by S. L. Morgan
I could only assume I was part witch, and since I’d transferred off a witchy magic ball that I’d absently created to start healing Finley, I figured there was more energy left that I’d conjured up. I realized how cold the cave was, and how much Finley needed it warmed with fire, so I figured it was as good a time as any to see if I could do something about it.
I focused my energy into my hands, and when a fireball appeared, my heart raced in fear at what the hell I was becoming. I threw the ball of flames down toward the pile of branches Dominic brought in and watched flames erupt all around the wood.
I stepped back in horror of what I was, and I felt my eyes pool with tears. Dear God, what were my parents? Why didn’t anyone prepare me for the fact that I would manifest witch powers one day? At least then I wouldn’t be freaked out beyond belief. Vannah was thrilled when she accomplished one of the most amazing things a witch could do, but she knew she was a freaking witch. She wasn’t a witch who suddenly started shifting into a damn wolf. This was insanity.
As soon as panic set in, I felt Dominic’s presence next to me. I looked at him, and I knew I had fear written all over my face. Dom had the opportunity to pull his alpha card right here and now if he wanted to, or he could use his alpha strength to shut me down and take out whatever he feared I was. Instead, he looked at me like I was an angel sent to help us all.
His expression was set with curiosity, and I felt the warmth and pride radiating from him. He used the back of his knuckles to brush away the tears that spilled out of my eyes. I wasn’t sobbing or ugly crying, I was standing there numb and scared of what was happening to me.
“Hey,” he softly said.
“Hey,” I managed. “Please don’t ask because I don’t know. I don’t know what I am or what’s happening with me.”
“I know you must be scared out of your mind right now.”
“To say the least.”
He smiled, “I sense it.”
“Please don’t take advantage of this.”
“You think I’m going to try to dominate you?” he questioned with humor in his expression.
“I don’t know what you’re going to do.”
“My cousin told you he knew you could help her. E knows more than he says. I trust him, and you need to trust him too. You know owls, if this were a bad thing, he would have tried to hurt you himself. This is an amazing ability you have in you, Jenna. It’s just new. Fear is natural, and the fact that I’ve never heard of a shifter being able to carry talents of witches and the fae makes it even more natural for you to feel uncertain.”
“What if it turns me dark? This isn’t normal, Dominic.”
“Ethan would sense the darkness in you no matter how deeply it was buried,” he countered. “This is a good thing. We have a fighting chance to take the school back and help the students because of you. This is the answer to all of it.”
“We have to get help, Dominic. I have no control over this, it just happened.”
“Who’s going to help us, Jenna?” his voice was lower. “No one. We’re on our own. You can use these powers and sniff out whatever is lurking in the walls of that place.”
“Really?” I said. “Then why wasn’t this power around when it came to saving lives, preventing murders at the school?”
“Maybe you were too late. It seemed like this happened with Finley when you were provoked.”
I ran my hands through my hair and gripped my head in frustration. “I do not think it works that way. I have no control!” I shouted. “I have to go get help. You need to come with me. Finley will be safe with Ethan checking on her. Come with me to find someone with higher powers than what’s going on at that school.”
“We can’t leave, Jenna,” he said.
“Dom,” I sighed, trying to collect myself. I needed to convince him. “Listen to me. We have to get to the human world. We need more than just Ethan telling me I have some power—of which I have no idea how to control—and your alpha wolf to take the school back from the evil thing that’s looming over it.”
“We’re not going out to the human world. It’s not an option.”
I glared at him and shouldered my pack. “Fine. You stay here, I’ll get help. We go back to the school like this, and we’re as good as dead. I’m not wasting time arguing with you. I’ll find Vannah’s family. They’re the most powerful witches on the continent. I’m getting us help.”
I took off through the opening in the rocks only to see massive trees, bright foliage, and blossoms the size of my head all around me. This was paradise. I had to be close to the human world. This seemed to be far from the academy and closer to freedom. I was caught by the arm as I came around a tree.
I tried to jerk my arm free from Dominic. “Unless you’ve changed your mind about going, then let me go.”
“Jenna,” he said, his eyes glittering against the silver that lined his brown irises. “I felt it. I accepted it. Please tell me you feel it too.”
“Feel what?” I asked in confusion.
“You, us—our wolves,” he answered. “Don’t leave me. You can’t separate them.”
“Whatever you felt, I didn’t,” I answered. “I have to get help. Why can’t you see that?”
“Why can’t you see this is a stupid plan?” he asked in a soft voice. “I’m not leaving my cousin and my sister to die. You say you have friends here?”
“Yes. Friends who are brainwashed because of that evil place.”
“If you were a true friend, you would stay and fight.”
“Can’t you see,” I glared at him, “I have no control over this!”
“They need our help right now, you have the help they need, but you’re going to run?”
“You act like this is something I’ve had my whole life! I just tripped and fell into this…this…whatever magic this is. How can you act like I’m the answer when I literally have no clue what I am or what I can do? That’s not fair at all, and you know it.”
“You don’t have to do this. Don’t leave…” He paused and reached for my hands. “Don’t leave me, stay and fight with me. Fight for all of them.”
