The Golden Lycans (Ella) novel Chapter 46

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Elemental Practice

*Freya***

I go back to the room and thankfully find Ella there. She appears to be in a great mood, humming

to herself while doing some homework. “How was psychology?” I ask. “The usual. I definitely see

why people pick to do it at university. It’s all subjective, and basically you can’t really go too wrong,” she replies, tapping her pen against her notebook. “So…I just got back from the greenhouse,” I say slowly. Ella’s face lights up. “Oh! Did you see the plants? Oh my gosh, Freya it felt so incredible. The feeling of giving life back to those plants….it was so liberating,” she says excitedly, her eyes shining. I smile at her. She looks like a child on Christmas morning. I am really happy that she is so excited.

“Ella, can you please do me a favour and just please keep your guard up when you’re with Will,” I plead. She sighs and makes a face, putting her notebook away. “I know, I just met the guy, but so far today he’s been forthcoming, polite, helpful and oddly insightful. He sounds like he understands how I am feeling, right now. But…sure, okay. I’ll be wary,” she relents with a nod, even though she doesn’t look happy about it. I watch her as she then starts folding her freshly cleaned laundry to put away….Could she be Austin’s mate? Was I feeling protective of my future Luna? Was he right? I’d never seen him anywhere near as concerned about Ava before, and he seemed absolutely sure of it this time. With Ava it was mainly a case of ‘we shall see when we turn eighteen’. Did Ella feel anything like what he felt? “Hey, Ella, can I ask you something personal? About your date with Aus?” I ask. She wrinkles her nose but shrugs. “Sure?” she says awkwardly, not sounding that sure. I pause briefly, wondering how she’d take my question, but I come and sit down on the floor with her. “What happened when you kissed him the first time, on your date? How did you feel?” I ask. She raises her eyebrows in surprise, as it is clearly not a question she expected me to ask. “Well, uh,” she begins, looking down awkwardly, “isn’t this a bit of a weird question? I mean he’s your brother.” I shake my head. It is weird, but I have to stomach it for my curiosity. “No, it’s not weird, I just want to understand what happened,” I say somewhat truthfully. She finishes folding another pair of pyjama bottoms and puts them into a drawer. She sighs happily, and an expression appears

on her face as if she were recalling a treasured memory. “Well… as soon as his lips touched mine,

there was this tingling, this intense warmth that started right here,” she says, pressing a hand to

her sternum. “It spread everywhere-from my toes to the top of my head. My heart was racing, and

wherever he touched me, it felt… electric. I never expected my first kiss to feel like that. I didn’t

even know it could feel like that. This all-consuming heat, this overwhelming connection. And

that’s when I knew-if I let myself fall any further, it would be hell to claw my way back. Because if

it was that intense now, I didn’t want to imagine what it would be like later. So I pulled away. But

then, at the formal… wow. Again.” She bites her lip and tears form on her waterline, shaking her

head a little and exhaling loudly with a sigh. “But…whatever. There are more fish in the sea. I have

got to focus on my studies and my new…greenhouse faerie studies. Boys are well and truly

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shelved.” I sit there in a stunned silence with my eyebrows to my hairline as Ella continues to carefully fold her laundry. Perhaps Austin wasn’t being crazy after all. What she described was hot, she’s a lucky girl, Mira growls in my head. Mira, does it sound like a kiss with a mate? I asked.

Everyone experiences it a different way, so I cannot be sure. But it sounds promising. The

all-consuming body heat, the tingles…feeling connected to him…but who knows…maybe that is how any Faerie responds to any kiss. We can’t know, Mira explains diplomatically. Fair, I/reply. Once Austin leaves it’ll be OUR time, Freya…unless he truly is the next Golden Lycan, and no man will ever touch you, Mira muses. Thanks for that. “Yeah, I can imagine why you’d be scared about how things could develop,” I say gently to Ella. She then looks at me like her heart is breaking. “What’s scary is I just feel more and more like I need to be with him. It’s dreadful. I wish we’d never gone on a date in the first place,” she says, blinking away more tears, “I really just need to avoid him and move on. I HATE that stupid alpha vibe shit that Annabelle is always harping on about.” She stands up and heads into the bathroom with her set of folded towels. She feels like she NEEDS to be with him? Oh my goodness, maybe Austin isn’t mad at all! I exclaim to Mira. Ella clearly felt a bond with Austin, but like our Grandfather had said, she didn’t understand it and she sure as hell didn’t sound like she expected it. What was it going to take for her to realise what was going on? What if she never did? I so badly want to explain to her about the beginnings of our pack and what Aus had said, but I knew I couldn’t. He was right. For all I knew, her path of discovery was an important piece of her wider journey. Like Austin, I just had to wait for her to figure things out herself.

***Ella***

Every day for the next two weeks, I met Will in the greenhouse-sometimes during free periods, sometimes after classes, just before dinner.

With each session, I could feel my progress. My control and speed was improving, and for the first time, I truly enjoyed it. Confidence grew with every success, and to my surprise, so did my friendship with Will. Despite my initial reservations, befriending him had been effortless.

