New Beginning : A Beautiful Ethereal Creature (Spirit Wolf Book #1)

by Jacqueline Hakitten

  “Can’t we just kill him?” Lea asked and I could hide my shock. “Of course not. We don’t have solid proof of his betrayal and the future couldn’t be counted as one. We are neither barbarians nor monsters to kill one of our own without proper reasons. I know it would solve a lot of problems in the future but I couldn’t give the order or do something like that.” I shook my head. I did like what she was suggesting but my consciousness could not accept this.

  “Then I would use my voice on him for now and we would pray to Moon Goddess for her guidance and protection. We could keep him in prison for all I care.” Hannah said visibly tired of this drama as well. She never liked him which I could understand. As I said before he wasn’t always like that. There was a time when even I was looking up to him. But I guess losing your mate would change you for good.

  Chapter 26

  One month later - September

  REI’S POV:

  “Can we… Please… Can we have a break?” I said completely out of breath. I swear Zack is trying to kill with this training. My day starts really early. I take a cold shower, take my sweatpants and crop top, and go grab my breakfast which is something light to eat and keep in my stomach. I know I should eat properly but the first two days he made me puke out my breakfast so I decided to come with something light that would not bother my stomach during his absolutely terrifying training. Inside our underground was a strange room. It was a completely soundproof but weird shape like a hexagon. There were three long stairs around the walls and the middle part lower. The room itself was not particularly big but for two people who were fighting each other, it was enough.

  “Don’t tell me you are already tired. We barely started.” Zack replied to me but I was really out of my breath. He was literally throwing me around like I was just some rag doll. ‘Why it seems that I don’t make any improvements. It has already been two weeks now and I still feel weak against his attack.’ I asked Maat.

  ‘You do make progress but you never trained this way. You have great muscle structure but he is a trained warrior. Just make sure to carefully follow his movements so later we could use them as ours and try to practice the movements he is showing us.’ Maat instructed me. I was afraid that her talk actually meant that I would be his play doll for several more weeks.

  The only reason I was not walking around black and blue was thanks to our fast healing. Each bruise healed shortly after lunch. Well, Emily said that my healing abilities are extremely fast even for a wolf. Not even bruises should be healed so quickly so that might be the reason Zack decided to fasten and intensified my training. I want to cry honestly.

  “Half of the time I am on the ground. You don’t give me time to recuperate at all.” I whined still panting as I tried to calm down my breathing. I know it was useless this I learned also in a few days the training started. My whining got me only several more minutes which was actually everything I wanted at this moment. We are here like one hour now and I could feel that both of my tights are already getting a nice green color. I have some beautiful purple decoration around my wrists and upper hands and about my back, I would rather stay quiet.

  “You know it is actually strange. You heal pretty quickly but at the same time for a wolf, your skin gets bruised too fast. I made Tamara undergo the same training and despite being my mate I didn’t hold myself back training her because I knew her life might depend on that.” He actually sat beside me handing me a bottle of cold water from the cooling box. No matter what story he would like to tell me I want to definitely listen to it if that meant break for me.

  “She also got some pretty nice bruises but not so quickly after the training and they never went black like yours plus she was healing at a much slower pace than you do. You are strange.” He added taking my hand checking the bruise that was around my wrist which he held and twisted just a few minutes ago.

  “My pack was not fighters. They could fight long enough to distract the enemy so my mom could hide me but they were no fighters. With any kind of attack, we had no chance to defend and survive.” I commented on my voice down and full of regrets and sadness. “Maybe that’s the reason I am not a good fighter and couldn’t really oppose you when you are cleaning the floor with me here,” I said trying to make a joke just to cheer myself up. He gave a little smile but I could see that his eyes held the same sadness as mine. I don’t know if he actually knew the origin of his own mate so I could only guess if he keeps this for my pack, for his or for his mates. Who knows, maybe for all three.

  “Alright, you got your break now let’s back to work.” He said out of the blue which almost startled me. I didn’t feel like I got some rest and after the last sequence, my body was still sore. I am sure this training is going to kill me. I made a whining sound and he looked at me amused.

  We both turned our gaze when we heard the door being unlocked. “Who is there?” Zack asked with a strong voice. Calen told us to lock the door just in case someone would try to barge in. But knowing that we are the floors under the ground I wouldn’t expect someone seriously to come.

  “It’s me Calen.” I heard the voice of my mate. ‘Why you didn’t link me or Zack to let you in?’ I asked him laughing. He was like a child trying to sneak in but sadly for him, we kept the key inside the lock. I went straight to the door to open for him. ‘I wanted to surprise you, princess.’ He said and his voice was deep and husky.

  “So how is the training? Any improvements? Do you feel stronger?” He started uttering one question after another checking me from head to toe what I was wearing and narrowing his eyes every time he caught a bruise on my body. “Don’t you think that you might be overdoing it a little bit?” His gaze turned to Zack angry from the colorful marks all over my body.

