Selene’s words were eerily familiar. They were Esmine’s words. Trying to make sense of it all, Divina’s head spun. The feel of Aric’s arm across her body, protecting her, gave her a sense of footing.
“Mates are not one of the things that change,” Aric snarled.
“You see, the road to finding one’s mate is rarely as simple as finding one another at a coffee shop or a bar.” She looked up at them with that shit-eating-grin. “A lot of things happen between birth and mating.”
“I have no expectations of my mate being a virgin, so you can just take that shit—”
“Did she tell you that she gave him a pulse?” Selene smoothed the sheer fabrics over her thighs.
Silence.
“Ah.” Selene was amused. “I have your attention. So, I guess you know what that means. Yes?” Selene nodded. “Your mate was meant to start a dead heart.”
Putting his back to Selene, Aric turned toward Divina.
The intensity of his gaze forced Divina to look away feeling as though she’d betrayed him. The idea that a spell by the Ember Witches had brought them together shamed Divina. It wasn’t real. His feelings for her, his mark on her, nothing that he claimed was real.
His grip loosened and her heart broke. With a whimper, Divina’s need for it to be real, for them to be real, crashed into her so hard it nearly knocked her over.
“Originally, the prophecy stated that the vampire who belonged to the witch will take the throne to overthrow all who know.” Selene sang it with delight.
Divina, used the sheet as a shield against Selene’s words, gripping it tighter around her. That was not the prophecy Rori had told her. What game was this woman playing?
Swinging his head toward Selene, the rumble in Aric’s chest filled the room. “That wasn’t what you told me,” Aric countered.
Selene’s delight left her face. She sighed. “Yes, well, that would be because the Ember Witches got involved. Nosy bitches couldn’t leave well enough alone. No, they had to go and mess with a perfectly good vision.
“They got in there, and they dissected the vision,” Selene explained. “They chased down every witch, wolf, and vampire they could find at the point in fate that could change the prophecy. They found it in Divina Bihari, Roricus Fromm, and you my dear sweet, Aric Braun.”
“I have nothing to do with the vampire throne,” Aric declared.
His resolve seemed to steel, as his strength returned to his arm and he yanked Divina behind him again. Knocked off her balance once more, Divina felt like a ragdoll, physically and emotionally.
Selene rolled her eyes. “You’re the wolf. You are destined to defeat the vampire not worthy of the throne.” Selene groaned. “However, the key to this is you will only do this once you find your mate. And unfortunately, as we have tested, it must be your true mate, not just any witch you fuck.” She grumbled that last bit.
Fury burned in Divina once more. A territorial fire lit in her belly and her teeth clenched. She eyed the woman with pure hatred. She wasn’t his girlfriend. She was just a manipulative bitch who got into Divina’s mate’s bed to further her own cause.
The prickle of energy started in her core, spreading out to her limbs as Divina glowered upon Selene. Her fingers spread wide, curling slightly, twitching while the barbs of emotional turmoil took control of her call to power. Outside the trailer the wind howled, shaking the walls slightly. The one thing Divina had mastered thus far was harnessing the wind, and she’d use the full extent of it upon Selene if she had to.
“The only way for you to meet your mate was for your mate to bond with the vampire, and for him to choose power over her love. Really, if you think about it, Roricus is getting the shit end of the stick.” Selene seemed unfazed by Divina’s posture and the increased breeze outside and continued in her explanation. “I mean, he is forever tied to Divina here, but he never gets to have her. ’Cause she has to shack up with you”—she pointed to Aric—“so he can win the throne. You two get to go off and live happily ever after while Roricus pines for her forever.” She paused. “But then again, he gets to rule over all those who know, so I guess, it’s an even trade.” She shrugged.
Chapter 32
Patience wearing thin and the room tinged red, Aric’s wolf clawed within him for release. The inner beast sought to eradicate the unwanted female in their den. Fighting to keep human control, Aric closed the short distance between himself and Selene.
