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Chapter 16

Langdon's was nervous about starting the lessons on controlling his abilities. The support he received from the pack was tear jerking, especially from Zero. The man was not a lovely dovey guy but he did know how to touch his heart. In public, Zero had looked him straight in the eye and mouthed that he loved him, while he touched his chest. Returning the jester, Zero moved along. Now it was their thing. Zero would touch his chest where the heart would be, Langdon would return the love. Their way of saying, 'I love you'. Langdon could handle that.

Today started the lessons. Taking in deep breaths, he knocked on the door. A yell came from somewhere in the house for them to come on in. Stepping into the house, Langdon felt the energy.

"Whoa,"

"What's wrong?" Zero tucked his arm around his waist.

"You don't feel that?"

"Babe, I am a werewolf not a witch. We cannot feel what they do."

Dropping his head in embarrassment, he apologized.

"Don't, I can feel you. What I feel is whatever you feel is making you relaxed and happy.”

Langdon nodded. He wished Zero could feel the tingles that have taken root over his body. It was like a controlled high. His beast was purring with ecstasy. The vibes were energetic yet soft somehow. Taking in a deeper breath, Langdon allowed the feeling wash over him. A greater high consumed his body.

He was expecting to see cauldrons, candles, jars of this or that. However, Tatom had a room set up completely different from his imagination. There was a water fountain in the corner of the room. On the floor, there were mats, pillows and beanbags. Coming from the speakers on the wall was a soft melody. Plants were everywhere. A big picture window over looked the woods behind the house. The light coming from the window radiated the room in its soft rays of heaven. Langdon's beast curled up on his back and basked in the warmth of the room and magic floating in the air.

"Good," Tatom spoke in a soft voice. "I have set this up well then. Seeing that you are now relaxed and your beast approves."

Langdon touched one of the plants closest to him. It spoke of life, like a breathing living being. "I wasn't expecting this."

"You are an Empathy. I have to get you balanced. Your beast likes water and trees. You enjoy bathing in the sunlight and being surround by beauty and nature. The woods are a perfect place for you both."

He turned around, "Please make yourself a home. This lesson we will not do anything that you uncomfortable. First we have to go over the rules."

"Rules?" Langdon and Zero sat down on one of the mats.

Tatom took a seat across from them while nodding his head.

"Rule one- this room is made just for you. At any given time, do you feel tired or have grown uncomfortable with; speak up. You must stay within your comfort zone in this room.

"Rule two- goes with rule one. Speak in a calming voice. At no time is shouting permitted to take place. This room is your safe zone. At any time, you cannot handle any of the training. You can come here.

"Rule three- no wolves should ever enter this room unless you say. During training, the essence of their vibes can taint your safe zone. You can sense their anger or sadness. This can throw you off during your peace.

"Rule four- here I am boss. It is important that you listen. I will not do anything that would harm you. In order to control the emotions you must experience the emotions. In training, we will hit on all of them.

"We will use this room for some training; however, I have a training room set up downstairs. Right now, I am working on a blocking spell. The idea of the spell is to keep the emotion contained to that room. Now, it depends on how strong you become or whatever energy spikes may take place.

"Which leads me to the next rule. Rule five- Zero cannot be present during all of your training. He is your mate. As you already know, he can feel you, all of you. I cannot watch my back while I am helping you. I will let you know before handed if Zero is allow or not. And during any time do I sense Zero becoming effected by the training he will be told to leave."

Tatom offered them a drink once before continued. "Now I will add rules if must be. This last rule is more for Zero than for you. Rule six- the pack cannot know what goes on in here. Includes the Alpha, I apologize. You can tell him or them some but not all." Tatom took a deep breath, "This is protection of the Empathy. I trust that what I’m about to say will remain between us. It's not a big secret but some will use it against Langdon or even the pack.

"No one knows the full potential of an Empathy. No one knows the knowledge of how to teach one. The years of studying or gathering information about the specialty wolves as gave us greater knowledge but not all.

"The witch that was bonded to the ancient Empathy was-well-one might say she was afraid of the power the Empathy has or can have. She did not or would not; I’m not sure, tap into the emotion of the Empathy. I'm not afraid, I'm not afraid to push you to the limits. If I do what I think, I can do and what I feel that an Empathy can do, Langdon you will be the strongest Empathy that this earth has known.

"Emotion is unlimited. It will never go away; emotion will never leave oneself. If you shut down the emotion there still is emotion. A blank face or someone who is depressed is still showing emotion. Emotion is the strongest physical or mental ability we have. No one can run from it.

"In all the years that witches and werewolves have known about Empathy's they've never truly been able to bring out the full potential of that one wolf. The only way to defeat an Empathy is to kill him or her. However, Zero is your mate. The bond that an Empathy has with his or her mate is dangerous. Zero will learn just by sensing the air what is wrong with you.

