Wild Avalon

1

"Miss, we're going to lose cell service in about ten minutes, if you want to call anyone it's now or on the way back." My driver said, rousing me from my almost sleeping state.

"Oh, um thanks." I said, pulling my phone out and calling my mom. Trying and failing to not sigh at the six messages she had sent while I let the green mountains and motion of the car lull my restless mind. I barely heard the line ring once before I heard my mother's worried voice.

"Avalon? Honey are you ok? It's been over three hours since you said the ferry was docking. I was worried." I could feel her pacing from anxiety in our small kitchen. She was going to wear a rut in the tiles if she didn't find another way to ease her many, many worries

"I'm fine mom, it just took longer than I expected to disembark at Port aux Basques, then wait for my ride to the Western Brook Pond Park." Where I planned to catch a boat tour that would drop me off at the start of the remote hiking trail I planned to explore before starting my research on Northern caribou migration patterns.

I heard the familiar sound of a cleaning spray bottle trigger being pulled repeatedly. Alerting me that mom had switched from anxious pacing, to anxious cleaning. Never a good sign. "Baby, you didn't have to accept that research position just to get away from Aaron. I don't like thought of you out in the wilds all by yourself." As though I wasn't perfectly capable of taking care of myself.

I physically flinched at hearing His name. "This isn't about Him." Pointedly not even saying that trash bag's name. "This is for me. I want a chance to do something big by myself; to prove I can. Then I'm going to use the fancy university degrees we both worked our asses off to afford the tuition for something useful, maybe even get published." A lofty dream for my first field research project. I was feeling ambitious right now, I had something to prove.

"Baby, it's not your fault or Aaron's fault. No one could have known he would be fated to mate a wolf." I scrubbed my open hand down my face. Very much not needing the reminder.

"No but he didn't need to fuck her in my bed on my sheets." I saw the man I had hired to drive me flash a look at me in the rearview mirror. He was a horse shifter, already knew I was a cat shifter. I really hadn't wanted him to learn any more personal information about me, of course my mother was ruining that plan. Yelling into the the phone no matter how low I turned the volume.

"I didn't mean it like that, we all know how the urge to mate can be too strong to ignore in a fated pairing..." A memory of Aaron's heavily tattooed back, his muscles rippling under his skin as he rutted his cock into his whore mate's cunt. In the bed I had woken up with him on that same morning. The sheets still smelling of our own coupling the night before.

An unwanted, hot, frustrated tear slipped free and down my cheek. "Mom I'm going to lose cell service soon. I'll try and call or send a message before I start my hike." My words rushing out as I tried to say goodbye before I started to cry and embarrassed myself even more in front of my hired driver.

"Avalon, baby. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you cry. I love you honey. Be safe." Mom was crying now. She couldn't help herself whenever I cried.

"I love you too mom. Bye." Hanging up the call just as my breath caught in my throat and a single ragged sob broke free in spite of my best efforts to hold it back. Unable to hold back the floodgates any longer. Everything I was running away from bubbled up. Drowning me in my broken heart.

When I had calmed down. My sobs reduced to small hiccupping sounds, a box of tissues was handed back to me. I accepted gratefully. My nose was running and I was as big a mess outside as my heart was inside. "Thank you." I managed to breathe out as I calmed my heart back down.

"Careful on your hike in Gros Morne duckie, the fairies would love a chance to lead a broken hearted shifter to trouble." His tone seemed serious, instead of joking.

"I think I'll be safe from fairy tales." I said. Fairies weren't real. The worst thing I was likely to encounter would be moose or a black bear.

The driver shrugged. "Just don't follow any sounds of music or lights leading you off your path." He still sounded far too serious, I could now sense his unease. Was he worried for me?

"I have my beast, a compass, a map and more than enough supplies for my excursion. I'll be sure to ignore any fairy lights and stay safe." I said, trying to smile.

He nodded, making a gruff sound in his throat. "Don't say I didn't warn you there was magic in the rock. I've run this land my entire life and seen more than one thing I can't explain." Still sounding so serious as the car kept rolling down the highway to my first real stop in Newfoundland.