  “We let the doctor check it. She heals extremely fast which you know but she also gets bruises really fast bro. Do you think she would be still standing in front of you if I would be overdoing it?” He gave a serious question and Calen looked at me and my face again. I think he had to admit that something about what Zack said had to be true given the fact that except those bruises I was still standing and looked normal, tired but normal. Sadly, he didn’t come like ten minutes ago; maybe Zack would get his ass kicked. I just sighed going over to my spot ready to get another beating.

  “Actually, today’s training needs to be canceled. There are some urgent matters I need to discuss with Rei.” Calen said abruptly, seeing me getting ready to continue. I turned to him puzzled. What should be so urgent that he came himself instead of just mind-link Zack and tell him to bring me? Maybe something Zack has no idea about? It was strange and the expression Calen had on his face was unreadable for me. I had no idea what was going on.

  “Alright then. Tomorrow morning. You could take the rest of the day to relax.” Zack informed me and honestly, I was not so sure I want that. If we would not continue today, he would definitely make it much harder tomorrow. Now I seriously felt like I want to cry out loud.

  Zack collected his staff and left the room. I wanted to do the same but Calen closed the door after him and motioned for me to sit down. “This room is the only completely safe and soundproof room. We actually use it as a court to judge criminals, well if we have some, and the Elders meeting room when we need to discuss some important matters.” He explained to me and now I understood the strange shape of the room. It was representing six people who were ruling over the pack.

  “I see,” I replied to him. “So, what was so important that it couldn’t wait and you could not even mind-link me with that?” I asked him and he kissed me on my temple. “Firstly, I wanted to see you. Secondly, I thought you might use the break from daily training. You spent half of the day locked here just training, so I used this information as an excuse to get you for myself. It is in fact not that serious.” He said smiling, taking my hand in his and the second one he wrapped around my shoulder to pull me closer.

  “Ah, I see. So, the bad scary Alpha is just getting jealous of not seeing his little mate so
often.” I teased him and I could hear a deep and low growl coming from his throat. “Of course, I am jealous. You are half of the day with another man.” He whined and I had to admit it was cute. “Don’t forget that it was you who appointed this training and the trainer,” I replied to him and he was pouting. I kissed him on his lips passionately showing my affection towards him. His lips welcomed me and he kissed me back. After a short time, I pulled away and he was pouting again.

  “So, what was the news you wanted to tell me?” I asked him still staying inside her warm hold feeling the touching of our sides. I loved to sit so close to him especially when his hand was around my shoulders and the other was holding both hands in his lap.

  “It is not really news. You remember Ismail, right?” He asked me and I nodded. “One month ago, Hannah, me and Lea, we stripped him of his Elders privileges and his title and put him in jail. He was in jail from then and until yesterday.” He said and his face annoyed and bothered. “Why? What did he do?” I asked him and seeing the face Calen did after those questions I could bet my life that it had something to do with me. Ismail was one of the seven people who knew now about my wolf and about my past.

  “He didn’t approve of you becoming Luna and spoke very disrespectfully towards me. We were discussing what to do with him and Hannah made him go through the blood vow to keep quiet about your secret yet we still didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t want to stay in the pack and we could not let him free either. He could not be trusted.” He spoke slowly and I could really feel distressed in his voice. I know he was fair and he would not hurt someone without the reason so I understood his struggle with what he was telling me now. The logic would be to simply take his life to make him stay quiet.

  “Shh,” I tried to soothe him up. “I know that the logical thing would be to take his life but that would mean you would have to give up on your principles. If you would do that just to keep me safe then you would not be the person I fell in love with.” I told him and his eyes locked with mine. I could really see the struggle he had to make through. He could have told me about this one month ago but he decided to deal with it without me not to bother me.

  “Thank you.” He said, giving me another kiss. “But now we might have a problem because he escaped from prison. We found both guards dead. If I would have killed him the moment, I knew he was already against me and against you those two would be alive now.” He explained to me. He blamed himself for their death. “It was not your fault. You couldn’t punish the killer and traitor with the death sentence before he committed the crimes that would make you a killer. I feel sorry for those two men too. They should not have to die but you could not prevent it either. You could set him free but that would mean compromise my secret and endanger the pack, so I understand you could not do that either. You had really no choice in this matter, you just need to understand this. Not everything could be controlled as we want.” I told him to take his hand off my shoulder and instead of this I gently pushed his head down onto my lap so I could stroke his hair. He obliged and lay down, leaving his head in my lap and looking up at me with sadness in his eyes.

