Chapter Seven - Little Rose

Freya Rose

We'd made our way back to the cabin, and I for one was exhausted. All I wanted to do was get in, grab some dinner, then head to bed, but as we got out of the car, we heard the screams. I slammed the car door and edged toward the cabin. Traian glanced over at me, and when we heard a crash of what sounded like furniture, we sprinted up the drive. After Traian flung open the door, he ducked and I instinctively followed suit. Above our heads flew the back half of an arm chair.
My eyes observed its path through the air, then fell upon Marik poised in a karate stance. He jumped into the air, then spun around and high kicked the back of the chair, sending it hurtling towards the trees. When he landed back on the ground, he let out an exaggerated groan that would rival Jean-Claude Van Damme himself. I laughed my ass off at him while the teens shook their heads. The slight smiles on their faces vanished when the Lycan roared from inside the cabin. I sighed and rolled my eyes, knowing that Selene had gotten loose. I was furious, and wondered who had been stupid enough to let her out. Traian held the door open for me, and let me enter first. The scene that greeted me was ridiculous. Selene was shackled. She had one cuff around her neck, each wrist and each ankle. Attached to the cuffs were a six to seven-foot steel chains, and holding on to those chains were five of my hybrids.
Regardless of how weak we thought Selene was, she still had enough strength to launch my hybrids through the air like rag dolls. Seeing an enormous Odin being lifted off the ground by his neck and catapulted into the bannisters was impressive. Marik and Traian joined me in the doorway, and the three of us just watched as my hybrids got tossed around like leaves in the wind. I mind linked Savanah and let her know to keep the teens outside, they didn’t need to see Selene getting the better of my pack. I, on the other hand, wanted to see how sloppy my so-called army was. Don’t get me wrong, usually Selene would have been able to beat them off easily, but in her weakened state, I thought my pack would be doing a little better than they were.
“This is a huge problem,” I said aloud as Marik, Traian and I saw Cody flying into the wall, and Jax following behind him.
When Jax smashed into the wall then landed on top of Cody, we all let out an ‘Ooofff’ sound and averted our eyes.
“You can say that again. It’s going to take ages to clean up this mess,” Marik answered while casually walking over to the refrigerator.
I turned to Traian, hoping to get a better response out of him, thankfully he knew what I meant.
“They need a lot of training.”
“Agreed. We will never stand a chance against your father with them fighting like that.”
“Fighting like what? I think they’re doing okay. Well, for Mutts.”
As soon as those words left his lips my eyes began to illuminate. Train screwed his face up and ran his hand down it, knowing instantly that his brother had fucked up. I spun around and slid my fingers around the necks of two of the beer bottles he was carrying. He glanced down and when his eyes finally came back up and met mine, he panicked. Before he had a chance to move, a smirk grew across my face and my knee sank itself deep into his groin. The feeling of his delicate and squishy junk colliding with my solid knee felt incredible, and as his own knees buckled, I plucked the beers out of his hand, and walked away to the sound of him hitting the floor.
I made my way over to the couch and fell backwards onto its plump and inviting cushions. I took a sip of my beer and held the other bottle out for Traian. He took the bottle and sat down next to me, crossing one leg over his knee and stretching his arm around the back of the sofa. We sat there watching the scene unfold before us, like we were watching a boxing match. We were comparing notes in our mind link, working out where the hybrids needed help. Marik finally joined us on the couch and interrupted our silent chat.
“What was the kick in the nuts for?”
“Mutts!” was Traian's simple reply.
“Oh man, really? Christ, I didn’t mean anything by it,” he leaned over and squeezed my knee. “I swear, Freya, honest.”
I swapped my beer into my other hand and held his, then replied,
“Just don’t say it again.” I tapped the top of his hand then swapped my beer back over, before pointing and saying, “now watch. We need to work out how to train these hybrids.”
He sat back and we spent the next half an hour or so trading ideas and watching the pack get their asses kicked. I felt a little bad, especially when they begged me to help, but they needed to learn. This would show them that they needed to take their training seriously, and they needed to start listening to orders. When Selene had exhausted all of the hybrids, she turned her attention to me. She was livid, and screaming about being chained up like some animal. When she began charging toward me, I stood up and threw my empty bottle right at her head. She wasn’t quick enough to avoid it and it cracked her in the head making her stop in her tracks. When she finally looked up at me, I had ignited my hands, and when she saw the white, electrical flames, bellowing from my hands, she coward down and covered her eyes.
“Marik, Tray. Can you take your mother back downstairs and make sure she’s secure please?”
“Of course, Luna,” they replied in unison.
They took the chains from the pack members and began to drag their mother along the floor. The glare that I got from her was one of pure disdain and hatred. I needed to extract her powers, and quickly. Once Selene was out of the room, I told Savanah to bring the teens back into the cabin. I instructed Draco and Lorena to head to their room while we discussed adult business. I got an eye roll from Draco, but they obeyed my order. Savanah sat on the couch next to me and waited for me to speak.
“She’s becoming more hostile. We need to take her powers and the sooner the better. Do you have a plan?”
“Well, the only way to strip her completely, is by taking away the last bit of residual power she has coming from Gideon. That’s the last bit of power she has left. Keeping him here, away from his coven, has weekend her a lot, but he is still powering her slightly.”
“Okay, do we need to speak to Draco, and see if he is ready for this. If he wavers in any way, I’ll head out there myself and deal with Gideon.”
“You can’t do that little Rose,” Traian interrupted from the basement doorway.
“And why not?”
He walked through the cabin and sat on the couch opposite.
“Because you’re a Phoenix. We have him secure, but you being anywhere near him is dangerous. He can still extract your flame,” Marik added as he strolled into the room.
“I wouldn’t give him the chance to,” I snapped back.
“Freya, they’re right. We can’t risk him getting your flame, with that kind of power, he would be impossible to stop. We barely captured him last time, and without Selene’s help…”
“Okay, I get it. I’ll sit this one out. But you need to promise me, if that boy doesn’t follow through, then you two need to rip Gideon apart.”
They both nodded, while I sighed. I hated the idea of control being taken from me. I wanted to see Gideon dead, and if it could be at my hand, even better. The thought of something going wrong and me not being able to fix it, annoyed the hell out of me. I had to hand over control to Marik and Traian, and even though I trusted them, I still couldn’t shake the fact that they might choose to help their mother. Without our mating bond, how much could I actually trust them? I guess I’d just have to wait and see.



