Blood Rite: MATE

Chapter Ten ~ Goodbye Sweet Tala

Three strong, powerful knocks on the front door caused everyone in the house to wake up abruptly. Diana who was laying on Baddy's chest in the living room, looked down at her watch.

"3:00am? Who could it even be?" She asked looking up to Baddy.

He looked down at her with the same confusion on his face.

With a yawn and a stretch he got up from the living room couch where they had fallen asleep together. He had tried to distract her with a movie but they were both out before the intro even ended.

He followed Diana to the door so he could watch close by as she answered. Neither one were prepared for the small dark arms that wrapped around her and pulled her into a huge hug.

"Tia?!" Diana looked at her in confusion as she let the voodoo queen in.

Tia paused for a moment before finishing her greeting. She had sensed a darkness looming over the normally bright and happy home as soon as she drove up the long dirt road that led to the house.

However, as soon as she entered it, she was hit with a bitter cold that made her stop in her tracks. Taking her breath away and overwhelming her with a feeling of emptiness that was trying to engulf her. Making her noticeably shudder.

"How is she?" Tia asked trying to regain her composure as she set down her bags and began to shrug off her coat to hang it on the wooden coat rack beside her. "I had to come see her immediately." She sounded exhausted from her journey.

"I don't know . . . Tia, it's really bad, she's feverish and fading, . . . We've tried everything and no one knows what to do." Diana began to fall apart all over again and within seconds, Baddy was to her side, comforting her.

"I need to see her, is she in her room?" Tia asked moving towards the staircase.

"Yes." Diana answered. She was trying to keep up with Tia, but her aunt was already to Tala before Diana could even get to the second floor. By this point everyone was opening their doors to see what the commotion was.

"Tia?" Tami asked her when she entered the room. A sight for sore eyes.

Tami had fallen asleep laying down next to Tala. She was only half shocked to see her dear friend. The girls meant so much to Tia. Each one of them had their own special bond with her.

She would always be bringing Diana new clothes from different places she visited while traveling.

She'd surprise Tala with new and old tech stuff that she'd come across.

She sends Reika all the spices and herbs her little heart desires. From even the most remote of places.

"Chthonia?!" A loud shrill voice came from the doorway. "What are you doing here?" Gela sneered as she entered Tala's room and saw the witch.

"I'm here for Tala." Tia responded disinterestedly, looking only at Tami.

"No one asked you to come here." Gela growled.

"Hey now, calm down." Tami tried to intervene but Tia held up her hand to stop her.

"Actually, no one asked you to come here but oh look, here you are." Tia sneered back. "As a part of this family, I have an open invitation here." She knew what words would hurt the wolf queen.

"Demon!" Gela spat at her. It was one of the worst insults you could say to a witch like her. Although some witches were descendants of demons, with souls as black as tar. Chthonia was not one of them.

"Beast!" She spat back finally looking at Gela. Beast was just as nasty of a thing to be called. A person who cannot control their instincts, a person powerless to their own power. The normally poised queen was almost frothing from the mouth in anger.

"Stop it the both of you!" Zeev requested. Tia's spin tingled at his deep demanding tone but neither one looked away from each other.

"This isn't the time or the place for such dishonorable behavior. We have a sick child that needs us and it's obvious we need as much help as we can get right now. Negativity isn't going to be helpful here." He continued.

Annoyance was written over both of their faces. Tia c****d a snarky eyebrow at her before turning her attention to Tala. She was still annoyed but soon shock and terror wiped over her.

"What happened?!" Tia gasped when she finally broke her gaze away from Gela and let it fall to Tala. She sucked in a breath to calm herself as she looked at the picture before her.

A waste basket filled with bloody rags and gauze, a nightstand filled with medical supplies and then Tala. It would of been a beautiful picture, Tala sleeping so peacefully. Had it not been for all of the obvious injuries. Tia felt the whole world darken even more as she felt Tala's cold, bandaged body. Her once golden like skin was now grayish and dull. Now she fully understood the lack of warmth.

"It worked . . . the bath. . . She woke up but rogues were attacking the house." Diana began but broke down sobbing again. Turning back into Baddy's comforting chest.

"She got caught in the cross fire. Luke kept her protected after that, but she hasn't woken back up and she's not healing." Tami explained. Her face had lost color after thinking back on just a few hours ago.

"If only she could just turn into her wolf to heal!" Luke snapped at Tami & Tia. He was laying in the chair outside Tala's door and decided to finally join the conversation. He walked in and sat down on the bed beside Tala where Tami had just been laying. "Too bad the people she trusted robbed her of that!"

