𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟑

𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙞𝙧 𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨

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╰┈˚ · ° .   We were back again in the living room of Emily's house exactly how time had not passed at all from the previous evening, minus Jacob. I was sitting at the dinner table between the kitchen and the living room, hair down and over my chest trying to cover up the multiple hickeys that patterned my neck that I had tried to cover up that morning as much as possible—which from the smug look on Amelia's face as she first saw me that morning, I hadn't done a good job at it—listening to Kim trying to explain what had come over us during the almost-fight with the Cullens.

"We told you," She said, again, "It wasn't exactly us, we were guided in some way there."

"Possessed." Amelia supplied, "Sounds much better."

"It sounds worse." Layla rebutted with a shake of her head and a gaping mouth in disbelief. "But yes, it wasn't exactly us."

"So let me see if I got this clear." Jared cleared his throat, "You exposed your secret because you were possessed?"

"Oh for fuck sakes." I groaned in my hands, "Can't we just get over this?" A choir of no and a fuck no that I was sure had been Paul followed making me slump against the back of the chair. "Alright, I guess no."

"Was it something instinctual?" Maddison asked. She was sitting on the armchair, her head resting on her closet fist, deep in thought.

"Yes, I would totally say that it was." Amelia agreed with a sharp nod. That morning she looked perfect. Curled hair, shining and soft, stiletto boots at her feet, a black pants that hugged her legs, a red leather jacket that matched the color of her lipstick.There was a particular aura that enveloped her that morning, and from the sly looks that she continued to send Leah every once in a while, I was starting to wonder what she was scheming.

"How was the treaty signed?" The Swan girl wondered out her question.

"What?" I was confused with how that would matter, "Why?"

"Just answer, please."

"In the 30s, Emphiram Black—the alpha at that time—met with Carlisle—as he is the leader of the Cullen's clan—exactly at the border where the two territories would be begun. Not trusting the vampire, Ephraim Black made him sign a piece of paper so that he wouldn't be able to go back on his promise." It was easy to recall the Legends that I had heard so many times before as I listened to Layla speak and explain it to the girl. "It's said that the parchment of paper signed was infused with magic. Carlisle Cullen signed a magic contract that bound him to his word."

"Do you still have it?"

Kim scratched her head, brows furrowed, "Why? I'm not really following."

"You should have it." Sam said, directing the statement towards us girls. "It was given to the coven for safekeeping from what I know."

"Us?" Kim asked, "I have never seen it before."

"Wait here." Amelia stood up, her heels tapping against the floor as she walked down the hallways to my bedroom where we stored all the things passed down to us from the previous coven.

"What are you thinking?" Embry suddenly asked the Swan girl, his legs bouncing as he sat on the stairs "You think that there is something in the treaty that triggered this reaction?"

"I don't know." She nodded, "But it might be a possibility."

Amelia returned soon after with a rolled-up paper in her hand. The parchment was of an amber color, yellowing as the years passed. "Is it this?" She handed it to Sam, who after rolling it out, nodded his head. "The Legends is right, there is a spell woven in the paper."

When I was handed the roll, I gasped at the powerful magic, "Oh yeah, there is a spell in this." I agreed, and after me, Layla, after I had passed it down to her.

"I can feel something tugging." The water witch said deep thoughts. Layla was attuned to magic in a way that left me speechless sometimes. She said that sometimes spells had colors, ribbons and knots that she could see—even more if another witch converged their powers together with hers.

"Can you see it?" Eagerly for an answer Kim leaned forward to look at her left where Layla was.

"More like feel it."

Amelia wiggled her eyebrows, the teasing joke falling from her red painted lips that stretched into a mischievous grin, "Do we need to touch you?"

"Good one." I snorted a laugh, slapping my friend on the shoulder in a joking manner.

"Can you two focus for a second?" Layla, red in the face, asked with a smile tugging at her lips. Amelia's new mission lately was to make the girl blush as much as possible with sex innuendos. "This is not the time."

"Oh my little innocent flower, it's always time for dirty jokes. I could teach you a few things if you want? I know a–" Amelia suddenly yelped, the sound muffled by the hand that had been slapped over her mouth.

"You need to learn when to shut your mouth." Leah clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth with condescension—even if her jaw ticked—with a sly look she turned toward the stairs where Embry was sitting with barely concealed anger, fists clenched into fists.

"She is joking!" Layla exclaimed with widened eyes, "she is not- I wasn't–"

"It's okay." The boy mollified once his imprints doe eyes and focus were on him, until he couldn't look at anyone as he fell into awkwardness, embarrassed by his almost outburst.

"Don't touch me." Amelia snarled, using her air elements to push away the wolf—who rolled her eyes with a sour look on her face.

"What about this contract is important?" Sam said, his voice overpowering the rest of ours as he forcefully turned back the subject to the previous one.

