Born Not Bitten Chapter 20

Previously: After killing Aleister, Annie and Nick visit his mom while waiting till it's safe to return to Stonehaven.

Stonehaven was deserted. All the furniture was covered in white sheets and dust covered the windowsills. The house was eerily quiet. Everyone was gone.

Making her way upstairs, Annie trailed her finger along the banister. Collecting dust from the finished wood, she left a trail of shining wood standing out against the layer of gray that covered it. Pausing on the second landing, Annie heard the creak of a floorboard inside Clay's room. Trying the door, Annie couldn't get it to budge, and yet in a blink of an eye she was inside the room, standing inches before Clay. But he couldn't hear or see her.

The realization that it was a dream sunk in slowly, and as soon as her mind made the connection, it tried to wake her up. When someone started speaking, Annie fought her consciousness, fighting to hear what was going on. Whipping her head towards the voice she saw Aleister standing on the opposite side of the room as Clay.

"You wolves are surprising," Aleister's voice came out garbled, barely audible. "Your consciousness should be dead."

The room began to blur as Clay and Aleister approached each other, but their words were muffled, and she only caught a few sentences or words here and there. None that made sense until Aleister threatened to rip Elena's heart out.

Feeling her body jolt, Annie's eyes fluttered open. It took her a moment to get her bearings. Glancing to her left she saw Nick's face lit up by the dashboard lights.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," Nick murmured, glancing towards Annie. The road they were on had a lot of potholes. He'd avoided them for the most part, but had hit one as he was maneuvering around a corner.

"Clay's in trouble," Annie murmured, sitting up in her seat and wiping the sleep from her eyes.

"What?" Nick asked, not sure he heard her right. She'd been asleep for the last hour. She didn't have her phone. She had no way of knowing if Clay or any of the others were in danger.

"In my dream. Clay was alone…trapped in a deserted Stonehaven. With Aleister. It got a little garbled, but he threatened Clay with Elena's life." Annie knew she wasn't making much sense, but it was hard enough to describe dreams under normal circumstances.

"Aleister is dead," Nick sighed, reaching across the console to fold his hand around Annie's. "It was just a nightmare."

"How do you know?" Annie asked, keeping hold of Nick's hand as she turned in her seat to face him. "Every other nightmare I've had has come true. How do you know this one isn't the same?"

"Because we burned Aleister's body. He can't hurt anyone anymore," Nick reassured Annie, tightening his grip on her hand. He couldn't pull over and help calm her fears. They needed to get back to Stonehaven. Aleister may be dead, but that didn't mean their family wasn't in danger. There were too many alphas at Stonehaven that wanted their territory.

"Paige said she didn't find his necklace on his body. What if it wasn't him she found, him we burned?" Annie pressed, still unsure.

"It might have fallen off when she did her voodoo magic thing," Nick said, attempting to explain away Annie's fears. "Besides, didn't you say the dreams were nothing? That you weren't part witch?"

"I don't want to be part witch. That's different than me actually not being part witch. We don't know what I am," Annie murmured, turning her face to look out the windshield.

Everything had become so complicated the last few months. Annie used to know who she was, what she was. She was a wolf, part of the Stonehaven pack, and was going to be a nurse. Now. They lost Pete. She was taking an indefinite leave from school. They were on the brink of war with multiple packs. Witches actually existed and Annie might be one. Or at least half of one.

"You are the same smart, funny, kindhearted, stubborn Annie you've always been. You're the woman I love. Everything else, we'll sort out as it comes at us," Nick declared, raising Annie's hand to his lips.

"I love you too," Annie smiled. She couldn't completely extinguish the feeling that something wasn't right, but she decided to ignore it. Like Nick said, they'd sort everything out as it came at them.

…

"Annie, Nick, thank God you're alright," Jeremy greeted when they walked through the door, embracing Annie and clasping Nick on the shoulder.

"The Alphas?" Nick asked, searching the living room for any sign of other wolves.

