by M L Briers
The sound of movement behind her sent her sideways into the nearest underbrush where she ducked down and pulled her shields tightly around her like a skin tight bubble that cloaked her from the world around her. That might help with sound and smell, but she didn’t have the power to make herself invisible to the eye. If she was seen then it would be game over. The dowdy pair of shoes that stopped just in front of where she was hiding gave the game away long before the feel of magic tapped against her shields.
“If we’re helping Eloise then we need to get going.” Wendy’s voice drifted all around her and she rolled her eyes, feeling somewhat stupid, before she pushed up and out of the shrubbery.
“If I’d known it was you…” She muttered, brushing her hands down over her clothes to rid herself of anything untoward in the spider department. How she loathed spiders, and her skin prickled and crawled at the thought of it…
Then both witches turned as one towards the feel of the supernatural that washed over their skin. Annabeth shivered against the feel of it. Perhaps it wasn’t a spider after all but a damn vampire…
Eloise followed Rebecca without question. Her mind was racing and her body was on full alert for the feeling of anything supernatural that maybe lurking around them. It was harder to do with the she-wolf’s presence than she’d anticipated, but she kept at it in the hope that if Eduardo was close by she would pick it up and have the advantage of being forewarned before he struck.
She noted the way that Rebecca hesitated in her stride and the woman’s nose tipped up in the air as she took in the scents around them. The way the woman’s back and shoulders tensed put her own body on alert and she felt the crawl over her skin that only a vampire could bring and pulled on her magic so that it danced at her fingertips like electricity.
“Rebecca, be careful…” She breathed out on a half whisper that made the woman’s ears twitch. A moment later Rebecca took off on fast feet away from her. For a few seconds Eloise started after her, trying to keep up before the realisation dawned on her that maybe she wasn’t meant too.
Eloise came to a dead stop and pushed her magic out all around her, searching for the vampire’s touch again, but she couldn’t quite find it. The sudden painful cry that pierced the air, not close, but not a million miles away made her stomach hurt and her body tense. She started off in that direction as fast as her feet could carry her.
Her hands pushed at the stray branches that barred her way as the sound grew in intensity. A sane person might have considered running in the opposite direction but Eloise had a feeling that the cry had come from Rebecca and no matter what the she-wolf’s intentions were towards her, she felt the need to not let another woman suffer at the hands of her mother’s killer. Pushing out into a small clearing; her feet hit the soft immovable object on the ground and she felt herself falling.
Thrusting her arms out in front of her; she managed to keep her upper body from hitting the ground, but only just. She quickly pulled her legs over the mound and snapped her head around to see what it was that had felled her, and her heart stopped beating in her chest for what felt like the longest time as she sat there frozen in place. The sight of Rebecca blindly staring at her with her throat ripped open propelled her mind back fifteen years to the horror of her mother’s body lying so still, with her eyes open-just staring but not seeing, as she took her mother’s hand and tried to get her to wake up.
CHAPTER SIX
The cry that came from Eloise lips was mixed with the loss of another life and the frenzy of anger that tore through her. There wasn’t a day that went by when some sight, some sound, some smell didn’t reminded her of that night, didn’t make her flashback to that memory in her mind. But this was the worst, it felt as if she was a child again, as if she was sitting by her mother’s side, and she went to reach for Rebecca’s hand when she felt the crawl of acknowledgement over her skin.
She knew he was close. Her skin buzzed with the feel of him, and she felt the rush of emotion that had battered and scared her as a child, helplessness. Her eyes flicked nervously around the woods and she scoured the shadows that resided in the darkness there for any sign of him as the trees seemed to close in around her. A heartbeat later and he dropped down to the ground in front of her, a look of curiosity on his face as he twisted his head to one side and regarded her with a sneer of contempt…
“I remember those eyes…” He offered as if her mere presence amused him.
Something inside her seemed to snap on. Like a rush of power, a feeling of pure emotion that swirled within her stomach and filled her with her magic, and she felt that push that had brought her to this place, an unseen force, a knowing that she could… She wasn’t certain what it was that she could do, but something told her that she had to try.
She dragged herself up to her feet and watched him eyeing her with curiosity. She gave him no chance to elaborate as she raised her hands and called on the elements to help her with her task… His head snapped upwards as the trees started to sing with the sound of the wind…
The pack had been alerted to the vampire’s presence by Rebecca’s connection with them through the link. The sound of her cry had given them a beacon to aim for as they chased through the woods on fast paws. When the winds came, it didn’t go unnoticed, and the closer the pack came to where Rebecca’s blood called them, the harsher the winds became.
‘That has got to be magic…’ Jethro growled out into the link between the wolves as they chased on.
‘The only question is which mate is it?’ Dexter offered out and heard the growls from a couple of his pack brother’s come back to him.
‘There are three witches on pack land…’ Alex offered and Dale snorted his agreement.
‘What are the odds that it’s Wendy the Witch?’ Dexter knew it wasn’t the time or the place to rub his brother’s up the wrong way, but a little leg pulling never was a bad thing in his book.
