Chapter 13

"Charlie it's not what you think!" Kit yelled in panic and I rolled my eyes at his pathetic excuse.

"You seriously think after all the times you've done this before, this time would be different? That I would just bow at your feet and forgive you at the snap of a finger?" I asked him, keeping my voice calm as I walked over to them slowly. I could see Eli trying to make a run for it, but I threw my hand out and pushed on his chest with enough strength to actually send him flying through the open garage door and into the gravel outside. I was sure that people were going to rush outside to see what the commotion was, but at this point and time—I didn't care.

I was furious.

"As much as I want to rip your fucking head off, I need to go teach someone a more thorough lesson about what it means to have a mate. And then, I'll come back to you." I hissed and hurried out to where Eli was groaning in pain on the ground.

"Get up!" I yelled at him and he jerked his head up to look at me with terror embedded in his eyes. Good. You should be terrified. I was trying really hard to keep from shifting because I would be in so much more trouble if I attacked Eli in wolf form while he was still human. And it sure was easier said than done. I watched as he started to crawl away since he was too scared to get the energy and stand. I walked over to him, seeing as he didn't get far, and delivered a hard kick to his face. He flipped over at the force of the hit, blood spewing from his mouth.

"Get up and fight me!" I yelled, reaching down and grabbing him by his collar. "What kind of pathetic excuse of a warrior are you? Kit is mine! I am his mate! Do I need to rip your throat out in order for you to fucking understand that he was never yours and never ever will be yours!?"

"Charlie stop it!" Kit hollered and I whipped my head to see him hurrying out of the house amongst a crowd of Pack members that we gathering to see what was happening. I had no doubt in my mind he had rushed inside to get Bryce and Allister, but even they were going to have a hard time. I turned my attention back to Eli, who was now sputtering apologies and begging for me to release him.

"Oh sweetheart, I don't care how much you beg or how much you say you're sorry—your lesson is long overdue. But it seems no matter what, I won't get to properly do anything, so I'll give you this for the meantime until I can come back and finish the job." I said sweetly to him as I pulled my hand back and shoved as hard as I could onto his chest. I felt his sternum crack and a loud crunching sound filled the air along with Eli's screams of agony as he fell to his knees in pain. I decided I didn't want him on his knees, so I threw my leg up and kicked him in his chest in the same area. I felt my wolf howling in pride as he fell backward, his screams becoming louder.

I turned around, now ready to deal with my mate, but when I saw my parents and family now standing around, I froze. My mother looked terrified, as did the rest of my family, but the looks on their faces just made me more frustrated.

"Don't you dare look at me like that!" I yelled at them. "He deserves this! I'm so tired of being seen as some weak person who can't stand up for himself! Because I'm not and you all know it." Kit took a hesitant step towards me.

"Charlie, just calm down for a second and this can all be explain—"

"I don't want your bullshit excuses anymore!" I screamed and Kit gave me a heartbroken expression. "How many times do I have to spend my life with you thinking I'm the only thing on your mind when in reality I'm not because that piece of shit is always popping up?" I snapped, pointing a finger at the still whimpering Eli.

"Baby boy, you need to calm down." My mom said softly and I could see her holding her stomach. That hit home. She was pregnant and I was causing her unneeded stress. And as if my mother's worried expression and condition wasn't enough, now Bryce and Allister were storming outside.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Bryce's voice boomed through the yard and I held my head down. There were so many ways I could've gone about this, but I chose the worst in beating the shit out of Eli. "I am in the middle of a meeting with another Pack and I am disturbed because of a fight? Charlie, you have better sense than this." Bryce said in disappointment and I sighed heavily as I looked up.

"I'm sorry Alpha."

"Get this warrior up and to the infirmary," Bryce ordered, and I watched as other warriors hurried out of the crowd to pick up Eli and carry him inside. Now all attention was back on me and I was becoming anxious with all the looks of worry on everyone's faces. "Charlie....this isn't like you. You don't lash out like this." Bryce said carefully and I just tried to keep my gaze on something other than their faces.

I couldn't do this anymore.

I couldn't stay in a toxic relationship that threatened my well-being and mental health every day.

I couldn't make my parents continue to worry about finding me dead in my room because of this mating.

I had to leave.

"I understand your concern Alpha and I will take the punishment you deem fit for my aggression today, but may I ask to take a walk for a little bit? I just need to clear my head." I could see him debating it with Allister through their mate-link before he sighed.

"Only for thirty minutes. Then I want you back here and in my office." I nodded my head and started off towards the woods. I started down the same path I took before to go to the Elders and as I walked there, I kept trying to tell myself how this was for the better. Getting rid of this mating mark would be better for everyone. As I neared the house, I saw all the Elders were outside the house waiting.

