by Reders, E. M
Growling, I demanded them to submit. I had seen my father use his power like this before, but I’d never attempted it myself. It was the only thing that I could think of that. Zak’s wolf wouldn’t listen to just anyone, but maybe a command from an Alpha, his future Alpha, would stop him from attacking someone that had touched his unclaimed mate. Because that’s what had happened. Kaia had touched Dyanna. Zak’s wolf didn’t care that she was a female, that she meant no harm. She had touched his mate, and he snapped.
What I wanted to know, though, was why he had reacted so strongly to finding her? I mean, yes she’s his mate, his truemate, but that kind of reaction only tended to happen when both mates were wolves.
Shifting back my human form, unfazed by my nudity, I stood above them. “Shift!” I ordered, still tapping into my power as an Alpha.
He seemed to struggle against the order for a moment or two before he lost his fight and shifted back, Frankie doing the same. He may have been in his human body but it still wasn’t Zak in control, the wolf was keeping a strong hold on him. We needed some help, and quickly. Hopefully the girls would head straight to Grace and my father. Once they heard what was happening, I was in no doubt that they would be straight down here.
“What the fuck man?” Frankie sputtered, coming to stand beside me, his arm held tightly to his side. “What’s got into you?”
“Mine,” Zak snapped, his eyes still trained on the door.
“Fuck! Not you too,” Frankie moaned just seconds before Zak made a break for the door.
Fuck was right.
Chapter Sixteen
~
Kaia
I didn’t know what the hell was going on, but I was so getting away from there… at least I would if I could get Dyanna to move her damn feet and stop staring back at the fucking door. “Dyanna, come on, we have to get out of here.”
“I can’t,” she gasped. “He needs me.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Quickly giving up on my attempt to pull her way as it seemed to be getting me nowhere, I decided to push the stupid cow instead.
“Can’t you feel it?” she asked, looking at me strangely, her eyes dilated. She looked stoned.
“I feel afraid… afraid of what will happen if we don’t get the fuck out of here and tell the Alpha that one of his pack members have lost it.”
After a little more struggling, Dyanna seemed more willing to move further away the more distance we got from the vault. We finally managed to make it to Alpha Edwards office, where he was sat having tea with Grace. If I hadn’t been so panicked over what the hell was happening, I would have laughed at the large, masculine Alpha sitting drinking tea out of a delicate china teacup.
Looking up as we entered, the smile dropped from both their faces upon seeing my one of panic. I would have said our panicked faces, but Dyanna seemed anything but.
“Kaia, what’s wrong?” Grace shot up, instantly looking me over as if for injury. Satisfied that I was in one piece, she turned her eyes to Dyanna, her hand shooting to her mouth upon glancing at her face. “Who is it?”
“Who’s what?” I asked confused.
Sighing, she gave me a cross look. “Use your senses, Kaia. Reach out with your power,” she urged me.
“I can’t, you know that. He’ll find me.” For years, the only place I was truly safe to tap into my powers was the Circle. Yes, they had placed protection around the packhouse but still…
“He will, anyway,” she snapped. “I'm sorry, Kaia, but it’s true. It’s only a matter of time before he traces you. Your powers are growing stronger all the time, and finding Ethan is only going to speed up the process. And right now I need you to use your abilities to understand what is happening, and how you can help stop things from ending in Dyanna’s death.”
“Her death? What do you mean?” I asked, panicked, looking over at my friend. She seemed alright, be it a little dazed, and suicidal judging by how much she had wanted to stay down in the vault with that crazy ass wolf.
“We have no time for this,” she snapped, her eyes taking on that old, ancient glare. Now that was all the motivation I needed; those eyes of hers were damn scary at times.
How any of this could lead to the death of my best friend I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to find out the hard way. Closing my eyes, I reached out, down into the ground and to the life within it and all around me. The plants, the trees… the Were.