"It was the only way to hide her!" Tia defended.

"She would have been protected had she just come back to the pack. To her people. . . To us. We could have protected her. Tala would be free and safe, but you took that from her!" Luke growled. He didn't much care for the obnoxious little witch that had just insulted his mother and put his mate at risk.

"Luke honey, calm down. We can't change the past." Gela moved towards her son to comfort him, but he moved away from her reach.

"Why? It's all this filthy witch's fault for coercing Tamika to do such a terrible thing to her own daughter!"

"Look here beast!" Tia's eyes, which were once light brown, were now black with rage and swirling with magic. "If you had never come here and if you all would have just minded your own god damn business, she would still be healthy and safe right now! But no, just like the beasts you are, you had to come here, meddle and mark your territory!"

"Beast?! You call us beasts? So much talk from someone so vile and evil!" Gela spat back.

"Me?! Evil?! What a joke coming from you!" Tia snorted back. Both hurt by each other's words.

"That is quite enough of that!" Rick yelled. He could see from Tala's face that all of the anger and fighting was affecting her. "Everyone but Luke needs to get out now! Luke will you be calm if everyone leaves?"

"Of course sir." he said quietly.

"But I need to check her out!" Tia objected.

"You can see her in a couple of hours when the sun rises. Her condition hasn't changed and if it does, Luke will let us know. Right Luke?"

"Yes sir." He promised.

"See, he'll let us know. Now it looks like to me that you need some rest yourself. You're no good to us tired and Diana has already done everything we can." Tami wasn't the only one who viewed Tia as a sister. She has been a huge part of their family and even with Rick being mad as hades at the both of them. He still needed to ensure they were ok. Getting enough sleep was part of that.

"Alright everyone, off to bed! We're all tired and need to rest." Rick shooed them all out the door.

After Rick ensured that everyone had left, he closed the door quietly behind him. Leaving them in peace. Luke quickly and quietly walked over to lock the door. They've already had enougph surprise visitors to last them for a while. After he made his way back to the bed and got settled, he gently lifted Tala up so that her head was resting on his chest. She felt so cold against him, but he could feel her body eased in his arms.

She could feel him through the fog of darkness that she was under. Through all the pain he was her light. With him beside her, she could finally feel safe. They could both finally drift off into a peaceful slumber.

"Tami, Tia." Rick began as they entered the kitchen. "We need to sit down and talk." He was so mad about the lies that he couldn't even look at Tami.

"I feel I deserve to know too! You were my best friends and I thought you were dead for almost two decades." Gela interrupted her eyes filled with sorrow and heart ache.

"Yeah some friend." Tia retorted sarcastically.

"This isn't the place for this and you both know it." Zeev stated. Staring dangers at both of them.

"Fine." Tami said. "All the adults outside."

"All the adults? Because I'd like to know why the woman, I've been calling mom for all of these years, has been lying to all of us this entire time." Diana asked with venom and hurt in her words.

"All of the parents on the patio, the rest of you go get some sleep please." Tia interrupted. She knew it killed Tami to keep this from them but none of them could truly understand the dangers of knowing. Diana shook her head and headed to her room. Baddy and the rest followed.

"So why did you have to hide Tala's wolf?" Rick asked after they had all seated them self's around the patio table. He was still wrapping his mind around it all. Tala had been his daughter for practically her whole life and there's so much he didn't even know about her.

"Start from the beginning." Gela asked.

"There's a lot I can't tell anyone but what I can tell you is that Shaw wasn't killed by a normal rogue."

Tami began.

"What do you mean?" Rad asked moving in closer to hear her better.

"He was murdered by a man who is still trying to find us." She paused for a moment. Talking about her mate always pulled at her heart. "We weren't just randomly attacked. . . The rogue had been tracking us for a long time. We hadn't realized until it was too late. We tried to get back to the compound before I gave birth but they had us trapped. Shaw gave his life protecting us. Tala and I barley made it." Tami paused for a moment with her eyes closed. Doing everything she could to calm her broken heart and hold back the unshed tears.

"Every time I thought we were safe . . . he'd find us. Killing dozens of people in the process just trying to get to us. . . At first, I was trying to make my way back home, to the pack but seeing the c*****e he was capable of . . . I just couldn't do that to our pack. We were strong but not even close to being strong enough to go up against him."

"Who is after you?" Gela curiously asked.

"How was he able to keep finding you?" Rick asked looking at his fists that were balled together on the table. His knuckles turning white under the pressure.

