Filed to story: Werewolfs Heartsong by Dizzy Izzy
He didn’t see anything of Bettina in his daughter’s face. Based on the old pictures of Bettina’s wolf form, there was nothing of
Bettina’s wolf in his daughter’s wolf. It made him wonder what ancestor of Bettina’s had given his daughter the features that were not of him, Deimos, or of his family.
“What is your Sprite’s name?” Deimos asked, his deep voice ringing with thousands of deep sounding bells.
“Selena. My name is Selena.” A soft voice came, tinkling with thousands of tiny bells.
Deimos and Sebastian looked in the direction of the voice, but the one it belonged to continued to hide behind the shelf.
Sebastian and Deimos looked at each other, their expressions showed their concern.
Sebastian turned to address his daughter’s humanoid form and her wolf. “As soon as I felt your life chain again…after thinking it severed by your death…we sent out our Intelligence Officers to gather information on you.”
Alora and Xena looked at Sebastian and Deimos with frowns. This information seemed to make them more wary of them. “What we found suggests that your living situation with your mother was…horrific.”
“Horrific…” Alora said the word while nodding. “That’s one way to describe it.”
“But the word horrific, does not fully describe it either.” Xena stated.
“Selena?” Alora said the name like it was a question.
The experience of meeting their father this way was undefinable to Alora. Xena didn’t know how to feel about it anymore than
Alora or Selena did. Selena felt like a mess, she didn’t know what to do. Selena couldn’t decide if she should keep hiding or stand up and reveal herself to their father. Alora felt a little angry at their father and didn’t know why. None of what happened to them was his fault.
After hearing Alora call her name, Selena closed her eyes tightly and forced herself to stand up. With halting steps, she moved out from behind the bookshelf. She heard their shocked gasps and flinched. It took everything in her to raise her head and open her eyes. What she saw in their eyes had tears spilling from her eyes.
They didn’t look at her with disgust as Selena had been expecting. Their eyes and facial expressions were very emotional. Alora and Xena turned their heads to look back at her. After meeting their gazes, Alora held her hand out. Selena felt so grateful for that one small gesture of solidarity. Selena walked forward and grabbed Alora’s hand. Standing between Xena and Alora, Selena faced their father’s forms.
Just by the emotions on the faces of their father’s forms, the three were able to tell their father would never have voluntarily abandoned them. If their father had known they were alive, they never would have been left with Bettina. Their father would have taken them. from Bettina the second he knew she was not only facilitating her abuse and torture but was a full participant. The
Black Magic Spell that was placed on them may have been released, earlier than it had, without the necessity of a rejection.
At the same time, the three were fully aware of why things had to happen the way they did. “As you can see, our life with Bettina was…a little more than horrific.” Alora said.
If heartbreak and utter devastation had a face, it would be the expressions on the faces of their father’s forms. “We had hoped that the information we obtained had been exaggerated.” Sebastian’s voice broke. Swallowing around the painful lump of emotions in his throat, he continued. “Now it’s obvious to us that is not so.”
“You are so powerful, little one. How were you prevented from contacting us?” Deimos asked Selena, sorrow filling his voice.
Selena startled in Alora’s arms. “Were you told about the spell placed on us at birth?”
“Yes.” Deimos said.
“That spell…” Tears started to fall from Selena’s eyes, and her voice trembled. “I was trapped here by that spell. Bound by chains that kept my presence from being known to Alora and Xena. I was made invisible to them. They couldn’t see or even hear me.”
Deimos dropped to his knees, his eyes wide with horrified understanding. “I’m so sorry little one.” He cried out in a deep hoarse bell ladened voice. The bells in his voice made the air around them vibrate with his sorrow and regret.
Sebastian stumbled forward a bit, a look of anguish on his face. “If only…” he stopped and shook his head. He closed his eyes tightly and his face was scrunched with pain. When he opened his eyes, there was a sheen of moisture across them. “Please… can I hold you.” He choked out.
They were startled by this request, but each of them felt it was cruel to deny this emotional request from Sabastian. Deimos came back to his feet right then. The look on his face was pleading as he, like Sebastian, was holding his arm out in a silent request for a hug.
The request was so unexpected that at first, they didn’t know how to react. Alora felt like a vise had squeezed around her heart.
Her own mother, and the male she had thought to be her father had not once, in all this life, offered her a hug. Xena felt a spark of longing as soon as she heard this request. Being Alora’s wolf, Xena had also been without the love of her parents. Selena was the first to start stumbling forward to accept the offer.
Selena had been without the ability to touch another living being from shortly after birth till today. She could not deny herself the opportunity to be held by their father. As Selena stumbled forward, the other two followed in acceptance as well. Their father’s forms were taller than they all were, allowing them to bury their faces against their chests. They were quickly surrounded in a warmth that entered their hearts, and their father’s scent wrapped around them.
*****
It was Selena who let out the first heart wrenching sob, followed quickly by Alora’s sobs and Xena’s cries. Sebastien and Deimos felt like their hearts were being torn to pieces as the bodies of their daughter’s forms shook against them. It went on like that for a while, with Sebastian and Deimos shedding tears of their own. Their first child they had thought dead all these years was alive, and in their arms.
Eventually the cries and sobs subsided, and the shaking in their bodies lessoned to the occasional shudder. It was a little while more before Deimos and Sebastian could bear to part from their daughters. They only had so much time left that they could remain in their daughter’s space. All too soon they would have to leave it to return to their own space.
“We’ll have to return to our space soon.” Sebastian told them. His voice was full of his reluctance to part with his daughter so soon after meeting her for the first time.
“Why?” Alora asked, not wanting her father to leave yet.