"You guys knew I was coming?" I asked once I got closer and Elder Tomlinson—yes I learned their names, sue me—smiled softly to me.

"Unfortunately, the Goddess told us we would be seeing you again shortly after our last talk. We have prepared everything for the ritual already." He informed me as he led me inside the house, the other Elders following behind us.

"Elder Shane will be contacting your parents soon. The Alpha will also be told to come here seeing as you are a part of his Pack and he must know what is happening." I felt a sudden snap in my brain and I yelped at the sound. "We had to cut your links with the Pack. Any former attachment you had will be cut from here on out."

"Wait, what do you mean former attachment?" I asked in shock. "What about my parents and family? My mom's pregnant! I need to know what's happening with her!" I could feel my nerves building from the information I had received, but one of the Elders snapped their fingers and all feelings of fear and doubt were erased as I was laid on top of a table in the back room.

"You will be informed once your parents and Alpha arrive. Until then, relax. Stress will only cause this to be more painful than it should." I decided to just take their word for it and let myself calm down. They were Elders, the most trusted people of our Pack. They wouldn't lie or cause me any harm, so I just needed to trust them.

Like you trusted Kit.

I closed my eyes shut and breathed in the incense filling the room. The lavender was helping a lot in calming my nerves, so much so that I wasn't even bothered when my parents and Bryce arrived. I slowly sat up and gasped when my eyes fell on Bryce.

"Either you turned into a neon green unicorn with licorice hair or I am extremely high right now." I said slowly and my mother's shocked tone drew my attention to her.

"What did you do to him? What is going? Last time you bastards were involved in anything it ended up with my best friend losing her eyes and life." I was assuming she was talking about Nikolai's mother Scarlet, but I never knew the full story behind his parents' death so I wasn't too sure. However, Elder Garibaldi was not amused at my mother's accusations.

"I will have you know that Ryder came to us about their son. What we told them had absolutely nothing to do with the former Luna losing her eyesight and eventually her life. We are Elders, not The Fates."

"As much as I love a good argument with you guys—we need to hurry this meeting up before Kit and Allister become suspicious of why we are gone." Bryce snapped impatiently and Elder Shane sighed heavily as he snapped his fingers and my feeling of euphoria disappeared, leaving Bryce as his normal self and no longer a unicorn.

Bruh, I am never doing drugs. Shit got me fucked up.

"Charlie has decided to remove his mating mark and link to Kit." Elder Shane informed them and my parents looked at me in shock while Bryce just stared at me with hard, calculating eyes. "When he came to us with his problem, we informed him that while removing ones mark is dangerous and painful—it can be done. He was told to try and rekindle his relationship with his mate and if not to come back to us."

"Charlie this is pointless." Bryce snapped and I glared at him. "You need to go back and listen to Kit explain what happened—"

"It isn't pointless you dick!" I yelled and Bryce's eyes grew cold. "You have everything you need! Yeah, you screwed around before you met Allister, but you stopped the minute you met him and none of your past lovers bothered you. You don't know how I'm feeling! None of you do! You don't know what it feels like to wake up terrified that you're going to find your mate cheating on you again and there's nothing you can do about it because you're linked for life. Well guess what? I found a way out and I'm taking it. You were called here to be informed of what was happening, not to talk me out of this." It was silent as everyone was letting what I said sink in. I don't care if I'm being harsh. I don't care if this gets me into even more trouble with my Alpha.

My mind was made up and I was going through with this.

Elder Tomlinson cleared his throat, breaking the awkward silence filling the small room. "As Charlie said, you were called here to be informed and then to leave. No one is to know where Charlie is. You are being told because you are his Alpha and parents and you both have a right to know what it happening."

"His mate also has a right to know." Bryce snarled.

"Alpha—," Elder Shane began to speak but Bryce growled at him before turning his sight onto me.

"I will keep quiet about this until it is done. But let me just say this to you Charlie. Kit has been my best friend for years—almost like a brother to me. I know how his mind works and I know how he is. All I can say is...is if you go through with this, your life in my Pack will NEVER be the same again. I don't take well to people who harm those close to me. Regardless if your Allister's cousin."

"I'll take the punishments you see fit to give me, but I'm sorry. I can't keep living with this fear. I refuse to. I'm not going to let my parents wake up and find me dead in my room because Kit broke my heart again."

"Sweetheart..." My mother began, but our attention was brought to the harsh growl Bryce let out as he stormed from the room, slamming the door shut so hard it shook the glass in the windows. It was silent in the room as we all stared at the door our Alpha went out of.

