Turned Back Time - A Kalifer fic
There were grunts and thuds coming from the next room. Julia marked the page in the book she was reading and set it down. She uncurled herself from the chair she occupied and walked into the next room and leaned against the door frame, crossing her arms over her chest and smirking. “You’ve been at this for hours, Kali.”
The dark-skinned woman landed several more strikes against the punching bag before she collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath. Closing her eyes, she listened to footsteps cross the room and peeked an eye open when something was put in front of her face. She grabbed the water bottle that was presented to her with a breathless, “Thank you.”
Kali took several long pulls from the bottle before she sat up fully and addressed her emissary. “They say practice makes perfect.”
“Well, I was thinking we could go ‘practice’ a light hike, followed by lunch in that meadow that you like so much.”
“It smells clean,” Kali replied defensively.
“I’ll take that as a yes and go get our lunch packed, but you’re carrying it, wolf-breath!” Julia smirked as she walked out of the room, but as soon as her back was turned it melted into a true smile.
–
The sun is low enough to be casting golden rays through the forest surrounding them. A light breeze made it pleasant as Julia cools from the hike uphill. But it’s worth it, she tells herself, to see Kali truly smiling as the dark-skinned woman tries to subtly take in deep breaths of the fresh air.
Julia decided not to comment as she laid out the sheet she brought. Kali seated herself immediately and started unpacking the basket that Julia packed. The emissary seated herself on the opposite side of the sheet from the wolf. After the feast is spread between them, Kali caught Julia’s eye. “Thank you, Jules. It’s been a while since we’ve gotten up here on our own.”
Julia smiled, a genuine smile, and leaned forward to cup Kali’s cheek in her hand. “Of course. Anything for my love.”
It was sappy and romantic, but it had Kali leaning into her touch and closing her eyes. When she opened them, the warm brown eyes of her emissary were much closer than before. She leaned forward just the farthest bit more and met Julia’s lips with her own in a sweet, chaste kiss. “I love you, Julia.”
“I love you, as well, Kali.”
Kali searched Julia’s eyes for a moment more before she leaned back. Picking up a sandwich from between them, she took a bite and chewed somewhat obnoxiously to cover the blush trying to rise to her cheeks.
The emissary picked up her own sandwich and mentioned, “I’m meeting with Alpha Hale tomorrow. You’re Alpha wants to discuss a compromise in which the pack could use Hale land to run on the full moon.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way to persuade her.”
“You could ask Katelyn if you can accompany us,” Julia suggested playfully.
“I’ll ask my Alpha when we get back.”
–
If Julia had known what would result from that simple playful suggestion, she would have never done it. Julia didn’t know that would be one of the last happy memories she had, before her entire pack was slaughtered, and she was maimed beyond recognition, before she had taken up the mantle of Jennifer Blake.
Because when they arrived at Talia Hale’s home, the Alpha was saying farewell to two guests already. And Talia was not a woman to shirk her manners, so she stepped forward to introduce the four. “Julia, Kali, it’s so nice to see you again. I was just saying goodbye to Alpha Deucalion, and Alpha Ennis.”
Yes, if Julia could have turned back time, she would have curled her arms tighter around Kali’s waist that morning and pleaded ill to the Alpha, just so Kali would spend the day fawning over her health. Maybe then Kali would never have met Ennis, would never have been dragged into Deucalion and Gerard Argent’s mess.
As Julia drags herself again to the Nemeton that saved her life once, she remembers that morning and finds herself wondering again, how it got to this point. How did she get here? Julia was left with what-if’s, because not even she had the power to travel through time.
And she could only think back on that day in the meadow, of her happiness, and the subsequent what-if, what-if, what-if, as Peter Hale walked away in her blurry vision.
