"Janey, wake up,"
A familiar voice called beyond the haze, yanking me from my dreams.
"Janette, can you hear me? I said, wake up, now," It shook my shoulder.
I jolted awake, a gasp wracked in my chest. I winced, feeling pain all over my body... which wasn't new to me, at least. This has to stop. I swallowed down the fear and pain that were drowning me.
"Janey?" I finally looked at Cosette, who was staring down at me with concern.
"I'm fine,"
I smiled brightly at her. I didn't dare to show her my state, knowing well how she will react. I want to spend my entire day in peace, but the girl before me won't stop swearing if I tell they drained me again.
I took a deep, steady breath and climbed off the chair! And then the realization hit me, really hard.
"How am I here?" I asked, gazing at the darkroom, which I believe is aunt Elora's infirmary, in name only. She practices witchcraft here and trusts me enough with her stuff that she didn't hesitate to leave a spare key for me of this room.
"You don't sleepwalk. So, I guess, you were studying books you grabbed from the library,"
I wiped my face, nodded to her meekly. "I guess so," I need to find a way.
"Come on. I have made breakfast for us. You won't like it if tea gets cold,"
She turned around, and I followed her clumsily.
Benjamin. Thinking about his name gives me nausea. He was my mate. He still is.
Their family enmity caused my father to lose his mate. They banished him from his own pack. Rogue.
Then my mama found him, and the fruit of their love became me, Janette Halliwell. But the happiness lasted for a short period. His family hunted my father down again and killed him. And my mama followed.
"You go first. I will join you after freshening up," I needed some time to relax first.
"Don't take it long," She gave me a warning look and then went out to the living room.
My body was not reacting right. The ripping pain between my leg was so intense that... I can't take this anymore. They are killing me slowly. I stumbled into my room, sank into my bed.
Benjamin rejected me at the very first sight of me. Before meeting him, none of them knew who we truly were. It was my eighteenth birthday, and the wound was still fresh in me of losing my parents not even three years ago. What's more! His aunt cursed me in my home. Strange right? How daring she is!
That woman came to get my sister, Aileen. I didn't know why. When she didn't get her, she demanded to meet my mother, who was taking her last breath in her bed. That's when I lost it.
I am a hybrid. Half Witch and Half Wolf/Rogue.
I didn't get my wolf in my age fourteen, but my witch power was quite better from the very beginning.
I fought her, didn't allow her to step inside my home. When she couldn't match my power and techniques, she cursed me and left. She binds my blood with a powerful demon. When she comes to know that her nephew, Benjamin, is my mate, she took his blood in his consent and binds with me, so that he can torment me every night intimating with the other she-wolves in his pack.
It takes time for a Rogue to shift.
But for me, it was different. I can feel my wolf, but can't connect it for that curse. It is hurting whenever Benjamin intimates with others. I wanted to accept his rejection and yet, I can't.
"Janey! Do you want to have breakfast in your room?" My room vibrated in Cosette's high pitch tone.
Oh, this girl! "Let me brush my teeth at least!" I shot back and hurried up my steps. Before leaving my room, I left a small pot of water along with some dried berries on the windowpane for the birds.
"How is it possible for a Night Owl to become Mother Hen this morning?" I asked Cosette.
"Oh... well..." Cosette breathed out, flipped the omelet to the other side in the pan.
I raised a brow at her. It was strange to see her brush off a tease when it comes from one of her best friends. I mean, me and Aileen. Cosette isn't hard to read because the only emotion she carries is Wrath.
Always straightforward and Blunt. Shortempered. Impulsive. Reckless. Confident. Powerful. I can't expect any less from her though. She was a crowned princess of hell. The Demoness.
I poured two cups of tea and grabbed plates to serve us breakfast with fruits, bread, and her omelet. She slid an omelet across me, and then hers took a seat beside me. I took a bite of it and nearly moaned. It was delicious, filled with avocado, onion, and mayonnaise. She is getting better at cooking, I must say.
"It's amazing," I took a sip of tea, and energy started coming back to me. Oh, heaven.
"Aileen found a book for the curse... to break your curse," Cosette muttered so low that I almost didn't catch it. As her words registered in my mind, my fork slipped from my grasp and dropped on my plate.
She is helping me? A smile formed on my lips. How could I think she won't?
Aileen wasn't usually helpful. It was mainly because she has some limitations to use her power to help our kind. She was frustrated by these rules, but that didn't stop her from getting what she aims at.
"Whatever that scrum's aunt did on you, it's obviously dark. The magic she used was anything but normal. Hell, I have tried myself, even Elora, Arabella, and Maisie did, but - " Her grip tightened around her tea mug. Her jaw clenched. Her aura turned dangerous. I had to hold her hand to tell her it's okay, but... She left her seat, gritted out, " - we gotta do something fast before it kills you."
"I will survive," I tried to keep myself strong for them.
Cosette looked down at me, her eyes were completely red. "You better, or I will make you suffer in hell."
"I know," My voice wavered. They're hurting for me, and I can see that. They both have a lot of power, yet they are powerless, which kept bugging them. Cosey is expressive, but Ailey is closed off, just like me.
Aileen isn't my sister by blood. But that didn't make any less of me or her treating each other as each other's elder sister. She has been avoiding me, still blames herself for losing our parents.
I tried to talk to her, told her many times that it was never her fault. She was betrayed, for heaven's sake.
Once she takes something in her heart, it gets hard to make her believe in anything.
"I have eyes, Jane. You are getting thinner and paler... They are draining you," My head sunk low. She is right. "It won't last long. We won't let it. Aileen has gone through the Lunar Court's Library and - "
"She what?" I almost freaked out and looked at her in disbelief. "And you let her!" I couldn't believe it.
"I - "
I left my seat, fisted my hands to my side. "You know what kind of place that is, and she went in her current state!" I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. "He allowed her!" How could he?
"That's her home," My eyes snapped open, looked at her in rage.
She held up her hands. "I know they are all about politics, but you know her. No one has control over her. Besides, what can't she do for you, Jane?" This is... wrong. She couldn't possibly be considering this.
What didn't she do for me? She alone planned it over two years to catch our father's killers who were behind papa's death. She killed them all, and I was not aware of it. She killed Benjamin's aunt, attacked his pack. Aileen sent Benjamin, and her ex, who was my mate's cousin. Cosette brought them here for me to decide their fate. Cosette had come through me with that jar, where Benjamin's aunt trapped my soul.
"She has been avoiding me," I couldn't hold back any longer. All the emotions that I have been hiding in me started affecting me. "It's not - you should have stopped her, Cosette." My nails were digging my palm so hard that I began feeling a stinging pain. She has been through a lot already. I don't want her to take much pressure on me in her critical state. I have no family, except her. If I lose her, I won't survive anymore.