‘Doesn’t matter who it is…’ Jethro offered. ‘Just need to get there and help her out some.’ He added into the collective.
He could scent Rebecca’s blood in those winds and he didn’t want to be scenting the blood of another female. There would be time enough to argue over the semantics of the witch’s meddling later, especially if it had caused Rebecca to become hurt or worse. Right now they needed to focus on the task at hand and slay the vampire before he took lives.
Annabeth hit the clearing first. The winds that swept the trees this way and that were clearly the work of the witch and she didn’t think it was Wendy, she knew that she wasn’t doing it and that just left Eloise, or did it? Maybe there was another. When her eyes took in the scene of the downed She-wolf, with her head turned away from her, and a little witch with her arms outstretched, she had her answer.
Wendy stepped in beside Annabeth and took the scene in with a serene smile. She knew that Eloise would be powerful and now she could see just how powerful. It was time that all three of them joined their powers together, started the bond of the Coven, and put their trust in each other’s magic.
“Help her…” Wendy called over the sound of the wind screaming about them.
“How?” Annabeth could do magic, but she couldn’t do that kind of magic, she didn’t know how. She wasn’t used to working with anyone else.
“Just gather your magic and push it out towards ours, you’ll feel a connection, trust in that feeling, that power…” Wendy was already raising her arms and was reaching out for Eloise’s magic when Annabeth rushed to do the same. She’d pushed her magic out before to test the waters and to see who had or was using magic around her, and she dearly hoped this wasn’t any different…
Eloise felt the tapping on her body as if their magic was knocking at the door to be allowed in. She wanted the vampire to suffer, she wanted to be the one to make him suffer, and yet the feeling of the power that came from all around her was too tempting an offer to deny. She opened the door and allowed their magic inside her…
In true alpha style Jet
hro hit the clearing first. His wolf snarled and pulled up at the feel of the magic in the air, it felt like electricity bristling over his fur, reaching to his skin, and it tingled and warned him to back off. Jethro held his ground against his wolf’s better judgement as the betas and enforcers gathered at the edge of the clearing…
‘What the hell?’ Alex looked at Eloise. Her skin was practically glowing with an aura that was like looking at the moon’s light on a hazy night; glints of colour sparked like an electrical storm, but her face was twisted with such hate that he almost didn’t recognise the person that stood in front of him.
‘Could it be the magic…?’ Dexter growled out, fearful that the witches were using something he’d once heard described as dark magic…
‘I can feel the hate from her. She despises him. I can practically taste it on my damn tongue…’ Alex couldn’t describe exactly what it was, an acidic taste, maybe venom…
The vampire seemed to be held in place on the spot. Battered and beaten by the winds that lashed against his body. His head moved fast as he took in all three witches and yet the rest of him didn’t seem to be able to go anywhere.
Then the scent of his blood filled the air… One after another; long, thin, deep cuts started to appear through his clothing as he cried out and cursed into the winds. His dark blood seeped into the material and spread out as if trying to connect together and stain his clothes crimson, and all the while Eloise fingers just flicked out towards him.
‘What the hell do we do?’ Dexter asked Jethro as he flicked his eyes to his alpha and back again. The macabre spectacle was all most too enticing not to watch…
‘Not a damn thing. The witch will have her way…’ Jethro gave the order to hold firm and not one wolf moved a muscle. Whatever that way maybe… Jethro added to himself. The witches had formed their own pack within a pack, a coven of sorts, and he didn’t know exactly how that would play out, but he knew one thing; they must accept that fact or kill two mates…
This attack felt personal to him as he watched the vampire slowly being cut to shreds one cut at a time. The look on Eloise’s face, the way that she was killing the vampire… From what he could see and feel the witches could have ended the vampire with ease and fast, but Eloise was making him suffer, that looked like personal if ever he saw it.
Wendy could have reached out an ended the vampire in a heartbeat but that would have broken the trust inside the coven. She understood Eloise’s pain and the need for revenge only too well, and she could feel the younger witch gathering her thoughts within her mind, and the thought to finish him off lingered there. Then she felt the shift in the elements, and as the winds died down around them and the vampire dropped to his knees in the dirt, she felt the heat of the fire that Eloise summoned and unleashed on the bloodsucker.
The vampire had little spirit and little voice left to scream with, but scream he did as the flames took a hold of him, lapping up and covering his body from head to toe. He fell forwards onto the earth, his body twisted and jerked as the pain ripped through him until shock took over his system and he passed out. Eloise released the gathered magic and let her hands slowly fall to her sides. Her eyes never left the vampire as his body burned.
‘Because that’s the kind of mate…’ Dexter started and Alex growled into the link as he snapped his jaws at his pack brother in warning.
‘Don’t go there, Dex.’ Alex held in place. He wanted to shift and go to his mate but he didn’t know if that would be the right thing to do…
“Can I come down now or will someone fry my arse?” Caleb’s voice reached down into the clearing and startled Eloise back into the reality of the situation. She gasped in a breath and took an involuntary step back from the scene before her.
