Jadelyn, so caught up in the changes in the room, didn’t notice that Liberty and her mate, Finn, were already there until she sat across from them at the table. Liberty was five foot nine with long perfect legs that matched her long, flowing, blonde hair, and she had the darkest eyes Jadelyn had ever seen. Her mate, Flynn, was a lanky looking shifter who stood around six foot four with dark-brown hair and eyes. They were the only other two, besides Ace and Chelsea, who stood by her side after learning of her latency. Jadelyn didn’t like the fact that she would have to go against them in the Alpha Battle. It was going to be hard battling against her friends since she didn’t want to hurt them in any way.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see her father’s Enforcers dismissing the clubs VIP bouncers to take their place to guard the entrances. Just as the bartender was handing Jadelyn her favorite drink, she started a conversation to catch up with her friends. With their jobs and Jadelyn training for the battle, they hardly spent time together as a group, even though Chelsea and Ace lived with her. Jadelyn was the only one out of the five of them who wasn’t putting her college degree to use. Instead of working, she trained day in and day out for the past twelve years—she was trained out by now. While the others talked about their work, Jadelyn spaced out until Liberty said something that caught her attention.
“Have you told her yet?” Liberty asked Chelsea while looking at Jadelyn.
“No, I was waiting for us to all be together,” Chelsea said as she rolled her eyes at Liberty.
“Tell me what?” Jadelyn asked as Flynn and Ace headed to the bar.
“You know how Ace and I always wanted to start our own learning school for all ages. Well, we wanted you to take on the business side of the school.” Chelsea and Ace always wanted to start a school where both wolf and other kinds of shifters, as well as other magical beings, could learn together. Right now, the schools were segregated and Chelsea, Ace, nor Jadelyn liked it.
“Is this the present you were talking about earlier?”
“Yes,” Chelsea answered.
Right after she answered, Jadelyn heard commotion coming from the VIP entrance. She was shocked when the Enforcers stepped aside to let whoever it was up the stairs. She smelled his scent before she even saw him. Her mate must have gotten the spell removed. Jadelyn was smiling at the thought of seeing her mate, but when she glimpsed who it was, Jadelyn dropped her drink from the shock.
***
Eli looked up at the circulating lights at the top of the brown building and noticed it said Paradise Nights. For a second he thought the club was closed, until someone opened the door he was standing in front of and the music began to pour out into the night air. The inside must be soundproof since I couldn’t hear the music until the door opened, Eli thought as he entered the club.
The first thing he noticed when he entered was the lights, mounted at the top of the ceiling above the dance floor, flashing different shades of green. The entire club was a dance floor except for the bar and VIP area. Once he spotted the VIP room, he began pushing his way through the crowd to get there.
Eli paused when he caught the scent he only smelled in his dreams. When he dreamed of the day he found his mate. Every shifter, when they hit the age of sixteen, was giving their mate’s scent through their dreams. Eli always caught the scent of cherries and blossoming flowers when he found his mate. Therefore, he named his mate’s scent cherry blossoms. In his dreams, he never saw the face of his mate, only smelled her scent. He caught the smell of cherry blossoms once again and thought, where is my mate? I need to find her. Eli began pushing through the crowd trying to find his mate. He didn’t hear the male shifters welcoming him back home or feel the female shifters as they tried to pull him to the dance floor. Eli had a one-track mind at the time, which was focused on finding his mate. He knew the scent was leading him to the VIP room, so he made a mad dash for it.
After fighting his way through the crowd, he was finally at the bottom of the stairs that led to where his mate was. At first, he had a problem getting past the Enforcers at the bottom of the stairs, until they noticed his distinct hair and eyes. No other shifter was blessed with light brown hair with striking gray streaks and gray eyes, which matched the streaks in his hair.
As he was making his way up the stairs, he caught a whiff of cherry blossoms, the scent he had been looking for since he was sixteen. He shut his eyes and let the essence of his mate lead him to where she was. He felt as though he was flying, and nothing could bring him down since he was about to see his mate. As he drew closer to his mate’s scent, his wolf began to growl out ‘Mate’ and claw at the surface.
As he followed his mate’s scent up the stairs, the sound of glass hitting the ground caused him to speed up. What he saw before him made the past and the present make sense to him. The strong connection they had when they were younger that just wouldn’t break as the years flew by. Why Jadelyn’s face was the first thing he saw in his mind when he woke up and the last face he saw just before closing his eyes. The tattoo of her name he got just because he couldn’t stop thinking about her that day. Now all of it made sense to him. He could tell it was confusing to Jadelyn just by the look on her face.
***
Jadelyn had to get out of there, she couldn’t breathe, she couldn’t believe it. No wonder she couldn’t get him out of her head over the years. He was her mate, but why didn’t he write to her in all those years. Jadelyn couldn’t help but think the worst of him. Maybe he didn’t write me or come back because he knew I was latent and his mate. She was beyond pissed. He promised her he would return to the Isle on his eighteenth birthday and never did. He could have at least written me and told me he wasn’t coming back, she thought as she made her way toward the door. She couldn’t let anyone see her emotions. She couldn’t let them think she was weak, so instead of telling Eli how she felt, she left through the second exit with Chelsea following closely behind her.
