I still can’t believe how happy and energetic Jay seems, now that he knows I accept him. I’m sure he is taking this as wildly as he is because this means something far more to a werewolf than a human. However, I don’t mind as much as I thought I would. Seeing him so enthusiastic is something I don’t think I’ll grow tired of. It has gotten to where I find myself constantly smiling. I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy. Even if this isn’t my natural environment, I hardly seem to notice.
“Hopefully, we made the correct choice,” Jay says as he jumps over a log and then offers me a hand to clear it. “If not, I guess it is fine, so long as we don’t run into any rival packs out here. Still, we’re making progress, so that’s a plus!”
We spent the entire morning travelling toward the mountains. I still can’t see them from here, and we have got a long way to g
The looming mountain before us made me feel extremely small compared to anything else I have ever seen. I hope we don’t need to trek up there, because I know I am not equipped to do anything like that! Even walking through the forest was hard enough! As I continue to gaze up at the gigantic mass of earth, Jay places his hand on the small of my back in comfort.“Don’t worry. We should be able to find his cabin on the ground easily enough. It won’t be up there,” he tells me and then looks at me with the usual dopey grin plastered all over his face. I can tell he is about to either crack a joke or flirt with me, so before he gets the chance, I tap him on the nose.“I know that. Why don’t you find the cabin instead of whatever you’re suddenly plotting in that mind of yours?” I tell him with a disapproving glance. I’m not upset with him, but I am tired and want to find the cabin so I can fina
While Jay and I wait for Bucky to pour us some tea from the pot, I look around the inside of the cabin. I now understand why he tends to not stay in one place for very long, and why he seems to prefer being away from people. It must be hard to be constantly on edge with thoughts that a hunter might shoot you, thinking you’re a normal stag, or for a werewolf to think you are food. He isn’t completely safe in the Shrine, as only the Elders of each pack know of his true existence. He probably has a lot of the younger ones chase him down often, assuming he isn’t something similar to them. How he has stayed alive so long already, I haven’t figured it out. Maybe it is as Jay said? That he is merely reborn after he dies? Placing the two cups on the table in front of me and Jay, the Sorcerer sits down in his chair and stares at the two of us for a long time in silence. I almost feel like he is peering into my very subconsciousnes
“So which will it be?” Bucky asks me with a tilt of his head. “It is completely up to you, and both come with advantages and disadvantages. I can help awaken either side, without the risk of your mind turning to mush, but I’ll need to know so that I can prepare. Or the witch-blood will need that. Werewolf one… is more about awakening the wolf within, so less of a hassle…” he trails on and on to where I have to shoot him a look that tells him to be quiet for five seconds so that I can think. “Being stronger is better, but I won’t have to look ugly and fly broomsticks, would I?” I ask, cutting him off as he is still rambling on to me about this and that. Bucky pauses and looks at me in thought. “Why? Do you have some kind of skin disease?” He questions. I shoot him a glaring look before he holds up his hands innocently to me. “You will not change in appearance if you become a witch and broomsticks are optional, though they don’t help you fly.”
