Chapter Chapter Eleven
After another fifteen minutes of Craig distracting me I was able to get down to the café as the others were already setting everything up.
“There she is!” Tony smirks.
“Oh! How are you feeling? Oh! Your eyes!” Pauline shouts as she takes my head in her hands.
“What about them?” Vance walks up to us, he looks healthier, happier.
“They have purple in them permanently now” Pauline says as Tony peers around the corner.
“Come on Pauline, give me the alpha so we can get to cooking” Tony smirks.
I laugh as Pauline gives him a glare as I hug her and head to the kitchen.
“So, where’s the mate?” He grins.
“Upstairs” I answer as I put on my apron.
“What’s the matter? I’ve never seen a mated couple in their ritual be so far from each other and not seem to care” He faces me, arms folded.
“We spent all night with each other, trust me, if he could have got me to stay up there he would have done” I smirk.
“No…Wolves are inseparable the first week, they have to at least be in the same room” He shakes his head.
“He’s telling the truth… I don’t understand how you two are in two parts of this place right now” Vance adds from the doorway with a look of confusion.
“Show me your mark” Pauline beckons me as I sigh and move my shirt to show the mark on my collarbone.
“My god!” Vance cries out.
“What?!” I cry in panic.
“Your mark, it’s as if you are fully mated! It’s like your ritual is over!” Vance replies.
“How is that possible?” I murmur.
“You…You’re so strong that it seems to advance everything you do. You have so much power within you” Pauline says as her hand hovers over the mark.
“Good morning guys” Craig wanders down the stairs and into the café with a huge grin as he winks at me and I feel the familiar heat rise in my body.
“Now THAT is how I expected you to look” Tony points to Craig with a laugh.
“Show me your mark Craig” Pauline orders as he frowns and moves his top a little.
“Your mark is still in the correct stage…” Pauline frowns.
“What do you mean?” He asks, gazing at me.
“Mine’s different” I say as I move my top and his eyes go wide as he rushes to my side.
“Yours is fully developed. How is that possible when mine is still healing. But it wasn’t like that when you were upstairs…” He looks to Pauline.
“I have no idea.” She shrugs.
“I’m going to call Lucien and see what he thinks. Wait, did you even feel the pain I felt from just being upstairs?” He asks as I look at him wide-eyed.
“You were in pain?!” I cry as my hand touches his.
“I’m ok now baby” He kisses me sweetly as he turns to leave the kitchen, I miss his touch already.
“Where are you going?” I ask.
“Just the bottom of the stairs to make the call” He smiles as he turns, closing the door behind him.
I begin to sort out my cooking supplies as we all begin working silently.
What the hell was going on with me?
I dropped an egg as my mind was no longer focusing, it was as if my wolf was taking over.
“Serena?” Tony murmurs next to me.
“I…I…I need to get out” I growl as I tear off my apron and sprint out of the kitchen, out the back door as Craig looks at me in shock, shouting out for me as I ran into the local woods as I shifted into my wolf as it took over, moving us towards its own goal.
“Serena!” I hear Craig’s painful call, but I had to keep moving, I had to get there…But where?
I could smell something odd…
What the hell was I doing?!
I suddenly stopped, my human mind taking back over as I sprinted back to Craig as I felt his pain through the bond as we collided with each other in the trees.
“What the hell was that?” He hisses as I nuzzle into him, whimpering.
“I don’t know” I whimper as he nuzzles into me.
“Oh shit…” He growls as his body shakes as he pins me down on the ground.
“CRAIG!” I cry out as he growls in dominance.
“You’re in heat” He growls as I can feel him trying to pull back.
Suddenly he’s thrown off of me as he crashes into a tree.
“CRAIG!” I scream as he falls to the ground, unconscious.
“Dirty wolf taking what doesn’t belong to him” I turn to the voice as I growl in warning at the figure standing in front of me.
“Hello little one, did you miss me?” His evil smirk pierces me as I begin to fear for my life…Sebastian wasn’t human…And he was back for me again.
“Lucien!” I scream through the bond in my head in hope that he would hear me.
“Shift” Sebastian demands as I can’t help but shift, it’s like he had control of me.
“What the fuck?!” I growl out.
“Aww, sweet little wolf, I missed you. Look at you all grown up now. I can’t wait to taste your sweet nectar again” He smirks as he moves his hand towards him, and I feel myself move towards him.
“NO!” I scream, trying to fight against it.
His hand comes to my cheek as he caresses it with a smirk before dragging it down my body roughly.
“This is mine” He grabs my breast hard as I scream out in pain.
