STORYMIRROR

Vatsal Parekh (Victory Watson)

Romance Fantasy Thriller

4  

Vatsal Parekh (Victory Watson)

Romance Fantasy Thriller

White Rose Pack (Chapter-34)

White Rose Pack (Chapter-34)

14 mins
414


Adina’s POW

Adina felt happy, as she had proven herself. After playing around with Tonya for a while, getting a sense of her style and provoking her, Adina had finally ended it after Tonya had snarled at her she should be more active.

After shaking hands with the warriors that had gathered to watch the fight, she noticed Colin stood in his office window, watching her. She was proud that he had seen her fight. Her wolf enjoyed showing off her power to him.

“I should have known to not underestimate anyone,” Jason said, shaking his head. “I beg your forgiveness, luna,” he said half-jokingly. “But seriously, that was impressive. Where did you learn to fight like that? Some of those moves I haven’t seen before,” he said.

“Sean here taught me most of what I know,” Adina said, patting Sean on his back. “If you think I’m good, you should see him. I look like a pup next to him.”

At this, Jason looked at Sean.

“Do you think you would be up to showing my elite warriors some of this?” he asked Sean.

“If Adina can spare me, I’d be happy to,” Sean said.

“We will make it happen,” Adina said.

The rest of the morning, Adina and Sean spent practicing moves, working on their normal routine. Then they joined Jason and headed up to the pack house to eat lunch with Colin and Mateo. Julia was off for a business lunch in the human world.

As soon as Adina stepped into the kitchen, Colin embraced her and placed a kiss on top of her head.

“That was really impressive. I’m proud of you,” he said.

“Thanks,” she replied, beaming at him. She felt good hearing that he was proud of her. They sat down and ate a healthy lunch. Sean made sure she had enough energy in her system to take an afternoon of training.

“Are you ready to head out?” Colin asked, and she and Sean nodded. He took her hand and together they walked off into the woods. Adina enjoyed walking next to Colin and Sean in the forest with all the fall colours. Colin had picked a spot for them to train, where he assured them no one would know what they were doing.

It turned out the spot was a small clearing next to a creek. Sean approved by nodding.

“Sean, could you start by yourself for a bit? I think I need to talk to Colin first,” Adina said, and Sean nodded and walked off a bit. He started doing his own training, using the trees as a gym.

“Let’s sit over here,” Colin said, leading her to a fallen down log. “Is this about the moves you showed during the sparring? I don’t think I recognized them”

“It’s not, but we can start with that,” Adina replied and smiled.

“Both Sean and I have lived with most type of magical creatures at one point or another. Everyone has their own fighting style. Sean has always been good at picking up new techniques and he has taught them to me. That has made both Sean and me a bit on the odd side of fighting styles. We are a mix and match,” she continued, laughing.

“Interesting, but what did you want to talk about?” Colin asked.

“To add to the confusion that my style already is, I have one thing that no one else has, and that is what we train during these secret sessions. It’s magic,” she said. Colin looked at her and nodded.

“I didn’t want you to be shocked by the things you see me do. Just be prepared for some unusual things, okay?” she added.

“Are you worried that I might react in a bad way?” Colin asked.

Adina was worried. She didn’t want him to look at her the way some of the other alphas had looked at her. She simply nodded, avoiding looking at him.

“Babe, I know that you have powers. I have seen you use them. I will never look at you differently because of them,” he assured her, lifting her chin so she would look at him.

“Knowing and seeing are different things, and my healing power is, compared to other things, quite unremarkable. There have been some bad reactions,” she confessed. He huffed, clearly not impressed.

“Weak persons. Don’t compare me to them. Show me,” he said, looking her in the eyes.

She studied him for a while and then held out her hand. From each of her fingertips, a separate element appeared. A small flower, a rock, a bead of water, a small cyclone, and a flame. Colin looked at them in amazement.

“Now that is impressive, babe,” he said with a crooked smile.

Adina searched for a hint of fear or repulsion in him, but she only saw curiosity and amazement. He was too good to be true; she concluded. She smiled, lent forward, and gave him a gentle kiss.

“I love you,” she said. “Now sit here and I’ll train for a bit” and with that she walked over to Sean to train.

First was to summon items, weapons to use. As Sean attacked, Adina made a spear appear out of nowhere with a small plop. She used the spear to ward off the attack. Next attack, she summoned a dagger and the attack after that was a chair. They gathered a small pile of items in the clearing.

When Sean was happy with the summoning, they switched to shielding. As Sean threw small rocks at her, Adina created glowing discs of energy that the stone hit and bounced off. When Sean felt the rocks were boring, he threw the dagger Adina had summoned at her.

