A Witch's Beloved

(You will see this story is a bit more fun as you read on.)(I almost immediately started working on this one when I wrote the last word of my naga ending. Though the chapter left a severely bad taste in my mouth I love to write and I will not dwell on that bad ending I refuse to give up on my writing dagnabbit.

If you need a mental picture for this story's location, imagine the country side of Texas, the run down half of any state that lacks development and has mostly grass surrounding small shops, New York and a bit of Florida all thrown together in a blender.

!!!!!!I just want to note this is not a family taboo story, I simply have many of the main characters refer to each other as brother and sister. Like siblings of war who have fought together just wanted to make that clear.!!!!!!

This story is not like my other stories where I tried my best to add in twists as I saw fit to make each story unique in some way. So if you are one of the readers I have lured to the dark side I think you'll be pleased with the little differences thrown in here and there.

One last thing, I have twisted the creatures you're about to read about so if they aren't what you're use to and you do not like them being changed around you shouldn't read this story.) (Feel free to skip to the bottom of the last page to see the reference list for this chapter.)

..........

"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Melody screamed.

The large man turned to face her, he held a steel pipe and was about to go after a poor dog. It was very late and the three stood in the alley way of Celarion City. Unlike most cities there were not any windows leading to the alley ways the fire escapes were placed near the front. It made it more difficult for people to break into apartments because they couldn't just slip into the alley blocked from view thanks to other pedestrians. The man looked more startled than pissed off, he raised the pipe intending to kill the witness. The dog sunk his teeth into the man's ankle, he came down hard and when the dog came out of the shadows she could see it completely.

He was an abnormally large dog to a person who didn't know any better the top of his head came to her breasts. Of course she knew it wasn't an average dog, but a werewolf, there were lots of them in the country side but it was odd to see one alone in the city. Despite his large size it was clear his wounds were the reason he had become such an easy target. His fur was white and mostly stained with dirt and blood, she kicked his attacker repeatedly between the legs and motioned for the wolf to follow her.

Seeing that his options included either an embarrassing death or alone time with a beautiful woman he followed her. He knew he would regret pushing himself but did so anyways, that bastard would only be stunned for so long.

..........

As they reached her apartment building Melody was silently hoping that Luis was the security guard on duty. He usually fell asleep about now, and she wasn't exactly sure her friend was in the mood to play a thousand and one questions with Gretchen. She spotted Luis and relaxed, though she had no way of knowing this would happen she was glad she had picked the building with the double wide elevator.

.....

Drake collapsed on her dark brown carpet trying to catch his breath, he watched her move to the kitchen when she returned with a bowl of water with a towel in it he shook his head. When she got close she saw the light reflecting off of something on his neck, pushing the fur out of the way she saw how he had been weakened. It was a shock collar specially made for werewolves. It stopped them from using their powers in any way and they couldn't take their human form with it on. Seeing that his eyes were dilated she knew he'd been shocked multiple times already and she would probably kill him if she put too much water on him.

She set the bowl down and darted into her bedroom, when she returned she came out with a little spell book. He made a face, it would look like a grimace to some, but she knew he was relieved. The werewolves had always allied with witches and vampires, some say the first witch befriended the first vampire while they nursed a werewolf back to health. Other's say that they banded together against various demons and evil spirits for the right to large chunks of land. By now no one is really sure which version is true or if there is an entirely different version but they are all old races and friendship that can last several millenniums and then some just has to be worth keeping.

What they fought against was a secret to humans, but it was important for them to know their history as best they could.

She flipped through the pages, when she found the proper spell and cast it over the collar, it fizzed and snapped. He coughed as it's removal sent shivers up his spine, as powerful as the collars were, the effects ended fairly quickly. Though because he was injured his powers would be limited for a couple of days. He wasn't very fond of the idea but would get over it.

'Thank you......sister.....'

