by Reders, E. M
"So what's on the schedule this month?"
"Roofing," Zak informed me, glaring at Frankie.
"Those guys are really going to let you loose up on the roof?"
A few weeks ago, Frankie had sneaked up on the roof with one of the local girls that frequently hung around us hoping to get in bed with a big bad wolf, and, god knows how, ended up butt naked hanging from the ledge, sending a load of broken tiles falling to the floor. So technically, he was the reason the roof needed repairing in the first place.
"What can I say, guess it's my experience with the place," he smirked. "Anyway, what did you pick? Anything good?"
"Nothing. I'll just grab something later to keep the old man quiet," I lied, my hand moving protectively to my pocket. I don't know why, but I really didn't want to show anyone what I had picked.
Would they recognise the colour as being the same as Kaia's eyes? No one had ever suspected my feelings for Kaia. She was a year younger than me and it wasn’t as if we were ever seen together or ran on the same circles, but before she changed we use to talk a lot.
Being future Alpha, even from a young age, a lot of things were expected of me. Sometimes it got too much and I needed to get away. I would walk through the woods behind the packhouse and sneak up to the caves hidden out there. Not many people knew about them, or at least, I had thought they hadn't. One night when I was twelve, I turned up to find a girl with auburn hair sat crying at the back of one of the caves.
"You okay?" I had asked as I walked to the back of the cave where she was sat huddled on a rock.
"I’m lost," she sniffed.
"Easily done if you don't know the woods. I can help you find your way home, if you want?"
"Really?" she’d asked brightly, turning to look at me for the first time.
I remember the shock that had run through me upon seeing her eyes for the first time that day, and a few other times she taken me by surprise in the months after. I had never seen eyes so green – so beautiful – before in my life.
I had taken her back through the woods towards her coven’s land, leaving her at the edge of the trees when she could see her home. After that, she turned up at the caves often. We talked more and more and slowly became good friends. I cared for her, and it wasn’t just me, my wolf did too.
We didn't talk at school, we couldn't. I was a year older than her and couldn't be seen hanging with her, especially as she was a witch. Relations between my pack and the coven had been strained for generations, though god knows why. It wasn't as bad as it used to be, but it was still no way near to accepting me and Kaia being friends. Some of the girls in the pack teased her rotten and it took all of my control not to kill them for it. She understood that I had to keep my distance... or, at least, I’d thought she had.
Just after her thirteenth birthday, everything changed. She didn’t come to the caves anymore, stopped talking to me altogether, never giving me a reason as to why. She began getting into trouble at school, at home. The only thing positive that came out of the change was that she finally began standing up for herself with the pack, though she did tend to take things a little too far. Some of the tricks she pulled were just mean.
In the end, her behaviour got so bad that it wasn’t just me and the pack that disliked her, avoided her. So did the coven. In a matter of weeks, she seemed to lose all her friends. She became a loner, separated from everyone else. Then just after she turned fourteen, she up and left. I never knew why, but I will always remember the last thing she said to me. I had gone to the caves, not expecting her to be there. She hadn't in months. But when I arrived, there she was, glaring at a rock on the stone floor of the cave as if it had done something to offend her.
"Stupid fucking rock," she’d yelled, kicking it across the floor.
"What did it ever do to you?" I’d said, moving from the entrance towards her. At my words, her back had gone rigid and the stench of her anger had hit my nose.
Turning round, she’d moved her glare to me. "What do you want?" she’d snapped.
"Just coming out here to get a little peace and quiet. What are you doing here?"
She had opened her mouth to speak before snapping it shut. It was as if she wanted to say something but had decided against it. Moments later she’d gone on the offensive. "None of your business," she said, storming towards the entrance and barging past me.
As she’d stepped out into the light, she’d turned, her hair glowing in the evening sun, her eyes swirling a much darker green than I had ever seen before. Looking me in the eyes for the first time in months, she’d spoken sadly, tears in her eyes. "Stay away from me, Ethan."
And I had. Not that it had exactly been hard with her moving away the very next day. And after the first year, I’d slowly started to think about her less and less. Now here I was, with her once again taking over my every thought.
God, I needed help.
Or a distraction? I thought. Maybe heading up to Chelsea’s room and reassuring her that I wasn’t going anywhere would help me clear my head.
"Well, I'll see you guys later. Try not to damage the roof any more than you have already," I added, leaving my friends to search the mass of rooms for their gifts.
I needed to get my head back in order before the ritual. Kaia was still part of the coven but she wouldn't be there tonight, thankfully. The only witches that would be present were the Crone and the bitch that had come off age. I still had no clue why my boys and I were being made to go. Usually, it was the older males of the pack, the ones around the same age as the witch. But never mind, I had been ordered to go and go I would.
Heading up to my room, I was planning on dropping the necklace off then heading down to Chelsea’s room, but that turned out unnecessary. Opening my door, I was instantly greeted by the sight of naked flesh. Chelsea was spread-eagled on my bed and the smell of her arousal was filling the air.