Colin growled so loud that birds in the surrounding forest took flight. Adina looked at him over her shoulder with a disapproving look. But both she and Sean ignored his warning.

Sean continued throwing weapons at her, then he picked up several small stones and threw them in quick concession. This forced Adina to put up a larger shield. Without warning, Sean then threw a rock at Colin. Adina blocked it with a shield, but Colin had sprung to his feet looking at Sean angrily.

“Let’s take a few moments to rest,” Adina said to Sean as she walked over to Colin, placing a calming hand on his arm.

Sean nodded and started organizing the objects Adina had summoned.

“Let’s sit” Adina said to Colin. He followed her, but still focused on Sean with an angry look.

“I thought you and Sean were getting along,” she said.

“I get that you are close, but I have a hard time wrapping my head around where that place him and me,” Colin confessed.

Adina looked at Colin and then at Sean. Yes, they were both headstrong and possessive. She felt like a favourite toy in a tug of war.

“I understand, our relationship is not something that you usually see in our community. An unrelated male and female with that close of a bond and no mating bond.” she said understandingly.

“I gave you the short story about Sean and me the day we met. Would you like to hear the longer version?” she asked.

“Yes.” Colin’s answer was short and irritated.

Adina sighed and shoved closer to him, nudging his arm with her elbow. He raised it and placed it around her. That was better, she thought, and let herself relax against him. The story was not just a happy one, so she felt better being close to Colin, surrounded by his scent.

“After my family died, I was moved around, just like now,” she started.

“I was young, and it wasn’t easy. It affected me to not have a fixed place, for everything to change every so often. It got bad. I had trouble connecting to people and to be social,” she confessed.

“For a normal wolf that is bad, but for me, with the expectations of me and my title, it was devastating. The council realized that something needed to be done if I were to fulfil my obligations.”

“The Beloved One has always had a protector. Usually it is her mate, or when she is younger or hasn’t found her mate yet, it is usually her father or a brother or close male relative.” Adina explained.

“But I had no relatives at all. The council thought it was a good idea to kill two birds with one stone. Get me a protector and make sure I had someone permanently in my life.”

“As I understand it, they first thought about appointing a grownup. But they were worried I wouldn’t take to them or that someone that was used to live in one pack wouldn’t be able to adjust to my nomadic lifestyle. They used someone closer to my age,” she continued.

“They had a very strict list with demands on the person they would like to choose. Sean is the second son of an alpha. He showed great disposition for fighting at an early age, and was intelligent, so when he was eleven, he was chosen,” Adina told Colin.

“He was removed f

rom his family and trained for two years in isolation to make sure he severed all bonds with his family and pack.” Adina told Colin with pain in her voice. She always had a guilty conscience for what he had been put through because of her.

“When I was ten, Cernack came to visit me. Along with him, he had this surly looking boy. He looked so serious and focused that I was almost afraid of him. When Cernack told me that his name was Sean and that he would be my protector and stay by my side, I didn’t like the idea.” Adina laughed at the memory.

“I was so used to everyone leaving, or me leaving them, that the thought of someone staying for a while was like torture to me. If I got attached to someone and then they’d leave, I knew I couldn’t handle it. I objected and protested and was truly awful. But nothing I did changed Cernack’s mind. I was stuck with Sean. He followed me around and the only time he spoke was when he told me what to do or what not to do.” Adina said.

“I tried everything in my book to make him leave. I was rude, I ignored him, I would get him in to trouble. But he was still always there. It drove me crazy. The first eight months we spent together, we didn’t really talk to each other at all.”

“What changed?” Colin asked, and Adina could tell he wasn’t angry anymore.

“Sean would go away a day or two to continue his training. I loved those times. I got to be on my own and hide away from the world. Then one time when he got back, we were staying in this pack in Asia, and we slept on straw mats on the floor. It was comfortable, but not so soft.”

“He arrived back late at night, and I remember I was irritated because he had only been away for a day. As he was laying down on his bedroll, I could see him wince. I asked what was the matter, in a less polite way. He said nothing, but I could tell something was off. Even if I didn’t want to acknowledge it, after spending almost nine months together, I knew his body language.”

“I went over to him and asked again, got the same reply, and then I poked him in his ribs, and he let out this sound of pure anguish.” The memory made Adina tremble, and she felt Colin running his hand up and down her arm in a soothing way.

“I demanded to know what was wrong and Sean couldn’t deny it any longer. He raised his t-shirt and then I saw that his entire torso was covered in bruising and stab wounds. For me to see his injuries despite his sped up healing abilities as a werewolf, I knew it had to be bad.”

