Lady and the Wolf [Book One, Lady and the Wolf Series] -Published-

Chapter Eight: Letters

"Aira, you haven't been coming to our sessions. Is everything okay?"

A curt nod from the twelve-year-old girl was all Susan expected to receive. Having been in Aira Volkov's life from the time she was only a small child, Susan Balk was used to the growing girl's awkwardness. The she-wolf knew that Aira was growing wary of her routine appointments with her and wanted nothing more than to be free from these sessions. Susan thought Aira was ready to stand on her own two feet, but Emma was worried. Susan knew Emma too well; she knew the time was growing closer to tell Aira the truth.

The room was quiet as Aira stepped outside, giving Susan a chance to speak with Emma.

"Has she been doing her voice exercises?" Susan asked flippantly as she shuffled some papers around.

Emma smiled. "She's very articulate now, but she still has trouble saying certain words... but no, she hasn't."

"It's okay to be scared, Emma. There's no possible way you can keep her in the dark forever. One day, she'll have to know the truth..."

Emma nodded, as she always did. She knew Susan was right, and that the voice exercises would help her adopted daughter overcome some of her speech impediment, but Aira just seemed so adamant that there was no use in the voice exercises Susan laid out for her.

"She speaks of Van quite a lot lately. Have the dreams been continuing?" Susan asked as she shuffled some papers around.

Susan could tell that Emma was gulping back the memories of that horrible afternoon, six months prior when Aira awoke, screaming and shaking her head. "No, she seems to be able to sleep a lot better these days, but her mood is down."

Susan looked up at the younger woman, a coy smile playing across her lips. "Oh, perhaps it's because she hasn't seen her hero in such a long time?"

Emma visibly paled. "No, no," she laughed lightly, "maybe it's something to do with school."

She crossed her arms over her chest as she edged towards Susan's office door. The she-wolf could sense Emma's out-of-character anxiousness and jumped in with, "Maybe you and Drake are taking the silly fortune telling of a senile old wolf to heart."

Her smile never faded as Emma all but shouted, "Who? No! Of course not!"

Susan's smile never faltered as she said, "Van would never take a human as his mate, much less a little girl taken in by his beta and only true friend, Emma. Aleksandra's fortunes are never set in stone. Remember that. Van is ignoring her crazy talk. Why can't you and Drake do the same?" She sighed as she continued. "He will never admit it, but the distance Drake is showing him must be confusing especially because he is Drake's leader."

Emma couldn't retaliate; all she could do was stop and stare.

"There have been some problems with our pack back home. He's going back to Russia, Emma. Van could be gone a long time; I wonder how Aira will take it when she finds out."

Emma gulped back whatever was troubling her and nodded. "I know; he has offered to take Aiden for training. Drake thinks it's a good idea to take Aiden back to the place he came from."

Susan bit her lip, trying to contain a sly smile. "There was some information that leaked out about the rogues that killed Aira's family venturing back to their homeland. Although he still says to this day that he's not going after them because of their fruitless slaughtering; I think he still feels compassion for the little girl he saved all those years ago."

Emma's face couldn't have dropped any lower. For the first time in the many years she had known Van, she had never expected him to go out of his way for a human child. Perhaps her worst fears were coming to life.