Page 5 of Meeting Her Mate

“The pack reveres you. Every weekend, when the pack assembles for a campfire at the Grimm Abode, they talk of you as if you were a legend. Fred Grimm, your brother, speaks of you, speaks of your bravery, tells us tales of how you rescued your entire pack from the horrors of the Second World War in Germany and took ‘em all to safety by charting a course through the seas across Europe to America. Now, in my opinion, that’s the textbook definition of bravery,” the girl spoke.

Bizarre as it was, the words that she spoke served as a balm to my bruised soul. I assembled myself and sat up straight, feeling embarrassed at my lack of proper clothes. I had worn these ragged tatters for how long I could not recall.

“Seventy years, you say?”

“Well, more like seventy-six. It’s twenty-twenty-two, you know. You disappeared

sometime around, say, nineteen-forty-six. Or at least that’s how the story goes,” she said.

That vile occultist had kept me under lock and key for seventy years?! Even for a madman such as him, keeping me imprisoned for more than seventy years was gratuitous, to say the least.

“Very well, Ariana…I’m sorry…Alexis, was it?”

“Yeah. Alexis. Pronounced like Texas,” she said as she smiled at me. “I still can’t believe that I just came across you. So random. So weird.”

“You say words that I know the meaning of, but you say them in a fashion I don’t understand. What does ‘so random’ mean?” I asked. Every word I uttered made sharp pain issue in my ribs, making me wince and groan as I struggled to sit still.

“Oh, my bad. That’s totally like a generation gap thing. I get it. So random sort of means, like, you know, coincidental,” she said.

“Then say that,” I snapped.

“Geez. I’m sorry,” she said.

“How do you propose we get out of here?” I asked as she helped me to my feet. “Why are there so many vampires here? Do they plague these lands?”

“Dude, you have no idea how bad it’s been for decades. Even before I was born, really. Vampires run this town. This forest, that cove, the harbor, the wharf, everything in between. It’s all their turf,” Alexis said. Even though she put on a brave face, the evidence of pain betrayed her as she helped me to my feet. I could see her foot drenched in fresh blood.

“Vampires in Fiddler’s Green. That is most strange. You must tell me more,” I said. “And you should also get that foot looked at. It can get infected. You could end up losing it.”

“Thanks for the grim reminder,” she said. “And yeah, the vampires run this entire town. There’s nothing one can do about it.”

“One can fight,” I said. We were moving extremely slowly, relying on balancing each other as we walked arm-in-arm along the dirt path. Tortoises moved faster.

“Oh, yeah, right. Fight. Try telling that to our alpha,” Alexis scoffed. The disdain was plain as day in her voice.

“You do not approve of the alpha that you have?” I asked, my concern growing graver for the integrity of my pack.

“Maurice Grimm is a man with no backbone. He’s a politician first, a greedy bastard second, and a werewolf third. You try telling him that we can fight the vampires. He’ll laugh at your face,” she said in a voice trembling with rage.

I prodded the matter no further. I would see to it once we’d get to Fiddler’s Green.

“What were you doing out here, risking your life at this hour?” I asked. It had piqued my curiosity that I would encounter a lone wolf out here in the forest, a lone wolf surrounded by vampires.

“Promise you can keep a secret?” she asked.

“Given that I saved your life, and then you resuscitated me, and given that we’re helping each other hobble back to the commune, sure. I promise I can keep a secret,” I said.

“I was running away. At least that was the plan,” she said, weighing her words. “Until the vampires caught up to me. Until I came across you. Until we freaking bonded together.”

“Ah, that we did,” I said, my heart sinking upon remembering that not minutes ago, the bond had surreptitiously worked its magic, binding us together as fated mates. The woman I had yearned for was dead. And here I was, bound to her granddaughter.

As if to compensate for any lacking in the grief that I was struck with, the forest graciously produced a fresh hell for us to deal with.

The vampires were back in greater numbers than before, armed with far more than just flashlights and guns. They were combing the trees ahead of us, quickly closing in on our location.

A wild panic shot through my peripheries, freezing me to my spot. Beside me, I could hear Alexis whimpering in fear.

What was the saying? Out of the frying pan and into the fire?