Marked in a Vision (23 page)

“Ring the bell, Jay,” Emily encouraged and Jay scowled as he did it knowing that Emily felt his tension seeing his friend what felt like years.

Arnold
opened the door with a smile although he grimaced when a loud noise came from the kitchen.

“Come in,” he said distractedly.

They entered the house and heard another loud noise from the kitchen followed by a curse.

Arnold
ran a hand through his hair as he looked at them.  His smile froze as he saw Emily.

“
Arnold
,” Mark began, “This is my mate Sasha Jackson.”  Then he said with a smile, “This is her sister, Emily.”

“My mate,” Jay intervened and
Arnold
look
ed at him in shock.

Before he could say anything, a young woman came out of the kitchen.  Her long red hair was pulled into a ponytail as her gray eyes shimmered with anger.

“
Arnold
, we may have to order…” her voice drifted as she noticed them.

Sasha and Emily felt their eyes widened as they said clearly, “Eve”.

The woman unfroze as she ran forward to hug both of them, “Sasha, Emily, how I have missed you.”  All three of them begin talking at once as their mates looked on in amazement.

Chapter 25

“Did you think that we would ever meet again, Eve?” Sasha asked as they all settled in the living room after dinner.

It had taken the men a good twenty minutes when they first arrived to separate their mates so they could decide what to do for dinner.

“So when did you learn to cook?” Emily had teased as they headed for the kitchen.

“It has been almost ten years, Emily,” Eve had said dryly until they got to the
kitchen where she had to admit
, “But I am not very good at it.”
They had all laughed before the women pushed the men out and restarted making dinner, and it came out just fine as they sat around the table talking.

Now they were in the living room and Eve settled back against the arm
Arnold
had placed around her as she answered Sasha’s question, “I did not think I would not after what happened.”

Emil
y who was sitting in Jay’s lap i
n the chair said quietly, “It was not your fault, Eve.”

“I agree with Emily, Eve.  It was not your fault what happened back then,” Sasha said sincerely.

Eve’s eyes filled with the tears as she whispered, “Thank you.”

Emily could see the confusion and questions in Jay and Mark’s eyes while
Arnold
’s eyes showed his concern for her as his arms tightened around her.

Sasha and Emily both looked at Eve for her approval to tell their mates about her and she gave it with a nod of her head.

Sasha began, “We met Eve when she was ten, I was eleven and Emily was nine.  We liked each other from the first meeting.  It was Emily, though, who realized that she was different from us; the she-wolf and the human.” She laughed as Eve chuckled, “Yeah, we were all different and learning to deal with it.”
Emily
nodded her head as she continued on from there, “Eve is a full-blooded witch unlike Celeste who is a werewolf and a witch.  Celeste might be the strongest of her kind but Eve is more powerful.”  She stopped for a moment before she continued, “We really did not mind her being a witch.  I mean, I was having dreams/visions from the age of three and Sasha always knew that she was a werewolf so she was growing into her enhanced senses even then although she did not shift for another five years.  Unfortunately, a few weeks before her eleventh birthday, an accident
happened
and everything changed.”
Eve decided to take up the story from there, “My mom had been training me in my powers, but she had been getting upset with my stubbornness in not wanting to learn.  You see to my mom, the stronger my powers the more she could use me to get what she wanted so I refused to learn.  My mom decided that abusing me would make me want to learn so the abuse would stop but one certain day, she had went too far.  I forget, now, what happened to set me off but I blew up the house with us inside of it.  I was lucky to have survived and the only reason I did as it was explained to me that the blast blew
me
out
the window onto the front lawn.
  There was so much commotion and confusion that everything is a blur to me until Sasha and Emily’s parents brought me to their house after everything died down.  I never knew what was said to cover my lost of control, but I stayed with them until they found an aunt I do not know I had. 
She was full-blooded witch like I was and she took me in, and begin to train me to develop and control my powers.  Unlike my mother, though, she understood my reluctance in learning to develop my powers and it took her four years to get
me
to accept my fate as a witch.  After I accepted it, I learned everything I could for the next five years and I surprised myself in what I remembered in the first four year
s
with her.  I remember her laughing telling me that I may have not wanted to accept it, but my mind had remembered everything because it knew that in the end I was going to come to peace with it.”

Emily looked at her in sadness as Sasha asked, “What happened to your aunt?”
“She died when I was eighteen fighting another witch who had been using black magic,” Eve confided and Emily straightened in Jay’s lap.

She looked at
Arnold
before her gaze returned to Eve.

Eve looked around the room, “I came to this area because I need
ed
a fresh start and then I met
Arnold
.”  She smiled at him as he hugged her to him, “I felt something the moment we met and his touched gave me a pleasant jolt, but I ignored it. 
Arnold
was a jerk but for some reason he kept coming around as if he was trying
to
prove something, and then I met
Victoria
.”

Emily started to laugh and she collapsed against Jay.  They all looked at her like she was crazy except for Eve who smiled.

“Poor
Victoria
,” Emily finally said wiping her eyes.

