Axel

Fate Unsure

Axel

The coldness in her face, in her voice and her tone. I almost didn't recognise her- she used the same magic that foul creature had used to kill my own father. The Alpha to our pack, her pack.

But she is a witch. Why would she care about the very beasts that slaughtered her family? I paused my momentary pacing of father's- Reign's office. We had come here after everything that had happened because Diego was ripping the castle apart and Mom. Well she was murderous.

She lied

She lied about how much magic she had shown Keir. Did she know? Did she know she was teaching a monster? Did she care? Does that make her the same as him?

All these questions were flooding through my mind faster than I had time to process them. What did this mean for our mating?

Reign's gaze remained on me as I resumed my pacing again, chewing on my knuckles as I did so. Lost in thought of what this latest revelation would mean for us, our bond, our mating. The floor creaked under my steps as I paced back and forth furiously.

"Reign do you realise the implications of this? What's going tp happen to Storm now?" I stared at her, she just gazed across the room at me her face a show of boredom "Axel if you pace much more you're going to wear out the wood on my floors. Stop it"

I sank into a nearby chair, still gnawing on my knuckles, She's my mate and yet I feel so betrayed by her. Not telling my family I would have understood, as supportive as they are it's always best to break things to them- Gently... but not telling me? Her mate? Her pair? Secrets so soon into our bonding had me questioning everything I thought I knew about the mating bond. I had marked her but had that been enough to seal it?

Reign sighed heavily sensing my wandering mind going into overdrive "Look we all knew that Storm possessed secrets and magic that she would not or could not share with us. There's an incredibly strong possibility that when she thought Keir this magic that she didn't know what he had intended to do with it"

I looked at her before rolling my eyes at my own stupidity, she was right of course. Perhaps Storm didn't know what kind of monster sat in her lessons, she had told us when we first met her that wandering witches were not tied to any one coven and instead got their magic from the earth and the elements around them. Meaning they travelled from coven to coven passing on their teachings as they went.

I rubbed my hands across my face willing the sleep from my now heavy eyes "So tell me Alpha what do we do now? She is being held in one of your dungeons after all"

Reign gave me a steeling gaze, almost daring me to beg for her freedom. She let out a huff gazing out the window and across our lands, her first few days as Alpha had been tough on her if the bags under her eyes were anything to go by.

A twinge of guilt pricked in my stomach, if I hadn't been such a coward and backed down from the challenge then all of this responsibility wouldn't rest solely on her shoulders. "Don't do that" she spoke firmly, I just looked at her remaining silent "Don't torture yourself with what ifs. I wanted this Axel, I chose this. It is not your burden to bare but my own. No one thinks any less of you" she nodded to me firmly.

I thought less of myself

I shook the thoughts from my head, deciding to return to the current issue at hand Storm's freedom. She'd been through enough, Mom had tried to kill her while I had been captured. She'd been exiled and welcomed back all in a matter of weeks only to be almost exiled again.

I rose from my seat suddenly sparking a look of concern from Reign "Come" I said making to exit from the room. A shuffle behind me told me Reign wasn't far behind.

In silence we descended down towards the cells in which Storm had been thrown, my darling mate. The mate I had longed and craved for my entire life to date, the woman I had prayed to the Goddess to grant me and yet here we were.

She's locked in a cell beneath the pack house because she wielded magic that had once been used to kill the Alpha. Even though she didn't deliver that killing blow to my father the fact that she knew how to use that kind of magic and had taught it to the monster that had wielded it.

She's lucky to still be breathing, half my family wanted her dead for it but she's my mate. I must fight for her, even to my dying breath I will fight for her.

We came to a stop just outside her cell, I peered at her through the bars, she sat in silence on the bench her hands clasped on her lap her head hung low.

She didn't look up at us didn't acknowledge our presence but I knew she had sensed us the moment we began our descent down the stairs.

"Storm" my voice came out like a croak, slowly so slowly she raised her head her eyes snapping to mine. I took a step back my breath hitched my throat, her midnight eyes were a whirling storm and something told me the fall out from it was not going to be pleasant.

Her gaze slid slowly from mine settling just over my shoulder onto Reign's, she licked her lips readying herself to speak. Her voice cold as ice as she spoke to Reign

"How do you wish for me to die Alpha?"