"I thought you might need a reminder as to why you keep me around," she said seductively, opening her legs wider to show me the pink, wet flesh between.
This was what I needed. Kaia was long gone. It was stupid of me to even be thinking of her now. Chelsea was the one I should be concentrating on.
"You thought right." Quickly I stripped and climbed up onto the bed, more than ready to lose myself in the feast before me.
Chapter Three
~
Kaia
The drive over to Dyanna’s seemed to take longer than usual, even though traffic was light and there were no roadworks on the motorway. Pulling up in front of the old farmhouse, I quickly grabbed my bags off the passenger seat and climbed out, just in time for Hetty to fling herself at my legs and cling on as if for dear life.
Hetty was the newest edition to Grace’s ever growing family. Grace was her great aunt, though, I forget how many greats actually come before the aunt part.
“Hey, Hetty. Are you going to let go?” I asked, looking down at her little blonde head.
“No,” she yelled, turning her little toothy grin up at me.
“Fine.” It was pointless arguing with her; she always won.
Slowly, I hobbled my way to the front door, brushing my feet on the mat as best I could with a three year old hanging onto my leg, before entering. Instantly, the feeling of home washed over me. This was my home, not the place I stayed when I stopped with my mother. That had stopped feeling like home after I’d found out she’d lied to me about why my father had left when I was five.
Hobbling through the house towards the kitchen – where I knew Grace would be, thanks to the wonderful smell of bacon and eggs drifting through the house – I attempted to shake Hetty from my leg. When I entered the room, I found the whole household there, minus Dyanna, of course. I knew my friend too well to expect her to be anywhere but hidden under the covers of her bed, dreaming of hot, naked men.
“Hey, Kaia,” Jess said, coming over to give me a hug before she spotted Hetty clinging to my leg. “Hetty, let go of Kaia, now,” she ordered her daughter. “
I would love to say that I don’t know where she gets it from, but unfortunately, she plainly gets it from that damn father of hers.”
Jess’s ex-husband had a problem letting go of their relationship. It had been two years since Jess left him and moved her and Hetty in with Grace and still he kept coming around, trying to get her to go back to him.
“Kaia, stay,” Hetty cried.
“Yes, Hetty. Kaia is staying. So can let go of her now.”
Once I assured her that I was indeed here to stay, at least for the night, she let go of my leg and scrambled away before her mum could grab her and sit her down for breakfast.
“Dyanna is still upstairs, Kaia. Why don’t you head up and see if you can get her to show her face sometime before midday,” Grace commented from the stove.
“On it.”
~
Dyanna was in fact still in bed, but she wasn't asleep. "Can you tell the sun to go do one and stop being so bright this morning," she moaned from under the covers.
I laughed. "And what makes you think that the sun would listen to me?"
"You’re Earth. Surely you have some kind of say on the brightness that fucker shines down here. I swear the sun hates me today."
"You do know that the sun isn't a person, right? That it’s just a ball of gas millions of miles away."
"Of course I do. But it still hates me."
Walking over to the window, I pulled the curtains I knew Grace would have opened that morning in an attempt to get Dyanna out of bed, closed, instantly shutting out most of the light. "Better?"
Peeking out from her hiding place below the covers, she checked to see if the light was now dull enough for her alcohol sensitive eyes, before sliding up the bed to rest against the pillows. "Much."
Just like me, she was still wearing the clothes from the night before. "So how are you holding up? Looking forward to tomorrow?" she said with a smirk.
"Of course. What could be better than standing in the nude in front of a large group of men and tying my life to one of them, and in doing so, signing their death warrant?"
You see that was the problem. Anyone I bonded with would be in mortal danger right along with me. Anyone I was close to was. When I had first moved in with Grace and met Dyanna, I had done everything in my power to push her away, to make her hate me. I had done that with everyone else and it had worked… until her. Dyanna had seen straight through me
A few weeks after my thirteenth birthday, when my powers had begun to show themselves more and more, my mother had sat me down and told me the story of the Four... Again.
"I already know this. You've told me this story every damn year of my life," I’d moaned.
"Yes I have, and for good reason. It’s an important part of our history. But, now that your powers have begun to grow, there is something else I need to tell you." I could see her hands shaking in her lap as she’d fiddled with her fingers nervously.
What the hell was she nervous about?
"Okay," she’d sighed, taking a deep breath to calm herself. "I have always told you your father left because of me. That we just weren't compatible. Well, that isn't exactly true. He left because of you."
Those five words had broken me. Left me short of breath, tears in my eyes.
"What? Why?"
"Don't think he didn't love you. He did, very much so. It's just that when you were born and you opened your eyes for the first time, we knew you were different, special. We also knew that your life would very likely be a short one. You see, you’re no ordinary witch, Kaia.”
“I don’t understand. What do you mean my life would ‘very likely’ be a short one?”
“You are one of the Four, Kaia. You are Earth. As your powers continue to grow, you will be able to control the earth itself. Already you’ve had a remarkable amount of control upon the plants you tend in the garden. That is why we named you, Kaia. It means earth. And that’s why he had to leave. He couldn’t stand the thought of watching you grow up, to only lose you before you even reached adulthood.”