I was instantly aware of them all. Every single member of the pack, be there near or far was suddenly on my radar. The sudden blast of awareness left me gasping for breath, my knees shaking, threatening to give way at any moment. I may have been strong, but I wasn’t strong enough to withstand all that life… not yet at least.
“Pull back slightly, withdraw your senses from the Were, and concentrate on those just in this room. That’s why there is so much. You’re feeling each member of the pack at once. You must pull back,” Grace urged, helping to hold me up.
Doing as she asked, I withdrew my senses from everywhere but the room we were in, feeling instant relief. I couldn’t feel the pack anymore, not like I had before, though, I still sensed their presence in the area through my connection to the earth.
I was never opening my senses so completely again. Even if I did use my powers more openly from now on, there was no way I was doing that again.
“Now tell me what you feel? Who you feel?”
It was strange. I could feel Grace, Alpha Edwards, Dyanna, and… “Zak?” My eyes snapped open. How could I feel him? He was down in the vault going psycho.
Alpha Edwards was instantly in motion, rushing from the room faster than I had ever seen anyone move before. Grace quickly pushed me, urging me to follow him, before slamming the door shut to lock Dyanna in the room. She didn’t seem happy about judging from the bangs and screams that followed.
“Grace, what’s going on?” I asked in shock, following as she raced through the house. Reaching the corridor leading to the vault, we skidded to a stop. Zak was being pinned down to the floor by both Ethan and Frankie, and they were struggling. Even the Alpha’s demands for his beast to calm were having little if no effect.
“Get her out of here,” Ethan snarled at Grace when he noticed me stood there.
“She may be the only one that can stop him.”
How? What did she expect me to do?
“Kaia, listen to me. Zak’s wolf has recognised Dyanna as his mate, but with her not being able to shift she stands no chance of surviving the mating frenzy Zak has fallen into. You need to stop him, calm his beast so that he doesn’t end up killing her by accident.”
I didn’t understand half of what she had just said, but I knew I had to try. Moving closer to where Zak struggled on the floor, Ethan yelling at me to stop where I was, I let the power roll through me once again, reaching out to Zak’s wolf. When the wolf sensed my true self he stopped his struggles and fixed his eyes upon me.
“Why are you keeping me from my mate, Earth Witch?” I heard his wolf speak to me.
Okay, that I had not expected.
When I was young I’d asked Ethan if his wolf talked to him, if they had conversations, but he had just laughed, informing me that the only noise his wolf ever made were growls and snarls. Had he been telling the truth or not? I’d have to ask him again now that we were semi-bound.
I wasn’t sure how exactly this worked but I did my best to get my message across to him. I just hoped he could hear me, that this was a two-way connection. “I do not wish to keep you from your mate, but you must understand that your mate is human, a witch. If you claim her now, while deep in the mating frenzy, she will not survive. And I am sure you would not wish to harm your mate?”
“She seems wolf,” the wolf’s voice almost thoughtful.
“I can assure you she is human. Calm yourself, allow Zak control so that he can take you to your mate, and claim her for you both.” I didn’t get an answer exactly but I felt the wolf’s acceptance of my words.
/> Pulling back, I staggered, falling towards the floor. I would have hit my head on the solid wooden floor if not for Ethan’s quick reflexes, abandoning his hold on Zak to rush to my rescue.
“Are you okay?” he asked, wiping the hair out of my eyes.
“I think so.” I felt a little weak, my voice barely a whisper.
Looking over at Zak, I saw and felt the wolf letting go. His eyes returned to their usual chocolate brown, the amber of the wolf fading almost completely. The wolf wasn’t letting go fully, not yet, and I had a feeling he wouldn’t until Zak had claimed Dyanna.
Dyanna and Zak? I still couldn’t get over it. Hell, what would Dyanna think? But judging by how hard it had been to get her away from the vault – well, from Zak – I now realised that she probably wouldn’t have a problem with it at all.
“Zak, are you in full control of your senses now?” Alpha Edwards asked, his voice stern.
