The Beast And The Blessed by Ashley Breanne Book 2
The Warrior and The Witch by Ashley Breanne
Chapter 15
Joselin’s P.O.V.
“Do I need to ask if you’re okay, or can I assume by your smell that things went well?” Holden asked with a grimace, but there was disappointment on his face.
He moved away from me subtly, but I didn’t have it in me to feel guilty.
Tobias said I was his. I had nothing to be mad about ever. The world could burn around me, and I would still be happy.
“I’m better than okay, but you might not be.” There was a slight skip in my step when I looked over my shoulder and saw Tobias hadn’t left the conference room. He would need a minute to calm himself down, and I bit my lip as I thought about turning around and walking right back in there to claim him as mine too.
“What the hell did I do?” Holden pulled open the door to the dining hall, and a few people looked taken aback by the smile on my face.
Natalie raised her eyebrows at me, and Killian curled his lip when I walked past, no doubt smelling what I had just been up to.
“He’s going to kill you,” I practically sang happily, but Holden did not look amused. I looked up as Tobias entered the room, his eyes immediately landing on me. It made me happy when he filled up his plate and began eating this time, but I knew he was listening to everything I said.
“For interrupting?” Holden asked, and I laughed when he looked from me to Tobias.
“No, I think it was good you did,” I smirked when Tobias growled. I would have loved to have him take me right then and there, but more than that, I wanted to be sure he wanted all of me. He had no problem ignoring my advances for months.
I wanted to be sure that he was interested because he wanted me and not just because I stopped throwing myself at him. He would have to earn it, and I looked forward to the fun we were about to have together while he did so.
“So, cheesecake?” Holden asked, and I looked back at him to see him staring out over the rows of tables with pack members talking and laughing. I knew what he was really asking, and I nodded. Friends.
“Cheesecake,” I replied, my smile falling as I looked at him. He looked worried and sad, and I wondered what was going through his mind. He had a mate that was waiting for him. Once he turned nineteen, he could find her, but he didn’t seem excited by the idea.
“Does this mean we aren’t going dancing tomorrow?” He lowered his voice but could still be heard by anyone who cared enough to listen.
I met Tobias’s stare. His brown eyes had remained black since our rendezvous in the conference room, and his hand was tight around his fork, his knuckles white. “That’s still happening. I’m looking forward to it.”
It made me smile wider as Tobias stabbed his fork into the wooden table before standing up and leaving the room. He wouldn’t be coming back tonight. I had pushed his buttons and was looking forward to my punishment.
“You’re really going to get me killed, aren’t you?” Holden asked as Killian and Natalie stood to excuse themselves from the table.
“Don’t be a baby. Fight like a man!” I insisted, standing as well, eager to get back to my tower for the night to take another look at Rona’s blood now that I was calmer. I also didn’t like that the council had stopped eating in the public dining hall and chose to spend each night eating alone in their rooms or the private dining room. It was suspicious.
I would have joined them if I didn’t hate them. I could have tried to get them to spill everything they knew about what was happening or what would happen. Until I got to the bottom of the magic on the mountain, I would not trust any of their pledges to join us.
Holden held his arm out to escort me from the room, but I shook my head. If Tobias was going to kill my new friend, he would have to wait until after we went out tomorrow. I wanted to go dancing.
“Can I at least walk you back to your room?” Holden asked, and I stared at him momentarily before nodding in agreement.
We were halfway there when I broke the silence, hoping he would give me some answers after I had told him about my love life. “Why are you so scared to find your mate?”
“I am not scared to find her. I’m worried about what situation she will be in when I do.” He lifted his arm, rubbing his hand along the back of his neck as he tilted his head from side to side.
I was buzzing with curiosity. Most wolves were over the moon about the prospect of finding their mate, but Holden wasn’t, which was unusual.
Beyond Killian, I hadn’t known anyone else to be resistant to the bond with their fated mate. “What makes you say that?”
Holden let out a pained, almost dark chuckle, and I watched as the happy boy turned into a man. One filled with pain and exhaustion, hiding behind the facade he wore the rest of the time. “I can’t know for certain, but I might have already found her. There was this girl growing up. She was the brightest thing I had ever seen. Always smiling and laughing. I wanted to be around her all the time so that she could share some of that happiness with me.”
He slowed, and I matched his pace to let him speak. Clearly, he needed to talk about it. “She had this boyfriend that wouldn’t let anyone near her though, so I never got my chance. When she was seventeen, she got pregnant, and her light dimmed. When she turned nineteen last year, I thought that she would find her true mate, but she never said anything if she did.”
I nodded slowly, “And you think she might be your mate?”
