“You should not have come here.”
“You are my daughter, you don’t belong here.” Nora yelled at her. Her voice cracked a bit but she recovered quickly and put up her front.
“I belong with my pack,” Raine said with conviction.
Nora sneered at her now, “Oh really? And with your… mate?”
The disgust in her voice as she mentioned me seemed to make Raine angry.
“There is no one and no where I would rather be than with him.” She held her chin up high as she addressed her mother while also keeping a side eye on her mother’s mate who seemed to be tense and uncomfortable.
“Fool, they have told you such things. Packs are unforgiving and toxic. Have you forgotten what they did to me? To us?” Nora screamed at Raine.
I saw Raine smack her tongue against the front o
{ Raine }I watched as Alex took off to Rick where I had landed him. That burst of water had been the perfect way to allow Alex the opening he needed to safely approach and challenge Rick. Once Alex and Rick were both shifted and circling each other, I moved my focus to the rest of the fight.I couldn’t help the smirk that formed on my face when I took in the chaos that my fellow elementals were causing. Wolves were literally on fire despite my heavy rains, those tornados from Gus were perfectly placed and Tell was a beast with his powers. I never would have guessed that his abilites could be so effective in a war. Himself and mine seem to be the least deadly, but we were proving otherwise.I heard a growl from the left of me and turned to see a rogue sneaking up on me. I quickly formed a puddle underneath him that go deeper and deeper. It was only a distraction though, and it worked perfectly. He moved his paws un
As we walked away I felt the heartache begin to fade. I stopped in my tracks and I watched as my father and Tellus did the same. “That was fast,” Tellus said more to himself. “Yeah,” my dad breathed out. They both looked at me and noticed my confusion that mirrored theirs, except I didn’t have the answer that they clearly did. “What just happened?” I asked when neither off them offered it up. “What do you mean?” Alex responded with worry etched on his faced. He glanced at me and looked me over from top to toe. I noticed him shift between his feet and then glance toward the direction of the battle, then back to me. “Another was already chosen,” Tellus tells us. “Another Air,” my dad adds as he looks at both of us to make sure we understand. “What? Already?” I asked, shocked. “Wow,
The thought occurs to me as I watch the breeze continue while Alex tickles Cooper and his sweet giggles float across the wind and make me smile and so I voice it.“Wait, what is the emotion that affects Air?”In all the time I had known and trained with Gus he never once mentioned what his emotion was like my dad and Tellus had. Happiness, Anger, Sadness… what was the mystical fourth one?The softest and smallest smile crossed Tellus’ face as he looked to me and then to my son and finally to my dad who shared the same smile as him.“I didn’t realize you had never asked Gus, I wish you would have. He always had the best explanation for it, the best way to describe it.” Dad said.“It’s love,” Tellus said to me.Love…“Oh,” I said more to myself. Love. I was havi
9 years later.{ Raine }“MAMAAAAAAA!!”I released a deep sigh as her loud voice echoed through the house. What now for the love of the Goddess above, I muttered to myself.“Yes mija?” I called out.“Cooper stole my ice cream again!” Isabella, my youngest screeched..“Ok mija, where is he?”“Across the field, by the training house,” she called out and sniffled. She was my baby, at only 7.5 years old. And while her brother was the sweetest and gentlest with her of his siblings, there were extenuating circumstances sometimes, and in this particular one, it wasn’t actually about his sister at all.I walked out to the front door and peered over. Sure enough, there he was. Cooper was 12 now, and standing there by the field building with him was Catalina, the only girl he had eyes for. This was the third time he had taken something from his sister to give to her. It was always the same, Catalina’s favorite ice cream was also Bellas favorite. But I Wasn’t having this at all.I mindlinked the
{ Raine } The ice pack was irritating the shit out of me but I knew I had to keep it on, had to keep up appearances like I was human. They would definitely notice that I was healed by now if I pulled it off and revealed my no longer bruised eye socket. I twitched my foot impatiently as I waited for my dad to show up. It had been 5 minutes since they called him, 3 minutes since I realized coming to the police was a mistake, and would be another 3.5 minutes until he walked in the door. The policeman was nice enough. He was a fit guy in his twenties who took my statement. My friend Maria had convinced me to come in about the assault and I had went along with it because a part of me thought it was the right thing to do, to blend in. But I was quickly realizing this was a huge mistake and I hadn’t figured out how to get out of here. Once the policeman heard the story I was no longer allowed to leave the building until we solved