“What?” they all yelled except Eve who began to chuckle.  Emily just smiled, “It was just her bad luck
that the Alpha-to-be she wanted had a second mate who was a witch and could see right through her amateur spells.”
“Okay,” Sasha said slowly confused as Jay and Mark eyes widened in understanding.

“Are you saying that
Victoria
is a witch?” Sasha asked with a frown.

“No,” Eve explained to Sasha, “She is merely a magic user.  She has no real powers, but she was taught certain spells that anyone can use with the right ingredients.”

Sasha’s eyes widened as she asked, “Are you telling me that she used a spell to make
Arnold
believe that she was his mate?”

“Second mate,” Eve corrected.  “
Arnold
lost his first mate when they were both sixteen.  She had been killed by a rogue wolf not too long after her first shift, but they
had
not mated yet and
Arnold
had not marked her.”  She tilted her head and everyone could see the mark on her neck.

“I am sorry,
Arnold
,” Jay said in sympathy.  “You never mentioned it to us.”
“I know, but it was a touchy subject.  I never really discussed it with
anyone including
Victoria
so I don’t know how she knew about it,” he stated with a frown.

“Research,” Emily, Sasha and Eve all said at the same time.

Arnold
raised his brows as Jay and Mark laughed.

“When she told me her mate died,” he continued ignoring their laughter, “I realized that it would be simple to make her my second mate.  I did not love her, but I was very attracted to her.”
Eve frowned at him and
Arnold
said immediately, “But I am more attracted to you.”

Jay groaned as he said, “To think that she was able to use the same trick on both of us.”

Arnold and Eve looked over at him as Sasha eyes widened again in astonishment and Mark shook his head.

“She wanted Jay, but she wanted the Alpha Female position even more,” Emily explained. 

“So once I marked her, she stopped using the spell on you until she realized that you were in line for an Alpha position yourself, Jay”
Arnold
summarized

“Bingo,” Jay said.

Arnold
muttered something under his breath and Eve frowned as she looked at Jay, “But there is no spell on you.”

Emily giggled at that, “Because she thinks he still wants her without it.”
“But he is mated to you,” Eve said still confused.

“I am human, Eve,” Emily stated softly and Eve gasped.

“I have heard of werewolves like you,”
Arnold
replied looking at Jay with new respect.

“So
Victoria
believes that I am no threat for why would a powerful Alpha-to-be pick a useless human as his mate compared to a she-wolf,” Emily remarked after
Arnold
made his statement.

Eve and Sasha began laughing as finally as they understood what Emily had meant earlier.

“Poor
Victoria
,” Sasha said imitating Emily who just shrugged.

“After everything she has done to
Jay and Arnold, and she still gets neither one,” Eve said still laughing.

Emily and Jay looked at each other before Jay said quietly, “That is not all she has done.”

Then he went on to explain what they learned from Garrett.

“How could she,” Sasha cried out as Mark pulled her close to his side.

Arnold
was silent with fury as Eve settled back against him her eyes wide in disbelief.

“I have never heard of a werewolf killing their own mate for any reason,”
Arnold
said harshly.

Jay’s hold on Emily tightened as he said quietly, “I know.”

They stayed for a couple more hours before they left.

Jay invited them to the ceremony in a few days time which they gladly accepted.

The next day, Jay went to the jewelry store to pick up the ring he had ordered.  He smiled when the woman showed it to him.

The woman remarked as she rung it up and put the case into a bag, “She must be a special woman.”

Jay’s smile widened as he paid for the ring sliding it into his pock before he answered, “That she is, ma’am that she is.  Thank you.”

The woman waved away his “thank you” and she watch
ed him walk out
of the store.  Whoever she is, the woman thought to herself, she is one lucky girl as she turned to help another customer.

He was heading for the
exit to the
parking lot when he heard a voice call out to him and he mentally groaned when
Victoria
walked up to him.  She pouted as she purred, “Jay, honey, didn’t you hear me call you?”

“
Victoria
,” he said giving her a smile although it did not reach his eyes, but
Victoria
only noticed the smile.

“I have been looking for you, but your family told me that you had something to take care of,” she cooed although her eyes flashed with anger.

“I did,
Victoria
, and I have been away for the past six weeks,” he told her honestly.

Victoria
let her smile become
more genuine as she realized his
family had been telling her the truth.

“So what about
you and I getting together this evening,” she said seductively running a hand down his chest.  “After being gone for the past six weeks getting ready to take your dad’s place, you must be starving.”

Jay made himself stay still under her unwanted touch although his wolf was snarling at her.  He smiled mentally as he thought about Emily because she satisfied any of his hunger better than
Victoria
did when they were together.

He did not say this out loud though as he allowed a frown to cross his face, “I am sorry
Victoria
, but with the Alpha ceremony coming up I am needed at home.”

He watched as her eyes gleamed with satisfaction and her red painted lips curved into a smile, “You will need your mate for that, but I understand that you want to wait until then to mark me.”

She leaned forward and pecked at his lips before she whispered, “But I am more
than willing to do that and so much
more now.”

Jay stepped away from her
as he offered, “Can I walk you to your car?”

She nodded her head thinking he was going to take her up on her offer and they walked out to the car park
,
and her car.