Chapter 51 - The death spell - Part 1

EVERYTHING WENT SMOOTHLY over the next year. Lena and Ben settled into pack life and Ben was flourishing under the guidance of Alaric. Rebecca was also flourishing under the teachings of Lena as she slowly developed her power. She had been granted the element of the wind which Lena found quite fitting under the circumstances, but Rebecca thought it was a useless power.

She had wanted something spectacular like fire or earth. When Ben’s birthday came around, however, things between Alaric and Lena felt strained. It was a reminder of the time she kept Ben away from his family that cropped up old feelings of resentment. Alaric also wanted to show Ben what a real birthday party looked like, while Lena felt it was far too much.

She wanted to give him a gift early in the morning and maybe a special meal that night, but Alaric had been hearing none of that. He wanted balloons, streamers and the whole nine yards with the entire pack taking part. Ben was the future alpha of the pack after all. He needed to be celebrated, according to Alaric. It landed them in a terrible screaming match and, for the first time since her return, she slept in another room.

In the end, Lena was the one who relented when she saw how excited Ben was about the party. He would have his first ever birthday cake and he had made some friends with some of the other pack children. Those children had told him about their parties, which made Lena feel awful for trying to keep him away from it all. When Ben’s birthday finally arrived, Lena had to admit that Alaric’s idea was good.

Ben was having the time of his life blowing out his birthday candles and receiving gifts. Lena was once again reminded of how much her son missed out on while they lived on their own. He had received new toys for the first time in his life. The toys he had before were what she could find in the old coven houses. She couldn’t afford to go into town and risk being seen by one of the wolf pack.

She also didn’t have money. There would never have been any chance of her giving Ben this kind of life while they lived in the forest. As she watched him playing with his friends, she wondered what would have happened if Alaric had never seen them that day. It was clear that Ben would have left the coven grounds at some point. He would have seen that there was an entire world out there.

She couldn’t imagine him hanging around there with only his mother to keep him company. His wolf genes would never have allowed it. Which made her think of the moon goddess. She would never have allowed Ben to stay at the coven grounds without his destined mate. No, it was a good thing that Alaric found them and brought them back home.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Alaric’s warm breath blew down the side of her shoulder before his lips touched her shoulder and his arms slipped around her waist.

“Oh, I’m afraid they are way too sad for such a beautiful occasion.” She tried to smile, but found it impossible as she sighed deeply and he pulled her closer. After all their fighting over the party, she was glad that they had made up before Ben’s birthday. She couldn’t imagine her darling son enjoying his day while his parents fought. She loved her son dearly and she really just wanted what was best for him.

Ben went to bed that night sounding happier than he had ever been and only after he had shown his mother every single gift he had received. She couldn’t believe how incredibly generous everyone had been, but then again, this was a wolf pack. They were all family first. They cared about each other the same way her old coven used to care about each other.

Lena still thought about them and missed them terribly from time to time, but being Luna was a lot more than she expected it to be. Now that she was finally back with the pack, Rebecca could hand over all the responsibilities to Lena, which meant her life completely changed from the carefree life she had while she was away.

All she had to think about back then was to make sure they were hidden and that they had food and shelter. Being the Luna meant she was the mother to all of the pack, and boy did some of them need mothering sometimes! For a while there had been no rogue attacks and, unfortunately, Alaric’s plan with the captured rogue didn’t work.

He refused to eat and within days died of hunger. Lena hated the idea that someone had died of hunger under her watch, but she saw the rogue herself. The poor thing was completely feral. Alaric wanted to put him out of his misery, but Lena just couldn’t allow it. She thought she could try one last spell, but in the morning when she got to the cell, he was gone. His naked human body showed no signs of the feral wolf that was there just the night before. Lena was grateful when Alaric agreed to give the rogue a proper funeral and it was all done within a day of his death.

Since then, there hadn’t been any signs of any rogues and their lives took a turn for the better. Lena knew all too well that Alaric didn’t leave things there as he told her he had, but since she hadn’t heard of any of their pack being injured, she didn’t push the subject. They were finally living in peace and she didn’t want to do anything that could jinx it.

Unfortunately, fate had other plans for Lena and the wolf pack. Word of her son’s birth had reached the blood witches from Alaric’s mother’s coven. They were furious at his mother for mating with a wolf and they were the ones who paid Lena’s father to kill her. Lena’s father was ordered to kill the entire alpha family, but when he saw the little girl sleeping in her room, he just couldn’t do it.

Her parents were already dead, and Lena’s father was on his way out of the house when he ran into Alaric. He knocked the boy out with a spell and left as fast as he could. Giving the witches notice that the entire alpha family were dead as soon as he returned to his coven. He hoped they would only find out about the young male and his sister when it was too late.

He never imagined the young wolf would find him first, but neither Lena nor Alaric knew about any of this. The first sign of trouble came the day that the rogues attacked their northern and western borders. They came through so fast and there were so many of them that the border patrol was overrun in a matter of seconds.

The border alarms in the pack house went off and Alaric sent Lena to look after Rebecca and Ben, but both women believed they could help. Lena put a protection spell around the entire pack house so that no wolf could come in unless they were part of the pack, while Rebecca prepared wolfsbane bombs. They met up near the front doors just in time to see two rogues making their way over.

Lena could see Alaric running closer in the distance, but even with his superior strength he wasn’t going to make it in time. Lena prepared herself to do the death spell and breathed in deeply as she told Rebecca to stand ready with one of her bombs.

The rogue lunged and Lena drew the spell in her mind, waving her arms through the air once as a purple bolt shot out from between her hands. It hit the rogue in the front and he fell to the ground in a cloud of dust. Rebecca threw her bomb at just the right time, hitting the second wolf as he howled out in pain, but he kept coming. It took so much energy to do the death spell that Lena prayed this would be the last one she had to do today.

She waved her hands through the air, gathering the spell in her mind before shooting the second rogue with the bolt of purple light. He tumbled to the ground in another cloud of dust and Lena stayed awake just long enough to see Alaric coming.

Alaric reached her just in time to catch her head so it didn’t hit the ground. His eyes snapped between his unconscious mate and his sister, who was looking at him with tear-stained eyes. Lena had taught Rebecca that there was this kind of magic, but she also taught her never to use it unless it was absolutely necessary, since it took so much out of a witch and if you weren’t ready, it could kill you.

They carried Lena to the bedroom and Max rushed in to tell Alaric they had either killed or captured the rogues. Their pack was safe yet again and there weren’t that many injuries on their side. Alaric wiped a stray hair from Lena’s face.

“Please come back to me baby.” He twitched his ears and breathed a sigh of relief when he heard her heart slowly beating.