Enchanter

Chapter Twenty-Three

'Why the hell am I in your body?' Anton screamed inside Azalea's head. He had no idea where his soul was inside her. Everything around him was dark, he could feel that, yet no matter where he looked, he was forced to stare directly wherever it was that Azalea was staring.

"I am so powerful," she chuckled as she inspected every side of her hands.

"I will shoot you," Raven stated, crossing her arms diligently across her chest. "Did you know this would happen?"

"Sort of," she shrugged. "It was more of a hunch that it would be painful, but I didn't think I would be able to shift like this. How did you know about the unity symbols?"

"While Anton was gone the first time in the other dimension, I spent the time researching ways to separate you two and grew quite familiar with Celtic symbols and such. Figured it would be useful for the journey."

"Oh, well I guess that makes-"

"What the hell is going on?" Aaric snapped. "Why is Azalea here and not Anton?"

She stood up from the floor, looking in the mirror. There, Anton resided, seeing his reflection for the first time in years. Everything his soul was in the midst of doing, he countered. He placed his hands over his mouth, suppressing the tears to the best of his ability.

Aaric jumped up to the mirror, placing his hand over Anton's. "Baby, are you alright?"

"He's fine," Azalea assured.

Closing her eyes and concentrating with all her might, she slowly submerged herself into Anton, causing her to reside in his subconscious while he stood in his own dimension in his own body. Looking up into the mirror, he saw Azalea once again, smiling in glee herself.

"Anton," Aaric exclaimed as he pounced on his mate, holding him tight and secure to his chest. "I am so glad you are alright? What happened? Why were you crying? Are you hurt?"

"No, no, calm down," Anton replied, crying softly in joy. "I just...for the first time in nine years, I saw my reflection. I actually saw what I looked like. I honestly forgot for a moment that I may look similar to Azalea, but I do not look anything like her. I forgot."

"Hey, it's okay," Aaric cooed as he pulled his mate into his chest, rocking him back and forth slowly. "I'm happy for you. That must mean so much."

"You have no idea," he chuckled. Before he stood up, he kissed Aaric's cheek and walked over to the mirror. "Okay, so you're inside me, right?"

"Basically," she responded. "Even if we're in an area with no reflection, you can still hear and communicate with me. It'll be nice for when we're in the forest. Plus, if you now need me there in present form, I can be."

"Well, I need to go cut my hand and bleed onto a rose," he smirked. Facing Aaric, he said, "I think this will be the actual time we summon Bleeding Rosebud."

"I'll get Clive and the others," he responded. Stalking up to his mate, he grabbed his cheeks and kissed his lips hungrily. "Tonight, we mate."

"I'm looking forward to it," Anton blushed, and he watched his mate run out of the room.

"Aww, how sweet," Azalea cooed. "But we need to get moving if we're going to unlatch."

Running out of the side room, down the hall, and out to the forest, Anton felt the excitement coursing through his veins. It was a strange, ticklish feeling he had never experienced before. And when he stared down at his arms, the last thing he expected to find were his veins glowing under his skin. Quickly hiding his hands in his armpits, his hissed in his head, 'What's going on?'

'It's our souls merging. Your hands might be doing that for a while now. I don't know what else to tell you,' Azalea responded.

'That does not make me feel at ease,' he said with a roll of his eyes.

"Damn, nice veins. They make you look all purty," Raven chortled. Rolling her eyes, she stepped up to the sulking wolf. "In all seriousness, it is adorable, and I love it."

"I did not ask for this to happen. Now I really can't go back into civilization," he groaned. "If this doesn't work, nothing will. I'll be stuck in isolation forever. I may as well kill myself."

"Don't even joke about that," Raven demanded, pointing her sharp finger in his face. "We are going to unlatch the both of you if it's the last thing we do."

"You're going to need this," Aaric stated as he held up the dagger while as walked over to them both with Alpha Clive and Rue and Troy.

"Why do they all have to be here?"

"Clive is my current right-hand man, and Rue and Troy are training to take over their parents positions as gammas, meaning they will both be third in command since they're mates," he explained.

"They don't look like mates," Anton commented.

"We both happen to be aromantic, and since we are one another's mates, we chose to be nothing more than best friends. It works for us," Troy explained.

"But you've mated," Anton countered.

"Yes, because we're still sexually attracted to one another. We just don't have a romantic connection, so we save all out mating for the bedroom and behave as friends in the meantime. I do not believe there is a problem with that, correct?" Rue calmly defended.

"No, not at all," Anton assured. He took the dagger from Aaric's hand and cut along the familiar scar on his hand and squeezed his blood onto the rose before him.

Nothing happened. Everyone sulked, believing it was their fate to forever be with one another. Yet the whole rose soon grew red as blood, and all the roses in the garden soon began to follow. In an instant, all color faded away from all the other roses and residing in only one. The rose soon began to grow in size, sprouting arms and legs. Soon, a pair of eyes blinked, and the petals that covered the being dropped to the ground, revealing a woman. Her skin was pink like a newborn baby. Her veins were visible through her skin, and her eyes were darker than black. Her blood red hair was tied in a bun with little pieces to frame her face. She was short, stout, and curvy. No one could look away or deny her beauty.

"Well," the woman spoke, her voice gentle with an echo of nails on a chalkboard. It was equal parts sweet and alarming, "what do we have here?"