***
Jadelyn was his mate. Now he understood the strong connection they had when they were younger, and why she was the only female shifter he could see being a part of his future. Before he could open his mouth, Jadelyn brushed past him as she made her exit, with the Enforcers following closely behind her. He tried to follow her to see what was wrong, but Ace grabbed him before he could exit the VIP room and pulled him toward the bar.
Eli was shocked and he didn’t understand why Jadelyn was angry with him when he should have been the one angry with her for sending back his letters unopened for the past eighteen years. From the letters Ace wrote him over the years, he knew Jadelyn was still stubborn and wouldn’t tell him anything until she was ready. So instead of following behind her and getting nowhere with her, he decided to ask Ace since he knew Ace would know something. Eli turned to the left on the barstool so he could face Ace while he asked him the questions running through his mind, giving him a headache as each question chased the next.
He needed to make sure he was being truthful with him and not just taking Jadelyn’s side. “I am going to ask you some questions and I need you to be truthful with me, even if you think it will hurt me or Jadelyn. This is too important. Shit, why is she mad at me? I mean, fuck, we just found out we are mates, something we dreamed about happening since we were kids?”
Ace looked at him with a strange look on his face. “You have got to be fucking kidding me, right? She hasn’t seen you since you guys were twelve years old, and on top of that, you fucking never wrote her back after all the times she had written you over the years.” The stunned look on Eli’s face was enough for them both to gulp down their drinks before listening to his answer.
“What the fuck do you mean she wrote me over the years and I haven’t responded? I am the one who never received a letter from her, even though I sent letter after letter to her since I left this Isle. All my letters were sent back to me unopened, and I even sent letters to the both of you asking about the unopened letters, but you never responded back about them,” Eli said
as he looked at Ace. He was trying to understand what exactly Ace was saying to him.
“Eli, she sent you a letter the next day after you left, actually, all of us wrote you together and was standing right next to her father when he sent them all off to you. We received your letters, but Jadelyn never did and after a few months, shit, she gave up on trying to get you to write her back. We even asked you in our letters why you weren’t responding to Jadelyn’s letters,” Ace answered since he was still confused.
When he absorbed everything Ace had told him, Eli stood up and made his way toward the door. Before he pulled the glass door open, he turned around to Ace and said with a growl in his voice, “I was writing her, I have all the letters I wrote her locked away on my bike. I have no idea what the fuck is going on, but I am going to find out. Warn everyone to stay out of my way while I do.”
As he was walking down the stairs, Ace called out to him, “If you still have the letters you sent to her, you should drop them by her house before going home so she can see you didn’t abandon her once you left.” He didn’t respond, he just kept walking. Once outside, he took his phone out of his pocket and placed a call.
After what seemed like an eternity, he finally pulled up in front of Jadelyn’s house just as her father was. Baron waited by the front door for him while he pushed a secret button on his bike that opened up a secret compartment that held his backpack filled with all the letters he sent and he received over the years. He lightly jogged toward the front door as he swung the backpack over his left shoulder.
“Thanks for calling me, Eli. I will stay out here until you talk to her and give her everything you think will help.”
Eli bowed to the Alpha out of respect as he said "thank you" before making his way to Jadelyn’s room.
***
Jadelyn jumped out of the car and slammed the door before it could come to a complete stop in front of her house. The Enforcers and Chelsea were not that far behind her and followed her to the house. Before they could enter behind her, she slammed the door in their faces. Shocked by her actions, they didn’t say anything to her. They knew she must have been pissed to let her emotions show. She hadn’t let her true feelings show since the day almost everyone turned their backs on her.
Jadelyn took out her anger on the stairs as she stomped up them on her way to her room. The windows in her room shook when she slammed the door. She was so pissed she was taking it out on everything in sight. In a hurry, she ripped off her dress and quickly pulled on her pajamas. She had to write her mother before she went crazy. Son of a bitch—MEN!
She couldn’t believe this! She wished her mother were here so she could talk to her about everything she had just learned, but since she couldn’t, Jadelyn did the next-best thing. Before writing in her diary, she looked around her room, which she hadn’t changed since she was a teenager. The walls in her room were a moss green color. Her trunk, with the many stuffed animals she kept dear to her heart, rested under her bed. All except the one she slept with in her queen sized canopy bed. Caleb is a tattered old brown teddy her mother gave her when she was younger. Her pear-colored vanity sat in front of her window. Leaning over in her bed, she snatched Caleb, tucked him under her arms, and turned to see Chelsea standing in her doorway. Before she began writing, she said, “Chelsea, can you give me some time alone so I can write my mother. I will come to your room once I’m finished.” She knew Chelsea just wanted to help her, but she had to write her mother alone.
Chelsea nodded her head and left, closing the door behind her.
