The Moon Goddess' mistake

10.Training

10.Training

Gabriella’s POV

After we said our goodbyes, me and Daniel we teleported to the plane where we were going to be trained. We both felt heavy inside but we knew we had to go through this. At least we had each other for support and we knew Nate and Cary had each other, too.

The training lasted 6 months. First month we were taught meditations and also we learned how the witch society worked. Witches were all connected to one element and that is how they were divided into clans. They were in sync with nature and that helped them manipulate the elements. They had mates too but they called them destiny. A witch’s destiny could be another witch or warlock and rarely (but not impossible) - another species like elf, werewolf, vampire, etc. They could find their destiny after they turn 19 and they recognize each other when they look into each other's eyes.  The moment they lock eyes their energy combines and it is almost impossible to resist the pull. There could be a rejection but there is a high risk of losing their gift but most witches and warlocks don't believe in rejection anyways, they are people of nature and rejection is against nature. If a child is born from a witch and warlock with different elements the child chooses one of the elements on their 16th birthday.

There are dark witches who use their gifts for evil but they are destinless. 

Witches live long - a couple of hundred years and their elders live even longer. I don’t wish to live that long without the love of my life next to me. Werewolves do live longer than humans but not as long as witches. Normally, if they don’t get killed in a battle, werewolves can live up to 150 years as we age slowly and don’t get diseases. 

Meditation is good for us, it teaches us how to control our emotions and the heaviness in our hearts. Daniel takes good care of me but also tries to give me space. He knows I am mourning the loss of my love and tries to keep me busy or make me smile with his silly jokes and sometimes he succeeds. Our main focus is on the training though. 

We are already pretty successful fighters but the witches are teaching us how to fight against magic, what are the weaknesses against each element. They taught us how to fight without having all of our senses. They would magically remove one sense - like sight, hearing or sense of smell, and we fight against them. We learned to work in sync pretty fast and sometimes we would fight 2 of our senses shut.

The witches conjured protection medallions for both of us which vibrates when it senses evil souls or bad intentions and even lies.

In the third month of our training they transferred some of their powers to us. It was unheard of for a werewolf to have magical powers and a witch would never share their gift but times were desperate we had Eos’s blessing to do so. Eos is Selene’s sister and mother of witches, vampires and other magical creatures. We trained with each element to determine which we felt most in tune with. Mine turned to be fire and Daniel’s - sun. When we chose our elements, Eos performed a blessing ceremony which eliminated the other elements we were gifted and were left with our chosen ones. 

The rest of the training was more intense. We meditated every morning then trained for two hours for different martial arts like Capoeira, Aikido, Karate, Kung-fu and Silat. After breakfast we learned about the Gods, Deities and Titans. Then we proceeded with two hours of running in wolf form at maximum speed and sparing after that. The witches got creative and conjured rouge attack simulations, chances and even war situations where we were heavily outnumbered. If we failed, they healed us and made us go at it again. After that we had lunch and half an hour break after it and back to training until dinner. We learned how to use our magic in wolf form but those abilities were stronger in our human forms. After dinner we had another meditation session and then went straight to bed exhausted. 

After the mate bond was broken, Calypso was broken just as much as me. She loved Atlas and Nate beyond the bond and we both felt the same way. We didn’t talk much but we were in sync, both focused on training to save Selene. It felt like all we had left was each other and even though we didn’t talk much we understood each other and became even closer. We were grateful for Daniel and his wolf Roden. They always took care of us and helped us whenever we were deep in our sadness and depression. I don’t know what we would do without them.

Third person’s POV

Nathaniel and Carolina’s training went the same way as Gabriella and Daniel’s. Nathaniel felt broken without his Gabriella. His wolf was not talking but they too decided to focus on the mission and training which brought the two souls that shared one body even closer. Nathaniel’s heart felt heavy knowing that after the training he was supposed to mate with Caroline. Not that she wasn’t attractive but he only had eyes for his Gabriella. He was close with Cary, they grew up together and he suspected that she had a crush on him when they were younger. He didn’t want to mislead her and hurt her feelings if she let herself fall in love with him.

Carolina and her wolf Tsunami also focused on training but she promised Gabriella to look after Nate and she tried to do that too without developing feelings for him. She knew his heart had no space for her, at least not in that way and she dreaded the mating ceremony as she knew that her love for him would deepen. Tsunami also felt depressed knowing that she would never find their mate but supported the mission. She has always had a good relationship with Atlas so she felt that if she had to lose her mate, Atlas would be the best replacement.

The witches made the same gifts and Eos blessed them with an element of their choice. Nathaniel chose water and Caroline - earth. They worked in sync and protected each other in the battle simulations. The last night before they had to go back to the Blue Moon pack, Nate asked Cary to have a private dinner together. She knew why. He wanted to talk to her about the mating and she was really nervous about it.

They ate dinner silently in a private dining room. When they finished eating, Nathaniel took a deep breath in and broke the silence.

“Cary, you know what comes for us tomorrow, right?”

She just nodded. Nate took her arms in his which made her blush and take a shaky breath in. 

“Cary, I am sorry that you are put in this position. After tomorrow you will lose the chance to be with your fated mate. You know how much I love Gabriella and I am afraid that I cannot promise you the love and affection that you deserve. We grew up together and care dearly for you and I will always protect you and care for you. I will be faithful to you and will respect you but this is all I can offer at this moment. I am deeply sorry, Caroline.” He was rubbing circles on the back of her hands while talking to her.

Cary took a steady breath in and looked Nate in the eyes.

“Nate, I know you and know what Gabriella means to you. You know how much she means to me too. This makes tomorrow twice worse for me. Because I will feel like betraying my sister.” Her tears rolled down her cheeks but she continued. “I know I will never replace Gabriella and I would never want to. I don’t want you to forget her, I don't want you to remove her pictures. I would not let you forget about her. I am grateful for your honesty and your respect and faithfulness is good enough for me. I promise you the same. I promised Ella that I will take care of you and I ask you to let me do that. We are in this together. Partners?” She smiled softly at him

“Thank you, Cary. I don’t think I would be able to do this without you” He stood up and hugged her. He felt warm and calmed by her words. Nate knew that this would not be as easy for her as she said but he really appreciated her words and devotion. He needed this support. 

Nate broke their hug and leaned his forehead on hers. They both closed their eyes, Cary’s heart started beating so fast, she felt it would jump out of her ribcage. Nate cupped her cheeks and touched her lips with his. Their lips started moving slowly against each other. The kiss was gentle, showing both their fears and pain. They broke the kiss and were surprised to see they both had tears on their faces. Cary brushed Nate’s tears with her soft fingers and he did the same for her while chuckling softly and hugged her again.

“Stay with me tonight, I don’t want to be alone.” Cary asked carefully and Nate nodded.