by Reders, E. M
Looking around at the pack, I noticed a few happy faces. Most were more shocked than anything else, but I had hope that they would accept it. But there were some that looked angry, one in particular… Chelsea. The look of thunder on her face, the madness of her wolf shining through her eyes was terrifying. I really should have found the time to talk to her before the announcement. Hell, before the ritual even, but I’d kept putting it off, always too busy to deal with it. Truth is, I was a coward. Now I had no doubt in my mind that she was going to cause problems. I needed to warn Kaia before Chelsea got anywhere near her. Or better yet, I needed to make sure that that introduction never happened. Well, fat chance of that knowing Chelsea. I just hoped that I got the chance to speak with Kaia before the crazy bitch struck.
After the pack announcement, my father went to meet with the high ranked members of the pack, having decided to fill them in on the truth of Kaia’s power. Briefly pulling me to one side before the meeting, he informed me that Isaac expected me down in the vault within the hour and under no circumstances was I to be late. So after escorting Kaia back upstairs, I found myself stood with my two best friends, staring at the biggest mountain of books I had ever seen in my life.
~
Kaia
Once again trying to sleep proved to be a waste of time. Just as I was finally drifting off, I was once again awoken by loud knocking on the door. I did my best to ignore it. With my body still recovering from the ritual, I needed as much rest as I could get to get my energy levels back up. But unfortunately, the knocking continued, so I decided that it was best if I just got up and answered it.
As quickly as I could, I moved over to the door as the person on the other side repeatedly tried to open it. Maybe it was Ethan? Though I didn’t see how it could be. When he had escorted me back up here after the announcement to the pack, he had told me he would be busy until dinnertime at least. And if it was him, surely he would just knock politely and come in as he had that morning?
I tried concentrating on the slim bond between us, but with it being so small I couldn't really get a grasp on his location. I knew he was in the building, but that’s all the slim bond between us would give me. I didn’t like it. I knew it was for the best that the bond was left incomplete, but a part of me just wouldn’t feel safe until we were bonded in every way possible.
Not going to happen.
“I'm coming,” I yelled. I was really getting annoyed with the persistence of this person.
The second I unlocked the door, it flung open, almost hitting me in the face. A tall girl with long blonde hair and big blue eyes stood there, looking like a real living Barbie doll. Unlike a Barbie, though, she wasn’t smiling. A look of anger, hatred, utter disgust graced her face. Whoever she was, she was beautiful, even with the deranged wolf glaring at me through her eyes. “What the fuck are you doing in here?” she snarled. Hell, even her voice, while raided in anger, was beautiful.
But obviously the insides don’t match the outside, I thought. She may have been breathtakingly beautiful, but the pure malice rolling off her informed me that it was only skin deep. “I'm Kaia. Can I help you?”
“Can you help me? How about I help you get the hell out of my mate’s room,” she screamed in my face, pushing me aside as she stormed through the door.
Her mate? But Ethan was unmated; he wouldn't have been at the ritual if he had a mate, and the Alpha definitely wouldn’t have announced Ethan’s selection to the pack. But something was obviously going on between them if she was saying he was her mate.
How was I meant to compete with a girl like her? Not that I planned on competing for him, he was safer away from me. But still, he would never want me anyway, not when he had someone like her.
“Where is he?” she demanded, storming into the bathroom only to return a moment later when she didn’t find him. “Answer me, bitch! Where is he?”
“I don't know.”
“Yeah right,” she spat, pushing me back against the wall, pinning me there with her hand around my throat, her perfectly manicured nails digging into my skin. If I hadn’t still been so weak from the ritual – and in utter shock at what was happening – I would have fought back. But at that very moment, I just didn’t have the strength. “You listen to me, bitch. Ethan is mine. We have been together years, and just because you tricked him into bringing you here with some stupid ritual and he decided to slum it with you for the night, that doesn't change the fact that he is mine.”
Part of me wanted to scream at her, to yell that Ethan was mine, not hers, but the truth was, he wasn't. The ritual may have chosen him as my protector but we weren't bonded, not fully. And hadn’t I decided that it was best if we never completed the bond? But, that being said, I was filled with jealousy at the thought of Ethan being with her.
“Chelsea! What the hell are you doing?” I heard someone shout from the door, catching a glimpse of short blonde hair moving quickly towards us. “Let her go, Chelsea,” the young girl demanded as she came into view. “The Alpha will kill you for this.”
Shifting her hands, she released her claws, raking their razor sharp points down the wall beside my face, the noise going straight through me. “Stay away from Ethan, or next time it'll be your face I mark with my claws,” she spat.
As she released me, I slumped to the floor, pulling my knees up to my chest as tears spilled from my eyes. What the hell was going on?
“I'm so sorry. Are you okay?” the girl asked as the door slammed shut behind my attacker. Looking up at her, taking in the short blonde hair brushing her shoulders, the large blue eyes widened in shock, I noticed something really strange, something I had never expected… she wasn’t Were. She was human.
“Not really. Who was that? Is Ethan… is he…” I couldn’t bring myself to say.
