EarthBorn (The Elemental Born Book 1) (5 page)

“What could have been more important than a meeting with your Alpha, your father?” Ryan demanded.

“It wasn’t more important, believe me. I just got held up.” Not liking my answer, my father sat back in his chair and waited, his calculating gaze never wavering. He wasn’t going to move on until I told him. “Chelsea cornered me on my way here. She wanted to know who I was with last night.”

“And so, my son, do I. Ryan found Frankie passed out in the hallway in the early hours. He knew you had been with him and found that you were not here. After checking the CCTV, we saw that after you had dropped Frankie home, you and an unknown female drove off. You didn’t reappear till hours later. Do you really think that is appropriate behaviour for the future Alpha of the pack when we are attending a Wiccan ritual tonight?”

“No, Alpha,” I said, keeping my eyes lowered to show my submission and respect. I was one of a few that was dominate enough to look my father in the eye, but when his wolf was pissed like he was now, to do so would be disrespectful.

“So tell me, who was she?”

There was no getting out of this. My father could smell a lie a mile away, but if I was careful, I might just get away with not telling them her name. “Just an old friend from school. Passed her in the car when we were on our way back and gave her a life home.”

“Then why drop Frankie off first?”

“I haven’t seen her in years. While we were talking I drove on autopilot. When we got close to her old house she realised my mistake and gave me the address of where she was staying now. So we dropped Frankie off and then I took her home.”

As he contemplated me for a moment, I thought that he hadn’t brought it, that he saw through the holes in my story, but then, nodding in acceptance, he moved on. “Alright, I buy that, but you are to be punished along with Frankie for allowing him to get into that state. Oh, and Zak will also join you in your punishment. Inform him of that when he decides to remove him dick from its latest home and crawls back here.”

“Yes, Alpha,” I said, fighting a smile at my father’s words.

After a little more talk about preparations for the ritual, I was dismissed. Heading to the kitchen, I stopped get something for the headache I knew Frankie would have, then grabbed a quick bite to eat before making my way back upstairs to his room.

It wasn’t a pretty sight. After Ryan had found him in the hallway passed out he had woken him, but Frankie had only stayed awake long enough to puke all down himself before passing out again, and, of course, no one had thought to get him cleaned up before tossing him onto his bed.

Holding my breath so I wouldn’t be sick myself at the stench, I made my way through the room to the bathroom. Turning on the shower, I went back into the hallway to grab the empty laundry basket and returned to the room to strip him of his sick covered clothes. Removing his shoes and socks was easy, the jeans were a little harder because Frankie had a thing for tight fitting jeans, but it was his top that was going to be the hardest. It was covered. Completely and utterly covered with sick. Deciding that I would rather deal with him pissed at me for destroying his favourite
pulling
t-shirt than having to try removing it properly, I allowed my wolf to rise to the surface a little and let my claws out, then as quick and carefully as I could, I slashed at his shirt, shredding it to pieces. He didn’t even stir. Now that he was free of his sick cover attire, left in just his boxers, I hoisted him over my shoulder and marched into the bathroom, steam rising for the showerhead over the tub and dumped him in it.

Snapping awake as the water hit him, he began thrashing about, yelling. “Shit… Fuck….” Spotting me leaning back against the sink, a smirk on my face, he tried his best to climb out but only succeeded in sliding further into the tub, his legs kicking wildly in the air. “What the fuck man? I’m going to kill you,” he snarled.

“You were covered in puke.”

“So what, you thought you would drown me? Come on, dude. So not cool.”

“No, what’s not cool is being dragged up at the crack of dawn and yelled at because Ryan found you passed out cold in the hallway.”

A look of confusion passed over his face before his eyes widened, the night before rushing back to him. “Shit, sorry man. But hey, you’re still alive, so no worries, right?”

“Dream on, mate, this is my father we are talking about.” Finally taking pity on him as he continued to struggle to get out of the bath, I helped him up, grasping his hand and helping him to his feet. “We’ve got to help Isaac sort out the mess in the vault. Apparently a couple of the guys complained about getting lost and not being able to find anything down there yesterday, so now my father wants it organized… and we have just been signed up to help.”

“Fucking hell,” he groaned, stumbling to the toilet to take a piss. “Any idea who else is helping us? And please don’t say Chelsea. That girl seems to follow you everywhere. She collared me last night asking questions like the raging bitch she is.”

“No, she will not be there. But I can’t promise she’ll not try to volunteer once she hears that I'm going to be down there. But apart from me and you, so far the only other person being forced into slavery is Zak.”

“Ha! Serves him right for stealing my woman,” he shouted, punching his fist in the air as he completely missed his aim for the toilet. Leaving him to it, I went back into the bedroom and stripped his bed, bundling the sheets into the hamper and placing it back outside and sending a quick text to Jane.

I don’t care what anyone says, that stuff was being collected and washed, today.

The rest of the day was no better. Zak finally turned up around midday and was met at the door by Ryan, who ordered him straight upstairs to wash off as he put it, ‘the smell of human slut.’ Chelsea had gone off with some of the females for the day but I still couldn’t escape her, my phone seemed to be constantly beeping with texts and then voicemails every time she called and I ignored it. At one point I was tempted to reply to one of her texts and just tell her it was over, but that was a coward’s way out and I was no coward. I’d talk to her when she got back if I didn’t have that stupid ritual to attend, but they weren’t going to be back until after we left, so that was out of the question.

As the sun began to set, all the young, unmated males of the pack gathered in the main hall to wait for the Alpha and Beta.