“Get the fuck away from my mate” I hear Craig growl behind me.
“You are no match for me wolf…She was mine first!” Sebastian snarls as his hand goes to my neck, choking me with a grin.
“SERENA!” Craig shouts as he is stopped by some sort of forcefield.
“What are you?” I growl as he releases my neck so I can at least breathe.
“He’s a magic wielder like me” Pauline is suddenly next to us as she snaps her fingers and he goes flying into the air as I fall to the ground.
“Serena!” Lucien is at my side as both David and Daniel are holding Craig back who is trying aggressively to get to me.
“What’s happening to Craig?!” I exclaim as I look at how aggressive he was getting with the boys as they fought him back.
“You’re in heat right now, he’s trying to get to you to mate…Do you want it? If not we’ll have him up at the house with us and keep him away until it’s over” Lucien looks at me with concern.
“I don’t know Lucien…” I murmur as I look longingly at Craig, I loved him but all this with coming into heat, mating and now Sebastian was driving me crazy.
“Boys! Take him home!” Lucien shouts as a tear falls down my cheek as Craig howls painfully as they drag him away.
“CRAIG! I love you…I’m sorry” I call out as he howls in pain.
“He will be ok” Lucien kisses my forehead.
“Sorry to interrupt but we need to deal with this guy” Pauline says as we face her, Sebastian’s arms are bound by magic as I see the glow of it around his body.
“She’s going to be the destruction of man-kind. Just you wait!” Sebastian laughs evilly.
“What?” I step towards him.
“Don’t you know…There’s a prophecy…One sole guardian remains hidden somewhere, rumours of it walking around has been told and the prophecy is being spread. YOU are the destruction of man-kind” Sebastian grins.
“No…I wouldn’t…I don’t want to kill anyone” I shake my head in disbelief.
“He’s lying, you wouldn’t hurt a fly cupcake” Lucien grips my hand as I wince at a pain within my heart. It was barely anything compared to the pain I bet Craig was feeling. I focused on him, trying to connect to him, take some of his pain.
“SERENA!” Lucien said with worry as I dropped to my knees screaming, it had worked, I was taking his pain for him!
Lucien’s phone began to ring as he knelt next to me as Pauline looked at me scared.
“What?!” Lucien growls on the phone.
“What do you mean?...My god…She’s here, screaming in pain…That’s not possible…Are you sure…Update me…” He hangs up and looks at me in shock.
“What? Is it Craig?” I cry out, breathing through the pain.
“You’ve taken his pain! He’s still trying to get to you because of your heat, but he has no pain. How?” He asks.
“Focus” I answered.
“She’s powerful!” Sebastian laughs.
I hear a crunch of a tree-branch nearby as I try to ignore the pain, Lucien and I growl in warning as we shift into our wolves.
We pad forward towards the noise but couldn’t find anything, Pauline screams behind us as we turn to find her on the floor as Sebastian wiggles his fingers and then disappears.
“Pauline!”
I get to her side she’s bleeding hard from her stomach.
“We need to get her to Tony” Lucien says as I nod and he shifts, picks her up and puts her on my back as I race off towards the café.
At the edge of the woods I shift as Lucian takes her off my back as we carry her in through the back entrance.
“Go get Tony!” He shouts as he takes her upstairs to my flat as I hear my door get kicked down…Couldn’t he have just asked for the key!
“TONY!” I shout as I bolt through the door.
“What?! Oh my god, why are you covered in blood?” Tony peers out of the kitchen as I see Vance about to open the doors to the café as he turns in shock and decides against it.
“Upstairs! NOW!” I tell him as he flits up the stairs.
“I don’t think we will be opening today. Go upstairs and wash up, I’ll be up once I’ve put a sign up” Vance says as I notice my clothes covered in blood.
I rush up the stairs as I notice Tony bite into his arm and press it against Pauline’s lips.
“You know the more you do that the more likely she will turn” Lucien murmurs to Tony.
“I will not lose her” He says as I watch them.
My god, I could see it, I could see in Tony’s eyes he was in love with Pauline…
“Serena, you’re covered in blood, Pauline will be fine, go wash” Lucien nods at me as I slip past them with a sigh.
While in the shower I feel pain in my heart once more as I hiss out. I jump out the shower quickly as I take my phone and message Craig.
Serena: How are you feeling? I’m so sorry x
Craig: Come to me baby please!
Daniel: Stop texting him! You will make this worse! He will say anything to get to you right now!
Craig: Please baby, it hurts so much, I need you now!
