Chapter 8: Chapter 8

Unedited

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Telling Kaden what the Moon Goddess had told me, was essentially the same as signing away all hope I had of being able to keep my freedom.

He went quiet for a long time, his breakfast lay half finished on the counter in front of him as he stared off into space for god knows how long.

He makes me nervous when he does that, when he doesn't move; when he doesn't speak. I get a dreadful feeling that tugs in the bottom of my stomach that he's scheming in his mind, thinking of any possible way he can solve a problem which won't exactly include my opinion on the matter.

I was right. He looked at me with eyes that held so much terror, an emotion that I thought was foreign to him, that I found myself holding his crumbling face in my tiny hands like it would keep it together. Like they would keep him together.

But then his terror was replaced with a plan, a plan that I knew didn't involve my feeling or opinions, and he stalked from the table without giving me so much as a sentence as to where he was going. He even locked me in the house so I couldn't chase him, because I don't have a key and the windows are too high up for me to unlock and climb out.

"Why didn't you break the door or smash a window" I hear you asking. "Why didn't you use your werewolf strength to force your way out."

What's the point? I don't know my way around this pack, Kaden took the car so I'd be walking to wherever, and the fact I can't shift into Shiva effectively makes me a sitting duck for any attacker. I mean, I know I'm a kick ass fighter, but what's a fist in comparison to a haw full of razor sharp teeth?

He wasn't gone one long however, and he returned to the house about half an hour ago with a bunch of beautiful African women, who have been chanting none stop since they arrived.

I can tell they're witches just by looking at them. Not because they're wearing black hats or have long crooked noses with warts on, (although one of them looks like she's been recently involved in a punch up) but because they're wearing a lot of talismans, beaded bracelets, and have that hippy vibe about them.

Oh did I mention they're all missing the whites of their eyes. Even from the window seat in my room I can tell that their eyes are completely black, whether that's because they're conducting a spell or whatever.

But yeah, Kaden definitely came back with a group of badass looking witches.

It did make me a little bit jealous, seeing Kaden stood outside in a pair of low hanging sweatpants and a tight t-shirt having hushed conversations with beautiful women, but I put it down to the mate bond. I don't think he knows that I can hear them, despite their voices being low. They're talking about cloaking the house, whatever that means.

Unless that's code for a booty call, I trust he isn't flirting, so he can talk to whoever he wants to. Not that I could stop him anyway.

When they finish, Kaden pays then with a small vial of dark red liquid, and they bow to him before flying away on their broomsticks.

Jokes, they all piled into a land rover and drove off in the vague direction of the pack house.

"Lola." I hear him call after the click of the lock goes on the door downstairs. I continue to look outside, not giving him the satisfaction of jumping up to be near him. "Lola, please."

I hear him walk up the stairs, and I can smell his scent outside my door. He opens it and walks into my room, but makes no attempt to talk, to come near me and touch me. He just stands there, his body projecting a warmth through the cool air of the house.

"What type of cloaking spell did they use?" I say, my eyes watching the dust that the car tyres kicked up spiralling up in the air before settling. I can hear Kaden's body tense behind me, and it's like I can sense his head shake in annoyance. "That's what they said right, a cloaking spell?"

I finally turn to look at Kaden, who's body is wound up tighter than a coiled spring. His muscles are taught, his veins brushing up against every available surface of skin. His eyes are red, and full of so much anger that it almost has me flinching.

Because not a single ounce of it is aimed at me.

"I won't let him hurt you." Kaden snarls, his breathing becoming irregular as he stalks towards me and kneels at my feet. "I will not let him take you from me."

"Yes I cloaked the house, I cloaked it in a spell meaning that if you have never seen it, you will never find it. This house cannot be found in any way, unless if you're brought here by someone who has seen it."

Kaden's breathing slows, as the anger in his eyes fades until the red returns to blue, but they never look away from mine. Not when his fingers move to caress my face, or when I bury mine in his hair. If an asteroid came and blew up the planet, killing everyone on it, I bet we wouldn't have noticed.

"I may not show it to you Lola," Kaden swallows, the pad of his thumb tracing my bottom lip. "But you mean enough to me that if he took you from me, I don't know if I could go on."

My breath catches in my throat, and my hands move from his hair to cup his cheeks. "Kaden..."

"Lola I cannot, and will not lose you." Kaden says determinedly, and his eyes make me believe him. "I will do anything to make sure you stay with me, because I will always need you."

