The Elemental Mate

Chapter 12

Xander POV

I run my hand through my hair, a nervous habit I've been developing. I understand her being scared, but I'm her mate. How can I protect her, if I don't know everything?

I focus my eyes back on hers, her soft blue eyes pleading at me to let it go, but I know I can't. Not when she's in danger, "When Iris finds out you're here, she'll come for you. The witches have kept to themselves for years, and now she has threatened every pack just to find you. I need to know why."

She shakes her head at that, "Knowing won't change that. It won't stop Iris from hunting me till the ends of the Earth."

I reach out to her, placing my palm against the side of her face, "Aurora, please."

She closes her eyes at the touch before taking a breath, her eyes holding mine captive, "Since the moment I woke up, you have been giving me this look," she starts, "The same look your giving me right now."

"Which look is that?" I place my other hand on her waist, drawing us closer together again. My eyes never leave hers as the sparks radiate through my body at having my mate so close to me.

"Like-" she starts, but she can't form the words. She shakes her head slightly, breaking eye contact in the process, "Like I could one day be your world."

I know I'm smiling as she says it because I know its completely true. My beautiful and strong mate, "That day is probably coming sooner than you would expect," I tell her honestly.

She lifts her eyes to mine again as I say that, but what I thought would be happiness in those soft blues was pain and hurt, "Don't say that."

"Why not?"

"Because you say that now, but once you know," she struggles out, her voice cracking, "You won't feel that way anymore."

I am taking back at her words. My strong mate was terrified of her past because she thought it would change how I would feel about her.

"Aurora," I bring my other hand up to hold her face between my palms. My thumb rubbing smooth circles into her delicate skin, "There is nothing you could possibly tell me that will ever change my feelings for you. You are my soulmate."

"Doesn't mean you can't change your mind," she mumbles, still not convinced, "I-"

I cut her off as I drew her in for a kiss. My lips covered hers in a bruising kiss. Her hands wrapped around my forearms as I moved her even closer to me, my lips never moving from hers. I pushed ever feeling I had into that kiss.

I finally pulled back, placing my forehead against hers, "I won't change my mind, Aurora."

She looks at me as if trying to find any sign of deception, but she won't find any. She needs to know that I am here and I'm not going anywhere, "No matter what you tell me, I will still be here," she nodded before she let out a sigh, "What coven law did you break?"

She takes a deep breath before answering, "I murdered someone."

*****

After Aurora said those words, I pulled her over to the family room and sat her on the couch. Of all the laws she could have broken, that was not one I had expected her to say. She was so gentle and quiet; I can't imagine her harming a single soul.

We stayed in silence as she let me gather my thoughts. I feel guilt and sadness wash over me as her thoughts start running rampant. I couldn't make out any clear thoughts since we haven't fully bonded, but the emotions I could feel spoke volumes. She thought I had changed my mind.

"I'm not going anywhere," I tell her, "Tell me what happened?" I start, grabbing a hold of her hand to try and show her I mean it.

She kept her eyes on our hands as I rubbed my thumbs in little circles of the back of them, another habit I have developed and one that I love even more every time I feel the movements calm my mate.

It was almost five minutes before she answered me, "Growing up in the coven, we were taught to put the coven above all else. No matter what spells we performed or what magic we used, if it was for the protection of the coven, it wouldn't matter. Even if we used dark magic.

About two years ago, the coven was attacked by a family of vampires. We lost over 30 witches in the slaughter, so no one questioned when our high warlock, Francis, started to use dark magic. He said it was to protect the coven and keep us strong, so if the vampires were to ever return, we would stop them.

But when a witch uses dark magic for too long, it starts to eat away at the soul, until all you crave is the power the darkness brings; and as time went by, he started to crave more. More magic, more power. The rituals he would perform became filled with sacrifice and blood.

When the council took notice, they put a stop to him. They purified his soul and cleansed the dark magic from him. At least, that's what we were led to believe. Three months went by, and life had gone back to how it was before. We thought it was over, but we were wrong.

I discovered the bodies. A group of our girls had gone on a school trip, and they were supposed to have left that morning. Instead, I found them on the front lawn; their bodies completely drained of blood.

That night, Francis declared that if we wanted revenge for what the vampires did to those girls, we needed to make a sacrifice, we needed to gain more power. We needed dark magic.

Over the course of two months, thirteen more girls were found. Each of them drained. The last one we found was my little sister's, Tara. She was only ten when she died. When my brother found out, he left the coven, his grief over failing to protect her too much.

I went to Francis that night, to try to find answers on how this had happened, but I discovered something worse. I saw our high warlock, the one charged with protecting the coven above all else, murder a witch and I knew. He drained the blood from those girls so he could channel them and then blamed it on the vampires.

When he saw me, he tried to kill me too. But I was stronger than him. I killed him where he stood, ignited ever cell in his body until he was nothing but a pile of ash. I killed him because he was a monster, and I became a monster for it."

I pulled her face up to face me, "You are not a monster. Killing him was self-defense."

"I'm not a monster because I killed him, Xander," she tells me, "I'm one because I didn't hesitate in doing it, I didn't even think about it before after he was dead. Then when he was dead, I felt no remorse over my actions. I felt no regret."

I feel sadness wash over me from her, "You are the strongest person I have ever met, Aurora. You stopped a true monster from hurting any more people. You have nothing to be ashamed about."

I pulled her closer until she sat on my lap, her face against my neck. I held onto her with everything I had, proving to her that she wasn't going to lose me because of what she did. I am keeping my promise and I am not going anywhere.

After about an hour, sitting in silence, another question comes to my mind, "Aurora, may I ask something else?"

She pulls away from my chest, nodded, "Go ahead."

"If the coven knows what Francis did to those girls, why is Iris still hunting you? You were protecting the coven."

She lets out a sigh, "Because Francis was her husband."