“For the most part,” Zak grunted, sitting up as much as he could with Frankie still on his back. “Dude, get off,” he snarled, bucking to knock his friend away then pushing Frankie off of him completely. “Where is she?” he asked, raising to his feet.
Looking over at Grace, I waited to hear what she would say to him, if she would tell him where her great granddaughter was. “She is in the office, but I think it best for you to wait a while before you go to her.” Seeing he was about to argue she quickly continued, “Dyanna doesn’t know that she has Wereblood in her family line. That’s why your wolf reacted as he did, he sensed the small amount of wolf blood in her and reacted to it. I need to speak with her first.”
“No need, Gran.” Spinning around, I saw Dyanna walking down the hall, a smile forming as she approached, her eyes never leaving Zak. “Explains why I’ve always had better hearing than you,” she joked, “though isn’t it supposed to be the grandmother that’s the wolf?” Little red riding hood had always been her favourite story.
That was Dyanna. Nothing ever fazed her, at least not for long. She liked to look on the bright side of things, look for the positives. And it looked like she saw Zak as a positive. But really, Dyanna, settling down? It was unheard of.
“Come on,” she smiled, indicating for Zak to follow her.
“Dyanna, I think you need to have some time to think this over.”
“No, I don’t. You have always told me that even if you fight it, the attraction between mates, the pull will always win out.” My eyes locked with Ethan’s at her words. “Well, I don’t want to fight it. As far as I am concerned, the deeds already done. Now if you guys don’t mind, now that my mate has his head on straight, I think we need some time alone to… get to know one another.”
In a flash, Zak passed us and began dragging Dyanna down the hall. “Anyone even thinks of disturbing us and I will not be responsible for what my wolf does to you. I don’t even think he would listen to Kaia in that event.”
~
The Pack quickly put together a celebration of Zak and Dyanna’s mating. Not that they were present. They hadn’t come out of his room once since they had locked themselves away two days ago. Some of the old females were smiling about that fact, saying that they were probably sat staring into each other’s eyes lovingly.
Yeah, as if! Did they think this was some stupid, old romantic movie? No, they weren’t staring into each other’s eyes lovingly; they were having sex, loudly. So loud in fact that Ethan and I had had to leave our room to escape. And Zak’s room wasn’t even next door to us; there were at least three other rooms between us. Hell, I would hate to be the person stuck in the room next to them. If it was loud where we were, I dread to think what it was like being right next to them.
In the large dining room, all the tables had been pushed to the side of the room to clear space for dancing and filled with mountains of food. Wolves sure do eat a hell of a lot. Every meat on the planet seemed to be there. Some of it was brought from local butchers, but the majority of it had been hunted by the males of the pack especially for the occasion.
A few members of the coven had come, the few that got along with the pack that is. My mother was noticeably absent; I hadn’t talked to her since I’d left the day before the ritual. I’d sent her a text letting her know where I was and that the spell had worked, but I’d had no reply, not that I ever expected to get one. It had always been like that with my mother. We had never been close.
After getting me a small plate of food and himself a massive one, Ethan walked us over to the corner of the room where Frankie was sulking. He’d been pretty quiet since the whole thing with Zak and Dyanna. “Go get some food; you know how quick the best stuff disappears,” Ethan said, passing me my plate.
“Not hungry,” he muttered, slouching further down in his chair.
“You’re always hungry,” Ethan stated, looking down between his plate and Frankie. “Fine, have mine,” he sighed. “Back in a minute, sweetheart.” Kissing my cheek and walking back through the crowd to get himself another plate.
I took the seat beside Frankie and gazed at the plate of food sitting unwanted in his lap. This couldn’t go on. Someone had to snap him out of this funk. “Frankie, what’s wrong?”
“What makes you think anything’s wrong?”
“Let’s call it woman’s intuition,” I smiled.
Looking up at me, I could see the sadness in his eyes, feel his wolf’s loneliness. “In a matter of days, I’ve lost them both. First Ethan mates you, and now Zak has mated Dyanna.”
