Rejected Mate and Following Fate - Awakening Book

“We’re here… may as well. Just don’t let your guard down and don’t hesitate to use your gifts.” She hisses under her breath and I scoot up right behind Carmen to fall back in line, flanked by two femmes and still unsure this witch is a friend at all. Sierra told us she was, but this doesn’t feel like someone who is willing to bend over backwards to do anything for anyone except herself.

We make quick work of following close to her, aware of the pitch darkness and I start to wonder how the hell we’re meant to stay out here if she ups and leaves us now. We don’t know this terrain; the truck is far enough away that we’ll encounter a fight if vampires come upon us, and I have no mental space, or physical energy, for any of that. My adrenaline is firing high and I’m already exhausted. Missing Colton has become the biggest drain on my soul, craving him, needing his touch, his presence and I seem to start of the day already fatigued, no matter how much I sleep.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Carmen’s haughty tone cuts into my thoughts and I blink up and look over her shoulder as a tiny derelict cottage comes into view, offering little to no protection from any outside invasion, a fire burning within its tumble-down walls. Smoke trickling through the hole of the disintegrating roof, glowing from inside and highlight the lack of solid foundations, or full walls on each side it has. I realize this is where she wanted us to go. Exposed at night, sat round a campfire in a strange place, of a ruined building, with only a witch we don’t know if we can trust. Not a good move and I glance skywards and prey the fates know what they’re doing this time.

“What? Afraid of things that go bump in the night? I thought you were big bad lycanthrope… never took you for being afraid of the dark. Don’t worry wee lassies, the scariest thing out here is me.” Leyanne mocks us from her slight distance ahead with that amused tone and wanders into the cottage casually, using the completely absent side wall as her path in, to go perch herself on some positioned logs settled around the glowing flames. It seems this is her resting place and is already set up to sit by the fire to see the darkness out.

She watches with amusement as we three follow slowly, glancing around in high alert, and timidly place ourselves close together on the other side away from her. We keep our backs close but spread so we take in three angles to keep watch through the fallen stones, aware, and looking around with caution.

“Aren’t you afraid of being out here?” Carmen is the one to question it, always so verbal with her thoughts, but Leyanne shrugs nonchalantly. She relaxes onto her log and stretches out her legs, exposing laced up knee high Victorian boots and adjust her skirts.

“Why would I be? Any creature stupid enough to tackle me deserves what they get. Who should I be afraid of? Nothing can kill me! I know, because they’ve all tried.” She kicks up some dirt at the flames with her heel, causing instant green sparks and crackles to ring through and I jump, on edge and antsy. “This is just a temporary resting spot for you wee fellows to rest; I have something I was doing before I intercepted Sierra trying to locate me. Needless to say, I like solitary abodes and I only had short notice to detour.” She picks up a large black kettle that had been nestled beside her feet and hangs it up on a metal bar sticking out across the fire at an angle where she props it. Seemingly not phased at all and making boiled water, while we gawp and sit stiff as rods, observing her.

“So that’s how you knew about us? Sierra somehow alerted you with the locator spell?” my interest is piqued as I home in on that detail as she nods. Remembering I was meant to give her the vial around my neck, but it seems she doesn’t need the proof of my connection at all.

“When you try to use magic to find someone like me…. I know about it. Especially when you use the spell I wrote for the purpose. So then, naturally, I had to investigate the why, with the help of my birds. I may know a lot about who you are and why you’re here, but I don’t have all the details. My little gossip mongers are only good for Chinese whispers of things they actually witness. It’s a long trek from your mountain to here and ears and mouths of passing crows are not always reliable.”

I glance around at the birds flocking the trees to watch us and squint and her term for them. A visual of birds enjoying drama and storytelling and spreading it through flocks across the land. I guess mine and Carmen’s conversation by the trees that day was reported along the line, with every single time we spoke freely in the grounds of the homestead. It’s weird and makes me feel we should be watching all those innocent creatures back home if this is the truth of what they do for witches. If it is, then Tawna running, they would have known fast that she did if the birds were messengers. Our forest is teaming with them and they are always around, day and night.

