His Mate, Her Coven

I knew what I needed to do.

It was inscribed into my bones, almost literally. Well within the next few hours it will be.

The description wasn't all that clear to me but I am sure that by the time I walk back to my coven I will have branded into my bones my sacred vows and ties to this coven.

Not quite sure, our leader, Armentis, speaks solely in a quiet murmur at all times. Her angry voice has only been heard several times, but I know that she will be using it towards me if I screw up my ritual.

If I was not accepted because of my mistake, I would never see this family again.

My coven of sophisticated, strong women.

Some covens have men but many will say that men only come in to try and be in charge, mansplaning every spell and ritual. That was a no from Armentis.

She would not even let her own fated be on the same level as her office of our mansion.

Fated being her soulmate, the ones we are destined for or something like that.

Being fated is not a top priority for a witch like me in her prime. I am 25 and finalizing my training into womanhood and becoming the powerhouses my coven needs as a protector.

It was clear that as my powers had manifested that I was not a healer or predictor, or even an elemental witch.

I was not showing signs of anything actually. Which do not get me wrong I paid the price for, with constant mocking and jabs at my femininity, Was I even a real witch?

I loved being asked that question, believe me. With my mom being a leader of her own, very successful and powerful coven, I was a small embarrassment.

She had needed for me to be trained somewhere without bias so I would understand the difficulty and true satisfaction of finding my own power.

And it was. Two years late. After two years of seemingly stunted magic BOOM.

I am making the beds float and the kitchen is being both set blazed and extinguished, then I am finally welcomed and celebrated.

"I knew your mother had chosen Aubern for a reason." That was the first thing Armentis has ever said to me personally, aside from my interview into the coven years prior. Which, to be fair, was mostly her staring into my soul for an hour then, acceptance.

Anywho, my mother had chosen that because she could see the potential I had as an adult from before I was out of her womb. I was destined for a fire and ice life, I guess.

It's been pretty cold on this end, however.

Anywho. I am finally being initiated into the coven. By myself. In the forest. At night. In the summer time.

And these mosquitos are out for blood.

I huffed my annoyance but steered on in determination, I'm no little whiny bitch who cannot not whine about less than perfect conditions. I'm a witch, bitch, and a damn poweful one at that.

I hated this stupid small, white summer dress. Do not get me wrong dresses are great but this shit is uncomfortable and is serving me up as mosquito hors d'oeuvres. And it sucked. It was terrible but if all went well then I could change into my comfortable pajama sweats and big shirt.

Or the dress could change from white to black, but I still prefer my sweats.

I had reached my circle of ingredients within the hour, I set to work on a small barrier of all living things to die around me, stupid mosquitos would not even know what fucking hit them.

It was a fairly small circle but I would be protected from all outside forces so long as I was conscious which was going to be the most important part for my ceremony segment of initiation.

I began by concentrating on chanting and lighting all the candles surrounding me. It was not as easy as the shows made it seem. It is not just a flick of my fingers, it's some serious ass concentration and sweating. That had taken me about ten minutes to light six out of the ten, so already I felt behind schedule.

"It's alright." I shalily let out a breath and calmed myself. "Magic takes time, you know that." I exhaled calmly and continued my candle lighting with slohhtly less nagging anxiety.

After my circle of spread out candles was made up, I had my notes out to study quickly before I burned them. I hated school notes anyways.

I softly spoke my coven members names and the vow I making to them as I got out the black pen-like figure to write out my oath that will be inscribed into me by the end of this night. Once it is burned in the bowl with the blood of my coven the inscribing will begin shortly after.

And they will check. We have an x-ray machine in the living room storage closet to check and see if there is a dent of words there.

The curves of Latin will be imprinted in my bones for all to see.

It honestly could be a freaking song about pickles and chickens for all we know but if the words are there then it at least worked. And we are in the system for life.

Or until we want to leave but same thing.

My ribs will be sore for several weeks but I will have the ultimate support of my coven in my recovery.

My ritual was done within twenty more minutes. And I sat waiting as the candles ran lower and lower.

Until they each died one at a time. I sat as I was told to, because this part takes time.

That's when it came, after an hour of anxiously waiting, expecting pain to erupt from withon, there it was.

A hot, iron needle was inside of me, it was the most painful thing I had ever felt. I thrashed and screamed inside of the circle in attempt to stop the pain. It was too much, I could feel the burn of the curve of each letter. There were fifty-four words in total on the oath.

I felt the tears stream onto my neck and start to soak my white dress. It was a slow process apparently, taking up to a maximum of six hours. To deeply dig the words into my ribs, as permanent as possible.

