United. (Book 5 of the Lupus Antiqua Series)

"Matron." Abby bowed her head as the Matron took a seat in her living room.

"Abigail. I see the change you told me of. You feel the same to me, though." The older woman's eyes unfocused for a moment and Abby felt her scanning for changes. "There is a bond there I did not feel in you before, to this wolf you have been aiding." The Matron looked confused.

"The wolf's Moon Goddess told me that she bestowed a mating bond. Endymion is my mate." She murmured. The matron's eyes widened.

"This has never been done. We work in conjunction with the various packs, to assist them, but we do not mate with them." Abby bristled, glancing at Endymion who simply rolled his eyes as if to say 'Bigotry exists everywhere.'

"Why not?" She asked, trying not to be offended.

"A child possessing both gifts would be a disaster. A child with the temper of the wolf and True Witch gifts could end up doing a great deal of damage. Tell me you have not yet mated!" Abby shifted uncomfortably.

"I'm not sure that's your business, Matron." She barely kept the edge from her voice. "By our own laws I am free to love where I wish."

"Not a wolf." The matron said with authority.

"Where in the laws does it specify this?" Asked Abby.

"It is unspoken but I cannot allow it." She said with a mixture of pity and mercilessness.

"Matron, I respect you, but you don't have the right even as Matron to determine who I am and am not permitted to be romantically involved with.

I called you because of the eye color change." Abby said gently.

"That's because of the mating bond." The matron waved her hand dismissively. "But you must listen to me, girl. It is better for you to remain here alone. Your gifts are dangerous, let alone if you pass them on to a child who is also a werewolf. Especially one of Endymion's blood. Will you not see reason and end this?" She said it as though she fully expected Abby to agree.

Something inside Abby rebelled completely at the notion of being without her mate. The magic of the bond was powerful. But more than that, she'd spent hours in his head. She knew this man inside and out. It had only been a little while since they had met, but she felt like she might be in love with him, or very close to it.

No way in hell was she going to end things.

"No, Matron. I will not get rid of my mate. If we have a child and that child inherits both our gifts, we will manage it." She made sure her own voice was firm.

The Matron stared at her for a long moment before sighing and nodding.

"Very well. If that's how you want to be, I cannot force you to be otherwise. But it cannot go on this way. Something will change, Abigail." There was warning in her tone, but Abby shrugged it off as the woman trying to scare her. She wouldn't allow herself to be deterred.

The Matron got up and left without any further word. Abby watched her go, wondering why things had gone that way.

"I've never heard of any such laws." Endymion murmured, joining her in the door way, watching the Matron's car wind down the road.

"There isn't any such law. True Witches don't do 'unspoken laws'. We are too powerful to allow for anything less than clear rules."

"Then why would she say that? Prejudice against my kind?" Endymion wondered.

"Possibly, or she has other reasons. I hate to do it, but I think I should call the High Witch. Something isn't right." She murmured, wondering what would happen after she made this call.

She moved into her casting room and pulled out the orb that she'd used to communicate with Amara before. The high witches weren't reachable by phone. One had to call them the old fashioned way.

The High Witches existed on a frequency that every witch could hear in the back of their minds. To call a High Witch, she only needed to tap into that pitch.

It didn't take very long at all, before the orb flickered and a woman's face appeared. She was lovely. Her eyes were the sort of emerald green that would catch your attention from across a crowded room.

She had curly, soft brown hair that framed a heart shaped face. She might be sweet and cute looking if not for the raw power of the earth that radiated from her even through the orb.

Those emerald eyes took her in for a long moment.

"Greetings. I can feel that you are one of my daughters, but I do not know you. How is that possible?" Abby blinked in shock. High Witches met every new child born to the covens under their rule, to bless them and welcome them. She should have been in the High Witch's magical memory.

"You don't know of me?" Abby asked in bewilderment.

"I do not. Where are you, daughter?" She asked, eyes narrowing.

"I live on the mountain of the Imperium, under the patronage of Matron Carrey of Coven Birch." She stated. The High Witch's eyes widened.

"You're an Imperium! Matron Carrey has a place she keeps you away from others?" The High Witch sounded furious and Abby blinked. A High Witch's anger was nothing to laugh at. They could level towns if they wished.

"I-is that not supposed to be the way of it?" She asked in bewilderment, mind racing. Endymion wrapped his arms around her from behind. The High Witch looked at him in some amusement.

"And this is?" She asked.

"This is my Mate. Lupus Antiqua Endymion." She said quietly. "I called you because the Matron said it was Law that I could not be with him and I had to end it because any potential offspring would be too dangerous. It didn't seem right." The High Witch chuckled and then shook her head, and angry gleam re entering her eyes.

"How old are you, daughter?"

"I'm twenty."

"For twenty years, your Matron has hidden you. To answer your earlier question, no; you should never have been isolated. You should have been brought to me at birth as all True Witches of the Earth are.

Once it was determined you were an Imperium, you should have been housed at the High Council headquarters and when you reached age ten you should have been sent to the War Witches." Shock rocked through Abby so hard that if not for Endymion holding her she'd have needed to sit down.

"What?!" She asked.

"My dear, Imperiums are War Witches. Your duties are meant to serve all covens, not just Birch. Have you been performing the duties of the blessed?"

"Yes, High Witch. I also make potions, and medicines from my herb gardens."

"You should not be so alone. What your Matron has done is beyond the pale. Stand by, daughter, it may be that the next duty you perform will be on your own Matron." With that, the orb went dark.

"I'm a war witch?" She asked, voice shaking.