To her credit, she stood her ground with a tightened jaw.
With the repeated disregard for the sanctity of his home, Aric’s limits were tested. “Leave. You have entered my den twice without an invitation. That is two times too many. There will not be a third,” he said to Selene through clenched teeth.
With a twitch, Selene’s eyes lost their confidence. Fear reflected in them as she rose from the bed. Lifting her chin, she took a deep breath. Regarding Aric with an obviously false air of confidence, Selene stepped back.
“I just wanted to make sure you had all the facts,” she said with a quiver in her voice.
Eyeing Aric as she spoke, he suspected her words weren’t meant for him. She hadn’t presented any new facts to him, none that meant anything anyway. That left him to wonder what Selene knew of his mate, and what his mate had known.
Taking the last full step toward Selene, their bodies all but touched. Purposely invading her space, he glared down at her with malice. “I will rip your goddamn throat out if you don’t leave now.” He snarled as the wolf sought to howl with Aric’s vocal chords.
Swallowing audibly, fear reflected in her gaze. The scent of it wafted toward Aric as she lowered her eyes in submission. Cautiously, Selene stepped backward, out of his reach, then she turned and fled the trailer.
Now, he could focus on his mate. Satisfied the female presented no further discomfort to Divina, Aric turned.
Coiled in the navy sheets of his bed, he found Divina had paled during the altercation. Staring wide-eyed at where the woman had stood, she looked right through him.
Quick to her side, he wrapped her in a tight hug. He attempted to pull her against his chest, but she resisted.
Whimpering at the rejection, his wolf didn’t understand. Aric furrowed his brow holding her loosely.
“Divina?” he whispered.
Vacant pale blue eyes stared off as if she didn’t even see him.
Once more, Aric attempted to pull her to him.
Once more, she stiffened.
Aric squashed the urge to force her against him.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
With a slight shake of her head, the further silence amped up Aric’s and his wolf’s anxiety. His need to comfort her, to ease whatever bothered her, had him warring with respecting her boundaries. As much as he wanted to, he couldn’t force comfort onto her.
Blinking, she slowly tilted her head and her eyes seemed to focus on him. Good. She came back to earth. He could work with that.
“It’s all a Vrăji,” she whispered, “the witches,” her voice cracked, “it’s not real.”
“No,” he implored, wanting more than anything to make her doubt go away. “No spells. No witches. It’s real. I know it. Mates aren’t a spell. I can explain it to you.”
Lowering her tear-filled gaze, her quivering chin dipped.
“This… this… this whole thing,” she stammered and tried to pull away from him. “We have no say in it. The Ember Witches, they did this.”
Aric’s arms lingered around her, and his wolf snapped at him trying to get him to pull her back. Aric’s heart threatened to beat out of his chest while the rest of him lacked the ability to move.
Divina stepped further away from him and his hands slipped from her. Taking the last three steps she had, before the back of her legs collided with the night stand, she tripped over the sheet tangled in her legs, then on a pair of pants, before she fell to the head of the bed.
As much as Aric wanted to follow her, he didn’t. The knot in his stom
ach grew up to his throat. He couldn’t move. Anxious within him, trying to urge Aric toward his mate, his wolf howled in his mind, making it hard to concentrate.
What his wolf didn’t understand, but Aric the human did, was that his mate needed space to process. The more he crowded her, the less of a chance he’d have at keeping her.
“The prophecy. The council. The Ember Witches. Rori.” Divina resumed staring at the wall. “You.”
At the mention of the other male’s name, Aric’s wolf snapped. Tightening his jaw, fighting his inner animal with all he had, Aric took the three steps to Divina. Kneeling before her, in an attempt to convey he was no threat, Aric wouldn’t reach for her. He needed to be in her field of vision.
“You’re my mate,” he reminded her. “I claimed you. From this day forth I will be by your side to help you in all the challenges you face.”
