by Reders, E. M
My head snapped up, eyes widening in disbelief. No, it couldn’t be.
He was just as I remembered, admit a little older. Dark raven hair streaked through with lighter shades of grey. Grey eyes swirled with amber as the wolf within him shone through. His body had changed. Instead of the slim teen I had known in the past, a young man knelt before me, his body muscled and toned.
“Kaia, come on,” he urged again, this time taking my arm and pulling me to my feet.
I automatically stood and let him escort me to the car, even though I knew I shouldn’t. I needed to get away from him. I had to keep him safe.
After he had me seated in the passenger seat and belted in he jogged around to the other side and jumped behind the wheel. As we drove down the lane I kept my eyes on the window beside me, trying to pull myself together. I needed to get control on my emotions for a number of reasons. Firstly, being that I didn’t really want to cause any natural disasters. My powers were tied to my emotions. It was bad enough that I had caused that little scene back at the pit, I didn’t want to cause any more. The second reason was that I needed to channel my inner bitch as I called her, the one I had used years ago to push everyone I loved away from me. Ethan included. I had to make sure he still hated me.
“You okay?”
“Fine,” I said through gritted teeth, not daring to move my eyes away from the window in case he could see the truth in them.
“You didn’t look fine when you ran out of that place and straight in front of my car. Or when I found you back there.”
I did my best to ignore him, to not turn around and face him as I so wanted to do. This was my only chance. My one and only chance to look at his beautiful face, to enjoy the sense of calm and safety I always got around him… but I couldn’t. He may have always brought a sense of security to me, of safety, but just being near me put him in danger.
“Kaia, tell me what’s wrong. Maybe I can help? You do know I’m just going to keep asking until you tell me, right?”
“I said I'm fine,” I snapped, not able to stop myself from turning to glare at him. Why couldn’t he just leave me be?
“She said she’s fine, dude. Just drive and get the stinking bitch out of here.”
Spinning around in shock, I found a pair of amber eyes glaring at me from the back seat of the car. I hadn’t even realised that there was anyone else in the vehicle.
“Shut your fucking drunken trap, Frankie.”
Frankie? I remembered him; he was one of Ethan’s best mates, one of the many people that Ethan had hidden our friendship from. I had hated that he had, but once I knew of the death sentence hanging over my head I’d been glad of that fact.
“Don’t know why you stopped for that witch, anyway. Chelsea’s going to kick your ass when she finds out.”
“You either shut the fuck up or you can walk the rest of the way. We’re not too far from the packhouse.”
Wait…What? The packhouse was miles from Grace’s place, almost two full hours away… but it was near my mothers. He was taking me to my mother’s.
Well, of course he was. He didn’t know where I had been for the past few years or that I no longer called the place home. “Fuck,” I hissed. How the hell had we gotten here so fast?
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“You’ve taken me the wrong way, that’s what’s up.” My mounting frustration gave my voice bite. Okay, so calling my inner bitch was not going to be a problem after all. I was angry and frustrated. Not at him, but at myself. I’d use that angry and frustration to make sure I pushed him away again. Make him remember that he hated me.
“What are you talking about? Your place is just round the corner.”
“No, my mother’s is just around the corner. And in case you have forgotten, I haven’t lived there in fucking years, and there is no way I am stepping one foot in that place.”
Looking a little shocked at the venom in my voice when I spoke about the place I had once called home, he pulled the vehicle to a stop and turned to me, his eyes locking with mine. “So where is it that you expected me to take you when I picked you up? I'm not a mind reader, Kaia.”
“No, but you could have used that tiny canine brain of yours and remembered that I no longer live around here. That’s if you actually have a brain in your head. From what I have heard over the years, the only place you seem to have one is in your dick.” I may have pushed everyone away from me and severed all contact with my old friends, but I had never been able to stop myself from listening to the local gossip on the rare occasions that I was in town. I knew he’d slept around in the past, though, hopefully, he would be mated by now. Maybe this Chelsea that Frankie had mentioned was her? But still, the thought of him with anyone made me feel physically sick. I knew it was for the best that I had pushed him away, I just needed to remember that.
“She’s got you there, mate.” Frankie burst out laughing from the back, causing a low growl of anger to escape from Ethan’s chest.
Ignoring his drunken friend, he said, “Still not told me where I was supposed to take you.”
No, I hadn’t. Would he know it was the Crones place if I told him the address? I doubted it, but I was worried he might ask questions if he did. There weren’t many witches that went to live with a Crone for their training unless they were powerful, important ones.
“Talk to me, Kaia.”
“Drop that bastard off first and then I’ll tell you.” Indicating to Frankie sprawled in the back.
“Remind me again why we hate this bitch?” Frankie spat back, his voice laced with sarcasm.
Five minutes later, Ethan helped a stumbling Frankie through the back door of the packhouse before setting off to take me home.
“So where am I dropping you off?” he asked after we had been driving for a while, me just telling him to turn left or right when he needed to change direction.
“A farm.”
“A farm? That’s all you’re going to tell me?”
