Stranded with my mates: Rejected & Claimed

Chapter 72: Chapter 72

The water dipped over my lap. I sat cross-legged at the water’s edge, the gentle waves tickling the skin on my thighs. The sun sat behind me, casting my shadow over the blue waters.

Jax held my hand softly in his as I rested the back of my wrist atop my knee. It was impossible for me to feel any emotion aside from calm in the protection of the ocean waves.

Something about being here felt so welcoming and warm like running from your room on an early Christmas morning to a lit tree with presents below its limbs and a mother with open arms.

My other hand lifted to the necklace around my neck, feeling its curve and sharp edges.

"Are you concentrating?" Jax asked, catching my distractions.

I placed my hand back into my lap and closed my eyes. The other men sunbathed behind us, their presence making me feel protected.

"What am I concentrating on again?"

Jax let a breath out dramatically, "you said concentrating on the energy brought them up."

The problem was I didn’t want to bring them up, every time I did something greatly terrifying happened. They did their job when I asked but with consequences that I ended up paying for that lasted longer than it was worth.

"I wish I could hear your thoughts, then I could really guide you," he told me.

"Not much besides disappointment going on up there," I said dryly and Marek chuckled behind me.

Jax’s hand squeezed at mine, "you have to be confident. If you don’t trust yourself then why would your powers?"

I considered this, I did see my powers as an entity of their own and not something that was truly a part of me. Whenever something happened, it felt like it was happening to me and not flowing from me.

Shaking my shoulders out, I deepened my concentration like Jax requested. The feeling rose like a hot-flash, building in my chest and making my skin prickle with a hot charge.

"Don’t lose yourself in it," Jax said beside me while holding back an excitement in his voice. "Watch it, don’t use it."

Listening, I observed the feeling but didn’t ask anything of it. I watched it as it filled my cells, opening my eyes slightly to the glow that surrounded me. My blood slowed, glittering syrup that pumped through veins that spread through my arms.

The ocean water crawled up my legs, engulfing my hands and Jax’s grip tightened. He began to blur, everything outside of my own body becoming out of focus and distant. Jax said something softly but it was distorted and unintelligible.

I tried to control my breathing that had quickened in the show my powers were putting on. With Jax by my side and the others sprawled out at my back, I worried what might happen to them this time.

A purple fog sat at the edge of my vision, surrounding me in a glimmering display. I am doing this, I told myself. I am in control.

I breathed slowly, counting during each inhale and exhale. The glow sped up then slowed down, confusion in its charge.

Without seeing the others, I had no way of knowing if something other than what I saw was happening. I had to be excruciatingly careful.

I rubbed my thumb into Jax’s palm that sat under a glove of water. He squeezed in reassurance and I relaxed a little.

Having had enough, I let the feeling fall away. I pushed the heat to the back of my neck, blinking my eyes at the fog as though I could clear it from my view with my eyelashes alone.

The light obeyed, its edges dissipating until it broke away completely. I glanced at Jax who held the widest, open-mouthed smile I had ever seen on him. His eyes were wild with excitement and I wondered if I had enchanted him on accident again.

He turned away, looking around us and I followed his view. The water was discolored, the blue spotted with ten different colors as I tried to understand what I was looking at. I cocked my head and the water splashed viciously as hundreds of different fish retreated back into the depths of the ocean.

I tried not to jump away as scales brushed my back while the water that had engulfed the lower half of my body receded away. A bubble felt like it popped as a pool I had created splashed down and pushed away into the next wave. Silver, neon blue and pink, and even the sea-glass green of the back of a turtle rushed its way from my space.

Jax let out a laugh, releasing my hand and jumping to his feet as he went to chase the wildlife back into the ocean. I looked behind me, Marek and Grayson sat attentively up and observed me with concern.

Everyone looked whole, no glowing eyes or lost time that I could tell. When Jax returned he shouted gleefully, "see, you did it!"

I pursed my lips, "you think I meant to do that?"

"Maybe not that, but you brought up your powers and then put them away. Right?"

I thought about it, I suppose I had in a way. Still, calling creatures to my feet wasn’t the type of control I had asked for. I didn’t want anything to happen. I just wanted to see what the power looked like without dealing with what it could do.

"I want to try again," I declared and Jax’s excitement rose again.

"Not in the water," I told him and his face fell as he stared out at where the creatures had retreated.

Standing up to weak legs, I fell back to the spot behind my watchers. They both turned, giving each other wary looks.

They should be more excited about this than Jax. Sure, my powers were unpredictable and dangerous, but if I could find control then that meant Marek could leave my side again without changing into his beast form and Grayson could fulfill his lustful desires with burying himself inside of me.

I plopped into the sand with a thud. The spot already feeling better than the water. The ocean called to me in a way that felt too consuming, like I could be dragged in by the current and forgotten in its depths. I needed a place where the electricity was dulled enough to allow my observation.

I plunged my hands into the sand as deep as the ground would allow and gripped into its core. Jax returned to my side and the others turned to face me, my circle close and comforting. This time would be different, I thought, this time I won’t let anything happen.

Breathing steadily, I brought the feeling up with renewed intent. My eyes rested on Grayson’s, I had used our connection before. Used my feelings for him to ground me as the storm around me raged on. I used that again this time.

His stare locked into mine. The corner of his eye twitched but he let the worry fade away as he became the rock I needed in the moment. Clouds formed above and I stubbornly told them to leave as I pulled at my bond with Grayson to center me.

His brow creased but he held strong to my gaze. I deepened my concentration, feeling the sand as it twirled around my fingers. The islands voice whispered against my back, a foreign language that threatened to distract me from my task.

I had to gain control and understanding. Not just for me but for the others I shared this place with. A ribbon formed from thin air, swirling around the air like the wind had materialized. The energy inside me begged to manifest into a physical form.

My throat tightened as the word obey yelled out in my mind. It answered to me, the single ribbon falling into my lap. Grayson looked pained, like the line that tethered us was tightening around his throat.

I let myself fall back into him, feeling our connection and comparing it to the energy that wanted to take over. They both were things that were constructed without my permission but now held space that felt ingrained in my soul like a tattoo.

The glow of my eyes burned brighter, touching the features of my pack like a fire’s light. I wanted nothing, I told the power. Only to look into its source and understand.

The whispering grew louder, Jax and Marek looked around but Grayson held my gaze. His scowl grew deeper making my body feel more relaxed. The sounds of the island began to form into a familiar voice, one that broke my concentration.

"You hold the answers within you," she said.

Reality snapped back into place as my powers ran into the abyss inside of me.

It wasn’t the outcome I had asked for but it was more than I could have hoped for. The consequences of my practice left no one broken. I asked for understanding and it was given. I held the answers, that’s what she said.

"Who was that?" Jax asked and I smiled, Grayson watching me interrogatively.

My heart swelled and my eyes watered as I told them, "my mother."

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