Chapter 6
2349 Words
Elrohith feels the sudden surge of power in the magical world.
“BRITNEY!!”
The witch has come into her power! He needs to find her fast! His spies haven’t been able to give him much information on where she is after scouting the mating week.
She must not have received her powers yet! It should be easier to track her now.
***
Tabatha is sitting in her room, looking out the window when her mom knocks on her door.
“Hi, honey. Just checking in with you. Are you okay? You didn’t eat much at dinner.” Her mom sits down on her bed.
“Mom, what if Erik takes me away to his pack and locks me in the basement of his house, and I never get to see you again?” It just bursts out of her mouth as if it’s been ready to boil over for a while.
“Oh, honey, is that why you haven’t accepted him yet?”
Tears start to pool in her eyes.
“Mom, what if he does what Radagast did to Isobel?” Her body starts to shake as tears rip through her.
“It will be okay, honey.”
***
Before the sun rises, they arrive at the coven grounds. Erik will be spending the day with the patrols while she starts her first day of training with her new powers.
She’s petrified but excited. They open the magic circle and she starts with her normal exercises, but her powers react differently. She stretches out her hand like she usually would like to call fire, but nothing happens for a moment, and then the ground starts to shake. A tower of the earth rises to her hand from the ground, and she jumps back making it stop.
She doesn’t have power over the earth!
“Try again.” The crone says, and she looks confused but tries again.
Again, a pillar of dirt rises.
“Now think about fire and try again.” The crone instructed and Tabatha pictures fire and tried again.
Her fire bursts out of her hand and she smiles. She has never before had to think about it before trying the spell. The crone tells her to think about water, and when she does, water starts pooling in her hand.
“How is this possible?” Her voice was almost a whisper.
“You have control over all the elements and not just the one. We need to see how much control you have before we continue your training.”
The rest of the day is spent trying to see how much control she has and how often she can call on her power before she gets tired, but her energy feels as if it grows with each spell she tries.
By the time they go home, she feels ready to do a triathlon. The crone gave her some herbs to calm her powers, but when Erik arrives to tell her he is back from patrol duty, she asks him if they can go for a run.
He looks surprised but agrees to it, and they shift, running into the forest.
“Let me out, I want to talk to Lykos,” Dib demands.
“We aren’t mated yet, how exactly do you think you are going to talk to him?”
“Just lemme out!” Dib demands, and Tabatha decides that it can’t do any harm.
She feels her mind move to the back and watches Erik run just in front of Dib.
“Hi, Dib.” She hears a strange voice come to mind.
She immediately fights to get control back from Dib.
“Calm down, Tabatha! It’s only Lykos!” Dib shouts at her trying to stop her from finding her way to the surface.
“It can’t be!”
“Hi, Lykos.”
“Wow! It works!” She hears the same male voice again as they strike up a conversation while they run.
How is this possible? Wolves should only be able to communicate after they’ve mated… She listens to the two of them talk and suddenly feels guilty for keeping them apart for so long. She has forgotten her best friend and didn’t think about her needs.
Feeling Dib rub up against Lykos’ neck, a shiver runs down her spine. Dib is giggling, and the only thing she can think about is mating with Lykos!
Wow! A powerful surge of possessiveness rushes over her at just the thought that he would leave and find another mate. She understands why everyone goes nuts! This is ridiculous! Inexplicable urges to… Uhm…
“Are you okay, Dib?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” Dib giggles and Tabatha rolls her eyes.
“It's time you hand control back before you two decide to raise a pack of your own!”
Lykos asks why Dib burst out laughing, and when she explains it, she can swear she sees a grin on his face. He is a beautiful wolf.
Tabatha takes back control and wonders if she would be able to speak to Erik this way.
“You can try.” Dib shrugs.
They make their run home, and she jumps on the porch feeling happy and scared at the same time.
***
The discussion between Lykos and Dib was so easy. Why is he struggling to talk to her? Erik is in the kitchen preparing a picnic for them. It’s his day off, and he wants to spend as much time with Tabatha as possible. He asked her father’s permission to take her out for the day, and her mom told him where to go.
They will be sending guards with them because of her Alpha blood status, but her mom said the guards will keep their distance so they can have a private conversation. When he is ready, he loads the basket in the black SUV and walks over to the main house.
As usual, the house is in chaos with all the girls talking at once. He finds Frank and Gareth sitting on the porch having coffee.
“Don’t go there until they call you for breakfast.” Frank laughs.
“But the picnic.”
“Your funeral.” Gareth shrugs with a huge grin on his face.
Erik decides to take the chance. He doesn’t want their food to spoil. When he walks into the house, the women are all talking at the same time, but it seems that they know who is saying what when. He clears his throat, and they go silent, and all eyes are on him.
“Good morning, ladies. I’m here to find out of Tabatha would like to join me for an adventure today.” He grins at her, and she starts giggling.
“I’ve already spoken to both your parents, and they said that it’s okay.”
“Why are you asking permission, she’s a grown woman?” Circe frowns.