He didn’t need to know anymore.
“Come on, Kaia, you need to give me more than that. I'm not going to drop you off in the middle of fucking nowhere.”
“No, I don’t. You are a part of my old life, Ethan. The farm is part of my new one.” What’s left of it. “You don’t need to know anything. You just need to drop me off.”
Shaking his head. “I wish I knew what happened to make you change into the bitch you are today. We used to be friends. We told each other everything. Then suddenly overnight you changed into a bitter, selfish bitch. Whatever happened to you, Kaia?”
Fate happened. Destiny.
“Fine, don’t tell me, but know this. You keep making enemies the way that you do, and soon there will be no one left to pick you up from the side of the road.”
And that was the whole point. If no one cared, then no one would get hurt.
~
Ethan
What were the chances, really? For the first time in years, I had been thinking of Kaia, not able to get her out of my mind, and that very night she just happened to run out in front of my car? I still couldn’t believe it. If only she was the same girl I had fallen for all those years ago, before she turned into a bitch.
She looked the same, in the face that is. Her eyes were still that same dark leafy green. Her hair the same fiery auburn but cut much shorter to her shoulders. The biggest difference was her body. She was a woman now. Perfect curves. Pale, smooth looking skin. My wolf was going crazy with her scent filling the car. As far as he was concerned, she was his and always had been. He was clawing at me to do something about it.
That’s so not going to happen. Just because you like how she smells, it doesn’t change a thing. She’s not the same girl she was back then.
“I didn’t ask for you to pick me up. Greg would have taken me home.”
Greg? What was she hanging out with that douchebag for? If she thought I thought with my dick, what did she think of him? Greg was a complete male-slut. There wasn’t a day th
at went by when that guy wasn’t out trolling for pussy.
“Yeah, well, I am taking you. So come on, tell me where exactly I'm going.”
I could tell she didn’t want to tell me. For some reason she was scared to, I could smell her fear. Just when I thought she wasn’t going answer and that I would have to pull to a stop and refuse to go any further, she spoke, “Peterson Cottage on Water Lane.”
“Thank you.”
I’d heard of the place before, I knew I had, but couldn’t for the life of me think where I had heard of it. Kaia directed us for almost an hour and a half before asking me to pull up at the end of a long drive leading up to a small cottage. A strange green light was glowing from the porch, giving the whole place an eerie glow. I didn’t want her to go, neither did my wolf. I missed her, missed the girl I had spent all those perfect hours in the cave with.
“Well…mmm,” she stuttered, barely looking at me. As our eyes met for a brief moment, I saw the sweet, kind girl I had cared for in my youth. She was still in there, and for that one perfect moment, I had been given the chance to look upon her again. But it didn’t last.
Closing her eyes briefly and taking a deep breath, she climbed out of the car before turning to look at me, her eyes once again full of anger. “Next time, don’t bother stopping.” Then she slammed the door, causing the whole car to shake before storming off up the drive and disappearing from my life… again.
~
Finally pulling into the garage almost four hours after I had dropped Frankie off, I made my way through the silent manor hoping to avoid any questions as to where I had been. That’s if Frankie hadn’t spilt his guts on the way up to his room. Passing my father’s office on the first floor, I heard him speaking with his Beta, Ryan. “So they have all selected a gift?”
“Yes, Alpha, and I have taken note of all the gifts they have chosen. Though I don’t have anything written down for Ethan yet,” Ryan informed him.
“What?”
“I know that he went down there to select one and Isaac told me himself that your son did indeed chose a gift, but as of yet, Ethan has not come forward to tell me what his choice was.”
And I wasn’t planning too. Picking up speed, I made my way as silently as I could pass his office, sure that my father had sensed me but had decided to let me be for the time being at least. No doubt I would be called to his office bright and early, though. It was crazy not to tell my father what I had selected, but somehow, with the reminder it gave me of Kaia, I didn’t want anyone to see it. I didn’t want to give anyone the chance of figuring out my true feelings.
I remember the last time we were truly friends, the day of her thirteenth birthday. I had gone to the cave to meet her, tightly clutching the white gold ring that had once belonged to my mother in my hand. Before she had died she had given it to me, telling me that I was to give it to someone special, my one true friend. That had been Kaia. Her face lit up when I presented her with it. Her eyes had shined with unshed tears. Lifting up on her tiptoes, she had placed a kiss to my cheek, the first and only time she had kissed me, and my wolf had demanded that I grab her and claim her as my own then and there. Thankfully, I’d had a good hold on my wolf even at that young age. Kaia was far too young to be mated, and so was I.
We had sat and talked for hours, hands twined together as I watched the ring catch in the moonlight above us at the entrance to the cave. A week later, when we were supposed to meet again, I had planned to ask her out, to tell her I no longer wanted to hide our friendship. But she wasn’t there. I waited for hours but she never came. She was absent from school also, though no one seemed to know why. Every night I would sneak off to the caves and wait, hoping that she might show up. Then I turned up one night two weeks later, to find an envelope, a note and the ring inside. The note wasn’t very long and I hadn’t believed she really meant the words she wrote at first, not until she came back to school and proved them.
