Chapter 33

When Hope opened her eyes it was dark, but the moon was high in the sky and, even though not full, provided enough light for her keen eyes to see by. She knew something was different – something that had been missing was now present. She moved from her sleeping position and realized she was on all fours.

No, she was on all paws. She had wolfed out!

A sudden surge of exhilaration filled her from the tip of her tongue to the tip of her tail as she immediately started running. It was intoxicating – the way she could feel the soil between her paw pads every time she kicked up dirt as she ran, or how she could taste the sweet and humid air all around her as her tongue lolled out of her mouth, or how she could pick up the scent of every stray creature or nearby plant or tree. Hope was in her element as she weaved between the trees, like a needle and snow-white thread.

She picked up speed and thundered through the woods until her muscles ached and her chest heaved and she was panting heavily from trying to catch her breath. She slowed down as she tried to sniff the air and find her way around; point herself in the right direction. Something was strange about her surroundings.

Before she knew what had hit her, she was thrown onto the ground with great strength and rolled over a few times before she came to a stop. She had barely opened her eyes or moved a limb in order to jump up and protect herself against her attacker, when she found herself pinned down by a large, black wolf with shining copper eyes.

Josie?

Hang on…

Hope whined in confusion as Josie growled threateningly at her, not yet willing to move to let Hope get up. The white wolf continued to lay perfectly still as she tried to piece everything together. She idly glanced around them again and realized why the woods she had been running through were both familiar and unusual to her at the same time.

She was in Josie's subconscious. Which meant that this was a dream. A very lucid dream. Hope knew that twin flames could share dreams, as her and Josie had proven before and not too long ago while they were in New Orleans. But that meant Josie was asleep and dreaming with her, was she not?

Why would Josie's wolf attack Hope's?

Looking closer at the glowing copper orbs, it seemed like the wolf was not recognizing Hope at all. In fact, the longer she studied the black beast, the more dazed and confused it seemed with who either of them was. Josie seemed almost completely feral and was most likely attacking Hope simply to protect her territory.

Josie wasn't lucid, Hope figured. She had to get Josie lucid.

Josie growled deeply again and Hope pushed past the threatening snarl in a show of courage as she carefully sniffed at Josie's muzzle, then slowly licked at her mouth.

Josie whined at the motion and licked her lips, and for a moment she looked like she wanted to pin Hope down again, but finally opted to move back and off of the white wolf. When Hope moved to stand up once more, the look in Josie's eyes had changed. They glowed brighter now and sparkled with recognition.

The black wolf then leapt forward, immediately brushing tightly up against the white one, ducking her head beneath Hope's chin to rub up against her chest and throat, then nuzzled contently into her neck. Josie then spun around once or twice in excitement, yipping and barking enthusiastically, before backing up onto her hind legs in order to pop her front paws over Hope's back playfully, swiftly nipping and tugging at one of her ears in further displays of affection.

Hope wasn't sure how much of what she was experiencing was Josie's wolf, or how much of a lucid and conscious Josie was inside of the animal, but it allowed Hope a potent moment of realization as she returned all of the other creature's affections in equal amounts of loving and playful enthusiasm.

She loved this girl.

(…)

Hope grit her teeth and forced herself to bear what she was witnessing – a clearly hormone-driven Jade flirting with Josie where they were resting on one of the benches in the garden. Whenever students had gaps between classes and things like study hall and other activities, they would usually hang around the gardens and soak up the sun, or hang about the shade of the trees and generally just socialize. Right now, as she watched the vampire laughing with HER mate, she felt like she was by far over-socializing in the way she would casually touch Josie's arm or grab her hand, or even remove some stray strands of hair from her face.

Hope felt like there was a pit of lava inside her stomach.

No, she had to control herself. She still was not able to consciously shift into her wolf and still had no access to her wolf abilities. She knew if she had to get into a physical confrontation with Jade she would have to rely on her magic – which was no trouble, but the vampire still made Hope feel wildly territorial, like a good wolf should. Besides that, Alaric's warning to both her and Jade was still applicable and the last thing Hope needed was to get even farther removed from Josie by getting herself kicked out of school… again.

Hope swallowed hard then and slowly approached the pair, coming up to them from behind Josie. She was busy laughing at something Jade had said, but when she followed where Jade's gaze had settled over her shoulder, the beautiful smile she had shown the vampire quickly fell from her face. It hurt to see it disappear so quickly at the appearance of Hope when really it should be the other way around, and Hope knew it.

"Jo, can we talk?" Hope forced herself to sound strong and confident, even if she felt anything but at that moment. "Please?" She avoided Jade's threatening gaze and kept her blues locked on Josie, trying her best to silently communicate the deep urge she was feeling to just have one moment alone with the younger girl.

"I don't know if that's…" Josie started as her gaze faltered and she quickly glanced at Jade, uncertain of whether she should acquiesce to Hope's request and ask Jade to give them a moment, or rather nonverbally ask Jade to interfere and get rid of Hope.