"I don't know who he is. I never saw his face, I've never been able to uncover his name but I'll never forget his voice and his repugnant smell. I don't know how but he could sense Tala's wolf. He said she was a special type of wolf." Tami thought back to that horrific night. She thought she was finally safe.

"Tala was but a pup, almost three." She began. "We had been on the run the entire time. I was too scared to reach out to anyone. Too scared they would find her. We found this small town out of no where. It was quiet, cute." She smiled sadly. She could remember all of the wonderful people who lived there. "It was perfect. It had been almost a year. I know I shouldn't of." She shook her head slowly. "But I was so tired of running and I got comfortable. I thought I could be safe. That maybe they forgot or didn't care anymore. Oh how tragically wrong and naive I was. Quickly and swiftly they wiped out the entire town. Blood and c*****e scattered the streets." Tami could visualize it as if it were yesterday, her stomach turned at the thought it.

"A dear friend gave her life to make sure Tala and I got out. We came to Alarick right after. I didn't know where else to go." Tami's eyes were pleading in hopes that Rick would look at her. "I didn't know about what had happened until I got there. It took a while but we were both so happy and felt so safe. Soon two broken families became whole. But I couldn't risk the lives of these beautiful girls so I left with Tala and told Rick to build this farm out here, at this very spot, while I took care of loose ends."

"She traveled everywhere before coming to MY door." Tia pointed out. "Neither of us wanted Tala to be raised without her wolf but we couldn't find any protection spell strong enough to hid Tala's essence. Which even as a baby was strong. Stronger than I've ever seen. We only had one last option."

"But yet they found you anyway? How?" Rad asked. He could sense there was much that their old friends weren't telling them.

"I don't know. It's why I left. I was trying to find out who was after us, but I came back after I heard there was an actual attack on the house."

"When did this recent stuff start?" Gela asked.

"About a year ago, we kept finding wolf tracks all over the property and we had chased a few people off of our territory." Rick answered. At least this part he did know about.

"That's about the time that the rogues started their attacks for us as well." Rad added exchanging looks with Zeev.

"There's much that needs to be discussed but for now, we should all get some rest." Zeev instructed processing this new information.

Rad almost objected, he could sense something was off about this whole conversation. There was a lot that people weren't saying. Not just Tia and Tamika. Mind linking with Zeev told him that his alpha would explain soon.

Luke could feel the warm sun on his skin.

"Its so good to see your face!" Tala exclaimed running towards Luke and wrapping her arms around his neck. Hugging him briefly before letting go. Luke almost didn't want to let go. She felt so warm and he missed her so much. She led him by the hand to a large plaid fleece blanket. It was sprawled out in front of a small lake surrounded by dense forests.

Stopping for a moment Luke could feel an intense electrifying serge go through him as he watched his wolf Lycus emerge from his body. Running to the golden wolf beside Tala. Is that her wolf he wondered? Its coat was golden like the sun and shimmered in its light.

"Her name is Rudy." Tala answered as if reading his thoughts. "Isn't she beautiful?" she was scratching her ear. Rudy moved to greet Lycus. Both excited to see each other. Sniffing and playing.

"Where are we?" Luke asked as he settled down next to Tala. He knew this was a dream, but it felt so real.

"We're at a lake close to home. The girls and I used to come here all the time before the rogue attacks." Tala spoke softly as she moved towards Luke. His heart racing at their close proximity.

"Does this mean you're going to be ok or is this just a dream?"

"A little of both I guess . . . People call it many things but this place, it's both a dream and reality. Here and there, yet not anywhere. It helps souls connect. . .

A piece of me has been missing for so long. I needed to be here with her for a while. . . There's so much I need to understand. So much she needs to tell me and I her." She turned to look at Rudy. On instinct Rudy came to her, Lycus following closely behind. "The bond between you and your wolf is a sacred one. Gifted to us by the great deity Zalmoxe to protect others. I was denied this gift, I know why and its OK. Don't be mad at mother and Tia. They did all that they could to protect me in the only way they could. Now its time for me to connect to Rudy. She is my other half. Without her, I have been living in darkness but now I need to live in the light. She needs to be welcome into that light with me. She saved me from the brink of death and I just want to show her life. In the purest most beautiful forms."

"But I don't want to be away from you any longer." Luke sounded choked up.

"When will you come back to me?"

"I don't know. . . Being close to you, our wolves together, it makes me feel whole and at peace."

She kisses him gently goodbye before vanishing with Rudy leaving Luke's questions unanswered.