Chapter 55 - Compromise ...

Lena found herself laughing out loud as she scanned through some of the so-called spells she found. With the right herbs they might even work, but she doubted it very much. Unfortunately, most of the human world seemed to think those silly spells were real and would bring them what they wanted.

The only good thing about those kinds of spells was that there wouldn’t be a price demanded for them. The poor humans would be safe from any repercussions, especially since most of them probably didn’t know how to protect themselves from the bad things that came with doing magic. But what surprised Lena was that she also found a couple of very real and very dangerous spells on the internet, which made her wonder if some witch hadn’t perhaps sold their secrets.

They didn’t have a code like magicians did and witches were free to share whatever they wanted with whoever they wanted, but it could land people in serious trouble if they didn’t know what they were doing. Lena made a mental note of things she wanted to warn Rebecca about. If that poor girl ran into one of these spells, it could all be over for her.

“Here you are. I’ve been looking everywhere for you.” Alaric’s sudden appearance made her jump and slam the screen of the laptop shut in a knee jerk kind of reaction. “I see you are following my advice.” He looked awfully amused and it suddenly irritated the living daylights out of her.

“Not exactly. I found something pretty disturbing.” She frowned, opening the screen and pointing to a very nasty blood spell she had just found. Alaric walked around the table and as he read the heading he frowned as well. “Look at the comments, Alaric. If humans are really using this kind of magic …” She couldn’t even think of finishing that sentence.

“Well, it’s not like we can tell them not to do it.” He sighed shrugging. “We can’t police the internet.” He sat down across from her and she closed the laptop again.

“No, but if this is what is out there, surely the damn council can stop me from practicing what is part of me. There are humans out in the world doing far worse and I did it to protect my family.” Lena crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in the chair.

“Lena, I understand where you are coming from and it really pains me to forbid you from doing it, but you have to understand where I’m coming from as well. Blood witches really hurt a lot of people. Your own parents were assassins. Most of the human world who try those spells don’t really believe that they will work and most of those people don’t even have the power to make them work. You, on the other hand, can do those spells with your full power.” He sat forward, leaning his arms on her desk.

“You, my lovely mate, are incredibly powerful. You could be very dangerous. That you’ve already proven by killing those rogues.” He sighed and sat back and Lena understood where the hell he was coming from. She just didn’t feel that it was very fair. She was being punished for something her parents and grandparents did.

She was being judged on the actions of others. She defended herself and her family, yet she was the one being treated like a criminal. She sighed and got up. Walking around the table, she came to a halt in front of Alaric before sitting down on his lap.

“Okay, so if I don’t use magic to kill rogues, but I use herbal bombs like the ones I gave Rebecca, they can’t complain.” It was her last resort. She needed to be able to defend herself and the rest of their people in some way. She wasn’t going to sit inside the dining hall with everyone else and wait to be attacked. He seemed to think about it for a moment.

“Would those little bottles contain magic?” He frowned.

“A small spell to bind all the ingredients together.” She nodded.

“I take it those little bottles can also kill?” He raised a brow.

“Well, not entirely. They are more of a maiming thing.” She thought about it. They could kill if the rogue was weak enough, but it would have to be very weak.

“Then you and Rebecca could make a crate of your little potions. Anything that would halt a rogue. I will inform that council that it is non-negotiable. I can’t see them having a problem with that.” It felt as if it was the first ray of light she had seen in years! Her parents taught her a bunch of spells that would halt someone in their tracks!

It felt as if they were finally moving forward and by the next afternoon, she and Rebecca had three potions ready. Lena wanted to make more since these little potions, as Alaric called it could be used by anybody in the pack to protect them from rogues. All the lower ranks and females who had to hide each time they were attacked could feel as if they were also doing something to protect the pack by using one of these potions.

A week later, Lena and Rebecca had a crate fully ready and Alaric showed them where the strategic places in the pack house were where they could place them. Lena was smiling when they packed away the last two. It meant Rebecca wouldn’t have to carry them in a bag and anybody could just jump in and defend their pack. It was probably the best feeling Lena had since the day she found her magic.

Now that it was all sorted out, she could finally pay attention to Rebecca’s training again, and she had already made up her mind on which subject they were going to work first. Rebecca had shown power over both water and fire, which was very rare. Very few witches could control two powers and Lena had a feeling that Rebecca had control over all the elements.

They trained in the mornings when Ben was with the other children and Lena started to figure out that it was actually good for her and Ben to spend some time apart. He got to socialize with children his own age and she had some grown-up time that she never had when it was just the two of them.

Things were finally moving in the right direction for once in her life. Lena was sitting outside under one of the trees while Rebecca practiced when she thought about her parents and what they would have thought of her life now. She really missed them terribly, but she was no longer angry at Alaric. She had truly forgiven him and the stupid council.

She had also decided to forgive her parents. If they hadn’t been killers, none of this would have happened, but Lena realized that everybody had a path they had to walk. It was all a part of life and death. Something exploded in front of her soul nearly left her body with fright. Rebecca was standing a couple of feet away giggling as Lena glared at her.

So, the little girl wanted to play … Lena thought to herself and within the blink of an eye, she had Rebecca tied up in the vines of a plant. The vines had grown out of nowhere, catching the screaming girl off guard. Lena noted a laughing Alaric standing off to one side talking to Max and she wished she had a wolf's hearing so she could hear what they were talking about.

She let Rebecca down, and the girl’s feet hadn’t even touched the ground before she started asking what kind of spell Lena had used to do that. They were still laughing when Alaric and Max joined them.

“I want you girls to start training with the wolves. Max and I agree that they could do with learning a couple of new tricks from you.” Alaric winked at Lena and she was speechless. Did he actually really ask them to train with the warriors or was she dreaming? He slipped his arms around her waist and kissed her forehead.

Boy did she love this mutt! He had turned her entire world upside down when he walked into her life, but now she couldn’t imagine her life without him. She couldn’t believe she was so stupid to run on the night they were officially mated. She couldn’t even remember what she was thinking back then, or that was what she told herself. Deep down, the scars were still very real and very raw, but she didn’t dare go there anymore. She was happy and she loved her life now.

She wasn’t going to let anything ruin it for them anymore. She was also starting to think that maybe it was time to give Ben a little brother or sister, but she wanted to discuss it with Alaric first.