"Right." Layla cleared her throat. I intertwined our hands letting my magic flow to hers as Kim did the same on her other side, and all of a sudden, her caramel-colored eyes took a blue hue. As if there was a trail, Layla moved her gaze, following it. "As I said, yes, there is a spell. It was coven-made."

"It means it's a spell made by the entire coven." I explained to the wolves who were unfamiliar with the terminology.

"And blood bound."

"Are you sure?" Amelia asked. Bloodbound spells are powerful as they are difficult and dangerous, you never knew how it could turn out. Magnificent or a total disaster.

"Yes, I can see the red hues of it." Layla nodded. Her eyes narrowed when she focused more intensely, only then Amelia leaned forward and placed her hand over our intertwined ones, joining her power as well in the mix. "Oh." Layla gasped.

"Oh good or oh bad?" Quil pondered as he bit his lips anxiously.

"Oh like they power bounded it as well." Layla let go of our hands, her eyes returning to their natural shades.

"Oh." Kim echoed diyling, taking in what it meant.

"Can you all stop saying oh." Paul snarked with an annoyed huff.

I looked at him and naturally said, "Oh."

"Fuck you, Beatrice." he rolled his eyes trying to not look as amused as I know he was feeling as I looked at all the micro expression he was trying to cover up.

Amelia let out a sound snort, "You did enough of that yesterday."

"Power bound spells mean that they are interlocked with the power core." I quickly explained—ignoring Amelia altogether and Paul too proud smirk—all for the sake of my brother who looked a second away from tearing his third-in-command to shreds. "And since those are passed down to the following witches, the treaty now is bound to us."

"That was why we reacted that way." Realized Kim, "it was the treaty being broken and our powers coming forth without being called."

"Makes sense." I nodded, "But I swear that I could feel like it wasn't only me." I huffed a breath, snapping my fingers to summon between my hands the grimoire.

The book thumbed heavily on the table as I opened it, I could see the wolves inching forward as if to try and peer a look inside, "You can't see what is written in it." I told them still not looking away as I paged through the magic book.

"And it's not like any of you can speak Quileute any way." Amelia added.

"It's written in the Quileute language?! That's so cool!" Quil enthusiastically exclaimed. "Wait, how do you read it then?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?" Kim told, looking proudly with her chin tilted in the air.

"We just know it. It's because of our powers." Layla explained making the earth witch whine.

"Don't tell them that, Layla. It's way cooler if they didn't know that we just suddenly knew the language."

"Still cool." Seth said with a beaming grin as he and Quil walked to stand at my back to look inside the grimoire

"But it's blank? Where are the words?"

"What part of you can't see what's written in it you didn't understand?" I raised an eyebrow at the two wolves who were literally breathing down my neck.

"It's even cooler." Seth bursted out into a sudden laugh, still looking at the book even if he couldn't read anything.

"What are you searching for?" Amelia asked, and seconds later, I found it.

I showed the page to my coven-mates who stunningly looked back at me, "What does that have to do with this?"

"It can happen on various occasions, it doesn't just happen for that." I pointed out the phrase with my fingers, not saying the words out loud and leaving the real meaning of them hidden.

"Maybe." Layla bit her lips contemplating, " perhaps it's better to just not look further into this."

Yeah, she was right. At least for now.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, around him the wolves were as confused as he was.

"Nothing." I cleared my throat, closing the grimoire and forgetting about the page I had just read. I once again snapped my fingers and the book was gone. "No need to worry."

"Coven business." Amelia said starkly. The wolves knew when to not push, and fortunately dropped the subject.

Coven business was coven business. We tried to not put a barrier between us, but there were things that weren't meant to be shared with anyone outside of the coven. This was one of them.

They were wolves, we were witches.

We were all a family, but there would always be a difference between us even if at the end of the day, we were still all together in this, tasked with the same or similar responsibilities.

"Right." Paul scoffed, "Witches and their secrets."

The sliding door that acted as a front opened to reveal Emily. The woman had began working as teacher of arts and craft with a more indepth focus on Quileute history and tradition at the local elementary school just a few months prior, and that Saturday morning, as noting from the canvas bag with the logo of the Spirit of the Art—the local art supply store—she was ready to begin working on her next school project.

"Everything alright?" She asked as she noticed the tense atmosphere.

"Everything is good." Sam replied, walking towards her to shower his imprint with kisses.

"There are bags in the car with the food–" Before she could even finish talking, Jared cut her off.

"On it!" He kissed her cheek in greeting as he passed her on his way outside, Paul doing the same as he followed after his pack-brother.

"I stopped on my way here to Carmen's." She said as she took her coat off.

"Yes!" Seth excitedly announced with whoop. "You are the best."

When it was time for meals, we were like a perfect oiled machine. We were very efficient in the way we set the table without even needing to be asked.

After Paul and Jared brought the food inside, Maddison, Amelia and I helped them take it out from the bags and put it on the serving plates. The aroma of roasted chicken filled the kitchen, alongside the one of rosemary and salt and all the spices that coated the vegetables. Carmela's roasted chicken was the best of all the Rez. The rotisserie was owned by Carmela's family, and the woman cooked all the chicken they sold in their little stall down near First Beach.