  “There is one more thing. Tamara came to us one more ago when we were deciding what to do with him and warned us that he would come back and retaliate, but she didn’t know when and with whom.” He told me and I shook my head and gave him an ensuing look. “You are who you are and I love you for that Calen. I would not want you any other way. You are fair and honest and you follow the unwritten wolf codex. As I said before the criminals couldn’t be punished before they commit the crimes, those are our rules and we should follow them. Sadly, I don’t know much about the abilities of the Crescent moon pack so I don’t know how Tamara’s powers work properly but if he would come, I am sure we would stand our chance and we would defeat him.” I told him with a firm and strong voice. I believed that. I would train more and in three months on my birthday, I would get my powers as well. We would see what that as*hole could do after that.

  “I love you; do you know that?” He told me and I could read the love deep inside those icy blue eyes. Of course, I knew it. He showed me his affection every single day. “And I love you, you know that?” I asked him back and he gave me a smile pulling my head down and meeting in the middle with his lips. We were once again caught in a deep kiss and I wished this moment to stay forever.

  Bonus Chapter

  CALEN’S POV:

  “Come with me.” I took Rei’s hand and was pulling her towards me. “Where?” She asked me back. “That’s a surprise.” I grinned at her. I wanted some little time only for us. It had been three months since I first saw her in the pond beside her cabin in the woods and honestly, we didn’t have much time only for both of us. The first month was very harsh for me, especially the first two weeks when I could not see her. Then she was here in our pack land but she was establishing her laboratory and mostly spent her time working with Emily on medicine and cosmetics so she could produce for the people in the city and Emily was helping her to fill our small hospital or maybe more like a huge infirmary. Depends on how you look at it. The underground we built under the pack house was way bigger than just the floor plan of the building so that we could get more space to use. Last month I could not spend that much time because of the Ismail problem but today, today I want just for us.

  “You know I am not very good with surprises.” She whined and it was cute. She actually didn’t like surprises at all. Firstly, she hated to wait and secondly, she was terrible at guessing. Once she knew there was some surprise, she couldn’t resist to guess what kind of surprise and tried to convince me to tell her immediately.

  I loved to tease her too much, I guess. “Oh, you are very good with surprises. I always end up so amused.” I teased her and she pouted her lips. Just a few more months and I would eat those lips and everything that is attached to them.

  “Keep doing this and I would kiss you again. One time I would not be able to control myself and we would see how you could beg me.” I told her pretending to be deadly serious and started to make the groping gesture with empty hands. She instinctively covered her chest like I was the creepiest thing around.

  “No, you couldn’t do that to me. I am still underage.” She pouted again and I couldn’t resist starting smiling. “You are still a wolf, my cute little mate, don’t forget that,” I told her while making one more step towards her so I could place my hand on her cheek. “Be glad that I am so amazing with my self-control and that Thoth is actually caring for you more than you could even imagine,” I informed her. It was true. Thoth was extra overprotective when it comes to her and just the imagination of us jumping on her and taking her against her would make him dangerous and furious. Sometimes I feel like this guy inside my head is actually not my wolf but the good part of my consciousness. ‘You bet I am. You are the animal here not me.’ He replied back to my thoughts and I had to laugh at his comment. ‘I guess I am.’ I replied to him deep in the laugh.

  “So, what is the surprise?” She asked me to shake gently to get my attention since I was back in my mind talking to Thoth. “Nothing,” I replied to her. “You would see if you come with me,” I told her firmly and turned to walk away. I knew that she would follow me. She was actually like a child when it came to presents and surprises but given to how much she lost I didn’t care. It was my time to spoil her and I was planning to do just that.

  “Are you following?” I shouted loud without turning my gaze. I knew she did. I could sense her just a few meters away from me. Once I was at the edge of our territory and made sure there is no one around exactly as I instructed the patrol I ran. I could hear her nearby so I increased my speed. She was training for a little over two weeks now but I knew that her speed is not rapidly increased. My goal was not to outrun her and leave her somewhere behind so I kept my pace to make it easy for her to follow me.

  I sensed her right behind me when she realized where we were heading. “You lead us to my cabin, don’t you?” She as
ked once she matched her speed with me and was now right beside me. “Maybe.” I winked at her while giving my reply.

  She punched me onto my shoulder. Okay, I have to admit her strength did increase a little bit. “Is that supposed to hurt?” I asked her jokingly. She was so cute while trying to be angry, giving me a deadly look but no matter how much she tried she was always cute.

  “This is not fair.” She pouted again and tried to pick up a higher speed to run away from me. Too bad for her I was full of energy since I actually met her and because there are not many activities with my lovely mate that would take out the stored energy, she had no chance to outrun me. In less than a second, I was again right beside her. “Trying to run away from me little princess?” I poked her shoulder and she tried on me her deadly look. “I swear if you could kill just by the look, I would be dead now. I am glad you don’t have such powers.” I said completely amused and she bit her lips. Once she started biting her lips, the situation always became too dangerous, well, at least for her.