His Captive Mate

Chapter 3 – Celine (Thirteen Years Ago)

Two Years Later

It was the morning of her sixteenth birthday when she first felt the stirrings within herself that she had been taught meant that her wolf was ready to emerge. Her hair, while still in the choppy pixie style, was now a deep teal colour. She had a habit of choosing a different colour every few months, once the old one had faded. She had gone through a veritable rainbow of colours in the last couple of years, but now she favoured greens and blues.

“Auntie, I think I may have some good news!” Celine called down the stairs as she went to the kitchen for breakfast as she did every morning. “I might be wrong but…” She pauses as she descends the stairs, seeing more figures around the table than normal. She goes to her father first, “Good morning, Papa,” kissing him on his temple. Her father nods with a tight smile at her, not willing to look away from the stranger at the table.

“Morning, Celine.” She moves to her uncle,

“Good morning, Uncle Michel,” she kisses him on the temple as well, his mouth twitches at the corners but he soon resumes his own dark look at the stranger. She nods to the stranger, and moves over to her aunt at the sink “Good Morning, Auntie Eloise” giving her a side hug as she reaches for a bowl for her breakfast. Her father coughs gently,

“Celine, would you come and sit with us, I’d like to introduce someone.” he speaks clearly but quietly, breaking the uneasy silence, she nods,

“Of course.” She pours the milk over her cereal and goes to sit at the table next to her father. “Hello, Sir.” She holds out her hand to shake the strange gentleman’s hand. He takes it, it was cold to the touch and gave her an odd feeling of dread. She smiles at him and sits to eat her breakfast.

“Hello, my name is Richard.” He replies, with a thick accent that implied that not only was he English, but he didn’t know French very well. And even so, his voice still managed to feel slimy to her ears. She looks him over; he was shorter than her father, somewhere around five-seven as opposed to her father’s six-two frame. He was a large, fat man, with not a straight line to be seen, his smile was crooked and his eyes were an unsettling shade of grey-green.

She finds herself thinking the colour reminds her of snot. She hides the smile this thought brings and turns her attention to her father who was looking at her,

“Celine, we are going to speak in English as Richard doesn’t know much French.” Her father says in English. Celine nods and continues to eat her breakfast before her cereal gets too soggy. The whole family had learnt how to speak fluent English to help guests who came to visit the vineyard for wine tastings or occasional weddings held on the property, and occasional businessmen who came to arrange shipments of our wine to other places.

“Of course, father.” She turns to Richard “My apologies, if I had known you were coming, I would have brushed up on my English.” She smiles brightly, but her stomach still felt ill at ease. He smiles politely and inclines his head to her,

“Your English is very good, much better than my French I’m afraid.” His smile doesn’t quite meet his eyes. “I am a cousin of your mother’s, and I have a proposition for you Celine, and of course, as you are not yet eighteen, I wouldn’t want to make any kind of deal with you, without involving your father.” He nods towards her father, she nods,

“I understand.” He smirks and nods,

“So, my proposition is this. I would like to offer you the chance, when you turn eighteen, for you to come to England for a few years to study there and assist me with a project that I have in mind, to change the course of destiny. Our family has a prophecy surrounding you that I just cannot ignore, and would like to avoid if at all possible.” She frowns,

“A prophecy? About me? How did I not know about that? Father?” Her father sighs and nods,

“I know of the prophecy, but had hoped to be able to keep it from you for at least another year, as it won’t affect you until you turn eighteen. I’m sorry, I should have told you before now, you’ve been old enough to understand this for a few years now.” Her father could barely look her in the eyes and she sighs,

“That bad huh?” He clenches his fists on the tabletop, she nods, “Okay, so what is this prophecy exactly and why would Richard care to try and change it?” Her father looks at his hands, while her uncle looks at her apologetically. She looks to her aunt, and while she can only see her back, it looks like she’s sobbing. “Oh, come on! Someone, tell me what’s in this prophecy. Or if it’s written down, I’ll read it!” Her aunt gasps and drops the plate she was holding,

“Eloise!” Her uncle stands quickly and goes to his wife and takes her hand, they share a few whispered words before he leads her out of the kitchen to sit in the lounge. Celine gets up and gets the broom to sweep the broken pottery up before anyone could hurt their feet. Once all the pieces were in the bin and her uncle returns to the table, Celine retakes her seat. She looks to her father and uncle,

“Could someone please just tell me what’s going on?” Her uncle sighs and nods,

“I don’t remember the words by heart, but I believe that the gist is: A girl born to a woman of this family, who dies whilst delivering the girl, would become very important. But this daughter would have to endure many hardships and travel to another country. She would travel in her eighteenth year, but it would be many years until she would return. Does that sound about right to you, Anton and Richard? Did I miss any of the key points?”

Her uncle looked incredibly sad, and so did her father. Celine was astonished, she takes a deep breath and thinks over his words, her father merely nods. She could see that he was deeply affected by this prophecy and had only hidden it to protect her. She could sense the protection he had tried desperately to weave around her, to keep this prophecy from coming true. She wasn’t entirely sure how she knew these things, but dismissed it for the moment.

She refocuses on Richard who was sitting there with a slight smile on his face. Celine shudders as his eyes trail around the room to find hers. He knows what he’s doing here, and he’s hopeful that they’ll agree to his proposition. He’s sure that he’s her best option, but he also needs her for something, something darker that he’s hiding from them. He smirks,

“I believe that covers the majority of it, yes. There may be a few minor details that are covered in the prophecy as written, but nothing of great import for the moment. So, the proposition I have is as follows, I will take her back home with me to England in two years, around her eighteenth birthday, and while she stays with me, I will try to stop the hardship mentioned in the prophecy from occurring.” Her father and uncle glance at each other, her father sighs,

“A nice thought, but what assurances can you give to her safety with you?” Richard nods,

“I cannot, of course, guarantee anything, but I would keep you updated on things as they progress. You would remain in contact during the entire time she is with me.”