The Tribrid's Return

Attacked

Athena's P.O.V.

Callan stares at me as I shove my ear buds back into my ears and turn around to finish making the rest of the pancakes. I can feel his eyes lingering on my back, but I choose to ignore him. My wolf is begging me to interact with him some more, but I ignore her too, not wanting to give in so easily. I listen to a couple of more songs, before I see him walk over to the sink out of my peripheral and wash the dishes. Once he's done, he walks over to me and stands as close to me as he can, while heat radiates off of his body, making my skin tingle.

He slowly lifts his hand and pulls an earbud out of my ear, "I've got some stuff to take care of. The north side of the river is being patrolled by Gavin and Sean today. You're welcome to go shift and run for as long as you want. I expect you back here at lunch time, though, to discuss everything." he says to me, before he places my earbud back in my ear, while purposely brushing his fingers gently against my jawline.

Bumps rise on my skin at his touch, before I let out a frustrated groan from having to listen to Celeste pester me about him some more, "Athena, did you feel that? Your body reacts to him like that, because he's our mate! Stop being so stubborn and at least kiss him! It won't hurt anything! The pack doesn't have to know! You two can just keep it a secret for now!" she begs, before whining incessantly.

"I'm not making any type of advances towards him right now! He needs to fully understand what he's getting himself into, Celeste! I'm not getting involved physically, until I know whether or not he's going to reject us! My heart is already invested because of the mate bond! I refuse to get caught up in the feelings of the mate bond and make the mistake of letting him take my virginity, before I know whether or not he's going to reject us!" I tell her.

Celeste lets out a frustrated growl, "He won't reject us! He already knows what you are and he's okay with that!"

"He doesn't know everything, though. I might scare him off. He might realize this is too much for him to handle. Please, just stop already." I say to her as I turn the stove off, before down the hallway towards mine and Gavin's room.

Once I get to my room, I pack a bag with an extra pair of clothes just in case, a water bottle, a few granola bars, my crystals, and my spell book. When my bag is packed, I throw on some black leggings, a grey tank top, and some tennis shoes, before brushing my hair back into a high ponytail. I walk across the hallway to the bathroom and wash my face quickly, before brushing my teeth. I go back to my room and grab my belongings, before walking out of the pack house towards the North side of the river.

I know he said he sent me here because Gavin and Sean are patrolling this area, but I also know he told me to come here since the pack house is already on the North side of town. He sent me to this side so I wouldn't have to walk through the town square, meaning I would avoid running into any other members of the pack. I walk a few yards down the gravel road, before I notice a couple of men from the night before leading a restrained blonde woman towards a building at the back of the pack house property. I recognize her, it's Estelle, which means the building they're taking her to must be the dungeons. I shake my head at the thoughts of what they will do to her down there out of my mind, before continuing on my way.

I quickly walk away from them, wanting to escape from everything that has happened within the past twelve hours. I've only had around four hours of sleep, seeing as it was five in the morning when Callan called the meeting last night. My body is sore from Gregory's death and I'm mentally drained from the memory of it replaying in my head all night. Shifting into my wolf form is exactly what I need right now.

I reach the northern part of the river, which has a lot more cliffs and valleys than the southern part does. The valleys have a lot of wildflowers and animals roaming around, so it's extremely peaceful and exactly what I need. I finally come across a spot that is a little more hidden, so I decide it's a good spot to leave my belongings and strip down. I quickly take my clothes off and pull my ponytail out of my hair, while Celeste jumps around excitedly in my mind, knowing that she's about finally be let out.

The second I loosen the reigns and let her take control, she rips through me without a second thought, as she transforms my body into her pure white wolf. Before I know it, trees are flashing past me as she runs through the woods, while barreling through the river every now and then. She spots a deer across the valley, so she takes off after it, enjoying the little game of chase. Celeste eventually ends up cheating, though, by using my vampire speed to finally catch up to it. She pounces on the deer when she gets close enough, before letting it go the second she catches it, since she knows that it's death will cause us pain. After that, Celeste makes her way down to the river and jumps in, before splashing around in the water as the fish frantically swim away from the disruption. Once she's done, she walks over to a bed of wildflowers and lays down to bask in the sunshine, while butterflies flutter around.

"It's been a long time since I've done that. I missed it." she says to me.

I let out a small sigh as I sit back in my mind and watch the butterflies around us, "I know, I've missed it too. I'm sorry there weren't many places to shift in New Orleans. It was too dangerous, since vampires and covens are the majority there. Even though I'm a tribrid, I still didn't want to chance anything. They could've easily poisoned us with wolfsbane if they caught us, and I don't know how wolfsbane affects you. It would crush me if I lost you, so I never wanted to be in the position where that might happen."

"I understand. You don't have to apologize for anything. I'm just really happy we're home." she says to me as she stretches out her limbs.

"Please don't get too comfortable with being here just yet. He might still change his mind." I tell her, before a sudden uneasiness fills me, like I'm being watched.

Celeste huffs in frustration, "He's not going to change his mind. He knows that he's our mate and I've seen the way he looks at you, he's not going to let you go easily."

"No one has ever loved me for what I am, except Grandma. Why would he love me, if my own parents can't love me?" I ask her.

