Rejecting, Your Broken Promises
Chapter 41

Dawson’s POV

Ever Green Pack

I sit and watch my beautiful mate excel at learning to use her power. She has learned quickly and even though they don’t say it to her I can see how impressed and proud they both are of her. She was never allowed to train, or so she thought, but after she was unbound by Vincent, she did know a few things. Apparently, her grandmother did give her some instruction when she knew she was going to pass. She also knew how much Luna Meghan and Sloan’s sister Brandi hated her, and witch’s in general, and didn’t want her totally defenseless.

She had learned a few defense spells, but because of her being bound by whoever her mom got there to do that to her, she couldn’t use them, even if she wanted to. Vincent thinks that it was a low-level warlock because of his ease in breaking it. He was so angry to hear of her room being magically soundproofed to keep her dad from feeling bad from hearing her begging to be let out of her room. I know that once we get back to B***d Rose, I believe that Vincent and Beth will be paying them a visit, whether they want them there or not. I already know that they won’t allow them onto the packland or now, knowing Beth’s gift at getting wherever she wants to go by just transporting them there, I am sure that is what they will do. I grin just thinking about it. I would love to see that show.

It could have been worse, they could have starved her too. At least she was strong enough for her scent to call to me when we got there. I will always be thankful to the Omega who usually served her being sick that day, or I might never have met my mate. I will speak to Rob about it and make sure that Omega wants to stay there at Golden Moon. If she is being hurt, which I wouldn’t put past Luna Meghan, I will see if Rob can get her free of there to come to B***d Rose. I felt an overwhelming sadness at the thought of me never finding Sloan, and I see her turn towards me to see what was happening, taking her eyes off of Vincent for just a brief moment of time, and she was hit by a ball of fire in her shoulder because of it. Sloan cries out in pain and she falls to the ground.

I roar in anger and ran to her to check and see if she was OK, as she had been knocked down by the blow. She had a burn on her shoulder from it, and I pulled her into my arms to comfort her. Vincent walked up and leaned down to speak over her injury and the skin magically healed. The burn on her clothing was still visible, but her flawless skin was again perfect. I looked up at him angrily as he had hurt my mate, even if he also fixed it too she had been hurt. What in the world was he thinking? Sloan is still new at this, and he needs to take it easy on her.

“Sloan, you HAVE to stay focused. If you are in a battle, it is ALWAYS life and death. I would be terribly upset if it ended up being your death. I love you very much, and I want you to be as strong as I am. To protect both yourself, Dawson, and your future children. You have that inside you, you have an incredible about of power locked inside you that I can’t wait to see in action. I could have pulled it from hitting you, but I needed you to get this life lesson. You have to pay attention to what is going on with YOU, in battle. If you allow yourself to lose focus, you could indeed be killed, and if you die, Dawson could die too. We aren’t protected from injury just because we are magical. Why did you take your attention off of me?” Vincent asked her and she blushed looking down at the ground before answering.

“I could tell that Dawson was really upset about something, and I wanted to comfort him. I only looked away for a moment, just to make sure that he was OK. I shouldn’t have. He is here and safe at Ever Green, but we are mates and when he hurts, I do too” Sloan said to Vincent. I hold her tighter to me as I hear her response to Vincent. I was the reason that she got hurt, and now I feel terrible. I need to make sure that I don’t get her killed myself, Vincent is exactly right. She could be killed trying to help me, and I feel full-on fear at that thought. Sloan senses my fear and takes my hand into hers and leans her head over for me to sniff her scent to calm me. How did I get such a wonderful mate? I love her so much.

“That was my fault. I was upset thinking about how she was treated at Golden Moon, and I will make sure that both her parents and her horrible sister understand that they will never be welcome at B***d Rose, ever again. If it wasn’t for Rob, and their pack members who aren’t jerks, I would have torn up the treaty. I need the reminder to control my thoughts, especially if we get into a battle. I never want to see Slone hurt. I will protect her with my life” I tell Vincent as Sloan gets up from the ground and I get up and give her a quick hug. I walked back to where I was watching and take my seat again.

Vincent is absolutely correct. Sloan needs to master this and soon. I never want to have to worry about her if I am not with her to protect her. She is doing well with both her wolf and witch, sides. My family thinks that she hung the moon, and Percy and I have spoken about how jealous he was about mine and Sloan’s relationship being so smooth. He still doesn’t get that he is solely responsible for 99% of the problems in the relationship. He knows he hurt her, but he doesn’t understand how it would feel if someone would try to take her from him.

I have never had to doubt Sloan for one second, but I do know how it felt to have the realization of other men wanting her at the mall when we were shopping, and a few looks of unmated males here checking her out, as she is still unmarked. They know she is mine now, as I was very clear to them about it, but I need to make sure that everyone knows that she is mine. The reason I have that knowledge of losing her was that if it hadn’t been for my family, especially Elena, and Rob, I would never have been able to get my mate without going to war and potentially hundreds of innocent lives lost all because they didn’t want her to be happy. They wanted her to be punished for something she couldn’t control, miserable as she was trapped in her room alone, for the rest of her life. They did try to prevent me from getting my mate, and I will never forget or forgive them that they did that to her.

