𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟕

𝘐𝘵'𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘢 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘨𝘪𝘯 

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╰┈˚ · ° .   I HAD SPENT THE REST OF THE LUNCH PERIOD in a little abandoned space behind the school. You had to know where it was to find the entrance since it was hidden by thick ivy. The place was renomated for being the hot spot for couples to make out and fuck during school hours, it was clear by the many empty packets of condoms. Luckily no used ones were in sight.

I had taken bites of my sandwich while drawing, and too soon, the bell signaling the end of lunch rang. I gathered my things with a loud groan of displeasure, quickly walking inside to get back to lessons. What I didn't expect to find once in the hallways, was my brother getting in a fight with one of his friends.

"Sam!" I yelled, trying to contain my panic "Get the fuck out of my way!" Elbowing my way past the crowd of students that had formed in mere seconds, I made my way all to the front. "Fuck! Sam!"

When I saw him, I noticed how his shoulders were shaking, trembling more and more as the time ticked. He punched the guy over and over, not stopping. His anger rose with each punch.

"Sam!" I tried to get him but someone grabbed my shoulder binging my back harshly against a hard chest.

"In the state that he is now, he will punch you too, little arsonist." Paul said in one of the softer tones that I had ever heard him talk with. His eyes flickered from the gruesome scene in front of us, to mine, scanning all over my face. He had completely startled me with this new behavior, that for a second, I had forgotten about my brother. His arms, one that was around me at the height of my collarbones and the other across my stomach, were stopping me from completely moving.

It was until someone knocked into us that I snapped out of whatever shock induced state that his action had caused.

Paul snapped his head sideways to the boy who had shoved him, an angry snarl on his lips and a glare in his eyes. His hold on me tightened further, and in that moment, he resembled my brother very much now that he was shifted whenever he would get angry.

The shook subsided and I switched my emotion to a fiery anger. My glare, harsh and hot as the blazing flames of a bonfire, pierced the side of his head "Take your hands off me, Lahote. Now." My voice was deadly calm, even if my eyes spoke my rage.

At that, he turned towards me once again. His jaw clenched hard and matched my glare with one of his own. Our faces were too close for comfort. His breath was fanning my skin, and his eyes shifted for a second to my lips, but as soon as he caught the gesture, something akin to anger or hate morphed his features.

"Your funeral." he scoffed, shrugging his shoulders with a nonchalant gesture before his arms released me from the tight hold.

After I was free from his grip, I quickly approached my brother trying to calm my racing heart. I could see Leah shouting his name too on the other side of the circle of students created around the fight, but there was too much chaos for any of our voices to pass through.

"Sam!" I yelled again. His shaking only worsened. I followed my instinct, the pull of my magic. I latched my hand on his wrist, light steam coming from the contact as I burned him slightly with my fire. "Stop, now." I commanded.

His frenetic eyes turned towards me, narrowing slightly. I knew he wouldn't hurt me. Not because I was his sister, but because it's physically impossible for a shifter to hurt a witch. His wolf would never let it happen. I stopped my fire before I talked to him again "Calm down. Let's go outside and take some fresh air." His shaking was softer now but I knew it was only a matter of time before he would shift. The hallway was silent after that, no student spoke as I whispered my next word. "C'mon."

I helped my brother up, my wrist hiding the burn marks that were already quickly healing. "Leah, take him to the nurse" I said to the girl gesturing with my head towards the almost unconscious guy, bloody and beaten, heavily panting on the floor. "Please." I added it with a softer tone and tight lipped smile.

She nodded her head wordlessly as the crowd of students parted to make Sam and I pass. For a second, my eyes caught the one of Paul. His anger was still palpable even with the distance between us, his jaw clenching mirroring his fists, and when I averted my gaze first, his stare continued to burn into me.

Sam and I walked as fast as we could outside, his phasing was already starting, I could feel it. We were almost at the tree line behind the high school, hidden enough from prying eyes, when I kept myself a couple of steps back to make his wolf brusted from his skin without any risk of accidentally hurting me.

"Go in the forest." I said. I then focused on the mind link that I had created between us. Just like the grimoire said, it was easier to reach it the more it was used. "Can you find your way home? "

When his head snapped towards me I was sure that he had heard me perfectly fine in his mind.

"I think so." he said with a tired tone.

"Do you wanna tell me why you were fighting with your friend? " I asked, carefully to not ignite his anger even more.

