Fighting For My Mate (18+)

Chapter 11

Christa POV

”He's not gonna make it is he?”

Eli rushes over to me, takes me into his arms, and just holds me while I sob into his chest. I can feel him stroking my hair and rubbing his hand up and down my back. I don't know how long we stand like that but I cry until I don't have any more tears to shed. I cried so hard on Eli that his shirt is soaked, and I can’t stop hiccupping from crying so hard. I hate seeing Chase this way and I’m having flashbacks of losing my parents all over again. I look up at Eli and he kisses my forehead. His expression looks just as torn as mine does.

”Let’s go for a walk and get some air shall we?” Eli asks. I simply nod my head.

Once we step outside I can feel the light breeze dance across my skin. The crisp cool air feels really good right now, and I take a deep breath to fill my lungs with it. We walk along a path that leads deeper into the woods. I stop and look at Eli nervous to go any further.

”It’s ok; I want to show you my favorite spot. You're safe with me. I promise.”

We continue walking along the path and the further, we go the thicker the trees get until the path disappears and we are no longer on a path. The trees are all kinds of colors. It's a beautiful sight. Some of the leaves are brown, some are red, yellow, pink, green; it reminds me of Thanksgiving when we would celebrate with my parents. My mom would decorate the house with all sorts of fall decor inside and out. She would hang fall leaves around the front porch columns with little lights twinkling and pumpkins on the porch that we had carved out. She would have those scented pumpkin spice candles all around the house, so it always smelled homey, and we would all play board games in front of the fireplace.

As we get deeper into the woods, and it gets harder to walk through, Eli takes my hand to help me and make sure I don't trip and fall.

”Be careful. It's just a little bit further.”

I hold on to his arm for dear life as the root systems get thicker and I have to actually jump over them. As we get further in, all of a sudden, a clearing opens up. There before us is a beautiful hot spring with a river flowing by it. There are rocks and sticks built up so much that it blocks the river water from flowing into the spring. It went from fall colors all around to all green and lush grass and trees. I look at it in awe. All you can hear is the bustling of the trees, the birds chirping, and the river water rushing by. While the river water is moving fast, the hot spring is calm, and it has steam rising from the water. I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. Eli starts pulling off his shirt and unbuckling his pants.

”What are you doing?” I ask, looking shocked that he’s taking off his clothes.

”I’m going for a swim. What does it look like I’m doing?” He said with a mischievous grin. Then he starts taking off his boxers and I gasp and turn around so I can’t see him naked. I can hear him get into the water.

”You can turn around now!” He smirks, ”Come on in the water feels fantastic!”

”But I don't have a bathing suit!” I complain.

”Come in with just your underwear.” He chuckles.

”B-but you’ll see me.” I stutter.

”I won’t look. I promise.” He said.

He turns away from me and I sigh. I start peeling off my clothes quickly because it's chilly outside. I dip my foot in to check the temperature and then I slowly get in the rest of the way. It feels amazing. It's like sitting in a hot tub!

”Ok, you can look now.” I say. He looks at me and smiles.

”What do you think?” He asks.

”It’s beautiful here! It's so peaceful.”

”This is my secret place I come to when I need to clear my head. I’m the only one who knows it's here. Well, and now you.” He smiles.

”Why would you bring me here?” I question.

”I thought you could use it. Help take your mind off of everything right now.” He replies.

”Thank you. For everything, you didn't have to do all this.” I say.

”No need to thank me. I wanted to.”

He looks away from me like he's contemplating something. And then he looks back at me, and the tip of his mouth curves up as if he’s made a decision.

”You know I used to come here as a kid a lot. After my mom died I didn't really feel like talking to anyone, so I wandered out into the woods and found this place.” He looks out to the river as if remembering something. ”This place became my sanctuary. It was the place I would come to escape.”

”I’m sorry about your mom.” I say barely above a whisper.

”Thank you. It was a long time ago.”

”How did she pass away? If you don't mind me asking.” He frowned, and his face looked pained as he remembered.

”She was visiting a pack territory when they were attacked. She was trying to get the women and children to safety first, putting herself last like she always did, she got everyone to safety, but it was too late for her. The rogues caught up to her before she could get herself to safety.” He said sadly.

”How old were you?”

”I was 16 when it happened.”

