Page 23 of Rejected Sold Mate (Crystal Creek Wolves #4)

The spark of magic should have thrilled Rhie. Hell, it thrilled me, and its appearance had the welcome side effect of overshadowing any awkwardness that might have come the morning after Rhie’s heat.

Sleeping with her again had been so much more intense, so intimate, so incredible that it had thrown me through a loop.

I’d expected the connection between us to grow afterwards, but I hadn’t expected just how powerful it would become.

When I looked inside and touched our mating bond, it glowed, strong and golden.

I knew it had to be the same for her, but neither of us mentioned it.

We weren’t afraid to fuck, but apparently, we were both too much of cowards to talk about what happened next. Which was why focusing on the magic, as unexpected as it was, turned out to be a lot easier.

Well, for me, at least.

For Rhie, it probably couldn’t have come at a worse time.

She’d just spilled her guts about how magic had torn apart her family and pack, and then suddenly it was sparkling from the tips of her fingers like miniature fireworks.

A complicated mixture of disbelief and horror had crossed her beautiful face, but after she admitted what it was, Rhie swiftly buried her face in my chest and willed herself to sleep.

We were both exhausted after two rounds together, but her heart was racing for a long time after her eyes closed, and I knew she was faking it for a while.

Anything to avoid acknowledging her new reality.

She wanted to pretend that it hadn’t happened, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

It made sense, in a way. The Lunas of the other three packs in the alliance were witches, so it only made sense that the mating bond between Rhie and me would help, and latent power she might have had manifested.

It should have been something beautiful for her to bond with her friends over, but instead, she shut down any mention of it, doing everything but plugging her own ears to avoid talking about it.

Over the next two days, Rhie kept herself busy.

She cleaned things that didn’t need to be cleaned, prepped an absurd number of meals, and hid in her loft to paint…

or at least she said she was painting. The two times I checked up on her, she was curled up on the lounge chair in the corner, reading, her work for the day long finished.

She was avoiding her magic, and she was avoiding me, because she could tell I wanted to talk about it.

I couldn’t blame her, not after what she had been through, but I also couldn’t leave my mate on the borderline between excitement and fear, never able to decide which way she was going to fall.

What her father had done…it hadn’t just cost lives.

It had left deep scars on his daughter's soul, and despite the years that had passed, they were still causing her so much pain.

Still, it killed me to see her pushing away something that was her birthright.

A gift that would have been celebrated under any other circumstance.

A witch’s magic could be wild and brilliant, and it could help to strengthen a pack in all sorts of subtle ways.

It was like her magic had just been waiting for her to be ready before it appeared, but even when it fell right into her lap, Rhie was going to turn her face away.

If she wasn’t going to make a decision on what to do, I’d have to do it for her. I waited for her to leave the house on some errand, grabbed my phone, and made three separate calls.

***

The following afternoon, Rhie must have sensed that I was planning something, because she’d been hiding in the bathroom for an extended period of time.

Finally, I gave up on giving her space and knocked on the door. “Are you good in there?”

“I’m surviving,” she snapped, but there was no real anger in her voice.

“Put on something warm. We’re going out.”

There was a long pause, followed by a resigned sigh. “Is this a kidnapping?”

“Yes. A scenic one.”

Rhie sighed again, but I left her alone.

After about twenty minutes, she appeared in the kitchen where I had been waiting, hair piled on the top of her head, and wearing a matching yoga set and hoodie.

She looked so tired that it made me sad, and I almost considered letting her off the hook.

My sweet mate hadn’t been sleeping in my room since her heat, and it was clear to me she hadn't really been sleeping at all.

Well, if it was worry about her magic keeping her up at night, I was ready to fix that for her. “Ready?”

Rhie bit her bottom lip, apprehensive. “This isn’t a pack activity, is it?”

“Nope.”

She exhaled, shoulders sagging. “Good. Then I guess I’m ready. Lead the way, almighty Alpha.”

***

I’d picked a spot on the eastern side of my territory, not too far away that the other Alphas would bite my head off for having their Lunas out in the middle of nowhere, but secluded enough that Rhie would be comfortable.

It was a peaceful stretch of grass beside a stream, dotted with early-autumn wildflowers, as the leaves of the trees began to turn.

We’d used it for a few pack ceremonies—bondings and birth celebrations—so power had already seeped into the ground.

Rhie had asked over and over again on the hike where we were going, but I’d stayed silent, even when she started to fume.

