The Wolf and the Natural ✔️

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I made a new cover but I don't know if I like it. The old one is... familiar. Like it's mine, ya know? It's been there for so long. I kept the wolf and the fonts, it's just the background has changed a little. The new one is more... eye catching? Thoughts?

No matter how tight I squeezed my eyes, Arlis still flashed in my head. No matter how distracted I tried to make myself, he was my most prominent thought. It was a bad loop of trying not to think about him, only to think about him more.

Arlis. I turned in my bed, looking at my old bedroom. I had slept in this room every day for nineteen years. It was familiar.

But it wasn't home. It wasn't... right. It felt wrong. I felt like an animal that had been stripped from its natural habitat and placed in something fake.

And even if I went back to Sovereign... I still wouldn't be comfortable. My home wasn't a bed or a house.

My home was a pair of warm brown eyes that watched mine with love. My home was dark brown hair that glinted in certain lighting. My home was what made every dark night a little brighter. Arlis. My Arlis.

"Baby girl?" Mom knocked on my door and stepped into the room, the hallway light illuminating the pictures on my desk. The ones of me and Chance, of Vix, of my old life. That life felt so far away now, so unreachable.

I looked up at her, the darkness in my room wasn't so deep. Dogs always did see better in the night. Great. That wasn't even an upside. I liked sleeping in pitch black.

"Yeah?"

Mom came in and sat on the side of my bed, gripping the edge of it. "I'm so sorry." She whispered.

"For what?" I asked, sitting up,

She was trying not to cry, trying not to let everything go. But she was failing. Her dams were cracking. "I should've... told you about this world. I should've.." She trailed off, cupping her face in her hands. "Now you're in danger and you can't protect yourself."

I slid closer and hugged her. While I didn't miss home, I did miss her. "Mom, everything will be alright." I wasn't sure how true that statement was. Even as I said it, I didn't believe it.

"I'm afraid that it won't." She pulled away from me and stood up. "Vix is still missing, did you know that? They can't find her... her body. That could've been you." She threw her hands up and let them fall back down to her side. "That could've been you." She repeated.

I stood up and walked to her. The news about Vix didn't shock me. Arlis told me he'd tell me if they found Vix and... considering I haven't gotten any news. I'd been pushing her out of my thoughts. It was a terrible and selfish thing to do but I didn't know what else to do. I didn't want to think of my best friend being dead. I couldn't. So I didn't. I thought of her as being out there somewhere, maybe having been rescued by a hot lumberjack.

"But it wasn't me." I assured. "I'm right here."

"I tried to spell find her, Kate. I tried. It was the first time I pulled out magic in years. Years." Her tears fell through her lashes, creating little mirrors on her face, glinting in the moonlight that pooled through my window. "I couldn't find her. She's dead, Kate."

I knew. Deep down, I already knew. Mom wrapped her arms around me, nuzzling her head in my shoulder.

We stood there for what felt like hours before anything happened. And when something finally did happen, it brightened my mood tenfold.

Kate? The thought blew into my mind like a leaf falling to the ground in Autumn.

Arlis! I screamed back. I nearly fell to the ground but my mom caught my elbow, holding me up. If it weren't for her I would've lost my balance. I felt the anxiety and fear from Arlis. He felt tense and rushed.