Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
“Of course, sir. I’ll see you guys later.”
She hugs us all and sits back down while we head out.
2-106
Training has been brutal, but getting better everyday. I don’t know if the trainers are hard on us because they know our attention has to be divided with our individual team training assignments from Alpha Reggie, or if we really are that out of shape. I personally feel out of shape.
We have gotten a decent schedule down over the last six weeks. After a very early and aggressive morning training and breakfast with the whole warrior compound the six of us literally run our five mile route to our assignments.
Nathaniel and Jena run to a building outside the warrior leader’s house and work with the cyber team, developing methods of tracking using every form of web knowledge they have. They are also really close to developing a similar tracker to the one Mike had placed in Jena and I. The focus has been on making it easy to administer and remove as well as less detectable. Doc Ganon and Doc Sylvia have been having far too much fun playing hide and seek on all of us as guinea pigs.
We have even talked Sierra into helping us by working with her parents to discover the different combinations of herbs and poisons that were used on Jena and I. She is actually really smart with all of this stuff and possibly more crazy than her mom when it comes to testing on us. She is actually trying to get us all to build a tolerance to wolfsbane, by sneaking it into our food to see if we or our wolves notice a difference. She has been having fun consulting with witches on the properties of plants and their uses in magic. I think she is also excited about getting out of regular school work as well. And I get to see her more since she is on the training grounds more regularly.
Wyatt and Lillian have teamed up with Tracker to learn, well, tracking. He’s such a big guy so it doesn’t seem like that would be the best thing for him to do, but he has a natural flare for it. And he is a ninja when he wants to be, constantly sneaking up on all of us. She is his opposite in build, but an amazing warrior and after hearing about the girls who were taken along with us, she wants to be one of the first in line to help with recovery in situations like that. They are both beasts when it comes to training. Neither slacked off while we were away. And I love the workout they both give me when we spar.
Mina and I head to the castle almost everyday to play buffer for Xander so he can actually get some work done. Like my guys back home he is taking on jobs and responsibilities from his day to make the transition to Alpha King almost seamless. He is currently in charge of all the things that we need to bring in from outside the kingdom or from human manufacturers. The coordination and secrecy involved with supplying our people with basic first world items is a big job and he has done spectacularly at it. Mina and I help when we can, because, let’s face it, sitting around looking pretty is boring. It is fun watching the faces of the many girls who just ‘happen’ to stop by the castle offices and they find him very much not alone.
Luna Anne has taken to showing us how to deal with the never ending parade of people that need or want something from the royal family. Sometimes the needs and wants are legitimate, sometimes they are selfish and others are downright entitled and rude, but she handles each one with the same grace and dignity. No one ever talks about the job that the Luna or Luna Queen holds. So many of these girls think it’s just the planning of parties, ceremonies and celebrations and looking the best in the most lavish fashions, but there is so much more to what they do and it’s so amazing to watch Luna Anne do it. Like a wel rehearsed dance with Barty flitting in and out of the room, gathering things that are an easy quick solution and the three of us taking notes on things that need more time.
I also get pulled away to work with Alpha Reggie. He still has people digging into my mother and grandmother since they were both hiding from the royals. He has found that my grandmother most likely knew of her abilities and royal affiliations, but no one knows if my mother knew her lineage or of her abilities. Alpha Reggie and Alpha Lucas have been working on getting my father to open up about her and her history, but they haven’t gotten very far yet and Alpha Reggie keeps those interactions to himself. That at least tells me that my father doesn’t ask or talk about me at all or is still spouting his ‘you killed my mate’ hate towards me.
I have learned that my grandmother was a twin and had some use of magic, which probably helped her hide from the royals and the rogue leader. Her twin sister could communicate with the forest which Alpha Reggie and I were looking into since that seems like a weird ability.
Alpha Reggie did bring in a witch from Gentry’s coven. She still hasn’t returned and Nickolas hasn’t been able to feel her, but he says the bond hasn’t snapped either, meaning she’s still alive just under a spell most likely to keep her hidden.
“Alright let’s focus on your elemental energies today.”
Elena says to me. We are out working in the maze where we can be disturbed or overheard. There are many who wouldn’t understand this training because, aside from being able to transform from a human to a wolf, we have no magic. Eye roll with me now. It’s just not typical for my species to be able to control magic in any way, even if a werewolf and witch mate the kids usually get one trait or the other, not both. I’m so lucky.
