Fighting by Anaya Phoenix (black books to read txt) 📕

“I want you to mate Anna and I.” With an internal groan I slowly raised my head and watched his face. He was sincere, this wasn’t Anna talking through him. I narrowed my eyes on him.

“Why?” He kept his gaze on me, the alpha in him not letting him looking away.

“If… If we’re going to war, and there are going to be casualties… I just want to know I did something right by her.” It was the only time I had heard Jesse talk about something serious without anger being a major factor. I huffed and blew a curl of hair out of my face.

“Fine, gather everybody up. I only plan to be up for a couple of hours today, so I suggest you hurry up.” A big smile lit up his face and he ran out of the room, I groaned and rested my head on Ander’s shoulder.

“He wants you to mate them, isn’t that something he has to do on his own?” His eyes didn’t open and his body didn’t tense up. He was curious, but not that much to actually wake up. I shifted slightly so more of my body was on his and stuck my nose into the crook of his neck.

“For a true mating to be complete it has to be consummated and then the Alpha has to bind them together; that way it’s a mating bond in the eyes of the gods’ and, if the two wolves aren’t in the same pack, it links them together. Also, a neat new perk, it prevents rogues from having children because you can only procreate with your mate.” I knew that would open up a can of worms so I opened my eyes and looked at him then. His jaw was clenched and he looked down at me and I winced.

“Did I forget to tell you that?” He sat up then, lifting me by my arm before taking my hips and setting me on his thighs in front of him.

“Lay it all out, right now. What else have you hidden from me?”

“Describe hidden.” He started up and I put a finger on his lips.

“We haven’t told anybody, we haven’t had time to. It’s just been us, this whole thing started with Leo being born. Any shifter after then is ruled by the new rules that are set in place. It has nothing to do with me holding it back, we didn’t want to give anybody any information because then it was more that the humans had against us.” I pleaded for him to understand with my eyes, leaning closer to him. He stared at me for awhile, I felt him moving around in my head and I knew he was looking for a lie. It hurt me that I’d hurt him so much that he wouldn’t believe me. With the smallest of smiles I touched his cheek and rubbed soft and slow circles on his cheek.

“We’re a month away from the war and we’re so close to being mated… There’s no reason for me to lie. Do I want to protect you at any cost? Yes, more than anything. Would I lie if it meant that you wouldn’t feel pain? Of course, but not now. Not anymore.” He searched my eyes, the blue that was a calming balm to my wolf and my heart desperately looking for the truth.

“You actually mean it, this time, don’t you? No more lies?” I nodded and my heart broke at the way his voice cracked slightly. He took a deep breath before kissing me sweetly and slowly, tasting my mouth and inhaling me; I let him. For ten years I’d gone without it, being too hard and loving too soft. I wouldn’t hold anything back for however long I had with him, even if it meant at the end I would suffer. With the cutest of smirks he backed off and I rolled my eyes and the wave of confidence surged at me from him.

“Guess we have a mating ceremony to get together.”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

     It was a group effort, both family and friends that they’d made down here helped. We didn’t have an abundance of things to just randomly be able to throw a party, because that’s what this would turn out to be, so everything would be very much low budget. They did have a lot of fruit though, apples and pears because that’s what those two liked. I snagged an apple from one of many baskets that everybody seemed to be carrying around and bit inot it. I was angry at the gods, but I couldn’t be angry at the fresh supply of everything they gave us. My mother and Sarah were in the middle of everything, their battle faces on when all they were doing was organizing tables in the dining hall. They had managed to spiffy up quite a bit, if I was being very honest. There was lilac everywhere; makeshift vases, outlining an aisle I imagined Anna would walk down and hung up on the ceiling. I didn’t want to interrupt anything that might have been going on between the two and looked elsewhere. I saw Inna  walking around, she’d stop and just frown at things before looking at something else to be disappointed about. Knowing I would regret so many things about it, I walked to her and ate my apple until she noticed me.

“The best they could do was lilacs?”

“It’s the only thing that can actually grow down here. That and maybe a few cacti or a lily occasionally.”

“What about your mage? Couldn’t she have brought something up?” A serious frown was on my face as I stared at her until she scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“The fey. Don’t you have some here?”

“I knew what you meant, but you called them mages…. That’s weird. I don’t even think they use that word anymore and their older than actual creation. And we do have little fey here. The ones that are here are only half fey.” She cocked her head and sniffed the air.

