Angel Blackwood (32 page)

“Shit, I didn’t mean to get you
that hard.” He looks down at me underneath him with concern.

“Air…can’t…breathe.” I
wheeze, trying to push him off me.

“Fuck! Sorry.” He moves to lean
on his hands and knees, giving me enough space to catch my breath,
but not enough to get away from him.

He looks down at me as I cough
and splutter, eventually catching my breath I look up at him
hovering over me.

“You think I’m going to let you
get away that easily?” He asks.

“I did
before.
” I smirk.

“Well you
caught me by surprise that time. I didn’t know you were such a fast
runner. I know
now
. Unfortunatelyfor
you, you’re still a weak human,” he says, grinning now.

“Witch, and I’m not that
weak.”

“What?”
H
e asks, his grin long
gone.

“Apparently I’m a witch too.” I
nearly laugh at how quickly he climbs off of me.

He looks me over, his lip
curling.

“
Oh Jesus, not
you too. What is with you wolves and witches?”

He starts to speak,
evidently about to give me the history lesson I’ve already been
given, but I put up my hand and shake my head. “I know the story,
okay. I had nothing to do with that, so calm your jets.”

“Well, that explains the wicked
ass shit you put Chelsea through when you caught that slag with
Drake.” Ronny’s voice has me whipping my head around to see
her.

“Ronny,” I whisper. I don’t
know how I managed to stay away so long without talking to her. She
runs the rest of the way to me, tackling me to the ground again. I
wrap my arms around her holding her tight. I don’t stop the tears
from flowing. I cry hard and I cry ugly, but her hands hold me
tight, never losing their strength.

“Don’t cry. You’re going to
make me cry as well.” I hear her husky voice as she tries to
contain herself, but I can’t hold them back anymore. I haven’t
slept in twenty four hours and it’s been one hell of a night; I
just need to hold her.

I feel Jax’s presence as he
steps closer, rubbing his hands through my hair at the back of my
head trying to calm me.

Chapter 1
8

ALEX POV

“Go after her! Find her!”
Johnny tells the twins. Nodding, they rush off after her.

“She’s too fast for them,
Alpha. She’s a quick human and an even faster wolf, whether she
turns or not doesn’t matter. She’s gone. Give her space, she needs
time to process everything. She’ll be back,” I hear Jacob say.
Johnny and I both choose to ignore him and he quietly
leaves.

“I begged her to come
back, Johnny. I managed to get through to her, but she said she had
something she needed to do.” I look up to my mate, and he pulls me
into his warm arms; it calms me to an extent. I attempt to pull
away from him, but he doesn’t loosen his grip, he just gives me
enough room to look into his eyes. “What if she doesn’t come
back?”

He looks over my shoulder and
says, “She will, this is her home.” I sense his uncertainty as he
says the words.

****

I sit on my bed looking at the
photo I have from my teenage years. James stands tall in the middle
with his arms thrown over mine and Noelle’s shoulders. James and I
have huge cheesy grins on our faces, but Noelle is blushing so bad
even her ears are red. I remember how in love she was with my
brother, and how much he loved her back; although neither could
build enough courage to tell the other.

I remember the night that
everything changed.

Nineteen years ago…

It was a late Sunday afternoon,
the sun was setting early and the stars had already come out and
were shining brightly. Every week our little family would take a
walk down to the local park, where we’d sit and stargaze. It was my
favourite day of the week, not only because we got to stay out
later then all the other kids, but because Mom would tell me
stories about her younger years. I would be enthralled as I sat
listening to stories of when she had started to practise magic and
learn the ways of the Wicca. I was months away from turning
sixteen, so that meant I had only two more years until I was
eighteen and would be allowed to experiment and practise my powers;
I couldn’t wait.

