The Human Mate

The night was dark and quiet, a stark contrast to the eventful evening the warlock Killian Hargrove had been having. He huffed as he ran, not daring to look back over his shoulder for he knew it wouldn't be a good sight if he did. He could hear the thunderous footsteps of the much larger man behind him, could feel his magic crackling in the air around him. It made the hairs on his arms stand up, his heart race even faster than it already was. He wasn't too far now, he was almost there, almost to safety. With a cry he tucks the small bundle into his cloak that much tighter, keeping the poor thing from the cold of the evening air as he pushes on farther.

"You won't out run me!" Lucien bellowed behind him, and before Killian knew it a burning pain was flowing through his whole body. "She is mine!" Killian felt like he was being suffocated by the dark magic being used upon him, as if he were being slowed down through time. He hadn't felt a magic like this since they were children.

The boundary was in sight, he grunts, and pushes on farther even though he feels as if his body is hardly moving. He knows it's all just a trick of the magic though. He was still moving, still pushing through the pain. He could feel his own magic fighting off the feeling within his body, it was like a war as he tried to focus solely on getting the bundle to safety. He just had to get it over the barrier. Not even Lucien could get to it there, and Killian had to trust Maea's instincts that it would be safest there. Maea knew best. Maea talked to the spirits, Maea had known this would happen before it even happened..ofcourse Maea was dead now, lying in a pool of her own blood after Lucien had torn her apart to get what he wanted, but she had seen this. She had told Killian what to do and he'd be damned if he wasn't going to follow through with her word.

"No!" Lucien had screamed, Killian's body seized in complete pain and the bundle flew from his arms, landing just barely over the magic barrier that protected the land from the likes of Lucien, and even from the likes of himself (not that anyone needed to be protected from him, he thought himself a good fellow, really..). A growl ripped through the air as four fur covered beasts appeared just behind the boundary line, standing almost protectively over the bundle thats cries were piercing the air of the dense forest.

Killian laughed! "She was never yours, Lucien, and now? She is theirs!" He couldn't help the wild cackle that escaped him as he lay on his back on the ground, his body no longer working. The evil man stood over him, his black eyes boiling in rage. With a guttural scream, he brought a swift end to Killian's life, right there in front of the innocent babe he had been chasing after and the four wolves. A kindness, surely, for a quick death was certainly better than the never ending torture he was sure to have endured if Lucien had kept him alive.

He turned to the wolves when he was finished, the blood splattering his face a terrifying contrast to the blackness of his eyes. He snarled at them and the biggest one, the Alpha snapped his teeth back. "I will come for her. I am within her blood, she is my child!" And without another word the warlock turns on his heel, dissapating into the night.

The four wolves stopped, staring at the squirming, screaming bundle on the ground. A baby..without a thought they all shifted, not caring that they were all in the nude. They had all seen it before, and this was..well..it was unlike any situation they'd ever been in before and it didn't warrant time to stop and change into appropriate clothing.

"That's a baby.." Nelson says, looking down at the bundle. It was a pale thing, tufts of red hair sticking about, still covered in the blood of its mothers womb. "Oh my goddess..she's freshly born.."

A gasp, this time from his wife who had joined in the race to the boundary line. "Honey..what..this is a..this is a witch baby..that was-"

"Lucien." Daniel says, looking across the boundary line, thankful for the strong magic that held it in place to this day. He knew Lucien was one of the most powerful witches to exist, a heavy practitioner of dark magic. "..whoever this little one belongs to..that man died trying to get her to us. to get her away from the hands of that man..they knew we would be here."

They all looked at each other and a decision was made. The babe would be raised as one of their own, they would raise it as a human, keep it's powers dormant for as long as possible. If this little one was descendant of Lucien..he would stop at nothing to find her, especially if she was using her magic. Whatever this was, whatever they were now part of, they didn't care. It would all come to fruition later on in life sure, but for now, it was all about keeping the little babe safe and happy.

I leaned my head against the window of my fathers silver luxury sedan as he drove up the long winding road that opened into our pack village in the midst of a mountain terrain of a dense forest. We had already passed the guard shack and gates and it would be another half an hour or so before we would be home and I wasn't sure if I should be excited or saddened by that knowledge. The drive from my boarding school in the city below the mountain had been mostly quiet, what little conversation had been my father handling a few business phone calls with Uncle Daniel and their business partners. What my father did for a living outside of being a beta to Uncle Daniel (who wasn't actually my blood uncle, but was more my fathers best friend and therefore a metaphorical uncle), I wasn't quite sure but it was rather fascinating listening in on his calls sometimes.

I loved my father and family more than anything in the world, but I am nothing like them and after four years of boarding sch