Chapter 6
Blaze
This was a trip of first. For one, I’d never felt like such a fucking tool. Nobody had ever gotten under my skin like this. Sammy was fiery, yeah, and that was hot as hell, but she was so closed off. Instead of trying to understand her, I’d just let my own temper get in the way.
“What the hell happened?” Anthony asked.
“I honestly have no clue. We showed up in a clearing in the woods. By the smell, I’d say Montana. Or somewhere near there.”
Anthony raised his eyebrows.
“I’ve traveled a lot. But she just bent down and got on her knees and touched the earth. Then she wouldn’t respond to me for a good ten minutes.” I walked toward his porch. “I’m telling you, I was seriously about to slap her.”
Anthony snorted. “That would’ve gone badly. She goes into trances sometimes. There’s nothing you can do but let her come out of it.”
“That’s the kind of info you could’ve shared before this,” I muttered.
He grinned. “Sorry, friend. I didn’t know you’d need that tidbit.” We sat on the porch steps and looked out at the dragons flying over the water.
“When she came out of it, she was dizzy, then we argued for a minute, and she brought us back here.” I shook my head. “I have no idea what she was doing.”
Anthony sighed. “I can guess.”
He didn’t offer up an explanation, which was all the more infuriating. He knew more about my mate than I did. “I’m frustrated about being so out of the loop,” I said.
Anthony took pity on me. “Sammy is looking for the high priestess, who went dark long ago, of her old coven.”
“Ah.” I knew a bit about what had happened to that coven. Gage had told me everything he knew. And now his interest in Sammy and this clan was more understandable. “I think I’ve ruined my shot with Sammy.”
Anthony seemed to hesitate. “I’m not going to betray confidences, but Sammy has had a rough life.
She’s tough like she is because she’s had to be.
She doesn’t trust easily, and even when she does, she still has a razor-sharp tongue.
” He chuckled. “But I’m the only one other than my father, the alpha before me, to know her whole story.
Possibly the only people ever. She’s hard as steel, but still should be handled like glass.
If you’re not capable of doing that, maybe you should start thinking about breaking the bond before it gets to be too much. Leave Sammy to live her life.”
The thought of breaking our bond made my tattoo burn like mad. “Yeah, I’m not ready to give up yet.” I chuckled and tried to calm my dragon. “And neither is he.”
Anthony put his hand on my shoulder, which helped immensely. That sense of calm washed over me again. “Give Sammy time. Don’t push her. It’ll take a little while, but it’ll be worth it in the end. If you can have the patience.”
I sucked in a deep breath of that fresh sea salt air. “I’ll try.”
Anthony squeezed my shoulder one more time before heading back out to fly some more.
Oddly, I didn’t want to join them. Usually, the thought of a pack flight was too appealing to miss, though I could always do without the hanging out before and after. But with my mood, I just wanted to be alone.
Actually, I wanted to be with Sammy, but that wasn’t happening.
Patience. Never my strong suit.
When I opened the front door and stepped into the living room, a whole posse of human women turned their heads to look at me.
I only recognized Skye and Livvie, the witch from my pack lands.
“Oh. Hello,” I said uncertainly. I hadn’t been among this many human women since… Well, maybe ever in my life.
One of the women stood and smiled, and damn if she didn’t look like a wolf, predatory and a little amused. “I heard we had some fresh meat. Maybe you should introduce yourself. I’m Kaylee.”
I smiled uncertainly. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to be rude.” Taking a few steps forward, I inclined my head slightly. “I’m Blaze.”
“You’re hot,” Kaylee said bluntly. “If we have any single ladies left in town, they’ll be all over you.”
My dragon wasn’t a fan of that and not really a fan of how forward Kaylee was being.
Livvie snorted. “Good luck with that.”
Kaylee plopped back down in her spot on the sofa. “What do you mean?”
“Sammy might not be too keen on the idea.” Livvie patted the sofa beside her. “Come here.”
Full of reservations, I shuffled across the living room to sit down in the midst of the clan’s human women. Even my dragon was wary about the situation. It wasn’t like we were in danger, though.
“We all went through some drama before coming to our happiness with our mates,” a young black human with close-cropped hair said. “I’m Bianca.” She grinned at me.
The woman beside her, who looked enough like her that they had to be related, finger-waved at me. “I’m her sister, Briana.”
“Why drama?” I asked.
“Well, for one, humans don’t know about the supernatural world,” Kaylee said wryly. “So, that was drama for all of us. But each of us had some other problem that essentially kept us from our mates.”
