Chapter 14

        Riley is a chicken. We got only two feet out of my door before she said, "You've got Percy, so bye!". She ran back into my room and locked the door. I shook my head at the closed door and continued down the hall.

        Percy caught up to me and held my hand. I looked up at him and he winked. I looked down and blushed. It's crazy how I could be annoyed with him to blushing and becoming pudding on the floor the next.

        He lead me down many halls with multiple wolves walking past us, all baring their necks at us as we passed by. Percy nodded to each and every one of them before we continued on.

        I guess I'm going to have to get used to this, aren't I?

        Yes, you are and it's polite to acknowledge their submission too, you know.

        I looked down yet again, but this time embarrassed. The next time I see another wolf, I will nod my head like crazy to for them to know that I see them submitting or whatever.

        Just don't over do it, love. Percy smiled.

        I couldn't help but grin back at him, and before I knew it, I was standing inside a huge ballroom. There were marble pillars surrounding the area, and the floor was a beautiful and intricate design. There were werewolves running in and out from multiple doors and in the center of the chaos stood a couple with a sort of grace and dominance about them. They were obviously the Alphas.

        Percy's father had jet black hair that was swept to the side and covered his eye a little which only made him more mysterious. His eyes were a light blue and he had very defined features.

        Percy's mother, on the other hand, has the brightest slightly curly hair. She had hair almost the color of Lucy's hair from that old 50's TV show. She had bright green eyes with freckles dusted over the bridge of her nose.

        Anyone could definitely see that Percy was a perfect mix between the two. And someday, I'm going to be like that, the head Alpha female. Hopefully, I don't screw it up too badly.

        Percy chuckled at my thought and because of the super sensitive wolf hearing, his parents turned to face us. Percy's father said something in Romanian that had all the other wolves rushing out of the room.

        Is that how Romanian sounds? Man, that's cool! I should've learned how to speak this language in high school, even though they didn't have a class for it. Wait a minute, why don't you ever talk to me in Romanian, Percy?

        Because you wouldn't know what I would be saying, but I could talk to you in my Native language if you want.

        Of course! It's a part of you and that way I can say stuff to Riley and she won't have a clue at what I'm talking about.

        Percy just shook his head and laughed. His parents had been walking toward us and they came to stop in front of us. Percy's mom was a few inches shorter than me, but that didn't mean that she was any less dominant.

        "So this is the famous Crystal Waters that we've been hearing so much about," Percy's dad said as he smiled at me. He stuck out his hand and I shook it. He had a firm grip so I tried to give a firm but not strangling grip back.

        He pulled his hand back and I turned to face Percy's mom.

        "It's so wonderful to meet you!" Percy's mother completely disregarded my handshake and went straight for the hug. I was surprised for a split second but then hugged her back. I pulled away from the embrace and she studied my face. After a couple fo seconds, she said, "Yep. She's a good one. Perseus, you are really lucky. I didn't know who would end up being your mate, but she's better than I had imagined."

        I smiled at her and Percy looked down at me, thinking that he was indeed very lucky. "Thank you, Mrs. Lupei," I said.

        She smiled brightly at me. "Oh, Crystal. You don't need to call me that. You can just call me Jacque."

        Then Mr. Lupei spoke up. "Yes, but you can still call me Mr. Lupei."

        "Oh, hush Fane! He's just kidding. Do you boys mind if I steal Crystal for a minute?"

        "No, dragostea meu (my love), I don't mind. Just don't turn her over to the dark side."

        "You mean my fun side," Jacque smiled.

        "Exactly."

        "I'm serious, mother. Please don't corrupt her mind any more than it already is," Percy whined.

        Jacque just smiled and led me out of the ballroom. We walked down a hall before we exited through a door and into a beautiful garden outside. I was looking at the beautiful tulips before she said, "You know that all the flowers have meanings, right?"

        "Yes ma'am, I do. I especially love the red tulips." I bent down and placed my hand on one of the tulip's petal, loving the feel of the waxy texture.

        "Yeah. They are beautiful and have a wonderful meaning."

        "A declaration of everlasting love," we said at the same time. Jacque was quiet for a couple of seconds as I stood up from the tulips.

        "So, I've heard that you burned Jen."

        Once she said that, my mood went from happy to terrified. Does she not like me anymore because I burned her best friend?

        "Don't worry, Crystal. She's fine."

        "But-"

        "Sally healed her burn and now her arm is as good as new. The funny thing was that she even had a scar on her arm from a long time ago and once Sally healed the burn, the scar vanished. So her arm is even better than it was before. I think that that's because you weren't using dark magic. If it was dark magic, Sally would've only healed the burn a tad and the scar would still be there.You can bet that Jen has been showing her arm to everyone."

        I was astonished. I had hurt Jen but now she was even better than she was before. It's like a huge weight has been lifted off of my shoulders.

        "Tha-that's great! I thought that I had scarred her and you wouldn't even want to get to know the girl who burned your best friend."

        "Now look Crystal, I would still want to know you even if you did scar Jen. You're going to be my daughter in law someday and I'd have to learn how to live with you know matter what and you're way too kind and caring to have ever hurt Jen intentionally. Now about Perseus," Jacque said.

