Ash And Ember The Wolf / Witch Hybrid

Chapter 2

As they entered the Keep, Sharra let go of Marlin's arm and immediately headed for the kitchen while the rest of the group went into the first-floor study. The study was a rather large room that had hundreds of books on the west wall. Two stained glass windows with a large clear window separating them on the east wall, and a huge fireplace on the south wall with various tapestries on either side of it. The two stained glass windows were beautifully crafted, one of a woman with blonde hair wearing white robes holding different herbs over a steaming cauldron and the other of an older man with shoulder-length silver hair and a short silver beard pointing at a page of a book on a pedestal beside him and looking in the direction of the woman's window. When the sun rose and shined through them, it almost seemed like the two were alive and making a potion together.

The rest of the room was rather ordinary compared to the windows. There were three brown leather couches in the middle of the room all facing each other, circling around a small coffee table made of chestnut. The floors were hardwood with a couple of red rugs, one under the couches and coffee table and the other under the mahogany desk and black leather chair that was close to the fireplace. Of all the rooms in the castle, this was Ash's favorite room besides the kitchen.

As the group went into the study, everyone started to sit on the couches and get comfortable. A few of the council members started having a casual conversation about some of the daily affairs, and Marlin guided Ash to one of the couches and gestured for her to have a seat. She opened her mouth to say something, but he stopped her.

" Remember, child, you need to rest your voice. You don't want to permanently damage it, now do you?" He softly reminded her.

Ash shook her head no, and then suddenly remembered that she kept a pencil and notepad in the desk for when she would study in here and quickly went to retrieve them. When she made it back to the couches, everyone was silent again, as if waiting for her to say something. She sat down in the middle of the couch that Marlin had taken her too and quickly wrote a note and handed it to him to read out loud.

"Where is Sharra?" Marlin read the note loud enough for everyone to hear. "She went to the kitchen to make some tea to help heal your throat." He smiled as if it was obvious.

Ash mouthed a small "Oh". She had forgotten that Sharra was gifted with herbs and could make different teas to heal just about anything. Except for when it came to her. Just as another question popped into Ash’s mind, the door to the study opened and Sharra, along with four of the girls that worked in the kitchen, came in, each with a tray in their hands. Sharra's tray had a small teapot and a single teacup on it, while two of the girls carried trays with a large pot and three cups on each and the other two carried trays with food on them. One of the food trays had an assortment of cold cut meats, cheeses and crackers on it, while the other had little sandwiches cut into triangles on it. As one of the council women saw the procession of trays, she looked at the coffee table and waved her hand over it.

The coffee table shuddered and started becoming larger and filling up the space in front of the couches. It became just tall enough and wide enough for everyone to be able to use it while they sat comfortably on the couches. When the table finally stopped moving, the four girls placed their trays on it and left the room, while Sharra set her tray down in front of Ash and took a seat beside her. Ash looked at her tray and then looked at the food and her stomach loudly grumbled, reminding her that she hadn't eaten since breakfast that morning.

" After you drink a cup of tea you can eat." Shara was smiling as she poured Ash a cup of tea. Ash frowned and reached for a piece of cheese, but the tray zipped over to the other end of the table before she could grab it. "I said tea first." Sharra chuckled.

Ash huffed and picked up the cup of tea. She should have known that Sharra would have enchanted the trays so that she wouldn't be able to get anything but her tea first, but still it was worth a try. As she brought the cup up to her lips, she took a deep breath through her nose and inhaled the scent of the herbal concoction that she was about to drink. Much to her surprise, the tea smelled wonderful, with hints of lemon, sage and ginger root. She took a sip and was shocked that it tasted as good as it smelled. When she was younger, Sharra always made a foul-tasting concoction that she had to drink when she was ill. But this was delicious and made her want more. As soon as she finished her tea, she held her cup out to Sharra for more.

" If you want more you have to ask for it." Sharra firmly told her with a mischievous smile on her face.

Ash looked at Sharra as if she had just lost her mind. She had never known of one of Sharra's concoctions that worked almost instantly for her. She pointed to her throat and shook her head as to remind Sharra of her injured voice. Her throat no longer hurt but she wasn't ready to test her voice yet.

" Just try to say something, little one." Shara said with an annoyed edge in her tone. Ash looked at Sharra and let out a sigh of defeat. She knew better than to argue.

" Can I have some more tea please?" Ash's voice sounded like nothing had even happened to it." This is amazing Sharra, how did you do it?"

" One of the books that we sent you to get was on herbs and other cures for wolves." Sharra was beaming with pride on her ability to make the tea correctly. " Apparently, wolves don't respond the same as witches when it comes to certain herbs."

" Is that why you always seemed a little frustrated when I got sick as a child?" Ash was finally starting to understand why it took so long to get better.