"I don't even know." He answered, letting out a sigh from his nostrils. The look of pure despair in his too human eyes for a wolf, broke my heart.

"It's okay, Sammy. Everything will be alright in the end. Just run for a bit to expel the extra rage and then go home. Shift when you feel ready. " I told him softly "And maybe it's time for you to call the elders and listen to what they have to say. I know that they can help you."

"Yeah." His word sounded full of resignation and was followed by a whine from his wolf.

I took a couple of steps forward but he just moved backwards in fright.

"You will not hurt me" I said out loud, infusing my tone with calmness.

My hand finally touched his snout and then his head as he lowered enough for me to reach him. Rumbles echoed in his chest, showing his wolf content. His fur was matted and long, too long but nonetheless I continued to pet him, showing him that I wasn't afraid of him.

"Go, I will see you later. I have to go to work after school but I'll come home as soon as I can, alright?" I gave him a kiss between his eyes before taking a couple of steps back.

"Thank you." He said softly through the link, and then, he was running through the forest.

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╰┈˚ · ° .  During my shift at the Claw, the corner store, Jared had not shut up once. It took a lot out of me to not just reduce him into nothing but a charred corpse. Jared Cameron, could be what I would say, the closest thing that I had to a friend, but still, the boy could be really loud sometimes. And I usually did not do well with loudness in people.

The bell chimed on the front glass door, letting us know that a new customer had come in. It was Jacob Black, son of Billy Black, and Maddison Swan, the daughter of the chief of the police in our neighboring town, Forks. The two, thanks to the friendship their fathers had, had grown up together. Even if Maddison was resident in Forks and would go to school there, that never made their friendship falter.

The girl with pale skin, bright blue eyes and slightly wavy messy brown hair, bounced to the counter with a wide smile on her face "Hi, Trixy. How are you? I heard your brother had been sick."

Maddison Swan was a bubbly girl, sweet, maybe sometimes too sweet, and she had a smile always plastered on her beautiful features. She and her father were regular customers at The Claw, at least once or twice a week, one of them would come in and buy the famous cookie made by Malia, the owner of the store. Her cookies and fresh pastries were what made the shop so famous all around the Rez till Forks.

"Hello Maddi. I'm fine thanks for asking, Sam is too, don't worry." I answered, returning the smile. It was like a superpower, the girl could make smile even a wall if she wanted to.

"The usual?" Jared said with a flirty smile that Jacob definitely did not like it by the look on his face.

"Yes." The teenage boy answered for his best friend in a slightly clipped, his arm sneaking around Maddison's shoulders making the girl blush slightly at the action.

"I got this." I said, not even concealing a smirk when I looked towards Jared who was grinning like the Cheshire cat.

I quickly packed 12 cookies and two slices of strawberry pie. Their usual order. I could hear faintly in the background Jared continuing to flirt with Maddison, the girl amused giggles and the bite in Jacobs words as he tried to speak between the two. I chuckled to myself, Jared always did it, flirting with Maddison whenever she would come here with Jacob. It had started to feel like some sort of tradition. Jared wasn't interested in Maddison, but he took pleasure in making Jacob jealous, even if he and Maddi always said that they were only best friends.

I returned with the sweets packed away in a bag, gave it to Jacob while Maddi paid her 20$ bill.

"I'll see you guys next week!" Maddison said with her signature bright smile and it didn't pass unobserved how Jacob's eyes softened as he looked down at her.

"Best friends my ass." I commented as soon as the bell chimed signaling that the two teenagers were out of the store. Jared burst out laughing, loud and hard until he had his hands on his knees. "It's like they are blind."

"It's so funny to watch him getting all jealous." He grinned "He is so whipped. Did you see how he looked at her? I don't look at you like that."

"Why would you look at me like that?" I raised an eyebrow in question.

"Because we are best friends, duh." He said it like it was something already known. An established fact. One that I had no idea of.

I gave him a dead serious look. "We are not best friends Jared."

"Of course we are." He insisted

"We are not."

He gave me one of his grins as he jumped on the other side of the counter with a box in his hands, ready to organize some new items on the shelves. "You can deny it however you want, Uley, but it will not make it less real. I'm your best friend and one day I will make you admit it."

