Rejected, unloved, and lost.

Chapter 8

Stuffing her drink and the packaged sandwich in her bag, she stalked from the room. Heading down towards the art block, Sky knew that the teachers wouldn’t mind her sitting in a classroom and drawing. Jaimie was off-campus today, some sports thing, Sky thought. Clearly, she couldn’t seek out Charlie, and Brooke was a traitorous b***h she wanted nothing to do with. Kailiani Might call by if she had work that needed finishing. Otherwise, she would be with the other coven bitches. Sky wasn’t particularly popular; the curse of being an elemental witch was too much power for the humans and apparently for her coven.

Settling herself on her usual corner table in her regular art room, she began to pull out supplies and her sketchbook. Sky was working on a series of images for a display; her theme was an enchanted forest, and she was currently planning out the next large piece in the series, a witchy wolf girl holding a bow and arrow surrounded by wolves. But she wasn’t sure what kind of wolf to use. She had a sheaf of reference images. Pulling out some scrap paper, she began to sketch. By the end of lunch, she had completed two rough sketches of wolves. These two, she decided, would be at the woman’s side. One was large, his back at her waist easily, his head nearly reaching her breast. It was predominantly grey, with a few black spots dotted here and there, the tip of an odd toe, one of his ears, and a bit of his tail. His fur was almost shaggy but not quite. Thick and luscious, for sure. The other wolf was much shorter, the top of her head reaching the woman’s hips. Her fur was jet black except for the tip of her tail, which was white. She had a sleek coat; it looked like a cat’s almost. Both wolves had bright blue eyes that looked like they were staring through you.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Skylar aged 19 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By this point, the food was gone. Sky was crying, angry, furious tears. Her body shook as she curled into a tighter ball between Kayla and Theo. Rylee had settled over Theo’s shoulder and onto Sky’s. She refused to not be touching Theo if it was an option. The twins could feel the pain Sky was experiencing telling them her story; her exhaustion was too apparent.

“Sky… I’m… I don’t know what to say,” Kayla began, her own eyes full of tears. Sky simply shook her head. There wasn’t really much that could be said. What had happened had happened, and no one could change the past.

“No one will hurt you like this again, definitely not while you have this pack and us. That I can promise you,” Theo told Sky, holding onto her tighter.

A blanket of dark had settled around them while Sky spoke. The only light was coming from the fire she had conjured to keep them warm. The trio decided to pack up; Sky was cold, even if she wouldn’t admit it. They had missed tea already, and pretty soon, someone would come looking for them all.

Once they were back at the pack house, Sky headed straight back up to her room; Rylee settled herself on the radiator. Being a fire elemental, she needed the heat. Sky kicked off her shoes and climbed into bed fully dressed, tears sliding down her face silently as the memories continued to flash across her mind. She didn’t even know how to tell the twins about the next few years of her life or if she could. She couldn’t bear it if they rejected her because of what she had done to herself. Sky didn’t know quite when they had become so important to her, she didn’t feel the mate bond like they did, but she couldn’t deny that the thought of being cast out by them was beyond painful. She knew she wouldn’t survive it.

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Downstairs, Theo pushed the door to his father’s office open, Kayla only moments behind her, having convinced one of the Omega’s in the kitchen to clean up their picnic things for her. Both had thrown their clothes on roughly and looked somewhat dishevelled, and clearly, hell must have frozen over because they seemed to be in agreement about something. “Father!” Theo barked, “we need to talk to you, now. About our mate”, he continued as he and Kayla made their way into Lorcan’s office. Standing shoulder to shoulder, well, Kayla’s shoulder to Theo’s upper arm, but who’s really measuring? It was the united front that they needed right now. Kayla was too angry to trust herself to speak, so she let her brother take the lead for once. “You will never suggest that she meets with another witch again. You will tell the coven that Skylar is not here. I,” Theo looked down at Kayla for her agreement before continuing. Knowing she would know exactly what he was planning without being told, they were twins, after all. “we will not have those people near her again”, Theo commanded. His powers had already strengthened, even though Sky and he had yet to complete the mating rituals. Lorcan knew that the witch wore his daughter’s mark but not his son’s. Lorcan thought that this could be further evidence of the witch’s deception.