“I have a lot to tell you, Raine. And I want to start by apologizing for not telling you sooner. But your mother insisted and as long as you were safe with her I had no reason to. Everything is going to take awhile to get out in the open and sort through but first I need you to understand two things. Number one, Your mother loves you more than anything in this world. And number two, you cannot go home or she will hurt you much worse than she did today.” I felt my breathing getting faster and shallower but I realized quickly it wasn’t panic, it was sadness. I was sad that this was the truth, but I didn’t seem to be concerned with the fact we were leaving. “First thing is first, we need to leave. Once we get on the road I will tell you everything and you can ask any questions you want but we only have 10 minutes to get out and get a good head start before people realize we left.” I just nodded when he looked t
“Ohh ok. Where to begin. Well, do you know where your mother and I are actually from? No? Ok, well we are from a town about 10 hours from here. It’s called Haven Creek. It’s a beautiful place surrounded by the woods. It’s a small town with people always moving through there.Your mama’s pack was hidden in the thickest part of the woods, far away from everyone in the town, kind of out of site out of mind. Human’s don’t know it is there, I wasn’t supposed to know either. I came to Haven Creek when I was 18. Your grandparents and I were fighting all the time. It was my fault, I was hiding a secret from them and it was making everything tense. I chose to leave. But I found myself in Haven Creek and it didn’t take long for me to realize it was where I was supposed to be,” he looked out the window as he spoke, as if he was seeing the memory play out in front of him. I glanced at the clock. 1 minute. “What was your secret?” I asked as he put his blinker on and started
Whoa. Ok, Elemental and werewolf. That was a lot to process.We continued on like that for hours. Asking questions, answering questions both spoken and unspoken. A Part of me felt betrayed, there was so much I didn’t know about my parents, so much they had kept from me. But there was another part of me that felt like everything finally made sense.I woke up to the sun streaming in and the my father humming along. I yawned and stretched before glancing at the clock. My dad had noticed I liked the timer going so he left it as it was. It now said +9hr45min so I knew we had to be close.“15 minutes out, Raine.” My dad said, answering my unspoken question.I nodded and scooted over so I could rest my head on his shoulder. I had always felt oddly connected to my dad. My mom used to wave it off and tell me everyone felt that way about their fathers when they were close to them. But n
9 years later.{ Raine }“MAMAAAAAAA!!”I released a deep sigh as her loud voice echoed through the house. What now for the love of the Goddess above, I muttered to myself.“Yes mija?” I called out.“Cooper stole my ice cream again!” Isabella, my youngest screeched..“Ok mija, where is he?”“Across the field, by the training house,” she called out and sniffled. She was my baby, at only 7.5 years old. And while her brother was the sweetest and gentlest with her of his siblings, there were extenuating circumstances sometimes, and in this particular one, it wasn’t actually about his sister at all.I walked out to the front door and peered over. Sure enough, there he was. Cooper was 12 now, and standing there by the field building with him was Catalina, the only girl he had eyes for. This was the third time he had taken something from his sister to give to her. It was always the same, Catalina’s favorite ice cream was also Bellas favorite. But I Wasn’t having this at all.I mindlinked the
The thought occurs to me as I watch the breeze continue while Alex tickles Cooper and his sweet giggles float across the wind and make me smile and so I voice it.“Wait, what is the emotion that affects Air?”In all the time I had known and trained with Gus he never once mentioned what his emotion was like my dad and Tellus had. Happiness, Anger, Sadness… what was the mystical fourth one?The softest and smallest smile crossed Tellus’ face as he looked to me and then to my son and finally to my dad who shared the same smile as him.“I didn’t realize you had never asked Gus, I wish you would have. He always had the best explanation for it, the best way to describe it.” Dad said.“It’s love,” Tellus said to me.Love…“Oh,” I said more to myself. Love. I was havi
As we walked away I felt the heartache begin to fade. I stopped in my tracks and I watched as my father and Tellus did the same. “That was fast,” Tellus said more to himself. “Yeah,” my dad breathed out. They both looked at me and noticed my confusion that mirrored theirs, except I didn’t have the answer that they clearly did. “What just happened?” I asked when neither off them offered it up. “What do you mean?” Alex responded with worry etched on his faced. He glanced at me and looked me over from top to toe. I noticed him shift between his feet and then glance toward the direction of the battle, then back to me. “Another was already chosen,” Tellus tells us. “Another Air,” my dad adds as he looks at both of us to make sure we understand. “What? Already?” I asked, shocked. “Wow,