"I just wanted to ask how your… uh… excursion was… last night." Hope tried to hint to Josie about the dream without saying anything to give it away to Jade. Luckily for Hope, Josie caught on immediately and a pale blush warmed her cheeks. That was a good sign, right?

"Uhmm, yeah, Jay I'm sorry…" Josie turned her pouty lips towards the vampire and the nickname she had used sent waves of nausea down Hope's throat.

"Yeah, it's cool. I'll catch you after my Myth and Lore class a little later." Jade smiled at Josie and idly touched her shoulder as she stood, but did not leave before sending a scathing look Hope's way. The hatred was very mutual between the two.

Hope waited and watched Jade until she had entered the building once more before she moved to sit down next to Josie. She knew the vampire could listen in on them far too easily unless she was far enough. Josie looked a mixture of confused, impatient, eager and angry all at the same time. Her face was a mess of amalgamated emotion.

"So, it definitely was a shared dream." Hope claimed excitedly with a grin, then turned slightly apprehensive; almost shy. "Were you…like…were you really in there consciously?"

Josie considered Hope for a long moment with an unreadable expression. She really wasn't sure what to make of the current situation. She was still mad at Hope and she was still hurt and disappointed beyond measure. But she was also very much in love with the tribrid and every moment spent away from her was pure agony. All the time she had been spending with Jade, she knew, was only to distract her from Hope's absence. She wasn't being completely fair to Jade, though also to be fair to herself – she could really and honestly see herself being with Jade.

If it wasn't for her heart belonging to this damn dumb tribrid sitting before her, who held the proverbial beating organ in the palm of her hands even now as they spoke. And Josie didn't even think that Hope knew it.

"I was there…" Josie admitted shyly. She was definitely not shy about her feelings for Hope in the aforementioned dream.

"Josie…" Hope started, actually suddenly quite unsure of what she really wanted to say to Josie now that she had her alone. She hadn't quite planned this far, to be honest. "I… uhh…"

"You're the alpha of a pack of Crescent wolves? No? Then I'm not sure I can help you…" Josie muttered with a straight face and a straight tone. Ouch.

"Come on, that was a bit harsh…" Hope frowned sadly and looked down at her lap where she was toying with her hands, twisting her fingers around one another. "But… I am sorry. More than anything, I am sorry for disappointing you. It kills me to know that I'm not the person you thought I was."

Josie sighed and shook her head, irritated at how dumb Hope could be. "No… I mean yes, I am disappointed at your actions, but it's not like you say it is. You are exactly the person who I think you are. I can see it. It's just you who can't conceive of it yet. Would you like me to remind you of who you are, Hope Mikaelson?"

Hope raised her brows, both intrigued and confused at Josie's words, but curious to hear what she had to say. Josie took the cue and continued. "You are your mother's daughter – brave, protective, fiercely independent and an unmistakable leader. You are also you father's daughter – Formidable, powerful, amazingly intelligent and thoroughly fearless. And you are, regardless of the demons you feel that you must fight around every corner, Hope Andrea Mikaelson. You are the only of your kind and I don't even mean that factually in physicality, but also in heart and soul." Josie sighed finally, almost exhausted from the pep talk that came pouring out of her. "And I will keep on believing in you until you believe in yourself… and then some."

She smiled gently, finally, sending Hope's heart aflutter.

Hope definitely loved this girl.

"It would seem you know me better than I know myself." Hope chuckled, a blush creeping over her cheeks as she glanced up finally to meet Josie's gaze.

"Sometimes I really do think that I do. And sometimes it's really irritating." Josie smirked sadly, confusing Hope.

"Like…?" Hope edged her on to explain the last statement.

"Like knowing you were probably asked by Landon to go to the dance and said yes." Josie clenched her jaw quickly, but remained relaxed – or at least so it seemed on the surface.

"I haven't said yes. It's a stupid idea anyway." Hope shook her head, but found Josie simply nodding along in acknowledgement. Hope's eyes suddenly hardened then. "You're going with Jade, aren't you?"

"It's a casual thing." Josie arched one brow in response to Hope's sudden hitch in tone.

"What I saw just now was anything but casual! Come on Jo! We both know she wants to be much, much more than just friends with you!" Hope's face creased as she got upset at the idea of the vampire even just touching HER mate in the simplest of ways.

"At least someone does…" Josie simply muttered and stood up then, her body language utterly dismissive of the tribrid. "I'm not having this argument with you right now." She hardened her eyes and looked down at Hope once more. "So, unless there's anything else, I think I'll be going now."

Hope had no idea how the conversation had gone from Josie saying the absolute best things to Hope, telling her everything she needed to hear, to Josie completely cold-shouldering her. She was still trying to figure out the right combination of syllables to utter when she realized that Josie had already walked off, leaving Hope gaping at her retreating form.