𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔

𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘥 𝘰𝘯𝘦? 

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃▃

╰┈˚ · ° .  AFTER THE EVENTFUL BREAKFAST, we had decided to split up into two groups. The pack and The coven.

For the rest of the morning till the afternoon, as the shifters practiced in the forest, the rest of us girls stayed in the backyard of my house.

We had brought down from my room the grimoire and the chest, letting Kim flip through the pages of the magic book and the various journals. After that, we started her elemental training, and yes, it turned out that whatever she would trigger her element, the most common thing that her magic would create were earthquakes.

After deciding to take a break after hours, we decided to get inside. We sat down, Mia on the armchair, Maddison on the couch, and Kim and I, on the floor. Apparently someone else, like me, could acknowledge where the best seat was. We again started to go through the grimoire and journals. Kim was very curious, she was devouring every bit of information that she came across with.

We all heard the back door opening, Sam and Jared coming through it. But with them, there was no sight of Paul.

I glanced at them before returning to the list of herbal properties that I was trying to study. "Where is the third one?" I asked, trying to seem unbothered. I was unbothered. Maybe.

"He is outside. He needs a couple of minutes for himself." Sam replied sitting on the couch with a sigh.

"How did it go?" Maddison asked, taking her eyes off from her school homework that she had in her lap.

"He is not someone that it's easy to teach things to. And he had anger issues before and those are not helping in the slightest now that he feels anger much easier and harder."

"We need to do the rituals." Mia said with her ice cold tone, "Do you think he is going to be okay with that?"

"I don't know. We talked about it before but he didn't seem much abroad with it."

"Yeah well, we need to do them." Amelia replied to the alpha. She definitely wasn't bothered in the slighted by the emotional mess that was Paul Lahote.

Jared, from where he was on the floor, twirling a strand of his imprints' hair between his fingers, looked at me. "You should talk with him." he said. From the corner of my eyes I saw my brother stiffened at that.

"Why?" I asked confused before adding sarcastically. "So we can kill each other?" Maybe not that much sarcasm in that statement.

"Just try Trixy." Amelia huffed an annoyed breath. "At least tell him that you don't want him to do it so he will, just to spite you."

"It could work." Kim added with a shrug of her shoulders offering me a tight lipped smile.

"Why don't one of you do it?" I asked, suppressing a snarl.

"Because I have to talk with Kim." Jared said, standing up and offering a hand to the earth witch.

"Now?" Mia asked with raised eyebrows not masking at all her surprise.

Shooting her a glare, Jared replied with an harsher tone. "Yes, now."

"Is there something wrong?" Kim asked softly to the boy as he took his hand and stood up.

Letting out an anxiety filled laugh, Jared replied "Hopefully not." And with that, both of them disappeared from the front door.

When I felt the three sets pair of eyes set on me, I knew that they had already made the decision that it I had to be the one to talk with Paul "Oh, fuck you all." I grumbled. But still I stood up ready to talk with the new shifter.

══════ 🜂🜁🜃🜄 ══════

𝐏𝐚𝐮𝐥'𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐯

╰┈˚ · ° .  Imprint. I had fucking imprinted on her. And I was angry, so fucking angry about it. Even more than her brother probably, who threatened to actually kill me just a couple of hours ago. Inspiring alpha speech my ass.

I was still trembling, always almost to the verge of shifting. And it was because of her. Because she was everywhere. In my mind, with my soul fucking yearning for her, I could even smell her scent from the middle of the woods.

The door behind me swung open, and I knew it was her. I didn't need to recognize her scent getting closer, or the way her heartbeat felt different from any other one. Or how my wolf calmed down immediately as she sat down on the steps of the porch on my right.

Too close and too far away.

"What do you want?" I said, grumbling, almost swearing out loud. Because she was fucking everywhere.

"We need to complete the rituals. It's not just you, but it's for all of us." Beatrice said, I'm pretty sure she was biting back the asshole that I knew she wanted to add at the end. My lips twisted slightly upwards at the thought before they fell back away to my scowl. "Jesus, aren't you such a ray of sunshine." She mumbled sarcastically. She pinched the bridge of her nose, probably trying to find the small patience that she had left.

