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“Delia, I’ll meet you there in the morning. Okay? You do not have to do this alone. We can do this together,” my sister’s syrupy sweet tone comforts and aches my heart all at once. I know she only wants to help but I am not yet sure I want to do this.
Still, everything in me tells me it is the right thing to do.
“Thanks Caressa, I appreciate it.” I know she can hear the mild timidity breaking through my otherwise stubborn demeanor, but my big sister remains quiet on the other end of the phone and I know she’s waiting for me to affirm my decision, but I still don’t know what to say.
I want to call our mother. She would know just what to do. She would know the route I should take. However, this is different. Complicated.
Mother always said this life was ours to choose and our own to live. Never has our mother forced us one way or the other into this world.
Sure, I was disappointed to learn only my sister was a full blood Altrinion, blessed with the lux aeterna, or eternal light of the immortals. Me, however, not a full blood Altrinion, but a hybrid. Half-Altrinion. Half Dunes Wolf. Yes, a Dunes Wolf. At least if I were half-Altrinion and human, my Altrinion nature would overtake my human state. I would be a Breaker—as they call it. No, I am half of a treacherous, traitorous, pack of wolves! Alas, I should be thankful I’m from the Peyroux bloodline and not marked with the wretched Dunes curse thanks to our ancestors’ great deed with Saint Roch.
But still, I am a wolf.
Not just any wolf. A marked wolf.
Sure, Saint Roch blessed our ancestors’ bloodline, so we are no longer bound to the curse of the full moon due to the help the Peyroux’s gave them during the plagues. Yet, even having the curse lifted as a result was not enough to douse the kindling rage of our enemies. And I have met one such enemy.
A great and terrible enemy indeed.
Who knew when I ran off to France with the first man who made me feel like a woman, I would meet one who has long despised my family? I suppose the truth is I should have never run in the first place. But I did. I did because I was jealous of Caressa.
Yes, beautifully perfect, full-blood Altrinion Caressa.
For even though she wasn’t my father’s daughter by blood, he lavished all his affection toward her—at least in my eyes. Mother, well, Mother did her best to show a shared love and interest for us both, but it was evident, at least to me that Caressa was favored. Not only was she the preferred between the two of us, but she was the eldest and by rights all the manner of privilege fell to her.
Thankfully, Caressa never treated me as second class. As a matter of fact, she doted on me. Gave me whatever I wanted or needed. Her perfectly poised affection toward me made it even hard for me not to love her. It is because of her love for me that I did my best to hide my growing antipathy.
I hid it as long as I could—that is, until my eighteenth birthday.