{ Raine }I watched as Alex took off to Rick where I had landed him. That burst of water had been the perfect way to allow Alex the opening he needed to safely approach and challenge Rick. Once Alex and Rick were both shifted and circling each other, I moved my focus to the rest of the fight.I couldn’t help the smirk that formed on my face when I took in the chaos that my fellow elementals were causing. Wolves were literally on fire despite my heavy rains, those tornados from Gus were perfectly placed and Tell was a beast with his powers. I never would have guessed that his abilites could be so effective in a war. Himself and mine seem to be the least deadly, but we were proving otherwise.I heard a growl from the left of me and turned to see a rogue sneaking up on me. I quickly formed a puddle underneath him that go deeper and deeper. It was only a distraction though, and it worked perfectly. He moved his paws un
“You should not have come here.”“You are my daughter, you don’t belong here.” Nora yelled at her. Her voice cracked a bit but she recovered quickly and put up her front.“I belong with my pack,” Raine said with conviction.Nora sneered at her now, “Oh really? And with your… mate?”The disgust in her voice as she mentioned me seemed to make Raine angry.“There is no one and no where I would rather be than with him.” She held her chin up high as she addressed her mother while also keeping a side eye on her mother’s mate who seemed to be tense and uncomfortable.“Fool, they have told you such things. Packs are unforgiving and toxic. Have you forgotten what they did to me? To us?” Nora screamed at Raine.I saw Raine smack her tongue against the front o
{ Raine }I felt a rough hand grab mine as I counted down to 0 along with Alex. I knew from the feeling of fire burning up my arm it was my father. 5 seconds.“No more rogues are moving, over a hundred backed down, but they still have an impressive army. I don’t know what Alex said, but it really pissed off Nora and Rick, I can feel the anger coming off them in waves, even sensing them from here,” I told the room.It was myself, the other 3 elementals, and 5 of the warriors from our pack. We were in a house that was on the packlands, but separate from the packhouse and main area. If they did search for me at the main packlands they wouldn’t find me. This was a small cabin in the woods that Abuelo and Jason’s grandfather had built as a bit of a safe house if needed, but it was mostly used by the Luna and Mona of the packs over the years when they needed some peace. To make it the prime spot t
{ Alexander }I snaked my arm around Raine in an attempt to push back this bristled feeling that was growing every minute that we grew closer to the fight and she wasn’t hidden somewhere. I glanced at my watch for 6thtime this minute.39 minutes.I needed her safe. I needed her gone from here. I have no doubt the rogues will send out spys to see if we are here and if they see Raine they may attack early or worse, follow her to her hiding spot.“Baby,” I said for the umpteenth time. She put her hand on my hand that was on her waist to acknowledge me but didn’t respond to me as she was directing warriors to their positions. She was glorious right now, I took another moment to appreciate her in this role before I sent her away. Her stretegy was flawless, her insight was priceless and I did feel a touch bad that she wasn’t going to be able to be here closer
“They need to know Raine is here, they need to know you want to end this war, and where to meet. I don’t see them backing down from the challenge, they don’t know you have thousands of extra warriors here from our packs the local ones. This should be enough, but bottom line, you say what you need to to get them there,” Alex told him sternly. Jason, to his credit, held Alex’s gaze despite his growing and demanding aura the more he spoke.“Yes Your Highness,” he said with a bowed head. We pulled a phone over to the table and he tried the first number. It rang a few times, but then we got to a generic voicemail. He dialed the second number and after three rings, someone answered.“What?”I sucked in a breathe as my mother’s voice filled the other end of the line. This was it, this was the finally slap of reality. Any piece of me that had still hoped she wasn&
Once we were settled it was a long flight. We stopped in for gas on the East Coast of America briefly and I mindlinked Jason for an update. All our warriors ahead of us had now arrived and they were settled in. Jason was an impressive Alpha, and if pressed I would say that I would trust him to run all of America for me if needed. He was organized, thoughtful, merciful when necessary, and while I hate the word, obedient. He didn’t fight me near as much as the other Alphas still did. He had damn near everything ready for us when we arrived and I thanked him for it.A quick gas up and we were on our way. Raine and Cooper were asleep in the bed in the back of the plane, but I couldn’t sleep. I was mind linking Car and working through maps for tomorrow. It was the middle of the night now thanks to how long we had to fly, it would damn near be morning once we arrived. I wouldn’t have long to get everything in order to attack.I h