2-107
We did mention my great grandmother’s twin sister’s ties to the earth and the forest so that is where Elena started. She is everything I thought a witch would look like. She is a fiery red-head with emerald eyes. Her hair is so deep burnt orange it looks like it’s on fire in the sunlight. She has different braids flowing through her medium length locks. Some with beads or feathers attached, some just braids tied off with thin leather straps. She is taller than me, like pretty much everyone, but only by a couple inches, but her personality precedes her into a room, like an Alpha or Beta of a pack. She is very calm, but I feel like it’s a calm she works hard to maintain and if someone presses the right button she could shoot fireballs out of her fingers. Her build is womanly with curves in all the right places, but she doesn’t hide behind frumpy dresses or dress like a sl*t either. She is classy and natural. It’s hard to tell her age because of the way she carries herself.
“Sit straight and place your palms flat on the ground. Tell me what you feel.”
“The dirt is gravely but soft. It’s warm from the sun.”
I press my palms further to the ground and take a deep breath slowly in and slowly out. Concentration has been the hardest thing for me. Sitting still and just being quiet isn’t something I ever thought I would have trouble with after spending so much of my life secluded and alone, but I don’t like the not moving, not thinking part of this whole thing. Another deep breath in and then out. The grass is cool and silky under my touch. I concentrate on feeling further below the surface. “It’s buzzing! Why is it buzzing?” My eyes shoot open and I look up at her. “Close your eyes and feel, try to listen with your hands.”
We have had several sessions and it has become frustrating because I have never felt anything. I don’t think magic is a thing that was passed to me. This thrum is the first time I have felt anything other than the obvious physical things around me.
“It’s like a heartbeat or a pulse, but there is a buzz with it, what is that?” I take another breath and try to mentally follow the pulse and the buzz, but before I can get too far with it, I lose the whole sensation and everything snaps in me like a rubberband. My eyes fly open and I jump up like something bit me in the ass. “What in the hell was that?!”
“You felt the trees connecting, they speak to each other through their root systems. What I think the buzz might be was a call of urgency, to prepare.”
“Prepare for what?” I ask just as a loud clap of thunder rocks through the sky and I look up. How long have we been out here? The sun was burning on my face not that long ago.
“A storm.”
She says dryly. I think that is the first joke I have ever heard her make.
We both laugh as we run back to the castle trying to beat the rain that is now chasing us down and sweeping over the open yard. We get inside the doors of the balcony, but not without getting soaked first. The storm was faster than we were.
One of the castle omegas came to us with towels, clearly anticipating our very soggy arrival.
“Can I try again? Can we train from inside? I don’t want to lose the feeling now that I have an idea of what it is.”
I say excitedly. “I still might not have magic, but if I can detect it, if I can feel the difference between good magic and bad magic, I could help with our missions. Maybe find the witches that have been imprisoned…’
“Hold your horses there, girly.”
Elena grabs my shoulders. “The Alpha King did say you were excitable when learning something new. I’m glad to see he did not exaggerate. Your education will go faster outside with the elements. It would be best if I could bring you to work with the coven as a whole, in our space of learning, but you are needed here as well. Come let’s go find the study and we can do some magic history so you can understand what and why you are feeling the things you are.”
We make it to Alpha Reggie’s study where he and I have been going over royal family history trying to fill the gap of my mother and grandmother’s lives. As a member of the royal family, I have been learning some of the protocols and the pomp and circumstance requirements of being a royal. I did find out that I am fifth in line to the throne. Which I laughed at when Alpha Reggie told me, but he stopped me short saying that some kingdoms have had to go that deep into the family for the next Alpha King. Xander is first, obviously, then Osiston. Which is a crazy thought. Then there are two other warriors that currently serve as liaisons with other Kingdoms, then me.
“Sit, let’s talk about magic basics. First, magic itself is neither good nor evil. That is the first and most important thing to remember, no matter what anyone says about light or dark magic. It is easy to blame the magic, but forget there is still a human wielding it. The intentions for the magic are what make it dark or light. Elder witches can change and cast from dark to light and vice versa. It is difficult and requires a lot of concentration and mental strength, so it is a last resort, but possible.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.