MINI STORY: A Beta and His Mate

"The Beta and his Witch" Chapter 3

Sybil and Ethan sat across from each other at the small kitchen table, staring at one another with very different expressions; Ethan was hopeful while Sybil was weary and skeptical.

“You need to know everything.” Sybil finally said.

“I want to know everything.” Ethan shrugged with a smirk and Sybil sighed loudly at him.

“I mean,” She grumbled, “You need to know how I ended up in Victoria’s army.”

“Only if you want to tell me. You don’t owe me an explanation.” Ethan said,

“I know I don’t. That’s why I’m giving you one.” Sybil replied matter-of-factly.

“I’m listening.” Ethan nodded, gesturing for her to continue. Sybil took a deep breath, twisting her shaking hands in her lap.

“There was a man with Victoria when she invaded your pack.” Sybil said and Ethan nodded in confirmation,

“A vampire named Elm.”

“Yes well, Elm wasn’t always a vampire. He was born a warlock and, for ten years, he was my mate.” Sybil confessed.

Ethan’s eyes went huge. Of all the explanations and tales he had concocted in his head about Sybil’s past and her first mate, that was not one of them.

“I thought he was….” The words caught in Ethan’s throat.

Elm always seemed otherworldly which Ethan and the others had attributed to his age. But, if Elm was truly as old as they thought he was and he was Sybil’s mate before becoming a vampire, that would mean…..

“Old? He is. I’m 206 years old, Ethan.”

Ethan blinks as the second bomb explodes in his face. He gulps and nods, trying to contain his emotions.

“I didn’t think witches were immortal?” He cleared his throat and forced his voice not to shake.

“Normal witches aren’t. Only those who come from the original four witch bloodlines are. That’s how Victoria and Mayze are so strong, were so strong.” She said, “Things have gotten muddy over the centuries which is why Victoria had to start using blood magic and sacrifices for her immortality.”

Ethan nodded like he was following her story but his mind was silently exploding. Sybil continued,

“A thousand years ago, the world was much smaller and chaotic. There were no vampires or werewolves, the fairies never left their realm; there were only witches, dragons, and lycan. The Moon Goddess, Selene, and the Dragon Goddess Tiamat were, among other things, witches. Selene was the Mother Witch of the Emerald Coven and Tiamat was the Mother Witch of the Ruby Coven. Agatha was the Mother Witch of the Diamond Coven and Freya the Mother Witch of the Sapphire Coven. Together, they made up the Witches Circle.”

“The Witches what now?” Ethan c****d an eyebrow at her and she smirked at his cluelessness.

“The Witches Circle was the ultimate power in the universe, long before even the dragons or the lycans. From them every species was born. There are many stories on how the Mother Witches came to be and no one knows for sure, but their power was irrefutable. For decades, the Mother Witches traveled the world alone with only themselves for company. In that loneliness, they decided to unite their great powers and create four covens of witches. Their children are who the immortal witches of today come from,

“Each coven was inspired by an element and the witches within each coven could control the element in which it was named for. The Ruby Coven was fire, the Sapphire Coven was water, The Diamond Coven was air, and the Emerald Coven was earth. This was a time long before spellbooks and potions; it was a time of elemental power that people of today can scarcely imagine.”

Sybil recounted the stories she had grown up hearing from her mother and her grandmother. She came from a long line of incredible witches, a bar that was near impossible to reach.

“Agatha and the Diamond Coven sought to create a species that was much like them but with less power; they called them the embodiment of emotions. Today, we call them humans. When the first witches and the first humans mated, their children were pure, magical beings that could wield magic, live hundreds of years and never age, but could also feel emotions more powerfully than any creature before them. We now call them the fae,

“Before Selene became your Moon Goddess and before the history that you know, there were the lycans. She and the Emerald Coven wanted to create defenders for themselves and their new species, peacekeepers. Thus, the lycan were born with his great strength, speed, and senses. But, with all of that power came blind anger and limitedless bloodlust. To combat the soldiers she had created, Selene went to her sisters and together they created the idea of the matebond. Lycan could not only mate with each other, but with the other species her sister covens were creating. After her death, she became the Moon Goddess and her lycan turned into the werewolves, a more stable and perfected species.”

Ethan grinned proudly as his mate called him perfect and Sybil immediately realized her mistake.

“Timid your ego, Beta. I’m not saying you're the perfect species, just that you're more put together than the original lycans.” She scoffed, rolling her eyes. Ethan shrugged with a smug expression,

“Sounds like you’re calling me perfect.” He smirked.

Sybil gave him a look that said should I continue or not and Ethan waved his hand in a gesture that said, yes.

