Chapter 48: Friendly Welcome

STORM

~When the roots are deep, there is no reason to fear the wind.~

Considering only twenty-four hours earlier I was a total stranger, I had to say the welcome I received from this family had been overwhelming.

Frieda and Raphael gave me a room in their castle. They said I was welcome to stay as long as I wished.

I am a wanderer. I never stay in one place too long. But now that I had found my pair, I did not wish to leave.

He was next in line to be alpha. He could not leave. So I would have to stay and find a way to ease my itching feet. I’d heard they had training grounds there. I would go find that.

I wandered through the grounds until I came across Milly. She was mid-training with a warrior. I stood to the side, watching her move. She was definitely a skilled fighter, that was for sure.

I couldn’t help but cheer when she knocked the warrior down in a chokehold, making him tap out.

She looked over at me, panting, and I was suddenly nervous, remembering what I had done to her the day before.

“Hey, did you settle in okay?” She came to a stop in front of me, her hands on her hips, her chest rising and falling rapidly.

“Um, yeah, I did, thank you. I’m sorry about yesterday, by the way.”

She shrugged, grabbing some water. “Don’t worry about it. Reckon I’d go all bad-bitch too if I had found my mate.”

“You haven’t found him yet?” I shuffled my feet, glancing up at her.

She was a little bit taller than me. She was petite in build but had a ferocious look about her. She could hold her own in a fight; that I had just seen.

Her raven dark hair was pulled into a ponytail, her eyes a striking blue. She really was a beautiful wolf.

“I’ll find him someday. For now, I am focused on my training. I want to be the best warrior. Like my father was.” Her chest swelled out.

I nodded, biting my lip. I gazed out onto the grounds. “You want some help?”

She smiled at me. “You know how to fight?”

I smirked at her, shrugging off my robe. “I know how to fight, all right.”

Her eyes lit up, and she nodded. “All right, vagabond, let’s go!”

I followed her out into the center. This would be fun if she was telekinetic. I planned on testing that.

We squared up against each other, sizing the other one up. I felt the air shift around me. She waved her arms, but I caught her mid-wave, throwing my arms up in front of me. She froze.

I pulled my left arm back, then punched it forward. She flew backward about ten feet and landed on the ground with a hard thump.

She stood up, shrugging her shoulders. “So that’s how you wanna play, huh?”

I smirked and dug my feet further into the ground, bracing myself for her next attack.

She took off running, aiming straight at me. She threw her arm through the air. I blocked her movement, swinging my arms through the air in a circle.

I pulled my hands back, forcing the air toward her. I reversed her magic back on her, knocking her backward.

“Aaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!”

~Thud.~

She lay still for a few moments before lifting her head. “That was awesome! Can you teach me that?”

I helped her up off the ground, smiling. “Of course I can. That’s what wanderers do. We exchange magic tips.”

“That was seriously cool. What did you do?” She brushed herself off.

“I reversed your magic back onto you. You got back what you sent out. It’s a good defense mechanism, but it’s a very difficult skill to learn. It will take a lot of time and practice.”

I handed her a bottle of water and grabbed one of my own. She nodded and took a sip.

“Oh, I am ~so~ ready to learn! That will come in handy when I go on missions.”

“You go on missions a lot?”

“Yeah, sometimes. Dad thinks it will help me. He said he used to do them a lot when he was my age. He’s the Iron Soldier, you know?

“I don’t know much. He never really told me. I only know from some of the stories I’d heard during my travels.” She sat down and patted the ground beside her.

I sunk down and crossed my legs. “I heard he was ruthless and unforgiving. That’s a big legacy to live up to. Are you sure you can?” I watched her movements as she thought of her answer.

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean, he did what he had to do to protect his family. He was angry before he met Mom. She really changed him. She’s so kind and patient, the total opposite of Dad.

“But they work, you know? Kind of like Aunt Gia and Uncle Kol. She calms the Berserker streak in him.”

I let out a low whistle. “Wow, talk about a lot of strong alphas in one family.”

She chuckled softly. “You’ve no idea! You saw Dad and my brother last night! Tip of the iceberg!”

Reign came skipping along and plopped down in front of us. I saw a young boy follow close behind her. He stayed at a distance but close enough that he could jump into action if need be.

“Who’s he?” I lifted my chin in the direction of the boy.

Reign rolled her eyes, scoffing. Guess I touched a nerve.

“He’s one of Dad’s pack warriors sent to keep an eye on me because of this apparent threat looming with the rogues.”

Milly whistled. “Shit, that means Dad is gonna get the same idea.”

I looked from one girl to the other before clearing my throat. “Surely you guys can defend yourselves? Is your family always this protective?”

“For as long as we can remember.”

Reign nodded. “Apparently, Pops had Uncle Diego track Mom’s every move when they were growing up.”

“Yeah, plus, when they got called to the coast to deal with a rogue attack years ago, Aunty Gia ended up stuck in limbo for months.

“Ever since then, there wasn’t really a rogue attack, since people were afraid of Gia.”

“Why were they afraid of her? How did she end up in limbo?” I sat up straighter. Funny enough, I hadn’t heard this story on my travels.

Reign lay down on the grass, catching some sun. “Mom brought over thirty wolves back from the dead in one swoop.

“Because of the effort it took, and my crazy grandaunt, she ended up in limbo for months, so Uncle Diego and Dad went off the rails on a hunt to get her back.

“They were pretty ruthless, so I guess people were more afraid once they knew what the royal bloodline was capable of.” She shrugged, flicking her sunglasses on.

I sat open-mouthed, staring at them. I knew the royal family was powerful beyond compare, but bringing so many wolves back from the dead to their original bodies?

That’s power that is unheard of even among us wanderers. It’s no wonder the council of elders feared Gianna and wanted her dead.

Milly nudged me. “Don’t worry, Storm. You’ll fit right in.”

I smiled tightly, looking across the gardens, feeling the warmth on my skin.

It was weird, you know? A couple of months ago, I had lost my family to a savage wolf attack. Now I had been accepted by a family of wolves simply because one of their own was my Pair, or Mate, as they call it.

It's nice. I feel like I belong somewhere.