"Yes, it is." Sharra shook her head as if trying to get a thought to go away. "But right now, we have more urgent matters to discuss. John, whenever you're ready."

Everyone's attention shifted to John and saw that he had just taken a bite out of one of the sandwiches. The sandwich was still in his mouth, and he looked at Sharra like he was a deer caught in the headlights. Everyone started chuckling as he slowly started chewing his food, still wide-eyed, looking at Sharra. She sighed and shook her head as the soft smile spread across her lips. After a moment, John finished the food in his mouth and got a drink of his coffee before he looked at Ash to start explaining everything.

" I know that you are angry about the decision we made earlier. But now, because of tonight's events, we have decided that it would be in your best interest that you stay here and start training." John stated bluntly.

" What do you mean by 'tonight's events'?" Ash tried to keep the anger out of her voice. Just a few hours ago, they were trying to push her off on some wolf pack and now, after one little storm, they want her to stay.

" Just hear me out before you get too worked up, please." John had put his hands in the air as if to surrender. He clearly had no interest in arguing or fighting with her. "The storm that came tonight was no regular storm."

Ash stopped and stared at John with wide-eyed disbelief. He couldn't have just said what she thought he had said. Every supernatural being knows that only the most powerful and dangerous beings could and would willingly manipulate the weather. Does this mean that someone is trying to kill her? Does she pose a threat to those around her? Her mind started buzzing with so many different questions that she started to feel dizzy. She shivered as fear and panic started to set in.

" I know that this is a lot to take in and you must have a million questions, but you are safe here." John said, trying to be as comforting and reassuring as he could be.

" How do you know?" Ash's voice was trembling with fear.

" Because only one person could have conjured this type of storm, and we know who it was." Sharra gently said while rubbing Ash's back and trying to soothe her.

"Wait, what do you mean by this 'type' of storm?" Ember growled as she pushed her way to the front of Ash's mind and was demanding answers. Ash was so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn't even realized that Ember was pushing further and farther to the front. "And who conjured it?"

" Ember, nothing good will come from losing your temper without knowing the full story. So sit back and listen." Marlin had finally decided it was time to intervene, seeing that Ash was unable to control Ember.

" Yes Marlin," Ember replied and slowly started to recede just far enough into the back of Ash’s mind to where she wouldn’t shift, but she could still hear everything that was being said. In Ember's eyes, Marlin was the equivalent to an alpha, so she obeyed him. Even when he was being obscure about what he wanted. After Ash had regained control, she gave everyone a small, apologetic smile and nodded for John to continue.

" The storm is simply known as a hate storm. It only appears when someone with magical abilities lets out so much hate, anger and pain into the sky that it manifests into a physical storm. And seeing that there was only one person screaming at the sky for thirty minutes, it was rather easy to figure out who had conjured it." John explained.

"How? " Was the only thing that Ash could ask. She didn't understand how she could conjure anything. Wolves don't have that kind of magic. Their magic was simply being able to shift.

" Well, my little one, that's why we've been sending you all over the world." Sharra placed her hand on top of Ash's and gave it a reassuring squeeze. "The books that you have been going and getting for us are about you. We have suspected that you are a special wolf ever since your mother brought you here. The books were, more or less, just confirmation of it. Well, those and the storm tonight."

" You see Ash, when your mother brought you here, she was running from a warlock that wanted to take you from her." John calmly started to explain as he saw the confusion in Ash's eyes. "The warlock believed that he was your father and wanted to take you for his own evil gains. So, she ran here for protection."

Tears started to trickle out of Ash's eyes as she realized what John was saying. Her entire life she always wondered why her mother abandoned her and they never told her the truth. She knew she still wasn't getting the whole truth, but maybe they were sparing her some gory detail that she really did not want to know.

"Why is a warlock after me, and why does he think he is my father?" Ash's voice was trembling and weak, not really wanting to know the answer.

There was a long-drawn-out silence as everyone looked at each other as if trying to find the easiest way to tell Ash the truth. No one wanted to be the one to tell her what had truly happened to her mother. And there was still a small hope that she was a male wolf's daughter also.

" It was bad, wasn't it?" Ash finally broke the silence, understanding what they weren't saying.

" Yes, it was Ash." Vladimir spoke up. "And with tonight's events it seems that he was at least partially correct about being your father. We still don't know everything about how this happened, but some of the books have explained that it is possible for a wolf to have two fathers."

"But what happened to my mother after she left?" Ash desperately wanted to hear that she had returned to her pack and was safe.

"We don't know," Sharra quietly responded, looking down at the table and fidgeting with her hands wishing that this conversation never had to happen.

"We only know what pack she belonged to, and that was the pack we were going to send you to." Marlin had finally decided that it was time to share the details about what they knew with her.

"We know that she was the alpha of the pack and that her mate, who is now the alpha, could also be your father. But we haven't tried to make contact with them before now, because we were not sure if you had the warlock's blood in you." He continued.