Now I really was curious. “Like what?” When it came to fated mates, it was supposed to be life’s perfect companion. What reason could anyone possibly have for denying it?
“Well,” Skye said with a sigh. “Anthony and I fell in love as kids, but I was the first known human mate, so that caused all kinds of trouble with his parents.”
Briana chuckled. Or was it Bianca. “You’re sisters?” I asked.
They nodded in unison. “I’m mated to Jace.” She must’ve seen I was struggling with names. “Briana.” She winked at her sister. “People confuse our names a lot.”
“Call me Bee,” Bianca said. “That helps. And I’m mated to Wayne, have you met him?”
I shook my head uncertainly. “No, I don’t think so.”
“He’s a chef. You’ll meet him eventually, I’m sure. We didn’t just fall into place together due to some personal stuff we had to deal with.” The ladies exchanged glances.
“It all works out in the end.” A woman with bright green eyes and red hair reached over and patted my shoulder with a sympathetic grin. “But it sure is a pain in the butt to get there.”
We sat and talked for a while longer, and they told me more about the troubles they’d been through.
Kaylee had been a porn star, essentially.
She did online videos for money. It’d been hard not to express my shock when she told me that, nonchalantly like it was no big deal.
It had taken some time for her mate, Porter, to come to terms with it, but they’d managed it.
And Livvie and her mate, Wes, had to deal with the fact that Livvie hadn’t known she was a witch.
Plus, Leonard, the bane of my pack’s existence, had tried to use her magic.
By the time I made my escape, I had a mind full of things to think about. I shuffled up the stairs and pulled out my phone, dialing Gage’s number as soon as I closed my borrowed bedroom door behind me.
“Hey, man. How’s it going?” His voice was comforting and familiar, but I had too much on my mind.
“Fine, but Gage, man, I need you to tell me more about what happened with Leonard and the high priestess. What happened to Sammy’s old coven?” I knew there had been a slaughter, but no details.
He sighed. “I was a kid when it happened. I didn’t know the details I do now.”
“Well, tell me what you know.” I plopped down on the bed and hoped no dragons had come in the house to overhear the conversation.
“Sure. Of course. Leonard was a power-hungry alpha. The worst. He had a deal with the high priestess and when she shunned the witch that was originally supposed to be the pack witch, Sammy, he got pissed. Like, beyond pissed.”
“Yeah, okay. So, Sammy was supposed to be our pack witch all these years.” That sucked.
How cool it would’ve been to have met her years ago when I first joined the pack.
Plus, the pain she must’ve gone through by being shunned made my own heart thump harder.
I wished I could’ve spared her that turmoil.
“Yeah. Then, when Livvie was born, it changed and then she was supposed to be the witch who helped our pack. But that was years after Sammy left. The slaughter happened when Livvie was a child. I’m not sure what age exactly.
Her parents tried to refuse Leonard, the coven backed them, and he went on a rampage. ”
It had to have been horrible for them all. The survivors and Sammy, too. “What about Sammy’s parents?” I asked. “Why didn’t they intervene?”
“That I don’t know. I never knew why she was shunned or what happened with her family. That’s a story for Sammy to tell you herself.” He paused for a second, letting me take it all in, I supposed. “What all have you witnessed so far?”
It didn’t feel right, telling him what I’d seen when Sammy took me on the little adventure. “Well, Sammy’s magic is definitely noticeable. The town is filled with power.”
Gage sighed. “That’s what I wanted for our pack,” he muttered. “I really hope things work out between you two and you can bring her home with you.”
I didn’t bother telling him I was pretty sure Sammy hated my guts. That wouldn’t cheer him up in the slightest. The chances of her coming to Grove Holler were pretty slim.
I slept like shit that night, dreaming the whole time.
Only one dream stuck with me. I sat in a tree with a boy on either side of me.
One of the boys told me that he didn’t want me to leave.
He asked why my parents couldn’t just stay.
The other asked how we were supposed to have our first shift together if I wasn’t there.
The general consensus was that life wasn’t fair. When I woke up, my chest ached fiercely, nearly making me gasp as I rubbed it. I didn’t understand the meaning of the dreams, but they were beginning to feel more like memories rather than something my mind was making up.
“Who are you?” The sound of Sammy’s voice nearly made me jump out of my skin, and my dragon went nuts as soon as he was awake enough to realize our mate was in the room. Scrambling up in the bed, I stared at her with my mouth hanging open like a fool.