She smiled as he sent his thoughts to her and nodded, she closed the book and went to grab a second a bowl of water for him to drink while she worked on his wounds. Melody was a fair skinned beauty, with a few freckles dusting her cheeks, her long curly red hair fell to her back and partially covered a set of sea blue eyes. She was a curvy and petite, just the type of woman Drake preferred.

"What is your name brother?"

'Drake....and yours?'

"It's Melody."

'Beautiful...'

She blushed at the whispered compliment as she continued working on his wounds, truthfully she could just heal him with a spell or two. However she was a young witch and when she tried that the wounds weren't always fully healed. however it wasn't like he needed her too, with the collar gone his powers would come back and he could heal himself a lot faster.

.....

"Who put that vessen on you?"

'I don't know, there was a strong scent of lemon in the air just before it was put on me.'

Something about the smell of lemons was over powering for wolves, kind of like how chopping onions makes one's eyes water. Older wolves who have gotten use to the scent can handle it in small doses.

She cocked her head as he moved to shift, she got up and grabbed a blanket she tossed it over him knowing he would be naked when his change was done. She walked into her guest bedroom, taking a second to admire the green and black color scheme before she took out a pair of pants and a sweater that belonged to her brother. Whenever he visited he left something over. It could be by accident or he could be slowly trying to move in so he can guard his baby sister. Julian was lovable but too over protective for his own good.

She peeked out the room at him and her eyes widened a little. Drake was a poster boy for sex on legs, his lightly tanned body was toned, he had various tattoos, his silky platinum blond hair fell down his back and pooled behind him on the floor. When he turned she could see the small goatee and neatly trimmed mustache, coupled with a perfect nose and those beautiful green eyes of his. She blushed and walked over to hand the clothes to him, he thanked her again before getting dressed.

She sat with him on the couch and raised an eyebrow when she noticed his neatly trimmed fangs. Most wolves had jaggedly cut fangs.

"You're a hybrid?"

He nodded, the air around him sizzled a little as his powers circulated through his body to work on the worst of the damage.

"But you're a were....don't you need more blood than the average vampire?"

He shrugged.

"Depends on how long it's been since I last fed."

She nodded.

"Do you need some...?"

He stared at her.

"Do you mind?"

She shook her head and pushed her hair off of her shoulders, he slid his arm around her waist and pulled her close before he bit her neck. She moaned, something about the fangs of any vampire, it was as if they had minds of their own and knew exactly what nerves to hit to drive you wild. Her eyes fluttered closed, Drake growled slightly feeling her hands in his hair. He pulled away as he smelled the sweet honey scent of arousal, he hardened but remembered his manners. You just didn't take a meal and a fuck from a woman on the same night, no matter how tempting it may be.

Even with the venom of the average vampire decorating his fangs, Melody was not in danger of changing. While witches and warlocks were mostly human, the magic that ran through them altered their blood. This prevented them from changing due to a bite, and made it easy for the older vampires who needed more blood than food to survive. Their blood was also higher quality, regular human donors were sought out in emergency situations.

He licked the wound and watched it slowly heal then licked his lips she fell into a daze before sleep took over. He rested her against the couch, her blood was sweet, very sweet. He resisted the urge to howl he didn't want her neighbors calling the cops, his body shivered as it worked to commit her taste to memory. In one attack when he thought he was truly done for he'd been saved by the one woman he never thought he'd find; his mate.

.....

The next morning she came out of her little daze and found him leaning against the wall legs and arms crossed his head facing down. She stretched and pushed herself into a sitting position.

"Drake, did you sleep OK?"

When he didn't respond she got up and walked over, he was sound asleep. She lifted up his shirt to see the effect her blood had on him. Glancing over the bandages and saw that he was healing even faster than she hoped he would. She could see that he wasn't badly bruised so it was obvious his attacker, whoever he had been, had not gotten to use the pipe before she grabbed his attention.

"See something you like?" he mumbled.

She held back a laugh.

"Oh very funny...I was just checking your wounds."

He slowly rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.

"Is that a fact?"

"I'd say so, are you hungry?"