“Anyway,” Sybil sighed, “The creation of the dragons is overly complicated but the short of it is Tiamat and the Ruby Coven created fire breathers who then evolved into dragons. A few centuries later, her creation was more dark than light and she had to shut them off inside their own realm, permanently,

“In the face of all the changes her sisters were making, Freya and the Sapphire Coven sought serenity and peace. They took to the oceans, using their magic to give them tails and gills. They evolved themselves into the species known as sirens and stuck to themselves, avoiding all the drama from their sister covens’ creations.”

“So, you’re telling me that sirens and dragons exist, it's just they stay within their own realm?” Ethan looked at her in disbelief.

“The dragons were walled off a thousand years ago, no one alive as seen one, so I can’t say for certain what has become of them. Sirens are most certainly real and they sneak to the surface more often than you think.” Sybil replied.

“What about vampires?”

“Vampires came from the descendant of Agatha and the Diamond Coven. You’ve already met her. Marlow, aka Victoria, created the first three vampires, the royal family: Gena, Gideon, and Gabriel.” Sybil explained.

“Well, that’s a lot.” Ethan grumbled, raking his hand through his hair as he thought about the history lesson his mate had just given him.

“Yep,” She said with an amused expression, “I’m a child of the Emerald Coven. My great ancestor was Selene.”

Ethan’s eyes went wide,

“Wait, that doesn’t mean we’re like….related?” He gulped.

Sybil laughed at his expression.

“No. Selene created your species, you didn’t come from her genes. I did.”

“Then, how can you possibly say that we won’t work? You’re the great-times-whatever granddaughter of the woman who is responsible for my existence and the existence of the matebond itself.” Leave it to Ethan to twist the history lesson to his benefit.

Sybil grumbled incoherently at him.

“You’re impossible.” She said,

Ethan grinned at her, wiggling his eyebrows mischievously.

“Besides, I haven’t gotten to that part yet.” She sighed.

“By all means….” Ethan motioned for her to continue.

“I grew up inside the Emerald Coven, as did all of my ancestors. I was trained my entire life to take over as Mother Witch from my mother. Elm was a member of my coven and we realized we were mates at 16, as witches often do. For a longtime, we were happy. Looking back on it, I still can’t pinpoint the exact moment when my mate betrayed me. All I know is that when my mother died, Marlow and her followers attacked my coven and we were overwhelmed,

“By spiritual law, I was the Mother Witch and so Marlow made me bow before her on an altar of my brother and sister’s bodies. That’s when Elm stood up and took her side, claiming to have been helping her gain followers and support from the Emerald Coven for months. She promised him immortality, something that I was forbidden from giving him by my mother,

“Marlow turned him into a vampire in front of me, severing our pure bond and causing me excruciating pain. She killed everyone who didn’t bow down to her and then forced me to follow her, conceding my position as Mother Witch to her,

“When a witch becomes a vampire it goes against all of nature's laws, making them go as dark as possible. Everything good in him, everything made him my mate and my companion, was stripped from him along with his magic. But, Marlow added a little something special to her spell that made him immortal. She ensured that our matebond was not broken. The sacredness of it was, the emotional connection and the love that bound us was gone, but our souls were still connected. I felt his pain and he could command me to do his or Marlow’s will. I had no choice but to follow her.”

Sybil released a shaky breath as she bared her heart before this man she barely knew. For nearly a hundred years, she loved one man. Elm wasn’t immortal but his aging was slowed, a perk for being a member of the original covens, and so they were prophesied to live hundreds of years together as one. That was good enough for Elm. So, for the next century she bowed down to him and his evil mother’s will.

Ethan’s heart broke as he looked at his battleworn mate. He reached across the table and laid his hand open for her to take. He wouldn’t force his affection on her but he would offer it until she was finally ready to take it. Sybil studied his hand like it would jump out and bite her, before sighing and finally deciding to take a chance. She couldn't quite make herself hold it, so she laid her hand on the table and twisted her pinky around his.

“I can’t imagine the pain you’ve lived with, Sybil. I understand now that words don’t mean anything to you if they aren’t proved with action. You have been promised things before and the one man who was supposed to give you the world, betrayed you. I can sit here until I’m blue in the face, promising to love and protect you, promising to never hurt you or leave you, but it won’t mean anything until I show you. But, I can’t prove anything to you unless you give me the time to do so. I know I have to earn your trust and I swear, Sybil, I will and I’ll never betray it for as long as I live. However long that may be. All I need is you.”

Ethan’s eyes burned with passion as he kept his gaze locked on Sybil’s. He felt so much love for this small, broken witch that it hurt; he felt physical pain deep inside his chest and he knew that, without a doubt, he would burn the world down to make sure she never felt a second more of pain.