The Alpha's Virgin Witch (7 page)

“Yes, I did. Our parents were worried about you.”

“Even your parents?”

“Yes.” He didn’t know if he could tell her how
important she was to the pack, or how much danger she was in. His father hadn’t
told him that he could be completely honest with her.

With Lucy in his arms, and them now mated, he felt the
pull to tell her the truth.

“What is it?” she asked.

“What’s what?”

“You look troubled.”

“I do?”

“You’ve got this frown down the center of your head.”
She placed a finger against the line. “What has you frowning?”

“It’s nothing.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

“I’m not. We’ve got to figure out what we’re going to
do.”

“Our parents.”

“Yeah, they’re going to want to know. They’ll know the
moment we enter town again.”

“You don’t regret having a witch as a mate?”

“No. I think it’s hot. I love it when your eyes go all
black.”

She chuckled, and again, he loved hearing the sound.
He wanted to hear her laugh more often.

Caleb tensed up as he heard noise in the distance.
There was a threat to Lucy out there. Covens of witches and warlocks could
discover she was alive, and try to take her from him. He couldn’t live without
her, and even his wolf was on the alert.

She’s ours.

We protect her at all costs.

He’d die for her.

He loved her.

It was as simple as that.

Turning toward the noise so that only Lucy’s back was on
show, he watched as Guy and Bianca came rushing through.

The moment his friend saw him, he stopped.

“I didn’t think you were here,” Guy said.

Lucy glanced over her shoulder and waved at Bianca.
“Hey.”

“Oh my God! You’re mated, Lucy!” Bianca let out a
squeal, moving away from Guy toward her friend. Even though he didn’t want to,
he released her, pulling out of her tight pussy.

She moved toward Bianca, and he moved toward Guy. He
noticed that Lucy stayed in the water, keeping herself covered while Bianca was
removing her clothes.

Guy did the same, jumping into the water.

“You mated her?”

“Lucy’s my mate.”

“I told you there was more to your interest in her.”

“I see you’ve not mated Bianca.”

“I’m taking it easy with her. She doesn’t like being
with me near the pack.”

So far they’d been able to avoid Patricia and the rest
of the alpha crew. Caleb didn’t know how much longer they were going to be
successful.

“She’s nervous about being with you?”

“Yes.”

“Damn, that must suck.”

“What about Lucy?”

“She’s not particularly happy, but there’s not a lot I
can do about that. I’ve got to protect her.”

“Your parents know?”

“Yes, they know. They don’t know I’ve mated her. That
has just happened.”

“Shit, Caleb. You don’t like waiting around.”

“She’s in danger, Guy.”

“What?”

He told his friend and Beta of everything he’d learned
in the past three days.

“You mean someone could be hunting for her right now?”

“Yes.”

“Shit.”

“Tell me about it.” He looked toward Lucy to see she
and Bianca were talking as they swam.

“What do we do?”

“Dad’s going to see if there’s any rumor about covens
heading this way.”

“You think they’ll use her in a sacrifice?”

“Her real parents told my father that her magic could
be harvested in a sacrificial spell. They chose this pack to take care of her,
and we’ve been doing it all the time.”

Guy frowned. “Why doesn’t the whole pack know? If we
were supposed to be protecting her, why doesn’t everyone know the danger that
she poses?”

“If it was ever seen that a witch was guarded by a
pack, it wouldn’t be long before they could locate her. By leaving it as a baby
that was just found, no one knows the truth. No pack would brag about having a
witch within their pack.”

“Let’s hope they can’t locate her magic.” Guy look
toward his mate. “I love her, Caleb. I can’t let anything happen to her, and
she loves Lucy like a sister. If it came down to a battle to protect, I would
be with you. I will fight to keep her safe.”

“Good.”

The sound of a twig snapping in the distance alerted
them both to people coming. Caleb scented the alpha’s crew, and knew he didn’t
have enough time to get Lucy away, nor did Guy have the chance to protect
Bianca.

Seconds later, Patricia came out of the clearing,
looking happy when she caught sight of them. The happiness disappeared when she
saw Bianca and Lucy.

Chapter Seven

Lucy tensed up watching as Patricia stopped for a
second taking in the scene, before gliding serenely toward the creek. She hated
this woman.

Touching her neck, she glanced toward Caleb, and he
was watching her. She saw that he wanted to protect her.

“Well, well, well, isn’t this interesting? The sub and
the witch whoring themselves out to the alpha’s crew. You’re lucky, guys. You’re
going to be next,” Patricia said, talking to the men behind them.

Bianca flinched away, but Lucy wasn’t afraid. What she
hated the most was the fact this woman was going to try to bully her, and she
wasn’t even dressed for it.

“Enough, Patricia,” Caleb said.

Patricia wasn’t listening. She was too busy looking at
them. Lucy saw her hatred and her greed. The wolf before her wanted power, and
she sought it by any means possible.

“Well, little sub, you going to climb out and give the
boys a show? They’ll take turns showing what a little sub deserves, and where
she needs to be.”

