Mate

Six

The picture to the top/side is a random woman I found on the internet lol she's gonna play Gran.

~~~

"Gran, I'm home," I called into the house, leaning back against the door, listening as Julian sped off in his expensive race car.

I live with my grandma, Gran is what I've called her since I was a little girl, in a small cozy house closer to the outskirts of town. The outside of the house looked like a normal one story red house, with a large darkwood front door and a bronze knocker, deep brown window panes on the windows for looks. There was large oak tree in the middle of the front yard, a stone path leading up to the doorway, and gardens around the tree and the house with flowers like aconite and vervain mixed in with bunches of lilies, tulips, and daisies.

But the inside of the house was dim and decorated with many antiques. It smelled of smoke, but not the kind of smoke you get from tobacco or a house fire, the kind of smoke you get from pumpkin and cinnamon scented candles and nice pine wood burning in the fireplace since it was one of the colder months.  The floors were dark wood to match the doors and there were wooden beams that seemed to be holding up the white walls, but were only for looks, making the house look like a well furnished cabin from the inside.

"You're late for dinner, your food's gett-" Gran froze when seeing my beat up self. "Oh, hun, what happened?!"

She rushed up to me and cupped the backs of my hands in hers, examining the blood splotches that had grown since I was at the hospital.

"Vampires," I told her. "And a wolf."

"Oh, dear," Gran ushered me to the kitchen and sat me down on one of the stools. Her bright blue eyes shined as she pinned her short white hair back from her face and grabbed some herbs from a cabinet, grinding them and stirring them into water while chanting a spell under her breath. After a moment, she poured the healing potion into a cup and handed it to me. I gladly took it and downed the liquid.

"Now, tell me what happened. Every detail," Gran demanded, sitting opposite me.

And so I told her everything, not leaving a single detail out. Her eyes widened as I explained how Julian was my mate and her jaw fell when I told her about Julian's wolf's promise.

"Most curious," she murmured. My eyes widened as I realized something, horror racking through my body.

"Gran!"

She looked up at me, snapping out of her thoughts.

"The vampires- one escaped!"

"I realize this," she nodded calmly.

"How can you be so calm about this?! This is serious - he's seen my face! He'll tell his master! His whole clan will know and soon word will spread that there is still a living witch!" I flipped.

Gran reached a hand out and placed it reassuringly on top of my shaking shoulder. I was terrified.

"Calm yourself, Aspen," she said soothingly. "Take deep breaths."

I did as told, closing my eyes and breathing in the pumpkin spice smell the house has adopted before letting it out again. I repeated this five more times before finally opening my eyes, much calmer than I had been just moments ago.

"We will figure this out, ok? If we have to leave here and disguise our scents and change our looks, that's what we'll do," Gran said. "But, for now, we lay low. That means no magic, you understand?"

I swallowed and nodded.

No magic.

Right.