Walking around for a bit feels disorienting, as it doesn’t feel like I’m going anywhere at all. I frown a little and continue to look around for something, or someone, that might explain where I am and what I’m doing here. However, I see and hear nothing at all. This place is completely desolated. It feels like everything around me has just effectively vanished into thin air.“H-hello?” I called out, hoping to have someone respond. When I get no reply, I sigh and continue to walk. I gaze my gaze here, there and everywhere, but no matter where I think I am going, it all looks exactly the same. I almost want to give up, but when I turn around to head back the way I came, I realise I do not know if I’m going back the same way as everything looks so similar.I bite my lower lip nervously. I bet I can walk up or down if I tried, b
Opening my eyes, I can hear the fighting going on outside of the cabin is still going on. I am also still standing in the same place as when the ritual started. Bucky looks tired, but he offers me a brief smile. With him succeeding in waking up my wolf and us joining as one, it is no surprise that he is pleased with himself. A sudden slam against the side of the building snaps my attention to the fight outside again.I do not know how shifting works, let alone how to fight, but I can feel something is different about me. I can’t quite place what that something is, though. Looking at my hands and then my reflection in the window, I see nothing physically different about my body. I glance back at Bucky and shrug helplessly.Just as I am about to say something to him, a familiar voice echoes in my mind, ‘our first shift might hurt a bit, but I will fig
“Why won’t she accept me!?” Jay whines, now that the two of us have returned to our human forms and gotten ourselves into decent clothes. He hasn’t stopped since everything calmed down and Bucky agreed to let us stay the night. He thankfully has a spare room in the cabin, so there is no need for us to fight a bed or anything. And luckily he has a double bed.After I made the bed up for us, I shoot Jay a soft look and shake my head in amusement. “Because you’re whining too much,” I tease him. He pouts at me and looks so sad that I almost want to give in and tell him the truth. However, Lumi rejects my thoughts, letting me know to play it out a little longer.‘Let him suffer until bedtime. We are still getting used to things. Mating now might be too much for you,’ Lumi tells me with a wag of her tail. She seem
When Bucky had said male werewolves go crazy during those moments around their mate, I hadn’t fully understood the level into which the mating process would drop. Last night had been… something else. It was late in the afternoon now, and Jay was finally asleep. Had I known, it would have been such a long and involved process, I would have tried to make him wait until we had gotten home. Though thinking about it, I doubt I could have held off that long, either.With a soft sigh, I turned over onto my side and laid there, watching his sleeping face for a while. I wanted to sleep too, but if I did, I was sure we would be up all night again. It wasn’t like me to sleep away the day like this. Though it would be understandable if I did. With a yawn, I decided leaving Jay’s side would not make me feel any more alert, so I opted to cuddle into him instead.
Finally, the two of us reached the familiar buildings of the place I now called home. So much had changed in such a small amount of time that I wasn’t even sure this was the right place. The truth was, nothing in appearances had changed. It was merely my perspective on the place that had. Then there were the new emotions, smells and not forgetting that sense of belonging and family.Jay had given me advice on how to connect through the mindlink and how to keep people out if I wished to block certain people and only communicate with him or Darnell. He suggested not keeping my mind open to everyone until I was more comfortable with it, but that the pack usually did if they were on alert, just so it was easier to get the word out if something or someone strange was spotted.As the two of us headed back to the packhouse, Darnell came to greet us with a smile
I just want to thank everyone who has come with me on this fluff/adventure/romance of a journey. Although not my first novel, it is one of my first straight-pairings and although I feared Gwen would either be too whiny or hyper, I am glad to see some people enjoyed her personality. I wanted to make her dependable by the end of the book, so I hope I pulled that off. Although I won't be getting to the sequel right away, I do plan to write one for this book. It'll focus on Gwen's twin sons, so please keep an eye out for that in the future! In the meantime, if you want to support me, please leave a review and some gems as I would greatly appreciate it! Even if you didn't like the book, I would like to hear what you think I could approve upon. Much love, and happy reading,Yukiro.