“Back off,” Lucy said. Her anger was starting to grow.

“What about you, witch? You need to learn your place.
It’s not with Caleb, and your fat ass needs to realize he has to have a real
woman.”

“That is my mate,” Caleb said, rushing toward Lucy. At
the same time Guy was beside Bianca, glaring.

“You talk to my mate like that, and see where it gets
you,” Guy said. “Anyone touches Bianca, and I’ll fight you to the fucking
death.”

“So, you two fuckers have mated with these weak
bitches?” Patricia asked.

Lucy looked toward the edge of the creek, to see Patricia’s
followers already walking away. They know not to mess with Caleb and Guy. They
were mated, and no one could do anything about that, and they were only
following orders.

“You can’t have
her
as your mate,” Patricia said, pointing at her. “She’s nothing but an orphaned
witch. Even her real parents didn’t want her. It makes me wonder if we’ve only
got her because Adele and Kyle can’t have any kids of their own. They’re
defective and should be annihilated. Every weak wolf should be killed,
slaughtered.”

With each word she spewed of hatred, Lucy’s anger
grew. She was alone in the world. No one had wanted her. All of her doubts, her
weaknesses, everything that she had feared in her whole life came through.

“Lucy?”

Bianca’s voice made no appeal.

Lucy shot her hands up to the sky, pulling herself out
of the water, and flipping around until she landed on her feet on the ground.
She stood, and with a snap of her fingers, she was dressed.

“You want to do this?” she asked, glaring at Patricia.
The woman didn’t know when to back down, and she had listened to the nasty,
vile spew coming from her for the last time.

“You’re nothing, witch.”

Smiling, she clapped her hands together once and
placed them palm upwards. “You know, no wolf has ever defeated a witch. Let’s
see if you can change the course of history.” A ball of fire erupted in her
hand, and Lucy stared into it. She expanded and contracted the ball, then
glanced back up at Patricia, who was changing into a wolf. It was like a switch
had gone off in her mind, and she knew exactly what she was doing. There was no
struggle to call her magic, and she wasn’t confused.

“Catch.”

She threw the fire, and Patricia tried to dodge the
ball, but it caught her shoulder. Patricia screamed out in agony. Lucy wasn’t
done. After years upon years of being told she was nothing, she was weak, what
she’d heard this one woman say to her best friend was the final straw.

Pushing her hand out, Lucy wrapped some invisible kind
of noose around Patricia’s neck, and squeezed, dragging the woman to her. In
the distance she heard her mate and her friend calling to her, but she was
tired of listening to them reason with her.

Her anger and her rage had taken over.

No one had a chance of reasoning with her, and she
didn’t care. She was ready to kill, to strike out and hurt the person who’d
done nothing but cause her pain.

“You’re nothing,” Lucy said, finally placing her own
fingers around the woman’s neck. “You call me weak, and yet I feel no pain.
You’re the weak one, Patricia. I’m tired of being bullied by someone who is
weak.” She squeezed tighter, and even as Patricia lashed out with her claws, Lucy
used her magic to twist and snap her arm.

Evil filled her blood, and Lucy struggled to deal with
the overwhelming consumption to kill.

“Baby, don’t do it,” Caleb said.

Lucy turned toward the man that was her mate, and she
saw the pain in his eyes.

“
Don’t kill her,
darling. This is not who you are.”

Lucy turned to her side, and knew she had to have been
seeing things. There beside her was a woman with beautiful white hair that was
so long it grazed the ground. This woman was her mother. She had to be.

“This is not the way. Stop!” Caleb yelled, breaking
through her hold.

The magic within her started to weaken, and yet with
Caleb’s help, he’d brought her real parents to her. They were standing near
him, smiling at her that sad smile that was so close to disappointment.

She looked at her father. His eyes were black, the
same black that hers went when she was using magic.

“I can’t stop,” she said.

“You can.”

Lucy shook her head. “You’re dead. You’re both dead.”
She wasn’t talking to Caleb but to her real parents, her birth parents.

“We’re beside you now. Let her go. Killing her will spiral you, Lucy.
This is not what was meant to happen. Listen to Caleb.”

“Lucy, baby, stop,” Caleb said.

“I’m talking to dead people.”

Her mother, her dead mother, touched her arm, and the
love, the sorrow, the pain, consumed her. She released Patricia and took a step
back.

Taking a deep breath, she stared down at her body and
saw the dress she wore was black, and her hair had turned black. Every part of
her was black; even her veins were pulsing black blood.

The magic had started to turn.

Her parents were standing there, staring at her. Caleb
looked relieved and made to come toward her.

“Come with us.”

Lucy looked at her mate, the man she loved. Caleb. He was
walking toward her with his friends behind him.

“He loves you, honey,” her mother said.

Guilt swamped her.

“Lucy,” Caleb said, taking a step toward her.

She shook her head. “No, don’t come near me.”

“I love you. We’re mates. I can help.”

“No. You can’t help.
I’m
the monster. Not you.” She looked behind her to her parents,
and knew she needed to get away from the man she loved. Caleb was in danger
while she was forever turning to the dark side of magic.