“Whatever you’re picking up on me, I don’t feel it, Dominic.”
“Really?” he said unrelentingly. Then without warning, I was pulled into Dominic’s firm body, his hand snaking around my lower back, and his other hand smoothly gliding along the side of my face. He bent, and his lips were on mine.
Dom’s firm kiss and his hand caressing my cheek, encouraged me to tilt my head and follow the lead he was offering on his unexpected kiss. I couldn’t fight him if I wanted to. I felt his wolf call to mine, the wolf he hid from me until now. Its strength and humility were exposed as his tongue slid along my closed lips, slowing prying mine apart. That’s when sparks ignited in my body like firecrackers, putting my little magic energy balls to shame.
I felt a feeling of completion as our wolves met for the first time, not hiding anything from one another. Dom’s wolf should have been trying to throw down an alpha on my inner wolf that was fully exposed to him and vulnerable to it, but his wolf didn’t. His wolf practically bowed to mine while giving her everything he was.
Our wolves were finding each other like they’d been searching for one another their entire lives. Dom’s kiss deepened and tasting the honey flavor of his warm and enticing kiss was bringing me to a higher level beyond our wolves connecting like they were.
I desperately ran my hands up his sides, pulling myself in closer, and I framed his face with my hands. The serenity, the passion, and the power we were both transferring to each other through a simple, yet daring kiss was overwhelming and should have made me pass out; instead, I climbed the ladder of strength and took in everything Dom was offering me. I felt it now. He was my counterpart. His wolf was the only wolf that I could ever allow in. He was the only shifter who could ever help me develop into what I was born to become. He was my other half. That’s what true mateship was, and somehow we were experiencing this profound unit
ing of our wolves and souls in just a kiss.
His daring, strong wolf was holding my wolf up in high esteem and love instead of acting out in alpha form and holding her down to claim her. How in the world could someone be perfect inside and out?
The hopeless and helpless child in me who wanted to know who her parents were all these years faded. She found her place now, it was with this shifter. I didn’t need to know who my parents were to feel whole anymore, I was whole right now.
I could feel what Dom was feeling too. It’s how he was feeling. This entire time, he’d never considered having anyone at his side…until now. The welcoming of emotions by accepting a woman to be his equal to love and devote his life to overwhelmed him as much as it was overwhelming me.
The passion was moving us both in a direction we both knew we weren’t ready for. We had to stop this now, or we were going to wind up out here acting like nothing else in the world mattered but him and me establishing our commitment of being together for the rest of our immortal lives.
This all hit so hard and fast. It was more than real, it was a complete union, and the next step would seal us forever.
I pulled away reluctantly. I licked my lips, seeing his perfect ones and couldn’t resist bringing his face back to mine. Dominic groaned, and thank goodness he laughed at my abrupt return to our tasteful kiss because it snapped me out of the daze I was in.
“I have to get—” Crap I was light headed and tripped over my feet. “I have to go.”
Dom caught me and pulled me into his arms. “You know it now. You feel what’s been nagging at me since the day we first locked eyes. I couldn’t accept it was you, so I fought my wolf off. I stayed focused on my job and treating you like the student you were. I’m so glad I let you in, Jenna.”
“You can’t use that to stop me. You know I have to go get help,” I said softly.
“If only my alpha worked on you,” he said.
“It can’t work because your wolf will not dominate or do anything to change me. I felt him. I felt you.”
“Then you understand why I can’t let you leave,” he said. “You know what this means.”
“I know this just went from zero to ninety between us.”
“Stay with me. We’ll do this together.”
“Why can’t you trust that we need more than just you and me?”
“Why are you so damn stubborn?” he snarled.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can. I feel your power in me. I feel like we’re connected. We won’t lose each other. Let me go, Dominic. Please. I feel like this is the only way.”
“I can’t leave with you. I can’t leave Ethan or all of the other innocent students here.”
“Then—” I was really going to say it, “if you love me, you’ll let me do what is right on my end. You stay and watch over them. I’ll go search out the help we need.”
“If I lose you…”
I smiled. “Then you’ll feel like you did ten minutes before we had that kiss.”
“And so she takes advantage of me giving her what I’ve given no one.”
“I’m just trying to focus. I don’t want to leave you. I want more than that kiss. I think I have the bigger problem right now.”
Dom reached for my hand and pulled me close to him again. He swept a strand of hair over my forehead, “Don’t ever think for a second I’ll be okay if something were to happen to you.” He pressed his lips into my forehead, “I’ve never felt this way in my entire life, and trust me, I’m the one with the bigger problem. I want it more than you can imagine. I’m all yours. I never thought my wolf would submit to another being, ever, but here we are. The only reason I’m not demanding you stay is that it’s not in my nature to pull this on you, though I wish I could.”
“I’ll be fine. Safer out there than in here,” I said.
He let out a breath. “Go to House Braeclaw. If you have to go find help, find your way to Aspen, Colorado. There’s a quaint little candy shop there, that’s your connection. Mention Mark Rossi, he’s my father. The workers will know where to take you from there.”