I decided to let the twins sleep in my room again, they seemed to want to spend every minute of every day with me. I thought that I would have found it suffocating, but surprisingly I found it comforting. They didn’t push their luck and just held me all night, which was exactly what I needed. If they had tried anything, I think I would have launched them out of the window. I slept soundly, and when I woke the twins were gone. I stretched and yawned before getting out of bed and headed for the bathroom. I went to the toilet and had a shower. I tried to call Traian through the mind link, but he wasn’t answering me.
After getting dressed and putting my hair up in a wet messy bun, I used my new vampire eyes to scan the floor. I didn’t see any of the packs heat sources, and I couldn’t hear their heartbeats either. In fact, the cabin was completely silent. I called out to Savanah through the mind link, but she ignored me too. I tried to contact a few others in the pack, and nothing. I made my way down the stairs and into the living room. Sniffing the air, I couldn’t smell Selene either.
“Gideon!”
I sprinted out of the cabin and hurried towards the scent of Gideon. As I ran into the woods and closer to where he was being held, the scents of the pack joined his unique aroma. I was livid, I couldn’t believe they were doing it without me. I knew I couldn’t be present, but I don’t expect them to go behind my back and perform it all without my knowledge. As the brick-built building came in to view, I could hear screams and howls. I screeched into the air and ascended as I ran. The steel door opened up and out rushed Traian with his hands held out in front of him.
“Stop, Freya. You can’t go in there.”
“Like fuck, I can’t. My pack is in there.”
I didn’t bother to slow down, and when I reached him, he grabbed a hold of me and spun me around, pinning my arms to my chest. He stood behind me and spoke calmly into my ear.
“Please, little Rose, trust us.” I knew his powers of persuasion wouldn’t work on me, but the velvet tone of his voice did calm me slightly. “We love you, and have your back. I can promise you that.”
I let out a huge breath of air and began to calm down. As my breathing eased, he loosened his grip on my arms. The second he let go of my arms, I spun around and shoved his head into the steel door. He cried out and as he reached for me, I yanked the door open and cracked him in the face with it. He collapsed to the floor holding his bleeding face.
“I’m sorry Tray,” I whispered as I entered the building and slammed the door behind me.
The sound of bodies hitting walls filled my ears, followed quickly by the potent smell of blood and burnt flesh. I took in a deep breath and stormed toward the commotion. I could hear Selene’s Lycan growling, and members of my pack snarling and snapping at something. When I turned the corner, I was shocked at what I saw. Gideon was in the middle of a giant room with long chains attaching him to each corner of the room. Selene’s Lycan was in a large cage in one of the corners, and my pack was standing behind Draco.
Lorena was somehow surrounded by flames. She was unconscious by the looks of it and levitating in the air above Gideon and Draco. She didn’t look hurt or burned, it was just like she was asleep. I searched around the room for Marik and I spotted him knocked out on the floor by Selene's cage. I didn’t know who to save first, or where to start. I couldn’t believe how wrong things had gone. I was expecting Gideon to be weak by now, but he was as strong as ever. I searched the room for Savanah, and when my eyes fell upon her, I gasped. She was in wolf form and burned badly. I wasn’t sure if she was dead or not. I got down onto my hands and knees and crawled over to her. When I reached her, I stroked the soft white fur on her face.
“Savanah?”
Her voice entered my mind in seconds.