“They seem more powerful than that.” That’s all she said on the matter and I shrugged, not willing to talk about that fact. Vixie was older for her age, magically, that much was true. She was way stronger than any child fae should be, especially since she was, technically, only a quarter fae. Her mother, the stronger of the two, was also strong for a half fae. We didn’t question it and nobody really wanted to, better to have the aid of somebody special than to know why they are the way they are.

“There are so many rules now, it’s strange.” She said softly, peering at me with those big blue dragon eyes that the ice dragons were known for. I shrugged and took a big bite of the apple, frowning when I saw I was close to the pit.

“Who will mate you?” I stopped chewing and looked at her, wanting so very badly to be defensive and walk off. Instead I shrugged and continued to eat my apple.

“I’ll worry about that when the time comes.”

“But the mating isn’t complete, you should be dying to get it done fully.”

“I am, deep inside. I won’t though, mainly because I couldn’t stand putting my mate through anything like losing me. That’s why there hasn’t been any matings, why we haven’t told them about it. War leads to widows and orphans, I couldn’t bear being either of those or being the reason those things exist. I know it’s selfish but, in the long run, it’s helping them.” Throwing the, now completely demolished, apple in the air and using magick to incinerate it I looked to her.

“You’ve had a hard go of it, haven’t you?” I shrugged again, not wanting to talk about the past knowing that it wouldn’t help in the future and would lead to too many emotions. Instead I watched as one of the teenagers struggled to move one of the heavier tables. It was made of solid oak so that was, very much, a fair struggle.

“Their lives were worse. I know that it won’t get better, I’m not expecting it to. We’ve got the whole shifter race down here, of that half of them are actually able to fight and a quarter of that is actually able to fight well. There are too many old, young, and pregnant shifters and those that can fight are in the prime of their lives. The humans, they’re not the smartest race but they are noble and they are many. I can’t protect all of them, hell I can barely get through them all with the help of the vampires and the Olden. To be, very, completely honest with you half the time I just think that we’re lining them up.” The teenager who was struggling suddenly had the help of my mother and, with the both of them, they moved it to where it was meant to go.

“We’re family, down here. Up there, they can barely stop fighting long enough to see that they’re killing the world around them. Pack mentality runs deep, but can it save us all? Definitely not. So, even though my go around was hard, it’s not nearly as hard as it’s going to get. The trainings will get brutal and it’l be narrowed down to who can actually fight and if the numbers dwindle down even more… I fear we might just be sitting ducks.” She was silent for a while, her eyes watching me and assessing me. I looked up and saw little sparks, it looked like fireflies but I knew it was just magick gathered up. She suddenly clapped my back, a motherly one and not the back breaking ones that Uncle Bercelack always seemed to give.

“Now is not the time for worries, young Luna. I think you’ve got a mating ritual to go through.”

     They’d whisked Anna away once Jesse had run back and told everybody what was going to happen. I was quickly getting tired, and this needed to be done and over with. Not that I wasn’t excited, I was glad the dumb ass was finally deciding to do something right but I was still exhausted. I walked to my room, knowing that all my siblings would fawn over her and help her there. Whether to spite me or because they had nowhere else to go. I cocked my hip on the threshold of my cave and watched as so many of my siblings and hers surrounding her, they blocked off her entire body. I cleared my throat softly, not needing to frighten any of them, wanting their attention. They quickly backed off of Anna and I gasped softly. She slowly turned around, her blue eyes daring me to say something about her dress. It was beautiful, and white. It looked to be made out of a soft material, probably silk, and covered her arms with long sleeves. It had a scooping neckline, but nothing so perilous as to make it trashy looking but just right enough so it wasn’t prudish. It fit her form just right, hugging her sides and outlining a figure most women would kill for. The end of the dress pooled around her feet in melted ivory with the tips of her toes peeking out. Her red hair, long and curly, hung loose around her collarbone; she’d been cutting it since we were here. She was beautiful.

“Well, go on then. Say something pissy so I can punch you in your snobby little nose.” She growled softly and I narrowed my eyes, lunging forward and mentally erasing my comment. Alissa held me back by my shoulders and Cara wrapped an arm around Anna’s waist.

“Ungrateful little cunt!”

“Flabby cow!” We stood still and looked at each other, slightly smirking. My smirk turned into a full smile and I sighed.

“You look beautiful, even though you’re still a cunt.” She nodded before a tear hit her eye. Concern