"Where is Jacob?" Emily asked as he noticed the single person from the pack that missed.

"Who knows." Maddison shrugged, her tone tinged with bitterness. She washed her hands in the kitchen sink before whipping from the fridge the few sauces that she herself had homemade not long before and bringing them to the dining table.

Emily looked at the girl with sad eyes before turning to her boyfriend who shook his head almost as if resigned.

Even Leah, who had all the right to be filled with angst and anger because of her past with Sam and Emily, spent more time with us. It was this little moment of familiarity that created the strengths of the pack—that builded loyalty—Jacob seemed to be avoiding them as much as he could.

"He told me that he was coming." Seth cleared his throat with a frown as he lingered near the entrance of the open-space kitchen where we were.

"Then I'm sure he will." Emily told him gently, earning a much bigger smile from the boy.

Wolves are creatures of habit, and even supernatural ones apparently had the same characteristic. Assigned seats were a thing. We had to add an old table that Kim had at home to fit us all in. Sure, it wasn't the most comfortable but at least no one had to sit on anyone's lap anymore.

Layla, Maddison and Leah occupied the three stools at the kitchen counter, the rest of us dispersed around the joined tables in the respective seats that we came to know as ours in the last two weeks of spring break.

Forks and knives scraping against the plates and voices filled the air. We were a loud bunch of people, but we were a lot, so that would have been expected.

"Are you even able to graduate this year?" I heard Kim ask with a look of wonder towards Jared and Paul—between wolves duty and their own incapabilities to understand homeworks or doing them—the two were far from being the perfect students.

"Why won't we?" Affronted at the insinuation, Jared asked, "Our grades are perfectly fine, and we will graduate."

"You will be able to graduate just because Mrs. Ateara is the principal of the school and knows about the pack." Amelia said, easily taking the two guys down a peg.

"Your grades are not perfectly fine, I would most likely say they are perfectly failing." I added.

"You know nothing about our grades." Jared rebutted, waving his fork in my direction.

"I don't?" I raised an eyebrow before turning towards my boyfriend, who looked anywhere but me. "Right."

"Didn't we promise that we would have never, never, told them about it?" Jared turned towards his pack brother with a betrayed look over his features, "Where is the loyalty here?"

"Down the drain when the only thing he was going to write correctly on his chemistry exam was his name." I deadpanned, replying insted of Paul.

"Really? Chemistry?" Leah snorted. She usually stayed silent, not really joining the conversation much, so hearing her speak made few of us perk up, "And you helped him?"

"I was very convincing." Paul said.

"He brought me cannoli from that Italian shop in Port Angeles." I explained further.

"I totally get it." Layla eagerly nodded her head, "Those cannoli are the best."

Embry perked up at the sound of her voice and he looked like he was about to get in the car and drive 1 hour and 30 minutes just to buy the italian pastries for her. Noticing his friend's expression Quil snickered loudly, pointing at Embry as he snickered with Seth.

"Whipped." He grunted through a cough, not that it covered much since we all clearly heard him.

I wasn't proud to say that I snorted as ungracefully as Jared did exactly at the same time.

"Alright, alright, stop teasing him." Emily huffed a laugh.

"But why? It's too funny." Quil rebutted.

"Because I'm sure he is about to spontaneously combust." Maddison tried to hide her smile as she leaned forward to pat Embry on the shoulder, "You good?"

"Not you too, come on Maddi." Layla complained with a whisper to the girl that was still hearable to all.

Those two were adorable, honestly. They were so shy that they barely held hands without visibly making their cheeks warmer. Layla had covered her face after she had told us that they had kissed—which was a bit absurd since she did so right after Kim had completed with full and precise details her night with Jared—but we loved her exactly for that. Layla was the type of person that was hard to not care about, she was sweet yes, but that did nothing to hide her fierce personality or the unwavering loyalty that she had. Embry imprinting on Layla wasn't as absurd as other matches—mine included—they were very much similar in many ways, and they complimented each other beautifully with rather big hearts that made them love deeply. The ancestors knew what they were doing with them, and for that, I would be forever grateful. Having them in the family meant to have softer edges where many of us had more sharp personalities.

This was the beauty of the pack—of our family—each and everyone of us was so different, but when we were together, those differences became our strengths. 

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

This chapter was so funny to write and I had to split in two because I continued to add things. I love showing the dynamics between everyone, and I hope I'm doing a good job at portraying their personalities.

Secrets secrets secrets, what are the girls hiding?

Embry and Layla have my heart.

No dessert is as good as cannoli or cassata. We always eat them during festivities and I'm always so happy when that happens. Let me know if you have ever tried them!! (They are Italian desserts. I honestly don't know if cassata is known outside of Italy but let me know!)

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

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

 𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲 

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