He frowned.

"Give me too much blood and you'll become anemic."

She smiled.

"Thanks for your concern but I was actually talking about solid food."

"Oh in that case then I'm starved."

She shook her head and walked into the kitchen, he moved to stretch, his muscles only protested a little before he followed her. The only reason he'd been in the city was because that bastard chased him there after he was made defenseless. Now that Drake was quickly getting a grip on his powers thanks to his mate's blood, he was looking forward to getting revenge.

Melody glanced at him.

"You seem deep in thought."

He glanced at her.

"Just thinking about someone I need to snap the neck of."

She laughed at his bluntness.

"Are you a lost alpha?"

He shook his head, the lost alphas were the weres that after a series of unfortunate events ended up switched at birth. It was harder for them to take their place, they didn't normally know enough to take over. They were normally weaker too.

"I'm my parent's youngest son, I'm working on completing my trial of maturity."

"Trial of maturity?... how old are you?"

He smiled.

"I'm forty."

Her eyes widened the weres, vampires and all magic users aged at the same rate as a human would but the weres and vampires stopped aging at the age of twenty-one. Witches stopped aging at eighteen, still, being forty he was practically a baby compared to some of the wolves she had read about who were pushing four hundred or more.

"What is that exactly?"

"It's a five year time span of solitude from the pack."

"But isn't it hard for a.....um nevermind."

He sighed.

"Go ahead and say it, it's mostly true."

She bit her lip.

"...A pup to be alone for the full time?"

"Yeah it is, but both my brother and I are natural born alphas, we would have ended up fighting for the position of pack leader when father stepped down. Wolf fights tend to bloody and messy."

She nodded, her knowledge of were traditions happened to be limited because she had gone to regular human school before starting her magical studies; but she knew enough to get by.

"So are you almost done?" she asked.

"Yes, next Monday, I would have been so pissed to have gotten killed so close to the end."

She smiled and turned her attention to the pancakes she was making, he helped cook the meat and eggs. He glanced over at her, he would have been even more pissed to have lost her.

"Can you remind me of the full details? I'm a little fuzzy."

He smiled and nodded.

His wolf was sending clear messages that it wanted to be closer to her, fight for her affection if it had to he forced the inner animal back; it wouldn't do to scare her away now. The familiar pain of loneliness was getting to him. While wolves are pack animals it was normal in a family with two alpha males to send one of the sons away; while the eldest was given his own form of intense training for the role. In cases where there was only one son the eldest would have to take the challenge, if he failed the pack would fall to the sister closest to his age. If the specific wolf could keep themselves alive without the resources from the pack then the pack of the eldest would be split and each son would be granted their own.

Of course if they ran from danger and returned home before the time was up they would be marked the omega of the pack; harsh to some but if you wanted to be alpha you had to earn it or be humiliated when you lost it. Which is why it's called the trial of maturity, either you'll become an adult or you won't and you'll suffer the consequences.

She made a face as he explained it in full.

"That's pretty rough, the worst you get with magic users is you're debut into the magical world."

"Don't you have to go against your eldest sibling in a battle of spells?...."

"Yes, without killing them due to inexperience."

"Have you ever seen someone do that?"

She filled the plates as she thought about it.

"Just once, the battle goes on for an hour, a cousin of mine was almost done when he really really messed up."

He eyed her.

"What happened?"

"He beheaded his sister....we had to erase his memory so he would recover mentally."

He shook his head as they sat down to eat, humans whined about such silly things, he figured if you put little Susie what's-her-face and little Timmy who's-your-daddy against each other with one of the trials from their world; they would really have something to whine about.

.......

After they finished eating, he motioned for her to take a shower while he did the dishes.

"But you're a guest."

"A guest with working limbs who knows how to clean up after himself, go on."