When we reached the clearing, I slowed and let Rhie go ahead of me. She glared at me suspiciously, but pushed forward, coming to a stumbling stop when she saw what was waiting for her.

Two women were already there, Kiera and Gwen, sitting on a large plaid blanket with a spell bowl and a few bundles of herbs in front of them. They were both beaming up at Rhie, their smiles almost giddy.

Rhie whipped around to me, “What is going on?”

I reached up to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, even as she batted my hand away. “I think you’ve already put two and two together, mate.”

“You should have asked me first.”

“They wanted to help.”

“I don’t want any help,” she hissed, but I could already see the defeat in the way she held her shoulders. Her friends had come all the way to her new territory to help her, and she wasn’t going to turn them away. “I thought this was just between me and you, Jayce.”

I lowered my voice so only she could hear, “I only told them that something had sparked for you, and that you might need some support, because you’ve got a complicated history with magic. Nothing more, I swear.”

Rhie swallowed, turning around as Kiera approached her to pull her into a careful hug. “There’s no pressure,” the Saltfang Luna said, “But if you ever wondered what you could do, or what that little missing piece of yourself might be, this is a good place to start.”

Rhie blinked rapidly, her eyes suspiciously bright as she hugged her friend back. “It’s…it’s so tangled up for me, Kiera.”

Gwen spoke up from where she was still seated on the ground. “I know magic doesn’t always feel safe, but it can be, as long as you pace yourself.”

“But…what if I lose control? What if I hurt someone?”

Kiera pulled back, holding Rhie by her shoulders. “Then you’re in luck, because you’ve got two very capable witches here with you. And if all else fails, we’re both pretty darn good at healing spells.”

Tentatively, Rhie nodded, clasping her hands in front of herself. “And you won’t leave me if things get ugly?” She turned back to me, “Any of you?”

“I’ll be right here to catch you if you need it,” I swore, stepping back to the edge of the clearing to give the three of them space. “You’ve got this.”

All three women sat on the blanket, but I stayed on my feet, muscles tensed and ready to jump in if something went wrong.

I’d been around magic before—there were a few older witches in my pack—but I worried about Rhie, not the power she wielded.

If she panicked, I’d step in. I wasn’t afraid, but I was concerned about my mate’s heart.

She was obviously cautious at first, her movements stiff, her pupils wide with fear.

I could already feel the power crackling in the air around us, which made Kiera and Gwen frown, but then they led Rhie through a grounding ritual.

They moved her through it, slow and steady, until the energy in the atmosphere ebbed and Rhie’s shoulders stopped being so tense.

When she opened her eyes, her pupils were back to normal, her breathing nice and even. She was ready.

Kiera and Gwen were endlessly patient and gentle with her, making her laugh when things started to feel heavy, and layering on the encouragement when she needed it.

They built a small fire in the bowl, sprinkling herbs in, explaining that the fire would help her harness her magic in the beginning, but she wouldn’t need it anymore once she was confident in calling her power forth.

Rhie inhaled and exhaled slowly, holding her hands up, palms open to the sky. Something shifted in the air, but instead of the manic energy of before, it was calm and controlled. The fire flickered, Rhie closed her eyes…

And her hands began to glow. The shimmer arced between her fingers, pale in the sunlight, graceful as it wrapped around her wrists and upper arms, almost like a greeting.

“Open your eyes,” Kiera breathed, and Rhie did so, gasping at what she saw.

For a long moment, Rhie just looked at the magic in her hands, her expression blank. Then, slowly, she began to smile in wonder. Her joy fed into the magic, and it grew, pure but totally under Rhie’s control.

Something in my own chest twisted, and it took me a second to realize that it was pride.

I was so damned proud of my mate.

The other two witches stood, coaxing Rhie to her feet, and she moved about the clearing, letting her magic curl up into the trees and all around the three of them.

A tendril coiled forward, nearly brushing my face, and Rhie laughed, her eyes meeting mine.

Cheeks flushed, she was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.

I knew in that instant that I’d remember that moment for the rest of my life.

Everything between Rhie and me had been leading to that clearing, her newfound trust in herself, and the healing she had finally been gifted.

Kiera and Gwen laughed with her, and when the magic flowed back into her fingertips like strands of moonlight, they hugged her close.

The energy in the air dissipated, and the fire went out. In the quiet that followed, Rhie came to me, looping her arms around my neck and embracing me, her body quivering from the adrenaline of her first casting.

“Thank you,” she whispered, the words just for her and me. “Thank you, Jayce. Thank you.”