It was different, having a guy as a friend when I’d only ever had friends who were girls, before. Our conversations were unpredictable, sometimes strange, but always easy. There was a laid-back energy to being around him that I found refreshing.

On Wednesday afternoons, there were no classe, so that the sports teams could play during daylight. This became the perfect time to get in three to four hours of quality practice.

“Okay, please tell me you had some of that pizza at lunchtime. It was probably the best I’ve had outside of Rome,” Will immediately says brightly to me as he strides in through the greenhouse

doors.

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“No, I was being good and had a nice green salad,” I reply in a mock airheaded voice, cocking my eyebrow at him. He makes a disbelieving face at me and shakes his head as I laugh.

“First, quit rubbing in how well traveled you are. I would love to go to Rome. Secondly, of course I had the pizza, what sort of carb-hating heathen do you take me for?”

“I knew it. I absolutely recommend Rome. I hope you get to go one day,” he says with a smile. I smile back at him and nod, My request nervously waiting on the edge of my lips.

“I want to try something different today,” I say, a hint of apprehension in my voice.

Will’s face lights up as he rubs his hands together in delight. “Finally. You were ready for more on day two,” he says with a smirk. “I just figured you were on some kind of faerie mission to turn this place into a jungle.” He gestures toward the greenhouse, now bursting with life. He wasn’t wrong The transformation was undeniable. The once barren space was now thriving-lush with vibrant plants, twisting vines, and blooming flowers. I hadn’t just revived what was dead; but had even grown new ones as well. London may have been a concrete paradise, but there were a good number of gardens I had visited over the years, and I had drawn from those memories, breathing them into this place, turning the greenhouse into something truly alive once again.

Will’s grin stretches wide, his excitement practically vibrating off him. “Now that’s what I like to

hear.”

He lifts an arm and twirls his fingers in the air, his movements slow and deliberate. “How about we start playing around with air?” he says, all mischief.

A breeze stirs in the greenhouse, swirling around the roses before picking up speed, rustling through the leaves and-oh. My skirt.

“Will!” I yelp, slapping my hands down over it before it can lift any higher.

The wind cuts off immediately, and when I glance up, he’s standing there with a lopsided, utterly

unrepentant smile.

“Whoops,” he says, not looking the least bit sorry. “Got a little carried away.”

I shake my head at him, but the smile tugging at my

lips betrays me. He’d definitely gotten cheekier

the more he got to know me.

“Alright, so how do we do air?” I ask, eager to shift the focus.

Will leans against the nearest potting table, arms crossed, slipping effortlessly into teaching

mode.

“With any element, it’s about understanding it. Earth was easy for you, because the Fae were well-connected to it. But air? You need to feel it. You need to know what it is, and what it can do.”

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He pauses, tilting his head at me.

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“Air is an unstoppable force. No tethers, no limits. It is completely free. This should not be hard for you to consider, given your recent freedom. You know how it feels now, to be free from a tether.”

I nod, agreeing with that assessment. I close my eyes and focus on my breathing, quickly bringing myself to a state of calm within a short second, the way Will had coached me well to achieve. I lift my arm, mirroring his earlier motion. At first, I feel ridiculous, but that feeling is quickly drowned out by the familiar, addictive rush of magic surging to my fingertips. Warmth sparks there, ready, waiting. I twist my hand, willing the air to move-fast, free… untethered.

And then, it does.

A gust whirls through the greenhouse, effortless, under my complete control. It snakes through the dead leaves, stirring up dust, rustling through the remains of what we hadn’t yet revived. Then, with a flick of my wrist, it shifts-circling us, faster and faster, spiraling into a vortex of wind and swirling leaves. The air hums with energy, wrapping around us in a rush of exhilaration.

Will spins in place, eyes wide, a grin of pure pride stretching across his face. My heart pounds as I soak in the moment, the power of it.

I focus, pulling the whirlwind back toward me, drawing it into a compact sphere in the palm of my hand-a tightly contained, controlled storm. Then, with a simple closing of my fingers, I snuff it out completely.

Silence settles.

When I glance at Will, his expression is nothing short of astonishment.

“You really do have excellent natural control,” he says, a slight edge of bitterness to his voice. I see hurt briefly flicker across his eyes.

I hesitate for a moment before blurting out, “I’m sorry.”

Will’s eyes flick to mine, surprise flashing across his face. I don’t want him to feel bad-not for this. He’d been opening up more lately, sharing how difficult it had been for him, how long he’d struggled to access either part of himself properly. Magic had only been a real part of his life for about a year, and he’d worked relentlessly to get where he was now. Meanwhile, for me, it was as

natural as breathing.

But instead of frustration or envy, his expression softens into something warm, something

unreadable.

“Ella,” he says gently, his voice rich with quiet certainty, “my past struggles don’t diminish your success. I’ve just never seen anyone take to elemental magic this quickly-or with such control. It

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