It was barely moving to my fourth rib when I heard paws.

Werewolves. I snarled to myself. These damn dogs are going to kill me if I am on their land. Or their stupid Alpha will use me to try to get something out of Armentis. But I had signed a document designed for the protection of the coven, a waiver almost.

My coven is what mattered most. Especially since the conversation I had had with Armentis several days ago.

Armentis Lecriana, my Coven's protector, leader.

θ

"Aubern. Madam Lecriana is seeking your council immediately." One of our defenders called to me, walking into the lazy room with a meaningful and serious stride. I immediately stopped my conversation with my oldest friend, Marissa and ran to keep up with the defender, Allaiah.

I felt the cold of the dark and enigmatic aroma of the room from down the hall. I could feel my improper clothing color, and the gulp of saliva build up in my mouth. She was more intimidating than my mother.

She has a smoke illuminated in the peaks of light sneaking from cracks in the curtains around her, a burning incense giving her even more regality. Her black hair in a straight waterfall down her back nearly to the floor in the position. Her dark piercing black eyes covered by glittering eyelids painted with a smokey brown and gold combination.

She sat cross legged on the floor with her eyes closed. The light was dimmed with only cracks through the black curtains to cast over her in the room with no other furniture in the large room than an inexpensive black wooden desk, she only used it for official documents and meetings with important leaders of other covens and any other mystical being in charge, for allies and enemies alike.

Today must have been informal for the desk was pushed aside.

"Sit down, Aubern. Allaiah, you are dismissed and thanked for your patience today. " She murmured from her position on the floor.

Allaiah nodded politely and extended the door further for me to completely walk through as she exited.

I joined her on the small cushion beside her.

I have never seen this before.. I mused to myself.

"I am very envious of you, dearest Aubern. And do not argue back." She opened her eyes only to narrow her right eyes to me and close it again. "You come from power and you have it. I did have to claw my way to the top and with a non-witch of a fated it was much harder. I worked harder than all my class and beat out even the daughter of this covens leader for this position. Not because of my bloodline or beauty but because of my work ethic and firmness in strengthening my magic. I saw how you were throughout the entire period of your stunt. I saw how you were mistreated, I was told personally by your mother to not intervene because it would not teach you the lesson of humiliation and humbleness.

And for that I am envious. You did not cry, well you did a little but you did not whine and give up saying it was too hard or that you would never be a real witch. And here you are, and there you were then. Top of the class and helpful to the younger girls having difficulty, I admire that."

I was shocked and held my tongue in fear of stuttering like a blubbering idiot in the presence of this mystic witch with more power in a look than I can use in a week. The woman I saw as a second mother, protective of her coven members.

"And that is why after your 26th birthday I will be announcing you as my successor and start you training to become our new leader before your 28th summer." She spoke with a sigh and small smile. I felt that she was rather proud of her decision.

I gasped in complete shock and covered my mouth."But Madam Lecriana, I- I am not one of the leaders in training. My friend, Marissa-"

She chuckled darkly. "Ah yes. Little Marissa, I know of her, very clever and witty that little redhead is. But she is not fit for this position, while she has flourished in her training, she has shown signs of greed and anger in many simulations of situations that will be forced upon her. I also do not imagine that she would do good at having a no-nonsense personality in this position anyway. That witch is going to be a fantastic witch, just not the leader of this coven unfortunately.

Besides that, I have chosen you, are you going against or testing my decision?" She cocked an eyebrow to me, perfectly arched.

"N-no Madam Lecriana, b-but I-"

"Goodbye, Aubern. Go call your mother to confirm what she already knows. And do not tell anyone, it is going to be a surprise and it will be exciting for the coven to see a new leader come in." She dismissed me, getting up.

She towered over me with her 6'2'' beautiful figure. Her long black dress only making her look longer and more slimming.

She gently pushed me out with the statement of needing to check on her fated and child. I believe it was along the lines of, "Go, go, I need to check and be sure my fated has not killed our child and burned our house to the ground."

θ

Although I was to be the next leader, there was nothing excluding me from protecting the coven should I be caught.

If anything it was more important that I did not say anything to jeopardize them, their safety is my priority as the next leader.

The waiver read something along the lines of if I should be caught, I would not hex the coven should they refuse to bargain with the kidnappers for my return. I would accept torture and death before putting my coven at risk.

I needed to get away, but staying in the circle would protect me as long as I was conscious.

I heard them get closer and closer as I tried to omit a call to the coven telepathically. I knew our women specializing in telepathy were most likely asleep and would not hear me but I had to try. I had to get help, I could die and not be found for several days, only one person knew where to place the items, and it was my mother.

