Once Scorched Always Safe

Moving Forward With Steady Resolve

Thad been back home for three weeks now, Sebastion had isolated himself from everyone but face and his sister. He was in a rage for the first few dans, angry that she hadn’t tried harder to get Rayne to come with them, though she hadn’t tried at all and he didn’t need to know that. After coming bock from Rishe’s bat, she had everyone pack up the camp so they could leave by sunrise. The original plan was to stay for a few more days, but after his reaction to Sayme and Parker, Arianna wanted to be as far away from Bodega Bay when the spell Arabella cast wore off,

They made it home before he woke, which made her relax slightly, but her nerves were still on high alert knowing that Rayne was only twelve hours away. She could tell that Sebastion was forming a plan to go back and get his mate, so she was trying to find a compromise. After talking to Rayne for hkins, Artarnu knew that her heart was not open to giving Sebastion a chance. She didn’t blame her based on their past interactions, but they were soul mates, she believed that they both needed to give that band a chance to be what the Moon Goddess meant it to be..

How to convince Rayne of that, she had no idea, but right this moment her priority needed to be getting Sebastion to do the things he said he wanted to do. They had new wolves to welcome into the park, Laura Murphy and her family arrived yesterday, and both doctors the day before. There was so much to do within the pack, and she needed Sebastion to shove his issues aside for now and help her do his job. He was the pack Alpha.

He still hadn’t dealt with Gia, that woman was still in a room downstairs under guard, not once had she asked to see her son. Jace was thriving despite his parents, Sebastion had kept his word, he was so gentle and loving to Jace. He was patient as they worked with Flint and the builders on the little treehouse in the mansions backyard Jace had demanded a rope ladder, but on the first trip up the regular ladder he fell off, skinning his knee.

Sebastion had gone straight into overprotective daddy mode, scooping him up as he ran them both to the doctor, only to be told that lace would be just fine. He had insisted on applying the band–aid himself, Jace demanding to try again. They both compromised on a small set of stairs. They would add the ladder or both ladders later as face and Calista grew, Arianna was impressed with how far Sebastion had come with his son in only three weeks.

There had to be something that she could do for him to get through that mass of pain he was feeling at being rejected by his soul mate. Even if he didn’t accept her rejection and the bond was still there, he was in pain knowing that Rayne loved another man. Rayne loved Parker with her whole heart, something that Sebastion was having a very hard time coming to terms with. Arianna couldn’t fully understand his pain, as she and her mate Flynn were very happy, she couldn’t imagine the feeling of being rejected by him. Despite not being fully able to understand his feelings, she felt them through their twin bond. Sometimes he would close their link, other times he forgot, and she felt it all.

Her heart hurt for his pain, but Sebastion put himself in this position by his selfish actions, by his cruel words to an already beaten down girl he didn’t even know. Maybe had be shown just a few ounces of kindness to her that night, rather than make demands and say such hurtful things. Rayne might have been just a little more receptive. Arianna knew that he would have to prove himself to Rayne, but how was he going to do that if Rayne was already so closed off and committed to Parker as she was.

That was a conundrum that she would have to figure out later, but now she had more pressing matters. They had a pack initiation ceremony in a few hours. No one had seen or heard from Sebastion since breakfast, so it was time to send Flint out to find him. She had things to set up and a barbecue to organize in later tonight. Her brother needed to get his head together or he would lose more than his mate.

Arianna walked into the kitchen to find Calista giggling on the island counter with her little hands covered in flour as she was trying to help Alice bake a cake for the ceremony tonight. She had flour and cake batter smeared on her face as she stirred the batter in the bowl. A grin split her face as she spotted her mother.

“Monima, want to help make a cake?”

Arianna laughed as she walked to the counter, “No baby, and you can’t either, we have to get you cleaned up for the

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party

“But momma I wanna make a cake with Alice!!” Calista cried.

“How about just you and me make cakes and cupcakes tomorrow, we can spend all day in here?”

*Promise?*

“Yes, I promise. Now come here and let’s go get you cleaned up, then we can go find lace and blow up some balloons.”

“Yay balloons!!” Calista held her arms out for her mother to pick her up.

Arianna tonk Calista to their wing of the mansion, spent the next hour fighting her child to behave in the hath and not splash water all over the floor, in the end, she was soaked and had to change tou. By the time they found face, got the balloons decorated around the room, it was thirty minutes until the ceremony was to start. Pack member started filing in, milling about, music playing as the party started.