A few months have passed, and although it wasn’t easy, my pack has finally settled into their new home. It had taken us a long time to rebuild, but Bucky had helped us learn how to make cabins and how best to sustain ourselves out here. He couldn’t directly interfere with any conflicts, but he didn’t seem to have any issue with teaching us how to grow crops or forage for fruits.As soon as we were self-sufficient, he would leave us to continue his travels, but for now, he had promised to stay until we no longer had to rely on him. I never brought my pack to see the witches, but the witches knew I was going to bring my pack here, and my pack was now aware of my split bloodline. They never questioned where the witches were, but they knew to be respectful of the forest we now called home.Looking around at the slowly growing village, I couldn&rsq
“You want us to live where!?”Jay’s outrage at where I was taking him and our pack was everything I had expected him to showcase. Luckily, we were so far from Shaun’s lands now that I didn’t fear someone might hear him.Glancing at him, I offered a small smile. “I know you wouldn’t like it, but we don’t have many options,” I reply to him as I turn my attention to Aderyn in the sky. We had taken a very long route to reach Bucky’s place, and we were about halfway there by now.“I’d rather not give up our home,” Jay complained, lowering his voice again.I squeezed his hand in comfort. I knew how he felt and I too did not want to leave our home, but I had made a promise and knew this was for the be
The sound of warning cries enters the town down the bottom of the cliff, letting me know the shadow-wolves have begun their task of distracting everyone. Those who were still up near the backhouse seemed to hesitate before finally running off to join their pack. Shaun must have ordered them to find out what was going on.I wait for everything to be clear before nodding to Jay. “I need to release the prison guard from his sleep before I forget,” I tell him, placing a kiss on Jay’s nose. “I’ll be safe. No one will see me, but you cannot wait for me to get back. Follow Aderyn down the cliff’s path. We’re not going home, unfortunately.”Jay gives me a confused look but nods slowly before he makes his way towards the direction Aderyn leads him and the pack. There are better ways to collect our things than risk our pack
Shaun looks at me in disbelief. He looks from me to my raven, then back again, as if trying to figure out if this is really all I want in return for my pack. Perhaps he doesn’t even believe me about my shadows or that Aderyn is my familiar. Whatever he thinks, Aderyn has his own plans and glides over to Shaun and lands on his shoulder.Aderyn has Shaun’s full attention now and croaks, “she speaks the truth. She wishes no harm, or else she could have easily done so by now, but she wished to bargain her pack’s freedom for everyone’s safety instead.”“He can’t understand,” I say, but stop as soon as I realise that somehow Shaun has actually understood.Looking at me, Aderyn explains, “we’re connected now. I can pick the language for those to understand m
As soon as I reached the top of the stairs, I could hear the Alpha and Luna off in the distance and knew Aderyn was still distracting them enough for me to slip on out of the door and shut it behind me. There was no turning back as soon as we enacted the next phase of our plan, so I left the prison door unlocked, just in case my pack needed to make a run for it.I headed towards the Alpha’s room, knowing now where it was. The original plan was to have the Luna leave the packhouse before we caused the distraction, but this was still workable. As I slipped into the bedroom, I shut the curtains to the windows and set to work breaking the lights. I couldn’t have him turning them on and accidentally preventing me from using my gifts.Once that was done, I sent Aderyn the secret code through the shadows to let the raven know it was time to enact the next
With a loud croak, Aderyn leaves the rails and lands on the roof. It peers down at the Alpha and then, with a louder call, tells me, ‘I will distract him.’I nod slowly. Thankfully, only witches can understand familiars, and even then it isn’t always the case that we can understand one that belongs to another witch. Either way, I can get past the Alpha and into his room without being detected.I pause at the door, however, and glance back to Aderyn as he annoys Shaun. Is this really going to work? Just sneak in and sneak out? I can’t bring others with me in the shadows, and there are too many patrols to get out of here without a fight.I frown and turn back to the door. I have to at least confirm everyone is safe and well first, then I can deal with Shaun and his pack after. My idea isn&rsquo
The water is cold against my skin, even with all this fur on my body. As soon as Aderyn had returned, it let me know I could make it up part of the way before a patrol would become an issue. There were more further up that it would then become impossible, but this would get us past the outskirts of the border and at least as close as where I had washed up on shore the last time I was here. Any further and I’d find it hard to avoid patrols and battle the river’s current.Things can still go wrong, though, so I am cautious about how quietly I make my way upstream. Anytime Aderyn lets off a warning call, I lower my body further into the river’s waters. It takes a bit of practice, but there are spots even here where the shadows can help me blend in with my surroundings. The only issue is they are not as still as those on the ground.To say I am re
After returning to the location of my body, I release the bond with the raven, allowing it to fly back off to its nest or wherever it will go. I then look at Aderyn and sigh softly. “It won’t be easy, but we can get in just fine. It will be the getting out that will prove trickier,” I relay to it.Aderyn cocks its head to the side at me and then croaks, “there are many warriors there, each knowing the layout of the land. Fighting will not be easy for your people.”“I know,” I agree with a single nod. “That doesn’t mean it isn’t possible to find a way out, though.” With a fold of my arms, I mull over my options. I would rather not hurt the other packs, because that’ll just cause even more fear and terror to fill their minds, and now that I know the truth, I don’t want that to be my legacy.“If not to fight, can just scare off. Use shadows to m