"Charlie." I snapped my attention to my parents and smiled sadly at their concerned expressions. "Is this was you want?" My dad asked. I pursed my lips as I thought for a second and looked at my mom's stomach.

"Yes. I want to be stronger for my brother or sister. They don't deserve a depressed and weak big brother. I want to protect them and show them that they deserve the best and to demand it when it's not given to them." My mom started crying at my words and we hugged for a few minutes before the Elders ushered them out so I could relax and they could begin the ritual.

And while I was constantly thinking of running back and listening to Kit like Bryce mentioned, I had to keep reminding myself that this was for the best. I could move on and be happy and Kit could sleep with Eli all he wanted without getting caught.

TWO WEEKS LATER.

"You all are dicks! Literally, you're Satan. WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE TOLD ME THIS IS WHAT YOU WERE GOING TO DO TO ME!? I FEEL LIKE MY BODY IS RIPPING APART!" I yelled from the small square room I had been confined to after the first ritual.

Let me backtrack for you guys.

See, I was made to believe that these Elders were going to say some spells, rub some herbal remedies on me or some shit and then boom, mark gone.

But no.

Hell no.

My wolf was being literally removed from my body and replaced.

Now let me explain that because I'm sure you all are like "what the actual fuck? Like what type of shit is this? Like what am I reading now?"

Our wolves are what our links are attached to. Pack links, Family links, and Mating links. Think of it like a bunch of little strings that all go to different places and the main power source they lead back to is your wolf. In order to get rid of the mating mark, they have to get rid of my wolf. If my wolf dies, so does the mark.

And, of course, there's some other mostly ghostly hocus pocus type shit that goes on so that way my mate won't feel the disconnect and all that shit.

But yeah, they get rid of my wolf and replace it with another wolf.

There's a catch, though.

Because my wolf is not literally living inside of me, they have to remove him "metaphorically" which in turn means that every couple of hours it will feel like my skin is burning off of my body. And then once they put the new wolf inside of me, my body has to grow accustomed to him so every couple of hours, all the bones in my body will break and shift as my new wolf tries to make my body fit for him.

Point blank, I feel like I'm in a SciFi movie and I'm definitely going to become the Advocate for mates to work out their problems instead of trying to get their mark removed.

"We told you it was a painful process that most do not do. It's rare for a reason." Elder Tomlinson said to me softly as we walked into my room with a stack of clothes in his hands. "Now, get up. We are going to let you shift finally and have some time to connect with your new wolf before you leave." I perked up at that, ignoring the burning in my bones.

"I get to go home!?" I gasped, snatching the clothes from his hands. He looked a like cautious as he answered me.

"Uhm...yes. You get to leave." He said, quickly averting his eyes from me. I would normally be very curious at his behavior, but all I could think about was going home and seeing my parents. I hurried out of the room with him and followed the others outside to the fenced-in back yard.

"You are free to use this area to become one with your wolf. It is very important that you develop a strong bond with him, as he is equally as scared as you are. He went from being just a ball of dust to actually having a vessel to live in."

"You make it sound like he's a parasite." I frowned and I could feel my wolf whine at the way they were talking about him. "He's a sensitive little puppers! Don't be mean to him!" I yelled and Elder Tomlinson rolled his eyes at me.

"We will be contacting your parents' within the next couple of hours. Have fun." And with that lovely conversation I was left alone in the backyard. I decided to try and talk with my wolf through our link before diving headfirst into shifting.

"So how do you feel about meeting the family?" I asked him as I sat Indian style on the grass. My new wolf was a lot different than my old one—and while I missed him dearly, it was his time to move on with the hope that I could be happier.

They are strangers to me. I don't do well with strangers. My wolf snarled and I was taken back by his attitude. He was normally a very sensitive wolf, but some topics made him hostile.

"I know this is all new to you, but I promise you'll get along with them. Especially my dad's wolf. He's the best." I said confidently and I could practically see my wolf rolling his eyes at me. "Okay, you obviously don't want to talk, so why don't we try shifting?" He agreed happily to that and I quickly discarded my clothes so they wouldn't rip apart from the change.

And you would think with the amount of times my bones had broken since getting my new wolf, changing wouldn't be as hard on my body—but it was.

It was so painful.

"I'm sorry," I panted as I fell to my knees, still in human form. "It hurts too much. I don't think I can do it."

It is alright. I don't want you passing out on me the minute you change. Take your time. My wolf told me as I put my clothes back on and fell down on the grass. I can still change small things—like your hands into claws and give you my canines if you ever need them. You may not be in full wolf form, but you can still do damage.