“It's a common courtesy in our pack that if you aren’t mated, you ask the parents for permission to take their daughter out.” Oh, boy, did he lie through his teeth right now, and everyone knows it!
“Well, Tabatha?” Her mom looks her way.
Tab wipes her hands on a dishcloth and takes his hand. A slight blush forms on her cheeks as he guides her out of the house and to the waiting SUV.
***
“Where are we going?” She feels a little nervous.
“It’s a surprise, but don’t worry. Your mom and dad know where we are going, and they are sending your two guards with us to make sure you are safe.” He frowns, and she feels guilty.
He holds the door open for her, taking her hand to help her climb in. He is such a gentleman. He must get it from his father. None of the guys here would do something like that except her dad and Gareth. The boys her age all just want you to accept the bond immediately and move in!
The car pulls out of the gates, and she feels nausea slowly pushing up her throat.
“Don’t mess this up!” Dib rolls her eyes.
“I haven’t done anything!”
“Not yet. Just trust Erik, they won’t hurt us.”
***
They arrive at an arcade, and she frowns. What the hell?
The guard opened the door for her and Erik jumped out on the other side, rushing over to take her hand.
“Come on. Lykos needs some game time.” Erik laughs, and she follows him into the arcade.
This is not what she expected. The guards follow them inside, and one of them is carrying a basket.
“Tabatha, please just go with it. Trust me if you feel you can’t trust our mate.” Dib excitedly jumps around in her mind.
They walk into the building and Tabatha giggles.
“So, is this like a date or something?”
“Yup.” Erik winks at her.
He found a table, and the guard brought the basket over. There is a concession stand, but what he takes out of the basket looks way better than what they sell.
“Don’t worry. I cleared it with the owner. I told him it was a special day. So, what are we going to do first? Rock climbing on the wall? Basketball or some of the arcade games?” He grins looking like a big kid.
“Climbing? I’m wearing a dress.”
“No problem. Your mom packed you some clothes.” The second guard appeared with a bag and her eyes grew wide.
He went all out!
“Okay, rock climbing it is then.” No time like the present to try new things and also test him…
***
Tabatha surprises Erik when she knows how to clip in her climbing gear.
“Are we going to make this interesting?”
“What, like, put money on it?” Tabatha giggles.
“I was thinking more in the line of, if I win, I will get a kiss.” He grins and the blush on his cheeks makes her feel slightly more comfortable.
“Okay, what do I get if I win?”
“You get to choose our next destination for a date.”
She mulls it over in her mind.
“Oh, come on!” Dib shouts and Tabatha nods in agreement to the bet.
They get set, and the climbing instructor laughs when he shouts “go” and watches the two of them race up the wall.
Tabatha knows the wall because they’ve been here so many times before, but Erik is strong, and it’s a close race! She climbs over the edge at the top mere milliseconds before him and bursts out laughing.
“Dammit!” Erik giggles. “You are pretty fast for a small girl.”
“Small girl? I just beat you!”
“Well done, babe.”
The sudden name of endearment makes her heart skip a beat. She steps close and stands on her tiptoes, leaving a kiss on his cheek.
He grins. “I didn’t win. What was that for?”
“Just a thank you.”
After their climb, they have something to eat before changing and playing games in the arcade. She sees an entirely new side of him, and she doesn’t know if he is letting her win or if she is just better at it than him, but she has so much fun that it doesn’t matter.
At the end of the day, they hand in all the tickets they won, and she picks a huge blue stuffed elephant.
They pack up their picnic and as they walk out the door, she holds out her free hand for him to take. He grins at her as if he just won the lottery, and her heart skips a beat again.
It was the perfect date.
***
Tabatha wakes up and the first thing she sees is the blue elephant, sitting on her desk, staring back at her. She bursts out giggling when she thinks of the night before until she remembers how possessive he was when they went for their run.
If she has to be honest with herself… She is scared she might get lost in him. If she accepts him, she becomes part of him, and he becomes part of her. Yes, her parents are an example of what happiness and a bond can mean to a person, but then Isobel also thought she found the love of her life.
Then there is Glinda and Gareth who seem to be head over heels for each other. He moves, and she moves. It’s like the perfect dance. But Willow fell in love with Radagast, and it was so bad that Tabatha had to break their bond as twins.
What if she gets lost in him?
“What if you fly?” Her mom peeks around the corner of her door.
“I could feel your struggle from downstairs. Is it your powers that you are conflicted about or Erik?”
“I’m sorry, mom. I didn’t realize you could feel it. Has anyone else?” Tabatha feels a slight panic rise in her chest.
“Well, since you aren’t in control yet… All we do is blame it on your powers. Do you have plans with Erik today or do you want to practice?”
“I don’t know what to do anymore, mom.”
They start talking about how she feels, about Erik, and her fears of what might happen. She knows there is more happiness than sadness in the world, but she can’t help the fears taking hold of her heart. Her mom suggests that they spend some time at the coven grounds to practice for the day. That way she can burn off some of her pent-up magical energy and get better control over her powers.
When she joins everyone for breakfast, she is surprised to find Erik in the kitchen, helping.
- Writer