“Colorado, Aspen, candy shop,” I answered the man I didn’t want to spend half a second apart from. My wolf was pissed. If she had a mouth on her like I did, she would’ve been sending every cuss word in the book at me for leaving her mate right now. “Got it.”
“Mark Rossi,” he urged and then pulled me in for a lasting farewell kiss. A kiss that I would let help me get help fast and get back quick.
Dom left me with instructions of what to tell his dad once I found him. I ran through the forest in my wolf form, scenting the air and sensing I was getting close to another realm. This scent was fading, and the façade was slowly disappearing from the school grounds. A gap over a river sent me jumping through the air and rolling into….what the hell!?
I looked down to see that my hands weren’t my wolf paws. I was wearing a pale yellow cotton dress, and I was in some crazy house with antique furniture. The smell of freshly-baked apple pie filled my nose, but for the first time in my life, it wasn’t the fragrance I craved. I wanted Dominic’s scent.
“Where am I, what is this?”
A wrinkled little lady with white hair tied up in a bun came walking out with a slice of pie. Okay, longing for my true love could wait. This pie was everything I needed and more.
“Wait,” I said, holding my hand out to the meek little lady who was probably a sinister trap. “Nice try. Who are you, and why are you killing innocents at that school?” I demanded. I had to have just found our person of interest and fell right into their trap. Nice try, though, Dom and I may have not mated and joined our wolves eternally, but I had the man’s power, and this trap was about to backfire. This little sweet old lady was toast, but she was going to answer some questions first—evil demon spawn.
“Sit down, child,” she squeaked out. “I’m not a demon spawn. I’m not your enemy, Jenna Silvers. You may be rude, but you have grown into the beautiful woman your mother once was. She would have been proud. Especially knowing you controlled your hormones around your true mate too.” She chuckled. “Sit, dear. I have to fill you in and get you on your way. Those students aren’t going to help themselves. Young Rossi was right when he told you that you were the answer. For now, of course. Now, sit, eat your pie, and let’s get you caught up and on your way.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
I sat across an old coffee table that looked like it had seen better days—like five hundred years ago—and gripped the porcelain saucer the all too tempting pie was on. I eyed the pie, letting my wolf scent if there were some toxic elements to it, but my wolf was too involved with the lady sitting across from me.
“Go on, have a taste. I promise it won’t bite.” She giggled.
“Who are you, and how do you know about me?” I looked at the pie then the woman. “I think you’ll understand if I don’t want the pie, seeing that the only people who know it’s my addiction are people I’ve known since—”
“Silence, child,” she cut me off. “If you don’t trust the dessert, don’t eat it. Fine by me. We have more pressing issues for you than a slice of pie for my godchild.”
“Godchild?” I choked out. “Who are you?”
“I know your parents, like I said, your mother would have been proud of you.” She sat straight up, sipping on a tea filled with warm spices. “Care for the tea? You never did as a young one.”
“How is this possible?” I stared at this woman, wondering who she was, how I got here, and how she found me.
“So many things are possible in the supernatural, Jenna. So many good and so many terrible things. Sadly, your mom fell victim to the terrible.”
“She died?” I asked flatly. “Why don’t I remember anything about her—or you? How do you know whether or not I like tea?”
“Twenty years ago, a beautiful, brown-eyed girl with a head of glossy, auburn curls was born. After five years, the shifter babe’s exceptional powers began developing, but it was far
too soon, and she was much too young, and so she was hidden away in the school system. Hidden from herself, and hidden from her family.”
“Are you talking about me? I’m only nineteen.”
“Like I said, she was hidden from herself.” She smiled and arched a silver eyebrow at me. “Your memories have been withheld from you to hide you from the underground society of darkness. The coven is still searching for the child that Julia and Nikolas shared together. They haven’t been able to locate her until now, until the age of twenty when I knew your powers would eventually overcome the memory loss.”
I gulped. “Julia and Nikolas? My parents. Who were they?”
“They were the kindest people to walk this planet. Little did we know that your mother—being half fairy and half witch—would impart most of her genetics into you, and they would work with Nikolas’ alpha-wolf shifter genetics to create a child filled with more power than any supernatural could achieve. We couldn’t figure out how a child could shift into their animal form at just three years of age. Then, little by little strange things began to occur in your life. You began moving things with your mind,” she covered a smile, and her eyes were distant, “one of the first being a piece of pie that your mother insisted you couldn’t have. I’ll never forget the look on your parents’ faces when you concentrated on the piece of pie in front of your father. When it began to float and head to your highchair tray, I thought we all might faint. You moved that pie to you with your mind like it was the easiest thing in the world to do.”
I smiled, almost seeing it with my own mind and realizing that I had a pretty serious pie problem at a young age. “So what happened to me? What am I? I pulled some crazy stuff off today. I saved a shifter’s life, healed her, and I’ve bonded to another shifter without mating. I have no idea, and none of it goes along with what’s normal for a shifter.”
“You are a very powerful young lady. We do believe that the Maddison coven—the coven your mother was born into—wanted you as their own. They cursed your mother after she separated herself from them. The curse that fell on her is something abhorrent. It’s been fifteen years since the curse consumed your mother. She is gone to the darkness, and she…” The lady’s eyes were sad and brimming with tears.