"You know, you're a pretty chill wolf." I chuckled and I felt him smile at me. "I do miss my old wolf, but he was too weak. And I never wanted to acknowledge it before, but now that he's gone...I feel happier? Maybe—I don't know. I just feel like all my depression and anxiety has lessened." And it was true. While I'd never heard of a wolf being the cause of mental illnesses, it was very possible my wolf had something to do with mine.

See, wolves have their own personalities—their own traits. So it's very possible that if your wolf develops these mental illnesses, they can pass them on to you and vice versa. I wonder if I could go back to Kit then. I feel so much more secure in my own body, so much more connected with my emotions. His wolf did say he wanted a strong mate. So maybe this is what needed to happen. Maybe this was the Goddess's way of pushing us in the right direction.

I was brought from my peaceful thoughts by Elder Shane calling my name. I quickly sat up and groaned when I got dizzy. "Your parents are almost here." He told me before disappearing inside again. Once I was less dizzy, I stood up and headed toward the house.

Don't let my outward reaction fool you. While I looked all cool, calm and collected—I was actually flipping shit that I could go home. I missed my parents, my bed, annoying my cousin. And dare I say it, but I missed Kit. Like a lot. And I know, you guys are probably like "he cheated on you multiple times! Dumb his ass and move on to someone else." But you see, it's really hard to stop loving someone, especially when you're destined for each other. The Goddess doesn't just pick two people and put them together for the hell of it. She chooses each mate specifically. Where one mate lacks in something, the other picks up for it. They are two parts of a whole. And if you never find your other part or leave them...you're just nothing.

So my plan was to hug the shit out of my parents. Go back to the Pack house and hug the shit out of Allister. Apologize and kiss Bryce's toes. Kick Eli's ass some more if he hasn't already left yet. And then find Kit, beat the shit out of him and then have a long, long serious talk with him and his wolf.

Yeah. It's getting real.

I walked over to the front window and actually screamed when I saw my parents walking up the path. I didn't even wait for them to get closer because I was bolting out the damn front door like there was a fire on my ass. I ran straight into my mom's arms and she gasped.

"My baby boy! I missed you so much!" She cooed and my dad snorted.

"Oh please. It was two weeks and the whole time you were relishing in the fact that he was gone." My mom pulled away from me and glared at my dad. Bad move father. Pregnant hormones. Not good.

"Excuse me for being a typical mother. I never got to celebrate like most parents do when their kids go off to school or summer camps. Besides, I don't want to hear anything from you. If I remember correctly, you were crying and stuffing your face with ice cream the entire time." I chuckled as my dad blushed and looked away.

"Aw! You guys really do love me!" I yelled and threw my arms around both of them. "Okay, now let's go home. I have a cousin to annoy, an Alpha to grovel to, a twat to beat up and a mate to also beat up and then talk to." I said as I started pushing them towards the Pack house.

"Not so fast." I heard Elder Tomlinson say and I groaned inwardly, but turned around to see all the Elders standing on the porch. Why must they be so creepy?

"Is there something wrong?" My dad asked cautiously and I could see worry in his eyes. I looked at my mom and was confused as to why she looked fearful. What was going on...

"You know very well what needs to happen Noel and Erin. We brought you here to say goodbye."

"Excuse me?" I yelled and turned to both my parents. "Goodbye? What is he talking about? I'm going home right?" I watched as tears started falling down my mom's face as she covered her mouth and shook her head. I looked to my dad for some kind of answer, but he looked just as upset. "Dad...I'm going home, right?"

"Char—"

"You are forbidden from returning to your Pack. We have used countless amounts of energy to do what was done to you and nothing we do comes without a price. The Goddess does not will for you to return to your old Pack, but to go to a new one far away." Elder Shane explained and I felt anger rising in me as my wolf started to growl.

"When the hell was I going to be told this? This is my family you're asking me to leave! I don't get a say in that?" I snapped and I was met with the piercing glare of Elder Tomlinson.

"Did you really expect us to go through all this trouble and energy only to have you go back to the problem that started this? That is an insult and the fact that you have the audacity to get upset over what the Goddess has decided is disrespectful. Now you can take the offer that has been giving to you or you can stay here until you're atoned for your sins against our Goddess."

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

"Where are you sending me?" I asked as calmly as I could and I felt a fire starting in me as Elder Tomlinson smiled at me.

"You're going to France."

Son of a bitch.

Awwwww yeahhhhhhh
Who knew making collages of your characters would give you inspiration lmao
Anyway, those are all our main characters, plus a new character, Felix 😶😶

What y'all think lol