Dear Mom,
You will never guess what I have found out just a few moments ago, and on my birthday at that. It turns out the reason I couldn’t find my mate when I turned sixteen was because my mate is Eli. I can’t believe this! Why is everything in my life going wrong? I am so pissed off I could kick somebody’s ass right now, but I will save it for the Alpha Battle, which will happen in two days. Mom, after everything Eli and I went through together, why couldn’t he just write me back at least one time? I believe I deserved that at the very least.
Jadelyn blinked back her tears of anger before they slipped down her face. Just as she was about to continue writing she heard someone knock on her door. She knew it was her father. Chelsea must have told him what happened, and he was coming to see what was wrong with her. She waited for him to enter since he usually knocked and a few seconds later entered, but when he didn’t, Jadelyn became confused. “Come in, Dad.”
When she looked up, she noticed it was Eli, but before she could call her father’s Enforcers to get rid of him, she looked at his face. The sincerity in his eyes made her place the phone back in the cradle and look at him. He stood there for a while in her doorway just staring at her, not saying anything.
Eli waited by the door for a while trying to calm his wolf down. His wolf was growling inside for him to mate with Jadelyn, now. He knew he had to give her time to digest everything and read the letters. “Jadelyn, I know you think I ignored your letters and never wrote you, but I never got your letters, and the letters I sent you were sent back to me unopened. Here are all the letters I sent you over the years. Read them and I will be back early tomorrow so we can spend time with each other at our spot.” His wolf was at the brink of taking over. He had to get out of there for Jadelyn’s sake.
Before she could say anything, Eli turned and left. Without even thinking, Jadelyn reached for his backpack and pulled out the letter that looked older than the rest from all the wear and tear. Jadelyn was opening up the letter with shaking hands that she almost ripped it in the process. Luckily, it was still intact when she pulled it out.
Dear Jadelyn,
I know it has only been a day since I have left, but I already miss you. I don’t understand why we had to leave the Isle of Paradise in the first place, especially right after both of our mothers’ deaths. You are the only person I can be myself around and tell everything I am thinking. Something is not right with the way they died in the car, and our fathers are still grieving so they will never question it. I just want to know how a car can blow up on the most secure magical isle. Someone had to be behind it. What I am trying to say is somehow, someway, I will find my way back to you and figure out what happened to our mothers. I know I had to leave before your birthday, so I taped your present underneath your vanity.
Always,
Eli
Jadelyn slowly got off her bed and made her way to her vanity by the window. After moving the chair out of her way, she crawled underneath the vanity, and sure enough, something was duct taped at the back of the vanity. Over the years, the tape must have loosened because all it took was one hard pull for the tape to give way. As she crawled out, she heard her father clearing his voice.
“Jadelyn, what are you doing under there?”
“I read the first letter Eli sent to me and it led me to a present he left right before my thirteenth birthday,” she answered her father as she tore the tape off and opened the jewelry box. Inside the box was a silver necklace with a starfish charm on it with engraving on the front and back of the starfish. On the front in light green engraving were both of their initials E & J, turning it around, she saw Best friends with the infinity symbol underneath it. She kept turning it in her hand, caressing it, staring at it as if it had all the answers to her questions. She wanted to know why Eli didn’t come back eleven years ago when he turned eighteen. Why would someone want to take the letters they had written each other? Jadelyn thought if she could just get the necklace on, then some of the confusion, some of the chaotic emotions she was feeling, would calm inside her.
“Dad, can you help put this on.”
Her father walked all the way into her room as she turned around and handed the necklace to him. Baron hooked it onto his daughter’s neck and turned to leave. He knew she would want her space while she thought things through and when she was ready, she would talk to him. Eli and her mother were the only shifters she told everything to. It took her longer to open up
to everyone else around her, her father included. Just as he was walking out, he turned back around. “I will stay with Jake at the private hospital for two more days until it is time for the battle to start and then Ace’s father will take over for me so you guys won’t have to worry about his safety. Just have fun and meet me at the battle an hour ahead of time.”
She wanted to ask her father why Jake was at the private hospital but knew he would just tell her to ask Eli tomorrow.
She nodded her head and then her father closed the door. Jadelyn walked to her bathroom to get ready for bed. After washing her face and brushing her teeth, she walked back into her bedroom, preparing herself to read the rest of Eli’s letters, when she noticed Ace was now sitting at her vanity while Chelsea was sitting on her bed.
“So what happened when Eli came over?” Chelsea asked as Jadelyn put her dress in the dry-cleaning basket.
Jadelyn climbed onto her bed next to Chelsea as she told them everything that happened when Eli stopped by earlier.
“Can I read the rest of the letters with you? I want to see what they say,” asked Chelsea.
Ace rolled his eyes as he stood up. “I am going to be in our room while you two do that girly stuff.” I can’t wait until Eli moves in, Ace thought as he walked out of Jadelyn’s room and down the hall into his and Chelsea’s room. They moved into the Alpha’s house right after Jadelyn started receiving the gruesome pictures and threats, so they could be there with her in case someone decided to take the threats further. When they won the Beta Battle, without their second mate, they would move into the Beta house, and learn from his fathers and mother until it was time for them to take over.
Alpha Battle (Isle of Paradise) Page 3