My mother. I could contact her!

"Mom! Mom, please I need your help please help me! I am in the middle of my inscribing and I am seconds from coming into contact with werewolves! I do not know what pack this is, please help me!" I gasped as I was still screaming and crying. It was becoming harder to get a breath in.

It is the Emald Pack, does not have too much status in social hierarchy, Alpha goes by the name Daniel and Beta is Hayden. Good luck, I am positive this will be a good experience for you. Just try not to fall asleep, Baby Girl. Be safe and I promise you that you are safe. If something does go wrong, I will find you. I promise. I love you.

Okay. Well the emphasis was comforting, at least.

But that was the opposite of help! This meant that something could happen to me that even she could not foresee. I could be tortured and she could be even a few minutes too late.

Oh god, I am going to die.

I have not even tried to levitate yet. There is so much to live for, that made my tears feel just a little more hot and panicked.

They are here. I could see them from where I was paralyzed on the floor of my six foot radius of a circle of candles and black sand.

They surrounded me quickly, snarling but with an inevitable, contagious fear in their eyes. Good. I hissed back as I had attempted to stand and defend myself. It did not work, only pushed pain further into my abdomen. Some of them then shifted into their nude forms, making me feel slightly less vulnerable with them being almost as vulnerable as I was.

Naked and useless. Not defenseless but it could end badly. I tried to remain in eye contact with them, hissing and baring my teeth as they had began to pace around my small haven, unable to break the barrier. Not able to kill me.

I smiled through the pain at them, not able to concentrate on just one. I must have appeared as a mad woman, crazed with pain. If I would have laughed at this moment I could have possibly scared them all away or at least made one of them shit himself. I also realized that the wolves surrounding me were suspiciously all male, warriors presumably, sexist as per usual.

The worst thing about all wolves, their inability to see past gender, and gender equality was apparently never heard of.

Now to concentrate on my situation at hand, the wolves were changing form, nude surrounding me, if I was not protected in my circle I would be terrified out of my mind at what the outcome of a vulnerable female in the hands of several naked males all at one.

Just stay awake, I groaned in my mind.

The male emerging was an Alpha, everyone in their right supernatural mind could feel it and identify it. Not a weak pack but definitely not the strongest, Mother was correct as usual. He was watching me with cold eyes, calculatingly, I wanted to bare my teeth at him but I felt the tension of the vows moving to my next rib, making me curl my lips in a silent scream. The tears coming to my eyes not helping my vision and upheld dangerous vibe.

I felt weakened but that would not stop me from trying to survive this night. Alone.

This was my time to show my Coven that I am capable of protecting them, if I can protect myself at my most vulnerable moment, then a threat would be nothing with their support behind me.

I breathed through the pain that had sent my body into convulsions, crying out. I had definitely lost my threatening aura to this pack but I knew that did not mean that I was still not a threat to their well-being.

"Get her out of here. She's in pain." A voice commanded, the Alpha. He looked just as powerful as an Alpha should be, barking out his command but I was confused. Why was he worried for my well-being if he was going to capture me and torture me for information?

I chuckled at their naïve thinking habits, there was no way that I would have not taken the precautions of anyone interrupting my ceremony. "Good luck, idiots." I muttered and glanced at them studying them individually.

There were seven not including the Alpha and Beta, two remained in wolf form behind the cover of the trees standing in defense, likely trying to prevent any other witches from coming to my aid. There were three brunettes and two blondes, but I could not make out any other physical features on any of them.

If I was to focus on anything other than my pain, it would be on the Alpha and his unrelenting stare. Those brown eyes never once indicating his actions, but emotions sure. He looked confused as hell and kind of in pain.

The men followed the orders along with the Beta with growls of my remark towards their leaders. They all tried to just waltz up to me but felt the searing fire-like pain that came with trying to get through; nonetheless, they persisted.

I wanted to laugh but this all consuming pain had nothing but my attention as I felt it was going by faster, almost as though fate was by my side. Finally. I attempted to stand again now that my adrenaline was beginning to kick in all these men surrounding me attempting to get to me, the pain seemed dull compared to fighting for my life. Trying to stand with this psin, however, induced nausea, and vomit was quick to follow.

I looked up once again at their Alpha, curiously. He was calm as his wolves were placing themselves in harms way for one little witch. They could die but he did not look away from me. In a trance of utter determination.

Why?

He placed his hand up against the barrier and heavily pushed. To my shock, he did not sizzle, as intended. I felt the blood drain even further from my face.

I raised my hands to draw strength from the earth to make my barrier more powerful but he gripped my hand and made me understand.