Making up her mind, she took a step toward him.

“Our date was amazing, Caleb. Being your mate is the
gift you should have given to someone else. I’m a danger here.” She pressed a
kiss to his lips. “I hope I can see you soon.”

In a blink of an eye, she was no longer standing in
front of Caleb, but she looked around as she seemed to be within clouds.

Had she been killed?

“We had to bring you here,” the woman said.

Turning around, she saw the two people who had been
beside her while she was ready to kill Patricia.

“You’re my parents?” she asked.

“We are,” he said. “My name is Andrew.”

“I’m Clarissa, honey.”

“You’re both dead?”

“We are dead, but we like to consider ourselves
guardian angels to you.”

Lucy rubbed at the mark on her neck. She wanted Caleb.
She was missing Caleb.

Mate.

“You did pick a good mate for yourself, honey. We’re
very proud that he finally realized that you were both mates,” Andrew said.

“Well, I was the one who called it first.” Clarissa
smiled. “He was just always around you. I’m surprised you didn’t see it first.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Clarissa, her birth mother, walked up to her, and
placed her hands on her head. “See what I see.”

Her eyes closed, and she was transported back over the
years to when she was a little girl. She saw it with fresh eyes. It was the day
that she was at the park. Adele and Kyle were talking with the Alpha, and there
Caleb was, staring at her. He was very protective of her, and he even helped
her build the sand castle.

Next they were in school, and she’d never known it
before, but Caleb sat close to her, and he kept Patricia away from her as much
as he could. Her birth mother took her down each memory lane, making her see
Caleb standing so close, or watching her from afar. When she fell out of the
tree, tears filled her eyes, and leaked down her face as he sat beside her,
holding her hand, reading to her.

He’s always been there, a part of her.

Finally, she saw herself through his eyes, and knew
without a shadow of a doubt that Caleb loved her more than anything. He loved
her. He cared about her, and they were a true mated couple.

“He will die for you,” Clarissa said, moving away.

“I don’t understand. Why are you two dead? I thought
you had left me near a lake or something to be taken.”

Clarissa sighed, and Lucy watched Andrew move behind
his woman. “Your birth was a lot more complicated than we thought.”

****

Caleb paced up and down the creek. He’d tied Patricia
to the nearest tree, and was waiting for Bianca and Guy to come back with his
parents and Lucy’s. She was gone, and the only scents he made out were his own,
Guy’s, Bianca’s, and Patricia’s. His wolf was going crazy. He needed his mate
back.

She’s in danger.

We must protect her.

She’s ours to protect.

Pacing back and forward, he gripped the back of his
head, trying to find some reasonable explanation for what happened.

“Your father should have her killed,” Patricia said,
croaking out the words.

“Shut the fuck up!” This was his fault. He should have
put Patricia in her place years ago. Instead, he’d let her get away with
hurting his mate, and now he was the one paying the price for waiting.

He was so damn angry with himself, and with Patricia.

“No wolf should ever be allowed to live after she
attacked me the way she did.”

“You deserved it. You’re lucky that you’re still
alive. Something stopped her.” He’d not seen who touched her arm, but someone
had. Someone had stopped Lucy from killing. He hadn’t been able to reach her
time. Everything had happened so fast. He’d seen the darkness consuming her,
taking her away from him, and he’d not reacted in time.

Her hair had gone from her golden blonde to black.
He’d seen the darkness eating away at her, and he’d been frightened for his
mate.

“Nothing stopped her. She chickened out. I told you
she was weak, and you mated her.”

Kill her.

His wolf wanted this woman killed. She had taken his mate
away, and he was going to kill her if she didn’t shut the hell up.

“I suggest you be quiet, Patricia. You try my
patience, and even your mother wants you banished,” Emma said, coming out of
the thick trees.

His father, Lucy’s parents, Guy, and Bianca were
there.

“She just disappeared, Dad,” he said.

He was panicking, needing to get to his mate, to find out
if she was okay.

“Tell me everything that has happened,” Matthew said.

Caleb didn’t leave anything out. He told his father
about the mating, and what happened afterward to Patricia coming after them,
and what they said.

“She just seemed to stop, to listen to something.”

He reached down and grabbed the book that had been
left behind. He flicked it open and closed it.

“There’s nothing here to tell us where she went. What
happened to her?” He was panicking, losing focus, and he was nothing without
his mate.

“She was turning evil,” Matthew said.

“They warned us about this.” Adele covered her mouth
with her hand, sobbing.

“What did they warn you?” Caleb asked.

“They told us that when a witch starts using her
magic, she can be drawn to the darkness. A new witch can be easily
manipulated.”

“What makes her turn dark?” Caleb had an idea, but he
needed to know it first-hand.

“Her first real kill by an act that doesn’t deserve
it.” Kyle spoke this time as Adele was crying.

“Someone stopped her,” Caleb said.

“We saw it,” Bianca said. “She was about to kill
Patricia, and something or someone joined with Caleb to stop her.”