“Don’t I get a say?” she asked, finally meeting his eyes. “Don’t I get to choose?”
Aric furrowed his brow. Choice? Why did choice matter? They were to be together. That was how mates worked. As much as the idea pained him, and he tried not to think of it, it had to be asked. “You want someone else?” he whispered. The wolf within raged within him. Every muscle in Aric’s body tightened to restrain the inner beast.
Divina pulled the sheet around her tighter, hiding her perfect body from him.
“I don’t know!” Her voice cracked. “But it should be my choice! You… you… you bit me!” Her hand went to her neck. “You didn’t give me a choice! You just did it. We don’t know anything about one another, but you did this thing! I have no control in any of this!”
Watching her face shift, Aric steeled himself for a physical attack from his mate.
With narrowed eyes, Divina’s mouth set in a hard line. Her jaw clenched and her pale blue eyes clouded.
“You think you can control my life. You think you can dictate all of this,” she shouted.
Her words lashed him as if she struck him with a whip. Unprepared for it, Aric gaped.
“I don’t—”
Pushing to her feet, Divina knocked him back on his butt.
“Well, you can’t! I choose!” Divina announced as she stepped over his leg.
“I never—” He tried again to scramble to his feet.
“You, and the witches, and Rori, all of you can bite my ass.” She dropped the sheet and grabbed her panties. “I will decide when I am good and ready.”
Momentarily stunned by her naked form, Aric’s throat went dry. Even his wolf quieted as the two basked in the raw beauty of their mate.
Blinking to focus, Aric found his voice. “I don’t want to force—”
Pointing an accusatory finger at him once she had her pants pulled up, she glared at him.
“But you did! You bit me! You said that was a claiming,” she reminded him. “So where was my choice in all that?” she growled. “You just did what you wanted. Just like Rori, just like the witches. No one consulted me in any of this. Just because we fucked doesn’t make me yours.”
Bending, Divina snatched the shirt from the floor.
Aric watched his mate march down the middle of his trailer with purpose. “Where are you going?” he asked.
Whirling toward him, she yanked the door open. “Wherever I want.”
Walls shook, the lock snapped, and Aric’s door slammed shut behind her. Bouncing back open, Aric caught a glimpse of her angry stomping paces moving away from him.
Unable to move, Aric blinked. Sitting back, naked, on his heels in his trailer, the earthy scent of his mate dissipated. The small space of his trailer suddenly felt vast in her absence. Glancing around the room, at his bed, at the dark spot of blood which had dripped from her neck onto his sheets, he couldn’t figure out what had just happened.
His wolf urged him to chase her, to make her see what she did.
Lifting the sheet she had wrapped around her, Aric brought it to his nose. Inhaling deeply, he took in her heavenly scent. Their joined scent from their coupling clung to his sheets.
An ache spread in his chest. He had no plan for what to do if his mate refused his claim to her. Flaring throughout his front, Aric rubbed at his sternum to ease the pain of the distance between him and Divina.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like that. Even when one was human, mates felt a pull toward one another. He was sure of it, yet his mate had just walked out. She’d left him to deal with the fallout of half a mating bond. The only way she could do that would be if she didn’t feel the pull but that was impossible.
Slowly, Aric lifted himself off the floor.
It would get worse the longer they were apart.
His wolf howled for her, and it rang in his heart. Frowning, Aric didn’t know what to do.
The walls felt as though they closed in on him. The floor rose and the ceiling shrank. The air got thick and Aric choked to breathe.
Forcibly scratching at his insides, Aric’s wolf wanted out. Pain radiated from his core outward. Aric fell back and writhed. Forcing the shift, the wolf took control. Aric gritted his teeth attempting to push the animal down. A snarl rose from Aric’s chest as the burn covered his skin. Fur poked through his pores. Aric rolled to his side and banged his fist on the floor.
“No!”
Letting the unpredictable animal out in its emotional state wouldn’t be good.
