The Elemental Mate

Aurora POV

I knock softly before opening the door to the office. I smiled as I watched Xander lean over his desk. He bit the inside of his cheek as he read over the papers. He was so consumed in what he was reading, he didn't even hear me come in.

Walking around the desk, I gently lay my hands on his shoulders before encircling his body. I softly hug his back as I place my chin on top of his shoulder.

He sighs back into me as he reaches up and holds on to one of my hands.

"What are you looking at?" I ask him, keeping my voice low to not shatter the silence the room had been in before.

"Rogue reports. Every scout I've sent out has come back with the same thing. They aren't gathering and no witches insight," he sighs.

"Maybe we were wrong that Iris would want to use the rogues," I reason.

"Or we're only seeing what she wants us to," he sighs.

"We'll keep looking," I try to assure him, kissing his cheek lightly as I give him a soft smile, "Iris won't be able to hurt anyone."

He chuckles softly at my words, "Isn't that what I'm supposed to be telling you?"

Moving around him, I sat on his lap and kept my arms wrapped around his neck. Placing another quick kiss on his cheek, I smile brighter, "Only one of us is allowed to be paranoid at a time."

He rolls his eyes playfully at my words.

"I ran into Ellie on my way here. You're sending her to a party?" I raise my eyebrows at him.

"She's been bouncing between our allies for the past six months," he tells me, "She deserves a night off."

"Ellie told me its a birthday party for an alpha's son. Apparently, he's old enough to find his mate now. You're not worried that your baby sister is going to be mated to an Alpha?" I laugh at his pout.

"Don't even joke about that," he growls lowly.

I'm only able to laugh louder at his reaction, "Sorry, babe, but you don't have a choice in the matter," I lean over and kiss his cheek lightly. I can feel his mood lighten the second my lips touched his skin.

Pulling back, I leaned my forehead against his with a light smile on my face, "Until Iris makes a move, we can't do anything but wait. We can't keep waiting for that shoe to drop."

"What do you suggest we do then?" he asks me.

"We stop waiting, and we live our lives."

*****

The next couple of days I spent in the field behind our home. With the help of Amara, we spent hours with Ivy and Hayden. Using the mate bond as a guide for Ivy, she was able to control herself.

There were a few hiccups at first with her crippling Hayden in pain, but she was able to immediately snap herself out of it. By practicing projecting an emotion over the matebond, she was able to practice without actually tapping into her gift.

In the last few hours, we have worked on moving past just using the matebond, and instead, projecting towards one person.

"Alright Ivy, project a feeling onto Amara," I instruct her as I stand two feet to Amara's right, "And make sure I don't feel it at all."

"What emotion do I focus on?" she asks, biting her lip softly.

"You pick," I laugh as she rolls her eyes, "Just pick one you feel confident in. One you have a full grasp on; one that you truly know the feeling."

Since spending so much time together, she's started to break out of her shy shell. She's happier and isn't hiding her emotions any longer from those around her. I think she's going to be alright.

Ivy closes her eyes as she focuses on one emotion. The second she pinpoints the feeling, her eyes open and connects with Amara's.

Amara gasps as tears start to pour out of her eyes. She releases a loud sob as she lifts her hands, "Stop."

Ivy breaks eye contact and collapses to the ground. Hayden moves behind her in comfort as she silently cries from the blowback, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that."

"Which emotion did you pick?" I asked her as I watched Amara rub the tears from her eyes.

"It felt like my soul was breaking," Amara says softly, still reeling from the effects.

"I meant to do joy," Ivy whispers as Hayden rubs her back softly. She leans into him as she focuses on regaining control of her emotions.

"You may have not been able to get the emotion you wanted," I started, trying to get her to see a glass half full, "But you kept the emotion on Amara. I didn't feel it."

"That's control," Amara smiles.

Ivy looks at her with a shocked expression, "But what you felt-"

"You'll get better at choosing emotions," she tells her, "For now, I think we've officially gotten you trained enough that you won't accidentally project without meaning to."

Ivy looks to Hayden as he smiles down lovingly to her, "You've been terrified about what happened when you lost your father. That won't happen again."

She nods softly before leaning further into him.

"I think you should get some rest for today," I tell her, "Focus on centering your emotions."

"And focus on how you define emotions, so next time the emotion you want to focus on will be the one you project," Amara smiles.

Ivy nods her head as Hayden helps her to stand up, "I will. Thank you, both of you."

"We're witches. We look out for one another," Amara says.

Ivy gives a small smirk, "I guess I never really thought of myself as a witch before."

Still giving us a small smile, Ivy and Hayden walk away from the field.

"I better head out too," Amara tells me, "Asher should be home by now."

"How are you and Asher?" I ask her.

"We're good," she smiles, "I never thought I would find someone who understood who I am the way he does. It's nice."

"I understand completely," I tell her as I think of Xander, a goofy smile on my face when I think about him.

"Just look at us. Did you ever think we would be mates to wolves?"

"I don't think we could have ever imagined our lives would turn out the way they did."

"You kicked out of the coven for murder. Me leaving after attacking the head witch. Falling for two extremely hot werewolves. Yeah, definitely never saw that coming," she laughs.

I laugh with her as we move closer to the house.

I never thought my life would turn out the way it did, but I don't think I would change a single thing. I love Xander, and I can't imagine living a life without him.

Walking to the front of the house, I say goodbye to Amara as I see Xander leaving the trees.

I walked up to him, wrapping my arms around him as he placed his hands on my waist, "Hey."

"Hey," he kisses me gently, "You finish training with Ivy?"

"How did you know we were-" he cuts off my question as he chuckles lightly.

"We share thoughts, sweetheart," he laughs, "I may not know exactly what you are doing with Ivy yet because I don't want to pry, but I still worry. I will wait for you to tell me what's going on, but until then, just promise me that you are safe."

"I promise," I say, meaning it completely, "Thank you for not pushing me to tell you."

"Anything for you, sweetheart," he kisses me lightly.

I smile, "You done for the day?"

"Yeah, the border is secure and the rogues are quiet."

"Good," I tell him, "Are you making dinner tonight?"

"Well we both know you aren't going to," he laughs.

I lightly hit his chest at that, "I'm not that bad of a cook."

"Sweetheart, I love you, but you are," he jokes, "You nearly set fire to the kitchen when you attempted to make grilled cheese."

"Cookings hard," I pout.

"I know," he laughs and I can't help but smile at his clear joy over my lack of cooking abilities, "I love you anyway."

I smile brighter as I kiss him lightly, "I love you too."

Since deciding a week ago not to let the fear of Iris control our lives, we have gotten extremely close. We work for the pack during the day and we spend every morning and night in each other's arms. Learning about Xander always made me smile and I fall in love with him more every day.

"Alpha! Luna!" one of Xander's patrols yell as we hear him running towards the house. Xander moves around me, putting himself between me and the approaching wolf.

"Alex, what's wrong?" he asks as a guy bursts through the trees. His brown hair is matted to his head as he takes hard deep breathes. He's covered in sweat and panting hard as he tries to force the words out.

"The witch," he pants out, clearly having sprinted to our house from his post.

"Iris? What happened?" I ask, fear creepy through me that she finally decided to make a move.

"She's here. At the border," he rushes out, "She's here."