My father had no
supernatural powers whatsoever, but my mother was a powerful witch.
Even though we were only allowed to practise magic after the age of
eighteen, Mom was already teaching me spells and potions at the age
of seven. She only taught me levitation spells for moving small
light objects and a few herbal healing potions, but I still thought
it was freaking amazing. I was sworn to secrecy though, I wasn’t
even allowed to tell my best friend Noelle about it. She and I have
been counting down the days till our eighteenth birthday since we
were thirteen. There has never been a point in my life that I
hadn’t known Noelle, she’d always been around and she always would.
She was the only person that didn’t mind how sensitive I was, and I
was the only person who didn’t mind her bluntness. We evened each
other out, she made me a stronger person and I, well I made her
rethink her words before she said them.

“Alex, James, are you two
coming?” Mom calls out from downstairs.

Sitting in the middle of my
bed, I put down my diary and race to my door. James nudges my
shoulder as he walks out of his bedroom.

At sixteen, James is well
sought after. Well, sought after by all the girls at school,
including my friends. It doesn’t look as if he’s going to stop
growing, he just keeps getting taller and taller and his shoulders
get wider and wider. I’m pretty sure Noelle is even crushing on him
now.

“Race you to the door?”
He says. But he doesn’t give me a chance to reply because he’s
already halfway down the staircase, making a loud racket as his
bulk of a body sprints to the door.

“Son, not long now and
you’re gonna be ducking your head to get through that door.” Dad
chuckles, smacking James on his back affectionately as they exit
the house.

Once I hit eighth grade my
height also sprouted, I’m not a fan of it like James is though. I’m
taller than most girls in my grade and it’s really hard being
taller than most of the boys as well; I don’t feel very ladylike at
all. Damn, I need to let up on all those romance novels I’ve been
reading when my head isn’t in one of my mother’s Wicca books. When
I’m not thinking about magic, I think of the day I’ll find a
boyfriend that’s big and strong enough to protect me and keep me
safe. To tell you the truth, I don’t think I’m going to him around
here.

It’s not that I want a
boyfriend right now or anything like that. I’m way too focused on
learning the ways of magic and my people, but I’m at the age where
all my friends have boyfriends now. I even think Noelle is seeing
someone, she’s been rather quiet lately and she’s hardly around
these days. I need to have a chat with her about that.

“Alex? You okay over there?” I
shake my head as my mother’s voice filters through my thoughts. I
look up to her and smile.

“Yeah. Let’s go, Ma.” She
wraps her arm over my shoulders and I wrap my arm around her
slender waist as we head out the door.

“You don’t want to ask Noelle
to join us?” She asks.

James looks back at the mention
of Noelle’s name and calls out, “This is meant to be a family
bonding session.”

I frown at that and look
to my mom. “She is family though.”

Mom doesn’t say anything, but
James does, “No she isn’t.”

I don’t argue with him, I just
continue to walk quietly alongside my mom. I’ll chat to Noelle
later and ask her if something has happened between them. James has
never said anything bad against Noelle before, something is going
on and I don’t like it.

We find our usual spot in an
open patch of soft grass. We laze around looking at the stars for
an hour whilst listening to mom and dad talk about their week as
well as talking about ours, chatting about the usual mundane stuff
as we enjoy each other’s company.

A few hours later and
it’s time to leave. I move to jump on dad’s back for a piggy back
when a low growl filters through the quiet night. I look to my left
and see the edge of the woods, shining eyes catching my attention.
I’ve heard stories of wolves and other supernatural creatures that
are out there, but I’ve never actually seen one.

“Mom,
D…Dad
,” I stutter, as my eyes
stare at the huge shadow of an animal barely hidden in the
treeline.

Mom appears at my side and
gasps. She grabs my hand and starts walking backwards whispering,
“David, James, walk backwards slowly. No sudden movements, if
there’s one wolf there’s most probably more, they travel in packs…
unless… unless it’s a rogue.” I’m not sure whether it’s my mother
hands that are shaking or mine. Either way my body is trembling and
my heart is beating fast.

The growling gets louder and
the huge brown wolf comes out of the shadows. It bares its teeth
and snarls as it growls. We’re all alone in the park and quite away
from any houses. Besides what could a human do when facing a wolf,
they wouldn’t be able to stop it.

