had anticipated but when she was with him she felt that her life was going in the right direction and that maybe, just maybe, she would find true happiness in this life. He made her feel like she was the best version of herself she had ever been and no jealous brother could ever undo that, shifter or not.
The bedroom was quiet, save the soft, crisp crackle of the fireplace. A moose peered into the window of Theo's cabin, where he lay on his bed with his one eternal love. Elsa looked up at him.