“Freya! I’m so sorry we did this without you. We shouldn’t have brought Selene with us. She held much more power than we realized. When Gideon saw her, he started chanting and sucked all the power out of her. She shifted and the twins had to fight her, leaving Gideon time to attack us.”
“It’s okay, Savanah, just rest. I’ll sort this out.”
“Please be careful Luna, he is stronger and more cunning than he looks.”
I nodded my head at her and stroked her face one last time. I then spun around and screeched as I ignited my brilliant white flames. Gideon gasped and honed in on my immense flame power. I knew it would be too much for the son of a bitch to resist. With his attention on me, Draco seized the opportunity to jump up and pluck Lorena out of the air. As soon as his arms wrapped around her the flames extinguished and she collapsed over his shoulder. Gideon was trying his best to get to me, roaring and groaning as he tried to pull his arms to the front of him.
I heard Traian running down the corridor and mind linked him,
“Tray, please can you take Savanah to safety?”
I could tell by his silence that he wasn’t happy, but he did as I asked and rushed past me to scoop up Savanah. Marik was stirring too so I shouted over at him.
“Marik! I need you to get the teens out of here.”
He groaned slightly, but pulled himself up and rushed to the teens side. Draco handed over Lorena, but yanked his arm out of Marik’s grip.
“No! I need to finish this,” Draco yelled out.
Marik glanced at me, and I nodded letting him know it was okay. He bowed his head and sprinted out of the room with Lorena on his shoulder.
“Keep his attention!” Draco whispered, just loud enough for me to hear over the snarls, growls and howls.
Gideon finally managed to get his hands into a position that allowed him to start taking my flame. I could hear his chanting and it was soon followed by Draco's chanting. The feeling of my flames being sucked out of me was burning, and soon enough the pain was excruciating. I dropped to my knees and held the side of my head as I screeched into the air. I put all my trust in this young boy, and I just hoped to God that he killed his father before he killed me.
I couldn’t focus on anything anymore, and I couldn’t keep my eyes open. The world became muffled, a mix of different noises and chants all melded together. I was sure I heard Gideon scream out, then the pulling feeling and the pain subsided for a few seconds, only to be replaced by a more intense pain. It felt like my insides were being split apart at the seams and that my organs were liquefying. I screamed for help, and as soon as the pleading words left my lips, I heard Marik shout,
“Oh no you don’t little dragon. She’s off-limits!”
I heard a thud, and I wasn’t sure if it was me that had hit the floor or Draco. All I did know, was that I couldn’t feel the pain anymore. I sighed heavily then let the cold darkness take me.



Samael Wulf

It took every bit of strength I had to keep my ass glued to that couch. When Selene said she wanted Freya's head on a spike, I wanted to drain every single drop of blood out of her. I couldn’t believe she was putting me in that position, choose between my family, my brood, and Freya. I didn’t want to hurt Freya, but what choice did I have?
“You look like you need some persuading, Sam,” Selene said as she pouring out three glasses of whiskey. “You can come in now,” she shouted out.
My head shot towards the office door, and I couldn’t believe I hadn’t smelled her enter the house. Her scent was different somehow, sweeter, softer. It can’t be her, surely? The door handle turned and my heart began to pound with anticipation. I could feel the blood drain from my face when she stepped into the room. If her scent was more floral, I could have sworn it was Freya. She wore a soft pink dress, and her hair was down and in beautiful curls. Her makeup was subtle and she wore a delicate smile on her face.
“Hello, Sam,” her voice was unnaturally sweet and kind.
“Kali?”