Hmmm, what did you think of that interesting spritely interaction?
Maeve and I walk back to her spell room. “Do you think they’ll be okay with the sprites by themselves?” “Yes, it’ll keep them busy for awhile and give me time to get these protection spells started,” she says. “Do you think I need to warn Tate about licking Daphne?” I ask her. “Why would he lick her?” Maeve asks me, frowning. “I don’t know. The wolves are drawn to them and the sprites consider someone licking them to be claiming them as their mate.” “Well, licking is a wolf thing,” she say, smiling and walking to me, touching my face. “Right, Einar? You licked me the first time you met me. Was that you’re way of claiming me?” she asks my wolf, who once again throws me aside to speak to him mate. “I wanted to taste you. My claim will reside here,” he says, stroking her neck where we’ll put her mate mark one day soon, I hope. “You really want your mark on my neck, don’t you?” she asks him, stroking my hair and Einar pushes against her hand. “You’re mine. I want everyone to know t
As the evening goes on, I begin to get more and more nervous about tonight. It’s not that I don’t want to be with Xander and I know that he loves me. It’s just, well, it’s my first time and I don’t want him to be disappointed. What if I don’t do it right? As we finish our pizza, I watch Meadow and Tate showing Reagan our spell, explaining what we’re doing and how we’re going to do it. Xander comes over and runs his nose through my hair to my ear. “Why are you nervous?” I look up at him. “I can smell it,” he says softly. I shake my head. I don’t want to say anything in front of my brother and sister. “Hey! I have an idea!” Reagan says. “What’s that?” I ask. “A sleepover! Meadow and Tate should come stay at my house. Mom and dad won’t care.” She turns to look at them. “It’s more like living in a real house, which is probably more comfortable for you. And Cayd’s home, so we can have a movie night, make popcorn. It’ll be fun.” “Can we Maeve?” Meadow looks at me, excitedly. She has
I wake up, curled around my mate, my marked mate. My scent now lingers with hers and it makes both Einar and I relax knowing that other wolves will know that she is ours. “Why is Einar purring in my head,” Maeve says sleepily. “Or is that you?” and I can hear the confusion in her voice. “That’s Einar, he purrs much better than I do. He’s happy that you have our scent, that every wolf in the world will now know that you are ours.” I nuzzle her neck, breathing in her scent. “We’re possessive animals, it’s hard not to feel proud when we can show off our mate to everyone.” “How are you feeling this morning?” I ask, worried that, as a human, she may not have healed from last night. I know the wound on her neck is healing, but it’s still red. I need to remember that she doesn’t have wolf healing power. “Mmmm, warm, loved, cared for, happy.” Now I’m purring along with Einar. “Those are all very good things. But how about physically?” She shifts and I can tell it’s uncomfortable for her.
I head upstairs, trying to remember which room they put me in. A door opens and Cayd walks out. “Hey big guy,” he says to me. “Hi Cayd. Can you tell me which room I’m in?” I watch as he lifts his head, sniffing the air. “That one,” he says, looking at me. “Is everything okay?” I nod, not feeling like talking and worried that I’ll embarrass myself and start crying. I get to my room and close the door. I look around. Nothing here is familiar. There’s a loveseat in the room and I go to sit on it, pulling a small pillow into my lap and holding it against me. If Maeve is married, she’s going to leave. What if her husband, Xander, doesn’t like me? I’ve heard that animals in the wild kill the young of females so that they can mate with them and have their own children. I know I’m not Maeve’s child, but she’s been my only parent for three years. What if he takes her from me? Meadow is great, but she and I weren’t enough when we were on our own. I never felt safe, and Meadow is pretty go
After Xander leaves to go talk to Tate, Reagan, Meadow and I get the spells together and begin walking out of the packhouse. “Hi Penny,” Reagan says. I look over and see one of their pack mates. “Hi Reagan, hi Maeve.” “Penny this is Meadow. She’s Maeve’s sister.” “Oh, hello. What are you all up to today?” Penny asks. “We’re going to put protection spells up around the pack lands. Do you want to join us?” Meadow asks. “Oh, I wouldn’t want to be a bother,” she says and there is something about her, like she’s lost and hasn’t quite found her way. It’s a feeling that, up until I met Xander, I had become very familiar with. “It’s no bother at all, as long as you don’t mind helping with some spells,” I tell her. We walk outside and Meadow and I find the starting point. “Okay, Penny, you’re with me, Reagan, you’re with Meadow.” “What do I have to do?” Penny asks. “Just hold this for me,” I tell her, handing her the potion for the spell. Meadow and I stand beside each other and beg
As my mate begins to glow in a white light, I only have a moment to watch in awe before the battle is upon us. Maeve begins throwing magic everywhere, protection for our pack members, and attacks to the witches that are attacking our pack members. I turn and see Meadow chanting as a film of magic falls over the packhouse. I can see wolves pouring into our pack lands and by the smell of them, they are rogues. The difference between them and normal rogues is that these have a purple glow to them. They’ve been given magic, or at least they are protected by magic. As one of the wolves races toward us, Maeve blasts it with her white light, knocking the purple light out of it. I leap, shifting as I do, Einar attacking the wolf and protecting our mate. Maeve continues sending blasts of magic, out and around the pack. I’m attacking the rogues, keeping close to Maeve, guarding her from attack. I see her turn, sending a blast of light behind us. I turn, just in time to see the magic block an
I’m not sure how to be okay with the fact that I killed people. I killed them. They will never go home to their parents, their spouses, their children ever again. I know they were trying to kill me, Xander, and the pack. But I still hate that those deaths are on my conscience. I don’t have long to think about. After making sure that Meadow and Tate were fine, it seemed like Cayd killed their attackers, I had gone to bed and cried for hours while Xander held me. I eventually cried myself to sleep and when we woke the next day, they buried their dead. It didn’t occur to me beforehand. I didn’t even think about it. I was so overwhelmed with the deaths that I had caused, that I didn’t realize how much it would impact me to see the after effects of the deaths of others. As I stood with Xander, watching as they talked about the greatness of the ones that died, it hit me like a truck. I turn and look at Meadow and Tate and I see that it’s affecting them too. We never got to do this for ou
My mate is struggling with so much right now and I want to try to do something to make her feel better, to make her feel like this is her home too. Rich and Emlyn went to Safe Haven to be with the pack while they bury their dead. Since that is Emlyn’s previous pack, it makes sense that she would need to be there. So, after my mate falls asleep, I reach out to my father via the mind link and ask him to go to Maeve’s shop and get the ashes of her parents. ‘Do you know where they are in her apartment?’ he asks. ‘She said it’s in her room. Their residence was upstairs from the shop.’ ‘I’ll get it. Reagan, Penny and Meadow have been talking all night. They apparently saw Penny on their way here and invited her to the sleep over. This was harder Meadow than I thought it would be,’ my father says. ‘It was hard on Maeve, too. Have Cayd and Tate returned?’ ‘No, Cayd said he was going to spend as much time with Tate as he needed before bringing him back here.’ “Thanks, dad, to both you a