“Is he her mate? No, she just wishes he was. I'm Jennifer. Chelsea’s my sister. Step sister, before you start to judge,” she added quickly.
“I won’t, promise.” Amazingly, I smiled, already liking the girl.
“I can’t believe she did that,” Jennifer sighed. “She’s been obsessed with Ethan for years. He’s always said he would never mate with anyone but his truemate, but she always had this crazy idea in her head that one day he would just wake up and realise that she was it. Guess she’s not taking the news about you two so well.”
“You think?”
“Come on,” she said, helping me up off the floor. “Let’s go get a drink. I think you deserve one.” Smiling, she led me towards the door. I got the feeling she wasn’t talking about water.
Chapter Nine
~
Ethan
“Is that him?” I asked, turning to Isaac. “Is that the demon that is after Kaia?”
We had been down in the vault for hours, organising all the books. There was everything from history books to encyclopaedias, from books on demons to fairies. For some reason, as I had dug through the mountain of book that we were sorting through, this book had caught my eye and I just couldn't help but flick through it. The first page it had stopped on was this one and I kept coming back to it again and again. I just knew that it was him.
“Let me see... Oh yes, Abaddon. A very evil being that is said to stop at nothing to get what he wants.”
So not what I wanted hear.
As Isaacs moved away, I felt Frankie and Zak close in on my sides, looking over my shoulder to see the book. There were no pictures or drawings, but there was enough written to make my heart fill with dread. This was much worse than I had originally thought.
A demon from the lowest pits, Abaddon came to this world seeking power. After killing the four Elemental witches of that time, hoping to gain their powers for himself, he was angered to discover that upon their deaths the witches powers did not transfer to him, but instead passed on to the next witch born worthy of it. Angered by this, Abaddon spent the next decade raining terror upon the earth, leaving rivers of blood in his wake.
Sometime in the years after the ori
ginal Elementals were killed, (Exact date unknown) a prophecy was made by the seer Galadriel, that Abaddon would meet his end when the four Elementals reunited as one to face him again. Since hearing of the prophecy, Abaddon has embarked on a non-stop mission to stop the prophecy from being fulfilled, by killing each and every one of the Elemental witches before they come off age, at which point they are still unprotected and vulnerable without their protectors.
“Oh shit, man!” Frankie uttered after reading the page.
“Shit is right. How am I meant to keep her safe from him?” I mumbled to myself, not expecting anyone to answer.
“By securing the bond,” Isaac stated simply, with a small smile on his face.
“It’s not that simple.”
“Why not?” Frankie asked. “What's stopping you, anyway? I know she's refusing but can't just get another witch to do the spell or something.”
“Like I said, it’s not that simple.” Spotting the look of confusion upon his face, I decided to come clean about the final part of the bonding. “The bonding spell is performed during the ‘ultimate intimate moment’,” I said quoting the Crone’s words. A frown formed on his face, him having no clue as to what I was talking about. Hell, my friend was slow. “Sex, you twat. During sex.”
“Well, why didn't you just say that.”
“Fuck, you really are in deep shit.” Zak slapped me on the back, moving back over to the large pile of books he had been going through before I’d drawn his attention.
“Tell me about it.”
We worked for another hour to two, cleaning the books as we went. Picking up a very large, very dusty book I blew on the cover, sending dust partials everywhere.
“Did you have to do that?” Zak spluttered as he choked on the dust swarming the already stale air of the vault.
Coughing myself, I almost choked to death when I saw the title of the book in my hands.
‘History of The Elemental ~ Earth’
It couldn't be. Not a book on Kaia's powers, surely?
Opening it up, I found that it was indeed all about the elemental power of earth. But what was it doing here in our vault? “Why would this be here, Isaac?”
“You will find that there are a lot of things here about that topic.” He smiled, his eyes all-knowing but holding his tongue.
What wasn't he telling me?
“Maybe you should hang on to that one, read it with Kaia. It may answer a few questions you both have.”
I doubted it. The only questions I really needed answering were the following. Why was Kaia so determined to push me away? And what had happened in the past to change her so completely?
A few minutes later, Isaac finally let us go and I made my way back upstairs to find Kaia, the heavy book held tight in my arms. I didn't know how it would help, if at all, but I was willing to give Isaac’s suggestion a try. What did I have to lose?
Chapter Ten
~
Chelsea
Anger flared through her, her wolf snarling and snapping at her to shift and let it rip the bitch to pieces. How dare she waltz in here and take Ethan away from her like that? He was theirs!
They had spent years trying to get his attention, destroying every relationship he had ever tried to have, until, finally, he had fallen into her bed. And that was where she had planned on keeping him. Now one stupid witch did one fucking ritual and Ethan was tied to her forever?
She hadn't believed it at first. When all the lads came back from the ritual and Ethan hadn't, she had asked Frankie and Zak where he was; knowing that being his best friends they would know exactly where he was. But they had just laughed in her face and told her that Ethan was joining the ‘whipped club,’ whatever that was. She had ended up tracking down Trevor to ask him where Ethan was.