“I just stared at him for a while and then I reached out my hand. I wanted to heal him, but he recoiled and just told me to stay away. For the first time in a very long time, I wanted to help someone, so I didn’t back down. Instead, I insisted on helping him, and he was in no state to argue. When I healed him, I discovered he had wolfsbane in his system that was hindering his healing. I was furious and demanded to know what had happened. He didn’t want to tell me, but I can be quite stubborn when I want to,” she said.

“You don’t say,” Colin chuckled, and she gave him a sideways look.

“Eventually he told me. The training he was doing was to withstand the alpha command. It was considered being a liability if Sean could be forced by an alpha, so they trained him to withstand it,” she told Colin.

“I didn’t know you could do that,” he said with a frown.

“It’s not easy and I don’t think just anyone can do it. That was one reason they wanted someone with an alpha bloodline. It’s not a way of training that is easy or even remotely humane,” she continued.

“Sean told me they would use his father and make him command Sean to do things, like drink wolfsbane, or hurt himself, and then he would try to resist. It was basically self-inflicted torture. When I realised what he had been put through, that all the injuries I was healing were self-inflicted, that my council had put him through that, I was beyond furious. Back then, I didn’t control my temper that I have now. You have never seen me lose my cool, but it can be rather terrifying, I’m told,” she said with a sad smirk.

“I summoned the council member responsible for Sean’s training and made it clear that if that type of training was ever even thought about again, I would make sure that nothing would be left of them and that their fate would be used as a cautionary tale for generations to come. I was dramatic in my younger years.”

“Then I vowed to Sean that if he protected me, I would protect him. After I had healed him and gone mental on the council, we had a long talk. We got to know each other, and we established our one rule,” Adina said.

“That when you are in danger, Sean is in charge,” Colin repeated.

“Yes,” she confirmed.

“And you have used this rule?”

“We have,” Adina nodded. She realized Colin wanted to know more details.

“Once when I was thirteen, and we spent time in South America. The coven we stayed at did some water magic that didn’t go as expected and caused a mudslide. Then one time when we stayed in the vampire nest, I told you about that.”

He nodded.

“The reason we left early from there was that one of the newer vampires got a little too enthusiastic about me joining in the, eh, activities?” Adina said, still a bit nauseated at the memories.

“Did he hurt you?” Colin asked in a low voice.

“No, Sean got him away from me”

“He took on a vampire by himself?” Colin said, surprised.

“He did. The vampire was young and once the other vampires realized what was going on, they came to our aid. They were mostly very respectful. But after that, I couldn’t remain in the house.”

“The last time was about two years ago. When we were transferring between two packs, our car was ambushed and an attempt on my life was made. We lost two council members that day, but Sean kept me safe, and we worked together to stay alive.” Adina concluded.

Colin had tightened the surrounding grip, as if the mere thought of her getting hurt triggered his protection mode.

“You need to understand, that promise Sean and I made to each other fifteen years ago, to protect each other, has been the only bond any of us have had that was stable until I met you,” Adina said, looking at Colin.

“And if things were as they should be, I would take over the role of your protector?” Colin asked. Adina nodded.

“And that is something Sean is struggling with,” Adina said.

“Just as much as I was all alone, and he was my salvation, I was his. He can’t return to his old pack. He has no ties to them and after what his father put him through. If I were to send him away, he has nowhere to go. He would have no purpose.” Adina tried to explain.

“But that will never happen,” it was Colin’s turn to nod.

“I understand that. I think I understand your bond now and I get why it can’t be broken or why you fight for each other so fiercely.” Colin said.

“I don’t want you to think that this takes anything away from you,” Adina told him, placing her palm on his chest.

“You and Sean aren’t fighting over the same love from me. I have one kind of love for Sean and another kind for you and no matter how much love I put on one of you, it won’t affect the level of the other. Do you understand?” Colin looked at her.

“I think so,” he said with a smile. “Separate buckets of love,” he laughed, and Adina nodded happily.

“I have a question. Why do you summon objects to fight with? Why don’t you use magic?” he said after a while.

“Ah, this is another topic that Sean and I are at odds about. For me, magic is pure. It’s the basis of life. To use magic to hurt someone or, even worse, to kill someone feels wrong. It’s not something I can see myself doing. Not that it doesn’t work or that I would get punished or anything like that. Just pure preference.” She answered.

“But there are still ways magic is useful in a fight, as you could see,” she added.

“I don’t think I understand, but it’s your choice,” Colin said shrugging his shoulders.

“Let me show you what I see.” Adina said reaching out a hand to him. He took it, looking at her. “Close your eyes” she said, and he did. Adina focused on her breath and opened her mind to the magic around her. She didn’t use her second sight that often, it was impractical. But she always felt the same awe when she activated it.


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