Part 10

     For the second time in two days I woke up carefully tucked into Worrin's bed. For a minute I had no idea what was going on. My head felt empty and blurred.

     I heard voices drifting to me from the left. I got out of the bed and followed them, trying to figure out what they were saying. On the far side of the room I found a door that wasn't closed all the way. There were three voices, two female and one male. I instantly recognized the male voice. It was Worrin.

     “I don't know how she did it, Mother,” Worrin said. “I don't think she knows how she did it.”

     “But it was her,” Marcee said. “Rose turned my son, your brother, into a terrier!”

     I froze and leaned against the wall near the cracked door. I remembered the party, the dinner, the confrontation with Holden. I remembered the long haired, yipping Yorkshire Terrier that was once the werewolf.

     “She was defending herself!” Yanna retorted. “That little runt attacked her. He deserves worse.”

     “But that level magic is not permitted near the manor,” Marcee said coldly. “Our wizard members couldn't undo the transformation working together and they said it would probably last until the next full moon! Such things are not permitted!”

     “Rose isn't a member of the clan until we actually mate, Mother,” Worrin growled. “Even if we had already done so, I would not permit harm to her. She is my mate and therefore under my protection, ancient laws be damned!”

     “You can't just discard the laws!” Marcee yelled.

     “Shh,” Yanna said soothingly. “You could wake her.”

     “I can and I will ignore the laws if it means keeping my mate from harm,” Worrin growled. “Any and all mated men on our family would say the same.”

     “They would say that but they would obey the laws, Worrin,” Marcee reprimanded.

     “Stop arguing!” Yanna snapped. “Rose defended herself, so she can't be punished under the law, wither she is one of us or not. Defending yourself with magic is allowed. And she is not a member of the clan, so the laws don't apply anyway. She isn't an invader or a threat, so she doesn't fall under that bit of our laws.”

     Another door opened and shut. I heard footsteps and someone sighed.

     “Rose also doesn't know she is magic,” I heard Sofia say. She must have just got there.

     “And how do you know that?” asked Marcee sharply.

     “Adelliza,” Sofia sighed. “I called her like you asked, Worrin.”

     “And?” Worrin asked.

     “Adelliza is Rose's great aunt,” Sofia started.

     “So she was talking about the same woman as we were,” Yanna interrupted.

     “But then Rose must be a bred witch,” Marcee said. “How can she not know she is magic when she must have been raised surrounded by it?”

     “Adelliza is Rose's mother's aunt,” Sofia told them. “Rose's mother, Gwen, didn't want to raise her child in a breding house. She didn't want that for her daughter. Adelliza told me that many mother's think that and try to escape. Most don't get away and are punished heavily.”

     “So Gwen tried to run away with her daughter?” Worrin asked with admiration in his voice.

     “Yes, she did. Adelliza, who doesn't approve of breding in the first place, decided to help her. Adelliza said that she wanted to make up for not being able to save her twin, Rose's grandmother, from the breding house. You know how Adelliza is. Even a heavily guarded breding house isn't enough to stop her when she wants something done.”

     The group laughed softly at that.

     “Well, Adelliza got a very pregnant Gwen out of the house and brought her here, to the city at the base of the mountain. No Magic Wielder would come into our territory and Adelliza could us visiting us as a way to cover her trips to the city to she her niece and great niece. While here, before Rose was born, Gwen met and fell in love with Andrew Greenwood. As soon as Rose was born they got married and Andrew adopted her.”

     “Who is Rose's real father?” Yanna asked.

     “Adelliza didn't know and neither did Gwen. It is probably in Gwen's record at the breding house, but I don't wanna go there. Adelliza does know that Rose already had a fiancée.”

     I gasped. I was engaged? Before I was born! That shocked me to my core and I had trouble breathing.

     The door opened all the way and Worrin looked down at me. I met his eyes and I knew the shock was plain as day on my face.

     Worrin pulled me into his arms and hugged me tight. “Don't worry, my sweet,” he said softly. “I will not allow anything to happen to you. No one will take you away from me.”

     I nodded and followed him into the study where we had talked with the detectives. Yanna, Marcee, and Sofia were sitting close to the lit fireplace and the large window was covered by dark red drapes. Worrin sat on the empty sofa and wrapped his arm around my shoulders when I sat next to him.

     “Aunt Liz stopped visiting after my sixth birthday,” I told them. “Did she tell you why, Sofia?”

     The other human nodded. “Your mother asked her to bind your powers. You were starting to make things levitate. Adelliza wanted to train you to use your power so you could defend yourself if they came after you.” Sofia leaned forward. “The runners of the breding house were going to marry you off, Rose, not just let different men have a go at getting you pregnant like your mother. They must have known you were going to be powerful when you grew up.”

     “Are you saying they made my mother a w***e?” Rose asked, her voice trembling.

     Yanna nodded sadly. “It's what breeders do, hun. The good thing is that Adelliza got your mother out and she was able to live happily with your father.”

     I nodded. “I take it Aunt Liz bound my powers.”

     “She did, but she didn't like it,” Sofia said. “She stopped talking to your mother, she was so upset. Adelliza has a temper that would make monsters jealous. Her binding, however, would be undone if you ever had to use it to defend yourself.”

     “So their not bound anymore?” Worrin asked.

     “Yes, they aren't,” Sofia confirmed.

     “Then someone has to teach her how to use them before she turns someone else into a Yorkshire Terrier,” Marcee declared.

     Worrin growled at his mother.

     I put a hand on his chest. “She's right, Worrin.”

     “Adelliza said she's be here by twilight tomorrow,” Sofia said. “She also says to limit Rose's contact with other to a bare minimum until she gets here.”

     Yanna and Marcee paled.

     “She's coming here?” Marcee whispered.

     Sofia just nodded.

     “She's going to train Rose?” Yanna asked.

     Sofia nodded again.

     “Damn it,” Worrin muttered. “That woman is chaos personified.”

     I couldn't help but laugh. The Aunt Liz I remembered was tiny and kind.

     Of course, I had never seen Adelliza annoyed before, according to Worrin.

Author's Note

Weeeee. Funfunfunfunfunfun.
^_^

Reviews

[A.r. Bazian]

ssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssso addictive!
again... i couldn't stop reading it... i'm already late for work... i cant wait to read the next chpter!
amazing chain of events!
so... almost flawless!

[Brie]

weeeee! yay! haha another great chapter! i wanna know what she does with the powers!