Awakening Book 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

You heard my mother, she told us that some of the witches joined forces with the vampires in this fight and are only too happy to see the downfall of the wolves. Some of them feel wronged by us. I guess, this is the first of them showing up to prove her right. It s been months of sporadic attacks that never succeed. Maybe they think a witch on side might give them an advantage since their weapon is all but useless now.

I don t respond as a cold chill runs through my stomach and I glance back into the dense darkness and try to feel anything beyond the tree line. There is nothing, they never followed us back in here, but the uneasiness that I picked up first is still there. Almost like we re being watched. I shudder in subtle fear at the thought of what might be out there. Trying not to let my mind run riot and imagine the worst.

Don t! Colton nudges my face with his nose, reading my mind, and pushes me away from where I m staring, breaking my train of thought.

Let s go inside and change, clean up, and eat. Forget it for now and we ll talk to my mom in the morning. We re safe within these boundaries, even from witches.

His tone tells me he s worried about what we felt out there too but he s being his usual self. Solid, commanding and like nothing gets to him. He is brushing aside the current problem, and shelving it until after we eat and sleep, when I know Colton does his best thinking. He s a dawn riser and uses the quiet time to figure things out. We re all tired and it s almost morning as it is.

Aye, aye, Chica, do what the man says! I m beyond starving. We have spent half the night out here. I need food, and sleep!

Meadow saunters into the clearing, hearing the link conversation inadvertently because we were not shielding to a private mate link, and nudges against me with her brown sleek furry body. As a wolf, Meadow is weirdly similar to her human form. Sleek, yet curvy, smooth furred with slanted amber eyes that somehow sit well in her face to make her attractive as a Lycan. She isn t as big as the males, but she is fast, and fierce, and despite her slender build I ve seen her devastate everything in her wake and not even ruffle her fur in the process. Knowing she s half shifter took away any questions I had about her slight differences to regular wolves. Subtle, but I see them.

Two more wolves appear in the shadows and walk past, one huge dark one stopping to run his body along the length of Meadow, rubbing his head up against hers as he falls in step beside her. Her mate is as built as mine, only grey and equally rough. He nudges her suggestively and the two of them take off wordlessly ahead without a second thought and Colton snorts in humor at their behavior

For some the Haze is still lingering it seems. He pushes up against me to walk side by side with physical contact and I lean my head into his neck to share his warmth as we cover the last ground. Relaxing into that firm body as he takes some of my weight and guides me onward.

You can talk… I don t get a single night of peace from you, even before the haze hit. I laugh and lick him quickly, hitting the lower profile of his jaw with my darted action.

What can I say, my mate is a vixen and completely irresistible? I m alpha, I can t be outdone in terms of testosterone and horniness, baby. Colton s smug and yet also right. I know he means it, but it still makes me blush and smile inwardly whenever he talks like this and nuzzle him adoringly. Still a little too enamored with my mate, even after months of being his.

The haze was crazy when it hit. We had only been mates for around three weeks when it swept over, and I was almost insane with the need to be joined to him about fifty times a day. I never knew how badly the heat and desire could get when you had already mated up. Never experienced a haze before turning either, so it was a massive wake up call.

How we ever got out of our room for more than three minutes a day is beyond me because nothing could satisfy the hunger or the uncontrollable urge to mate, constantly. No matter how many times, or how good it was, it was just seconds of relief, and I was whining again to have him back on top of me. Colton was only too happy to oblige, given he was in a worse state than me. Males apparently feel it with more vigor, given that it s meant to make them want to procreate and spread their seed to enable their blood lines.

Luckily, the haze only lasts two weeks and slowly tails off when mating season dies away. When the constant crazy hunger to be in his bed wrapped around him, slowly began to fade to a manageable level of need. Not fully though. I don t think I ll ever stop lusting after him and needing to feel his touch every second of every day. We ve rarely been apart since our union so many months back and I ve grown and flourished with his love to become the Luna I never thought I could be. I truly believe it was the one thing I needed in my life to really find myself once more and blossom under his tender care.

The people treat me with respect and love, and I m growing as mother to all. By the side of my born leader, him showing me how to command without fear because he s nothing like his father as alpha. He listens to his people, walks among them as though he s never been any different to them. He s hands on and involved with the building works and the overseeing of every detail, every waking day. We join patrols, make sure we know everything that there is to know about the sick, the school, the problems with the community, and we rectify as best we can.

His mother is a good mentor, but she grows restless here, and now she s recovering well from her time asleep, and regaining her gifts slowly, she s made it clear she wishes to return to the lab where the doctor returned and continue her work with him. I think she feels lost here, like she has no one to really focus her time and energy on. Not that I blame her. Her life isn t what she left behind when she fell to slumber.

The lab became ours after the Santo pack abandoned it and returned to the mountain under the command of their alpha. With Sierra out they had no use or interest in it and knew that Colton would send some of his own to claim it to keep all his mothers and the doctors work safe. Which Colton did, and Doc was able to go back with a new, stronger, kinder pack, as protection to continue his work into our species. He comes here every few weeks to talk through his needs, his findings, and keep Sierra up to date. Who knew we would have human allies in this new world in which we live?