“It’s just a thought. The way she looks at me sometimes, I feel like she is trying to communicate with me. I tried talking to her through the pack link a few times to see if she was okay, but she always has it blocked.” Holden dropped his hand back down, sliding them into the front pockets of his jeans. “I have the feeling that if it’s not her, it’s going to be someone in a situation like that. They might already have a kid or be mated to someone they chose for themselves, and I’ll have to suffer through their rejection of our bond.”
“Well, if that is the case, you’ll always be welcome here. I have a few witches who I could introduce you to. We don’t get mates, so you don’t have to worry about that with my kind.” I bit back a laugh, imagining him with Aisha or Margot. He might be able to hold his own against one of them, but they were a few years older than me.
Rona was closer to his age but would chew him up and spit him right out. “A witch and a wolf, are you sure you won’t get jealous? Having to see me around all the time with another witch might drive you crazy to know that you missed your chance with me.” He smirked as we reached the door to my tower, and I laughed.
Tobias was the only man who had ever gotten under my skin and into my heart. All of my possessiveness and jealousy were reserved for him.
“Or, if you’re still here this weekend, you can always attend the mating mixer and see if any women here recognize you as their mate.” I had not been looking forward to it. Every few months, everyone with Lycan blood who hadn’t found or chosen a mate would meet to search for their fated. If they didn’t find them, they could go to the wolf packs for The Offering to select a breeder.
I placed my hand on the doorknob, feeling the magical field almost sizzling at my touch.
Something wasn’t right. My smile fell, and the markings on my skin vibrated in anger, knowing someone was in my personal space.
“Holy s*ht*t,” Holden muttered as he stared at me wide-eyed.
“Someone is in my tower.” The low declaration made his eyes turn black, and all amusement melted from his face. He looked ready for war, and I was proud that he was willing to fight beside me.
I knew this would happen, but I had expected it to happen sooner. My guess had been while we were on the cliff this morning. I had been wrong.
It seemed she wasn’t as smart or fast as I had assumed she would be.
The door flew open with a flick of my finger, and I stormed in with my hands raised. The sitting room was empty, but I could feel her still in my tower. I teleported up the stairs within the blink of an eye, staring at my destroyed study. Rona stood in the middle, her face as red as her hair, as she glared at me.
I felt Holden rush up behind me, but he paused at the sight of the angry witch. “You b*itc*h,” Rona roared before throwing a fireball at me. I knocked the attack to the side, pulling the oxygen from the air around it to suffocate the flame and force it to go out.
“That’s not very nice, Rona. I have company. Use your manners.” I chided, earning a screech of anger from her.
“I should skin you alive!” Her threat was meaningless to me, and I rolled my eyes. I would let her attack slide since I had attacked her only two days ago. The difference was that I wasn’t stupid enough to let her get a sample of my blood when I did it.
“You probably should, but you can’t, and you won’t. Now be a good little mommy murderer and get out of my tower before I call the guards in.” I wanted nothing more than to watch her get dragged out of my room, but I knew it wouldn’t happen. She could easily handle them with her magic.
But she wouldn’t get one up on me.
“Did you think I wouldn’t find out about this?” She lifted her other hand, holding the bowl from my casting bench. The minuscule amount of her blood was still inside, and I narrowed my eyes as I forced myself not to look at my hidden safe. If I did, I would be giving myself away.
“So, you did. Do as you must, but then get out. You have made such a mess in here, Rona, and as I already said, I have company.” I had to briefly consider grabbing and teleporting her into the darkness to leave her to the creatures lurking in the shadows. But if I knew her as well as I thought I did, she would overpower them and make them do her bidding.
Holden released a feral snarl behind me when Rona stepped forward, lifting her hand like she wanted to punch it through my chest and rip my heart out. The sound made her stop, and I raised an eyebrow at her, waiting to see if she had the guts to take me on in a real fight.
Wolves challenging each other was cute. They would wrestle and fight to the death.
But witches… witches held duels. All elements and magic were at play, and anyone nearby was at risk of being hit by a rogue casting. It was deadly to all watching, not just the witches participating.
Her jaw twitched as her teeth ground together, and I eyed her with amusement as she lit the contents of the bowl on fire.
She didn’t need to know that the actual sample I had was already tucked away in my safe. Although, after she had been able to get through my ward to enter my tower, I would have to redo both it and the protection spell on my locked-up, hidden treasures.
Her boots stomped loudly against the flooring as she strode toward the door, stopping at my side. “If you ever take something that belongs to me again, I will kill you.”
I turned to face her with a wicked smile, knowing it would only piss her off more. “You know I can’t resist you when you talk dirty to me.”