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╰┈˚ · ° .  The shift proceeded quite slowly after that, not many customers had come. Thirty minutes before the end of it, my phone had chimed with the notification of an incoming message.

Sammy

I'm talking with the elders now. They say they want to meet back at our house with you too later. They said we need to do something.

I was happy that he had listened to my advice of talking with the council, I knew that it was the right thing to do. Even though I had discovered a lot in the grimoire about shapeshifters, I was sure that the elders would have answers to questions that I would not have. And their experience, even if not in first person, was far greater than mine.

The walk back to my house was pretty short, and when I approached the front doors, I could already hear the multiple voices coming from inside.

I placed my jacket and bag on the hook near the door and quickly went to the living room where all the noises were coming from.

"Hi." I said to the three elders who I had not seen since they had talked to me.

"Hello Beatrice, how are you?" Harry Clearwater asked with his kind smile.

"Better, thank you. Did everything go well?" I asked, more to my brother than them, but nevertheless, it was Billy Black that answered.

"Everything went fine. I'm sure that Sam is going to be a very good Alpha." The elder nodded his head to my brother who with clear eyes, for the first time since he shifted, nodded back.

"Go and take the grimoire child. It's time for a new pack to begin." Old Quil said as he stood up from his place on the couch. Tone stern and eyes cold but still that held that flame of warmth and empathy that didn't not make him seem like a cold man.

I didn't question him. So after a curt nod, I quickly climbed up the stairs and retrieved the book from my room before making my way downstairs again.

"Did you read all of it?" Billy Black asked me as he eyed the old book between my arms as I hugged tightly against my chest.

"Yes, I did."

"Then you know what you two need to do" Billy then gestured to an old chest that was next to Sam. "This, I'm sure, will come useful. it's yours. It belongs to the coven. Not the pack."

I looked at the man before turning towards my brother. The difference in him was unmistakable. A new spark was born in his eyes. Determination. I concluded after a couple of seconds of examining him.

I confusedly looked between the four, not following their conversation at all. Nevertheless, I kneeled on the floor in front of the chest. I tried to open it but it didn't bulge. I frowned my forehead in confusion, there was no lock to keep it close. And then, like a lightbulb switching on, I understood how it was closed. Magic.

Calling forward my element, the fire sizzling in my veins activating the core of my magic. I didn't even need to create a flame because the latch opened immediately. I gasped out at the unexpected content when I raised the top part. Four different journals all leatherbound, there were candles of different colors. The velvety cloth that I moved with my hand revealed a knife or from how the grimoire had called it, an athame. A lot of different crystals filled the transparent glass jars. There were oils and dried up herbs. Mortar and pestle, different bowls and tools.

"This is-" I could finish the phrase because of the emotion clogging my throat. I didn't even know why I felt so emotional, but I did. This chest was something special, something that made my soul, heart and magic dance in happiness.

"Empty?" Sam concluded with a confused expression.

"Maybe for us." Billy chuckled. "But not for her." he told him with a smile.

"It's not empty. It's actually pretty full." I grinned at the four men. An action that would have taken me almost completely by surprise if I wasn't flooded with unexpected happiness. I usually wasn't one to show any type of emotion to people I didn't know well or I wasn't comfortable with.

At the bottom, there were two other wood made boxes, both coated in a layer of magic. One had four triangle-like symbols carved on it. The four symbols that represented the four elements. The other one had a tribal pattern. I took the two out of the chest, feeling like it was the right thing to do.

"Wow... That's-" Sam gasped.

Apparently once outside the chest, they could see the items.

I opened the one with the tribal pattern carved on it. There was a small bowl, a smoothed out needle, a straight razor that was hand painted on the handle and a container with a black liquid. On the side, there were four small glass jars. Each had a strand of hair inside and a name written on a label attached to the cork. The four names of the pack of the 1930.

Now I know what the elders need us to do. It was the time for a new pack to begin.

"Bring me the other." Said Old Quil "You will need it later."

Trusting the man, I handed the box with the four elemental symbols carved on the top to him, and finally rose to my feet with the other one.

"Do you understand what we are about to do?" I asked my brother. He looked at me and decisively nodded his head "Are you sure that you want to do it?"

"Our tribe needs our help. The gene got triggered because it felt the danger, and the magic chose me to be the alpha. The Cullens are back, our enemies are back. Even with the treaty our people need to be kept safe." He said, now on his feet. "I'm ready."