"The witch did record that Will and David was able to link their minds, has their beast was together they were together." Tatom paused upon seeing Langdon and Zero glance at each other. "What is it?"

"Well- we had this fight." Langdon hesitated. "Our beast-our minds-well they combined somehow."

Tatom groaned, "I was so hoping that wouldn't happen until I arrived. Let me see your mate marks."

Zero took off his shirt; Langdon hesitated at first then took his off. Tatom moved closer to them and looked at each bite mark. He would chuckle then examine the marks more.

"Wow, it's true. I was hoping to be here but this is wow!" Tatom laughed. "I will explain but first tell me. The connection between you and the beast remained. Like they were still inside of you but they were out?"

"Yes." Zero gave a questioning look.

"Okay," Tatom sat back. "Wow," he chuckled. "I was going to explain that the dominate wolf that holds an Empathy will go through this phase. With Zero being an Alpha, he will go through it harder. An Empathy of course sees no ranks. An Alpha is the top rank. It can spell out trouble.  However, the dominate wolf that holds an Empathy will want the Empathy to be submissive towards him. Actually, it had nothing to do with dominate or submissive ranking. It is protection. The dominate wolf knows that his mate sees no harm in dominates or submissive.

"The beast will strike out at any who is potentially dangerous to his mate. By the beast and the human submitting to the dominate gives the dominate peace of mind that his mate will listen to him. The Empathy will sense that his mate knows something he does not. Like an enemy of the pack. You would see a wolf in need of help; Zero would know that wolf is tricking you. By you giving into him, you would be able to sense what Zero does."

"Oh, I actually get that." Langdon was surprised. "Zero ordered me after that whole thing. It didn't stick to me like it would the pack.”

"It never will, but sense that has happened. Zero's beast is calmer knowing that if anything does ever happen, you will listen to him. Knowing he is trying to protect you better. And also, by reading I heard that an Empathy marks his mate because well, no one is allowed to have his mate."

"That makes since, females have been known to mark their mates as well. It's not uncommon." Zero added.

"Well that and Zero is Langdon's equal." Tatom took a drink. "I didn't mean to speak like you are not in the room. It's a touchy subject with an Empathy."

Zero laughed, he so knew what Tatom was trying to say.

"Today the lesson is us getting to know each other. So any questions you want to ask, just ask. There is time to be made up with."

"Why is that? You really didn't say when you were explaining to the Alpha." Langdon whispered.

"It's the coven's fault. My mother is Tibitha. She was willing to leave and search for you and Bailey the moment that Liz said you too had been born. Unfortunately, Liz had seen that the coven was not going to allow her to leave. I'm not actually sure what the true reason is, but I do know that mom wasn't happy at all.

"She and Liz then started planning every moment that has allowed this day to happen. Liz left the coven to find Bailey. She had seen your mother's death. She knew she had to hurry to ensure Bailey that she was the correct mother to raise a son like you."

Langdon swallowed a little loudly, "So does your mom-I'm not sure how to ask what I would like to know."

"My mother is one of a kind, she's crazy." Tatom laughed, "That woman is going non-stop and she finds the energy to keep going. She is proud to have me as her son. Not for any kind of magical purposes, I'm me. My whole life she has been supportive. When I came out that I was gay, she literally jumped up and down. Told me no matter what, I was always her son and would never turn her back on me.”

Tatom swallowed back the tears, "Mom is really supportive. I wish everyone had a mother like her."

"Mom was cool about Zero too." Langdon smiled.

“I brought home Kagen-Kag to meet my mother. I thought my mother had my wedding planned out. She loved that I was dating someone like him." There was sadness in his eyes when he spoke of this Kagen.

"You okay?" Langdon could feel his sorrow.

"I will be. Kagen and I dated for over a year. We broke up for me to come here. He knew I never lied to him. It’s hard, knowing that you broke someone's heart to meet someone that is beyond words."

"Your wolf mate," Zero offered. Tatom nodded. "Maybe it's for the best you are so far away. This gives Kag a better opportunity to move on without you being so close to home."

"Yeah," Tatom chocked out. You did not have to be an Empathy to see how heartbroken he was. Tatom was in love with Kagen. Knowing you had a mate down the road, care for the heartache one suffered during the waiting period. "Could we talk about something else?"

"I kissed a guy and I liked it!" Langdon sung causing a huge laugh out of the guys.

By the end of the first lesson, Langdon felt that his nerves were just fine. He could go through whatever was in store for him. Having Tatom and Zero beside him was enough support to keep him from jumping over the edge.