And with that, he rests his head in my lap, and we let the day melt away with his words, his fingers drawing circles into my back and my hands holding onto him.

And just him because at this point in time, well, nothing else seems to matter.

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We're nearing on my old pack, and I'm itching to see my friends and family. We left late this morning, myself and Kaden piling into the back of a hummer behind Jasper and Kaden's third, a man called Carrick. The sun is slimming the tips of the mountain peaks, shining a bright orange glow across the woods.

The ascension ceremony is set to start in a couple of hours, when the moon is at it's highest point in the sky, shining directly above the auditorium. This is so that the moonlight strikes down as bright is at can be upon my blood, allowing the moon goddess to take away my claim to the Alpha position.

My mother had put a dress in the pile of clothes she urged me to pack with a pink sticky note stuck to the hem, the word ASCENSION written delicately in large bold letters across the centre of it. It didn't take a genius to work out he wanted me to wear it tonight, so I slipped the delicate white fabric on over my body, and spent hours styling my hair and doing my make up so that I look as pretty as I possibly can.

It's a long white dress that hugs my waist but flows down around my legs, with thin white straps resting on my shoulders. The neckline is plunging, with small white jewels stictched into it. I piled my hair on top of my head, and left a few stray hairs falling down in front of my face, and I left my makeup natural apart from my bold, red lipstick. I think I look nice, and I think Sophia will appreciate the lipstick.

For most of the ride, Carrick has been watching me closely. I don't think it's necessary considering Kaden is sat next to me with his hand interlaced with mine, but if it's to provide Kaden with a piece of mind then so be it.

I won't deny that he scares me. Carrick has long curly red hair that falls in front of his eyes, and a beard that neatly covers his chin. He has a scar that runs down one side of his face through his eye, meaning that one of his eyes has gone milky coloured. Also from a glimpse I think that half of his ear has been taken off at the tip, but he moved his hair the second he caught me staring.

He never smiles, not even with his eyes when Jasper shoved breadsticks in his mouth and pretended to be a vampire. Even Kaden suppressed a chuckle when he bit them and nearly choked on one of the ends.

Because Kaden understands the formality of an ascension ceremony, he's dressed accordingly and I must admit he definitely suits formal attire. He's wearing a white three piece suit that hugs every muscle in his body, and a white shirt with the first few buttons undone. Whether that's because the shirt can't actually fit across his broad torso or because he thinks it makes him look better is beyond me, but I'm absolutely fine with either conclusion.

I see the familiar marker of the entrance to my old pack, the large marble statue carved into a large crescent, with patrol members sitting in the small security structure beside it, and my stomach does another flip of excited anticipation.

I see Lyle waving the first car in our convoy through, and Kaden's grip on my hand tightens when he smiles when he sees me, nodding his head to me in respect, his signature smile playing at his lips.

I take my hand from his iron like grip, and rest it on his knee, squeezing reassuringly. Partly because he was crushing my fingers and if I'd held his hand for a second longer I would've lost them, but because I want to show him Lyle doesn't interest me, and it's him that I want to get to know.

I look at him and send him a smile before resting my head on his shoulder, feeling his shoulder sag under my touch, his large hand resting atop my own gently.

"I'm yours." I mumble into his shirt, my eyes resting on the ever growing pack house in front of me. "I promise I'm yours."

He releases a sigh of relief as we pull up outside my old home, my mother, father and best friend stand waiting for me amongst the swarming members of my old pack. They stand on the decking in front of my old house whilst everyone else creates a channel for us to walk down.

They, like me, are all dressed up like they belong on the red carpet at the oscars. My father is wearing a black suit with a teal coloured tie, and he's even shaved off his lazy day beard and smoothed back his unruly hair. My mother is wearing a matching black, off the shoulder dress that pools around her feet like black water. Her hair is pinned up neatly, not a stray hair in sight, and he face is free from makeup.

Sophia stands nervously behind my parents, wearing a dress very similar to mine. My eyes light up when I realise that she's the next alpha, and I send her a reassuring smile when I catch her eye. She stops biting her lip long enough to return it, before her attention returns to perfecting her already perfect look, her hand smoothing out the non existent kinks in her flowing auburn locks.

The car comes to a stop and Kaden gets out, holding out a hand to me in aid. I slide my small fingers into his palm and he pulls me gently from the car, my gaze moving from my best friend to my parents, who look on with admiration.

