Chapter 6 Running Away

Avril’s POV

I could barely process what just happened before Tori threw some yoga pants and a t-shirt at me. 

“Hurry.” Tori says as she grabs some clothes for herself. I recognise her voice at least, but I have never actually seen Tori before. I shake my head and pull the clothes on. “I don’t know what the punishment is for knocking the future Alpha out cold, but I don’t want to find out.” I grab our bags from under the bed. I’m relieved we prepared them ahead of time. She grabs my arm and yanks me towards the car. I follow behind her swiftly. 

“I’m sorry that you don’t get to say goodbye to Aaron.” I say softly as I sit in the passenger seat.

Tori sighs. “Yeah. Me too. But it’s not as if we had much of a choice. I couldn’t let my brother do that to you.” We reach the edge of the pack. Tori waves her hand and the warriors let us out of the gate. Evidently, Wesley hasn’t woken up and mind-linked everyone yet. She finally makes her way through to the edge of the packlands.

“Alright. We need to renounce the pack.” Tori takes a deep breath. “I, Victoria Celia Steel, hereby cut ties with the Jade Pack.”

I do the same and feel an invisible string break. I hear howls from the pack as their Alpha and Beta’s daughters leave. We both clamber into the car and drive off toward the Shadow Mist pack. It will take quite a few hours to get there and I’m exhausted. We can’t even play music as we had to leave our phones behind. Alpha Shields had promised he’d get some phones for us that our previous Alpha wouldn’t track. Trying to stay awake in this car is going to be impossible. But I needed to make sure Tori could stay awake driving. 

“Where are we off to?” I ask her.

“There’s a woman waiting for us in a cabin in these woods.” Tori answered. “She’s an acquaintance of Alpha Shields and she’ll take us in for the night so we can be well rested for the remainder of the drive.” 

In a couple of hours we pull up on a small cylindrical house with a point on top that almost looks like a witch’s hat. Tori yawns. I wish I could have helped her out, but I never learned to drive. Maybe now that I can see, I’ll be able to. We approach the small house. I gingerly knock on the door. A woman in her late twenties with flaming red hair and a warm smile answers the door. “Hey there! Eve said you’d be coming by. Come on in.” She cheerfully brings us into the small house. My eyes widen as I realize the house actually has several stories high. It’s so much larger on the outside than it is on the inside. 

“Cool, huh?”  She says gesturing to the inside of her house. “My brother is amazing at illusion magic. If you’re not given the address to this place, you wouldn’t see it at all. Isn’t he clever? I’m more of a primal magic gal myself.” 

“Right well…” Tori clears her throat. “I’m Victoria and this is Avril.”

“Oh!” She exclaimed. “I’m Autumn Magnus. Welcome to my tower! Your bedrooms are on the third floor. If you’ve reached the hydra, you’ve gone too far. But he’s friendly so you can pet him.” 

I glance at Tori. “She’s chipper.” I giggle. I get to actually see my best friend. She has very light blond hair and blue eyes. “You’re so pretty, Tori.”

Tori smiles at me. “I guess it must be weird to be seeing for the first time.”

“I could see some in my visions. Though Emerald told me I can’t have visions when I use her eyes.” I explain. “So I’ve got to let myself be blind sometimes.”

Tori nods. “I wonder why you have this gift. Selene doesn’t hand out gifts unless there’s a greater purpose to use it.”

I shrug. “I don’t really know and Emerald hasn’t told me. Perhaps it’s lucky we’re at a witches tower. Maybe Autumn has read something about it. After all, it looks like the 5th-7th floors are a library. I’m sure there should be some clues there.” 

“You know we do have to leave for Shadow Mist in the morning?” Tori points out.

“Doesn’t mean we can’t come back. We already know the address.” I reply. “Besides, I like Autumn. I get the feeling she’d be a great friend to have, unlike Elya.”

“Urgh. Elya.” Tori grunted. “I tried to explain to her that she’s causing you pain, and Wesley has a fated mate, but when it comes to power or popularity, it was in one ear and out the other.”

I shake my head. I should have known that she was more of a fashion friend. “She’ll regret being with Wesley. I don’t think he’ll treat her well.”

“She’s not exactly a peach either.” Tori snorted. “It’s bad enough that she strung Aaron around thinking she was going to accept him, only to reject him right after they mated.” She quickly slaps her hand over her mouth.

My jaw hangs open. “Why wouldn’t Aaron tell me?” I feel a tear spill down my cheek.

Tori sighs. “He was embarrassed. He was rejected for his Alpha and then confused when he found out I was his second-chance. In truth, I think he needed this time away from me in order to sort out his feelings and put himself back together. Not to mention he’s having a hard time when it comes to committing now.” Tori looks down. It seems there is more to their relationship than I assumed.

“I guess we need to sort this out as quickly as possible if we want to get you two back together.” I murmur. “For now, we need as much sleep as we can get.” I shut off the light and pull the covers over me. It seems I’m not the only one with troubles.

**

I wake up in the morning to the smells of breakfast being made. Emerald lends me her eyes and I make my way towards the first floor. I was too tired last night to realize how beautiful the inside of this tower is. Our room’s walls are covered with several hand embroidered tapestries while the ceiling gives the illusion of the night sky domed above us. I look over to where Tori was sleeping and find that she’s already awake. I guess she’s downstairs. I pull myself out of bed and grab some clothes from my bag. I splash some water and cleanser on my face to wake up. I moisturize and then I drag myself down the stairs. I am definitely not a morning person. 

“Morning!” Autumn sings out from the first floor. “Hope you like bacon!”

Tori is already sitting on a stool at the kitchen island. “You really didn’t have to do all this.” She says, but I can definitely detect that she’s swallowing drool back. I can hardly blame her. The bacon smells amazing.

“Well… I’m usually a yogurt and fruit kinda girl, but if you’re hosting wolves you’ve got to have meat.” She says very seriously.

I stifle a giggle. “So you said you were a primal magic witch?” I ask her as I pile my plate with eggs, bacon and fruit.

Her expression brightens even more. “Yep. Primal magic is the magic of the world's elements. Fire, plants, water, all that stuff. The magic that the earth gives to us. My brother is more on the Arcane side. He studied illusions, force, shields, a little more complicated in my opinion. He’s awesome, though I don’t get to see him much. He’ll sometimes pop in when he’s practicing teleporting, but it’s been about a month.”

I smile at the way Autumn rambles on. I wonder if she gets a lot of visitors. I should try to visit her. She seems like such a fun person to spend time with.

“Anyway.” She continues. “Regrettably, you should probably be heading out now. I promised Alpha Everly that you should be there before nightfall, and I’ve already talked half the morning away.”

“Alpha Everly?” Tori questions.

“Yes. See, Everly is actually the heir of the Shadow Mist pack. Since she can’t find her true mate, her father married her off to the second son of an Alpha who had lost his mate tragically. Instead of becoming a Luna, like her father wanted, they decided to become co-Alphas instead. It caused quite an uproar at the time.”

Tori raised an eyebrow. I know of Tori’s dream to become the Alpha of Jade pack, and this seems to give her some hope. “Well, I certainly can’t wait to meet her.” Tori speaks up. “We should head out. Thank you so much for everything, Autumn.”

We grab our bags from the bedroom, head to the car and go back on the road again.