When Zero had asked about Jace, all Tatom could do was laugh. The only explanation that he could give was...You know that one thing that seeks into your dreams and bothers you so much that it drives you mad. That was Jace. He was the dream guy. In his dreams, Jace was his. When he woke, Kagen was his. No matter how much he flirted with Jace, Tatom knew that he could never have him. For one, he actually likes his guy with a little mystery about them and he does like the 'bad boy' more than the good guy routine. Like with Kagen, he is quiet and different. At times, he could be explosive. Kagen has this wall placed up around him, not even; he could break down all the way. Jace was too submissive for him.

"Any more questions, you can think of?" Tatom asked.

"I can't think of any." Langdon narrowed his eyes. "Nope, Zero?"

"Everything that goes on here-“

"You will know. I won't keep you in the dark. Langdon is your mate. Like I said though, select what you want the wolves to know. I feel if the pack should not know how strong Langdon can be or is. Then the information cannot get out in the community. My job is Langdon; I will do my job no matter what the cost is.”

Zero respected that. He took being a witch very serious. It was no different from them taking pride in the pack. There was nothing better to them. For Tatom, he was a full-blown witch. He had to help guide and strengthen their mate. His beast approved of this just as much.

When they got home, June and May were running around the yard laughing. June screamed their names as she was running up to them. At first Zero thought they were having fun until he seen a red and blue Jace. The girls laughed and began to run again.

"Get back here!" Jace picked up speed as he barreled towards them. "I'm dying both of you green!"

A roar of laughter sounded from the house as the door opened again, the Alpha came out red face. Zero showed his neck and pointed.

"What's happened to Jace?"

"May and June left him a little surprise when he went to take a shower."

Laughter was entering the air again as they looked over. Jace had May and June thrown over his shoulders. Apparently, little brother could run faster than the older sisters could. Setting them down on the ground, he began wiping his body over the girls. Both were laughing too hard to fight him.

"Now I'm not the only one who will be walking around red and blue."

"That's actual dye?" Langdon pointed with wide eyes.

"YES." Jace pouted. "They're mean sisters!"

No one could hold back the laughter anymore. Vera came out with towels soaked in red and blue dye. Her feet were sporting the same colors, along with her hands and hair. She gave a stern look and the laughter quickly stopped. No one moved or hinted at speaking.

"Girls, you are to clean up the bathroom this very moment." Vera's voice was low and full of demand. "Move it."

With their tails tucked between their legs, May and June ran inside and up the stairs. Vera put a hand on her hip, "Jace let's get you cleaned up before the dye sets in too much." Jace followed Vera to the backyard. Next, they heard screams coming from the upstairs bathroom. The guys bolted into the house and up the stairs.

Entering the bathroom, they found May and June covered in green slime. Downstairs Vera was laughing so hard she fell to the floor. Then they realized that Vera was not mad at all. She seen a way to get their little trouble makers back for all the little pranks and jokes they play on everyone in the pack.

Nathanial had to lean up against the wall to keep from falling over himself. Emotion hit Langdon with a massive wave of happiness. It nailed him to the floor with each beat of the heart that called out in pure happiness. Zero tucked an arm around him. His mate had never been floor by happiness at this magnitude. For a moment, Langdon was stuck in time. Even his beast could not move from the emotion.

Once everyone was calm down and the mess up cleaned up. Vera tucked Amber into her side. She had a precious little one that was nervous about going to the pack doctor. Amber had realized that something was wrong with her system. It was responding to the shifting like the other girls. Her monthly was not coming any longer. Since she had shifted, her body had stopped being a woman. Amber was scared that this meant she would be to be alone. Vera tried to comfort her daughter. Yet this was all Amber. No one was going to make her feel better until she seen the pack doctor.

Glancing over at her family, she also sensed that something greater was going to happen. Vera knew that she did not hold any special abilities or was able to tap into any kind of energy; however, her gut told her that something was coming around the corner. Something dark. Her fears were starting to show on her face. Nathanial had caught her crying the other night. She didn't want any of the pack in harm’s way. She wanted her children on her feet like when they were little. Her heart ached to see the pack scared to walk out of their homes and into the world.

What were they going to do if this war actually did happen? Squeezing Amber a little bit tighter, Vera chocked back the tears. She could not let them fall. No one was to know that she was in fear. If an Alpha feared, the pack would lose hope. That would not happen. She refused to allow this pack to fall. This was hers.

Nathanial looked over at his beautiful wife. His eyes grew a golden brown. His beast was feeling the pull of the Alpha that their mate was using. Something was going on inside that head of hers. Vera met his eye contact, gave her proud and fearless smile. Her shoulders straightened up a little more. Nathanial knew then that his mate realized how strong they had to be. She was preparing herself for a pack to sit on her shoulders. In addition, with enough strength to carry this family all she has for so long. Smiling, he winked at her. Her cheeks flushed a crimson shade, although Vera was still too weak to fight him.

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