She smiled at him again, he swallowed as he felt the urge to bend down and press his lips against hers. In the five year time span it was common to meet one's mate, so it was fine for him to be in her company however he needed to control himself. He was legally an adult, but in the eyes of his family he would always be a child especially if he let his sexual urges get the better of him. That might not matter to some but he refused to risk bringing a child into a world where he was an omega and couldn't properly protect the child or his or her mother.

With wolves a child was a sure thing on the first or second night together, there were potions they could take if they wanted to have sex and not get pregnant. Lots of couples chose to take these potions when they wanted to focus on a small amount of children at once. Some couples were even happy with whatever they got the first time around and never had anymore unless the pack was lacking in numbers. He felt a shiver run up his spine, which was his wolf's way of whimpering and making it clear he didn't approve of the decision. Drake ignored the animal, they only had a week left, this would be a really dumb time to mess up.

Not mention, none of that even mattered until he could gain both of her parent's approval, it was the way things were done when concerning proper courting and a human wasn't involved.

....

After she was done she quickly cleaned the shower and left clean clothes in the bathroom for him to change into. She pulled out her cell phone and called her brother, she frowned as she heard loud noise in the background when he answered. She wasn't sure if it was even music, Julian made the effort to give everyone different ring tones but didn't make the effort to listen to any of them. He turned the music off.

"Hello?"

"What the hell was that?"

"I'm not really sure, there is a fucking wood pecker out side and it's driving me up the wall."

She laughed, he was an animal lover and couldn't hurt a single one, but that didn't mean he always enjoyed their company.

"Don't laugh doll, they are beautiful....evil creatures."

She laughed harder.

"What's up?" he asked when she quieted down.

She explained that she was borrowing his clothes.

"I'm coming over right now."

"Why?"

"Because I need to meet this bastard."

"Julian you don't know if he's a bastard."

"Doll, every man that is not related to you is a bastard to me." he said simply.

"Says the over protective one."

"Excuse me?"

"Oh sorry, the amazingly handsome over protective one."

"Right and don't you forget it."

She held back her giggles as they said good bye and she hung up, she glanced down the hall as Drake came out of the bedroom. He hadn't put his shirt on yet but was drying his hair. She could make out one of the tattoos that rested on his bicep, it was skull submerged in water with a goth mermaid swimming between the eye sockets. When he got close she absently touched it and traced the lines with her fingers. His wolf growled in pleasure at the soft touch to stop him from doing the same.

"You like it?" he asked.

"It's so....pretty why water and a mermaid?"

"Lots of guys have flames and a snake, I wanted something different."

She walked behind him and pushed his hair out of the way, on his back was a heavily detailed sword but the handle was a gold spider. She found vines and black roses on his other arm and several small skulls. On his shoulder, right where it could be covered by just about any shirt was a single sentence in cursive.

Fight to live, live to fight, and be strong enough to do everything in-between.

She stroked the letters and the dark blue flames that surrounded them, she shook her head, she trusted him because he wasn't human. She didn't understand being so drawn to him, she frowned, she would have to do more effective studying, oh well no time like the present.

"Melody?"

She glanced up at him then frowned more.

"....You have a lot of nerve being a guest in my house...and being so much taller than me."

He burst out laughing, she looked so serious when she said it, she fumed and her cheeks turned red.

"It's not funny....I tried hard to be tall."

He raised his hand and rested it on the top of her head.

"You're not that short, you're hair easily adds an inch or two."

"Why you...."

She jumped as she heard the door bell, Drake pulled on the black shirt he held in his hand he didn't like the smell of another man coming in here. His jealousy melted as the scent mixed perfectly with Melody's that told him that it was a relative. The man was a bit taller than her, his skin was darker, his hair was black, but he shared her eyes. He kissed the top of her head and walked over to Drake.

"So you're the asshole fucking my sister."

Drake couldn't be threatened by Julian in the least he chuckled.

.......

Julian gave Drake the cold shoulder even after Melody explained what happened, Julian wrapped his arms around Melody and tugged her away from Drake.

"You look at her, look real good...if any of this is hurt because of you I'll rip you a new one and cut your throat."