Celeste whines as she feels my anxiety suddenly take over, "Athena, he will accept you, I promise. He will love you and do anything for you, even lay down his own life for you. I can feel it when he looks at you. You are worrying too much. Come on, let's go back to the pack house so you can show him what you can do. We need to go ahead and get this over with so you can stop worrying." she says to me, before she stands up and starts walking back up the river where I hid my belongings.

Once I shift out of my wolf form and am dressed, I look around to make sure no one is watching, before pulling my crystals and spell book out of my bag. I walk down to the river and place the crystals at the edge, in the sun, before reciting a spell that makes them absorb energy from the earth's elements. My biological father could only pull his powers from the spirits in New Orleans. However, I can pull my powers from myself, since my vampire side is like a super charged battery all of the time. When something major happens, like last night with Gregory's death, I sometimes just need an extra boost from another energy source to help me recover, which is why I'm using my crystals today.

Once the crystals are full, I pick them up and walk back over to my bag, before putting everything inside and slinging it over my shoulder. I pull a granola bar out and take a bite, before taking off walking towards the pack house. I only get halfway to the pack house, when I hear sticks cracking beside me in the woods. I turn to look to see where the noise came from, but I don't see anything, so I keep walking. The feeling of uneasiness is in my stomach again, like someone is watching me, so I stop walking and turn around again just to make sure. I look around for a moment, before my gaze lands on bright golden eyes staring back at me. They're shining through the darkness, deep in the tree line. I stare at the wolf that is unmoving and glaring at me, wondering who it could be, since I know it's not Callan or Gavin.

"Sean?" I ask, knowing that he's the only other wolf that's supposed to be patrolling this area right now and I don't know what his wolf looks like.

The wolf suddenly lets out a threatening growl, before it charges at me. Celeste immediately takes over when she sees this and shifts, ripping through me as she quickly tries to prepare for a fight. As soon as Celeste finishes the shift, she's tackled in the side extremely hard and thrown a few feet away from where I was standing only seconds before. Celeste stands up immediately and charges at the wolf that attacked us, as they run towards us, as well, before tackling them to the ground when they make contact. They roll a couple of times as they fight one another, before Celeste is finally able to pin them to the ground, while snarling at the attacker threateningly. The attacker tries to kick her off of them, but doesn't succeed. Celeste is growling at them in an authoritative tone and baring her teeth, while drool drips down onto the wolf as she continues to try and force them to submit to her. The brown wolf that attacked us is trying to shove her away and trying to bite at her, but she stands her ground.

Suddenly, another wolf is beside us and growling at our attacker, as well. Celeste and I can tell by their scent that it's Gavin, which quickly gives us both a feeling of relief. The wolf that attacked Celeste and I suddenly starts to whimper when they hear Gavin growling at them, before finally submitting, so I climb off of them and let them up. Gavin continues to protectively snarl, before he has to chase after them when they suddenly take off running away from us. He stops a few hundred feet from me as he watches them continue to run, before he makes his way back over to me and sits in front of me.

"Are you okay?" Gavin asks through the mind link.

Celeste lets out an amused snort, before I take control over her form and reply back to him, "Yes, I'm perfectly fine. You know it's going to take a lot more than that, to overpower your sister."

Gavin nods his head, before looking back into the distance where the other wolf disappeared, "We need to get back to the pack house, immediately. Callan gave strict orders to not let other pack members see you. Plus, she's not supposed to be roaming freely right now."

I nod my head and quickly walk back over to my bag, before shifting back into human form and changing into my clothes. Gavin stays in his wolf form as waits for me to get dressed, before escorting me back to the pack house once I'm done.

"What the hell happened?!" I hear Callan yell as I walk into the pack house, while Gavin shifts back to human form right outside the door.

Gavin sighs as he walks through the door seconds behind me, before looking down to tighten the drawstring on his shorts, "I'm not sure, exactly. Sean and I patrolled the area three times before Athena showed up. There was no one out there all morning. I don't know why she was out there."

Two other men suddenly burst through the door behind us, before coming to a halt as they stare at Callan with wide eyes, "I thought she was in the dungeons! Why is she roaming around freely in the woods, when I gave you STRICT orders to lock her up?!" Callan yells at the two men.

One of the men looks down at the ground shamefully, while the other stares at Callan in terror, "We...we did lock...her up! We don't...don't know...how she escaped!"

"Lies! There's no way she was able to just escape! Why are you two not doing specifically what I asked of you?!" Callan yells at them, before taking wide, angry strides towards them and violently pushing one of them backwards.

"Who are we talking about?" I ask him, before waiting on him to confirm the answer I already know.

Callan sucks in a frustrated breath to calm himself, before looking at me, "Estelle."

I nod my head in understanding, before crossing my arms over my chest casually, "They're telling the truth, Callan. I saw them walking her to the dungeons when I was leaving this morning. They had her restrained and everything."

Callan furrows his eyebrows in confusion as he looks around at the four of us, "So, how exactly did she get out?"

"More importantly, what exactly did she see while she was out there watching me, and who is she going to tell? I was doing other things besides letting my wolf run. She even went as far as to violently attack me." I say to him, even though I already know she was watching me the entire time from the uneasiness I had felt, meaning she saw everything.