Ethan, I don’t want to see you anymore. Wolves and Wiccans should not mix. I am just so much better than you.
She broke my heart. I spent the next year trying to avoid her while she spent it throwing insults and getting into fights with everyone she could. I think half the coven wanted to abandon her in the end.
Finally making it back to my room, I was relieved when I found my bed empty. Quickly stripped down, I climbed under the covers, closing my eyes, desperate to see something, anything but those beautiful green eyes that I knew would haunt my dreams forever. But as I knew would happen, they were all I could see.
Chapter Six
~
Kaia
Mad wouldn’t even begin to describe the look on Grace’s face when I turned to face the woman that had treated me as her own these past few years. She may be centuries old but you wouldn’t know it without looking deep into her ancient eyes. She had the body of a healthy thirty year old, with long raven locks that ran down her back and seemed to blow in an invisible wind when she cast spells. Hands on hips, her golden eyes glaring at me, routing me to the spot. I was in big trouble.
“I knew very well that you and Dyanna wouldn’t stay in tonight and I let it go, sending Tony and Matt to watch your back, but never did I expect to get a call from them telling me that you had run off, leaving Dyanna behind, and before they could catch up with you, you’d gotten into some stranger’s car. And worse of all, that was over three hours ago,” she raged. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
Moving over to the sofa, I collapsed into the soft cushions. As I explained why I had run from the pit, her eyes slowly softened. “Has there been? Has the demon already started searching for me?”
Taking a seat on the coffee table in front of me, she took a hold of my hands and spoke softly. “Not as far as we know, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I thought it was best to be cautious. The demon hasn’t been seen in this country for at least a decade that we know of, but that could easily change. I didn’t tell you so as not to worry you, you already have so much on your mind with performing this ritual four years early. Now I see that it would have been best if I had taken the time to fill you in on all the preparations. But that aside, you still need to explain why you got into some stranger’s car and where the hell you have been for the past three hours.”
“He wasn’t a stranger,” I mumbled, not really wanting to talk about Ethan but I knew I had to explain some things to her. “It was an old friend. He offered to give me a lift home but didn’t realise that I wasn’t staying with my mother. By the time I realised his mistake, we were almost there, so he dropped his friend off and turned back around to bring me here.”
“A friend huh?” Her voice was laced with scepticism. “And what would this friend’s name be?”
“Mmm… Well…”
“Kaia, you left over three hours ago with some boy I do not know. I expect you to, at least, give me his name.”
Nodding as I rose from the sofa, wanting to make a swift exit, I locked gazes with hers, swallowing the lump in my throat. “Ethan. His name is Ethan.” I saw recognition light in her eyes and quickly exited the room before she could ask any more questions, heading up to my room only to be ambushed again by Dyanna.
“What the hell, Kaia,” she stormed, slamming the door behind me the second I stepped through it. “How could you just run off like that and leave me there? Hannah wouldn’t give me a lift home and Greg was no help. I would have just spelled myself home but you know I can’t do that after I’ve had alcohol. I ended up with Tony and Matt dragging me back and Grace ranting at me for the hours that it took you to get your ass back here. Where the hell were you? I was worried sick.”
I hated that I had caused her so much trouble and worried her. I hadn’t meant too, I’d just needed to get the hell out of there. And then Ethan turned up and everything but him just vanished from my mind. “Sorry, Dyanna, I just had to get out of there before I lost it and someone noticed.”
“Noticed what?”
“The cracks in th
e floor beneath my feet. The slight trembling of the earth.”
“Oh. Shit, Kaia, I hadn’t realised,” she apologised, pulling me into a hug.
“It was low level but I had to get out before it escalated. With Greg talking about the Circle and what they had been doing out there, my mind just went on overload thinking of all the reasons they would be doing that. I just freaked out a little.”
“But you’re okay now?” she asked, looking me in the eyes.
“Yeah, I'm good.”
“You sure? You don’t seem it.”
“I'm fine, just tired.” Turning away from her, I began removing my shoes in a hope that she would take the hint and leave. She now knew why I had left, but so far she hadn’t asked who I had left with and I really didn’t want to get into that with her either.
“Okay. Well, I’ll see you in the morning,” she said, moving to open the door. Just as she was about to close it behind her, she turned back. “Do you still want me to be nearby tomorrow at the ritual?” Nodding, she granted me a small smile before shutting the door and leaving me alone on the last night of my life as I knew it. Tomorrow night I would more than likely be going to sleep in another bed, in a strange place, with a man I was tied to for the rest of my short life, and the blood from his impending death on my hands.
~
The day went by in a blur, the time seeming to rush past with the wind, leaving me with a sense of panic and despair. I wasn’t ready for this. Everyone kept telling me that with my protector I would be safer, have a better chance of living, but I didn't see it that way. No, I would never be safe. All I would be doing would be dooming another to the terrible fate that awaited me.