“What do you want to know?” Meadow interjects, ignoring what she probably mentally summarized about the birds too and Leyanne ponders her for a long moment, quietly.

“Everything, but that takes time, and I can’t linger for long. So maybe I can see for myself with your permission. Condense, rapidly learn, and extract what is necessary from all the other boring tidbits of life.” Her words bring my eyes back to her in wide surprise, my mouth falling open, guessing she’s hinting at being able to pass mentally, like we can.

even do that, but she just looks at me with a ‘please’ of sarcasm across her face. That air of boredom that we really seem to underestimate her at every turn. Just

thought, to get up when she raises her hand to still me. Once again ignoring my question, she gets up and walks to me instead, gently laying her

when we mind link as wolves, and I feel like warm rivulets of my body

seeing her eyes are locked on mine, unblinking, glowing a little eerily, but not blue like Sierra. No, this witch’s eyes are darkest chocolate with glowing veins of honey amber threads around the inner pupil and I close my own to shut out the way my body trembles at the sight of them. It takes only seconds, this tugging, almost draining of my energy around my face. A sleepiness invading a little too abruptly the longer she goes on and then she stops suddenly, and releases me so I blink awake, the effects instantly dismissing as though being hit in the face with a blast of cold

Is all she mutters softly and wanders back to sit down with a thoughtful glance at me, then Meadow, and then Carmen. It’s as though she’s

what to do?” Meadow zeros in and tries to pull her attention, but Leyanne continues to stare at me in an unnervingly intense way. Her face poised, still, a slight frown over one brow and a hint of a little dimple at one

god knows how much backstory. Unlike when wolves link and we

does hmm mean?” Carmen snaps losing patience, her usual irritable persona showing face, not that I

not like I’m not speaking English… although some from that country

you don’t?” I chirp in, tenser by the second and honestly getting so sick of this. She’s so good at vague, dragging things out

well now that makes sense, and hmmm as in ….. I know what I have to do. Does that clear up your inability to

on eggshells as we try to suss this witch out. It’s detrimental to patience and Carmen has low amounts of that in the first place. Leyanne just sits back comfortably and prods at her kettle with a stick to see if it’s even

be done. Help yourself to tea, there’s blankets back there in that chest, along with the leaves, creamer…sugar, whatever you need. Try and not make a mess, I hate sloppy campers.” She

leaving?” I snap at her, my voice cracking in my throat with the raspiness I spat the words out, and somehow jumped to my feet without even realizing it. We literally haven’t gotten anything from

I was on my own little mission and it happens to be as important, and maybe beneficial to your little predicament.” She starts moving towards the exit and Meadow is the one to lose her temper in true feisty fashion. Letting rip with a roar, bouncing up in front of me with ambering eyes and a snarl to her

what? Like sitting fucking ducks, just patiently trusting you! You, who has given us nothing at all to even trust!” that wolfish aggression comes through in waves of oozing anger and

as houses, and a little warmer than a steel box. I’ll be back before sunup, with a guest or two. So be awake, ready to go, and have more hospitable attitudes, because he isn’t the type to take any kind of rudeness and dismiss it as

this witch at all. She’s a strange one with an aura

makes sense. Looks like the planets are finally aligning and your fates are sorting their mess out.” She smirks again, and I eyeroll at her use of word soup to tell us nothing at all once more. She’s evasive for sure, talks in riddles, and literally offers no insight while seeming like she is. Carmen inhales heavily to hold her own temper, slumping back down to

point out, knowing this is looking to be a lot like

eyeballs it, it begins to glow with low, white, faded intensity, and she smiles a little wider as though it contains an answer, she needed to be sure of. “Don’t go turning anytime soon. I know you have, and you’ve been lucky up until now, so don’t anymore…. That little witch gift in you isn’t supposed to be lost.” She winks, smiles in a somewhat staggeringly