– with Sehoutions by his side with thirty minutes to spare. Sebastion’s eyes looked tired, haunted, making her heart flip. She would need to

to her soon. She watched as he walked up onto the little podium to address the pack, calling all the wolves from Jade Moon, the two the Murphs to come forward. Once everyone was assembled, he started the ceremony, stating he would watch over them, protect them, Them a place in call home if they accepted him as their Alpha.

MT seventeen wolves before Sebustion yelled the positive answers, then one by one we brought them forward to share a drop of their blood into the bond of water sitting on the table next to the podium. Once they were all done, Sebastion added his blood to the bowl, then they all took turns taking a sip of the midine. A matmut werd throughout the rest of the pack as the seventeen wolves became linked with the park, growing Redwood’s numbers. It was the largest number of new wolves that they had ever seen join the pack at one time. To Arianna’s surprise, all were welcome into the pack with upen arms. Not one issue in two weeks.

Hours later she stood off to the side watching the enormous bonfire as the batheque was in full swing, Flynn was with Calista trying to catch lightning bugs, her giggles making Arianna smile. Sebastion sat alone in a lawn chair far away from the crowded area around the bonfire. He had his back to the crowd as he faced the surrounding woods. He was back to being as isolated as he could be while still making his presence known to his pack. This had to stop, she put her drink down and made her way to her brother, now was the time to get his damn head back where they all needed it to be. Redwood Pack, not Bodega Bay, where Rayne and her lover were.

Rayne

She sat on her deck as the sun was rising; the colors painted across the sky were heautiful as always, the sounds of birds and the ocean were soothing her aching head. Last night at the bar they all had a raging party to celebrate Spencer finding his mate, Tara. She was the new waitress that Parker hared for the new expansion they were working on They hired her early to get her trained on all the things that happened in the bar so that once they Einished the patio, she would be fully prepared to handle anything that came her way.

They spread out the plans for the patio on the kitchen table. There were a few tweaks that Parker suggested, one her father had thought of, so they would need to be sent back to the city for approval. Rayne hoped that they could begin building by the end of the month, as the plans for the apartment above the garage had been approved, so it would be perfect to start both projects at the same time.

Parker moved his office into her’s. He decided since her father was going to be doing the books that he should have his own office, so he would take Parker’s old office. Their living situation changed, with Parker suggesting that they take the master bedroom together rather than stay in the two smaller bedrooms separated from each other. He had been spending every night in her room, so his idea made perfect sense. Her father moved into Parker’s old room until they finished the garage apartment, Arabella moved into Rayne’s old room.

She was staying in town for a while as she helped Jazmine with her magic. She was also training with Lynn to see how much the three of them could do together. Since the night of the spell gone wild, they had all been researching to see how and why it had been so powerful. They were curious if it was the ley lines under the bar, the three of them together, or just the right circumstances combined to make the mega spell. Rayne was very curious too, she was however ok with how the spell when off, because not only were Morty and his family safe, most of the people she cared about the most.

Rayne hadn’t felt a flicker from the mate band in the last two weeks. She hoped that it stayed that way, but deep down she knew that he would be back. There would be a showdown when he did, Parker was angry with Sebastion for not accepting Rayne’s rejection, though he admitted that he didn’t blame him. She was his true mate, after all. There had been moments during the first week after Sebastion left that Rayne struggled with her conviction, Ruby was longing for her mate, making it hard for Rayne to concentrate or sleep at night.

On the first night the dream she had of Sebastion was so strong it felt real, she could almost feel the things he had done to her in the dream. She awoke shivering and soaked in sweat, Parker was in his room that night because he came home late with her father. She was sad that he had not come to her, but after the disturbingly real dream of Sebastion, she was grateful he had not. She couldn’t get Sebastion’s eyes out of her head for days after that, so real was the dream it set Ruby on edge to have their mate touch her for real like had in her dream.

Dream

He had come back to the bar and for once she had been all alone; he wasn’t seeking to hurt her, so the wards let him inside. She was angry at first, but soon his very closeness was causing her to have second thoughts. Sebastion took slow steps as if he was stalking her. His eyes locked on hers the entire time. Every step he took closer, her breath hitched and her heart rate increased, then panic set in so she backed away until her back hit the wall behind

the bar counter.