My father stares at me with so much pride as I walk in his direction, Kaden's arm resting comfortably around my waist. "Lola, you look more beautiful than when you left." I embrace both of my parents when I'm close enough, wrapping my arms tightly around them.

"I've missed you both so much."

"We've missed you too, my beautiful baby girl." My mum whispers into my ear as she presses a kiss on my temple. "Shall we head to the ampitheatre to begin the ceremony?"

"Lets." My father agrees as he leads the train of people in the direction of the old pack ampitheatre, my mate walking by his side as I settle into a comfotable pace beside my best friend.

"You nervous?" I ask her as we walk hand in hand. She sends me small smile and she laughs encouragingly.

"Honestly Lola I've never been more excited in my life." She says as she squeezes my hand. "But I've also never been more terrfied in my life either. What if I don't make a good alpha? Or what if I screw up..."

"Sophie." I interrupt her with her nickname. She stops talking and looks at me with wide eyes, the smell of her nerves clogging up my nose. "You are going to make a great alpha. You're kind, compassionate, a great fighter, a natural leader, a great captain. You've got more alpha in you than I have, and I'm born into it."

Sophia sends me a grateful smile, and I know that I've calmed her down a little bit. "Let's smash this ceremony then, shall we?"

I once again squeeze her hand and send her a smile. "Let's do this."

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The crescent moon ampitheatre is something that belongs in a Greek picture book. It sits right in the centre of the crescent moon woods, in a giant crater formed thousands of years ago by god knows what. You enter from the top, and walk sixty levels of stairs down until you reach the stage, it's background a beautiful mix of mountain ranges and countryside, the moon skimming the mountain peaks.

The pack are already seated in the ampitheatre, with my father, my mother and my mate standing on the stage. I see Otis standing on the stage as well, two giant basins on either side of him. He's wearing ceremonial robes instead of his usual doctor attire, with white paint spiralled all over his open skin. He sees myself and Sophia and bows respectfully, beckoning me forward. "Lola, Sophia, come forward. The ceremony needs to start."

We skip down the stairs as gracefully as the dresses will allow us before we're stood before the whole pack. Otis dips his hands into one of the basins, and starts to draw patterns on my exposed skin, before doing the same to Sophia.

He then leads us over to the second basin, where the moon is almost directly above, it's light almost completely filling the large silver bowl so it almost looks white. Otis takes Sophia's hand and holds it over the dish, delicately slashing her palm open and pointing it to the sky.

"Satek qisa lo morem." Otis calls out the the pack, as the moon shines down on Sophia, turning her blood silver. "Sarek lo quisaro hubrem."

He then takes my hand, and whilst chanting the words over and over again, he cuts open my own hand and balls it into a fist, squeezing blood that runs black onto Sohpia. "Probis tu sarek, probis lo morem, alphaterem."

I feel my blood heating up to the point it's like fire is coursing through my veins, and I can feel my knees buckling. Kaden rushes forward and holds me upright, just as Mark does for Sophia, and I can see her gasping in pain as my blood seeps in through her cut, her veins turning dark.

Through my bleary eyes, I can see my mother and father chanting the same words as Otis, their eyes watching on with concern. And then there is nothing, my vision once again going dark for the second time this week.

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WHAT IS THIS?! I LITERALLY HAD A STROKE OF GENIUS AND WROTE THIS CHAOTER IN LESS THAN A DAY

I guess you can say that having time off from writing for a few weeks has done me some good, because literary excellence is just flowing from these hands like nobody's business.

I'm kind of bummed that the ascension wasn't very long, but it's not a massive thing. Literally just handing power from one person to the next, changing the line of alphas. This is now where the book starts to get good, because Lola can now establish herself within Kaden's pack, whilst having a close alliance with her old pack because her beautiful BFF is now alpha.

I've also literally worked out just this second that if you save a gif onto your phone as an image, you can then upload it as a gif on Wattpad!! Mind=blown and many of my problems=solved.

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and the next one should be up soon, although I can't give an exact date because I go back to college tomorrow and I don't know how much work is going to be piled on top of me.

COMMENT AND VOTE IF YOU LOVE ME, THIS BOOK OR JUST WEREWOLVES IN GENERAL

(Also nearly spent £100 on the game of thrones s1-6 box set) ://///