Our Awakening

Chapter 24

It's been almost two months since I left Greyson's house. Each day seemed endless, a blur of sunrises and sunsets. I kept to myself for the first two weeks. Holed up inside, finding salvation in painting. Something I hadn't done since Bryson started losing his shit. I turned my spare room into an art room, where I spent all hours of the day painting my feelings away. Trying to find some kind of peace in all the madness. All I did was paint portrait after portrait of gray eyes and a broken heart. 

After two weeks passed, Axel pulled the plug. He said one week of pouting was fine, it was expected, after that it was just whining. He was right, I needed to get up and move on with my life. We hadn't heard a thing about Bryson, he was nowhere to be seen. Maybe I was wrong, maybe he hadn't found me. Because if he did, he would have taken me already, wouldn't he have? With that, Axel was right, I needed to start living again, so I did my best to.

Axel practically dragged me out of the house and made me look for a job to keep busy, even though I didn't really need the money.  I ended up finding a part time job at a local coffee shop. The pay was shit, but it was fast paced, keeping my brain and time occupied.

The next day, Axel stood at my door with a gorgeous girl with purple streaks in her hair, holding tight to a man who couldn't keep his eyes off of her. He introduced them as friends of Greyson's. The witch and her werewolf mate from the pack a few towns over, sent to come help me figure out my magic. My heart ached at Greyson's ability to still look out for me, even though I had pretty much deserted him. He texted me every day, nothing heavy, just 'how is everything' or' are you okay?'. I never could bring myself to reply. What would I say, sorry I left you, you are too much for me? Nothing I could say would justify leaving him like that. I didn't deserve his kindness, but he sent it to me anyways. 

The witch he sent name was Harper and her mate's name was Sebastian. He didn't seem to like me much, maybe he couldn't understand how a Luna could turn away from her role. He hinted around it often, Axel told me to ignore him. We didn't fully understand their world and they didn't understand ours, leave it at that, he told me.

 I found that I liked her a lot though. I never had a girl as a friend, I had always been wrapped up in Bryson in high school and college to ever really care about anyone else. She was cool though and kind of a bad ass.

 She stayed for a couple of weeks, teaching me anything and everything about magic. Starting out casting simple spells, then slowly moving to being able to levitate things. She even showed me some protection spells, she said that Greyson was adamant that I be taught how to protect myself. Of course he would. 

I asked her what it was like being mated to a werewolf. She laughed and said it was tough at first, figuring out how to navigate the strong impulse to protect and dominate a werewolf possessed. I asked her how could she possibly stand the thought of being controlled, the fact that she had to give up who she was in order to become a part of his pack. She looked offended at first but then calmed down once she noticed how serious and confused I was. She said it wasn't really like that, that she hadn't given up anything. If anything, she said she was happier, she too grew up without a family, her pack filled that void. They took care of eachother. Loved one another. 

Then she opened up more and said the sex alone made it worth it, she said that werewolves were passionate and wild in the bedroom. She nudged my shoulder and said I was in for it, since my mate was an Alpha. She said they were known for being masters in the bedroom. Yeah, that I believe.

Harper was honest and blunt and I found it absolutely refreshing. She told me everything was a choice and no matter what, I had one. That just because Greyson was my mate, didn't mean I was forced to be with him. If I didn't want to be with him, then I didn't have to. It was as simple as that. She said a mate bond shouldn't make me stay, I needed to want to. Her mate wasn't happy about that answer, but she didn't seem to care. Even though I appreciated her understanding of how heavy the mate bond could feel to an outsider, the thought of never seeing Greyson again, struck a pain so deep inside of me, I couldn't stand it. 

I loved the idea of being his mate, I did, but the time apart made it easier for me to think, everything about Greyson was too consuming. I needed to be me just for a bit. So I nodded instead at her, not caring if she thought I didn't want to be with Greyson. It didn't feel right to try to explain myself. I didn't think I could anyways, not without making a complete fool out of myself. After that, I tried to keep our conversations focused on magic, that was something I was willing to process right now.

I guess Greyson hadn't exaggerated, Harper said I was a strong witch, one of the most strongest ones she had ever seen. She said she could practically feel my magic reaching out to her when she first drove into town. She told me it was important to learn how to stifle it, she said powerful unprotected magic could lure out the darkest of people. People I had no business knowing. While she was there, she made sure to cover us in a protective shield to keep my magic from spilling out and alerting any neighboring witches or warlocks. 

She seemed fascinated by my magic. She asked so many questions, always seeming to try to put together pieces of a puzzle she kept to herself. She had become obsessed with trying to figure out what kind of witch I was, as apparently I showed signs of all of them. Harper said it was extremely rare, that she hadn't ever encountered a witch with a quarter of my abilities, especially not a newbie like me.

The more I worked with my magic, the more I became in tune with myself. Harper was impressed at the rate I was moving, she said most witches took years to master half of the things that came natural to me. I was now able to build my own protection shields, generate electricity, heal small wounds, and levitate myself as well as things under 150 pounds. Harper said the more I worked at it, the stronger I would become. I definitely needed to work on my stanmia, a few hours practicing practically knocked me out. 

There was so much to learn from Harper, she was mean as hell sometimes but she was also supportive and believed in me more than I had myself. Her support encouraged me to keep pushing myself, it was nice having her around. I found myself slowly becoming attached to her energy. 

Her mate was a whole other story, he always watched me with cautious eyes. I could tell I made him nervous, he treated me as if I were a loose cannon, ready to explode with no warning. Sometimes he gave me the impression that he thought I was going to hurt his mate. I asked her about it one night after a lesson on summoning the elements. She said werewolves were just cautious creatures, they didn't trust easily. Hmmm... I guess that explains why Greyson was so private about his life. Ryder too, I mean even though I knew his personality pretty well, I really couldn't say I knew him. I didn't know his favorite things, if he had a family, anything really about his life. Hell I hadn't even known they werewolves, no damn clue. 

Whether her mate liked me or not, Harper showed up every day after I got off work. Most nights, Axel would sit out on my back porch and watch. He was always proud of everything I did, every spell I mastered, every item I made move with my mind, every blast I delivered. He looked at me like I was pure magic, I guess to him I was.

 I still couldn't fully control my emotions though, my magic seemed to hold onto the more negative ones. Harper said this was normal, I just needed to master balancing my feelings and that would take time and patience. It didn't make me feel better when I had an outburst though. 

One night Axel accidentally slammed the door, scaring the hell out of me. In response, I shattered every glass in my kitchen. Guilt shot through me when I found a shard of glass had stabbed Axel's forearm in the process. The only good that came out of it was I was able to  practice my healing power. Working on pure instinct, my hands flew to his gash, sealing it with a flash of light and heat. Axel's cut disappeared within seconds, leaving behind a faint scar, which of course he thought was the coolest thing. To me, it just reminded me of what I had to lose if I didn't learn how to manage my emotions. 

Everything was starting to feel okay again, I still missed Greyson like hell, but things were starting to feel manageable, but nothing in life was that easy. Was it?

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Hey Loves, 

Here's an early chapter for leaving you in such a terrible place in the last one. This is a two parter, but too long for one chapter so the next one will be out tonight as well. Happy reading ;)

xoxoxooxoxoooo

-wearethepeople