Serena: Hold on Craig, it will be over soon, I will take the pain away x
Craig: SERENA! Please baby, I need you, we can do this, I love you so much x
Daniel: I’m cutting you both off. Stop texting now. I’m calling Lucien.
“Serena! Give me your phone!” Lucien bangs on the door as I wrap the towel around me tightly, sighing as I open the door.
“I needed to make sure he was ok” I said as he snatches my phone off of me like a child.
“Get dressed. The more you talk through this the worse it will be” He growls as he walks off.
I walk into my room and I get dressed, suddenly I’m flooded with pain in my heart again as I feel my wolf calling out for Craig.
“Fuck it” I growl as I burst out my room.
“Serena no!” Lucien grabs me by the waist as I push him off me, he goes flying against the wall.
Tony comes flitting at me as he tries to stop me, standing in front of the door.
“Think before you do this!” He snarls, his fangs out and eyes blood red.
“I need him!” I cry.
“That’s your hormones talking, he’s flooding you with want, you’re stronger than this” Vance says from behind Tony as he comes up the stairs quickly.
“I don’t care, I need him” I growl as I barge past the pair of them, knocking them off their feet as I run down the stairs, running into the trees once again as I shift and head towards the house.
“Serena!” I hear Lucien catching up behind me as I race to the house.
Suddenly I’m barrelled into as Daniel growls at me as we tumble together, snarling angrily at each other as we bite and fight in the field.
“Stop, you know you’re not ready for this!” Daniel growls as he bites at my leg.
“I need him!” I snarl as I kick him off and manage to get to the house as I shift, running through as I follow his scent down to the basement.
“Serena!” Craig calls out as I notice him cuffed by huge chains as he fights to get to me.
“Serena, you know in your own mind you are not ready for this. Follow your heart!” Lucien, Daniel, and David burst in as I go towards Craig as he growls lustfully at me.
“Come to me baby” He growls.
He’s right there! Take him now! My wolf wanted to go to him, to have him take me in my heat, make us complete, give us pups, be strong.
But my heart and head knew that I wasn’t ready for that…I loved him, but I wasn’t ready for kids, I was barely grown myself, I still had so much to learn, so much uncertainty around me.
“I love you” I murmur to Craig as he howls in pain as I push past the guys.
We head outdoors as I hear Craig’s howls in pain as I cried, wanting to go back, to fix it.
“You can do this” Lucien murmurs, a hand on my shoulder as I cry.
“Daniel…Are you ok?” I ask as I notice the cut on his arm.
“I’m fine, it will be healed in a few minutes” He shrugs.
“I’m sorry…I don’t know what came over me” I cry as he hugs me.
“You were listening to your wolf, she wanted to be with her mate. But you are strong, you can make it through this, and Craig will understand” He smiles kindly as he wipes away my tears.
“Thank you” I sigh.
“Right, go back home, Tony, Vance and Pauline are waiting for you.” Lucien orders as I sigh, shift, and run home.
When I get back Pauline is finally awake, and her wounds seem to be healing nicely.
“I’m so sorry guys” I apologise to both Tony and Vance.
“Don’t worry, I’ve had worse” Tony smiles and kisses my head.
“How about we have a day of baking to keep that mind of yours distracted” Vance hugs me to his side.
“That would be great” I smile.
“I’m going to go to my coven and see if I can find out more about this prophecy Sebastian was talking of and who he is” Pauline groans as she sits up.
“No, you are sitting and relaxing until you are fully healed woman” Tony snaps, flitting to her and making her stay seated.
“You stay with her Tony, I’ll bake, and Vance can help” I smile.
“But…” Pauline murmurs.
“Pauline, there is no point in you going at half power, you need to rest” Vance sighs.
“Fine, but I will be going later. The sooner we sort this out the better we can help protect Serena” She sighs, leaning back.
“The world can wait. You need to heal. Don’t worry about me Pauline” I smile.
“You are family we protect family Serena” Pauline smiles lovingly at me.
“Yes and right now I am protecting my family by making sure you are fit and fighting ready. Now rest or I will come kick your ass” I smirk.
“Cheeky girl!” She laughs.
“Have fun with Tony” I wink, and I notice a blush on her cheeks.
“Sebastian was wrong you know, you won’t be the destruction of man-kind…You don’t have a cruel bone in your body” She smiles.
“I hope not Pauline…” I sigh. In my head I knew full well what I was capable of, I had hurt people before and I just hoped that something didn’t set me off to cause the destruction of mankind.
But for now I had to focus on everything in front of me.