That was a new sight. Her loosing that fucking perfect control that she always had. It was one of the things that I had noticed about her first, she had always been a blank canva. Not rage, sadness or happiness to see on her features. She was a mystery and she was the opposite of me. Because I could see her anger in her eyes, mirroring my own, but it was never outright shown. And it always made me much more angry.

Her hand sharply grabbed my forearm, almost slapping me. I didn't even realize how I had started to shake even more, but it stopped. Completely. Just as her hand touched me.

"Stop that." Beatrice said through clenched teeth "I don't want to touch you but you are not phasing on the porch of my house."

"Why the fuck are you touching me for?" I asked, matching her tone.

"Witches have a calming effect on shifters." She explained with an exasperated huff.

The thing was that I knew it wasn't because of that. Maybe in part, but it was because I had fucking imprinted on her.

"Are you calm enough so I can remove my arm?" in a slightly softer tone than her previous one, she asked.

I nodded my head wordlessly, but apparently my wolf had other ideas. I started to shake again, only calming when her hand was once again on my skin. She let out a string of curses, her eyes the color of cocoa glared at me.

"Maybe apparently not." I mumbled with a groan.

"Apparently?" She asked. I could see how she was trying to cover her amusement up, but it was in vain, because I knew her face, her expressions,. her eyes, and they had lighted up in a way that they had never done when she had talked with me before.

My scowl softened at that, and I let out a sigh turning around to look away from her, because I knew that I would just stare otherwise. Something that I find myself doing more times that I cared to admit. And the worst thing... it had happened before I had imprinted.

Because she had been like a drug, like a siren calling me in with her enchanted song. And I hated it before as much as I hated it now.

"Tell me more about these rituals." I said, my tone not much higher than a whisper.

I could feel her eyes scanning my face, like the lick of a flame. "The first is the mental stage. I guess Sam showed you the pack mental link?" I nodded, making her continue. "It's something similar but it connects the witches and the shifters to help communicate better when you are in your wolf form. And it's like an on/off switch though, so you can turn it off. It's more for speaking, we will not hear your thoughts. Only what you want to say."

As she explained, lost in her thoughts, her fingers started to trace patterns on the bare skin of my forearm. I know that she wasn't even aware that she was doing it, because I knew she would've rather cut her fingers off rather than doing that. But I never said that I wasn't selfish, I needed that touch more than I needed to breathe at that moment. So I stayed silent, continuing to listen to her.

"Second is the soul. You'll get a tattoo like the one Jared and Sam have on their right shoulder. That is the symbol of the pack. It's made with spelled ink, not a tattoo machine. Anyway after that, each witch will leave their magic essence. It's like a small trace of our magic. Then there is the heart ritual, the last one. You will have to give Kim— since she is the one that unlocked her power while you shifted— a necklace." Her other hand reached for the one that was around her neck. A simple triangle made with metal rods and a small red stone. I noticed that Amelia had a similar one, only hers had another rod passing through the upper part of the triangle and yellow colored crystal. "Each of us has one with the symbol of our element."

I turned towards her, my eyes taking in as much as they could with just the smallest fraction of a second. "Fire." I hummed. "Guess I wasn't so far off with calling you arsonist, wasn't I, Little Arsonist?"

Her eyes sparkled with anger, like a match catching fire. "You really couldn't go a minute without trying to fight with me, did you?"

She stood up, her hand leaving my arm cold without her touch. But still, I kept on my smirk. "I think you should get angry more often, you know?"

"What- Why?" She asked before deciding that she didn't need an answer to that. "I'm calling the others so we can start with the rituals, whether you like it or not." She stormed away leaving me behind with a stupid smile on my lips. A genuine one for once.

Fortunately, she didn't want an answer to what I had said, because for sure, she would've beaten the shit out of me at it. And I would've let her do it just to see the flames of anger rising in her brown eyes. Because she was so fucking hot when she was angry and I had just found my new favorite thing about her.

