Rise of the She-Wolf

Vanessa’s pov,

With a face as white as a sheet and dark circles under my eyes I walked back into the Irish mansion the next day. Every bone in my body was hurting from Colin showing me every corner of the plane all night long. He looked just as exhausted as I did but with a very satisfied smile on his face. Part of me wanted to slap him for it but another part of me found it kind of cute. Spirit was quiet, peacefully sleeping off the exhaustion from fighting me over control the whole night. I was not even mad at her though because honestly deep in my mind I had known that fucking my mate would happen at some point. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t deny the pull he had on me since I got marked. But who cares because it was purely physical, so no harm done.

I was hoping to quickly return to our bedroom and sleep it all off but instead, we were greeted by the whole family anxiously awaiting our return.

“How did it go?” Robin asked.

Colin started elaborating on our adventure with the Russians, luckily, he left out the part about our encounter in a dark corner. Annie looked at us with narrowed eyes and interrupted Colin in the middle of his story.

“You both look like shit. What happened?”

Colin coughed and glanced at me quickly, “Oi well thanks Annie. This is just how people look after a party ej.”

Gary walked up closer, and his gaze went over my messy hair and red cheeks. He grinned and shouted, “No no no mate. Don’t tell us lies Colin.”

He pointed at us and said, “They clearly fucked.”

Both Colin and I stared at Gary flabbergasted, lost for words while we watched grins emerging on all his siblings faces. Before any of them could say something, his mother Maggie stepped forward and said loudly, “Well it was about damn time! Come on kids let’s give them some privacy.”

They all hurried out of the room giggling and glancing at us. A deep sigh escaped from my lips when I heard the front door close. I glanced at Colin who had his hand in his hair and gave me an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that. Hard to keep a secret around here.”

All I could focus on was his messy hair and how sexy it made him look. I quickly averted my eyes and tried to look at something else when I answered with a tense voice, “It is okay. It doesn’t matter really. I should probably get some sleep though. I am exhausted.”

Colin nodded, “I will sleep in the guest room today so you can get some proper rest.”

I felt surprised by his kind gesture but before I could thank him, he already walked out of the room. It was weird being in his bedroom all on my own, I thought the quiet would be a welcome change but somehow it made me restless. I laid in bed staring at a symbol carved into the ceiling of the bed. It was a symbol of a wolf biting his own tail in a perfectly round shape. My own wolf was surprisingly quiet, but I guessed she was too smitten with herself after I finally gave in last night.

I took a deep sigh and exhaustion fell over me pulling me into a deep and dreamless sleep. When I woke up the next day Spirit immediately whined, “Where is our mate?” I gritted my teeth in annoyance because I had hoped her longing for Bolt would have cooled down a bit after we had mated. But apparently, the satisfaction didn’t last very long and the furry monster inside me needed to be near him again. Honestly, the thought of spending time with Colin didn’t bother me anymore. I had grown to like the company of him and his family. Besides if having sex with Colin every once in a while, would keep everyone happy then why not? It’s not like I had feelings for him so there was nothing wrong with some physical fun. I swore I could feel Spirit roll her eyes when she heard my thoughts but at least she stayed quiet.

When I got to the dining room, I saw only Maggie. “Where is everyone?” I asked while I looked around. Maggie looked up at me with a sad look in her eyes, “I am afraid everyone is doing their own rituals today to cope with this anniversary.”

“Anniversary?”

“Yes, dear, 10 years ago my husband died on this day.”

A shiver went down my back, “I am sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do for you?”

Maggie gave me a small smile, “No dear, I think Colin needs you more today. Today is specifically hard on him because he was there when it happened.”

I couldn’t imagine how traumatic that must have been for a small boy and I felt a bit lost for words. Maggie walked to the window and pointed to a mountain. “If you go in that direction, you will find him at a massive willow tree.”

“Let’s go, our mate needs us!” Spirit howled in my head.

Maggie seemed lost in thought while she stared out the window so without saying anything I hurried myself outside and transformed. Spirit ran as fast as she could, following our mate’s trail while her paws galloped through the grass. My lungs were burning by the time I saw the shape of a massive tree emerging. I saw Colin sitting in front of the tree with a burning candle in front of him. I transformed back into human form, but he did not take his eyes off the tree for one second.

“Colin?” I asked a bit unsure.

“Who told you I would be here?” He grunted in a low voice.

I bit my lip, “Your mom but I can go if you rather want to be alone.”

He just stayed silent, and I felt my stomach sink when I looked at him. He looked small and sad, like a little boy when he didn’t have his massive ego to back him up. I sat beside him and threw my arms around him, pulling him in for a tight hug. He felt tense in my arms and kept staring at the carving in the tree. It was the same symbol of a wolf biting its own tail.

“What does that symbol stand for? I keep seeing it everywhere.” I asked.

“It is the symbol of our pack. It stands for absolute unity within the pack. A circle can only keep spinning as long as every aspect is in the right place.”

He stopped for a moment and then continued, ” A lesson my father learned the hard way. He actually died right here at this tree. He always thought that the people in power are the ones that make a pack strong. He did not care about the low-pack members that watch our borders every day. He paid the highest price for it when rebels came on our grounds during his walk and there was no one to protect or warn him. The last thing he could do was hide me in a hole under the tree so they wouldn’t find me. I watched the light go from his eyes and I knew that day that I had to do things differently. My father had flaws and he made mistakes, but he loved his family deeply. So I knew I needed to protect the rest of my family by making our pack stronger than ever. The pack is only as strong as the weakest link, everybody matters when you want to create a solid base. At least that is what I have been telling myself for the past years. ”

I placed my hand on his chin and tilted his head, so he looked into my eyes, “And you have done an amazing job taking care of your pack and family. The pack seems content and they all seem like they would die for you in an instant.”

He softly pushed my hand away and looked at the symbol again, “I am not looking for blind loyalty from my pack. If I do well, they do well so they have as much to lose as we do when something happens to the pack. That way the only way to get to my family is by taking out the whole pack which is almost impossible”

“That sounds like good leadership to me. Thank you for telling me about your father. Must have been hard to have so much responsibility from a young age.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

A little glimmer came back into his eyes when he looked at me and jokingly said, “Not as hard as fighting for your affection.”

I grinned and gave him a small push. We sat there in silence for a while and I watched the flames of the candle cast shadows on the symbol. I gasped when an idea came into my mind and asked Colin, “Can you schedule a video meeting with Vlad tomorrow? I just got an idea on how to get our revenge quickly.”

Colin lifted his eyebrow, “Care to elaborate on this plan?”

I gave him a crazy grin, “Seems like you will just have to trust me.”