The Mating Rules

Jamie-Lee’s POV

I strike the hair line c***k over and over, the skin on my knuckles splitting leaving smears of b***d on the barrier. Ignoring the pain in my fist, Skarla and I continue to assault the tube that contains us. Above me, the moonlight is shining down directly on me, illuminating me skin.

On the other side of the invisible barrier, the warlock is watching me in shock, shaking his head slightly as if he can’t believe what is happening.

‘STOP’ he finally spits out, waving his hands at me, ‘stop doing that.’

We laugh loudly, continuing to c***k our prison, each strike widening the splinters. ‘You wanted to see what we could do’ Skarla and I croon softly, ‘so we are showing you.’

We c**k back our elbow about to reign another blow, a shiver runs through my body, power that I’ve never felt before warming my b***d, making the hairs on my arms stand on end.

Skarla purrs loudly, ‘mate’ she whispers, the word curling off her tongue.

My eyes widen, ‘are you sure?’ I ask desperately? ‘You can feel him?’

Skarla nods, ‘Hunter’ she agrees, ‘he has awoken.’

I scrunch up my nose as I continue to thump at the barrier, ‘what are you talking about? Was he asleep, did he get knocked out?’

‘He has awoken’ my wolf repeats simply, Ok seems that’s all I’m going to get from her. I let it go, concentrating instead on the fact that Hadley is alive and Skarla at least can feel him. I’m sure I could too if I reached out but I need to focus on where I am and trust my Mate to come find me.

An image of Caden’s dead body washes through me but I force it away, I need to hold on to myself, I still didn’t actually feel his death and even with him severing our bond mentally somehow, I have to keep hold of the hope I would still feel that! As long as I believe that he’s still alive.

Suddenly I feel it again, another surge of power, this one stronger than the last and from the look on Avrilak’s face, it’s not just an internal change.

‘What is happening?’ he chokes out, taking a step back from me as I ball up my other fist and punch with everything I have. Left fist, right fist, left fist, it takes seconds for the cage to disintegrate, and I step through shaking out my hands as I glare at the horrified man.

‘NO, you should be weak’ he mutters in shock, ‘this isn’t possible.’

I smile widely, ‘you’d be surprised just what I can do’ Skarla and I reply as we lift our hands and aim them at him. He dives to the side as heat radiates from me, a beam of light leaving my palms and striking the stone wall just behind where he stood a moment ago, carving out a crater as the dome shaped sky light above us shakes.

Avrilak lifts his own hands, waving them in a complicated pattern before pushing his palms toward me as I duck, the spell shattering a small shelf of books as it misses me by inches.

Skarla growls angrily, straightening us up, our skin is sparkling under the moon light and I can feel the warmth seep through me from the overhead glow.

I crouch down, a rumble in my throat as I push forward toward the Warlock reaching out with my claws to swipe across his vulnerable flesh. Avrilak dances out of the way, barely escaping the swipe, balling his own hands together, creating a small fireball that he throws my way. I roll forward, toward my adversary, allowing the heated missile to fly over my head, standing up quickly and kicking out with my foot, the sole of my sneaker connecting with his stomach as he stumbles back with a grunt.

I drop my foot to the floor, using it to pivot my body and delivering a perfect roundhouse kick to his shoulder, knocking him to the ground.

I try to push my advantage, raising my foot to stamp down on his chest, but the warlock manages to get his hands out in front of him and blasts me in the chest, throwing me across the room where my back slams into the wall.

I slide down to the floor, my head throbbing from the impact and I reach up to the back of my skull, my fingers coming away sticky.

Avrilak has struggled to his feet, he’s favouring one side of his ribs, a hand pressed to his side as I lean my elbows on the wall behind me and push myself back up onto my feet.

We eye each other for a second before we both throw our hands up, our powers hitting in the middle and rebounding off each other, smashing through the few pieces of furniture that litter the room. I duck for cover, my arms going over my head as shrapnel flies around the room, feeling the sting as splinters stabbed into my exposed flesh.

I push off the floor, stumbling to me feet just in time to see the Warlock doing the same, I was obviously not the only one to take cover as the table and chairs in the room exploded.

We scramble to opposite sides of the room, I lean against the wall, trying to grab a breath as I pull a few shards of wood out of my arm that are stuck there.

A crash from above drags both our gazes upward where the domed glass roof above us now has a huge hole, a large boulder laying in the middle of the floor between us surrounded by glass.

A large figure jumps down, landing cat like on the ground, his gaze snapping up to me as my heart leaps. It’s Hadley, he’s here, he found me.

‘How can this be?’ Avrilak roars angrily, ‘you should be dead!’

Hadley laughs, straightening up and brushing down the shorts and t’shirt he seems to have scrounged up from somewhere. They look a couple of sizes too small and I’m freaked out by the thought that they may belong to the Warlock.

A second body falls into the room, landing steadily on his feet in a crouching position before he straightens up, shaking his head back. Turning toward me he winks as I feel my mouth dry.

Caden.

Skarla is howling loudly in my head as she urges me toward him. My feet move automatically, my fingers reaching out for him instinctively just as a ball of fire scorches past me, dragging my mind back into the battle I’m in the middle of.

Hadley jumps at the Warlock, carving his claws straight across the man’s left arm as Avrilak raises it defensively, Caden is crashing into my body at the same time, taking me out of harms way whilst Avrilak’s other hand is aimed, shooting a ball of fire exactly where I was just standing.

Sparks engulf my body at the contact with my Mate, the Alpha turning our bodies so he takes the brunt of the fall. Gripping me to him tightly as my hands cling to his shirt. I can’t help it, as I stare down into his warm blue eyes, I crash my lips to his, harsh and unyielding as I feel our bond snap back into place.