══════ 🜂🜁🜃🜄 ══════

╰┈˚ · ° .  Gathered up in the backyards, us wolves had phased into our wolves, while the three witches all sat on the floor. Maddison Swan looking at us further away with a small smile. I didn't really understand what was actually supposed to happen.

"Do I have to do something or what?" I asked through the mental link of the pack to the other two wolves.

"Just wait and you'll see." Came Sam's response.

Then, the time that I took to blink, I was in a dark room. Fire licked the floor surrounding me, wind ruffling my fur. I could see tornadoes traveling all around and ivy crawling all over the wall up to the ceiling creating a carpet of grass and flowers.

I noticed that the other two wolves and three witches were already there.

"This is the physical representation of the mental link between the coven and the pack." Amelia started, she was focused on the new witch, who mesmerized, looked at the room around her. "The more you'll use it, the easier it will be for you to find it." As if reluctant to say, Amelia added. "Both of you."

And just like that, we were back to the real world.

"You can shift back, we'll prepare the ingredients for the second ritual." Out loud, this time the air witch spoke, as the girls stood up and went back inside.

Following after Sam and Jared after we had shifted back to humans, we entered the kitchen and to the living room.

Kim sat on the floor with Beatrice, the fire witch telling the new one the steps for how to proceed.

"You, sit there." Amelia said, making me snap my head from looking at the Uley girl.

"Are you always such a bitch?" I asked as I still did what she had told me to do.

"Yes." that came from almost every other person in the room

"Yes." Amelia Black said after rolling her eyes at the others. "But I'm giving you the special treatment." I followed her gaze until it stopped where Beatrice was.

"We are ready." I was saved from replying when both Beatrice and Kim came towards me.

"I- I think it should be you to do this." Kimberly said, looking sheepishly at Beatrice. "It just does not feels-"

"Right?" Amelia finished for her, clicking her tongue to the roof of her mouth.

"Not you too." The Uley girl groaned. "I don't wanna touch him."

"You didn't seem to have a problem with that before." I commented with a chuckle before I could think twice about it.

Everyone's eyes lasered on us. "I touched your arm, don't make it sound like something else, dickhead. And it was only because you were about to phase on the porch." She snapped. "Fine, let's just do it."

"Do I have to do something or..."

"Don't talk. That is what you have to do." A bowl of herbs mixed with ink was in one of her hands, the other held a smoothed out needle.

She didn't wait for any answer from me before she started dipping the needle into the mixture before tapping it on my right shoulder. Her eyes soon unfocused, almost as she was not there with us anymore. She stepped closer until I could feel her breath on my skin as she continued the tribal pattern without breaking her focus.

And I couldn't help but turn my head, examining every inch of her face like she was a masterpiece of art.

I didn't look away. I couldn't.

Seconds, minutes, hours, I don't know how much time passed before she sucked in a small break and her eyelids fluttered a couple of times breaking her off the magic-induced-trance.

Her eyes found fine, her heartbeat racing in her ribcage.

"Now the essence." She whispered, taking a step back until we were further apart.

Not enough apart. Too much apart.

A flame small that couldn't have been bigger than three inches. I felt it pulse until it connected with the ink stain on my arm, immediately making it become a permanent tattoo. Then came Amelia, doing the same thing with her magic only with a small tornado. When it was Kim's turn, it took her a couple of tries before an unbloomed tulip came from her chest. The earth witch repeated the process with the rest of the pack, and lastly it was time for the heart ritual.

Extending me a box with still two necklaces, it was instinctive to go for the inverted triangle divided at the bottom with another rod. I latched it around her neck, and with that, I was definitively part of The Uley Pack.

✎

˗ˏˋ 𝐀𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫'𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞 ˊˎ˗

Hello everyone!

What the fuck did I just write? I don't know but I love it, lmao.

Yes my friends, Paul actually liked Beatrice even before he imprinted on her. You'll know more in the future chapters why he somewhat bullied her.

I really hope you are enjoying this story so far.

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

˚ · ° . 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐞 . ° · ˚

𝐓𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲

𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐟𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞!

– 𝐋𝐨𝐥𝐚 ☾