I see how much she has blossomed here at Ever Green, she is a totally different woman now. She is confident, she speaks louder, and she has her head up now. Before she was always looking down, she didn’t have the confidence that she has now. Growing in her strength and being around other strong women has helped her come out of her shell. I had asked her if she wanted to get some therapy like Peyton was doing, and she was hesitant at first, before finally agreeing to go. She only went twice, but I could tell how much it has helped her. As she continues to grow in confidence in her sparring, in both wolf and human form, she will grow even stronger.

My mother is really impressed with how much Sloan pays attention to her training, Peyton too. Both of them know what it is like to not be able to defend themselves and have both taken their training seriously. They know that all situations that were are in, could turn deadly and mom shared some of her stories with them, so they knew that even with being a strong fighter, some situations are just out of their control. They are soaking in all that they are learning, they are both so impressive with how well they have both caught on to it. Sloan seems like she excels at martial arts, and Peyton’s mom made over, with loving her handguns. I can totally understand why each went in the direction that they did, as Sloan is a witch and needs her hands free to be able to use her spells, and I can see that with having a handgun on her person, Peyton is no longer the timid soul that I had met when she arrived here.

Don’t get me wrong, Sloan is deadly with a gun, and a crossbow, as well. She is just trying to rely on her magic right now to build that up as quickly as she can. She knows that Vincent and Beth can’t stay with her forever and that she has to learn how to use her abilities because Vincent was right when he said that it could be life and death for her. With her purple eyes, it is obvious that she is a witch, and some will automatically judge her with whatever their preconceived notions are about her. People need to stop just judging others, and get to know them, and who they are as a person, before jumping to conclusions about them. I know she sometimes comes across someone who has had an issue with a witch before, and it was stressful for her. I did offer to buy her some colored contacts, if she wanted to, I think the old Sloan would have wanted them. But this Sloan is much strong inside and she told me, “No, if they decide to judge me based solely on me being a witch, I don’t want to be friends with them anyway. It cuts out the people I don’t want to be friends with out of my life quicker”. I think that my sister, Elena, is a bad influence on her. Seeing the three of them together makes me so happy that both of our mates and our sister truly do love each other. Mom is over the moon about it, as sometimes the mate that you get, might not fit in as well as ours have. Percy and I have both been blessed by the Mood Goddess herself, and we could not be more pleased with who she had chosen for us.

Sloan practices for another hour and a half with Vincent. She does 2 hours in the morning and 2 hours at night. Vincent was really wanting her to get up to speed as soon as he can. I worry that he is pushing her too hard, so when Elena showed up to walk back to the packhouse with us, I let them walk ahead of us, so I could speak to Vincent and Beth as we walked back together.

“What did you want to say young Alpha?” I see Vincent already smiling at me as he asked the question. Beth was giving me a smile too, and I know that he had already told her something without me being able to hear it.

“I am just worried about Sloan. Are you sure that you are not pushing her too hard right now? She is training so much, I just don’t want her to be overwhelmed. I love her, and I worry about her” I told Vincent, and Beth reached over to grab my hand and pull me to a stop as we spoke.

“We know you love her, and you do not have to worry about her. She is a lot stronger than you could ever imagine. Her Grandmother, Sera, was unbelievably strong. That was why her coven was so angry with her. They were so much weaker without her, but she made the right choice. It is better to be with the one you love than to live an extraordinarily bland life. We know she had a difficult life for the last 8 years, but we can both feel how powerful she is. She is excelling at this, and everything else that she is doing, can you not see that? She needed the reminder that I gave her today too. I could have moved the shot, but she needed the reminder that she is not invincible. You both need to work together, in sparring situations, where you can get a pattern down, and work in sync with each other. That way, when the need arises, she will know when to come to you to help you” Vincent tells me.

“Sloan has as much power in her, as we do, she is very special and when you are special, people want you for their own purposes. She has got to learn quickly for her own good, as well as for your good. It could kill you to lose her. Now that I have said that. I would like to ask you how long you are planning on waiting to mark and mate her. She is ready. I know you have been trying to be patient with her, but she loves you and she wants you to claim her fully. I can feel it, I can read her emotions, and she wants you to. I also can read you and you have had a ring for her the whole time that we have been here, I can tell that you have it on you now. When are you planning on asking her? You know we expect an invitation to the wedding. I cannot wait to see what a beautiful bride she will be” Beth tells me, and I see that Vincent is surprised as his head goes from looking at Beth to me with a frown as he said, “You are going to ask her to marry you?”

“Yes, I got the ring about 2 hours after we left Golden Moon. I already loved her and wanted to make her completely mine. I will be inviting you both to the wedding of course. You are family” I said to them. I was always planning on having them there, besides Rob, they were the only family that she had, so of course, they were coming.

“My boy, I could not be happier that you two are mates. I am glad she senses it, and I know how much she loves you. I felt what she felt when she turned to check on you. You know I was not trying to hurt her, that was why I immediately healed her. I just needed to make sure that she remembers that in a battle, it only takes a second of losing focus, to lose your life. We will see you at dinner, son. We are both so happy for you and Sloan, so get to it. I want to see that ring on my great’s grandaughter’s hand before we head to B***d Rose” Vincent tells me and he and Beth start walking again towards the packhouse. I have their full blessing, I will not be waiting any longer. I grinned and ran to the pack house to claim my mate.