His Captive Mate

Chapter 6 – Celine (Eleven Years Ago)

Two Years Later

It was Celine’s eighteenth birthday. The large bonfire that had been created was ready to be lit as soon as it got dark enough. The various children of her family are running around on the large flagstones of the château’s courtyard. The walls of the château went around three sides of the area, and the other side of the courtyard was open and looked over the neat rows of grapevines that gently rolled down the hill towards the river at the bottom.

Celine knew that if you were standing in the courtyard, you would be able to see the sunset and the glow would illuminate the courtyard until the last rays sank below the horizon. There was a large buffet table along one of the courtyard walls, groaning under the weight of the food and drinks arranged around a large number of floral arrangements.

One of her uncles had set up a large speaker system on the opposite wall that was currently playing soft music that allowed for easy conversation. Fairy lights and bunting had been strung up across the courtyard, which would give the whole area a gentle glow, once the sun had finally gone.

Celine has watched them set this all up from afar, sitting comfortably in the window seat of her bedroom in the stone cottage that had been more of a home to her than the château ever had. She finally drags her eyes away from the view of her family, as they prepare to celebrate and wish her good luck on the next steps of her life. She once more looks at the letter her mother had left for her.

It had brought her so much comfort over the last couple of years, as she had prepared for the time that she would be away from her home, the home she loved so dearly. Over the past two years, her gift has grown. She could now control it easily, the letter her mother had left for her had also included details for a local witch coven, who had agreed before Nicolette had even married Anton that they would help her daughter with her gifting.

She had spent a full ten months living with them and learning what her gift was and how it worked. How to use it, and how to control it. Celine was an empathic psychic. She could feel what others felt, feel their intent and where it was directed. Read thoughts at a surface level from a distance. But for anything deeper, or anything the person wanted to hide, she would need to touch them.

But if they let her in freely there would be no pain for either person, and if they don’t it could be quite uncomfortable for the person she’s trying to read, and for herself if she pushes hard enough. She had also found that she could push her feelings onto others occasionally, but the witches had told her that it was not right to do so.

“Never push your feelings onto another, it can cause them irreversible brain damage if done wrong, and it’s far too easy to do wrong.” Gwendolin had told her. She was a short old lady, no more than five feet tall if she stood straight. Which she rarely did, preferring to hunch herself over her spell books. Her face was a mass of wrinkles upon wrinkles, much like her two otherwise identical sisters who made up the coven.

“Exactly, especially love.” Said Seraphine “Don’t mess with that, girl, you’ll start a war if you’re not careful.” Seraphine was a bit straighter than Gwendolin; she spent most of her time either in the large herb garden outside the small cottage or the kitchen preparing various potions, teas, elixirs and so on that the sisters made for the locals who came to them for help.

“Hmm.” Agreed Esme, with her usual eloquence. Never a word more than needed to agree or disagree with her sisters. Esme had been bedridden for many years before Celine showed up at their door, but still made time to work her magic into totems for protection, healing and other things. Her bed was in their lounge so that she was included with her sisters as they worked in their respective areas within the small cottage.

The cottage itself was another small stone-built cottage that stood alone in a large forest clearing. The large herb and kitchen garden that surrounded the small home was well-loved and looked as if the weeds dared not interrupt the neat rows of herbs and other plants growing there. Wisteria covers the front of the house and climbs up towards the chimney that has smoke coming from it most days.

Sometimes the smoke was the shade of grey one would expect, other times it was a bright colour that spoke of the magic within. Inside the cottage it was warm and cosy and felt safe to Celine, who had been struggling with her gift for a few months before contacting the sisters for help. While Celine had stayed with the sisters she had learnt a few basics of potions, as there was no magic needed for them to work.

Magic would make them more potent, but they would still work. Spells would not work without true magic, and the crafting of magical totems also required more than mere knowledge. She had learned a potion to treat wolfsbane poisoning, a recipe for a poultice to stop bleeding, and a few others that the sisters agreed might come in handy in a pinch.

“You never know.” Said Gwendolin “I know you’re going to be a powerful wolf, but sometimes a little magic can’t hurt. And knowledge is powerful in and of itself.”

Celine had left the trio feeling much more prepared for what life might throw at her, especially with the prophecy weighing on her mind more often these days, as her eighteenth birthday had grown ever closer. The last six months had been a blur of activity.

Celine had received a letter from a Dr Solomon Ward, from Cambridge University, who was looking for young wolf-shifters from across various countries to participate in a long-running study of wolf-shifters and the conditions that seemed to only affect them, and no other non-humans. He went on to explain that the study would involve many tests, medical, mental and physical.

That the study had no definitive end date and that communication home to family would be available to all participants at any time after the induction period was completed. There was also a form to complete with various personal details and family history questions, along with a statement to sign to indicate that you had agreed to come to his lab for the study.

Celine and her family were sceptical at first as it sounded a lot like the offer that Richard had given the family eighteen months prior, but having done extensive research on Dr Ward, they concluded that there was no link between the two. Dr Ward was human as far as they could tell, and whilst Richard had been adopted into the family, he was a wolf-shifter. There was nothing to suggest the two had ever even met.

Celine filled out the form and returned it two weeks after first receiving it, letting her family do their due diligence in making sure it was a real thing and not some strange scam. She did not want to miss out on the opportunity to help other wolf-shifters if she could, but the letter still left more questions than answers.

Why her? Why had no one else she knew received this offer? If it was for young wolf-shifters across the world, why had none of her cousins also received this letter? But after her father had agreed to let her go, she was excited to be somewhere new, scared that it was so far away, but mostly she was happy.