Sister Dearest

Dragana POV



The smell of him, the smell of his breath and gentleness of the kiss he gave me this morning before we left tugged at me, hypnotized me, in fact, wanting me to turn my horse around and run to the pack house back into his arms. I’d do anything, anything to have him, to be his, even for a day. My mind was screaming for him, my body aching. The only thing which held me here was the fact that I knew he had a mate. And I could not ruin this for him. I could not deny him what every werewolf wants and deserves; a fated mate, true happiness, true love and family. It was breaking my heart, it felt as if somebody was shredding my insides and I was burning up, every step away from the packhouse, away from him. We were still in the pack lands, and as we were coming closer to the border I dreaded that moment when we crossed the border, I knew it would hurt even more. And after waking up in his arms this morning, I now knew what I wanted to deny. I was in love with Roman. Perhaps I always have been.



“You are doing the right thing”, Lady Jasmine said, watching me closely. “You need to remember who you are”, she said, startling me with those words. “What do you mean? Remember what?”. Beta Artemis was further down in our riding line talking animatedly to a Lycan commander of Lady Jasmine’s guard. Twelve warriors, one scarier than the other, included several she-Lycans, one more beautiful than the other. Somehow, I thought that Lady Jasmine really did not need guards and that this was more for me. Each of them was watching me very closely and ever since we left the packhouse I was always in the middle of two Lycan riders. “We will be meeting with Samuel, he is the head of a Slavic coven”, she said, not answering. “He is very powerful and, in fact, a distant relation to you”, she said. I knew that the coven was very close and almost everyone in it related in one way or another. Some had mated witches from other covens, but the coven was essentially one big family. One that did not like mixing blood with other creatures and one my mother left for that reason. ”Samuel is not like that”, Jasmine retorted, as if she could see my thoughts. “In fact, you will be pleasantly surprised. Samuel’s mate is a werewolf”, she said, smiling at me. This took a huge weight off my shoulders - this was very welcome news indeed. I relaxed, smiled back at her and tried to focus on the beautiful scenery around us, taking it all in, flowers and large trees, the simple beauty of it all. Perhaps this was the right thing after all I thought, even though my heart was thinking of Roman. I needed to discover my powers, I needed to understand who I am, I thought daydreaming.



Out of nowhere, I heard a loud bang and something grazed my leg. My horse collapsed under me and I was falling fast, head first. A strong arm of Lady Jasmine pulled me up as if I were nothing and placed me on the seat in front of her, riding at the speed of light, her guard and Beta Artemis closely behind us. I turned to see the lifeless horse on the ground, my heart in my throat. My leg was grazed and bleeding, but I had no time to pay attention to that. We were chased - somebody else was behind us and they were catching up fast. “Dragana, I need you to listen to me very carefully now!” she was saying, breathing down my neck, all playfulness gone from her voice. “You MUST trust me. You MUST do everything I tell you. Do you understand??!!”.. I simply nodded, trying not to shake or fall off the horse. “Remember, anything I say! Promise me Dragana, swear it to me!”, she was now yelling, panic setting in.

I heard a commotion behind us, the battle was happening, but I could not see anything. “I promise, I swear it, Jasmine”, I said, still shaking with fear. “We are going to dismount, I will shift and we will be faster that way”, she explained. In one swift movement she jumped off the horse and carried me with her. The moment her feet touched the ground, she started running and shifting. Her Lycan Calypso was majestic. If this was a different time, I would have loved to observe her majesty. Standing close to 8ft her fur was a beautiful shade of gray, cascading and glittering as if covered in diamonds. Her eyes were now deep purple, almost black. She picked me up and placed me on her shoulders and ran. I could see that, at this point, the guard and Beta had shifted and were following close behind us, although I could tell that Beta was struggling to keep up pace with them fully. We still did not see who was chasing us, but based on their speed they too had to be Lycans. I was not sure if she had a plan of some kind and where we were running – if we were going somewhere randomly or if there was a method to the madness. She turned into woods that led to the river on the border. I was holding onto her for dear life and luckily she did not run too close to the trees, otherwise I would have hit one several times by now. Coming to a clearing, she turned running towards the river when we hit something, a barrier of sorts, but an invisible one. The force of the impact knocked me down, but she managed to catch me in her arms.

“Sister dearest!!!”, I heard a booming male voice.