Pulling back I growl angrily down at him, ‘don’t you ever sever our bond again’ I warn, ‘or I will kick your butt so hard you’ll be able to k**s your own a*s.’

Caden chuckles, nodding, ‘promise’ he agrees, ‘but can you save the a*s kicking until after we get rid of this guy?’

I glance over to where he’s nodding to see Hadley and the Warlock rolling on the floor together each punching the other with everything they have.

Scrambling up, I run toward the brawling men, Caden right behind me. As we reach them, Avrilak throws out his hands, a sonic boom echoing around us as we are all thrown backward in different directions from the impact. Climbing to his feet, the Warlock wipes a hand across his mouth, smearing b***d over his cheek as he snarls at us.

‘You three are like cockroaches’ he hisses, ‘each time I slam my boot down on you, I lift it up and you scurry away! Not anymore, I’m going to deal with you properly. No more games, no more chances, just death.

He stalks into the middle of the room, standing next to the boulder as the moonlight bathes him. His hands outstretched to his sides as he tilts his head back. A soft breeze gathers around him, swirling in a circle, picking up speed as my hair whips around my face. I squint my gaze as the dust from the room gets flung around, gritting my eyes.

‘Jamie-Lee!’ the sound of my name snaps my attention to Hadley who is holding out a hand toward me, the other toward Caden who nods, moving closer, battling the winds and copying Hadley’s stance.

‘Become one!’ Hadley calls out again, wiggling his fingers at me, ‘we need to become one!’

I don’t know what he means, but Skarla seems too, she reaches out to each of her mates, and I watch in surprise as one of Caden’s eyes turns Gold, signaling Cobalt’s presence. One of Hadley’s eyes has also darkened, Hunter at the surface too.

We form a triangle around the Warlock, not touching but as my fingers align with my two Mates, electricity crackles between us, flowing toward me like a current, charging me up. My hair floats around my face and I can feel Skarla reaching out too, a second flow of electricity joining ours as she connects to Hunter and cobalt. I watch in awe as the two electrical ropes intertwine, one made up of two strands, gold and blue, the other is silver.

My eyes close for a moment as I struggle to contain the power flowing through me. ‘Hold on Jamie-Lee’ I hear called out, but I can’t tell if it’s Hadley, Caden or maybe even Skarla, all I can do is grit my teeth and hold the connection.

‘Skarla’ I gasp out as the feeling of my body wanting to burst overwhelms me.

‘Nearly Jamie-Lee’ Skarla purrs softly, ‘you are nearly there, hold on.’

I nod once, concentrating only on the flow entering my body, blocking out everything else.

‘NOW!’ Skarla roars and my eyes spring open to see Avrilak’s head fall forward, the winds drawn toward him as he brings his hands toward me. Breaking the connection with my Mates, I slam my hands, palm upward toward the Warlock and push out everything I’m holding, slamming him square in the chest.

A flicker of surprise drifts across the Warlock’s face before his eyes widen and a scream leaves his lips. His body lifts from the floor, arms thrown out to the side as his chest is presented toward the Moon. B***d pours out of his mouth, nose and eye sockets, running in rivers down his face and falling to the ground underneath him. It’s not red b***d like I expected, it’s tainted black and sizzles as it hits the concrete, bubbling up like acid before sinking into the floor.

I’m getting tired, but I feel Skarla using her own strength to help me, holding my arms up for me, pushing her powers through our hands whilst the Warlock’s screams of pain fill the room around us.

As I watch him squirm above me, something takes over, a voice I don’t know using my lips to speak.

‘Your reign is over Warlock, begone from my world, the door to Hades awaits you.’

A fissure opens up in the middle of the room, heat rising from the depths as black spindly arms claw upward, thin claw like fingers grabbing for the man as he screams louder. My arms start to lower, I’m no longer in control, only a passenger in my own body now.

As the fingers curl around Avrilak’s limbs, smoke curls up from their touch, the stench of burning flesh invading my nose. Slowly, they pull the man down into the hole, licks of fire flickering around them as he passes through the floor, his hands grasping desperately for the sides to no avail.

As he disappears into the hole, I feel my body release and I step forward, ignoring my Mates voices calling to me to stay back. I look down into the depths where I can just make out the burnt bodies of demons who are holding Avrilak down. One is grabbing a handful of lava that flows in a river to their right as the Warlock screams for mercy whilst a second leans forward and claws at one of his eyes, tearing it out of its socket. My hands fly to my lips and I stagger forward unintentionally, my foot slipping just as two arms wrap around me pulling me backward as the floor knits back together as though it was never broken.

I shake my head, wrestling out of the hold of whoever has me, rolling onto my side before throwing up the bile that’s in my throat. Heaving a few times whilst someone grabs my hair holding it out of my face, another hand rubbing my back soothingly.

‘It’s OK baby’ Caden murmurs, ‘it’s over, everything is OK.’

I sit up shakily, feeling the warmth of both my Mates curling their arms around me, sandwiching me in their protective embraces.

‘I didn’t want that for him’ I mutter, ‘I didn’t mean for him to end up there.’

Hadley smooths my hair as he presses a k**s to my ear, ‘he chose his path sweetheart’ he murmurs, ‘you had nothing to do with it. His eternity was written for him the moment he hunted and killed the first wolf of the Goddess.’

I nod again, ‘I want to go home’ I whisper, ‘please take me home.’

‘Of course baby’ Caden replies, ‘we’ll get you home as soon as we can.’