I nodded my head back at him. "Let's do it then."

While Sam sat on a chair that we had taken from the kitchen, I took from the chest an empty jar that matched the ones in the smaller box.

I placed the pack box on the coffee table, only taking from it the razor, that thanks to the magic infused in the box, everything was as new and conserved as the day it was first placed in there.

Wordlessly, I looked at my brother for one last confirmation, which he gave me in the form of a sharp nod. And so I began.

I brought the razor to a strand of his hair cutting the last three inches of it and placed them in the new glass jar before closing it with the cork and sealing it with a spark of my magic. The rest of his long hair would need to be cut since when shifted, the coat of his wolf would be too long and matted, but that was a job for a barber. I would for sure just end up shaving his head off.

After the cutting part was finished, I opened the grimoire. It was written in the old Quillute language, one that I had never spoken before, but now, after unlocking my element, I was completely fluent in it.

Taking what the grimoire had listed as ingredients for the ritual from the chest, I brought everything to the coffee table, where the rest that I needed was inside the pack box. Using the mortar and pestle, I grinded a mix of herbs with oils before pouring the black liquid, the ink, in the bowl from the pack box adding the mixture to it. I knew it when it was ready. I took the bowl and the smoother out needle and approached my brother who was watching carefully, like the three elders in the room, every one of my moves. He had already taken his shirt off making it easier for me to reach the skin of his right shoulder.

I dipped the needle in the ink mixture covering the point before I started to trace the tribal motive. The liquid didn't drip, it stuck to the skin as it was absorbing it. It was like I was in a trance, like when I found myself staring at fire. I didn't need to look at the tribal motive that was carved on the box, my hand moved on its own. I just knew what I had to do. And then, when I was done with the pattern, I called forward my magic. A small flame made of pure energy coming directly from the core of my magic, landed on the tribal. As soon as it touched the skin, the stain fused with the skin creating a tattoo.

The tattoo of a pack.

And then the trance broke. I gasped out slightly. It had been a weird experience, to be honest with myself.

"You did it." Sam said looking astonished at the now tattooed skin "I can feel it. I can feel you, your magic. It's a bit weird."

Because even if it was the tattoo of the pack, it was the second step to link a witch to the shapeshifter. This time, with the soul.

"Yeah." I chuckled, my features lighting with a soft smile.

"Now, one last thing," Harry Clearwater said. He rose to his feet, and with him Old Quill as Billy wheeled himself until all three elders were now in front of us.

Old Quil extended the wooden box that I had previously given to him to me, "Please, open it." I did the same thing that I did with the bigger chest. I called my fire magic forward and the box instantaneously opened.

But Old Quil didn't give it to me. He extended it to Sam, who didn't hesitate to open it fully. There were four different colored fabrics, and on top, there were four necklaces. They were made from rods of metal welded together and were slightly rusty, probably from the years of use before they were placed in the box.

On top of the yellow fabric there was a pendant with a shape of triangle and line that passed the top of it, the air symbol. On the red one, the pentant was a simple triangle, fire. On the blue one, the triangle was inverted, the water sign. And lastly, on the green cloth, the pendant was an inverted triangle with a rod on the bottom part, the earth symbol.

Sam took out the one with the fire symbol, almost as if he too was guided by instinct, and looked down at me. I turned around and moved my hair out of the way. He carefully latched the necklace around my neck and as the pendant touched my chest, I felt my magic simmering under my skin before going back to normal.

And the third ritual was completed. Binding the witch and the shifter by the heart.

"You two are the beginning of a new era," Billy said. " A new pack is going to form–" He said to Sam before looking at me "And a new coven will rise."

"The tribe, the land and the people– We are in your hands now." Old Quil said.

And then, the three elders bowed their heads at us. 

  ˚ · ° . ☽◦☾ . ° · ˚

  ˚ · ° . ☽◦☾ . ° · ˚

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

This chapter was something.

I love how I incorporated the tattoo and made it a ritual. Mind, soul and heart, the three ways in which the shifters and witches are connected. I hope you like this idea.

New character unlocked. Maddison Swan. You'll see her and how she will fit with the story.

I adore Jred and Tris' friendship already.

Again, a small scene with Paul. I can't wait to write about this too because I know this is going to be chaos.

If you have something in mind that you would like to see in their relationship, let me know.

Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter, I'll see you on Thursday!

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