“Ethan and I aren’t mated, Frankie.” But with the bond growing stronger, getting harder to fight, I would be surprised if we weren’t for much longer. Even now, with him just across the room, I felt incomplete, anxious to have him back by my side.
“A technicality. You will be and you know it. You’re just playing hard to get.” Looking around the room, he sighed. “My wolf’s lonely; he’s pining for a mate he hasn’t even met, which makes me lonely too. Who am I going to hang out with now?”
“Just because they’ve both met their mates, doesn’t mean they’re not going to hang with you anymore. Though, it may be a while before we see Zak again,” I laughed, my joke causing the ghost of a smile to form on Frankie’s lips. “You’ll find your mate, Frankie. You just have to be patient.”
“Not one of his best qualities,” Ethan remarked, pulling a chair closer to mine and sitting down beside me. “Eat,” he ordered, spotting that Frankie hadn’t touched a morsel of his food.
Sitting in peaceful silence we eat, Frankie eventually taking a small bite of beef and then ravishing everything on his plate like a starving man. When all the food was gone and the empty plates cleared away, the music started, the room quickly filling as all the mated pairs gathered to dance. Grabbing my hand, Ethan pulled me to my feet. “Come on,” he urged.
I felt bad about leaving Frankie all by himself, but when I turned back to check that he was okay, he smiled and indicated for us to go. His eyes still showed the sadness within him but he was in a better state than he had been before. I hoped that he would find his mate soon. I hated to feel his wolf in pain like that.
We stopped in the centre of the dance floor, Ethan pulling me into his arms just as a slow song began to play. He held me so tightly that we couldn’t really dance, so we just swayed slightly as we looked into each other’s eyes.
I could see the love he felt for me, sense the possessive feelings of his wolf. I was his; there was no doubt about it. How could I deny him a full mating? I loved Ethan, always had. And he loved me. We hadn’t said the words to each other yet, but it was plainly obvious to both of us.
Over the past few days, we had spent every moment he wasn’t forced down into the vault together, getting to know one another anew. He hadn’t changed. He was still the same sweet, kind, fun, loving guy he had always been.
Looking back at Frankie, I felt his wolf aching, longing for a mate of its own. Would Ethan’s wolf eventually become like that if we never mated? Sad and lonely? I didn’t want that. I wanted him
to be happy, content, and complete. Both sides of him.
Cupping my face with one hand, his other at the base of my back, pulling me tighter against him, he kissed me gently, seeking entrance with his tongue that I gladly gave. Sometime later, many songs later if I'm honest, I broke the kiss, decision made.
“Ethan, I…”
My words cut off as I felt a trickle of magic pass over the room… dark magic. I gasped as the thickness of it swamped me, making the air in the room seem thick and unbreathable. Spinning quickly I searched for Grace, catching her eye just as Dyanna came skidding into the room wearing very little, if nothing at all under one of Zak’s t-shirts, followed by the man himself.
“What is that?” Ethan asked sensing it too. “Kaia, what’s happening?” Pulling my face back around to him, he searched my eyes for clues.
“I'm not sure yet,” I started as Grace and Dyanna arrived beside me, Alpha Edwards following shortly behind.
“My wolf is sensing magic in the area, but not any of yours.”
“There is dark magic being used nearby, if not on pack territory. If kind of feels like a…” I started casting my senses out, the air leaving my lungs as I realised exactly what I was feeling, “A summoning spell,” I gasped, gripping Ethan’s arm tightly as my legs threatened to give way. “Someone is trying to summon the demon.”
Chapter Seventeen
~
Ethan
It was just my fucking luck. Everything had been so perfect. Kaia had been in my arms, love shining in her eyes. The bond between us was now so strong that I had actually felt her acceptance of our mating the moment the decision had been made; I just needed her to voice it. And then the strange sense of magic had come over the room, a different, darker type of magic than I was used to, and the love and happiness I had felt from Kaia had turned into terror and distress.