“But why would he lose me?” I’d asked, so in shock that I hadn’t yet put two and two together.
“Because they all die young, have done since the demon killed the first Four all those centuries ago, and you will no doubt be any different.”
We had spoken a little more about my powers and what they meant, but there was one thing that had stuck with me good and proper. It had been that that had set me on the road to alienating myself and pushing everyone away – especially those I loved – in order to protect them.
“Only the Crone, Grace, knows what you are. It is safer that way. You must pick your friends carefully and not tell anyone who you are unless you trust them completely. And you must understand this. The demon will use anyone he can to get to you, Kaia… anyone.”
A year later I had gone to live with Grace, with no friends and no family left to wave me goodbye. They all hated me. And I was glad about that. I’d had no problems letting go of my so called friends back home. To be honest, I was never really that close to any of them. But being horrible to Ethan had been harder than I would ever have imagined. I’d done it, though. I’d pushed him away like I had all the others and made sure that in the end he hated me just as much, if not more than the rest of them.
“That does put a bit of a downer on it, I do admit, but still, what I wouldn’t do to be there at the Circle when it was full of hot, drool-worthy men.”
“I wish you could be there, it would make me feel better, less nervous.”
“I asked Grace again last night, once I had finished being sick that is. She said no.”
As soon as Grace had told me that it would be just me and her at the ritual, I’d asked if Dyanna and some of the girls could go with me. But as Grace had pointed out, only Dyanna knew the truth about my powers and it would be safer for her to not be there, just in case someone had leaked the news that the Elemental witches were performing the ritual to call her protectors early.
“I think what we need is a plan. I can’t be there, we have established that, but Grace never said I couldn’t be nearby. How about I park my car around the corner from the Circle? That way, if you need a quick getaway, if the guy is bone ugly or something, then I am right there waiting for you with the engine running so you can just run around the corner and jump in.”
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face as Dyanna sat there telling me about how we could escape into the wilderness, where ever that was, and hide out. Everyone, including the demon, would never know where we were. We would live off the land and make our own vodka to sell at top dollar to the locals. Was there even any ‘locals’ in the wilderness? Dyanna really did get carried away when she was excited about something.
“Well, I'm not sure about the wilderness and vodka thing. Do you even know anything about making vodka? Anyway, it would be fantastic if you really were parked just around the corner.” At least then I’d know that I would have some form of escape if the worst happened and the spell picked someone there as my protector. It wasn’t a sure thing that my perfect partner would be there, but with the mass amount of people coming, it was very likely. If they weren’t there, the spell would call them to me, but it could take days, weeks, years even before they showed up. I hoped it would be the latter. At least that way, when the demon came for me, only I would die a horrible, painful death and he, whoever he was, would be safe.
~
“So you managed to get her ass out of bed then?” Grace commented as we entered the kitchen an hour later, Dyanna having washed and changed into clean clothes.
“Yeah. Took a while, though.” I laughed.
“I bet.”
“Hey, I was already awake. It’s the suns fault for me not actually getting out of my bed,” Dyanna moaned, seating herself at the breakfast table.
Grace didn't reply to that comment, just shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “So Kaia, you all set for tomorrow? Have you learnt the incantation I gave you the oth
er week?”
“Mmm…”
“Kaia,” she said sternly, turning her eyes to me. “It is very important that you know what you are doing. For one, you can never tell what will happen if a ritual is not performed correctly. And second, we need to set a good impression in front of the potentials. I expect you to have the whole thing memorised by the morning, understand?”
“Yes, Grace.” So no last minute fun for me then.
Dyanna and I had been planning on sneaking out once everyone was in bed and heading down to ‘The Pit.’
The Pit was where the young generation of the coven hung out at night. I tended not to go there very often, with everyone hating me and all, but at that very moment, I could think of nowhere else I would rather spend my last night of freedom.
Looking over at Dyanna, I could tell that the news that I was expected to memorise the ritual before morning did not change her plans for our night time escape from here. She would get us there, even if that meant helping me study every second of the day until then.
“Grace, I was wondering. I'm not really comfortable with the whole nudity thing, and well would it be possible if I could wear a robe or something? I mean, I am performing it at a much younger age than normal, so...”
“I understand dear, I really do. You are still innocent, have kept yourself pure – unlike a certain granddaughter of mine,” she said, glaring in Dyanna’s direction. “I will talk to the others and see if they can think of an alternative. But you must prepare yourself for having to do it naked. It is tradition.”
Please, please let me do it in a robe.
“Here you go, girls,” she said a few minutes later, placing two large plates of eggs, bacon, sausage and beans in front of us. “I'll be in the barn if anyone needs me.” The barn had been converted into a potions room/classroom and had been where I had spent most of the last five years. “And remember, Kaia, you need to have that incantation memorised before the morning,” she warned as she closed the door behind her, leaving us alone in the kitchen.