Right on time my father entered with Ryan a step behind him, the noise instantly ceasing. “Tonight you are representing our pack before many of the supernatural world. I expect the best from you. Tonight one of you may find your mate, may be chosen to become the protector of a witch. If this ritual does select one of our own, then I expect every single one of you to respect her as if she has always been a member of the pack, and keep any nasty comments to yourselves. Understand?”

“Yes, Alpha,” the whole group said as one.

“Then let’s go.”

Stepping out into the night air we all stripped off our clothes so as not to shred them during our shift. As soon as I was naked, I crouched down and let the wolf out, my bones cracking, body twisting until the shift was complete. The shift could be a little painful, but to be honest, most of the time, I found it a pleasurable pain. Nothing felt better than releasing my wolf after a bad day.

Snatching up my jeans in my jaws, I took off into the woods, Frankie and Zak flanking me on either side. The forest was alive with the sounds of paws hitting the ground, howls rising in the air as everyone let go of all the tension that had been building since the announcement of the ritual had been made and let their beasts out. Allowing my wolf to take full control for just this short moment of time, I was surprised by how desperate he was to get there. Unlike everyone else he didn’t care to chase game like he normally did, he just wanted to rush ahead and get to what was his as soon as possible.

His?

What was with him tonight? Pulling back a little of his control I slowed him down before he could speed past the Alpha and piss him off even more than we already had. Just as we neared the tree line, my father stopped and shifted back. Following his lead, I did the same, quickly pulling on my jeans and waiting silently as the others did too. When everyone was covered – at least, their bottom halves – we exited the forest and came out into a clearing slowly filling with males, all gathered around a circle of four very large stones.

So this was the Wiccan Circle. I had heard about it over the years but had never seen it. It didn’t really look like much, at least not with a whole hoard of males trampling all over it, but I could feel the power of the place.
The Were
are magical after all, in the sense that we share our souls with an animal and can transform into that animal at will. We can also sense certain types of magic, and this place was humming with it.

Moving forward, we took our place in the field surrounding the stones. In the centre stood a young woman with long dark hair, but when she turned to greet us I realised she wasn’t young at all. Her eyes were ancient, had seen more than her physical appearance at first led you to believe. She must be the Crone, I decided just as she moved towards my father.

“Alpha Edwards, it's been a long time." She greeted him with a smile.

“Yes, it has, Madam Grace. I hope you are well?”

“Never better. Now, as you are not one of the prospects I will take you over to the other leaders.”

“About that, why am I here? It's not normal for the Alpha to have to come to these things when he is already mated, even with my mate deceased.”

“If one of your pack is selected then all will be revealed, otherwise, you just get a nice evening out with your pack and a chance to talk to some old friends. This way,” she said, indicating for him to follow and off she went.

Turning towards Ryan, he said, "Keep an eye out. Something strange is happening here. I've never felt this much magic in the place before, and I've been here a time or two when there were a lot more witches present.”

After the Crone had escorted my father over to a small group of men and women just on the far side of the field, she returned to the centre of the circle and gazed upon us. "You have been brought here for a reason. Tonight one of you may very well become the protector of a witch. For those of you that have been to one of these rituals before I should tell you that there have been a few changes made to the ritual. The witch who is performing the ritual tonight will not be seen, her identity hidden from all, only the one chosen will get to see her, and not until the glade is clear. There are reasons for this that I will not discuss now, but will, of course, explain to the chosen protector and his pack, coven or family leader. Now I ask that you remain quiet during the ritual and stay in your positions."

"How will we know if we have been chosen?” someone asked from the Eastern Pack. The Eastern Pack were technically our neighbours but their home was over three hundred miles away. What were they doing here?

Every year or two a local witch would come of age and the unmated males of my pack would be invited to attend the ritual, but never had another pack been invited, or any of the other supernatural community. Something was not right with this.

"If you are chosen, believe me, you'll know. Now let us begin.” She clapped her hands and turned to leave the circle.

As if out of nowhere, a young witch appeared, her entire body hidden from view by a long dark robe and her face concealed by the hood. Slowly she walked around the Circle, stopping to kneel and speak in a foreign tongue at each stone, before returning to the middle. For a long moment it seemed as if she wasn’t going to do anything, she just stood there in silence.

Was this normal? Looking around at those that had been present at one of these rituals before I could see tell. Finally, she straightened her spine and lifted her eyes to the sky, her arms rising as she began to sing. Or would that be chant? Whatever you wanted to call it, it was beautiful. I’d never seen magic like this before. I’d seen the odd spell cast in the past, the odd curse or hex, but nothing like this.

Her voice rose higher as the power in the place began to build and flow towards her and I caught some of what she was saying.

In my mind but out of sight.

Guarding protector, find me tonight.

Wrap me in your warm embrace.

Protect me now from that evil place.

Answer my call. Answer now.

So I may be protected by thou.

As the witch finished her chant the whole place seemed to hum with power, three of the four stones glowing faintly, but one was shining brightly, radiating power. The energy within the Circle began to build higher and higher until it couldn’t contain it any longer and blasted out, washing over the gathering crowd. As it spread over the group no one reacted, not seeming to sense the strength of it at all, but when it hit me… well, that was a different story.

It seemed to hit me full force, causing me to gasp in shock as the power wrapped itself around me, gripping me in a vice. It began to pull me forward, my feet moving by their own accord. As I made to step forward into the Circle itself, Frankie grabbed my arm to hold me back. "What you doing, man?” he whispered. I couldn't speak, couldn't take my eyes off my prize.

Prize?

That was the fucking wolf talking again. He was raising closer to the surface every second but not to take over my body. It was as if he just wanted to be present for this moment. The moment he looked upon his mate.