        We talked for what seemed like hours and I found out that I had more in common with her than I thought. I even asked her why she had named Percy, well Perseus. She said that while she was pregnant with Percy, she was reading all kinds of stories and myths from Greek mythology because since she was living in a world of werewolves and warlocks, it seemed that Greek mythology is really the only myths in the world. She had wanted to name her child Perseus after her favorite character if he was a boy. Fane said he wanted to name his daughter Jane, a combination of his name and Jacque's if the baby was a girl. They wanted to be surprised so when Percy was born, Jacque was so happy that she had picked the name Perseus, that Fane wasn't even the slightest disappointed that he didn't get to name Percy.

        It was such a cute story and I laughed out loud at the expression on Jacque's face when I told her how my parents came up with my name. Mom had wanted to name me Christine and call me Crysie. Dad didn't like that name and was trying desperately to change my mom's mind, but she stuck to it and had Crysie all over her computer screen. One day, one of her coworkers came over misread the name and said, "Oh! You're having a daughter named Crystal! That's a pretty name." My mom loves that name better than Christine and so did my Dad. That's how I got my name. It's wasn't until after my birth certificate was signed that they realized that my name sounded like a water brand.

        Now here I am, in a magical world where my name is not even on my list of problems. How funny.

~~~

        "Come on, just one more try!" Riley exclaimed as she pointed toward the small rock in front of me. I stretched my hands out in front of me and pictured the rock levitating, but it wouldn't budge.

        Riley and I had done some snooping in the library and found that the "witch" section was huge compared to the Serbian pack's. We eventually found a book that vaguely stated what kind of magic I possess. It said that since I have some healer magic, I was able to control the four elements. Riley thought that meant something from the periodic table, but I told her that the book most likely meant the four original elements meaning earth, air, water, and fire. We obviously knew that I had fire magic so we moved onto the other elements. I failed at tipping a glass of water over with my mind, and I'm sure I completely freaked a wolf out when I desperately tried to fly. Don't ask.

        After a few minutes of gesturing and pointing at the rock, I gave up. I couldn't do it and I wasn't sure if I'd ever be able to control my powers.

        "Well, I think we're good for today." Riley kicked the rock and it skittered into the woods and out of sight. I nodded my head and headed for our room. Jacque and Fane had allowed Riley to spend her spring break here thank goodness. Although, I don't think they could let her leave because her plane didn't take off until Sunday and she knew the secret. Not to mention that they would have to have fifty wolves drag her out by her ankles to get her into a taxi.

        I opened the door to our room and shut it behind me. I ran and jumped onto my bed, carefully avoiding the blown up mattress. There were hundreds of guest rooms, but Riley demanded that she would stay in my room, so they blew up a mattress for her. Percy doesn't like that Riley gets to sleep in the same room with me and he has to stay on the other side of the wall and not with me in his arms. I shrugged at him and he let out an exasperated breath. Somehow, he always gets me to smile.

        It was good though that he made me smile because even though I basically live here now, none of the wolves seem to accept me. Of course Percy and Fane and Jacque do but no other wolf does. When I am walking with Percy, they have to be respectful because he's their soon-to-be alpha, but when I'm walking by myself, that's a different story.

        I can see how they glance at me with distrustful eyes as they walk by just because I'm part witch, like I'm suddenly going to bust out a curse and turn them into a toad or something. They keep their head down and keep walking or some just plain out glare at me as I walk by, but I keep my chin up and look ahead. I refuse to let them see me hang my head at their looks so I ran all the way to my room without stopping.

        I was about to fall asleep when someone knocked on the door. I mumbled a "Come in," with my face pressed into a pillow. Percy came in and sat down on the edge of my bed. I sat up and leaned my head against his shoulder.

        "So, how's training going?" he asked.

        "Haha. Very funny. I could ask the same about you too you know."

        "Well, mine isn't training."

        "Neither is mine."

        We stayed quiet for a while, just listening to each others breathing. I wondered what Percy was thinking since he wasn't listening to my thoughts. I have always thought about going into Percy's mind, but I kept talking myself out of it because it just seemed wrong. But now I felt like telling him everything that I've been feeling these last couple of days about the glares that I was getting. Just thinking about how the female and male wolves didn't accept me just because of some off chance that I could turn evil any minute made me upset. I leaned away from Percy and could feel my eyes glaze over as I thought about everything that had happened.

        I meant to close my mind when I leaned away so that Percy couldn't see what had been happening until I told him but I felt him slip into my mind. What started out as worry for me turned into anger as Percy saw the images of the wolves shunning me and how it made me feel. I immediately fuzzed out their faces so Percy couldn't see who they were and he placed his hand over mine.

        "Crystal," he said. He was on the verge of whipping every wolf's butt until I told him who were the ones who didn't accept me. "Please. Tell me who those wolves are."

        "No, Percy. It's ok. I can handle their glares. They don't outright call me a witch or evil but-"

        He grabbed hold of my shoulders and gave me a stare that halted my words.

        "Crystal, I'm going to be the Alpha of these wolves really soon and if they have a problem with you then they have a problem with me. Acum, spin-mi cine sunt acești lupi. (Now tell me who these wolves are)."

        He spoke in his Native tongue so I knew that I had to tell him or there would he serious consequences.