Sebustion stepped up to her, place both of his hands on the wall on either side of her head, then brought his face close to her like he was going to claim her lips, Rayne turned her head away from him, even though her body was trembling with the want to have his lips finally on hers. He leaned to her ear and whispered what he wanted to do to her, then slid one hand from the wall, slowly sliding it down her shoulder before he gently yet firmly cupped ber breast.

Rayne squirmed away In kissed a trail to her collarbone. Against her will, her traitorous body responded to has with a moan as sparks erupted everywhere he touched her, her

from his hold, only to be pushed back against the wall as he pinned her there with his body, his mouth finding her neck arousal filled the air of the har

he

( pulled haja be laored at her with lust–filled eyes, his hand still caressing

ing her breast as he looked at her. “Do you feel that, Rayne? Do you taly prater my touch, the sparks along your skin that only I can give you?” He leaned in before she could respond and captured her

lips flavne felt her kræves go weak, but he wrapped his other arm around her waist to press her body even closer to his. He was

starving man, like her kisses were what he needed to survive. “Your body belongs to only me, Rayne, and I will come back to alami it your. No one else can make you feel like I can. Not even that bastard you let touch you, only me, your true mate.”

He stepped back from het, leaving her gasping for breath as he turned and left her alone in the bar once more

End of Drenn

Rayne had woken from the dream breathing heavily, aroused beyond anything she had ever experienced before, and angry as hell. How dare he invade her dreams like that. How dare he make her want him the way he had when she did not want him in her life. She did not want him as her mate. She was firm that the choice would now be in her hands, even if the Moon Goddess herself tried to get her to see how it should be.

If she had to take Arabella up on her offer to break their bond to be free, she would, but Rayne wanted Sebastion to let her go willingly before she took the drastic measure of the spell that Arabella suggested. Stopping her heat, dying for five minutes to break the band was a scary idea, but for her to be free to choose who she loved, she might do it.

Parker was where her heart lay. He was where she saw her future, even if it was short–lived. She would face each day that they had together and cherish him

1 for.

as long as he was hers. There was no room in her heart for a selfish mate who thought only of himself for most of his life. His sudden change of heart after learning of Gia’s traitorous ways would not make Rayne feel any different.

Her wolf, body, and soul may crave his, but her heart had chosen another.

It was not Sebastion.

She did not want him as her mate.

Sebastion

He sat watching the woods as his pack celebrated their new members, joyful laughter filled his ears but left his heart unmoved to their joy. His mind was filled with images of the dream that haunted him every night since he left Bodega bay. He had gone to her in their dreams. It was lust–filled as he caressed her, so real were the sparks he felt at the first touch of her skin on his that when he woke he searched for her in his empty bed.

He had tried on other nights to seep into her dreams, only to find her mind locked tight to his searching, causing his anger to rise that she dared to that him out. He isolated himself from everyone but his son and his sister, the two people in the pack he knew he could never harm. It enraged Aries as he was no longer in contact with Ruby, his mate. He tried to take control several times over the past three weeks.

Something would have to be done soon to resolve this sit he would one day soon lash out at those he loved. He would never forgive himself if in a rage he did something to his son, Jace was his son. One thing situation, or he feared that it would drive him mad with rage. A rage so consuming he feared that that Goa hadn’t lied about. There was a birthmark on the boy’s left foot, identical to the one on Sebastion’s left foot. Arianna had the same mark, but hers was a mirror image of his and was on her right foot. The knowledge that Jace shared the mark Sebastion had only shared with Arianna.

He knew that he would soon have to deal with Gia, but with all the plans for the new members, and his rage surrounding his mate, he had almost completely forgotten she was even still down there. Had it not been for Flint asking about her today, he would have just kept going how he was. She couldn’t stay here as the very thought of all the things she had done behind his back made him see red with anger. That slut had made him weak in the eyes of his pack, a pussy–whipped fool who did anything for her, believed every word that dripped from her deceitful mouth.

Should he have her beheaded? Could he kill the mother of his son? Should he just banish her from pack lands with nothing but the clothes back? The options were something that he would have to talk to Arianna and Flint about. Tomorrow he would address that issue, but for now, he just sat there watching the forest, listening to the happy sounds of his pack.

on her

Tomor would be a new day, hopefully filled with enough tasks to keep his mind off Rayne for a few hours of the day. The night was an entirely different story. He would try again to breach her shields, to show her through dreams what life together could be like for them.

If only he could reach her.

Her Returned Mate (The Gathering Shadows Senes, Boor