Suddenly my mom turns and looks
me in the eye, tears fall down her cheeks as she hold my own tear
soaked cheeks in the palm of her hands.

“Alexandria, take your brothers
hand. You need to go to the camp and get Noelle’s parents, tell
them we need help.” I move my head to look where the wolf is, but
my mom holds my head in place squishing my cheeks.

“No, when I tell you, you’re
going to run and you’re not going to look back. Okay?” She forces
the words out as her tears fall.

“I’m not leaving you and Dad
behind,” James says.

“You don’t have a choice James,
listen to your mother, take your sister and run as fast as you can.
You hear me?” My father’s stern voice leaves no room for
discussion, so James nods; his eyes are red but no tears fall.

“I love you two so much, don’t
ever forget that,” my mother says, kissing both of us and pushing
us away from her and my father. My father is reluctant to let me
go, but as soon as he does, my mom yells at us to run.

James grabs hold of my hand and
runs.

“Run! James don’t let go of
her!” My father’s scream echoes across the park. “Run!”

The sound of my mother’s
screams and my father’s yells have me yanking out of James tight
grip, managing to get free. I turn around just in time to see the
wolf jump my mother. It tackles her to the ground and reaches for
her neck, I scream out and start running towards them but it’s too
late.

James wraps his arms around me,
trying to stop me from looking at the gruesome scene in front of
me. I can’t keep my eyes off the wolf as it rips at my mother’s
throat. My father is laying on the grass his back is facing me, but
he doesn’t move. Through my tears I see my mother’s vacant stare as
she lays on the ground with the wolf standing over her growling,
blood dripping from his mouth.

“We need to go, please
Alex.” My brother is absolutely petrified, I’ve never seen him this
way before. I back away and James helps me off of the ground. The
wolf stands a few feet away from us staring as if we’re his next
meal. As soon as the wolf lunges for me, James pulls me back and
wraps his arms around me. The wolf is gone before we even hit the
ground. James lies on top of me still shielding me from danger, but
through the gaps I see more wolves. I hear the sound of jaws
snapping and then the sound of one long howl before silence ensues.
I feel warm liquid running down my neck and chest. I push at
James’s chest and he falls to the ground beside me.

I look down and see blood
covering my chest and neck.

“James?” I look him over not
caring about the wolves now surrounding us. I find the source of
the blood on his shoulder. The rogue wolf didn’t get a chance to
bite him hard, he just nipped him, but there’s so much blood. I
cover the wound with my hand to try and stop him bleeding out.

“James? James, wake up.”
I start crying and patting his face. I freeze when large, rough
hands cover mine over the wound; the touch causing tingles to shoot
through my body. I look up into the most beautiful eyes I’ve ever
seen, he seems older than me but he’s the most handsome boy I’ve
ever met.

“We need to get your brother
some help, can you let go of him so our men can get him to the
doctor?” He says softly, running his thumb over the top of my hand.
I look down at James then back up to the beautiful boy in front of
me.

“You’ll help him? You’re not
going to hurt us like the other wolf did?” I blink back tears still
not removing my hands from James.

The boy lifts one hand
and runs his thumb across the apple of my left cheek. His touch
causes a strange feeling of reassurance in me. I feel like he has
given me a sedative, immediately stopping the blubbering mess I
have become.

“I promise you we’ll help him.
That wolf was a rogue, I can assure you that I personally saw to
his death for causing you harm. I’ll keep you safe, I promise.” As
soon as he removes his hand, the fear and worry I previously had
consumes me. The boy helps James up and hands him off to two other
larger men. I’m still kneeling on the grass as I take in my
surroundings. Both wolves and fully clothed men surround me. The
wolves look around the park like guard dogs, and a few of the men
look at me with pity. My eyes turn to look at the two bodies that
lie a couple metres away from where I sit. I stand up on shaky legs
and run towards my father’s body since he’s closer.