"So, you all have known this entire time where the other part of my family was and just never told me about it." Ash was starting to get angrier as the information kept coming at her.

"Unfortunately, it was for the safety of the pack and you," Vladimir stated. His voice was cold as ice with no emotion sending a shiver down Ash's spine. "We were following your mother's instructions. But if you had not shown any magical abilities by your twenty-first birthday, then you would go back to your pack and live the life of a normal wolf."

Ash was furious. How dare they lie to her about her family? Who cares about whatever instructions were left by her birth mother? They could have told her everything when Ember awakened and given her the choice of what to do. But they kept this a secret from her. She had no clue how to be a wolf in a pack, let alone what it was like to be born to an alpha. The only thing that she wanted right now was to run and get away from everyone.

"I know you would have wanted to know all of this sooner, but we didn't have as much information as necessary until two weeks ago," Vladimir continued. "We couldn't just let you go to your pack and put everyone in danger if you did have magical abilities."

"How would I have put anyone in danger? You didn't even know until I accidentally conjured that hate storm tonight? " Ash was almost yelling. After a few seconds she realized what she had just said and started sobbing into her hands. Sharra pulled her over and hugged her, trying to soothe her, but Ash just sobbed harder at the thought of accidentally killing a whole pack of wolves.

"This was the main reason why we didn't tell you. The other reason is the warlock, who is your other father. If he was willing to kill to get his hands on you as an infant, then we couldn't risk him knowing that you are still alive. We only wanted what was best for you." Sharra softly rubbed Ash's back trying to calm her down. "But now that we know, we can start teaching you how to control your magic, so you won't unintentionally hurt someone with it."

"We will also inform the alpha of the wolf pack about the situation and see if they might be willing to come here and train Ember." Marlin says, trying to offer what comfort he can. At hearing this, Ember was delighted and wished that she could push Ash to say something.

"You see, they love us and want to help us," Ember softly told Ash.

"I'm so confused right now, Ember. I want to be mad at them for lying and keeping secrets, but I know that I shouldn't be. What do we do?" Ash finally replied to Ember, but no one else.

"Your training needs to come first. Once you learn to control your magic, then we can start my training. But I agree that it is best to do it here, no one will let you hurt someone here." Ember replied with such determination that Ash could feel her own strength growing.

"OK, we will train here." Ash sat up and told the council. "Ember and I both agree that, for safety reasons, I should learn how to control my magic first."

"That was the plan," Vladimir scoffed, as if it was obvious.

"Vladimir, be nice." Tonia finally piped up. "She has had a trying and confusing day. And as an adult, she has every right to voice how she wants to be trained without you being condescending towards her."

The room was silent as Vladimir and Tonia glared at each other. They were the perfect example of opposites attract. He was logical and cold, while she was warm and empathetic. Why the Goddess paired those two together no one knows. But one thing was for sure, they truly loved each other.

"Well, if we all have a say here, I think we should still send her to the wolves. Let them take care of their own," Brenda sneered as she stood up. She had always looked down on Ash, and never wanted her here to begin with.

"We already know what your opinion is, Brenda." Tonia rolled her eyes as she emphasized her words. "But we have to break that stupid cycle and help ALL supernatural beings. And Ash is part witch, so technically she is one of our own."

Everyone was looking at Brenda as if waiting for her to say something else, but she instead quietly walked out of the room. John looked irritated and worried at the same time. He knew that nothing good would come of this. He was in a particularly hard spot. Brenda was his fated one but there was no love in his heart for her, and he would have to deal with her bad mood when things were over for the night.

"I'm sorry, John. I just can't stand that woman and couldn't hold my tongue anymore." Tonia never meant to hurt him.

"It's ok Tonia. You know how she is and honestly I don't want you to feel bad about this, she should." John gave her a reassuring smile. "Now, since everyone in the room is in agreement that Ash will stay with us and train. We should probably start first thing in the morning."

"I agree," Vladimir stated, then looked at John. "Just so you know, there are some open rooms on the second-floor east wing if you want one."

"I already have one made up for me." John let out a laugh and shook his head. He always had a spare room to stay in on their bad nights, and Vladimir was always there to help John when he needed it.

"Well, with everything settled, I think it's time for all of us to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be busy for everyone." Marlin stood and stretched.

"Wait, food first. I'm starving." Ash said, staring at the tray with meat and cheese.

Everyone chuckled and Sharra waved her hand to the food trays to bring them over so that Ash could finally eat. Everyone else started chatting about where they should start with her training and which element she would be able to control. After Ash finished eating, the trays disappeared, and the coffee table shrank back to its normal size. Everyone said their good nights and went their separate ways. As Ash went back to her room, she couldn’t shake the ominous feeling that something was wrong, but she laid down on her bed and instantly fell asleep.