Waking to find her son grown and mated, her husband a betrayer who still holds her home captive and defends it fiercely. No longer Luna of the pack, and no longer required to raise a child. No real mate to have another, even though she s capable enough and still in her prime. She s at odds with the modern advances of our world and she finds the noisy chaotic business of the pack hard to bear. She stays alone in her room most of the time and rarely ventures to see anyone except Colton or I, or the maids Colton assigned her to meet her every need. Doc comes and goes to see her, but she is almost a hermit, living in the west corner of the homestead.

This used to be her ancestral home; someplace she visited from time to time, and thanks to her we found the secret tunnels under the estate that led to the apothecary that belonged to her long-forgotten relatives. The library of grimoires and books that contained histories we had never known. It opened our knowledge on so many things and the Shaman was excited to be given more insight into details he always longed to know.

The homestead had been for generations of witches, but with her father mating with a wolf, he was outcast to live far away with his wife and half-breed child. Near the pack of his mate, who also rejected her. His ancestors had no other heirs and this place fell to emptiness when the last of his blood was killed in the vampire wars of old. This was never truly her home, although she did inherit it and come here over the years. She kept it a secret from Juan and used the protection placed on the land to keep it free from invasion. Those spells work in our favor now. They still hold in place as applied in the ground for generations, to keep nonblood out without invitation, and that goes for vampires too. Our safe haven is protected in so many ways.

Colton could walk in and invite his pack because he was blood, and the house became his. No one can cross the inner perimeter unless the heir welcomes them. Colton being a witch, means without even knowing it, he keeps the inner sanctum safe by merely refusing non pack in. He set the spell when he first entered the house.

Later his mother renewed the spell to cover all the runaways from the mountain who found their way to us, but it means Vampires can get close but never in. And his mother assures us it should work for any other being that we don t welcome to our abode. It s an unbreakable magic. Only Santo pack of our inviting can cross the inner threshold of the boundary lines now Sierra adjusted the spell to be more precise in that fact.

Hey, earth calling Lori.

Colton breaks into my mind, and I come out of my thoughtful daze to see the opening door ahead of us at the main entrance as we are welcomed home by guards of the pack.

Sorry was just thinking. I exhale heavily and sigh at the fact we can soon go to bed. It s been a long patrol tonight and too much running. I m exhausted, filthy, and looking forward to laying down.

Yeah, well less think, more action. You were practically motionless with the slow pace you were pulling. He jests and nudges me with his side and sends me reeling a little.

Sorry.

I follow him in, nodding at the human form guards as we pass and still get that warm tingle as they lower eyes as we pass, as a sign of respect for their Alpha and Luna. I follow Colton to the main stair and up to our floor quickly in hyper speed. I can t get used to this thing where no males look me in the eye except those worthy: the sub pack, my chosen femme companions, Sierra, and my alpha mate. I guess the same goes for Colton too, as only his select few can, while everyone else lowers to the ground as a sign of submission. It s an old tradition that is wordlessly passed down and we never question it.

Since the village was finished, we got the whole upper west floor of the homestead to ourselves. Only the main pack, us, Sierra, some single warriors who walk the house perimeter at night and a few of the housekeepers live inside the homestead now. Guards swap every few hours outside though, so we always have different faces coming and going. We have a school room in the main hall while an outbuilding to become the education center is being built, and the hospital wing still operates from the first floor. So, at all hours there is motion and movement in this vast place, yet it still seems so eerily quiet compared to the months before the village started to get filled out.

Colton swiftly gets ahead of me first and when I catch up and follow him into the bedroom he s already alone in the inner suite and nakedly walking around in human form, dusting off the muck and debris from the forest. I transform to human as soon as I see him and he floors me with that gorgeous, dimpled grin of his, his eyes back to deep dark brown, his hair ruffled messily on top of that head. My gorgeous, tanned Latino lover, stands proudly in front of me in all his perfection with that devilish look in his eye and runs a hand across his abs absent mindedly. That body that makes me weak at the knees in his tall, muscular glory.

Shower?

The cheeky smile makes me smile too because I know it s not an invite, but more of a command.

Just like that, you forget about the troublesome witches out there in the forest and your mind is straight to shower? We both know that isn t exactly what you mean.

I saunter past him as though I have no intention of getting in there with him and squeal when he grabs me from behind and hoists me up princess fashion into his arms.

Worries will keep for a while. Urges will drive me insane. You know how hot for you I get after we turn and go chasing vampires in the forest. He plants a kiss on my temple, and I know struggling is futile. Besides, I m not refusing because I too am hot for what my mate does to me.

Colton, I swear, you have about five hundred reasons for being hot for me every single day. Yesterday it was because we had ribs for dinner…… and the sun came out after lunch….. and before breakfast, you woke up hot for me because it was Tuesday morning. I sigh indulgently and slide my arms around him as I try to get comfier in this grip he has me in.

Baby, is it wrong to want to get naked with my mate as much as possible? We re only young for like maybe eighty years, give or take.

I laugh and bounce him on top of his head with a soft fist and curl my arms around his neck, savoring the unique feel of his skin against mine. Pushing my face into the crook of his throat to inhale everything that is good about him.

Hmmm … don t change.

It s an impulsive lovesick adoration as he carries me to the bathroom, but I truly mean it. I have never known happiness or this sense of home before him and being his mate these past months has been every single wish and dream I never knew I had.

I wasn t planning on it. You love me this way….. so, this way I stay. Got to keep my Luna happy.

He smirks, always cheeky, always grinning, and hauls me into the shower unit to get clean while being anything but.