Alex decided that he didn’t give a damn. He tore across the clearing, shifting into his human form as he went. She suddenly felt so fragile to him as her emotions churned inside her. He reached out and yanked her against the hardness of his body and the softness of his growl enveloped her.
“For my mother…” She muttered on a whisper that everyone except the witches picked up on. Alex understood immediately; she’d told him of her past but he’d yet to pass on the details to his alpha.
‘Acceptable…’ Jethro guessed the rest after what Caleb had told him after he’d read her mind, and he couldn’t fault her dealings here today. But there would have to be some rules as to the witches powers for the safety of the whole pack.
His eyes turned towards Wendy and that damned annoying smile that she always wore; if a coven had been formed then she would be the leader and his words would be with her. As if knowing what he was thinking her eyes turned towards him and she met his gaze. She nodded before she stepped backwards into the woods. How he hated that witch…
“You attacked a member of our pack.” Dale growled out as Annabeth sat on the end of the large bed in his cabin and at least pretended to look contrite even if he didn’t get much in the way of feeling from her where that emotion was concerned.
“You see, I wouldn’t call it an attack…” She raised a hand, palm upwards to the ceiling and gave a small little shrug. “I put her to sleep, not hit her over the head with a crowbar.” She spun her hand on her wrist and then offered it towards him as if it held all the answers. He groaned inwardly. The woman was insane and yet he felt just as insane with the need for her that was battering his senses like a storm front at sea.
“It’s the same thing…” He paced in front of her like a beast trapped inside a cage.
“No, no it’s really not.” Annabeth scoffed at the thought. “You’re being unreasonable…” Dale stopped pacing and spun towards her with a surprised look on his face.
“Unreasonable?” He twisted his head on his neck and stared down at her in disbelief.
“Yes.” Annabeth’s answer was precise and to the point. She couldn’t really understand what all the fuss was about, as far as she was aware Gina never complained, she wasn’t hurt… so where was the biggie? “She took a nap…” Annabeth offered as she looked anywhere but at him. “And it would have been very refreshing.” She offered as if that made everything alright. Dale growled inside and sighed outwardly.
“You used your magic on a member of the pack and you left the house when you told me that…” Annabeth’s hand popped up and her eyes snapped to his.
“That’s not my fault…” She started on a lie.
“Someone made you?” Dale’s head leaned in towards her on his neck and he raised his eyebrows high upon his forehead. She frowned…
“Well, not made me exactly, but…” Annabeth started, but he cut her off.
“It was an accident then?” Dale enquired and she frowned on a small shake of her head.
“Well, no, but…”
“Then you left of your own free will and knowingly…” Dale twisted his head and gave her an expectant look. Annabeth’s body sagged under the weight of her shoulders going downwards.
“Well, yes, but…”
“Then it was a deliberate act on your part.” Dale growled a gentle warning for her to come clean.
“Fine. I did that. I left…” Her eyebrows tried to meet above her nose as she scowled up at him. “But Eloise had left and she was in danger…” She snapped out and then a little lightbulb clicked on over her head. “Am I not supposed to help my pack?” The look on complete surprise on his face made her want to slap herself on the forehead as she realised what she’d just said. She swallowed hard as her tongue felt like it had become wedged firmly in her throat.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Oh crap I just told him I was accepting him, accepting the pack… that I’d mate with him. Idiot! Look at his face… His eyes are practically glowing with happiness… How can I deny him now? Well, that was a given, but how can I not mate with him now…? Annabeth reasoned.
Wait… Do I really need a reason not to mate with him when every inch of my body is already craving him? Craving… like damn chocolate… Oh look at those puppy d
og eyes…
The spirits led me here for a reason, and you can’t argue with spirits, well you could but it’d be like talking to a brick wall. I’m part of a Coven, albeit a mini one… that’s different… and now a part of a pack, well as soon as we do the nasty… not that I think it’s gonna be nasty. She gave an inward chuckle. I guess this is where I’m supposed to be.
Dale took two long steps towards her and snatched her up from the bed. She didn’t yelp, shriek or protest, and he took that as a damn good sign. One large hand came up to cup her face and he growled low, deeply, and very demandingly. And it always helps that your mate is as sexy as hell and can lift you up when you’re a tad… smidge… bit overweight… without grunting and looking like he’s going to collapse like a house of cards…
“You said your pack, you can’t take it back.” Dale informed her and she rolled her eyes.
“And there you go again, rushing to conclusions…” Annabeth berated him and he frowned hard. His beast growled at him as if it was his fault that their mate was about to deny them… “Who said I wanted to take it back?” Annabeth added and it took a few seconds for her words to really sink into Dale’s mind. There was a smile that she’d walk a mile to see, and then he looked perplexed.
“Are you…sure?”
“Do you want me to change my mind?” She teased and he went to answer but she got there first. “Maybe take a long time to consider it?” She nodded her head as if that might be the way to go. Dale growled, took a long breath and sighed.
“No…” He was trying to figure a way out of the hole he’d dug for himself. He was an idiot, he should have just jumped in with two feet and kissed her, but he had to make sure that she knew what she was agreeing to.