He paralyzed me with his touch. Weakened me in an already vulnerable state.

He held me as I was falling from the power he took from me. He gripped the back of my head in his hand and I briefly saw from the corner of my eye my black hair slip between his fingers as he ran his fingers through my hair. And he whispered one word I dreaded from a wolf, mate.

I glared at him, struggling still against the inevitable truth.

This wolf was my fated, and there is nothing more incredibly stupid than denying an Alpha his mate. For an Alpha is not only possessive but quickly becomes obsessive with their Luna.

Fantastic, exactly what my life needed at this exact moment.

"My beauty, what are you doing to yourself?" His eyes widened in disbelief and horror at the things he saw around him, he could not see the true horror that lay beneath my skin.

"Get off of me." I groaned twisting out of his harsh grip. But those disgustingly beautiful brown eyes held me captive and wanting to take back my crude tone.

"Stop struggling, amour. You will only harm yourself further." He softly whispered as he picked me up bridal style despite my vocal displeasure being displayed. Through cursing.

"You let me down now you asshole. You are all interrupting a sacred ceremony and I-!" The bitch interrupted me and was moving my body too fast, I was not a fast healer like them.

"You will no longer subject yourself to this pain, amour. Do you hear me, this is finished." He thundered, still quietly but in a commanding tone that made me blush at the power a man I was meant for had.

My eyebrow twitched in defiance. "You think that I will listen to you boss me around. I have news for you, buddy, I am not a wolf you do not own me. And you will never tell me what to do again," I hissed at him, partially from being unable to breathe through the pain and talk at the same time.

He slowly turned away from me to command his wolves, mistake. Rookie mistake when dealing with a witch. Especially a witch who is as powerful as me now.

"Ignite," I whispered focusing on the tree above us. Watching a small flicker take root before engulfing the tree entirely.

He looked up at it then at me, not amused. As I expected. "You must be proud."

"Oh, I am." I smirked before lighting my circle of salt ablaze. I shoved at his chest just prior to the blaze to get his stunned figure off of mine as out of my damn circle but I fell to the floor as pushing him took more effort than i initially realized. Landing while still having ribs being drawn on was not the most fun I had but better than being taken away mid ritual. But I could not hold back a scream.

"Why do you insist on hurting yourself?" He growled at me once my screams died down. No longer being able to reach me inside the circle.

I scoffed in a whimperand turned away from his handsome, pissed off eyes, this man did not know me, I lived in pain. This was just a lot bigger than I usually delt with, "You clearly know nothing of witches and their Coven rituals. Well, I am not going to be the one to explain them, so you and your dogs can go run back to where you came from."

He growled at me once again. "Well, you cannot stay in there forever, little witch. And when you finally are too tired to keep yourself up, I will take you home where we will remain." He smirked and his eyes started to change in between gold and his brown. His wolf fighting with his thoughts.

Probably perverted with the things he wants to do within the pleasures of intercourse.

Of course, wolves were extremely active creatures in sexual endeavors.

"Leave us, maybe call the fire department first. Once she passes out the ring will lose it's power but the tree will still be burning and spreading throughout the forest." The Alpha came out, taking his attention from me to command his wolves. Some were reluctant to leave their Alpha with a witch and some wanted to make sure their Luna was alright.

Wolves were very loyal to their superiors who support and protect them, one thing I was positive I could appreciate if I was to live among them.

I looked away from the eyes of the ones already pledging themselves to my safety. "But Alpha, our Luna, she is hurt."

"We need to help her."

"We can get her out of there and get her to the pack doctor immediately."

And the few who did not care for me.

"Leave her in there, we do not need a witch among us."

"She put herself there, she can get herself out."

He growled at all of them, "Did I not give an order? Just because my mate is here does not mean you all can show off your masculinity, you can all show her you can protect her when guard assignments are being made. And you will have me to deal with if I should ever hear words of disrespect spoken of my mate and our Luna again. Once again, you are all dismissed. And someone call the damn fire department."

"Yes, Alpha."

And they all dipped. Like out of thin air, it was pretty amazing.

I felt almost a twinge of pride at these men, and my fated. He was so handsome while taking control and showing off for me.

Wait, no.

I shook my already dizzy head, no my Coven needs me to be their leader. I did not need to get mixed up with wolves, no matter how cute puppies would be or to wake up with my fated every morning. Or to have complete devotion from a pack all willing to do anything for my happiness.

Nope. Don't need it.

"You must be proud, they are well trained."

"They are. And I am proud, I love them all but they can be damn hard-headed. As I expect you will be with accepting this mating. But I am not worried because we are meant to be together."