I reached over and took his hand and just held it in mine to try and provide him some comfort. He smiles at me and I smile back. We sat there for a while just enjoying the sounds of the forest, the warmth of the spring, and each other's company. When we started getting wrinkly, Eli got out of the spring and put his clothes on, and grabbed a towel he had hidden.

”Come on let's dry you off now.” He reaches his hand out to me to help me out. I look at him with heat in my face, embarrassed.

”But you’ll see me!” I exclaimed. He chuckled.

”I’ll close my eyes. Come on, grab my hand.”

He closes his eyes with his hand held out to me. I hesitate, and then I take his hand, and he helps pull me out. He wraps the towel around my shoulders and turns me around. He pulls me to him in a big bear hug. We stay like that for a moment before he pulls back and rubs both his hands quickly up and down my shoulders, trying to warm me up. I’m standing there shivering, and my teeth are chattering.

”How are y-y-you not c-c-c-cold?”

”I’m a werewolf. Remember? We don't get cold.” He chuckles.

Once he gets me warmed up enough, he turns around so that I can get dressed. Once I’m finished, we start heading back to the packhouse.

**Eli**

Spending the day with Christa in my secret place was an amazing experience I got to have with her. While we were sitting in the hot spring, I decided I would tell her about what happened to my mother. I’ve never told anyone about her. In fact, after she passed away, my father and I didn’t even talk about her again. Her memory was just too painful. Christa is the first person I have spoken to about my mom, and it felt good to talk about her with the person I loved. The more time I spend with Christa the stronger my connection to her grows and I know she can feel it too. I love being able to hold her in my arms. When she’s with me, I feel like I am finally complete. I have finally found my other half.

**Eliza**

I’m at Monika’s house since the only one there is her. I went over there right after I was kicked out of Eli’s house.

”I can’t believe that b***h humiliated me in front of Eli!” I rant and rave at Monika. ”What the hell is she doing at the packhouse anyway! Aaahhhhh!” I scream, throwing a lamp towards the wall.

”You're going to have to pay for that you know! That lamp isn’t cheap!”

”f**k the lamp! That stupid b***h has now moved into MY territory and on to MY mate! I’m going to f*****g kill her!”

Monika sits on the couch unbothered by my tantrum. She just sits there looking at her nails as if she’s bored.

”Don’t f*****g just sit there! Say something, dammit!”

”We should have just taken care of her when we had a chance! But nooooo, little miss drama queen has to be sure to do things in the most dramatic way possible. We could have just gone to the house after we talked about it after we left the mall and pushed her down the stairs. Easy. She would have been out of our hair, and YOU could have been Luna.”

”Don’t you dare blame this on me! How was I supposed to know she’d end up at the packhouse in Eli’s home! She f*****g slept in his room with him! IN HIS BED! That f*****g w***e!” I take a deep breath to calm myself down.

”Well, she's going to be there for a while because Chase is in a coma, and Pete is staying at the packhouse to help train warriors.”

”Do you know what happened?” I ask, curious as to what is going on.”

”I don’t know much. Pete is being hush-hush about it. It has something to do with a ton of rogue warriors finding their way on our territory, but these aren’t just regular rogues. These rogues are organized like someone is giving them orders.”

”f**k! This is going to make it extremely hard for us to get to her. Eli is going to be watching her like a hawk because of this! I can’t go near her anymore, but that doesn't mean you can’t. You are still her ’family’ after all.”

”What are you proposing?” Monika asks.

”What if you get on her good side? Get her to trust you. It shouldn’t be too difficult. It's not like she has any friends, and she’ll probably open up to you easier with everything going on. Pete is too busy training warriors, so you can make an excuse that you want some sisterly time together to support each other through these ’Oh so difficult times.’ Offer to take her shopping to get her away from Eli. Once you get her away and in the car with you then ’oops you get into a bad car accident’ when I hit you with a rental car. It’ll be staged as a hit and run, but luckily for you, you're a werewolf, so you’ll heal quickly, but unfortunately, the accident would be so bad she couldn't survive.” I say smiling. Monika rolls her eyes.

”Ugh, just thinking about having to be nice to her makes me sick, but I have to admit that plan is brilliant! It’ll be just a tragic accident. I’ll tell everyone there wasn’t anything I could do for her. Shed some fake tears and help Pete move on with his life.” We both laugh and set our plan into motion.