“They are her people, and they will help her in ways we cannot”, Lorcan tried to reason with his children. “Plus, they may be able to get us the answers we need-”

“They will traumatise her further and reject her again because she does not fit into their narrow-minded boxes! If you continue with this plan and your assertions that my mate is somehow trying to trick me, you will leave us no choice but to leave the pack with her. She is terrified. Her coven treated her appallingly if her being here on her own didn’t give that away already,” Kayla cut over her father to announce before turning and flouncing away.

Lorcan stared at the still open door after his daughter. He didn’t quite know how to respond to that threat. “The girl needs to learn about her magic,” Lorcan said weakly.

“Find another way. Unless she asks for a witch to help her, I will not have my mate subjected to this again, and you will respect our wishes,” Theo finished before leaving the room, slamming the door shut behind him and heading upstairs; his voice may have been calm, but that was all Theo raged on the inside. He had been able to catch some of Sky’s distress, and he could hear Rylee chattering incessantly in his head. He had to try and help her, to go to her, even though he knew she might not want him.

When Theo knocked on the door, Kayla had already gotten to Sky’s room. “Wait there”, Kayla called out. Theo figured that Sky mustn’t have been decent. Kayla was closer to Sky than he was. Theo knew that Sky struggled to be too intimate with him; she wasn’t ready for him to mark her or take their relationship further than cuddling and the odd kiss. Theo was sure there was an explanation; if he wanted to hear it was another matter, he was just trying to be as patient as possible with her and let her set the pace. He did seem to spend an increasing amount of time sparring and running now.

Theo stood in the hallway for about 5 minutes before Sky opened the door for him. Her eyes were red and puffy; clearly, she had been crying. Her hair was messed up, and she had changed for bed already, wearing an oversized shirt of his that she “borrowed” on one of her early sleepovers before she moved in. Somehow, it had never been returned, but Theo didn’t mind. He knew it annoyed Kayla when Sky wore his clothes, Kayla didn’t like his scent on her mate, but Sky seemed to take more comfort from his scent than Kayla’s, which confused Theo a little because Sky seemed to be so much closer to Kayla. She fell against his chest, her hands against his shoulders. Physical contact always seemed to enhance their bond. Now Theo could feel her pain and distress clearly. Scooping her into his arms and carrying her to the bed. “It’s all going to be ok, my little butterfly; everything will be fine. We aren’t going to be going anywhere.” Sky snuggled closer into Theo’s chest as Kayla pulled off her jewellery and climbed into the bed on Sky’s other side, tugging Sky back into her embrace so that Theo could empty his pockets and take off his shoes and shirt.

Half asleep barely half an hour later, with Theo still whispering comfortingly in her ear while Kayla had wrapped her in a blanket and laid wrapped around her back, Sky waved her hand at the door. The twins saw the familiar light spring up over the room’s door and windows; they knew that the wards wouldn’t hurt them, but no one else could pass through them without permission. As Sky had said, in a house full of werewolves, a lock on a door was pointless. Everyone could break the lock with minimal effort, but they couldn’t avoid her magic.

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The morning after Sky had begun to tell the twins her story, she woke in bed with both twins; it was more like a pile of bodies like the twins had been fighting over her overnight. Theo had a death grip around Sky’s shoulders, holding her head against his chest, while Kayla was wrapped around her middle, her head on Sky’s back and her legs wrapped around Sky’s. Rylee had come over at some point, too. She was laid diagonally from Kayla’s shoulder to Theo’s, with her wings extended to their fullest extent. Sky felt like she was sleeping next to a bonfire. She was surrounded by heat; the twins and Rylee were all like radiators. Rylee huffed out a puff of smoke as she tried to move, and the twins both growled at her.

Flopping back down for a few minutes, she tried again, only to get the same response from everyone. “Seriously?” She huffed. Fighting again at the restraints of her mates and familiar. After struggling for a few more minutes, being growled at and huffed smoke at, Sky finally gave up. “You guys need to wake up before you boil me alive! Or do I need to shove you out of this bloody bed?” She growled back at the trio in general. Rylee opened her eyes and peeked at Sky before scampering onto the pillows and curling around Theo’s head. The twins were much slower to wake up; it took them a good few minutes to come round and start to peel themselves off Sky. “Oh, thank f**k for that”, Sky groaned as she scrambled from the bed and into the bathroom. Drinking a glass full of cold water before turning on the shower. “Thank you for staying with me, guys… but now I need a shower because you are like a pair of radiators, and you had me wrapped in blankets”, both Theo and Kayla grumbled at her, nodding sleepily. Sky knew that they both understood. They would need to be out of the room when she got out of the shower.