"Unfortunately this is terrible timing, Love. You see, you are a leader so you understand the hardships of power, yes?" He grunted in response, not liking the negative direction of my words. "Well you see, Fated, I am to be the leader of my Coven so this just isn't going to wor-"

His growl and storming up against the fire stopped me. "What makes you think that anything in this world is going to keep you from me? Huh? Nothing. Not a position of power, not a pack of wolves, and certainly not a Coven of witches. Nothing, Love. You are mine, and I just got you, you will never leave me. Got that?" He was being burned by the fire from standing so close but only had eyes on me.

I stopped in my tracks with my worried thoughts. "You don't even know me, how could you say that?"

"If the Moon Goddess gave me to you and you to me it was for a reason. We belong to each other and you are the other half of my soul. Why wouldn't I fight to keep you?" He sounded sad. "What makes you so fast to condemn our relationship if you do not even know me?"

I flinched, not expecting his bluntness, his willingness to fight for me. "I know how difficult it is to be fated to someone not apart of your Coven as a leader, and I watched the stress my own Coven leader deal with as a consequence of her mating. Should I have a child, how much more difficult it would be."

A low growl rumbled in his chest as I mentioned a child. "My pup would not be a burden on you and any problem we have can be overcome, it just seems you are too lazy to have a challenge to overcome."

My eyes flashed back to his, "Excuse you?" He lifted his eyebrows at me, as if questioning me to deny him. "You know nothing of the challenges I have had to face to get where I am today! And I have nothing to fear of a challenge but a relationship was not what I needed at this important moment in my life thank you very much, Daniel," I hissed. "Maybe we should just wait this out for a couple of years and see if we can even give this a try."

I just watched as he fought for control within himself as I spoke his name. Until he won and was chuckling, bubbling into laughter.

"You are mocking me?" I. Was. Pissed.

"No. No, no, just trying to understand when you thought was an appropriate time for a relationship. What, I have been waiting lets see, I was supposed to find my mate around eighteen to twenty and how many years ago was tha..." He drifted into a quieter voice as if counting in his head. "Oh yes, it was eight years ago. So now that I have waited to mature and fully accept and appreciate that all good things come with time, and you want to wait for a couple of years? You must be crazy, if you think that I am going to let you walk away from me unmarked tonight you have another thing coming... I don't even know your name!" He exasperated with a hand motion towards me.

"Aubern. My name is Aubern Marenoz." Why did I give him my last name? He didn't need to know that much about me.

"As in Aurora and Michelangelo Marenoz? You are a descendant of a powerful line of witches. But I was never aware of a daughter." He mused quietly to himself.

"Yes, well when you do not get your magic for several years after you are meant to it does tarnish a family name. Anyways, Fated, as much as I would love to spill my life story to you, I have to finish this ritual so, I'll catch you later." I felt the stopping of the burn of writing inside of me. It was over and onto the next and final step of my induction ritual.

"You are going to wake up in my bed mate, and I will have it no other way for the rest of our lives," he growled pressing his claw extended hands into the dirt.

"Riiight. Then you just sit back and watch, I'll just kick your ass afterwards." I didn't wait for a response.

I chanted softly as myself and gulped holding the blade to my middle finger on my left hand and swiped immediately down to the end of my palm causing a flow of pure red. I stuttered in my chanting and blocked out Daniels calls to me.

He was being dramatic, we cut ourselves all the time for important spells.

The blood on my white dress soaked it entirely and it slowly turned from white to red to black. It worked and my transaction from being taught by a Coven to now officially being in the Coven was complete.

I felt love surround me, supporting me. I smiled never knowing what it felt like to have people behind me one hundred percent, but this bond as family. A family I was about to step up to the plate to protect. I felt my body begin to slump until my back painfully hit the forest floor, an oof escaped me due to the impact.

My fire diminished to my delirious disapproval but I had not noticed until Daniel had his arms around me securely, hoisting me up and checking me over.

"Put me down." I whimpered too tired to fight and very much blood drained. My eyes fought to stay open, knowing the result is inevitablely waking up in his home.

"Never, my mate. I have waited so long for this, why would I let perfection slip by?" He smirked down to me and pressed his deliciously full lips to my hair.

He would not actually go against my wishes and take me away from where I needed to be right?

He would. He secured me up and started to run with me in his arms, carefully trying not to jostle me too much and keep a steady pressure on my bleeding hand.

I was almost too tired to care, and wanted to remain by this beautiful man's side as he took care of me for the night, so I fell asleep. Drained emotionally and physically, I just prayed I could make it back to my Coven before anyone finds out of this small incident.