Trevor was one of the higher ranked of the pack, and had made it obvious over the past year or two that he was attracted to her, but he wasn’t high up enough in the pack for her tastes. Alpha Female was where she was headed. Even being high ranked, he wasn’t good enough for her and her wolf. He had told her that he would tell her what she wanted to know, but at a price.
"A kiss, Chelsea, it will cost you a kiss. And it better be a believable one."
Five minutes later, feeling pretty smug after giving Trevor a kiss he would never forget, he wiped the smile straight off her face. "Ethan has been chosen as protector for a witch. He, the Alpha and Beta stayed behind to talk with the Crone. They will be back later with his new mate.” He had laughed at her as he shut his bedroom door in her face.
Oh hell no! She was his mate, not this fucking bitch. He was hers, and nobody else’s.
Her sister, Jennifer, had stopped her from strangling the bitch, but nothing could stop the raging tornado inside her. She needed to find a way of getting rid of this bitch, and soon.
She decided the best thing to do was to look to the old laws. There had to be some old books on them down in the vault. She just needed to find one loophole in this so-called mating, and Ethan would forever be hers. And he would love her forever. How could he not? She was a much better match for him than her. He couldn't possibly be happy with her. From what she had seen so far he wasn't, they had hardly looked at each other during the announcement.
Arriving at the vault, she found that the doors were already open, meaning that someone was already inside. Creeping forward, she followed the sound of people talking until she could make out what they were saying. Figures they would be in the room filled with the old books she needed to get to. As she listened she recognised Ethan’s voice, a worried edge to it. “Is that him? Is that the demon that is after Kaia?”
“Let me see,” she heard the old bloke that festered down here reply. “Oh yes, Abaddon. A very evil being that is said to stop at nothing to get what he wants.”
So she really was in trouble. Good to know.
“Oh shit, man!” Frankie said.
“Shit is right. How am I meant to keep her safe from him?”
Abaddon? The name sounded familiar somehow. She needed to get a hold off that book. Maybe the old laws weren't the best way to go after all. If a demon was after her, then surely the best solution was to let him have her. All she needed to do was find the demon and tell him where this mate-stealing bitch was.
A wicked smile pulled at her lips as she retreated to the other side of the vault to a room full of old furniture. She would wait there till they left, then she would take a look at that book.
When they eventually left, leaving the vault in darkness having turned off all the lights, Chelsea crept out of her hiding place and made her way back to the room they had just vacated. Had she been a puny human like her sister, Jennifer, she would have bumped into the many objects cluttering the floor, but luckily, being Were, she had no problems seeing in the dark.
“Where is it?” she snarled, scanning the bookshelves before her for anything on demons. Finding the section on demons she snatched copy after copy from the shelf, flicking through the pages as quickly as she could, searching for the name Abaddon. Ramming a volume of ‘The demon dimension and the pests that exist there,’ back on the shelves, she reached for a small black leather bound book with no title. Flicking through it as she had all the others, she stopped dead when she found the name written in large black lettering at the top of one of the pages.
“Gotcha.”
The book had everything. A quick bio, a description of his powers, and even, much to Chelsea’s delight… how to summon him.
“Well, that will come in very handy.”
Chapter Eleven
~
Kaia
Walking into a room full of the people I had tormented at school was terrifying. How would they react? Would they threaten me like Chelsea? Yell at me and tell me to get the hell out? Hundreds of possibilities were flying around my head as I followed Jennifer into the room.
A large group of girls were sat chatting on the sofas over by the window, and over in the corner, another group were stood a
t a bar grabbing drinks. “Look who I brought,” Jennifer yelled over the chatter, getting everyone’s attention. As all eyes turned to me, I wanted to run, to hide. I had been so horrible to all of them in the past. After I’d been told of my fate, I’d kind of gone off the rails for a time, not just pushing away those that I loved, but also making sure that everyone I came into contact with hated my guts. I had done some pretty messed up things back then. “She just had a bit of a run in with Chelsea, thought she might need a drink.”
“Sure,” one of the girls by the bar said, smiling at me. “What will it be? We have beer, wine or would you like something stronger? I'm guessing after dealing with Chelsea it will be the latter.”
“Strongest thing you’ve got.” I needed my courage.
“Coming right up. Why don’t you guys go and sit down with the others, I’ll bring it over.”
“Thanks.”
Awkwardly I sat down in one of the armchairs, Jennifer perching next to me on the arm. “So what has that bitch done now?” someone asked.
“Oh, you know Chelsea. Attacked her up in Ethan’s room, yelling at her that Ethan is hers as always,” Jennifer informed them.
“She’ll pay for that when he finds out,” another girl laughed.
The conversation quickly moved on to other things and I sat quietly just listening, not really invited into the conversation. Feeling like I didn’t belong, I made to leave, hoping that no one would notice. Just as I got to the door, a hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. “Where are you going?” Jennifer asked, pulling me back.
“I don’t really fit in here. I'm just going to head back up to Ethan’s room.”
Her eyes scanned my face, worry etched in her own. Frowning, she said, “We haven’t really given you a chance to join in the conversation, have we? I’m sorry, Kaia. Come on, let me introduce you to everyone and get you another drink. Then I promise, if you’re not having fun, I’ll take you back upstairs myself.”