Spent from the multiple rounds with his mate, Aric was drained. Add Divina’s rejection and Aric had nothing left to fight his wolf.
His animal knew he was weakened and the shift was inevitable. Tired of being on the sidelines, his beast wanted out.
The crack of his legs snapping hobbled him, and Aric let out a shriek. Bones shifted into their canine place. Skin tore and blood splattered on to his floor while Aric futilely resisted and pain consumed his senses.
“Stop!” he begged his wolf.
The shift took longer when he fought it. It hurt more. The veins in his neck protruded as Aric tried to stop the change.
“AAAHHHHH!”
Aric’s back fractured, and a tail pushed forth from above his ass. Rolling onto his stomach in time for his arms to bend then break into their wolf shape, Aric gasped for breath spewing bile and spittle in the process. His fingers receded, and claws pushed out from his nails.
Aric gave in.
His jaw went next jutting forward, and his teeth grew in length.
Internally, Aric withdrew from the process finding a small corner of his consciousness to hide from the pain of the transition. Though, as hard as he tried, he couldn’t lessen the ache of Divina’s rejection.
He closed his internal eyes and allowed the wolf full control of their joined faculties. He didn’t want to watch. The angry and impulsive wolf intended to cause some serious harm. Aric didn’t have it in him to prevent it.
Where a man had once sat, now stood large brown wolf. Growling and sniffing the air, the beast intended to hunt.
Trotting down the center of the trailer, he pushed the half-closed door open and sprang out of it. Taking a moment to get a whiff of the breeze, the wolf didn’t hesitate. Running full speed, into the woods, the animal had a mission.
Aric sat in his mind, in pain, plotting.
Chapter 33
Fuming as she stormed away from the trailer, Divina had had enough supernatural nonsense. They could push her only so far. They all kept telling her how strong she was yet none of them thought to consult her about her own damn fate. Fuck all of them.
Fuck Rori and his throne. Let the world find out about him. Maybe he’ll learn how to treat people. Maybe it’ll teach him to be more human. He had a heartbeat now, and thanks to Divina he should be more human.
Fuck the Ember Witches and their manipulative ways. Who did they think they were? If they wanted her at their table, they should have come to her. They didn’t have to send Rori. They didn’t have to work all secret-like. She was a big girl; they could come and ask her themselves. She didn’t care if they didn’t ask someo
ne to be at their table, they should have been more forthcoming if the prophecy stated it.
Stomping her way through the field and trees surrounding Aric’s trailer, she paused. Turning in circles, she realized she’d lost her bearings.
“Fuck,” she muttered.
She hadn’t paid attention to where Aric drove. Without a clue to where she was, she found herself unsure how to get back to her truck at the diner.
They were near the park, that much she knew. Where, near the park, was another thing entirely. Taking her phone from her pocket, she pulled up a map app. With no road in sight, Divina groaned. According to her screen, she stood in a block of green, with streets quite a distance away.
Taking in the tall grass and woods around her, she huffed. There had to be a street around somewhere. Trudging along, still angry, she had more immediate concerns than the prophecy and the men who weren’t present. Divina needed to find a way to get somewhere, so she could think clearly.
Having chosen a direction, Divina could only hope it led to the park. As the trees thinned and grass transitioned to dirt, a hint of a path appeared. Praying she hadn’t turned herself around, she pressed on.
An annoying buzz began in the back of her mind the farther away she walked. Sounding like a power line or something, Divina dismissed any sort of concern. However, the buzzing persisted, and further inspection of her surroundings, she found no power lines.
Mentally yelling and telling everyone she knew to fuck off worked initially to drown out the noise. A twinge settled in her chest, replacing the buzz, causing her to stop and rub it out.
Divina wasn’t accustomed to so much walking and wrote off the ache in her chest to her non-athleticism. Dropping into a cross-legged position under a tree to enjoy the shade, she closed her eyes.
The Witch of the Prophecy Page 21