"Gone. We're at peace. Tentatively at least. We convinced Roman of Eduardo's treachery. Clay's off hunting Eduardo as we speak."

"Alone?" Annie asked, her fear from her nightmare bubbling to the surface. "Shouldn't we go help him?"

"If he's not back come morning, we will," Jeremy stated, studying Annie closely. She seemed on edge, and though her and Nick had been through an ordeal, they were home safe. She shouldn't be so worried.

Annie paced the length of the living room waiting for Clay to return and watching the window as dawn crept closer. Nick was splayed out on the couch she paced behind, sleeping soundly despite his legs hanging off the end. As soon as the sun was above the trees, Annie was shaking Nick awake. Clay still hadn't returned and she had a bad feeling.

"Stay here with Elena and Savannah," Jeremy ordered when Annie was about to tag along.

"They're fine. They've been fine all night. They don't need me," Annie countered.

"I'd feel better if Savannah had more protection than just Elena. Until Paige and Ruth get here she is the pack's responsibility."

Annie agreed to stay after that. Jeremy hadn't been pretending to get her to stay. He really meant it when he said he wanted her there for Savannah's protection. For once it wasn't for Annie's protection. Figuring Elena had it covered upstairs with Savannah, Annie went back to pacing the living room until the sound of tires on gravel had her moving towards the door. Greeting the witches, Annie led Ruth and Paige into the living room where she attempted to make small talk, but quickly returned to her pacing.

Stopping in her tracks when Clay and Jeremy returned, Annie's stomach dropped when she saw Clay's face. His head was split open on the side, blood smeared down the side of his face. Moving towards the kitchen, Annie grabbed the first aid kit. If this was all her bad omen meant for Clay she would take it.

"Oh no you don't," Annie called out when she noticed Clay trying to sneak out of the room without her looking at his wound. "Sit," she ordered, pointing to the couch.

Wiping away the dried blood with an alcohol wipe had Clay squirming beneath her touch. His eyes kept darting towards the stairs. Of course, he wanted to see Elena. Figuring he wouldn't sit still long enough for stiches, Annie started applying strips of medical tape across his cut in place of the butterfly bandages she'd run out of. When her finger brushed against the cut a spark of electricity shot through Annie's finger straight to her heart. The next thing she knew, she was back in Clay's abandoned room of her nightmare.

"Clay?" Annie asked, approaching him hesitantly from behind. She had no idea what was going on. If it was a dream, or a hallucination.

"Annie?" Clay whipped around, eyes wide with shock. "How are you, did something happen to you?"

"I don't know. I was patching up the wound on your head and now I'm here. Just like my nightmare," Annie murmured, glancing around the room. The blueish hue over everything was giving her the chills. "Where are we?"

"I don't know. All I remember is Aleister jumping me when I was running after Eduardo," Clay muttered.

"Aleister's alive?" Annie's voice shook at her question, her head whipping around in search of Aleister. He'd been there during her nightmare.

"You mean he didn't send you here too?" Clay assumed whatever Aleister had done to him, he'd done to Annie. That he'd sucked them into some kind of alternate universe.

"No. But we need to get out of here. Find the others. Tell them that Aleister isn't dead." Moving towards the door, Annie tried to open it but it wouldn't budge.

"It won't open. We're trapped." Refusing to listen to Clay, Annie continued to pull on the handle. When Clay's hand landed on her shoulder, she felt her body being pulled away.

Gasping, Annie opened her eyes to find she was laying on the couch. Faces peered down at her in different states of confusion and concern: Jeremy, Antonio, Clay, Paige, Ruth. Easing herself up, she laid a hand on her head when the room momentarily spun.

"What happened?" Annie asked, wiping her hand over her face.

"You passed out while bandaging Clay's head. When's the last time you ate Principessa?" Antonio asked, sitting on the coffee table so he was at eye level with Annie.

"I…I don't remember," Annie responded. What was wrong with her? Were these nightmares simply that, or were like the others: a warning, real?

Clay awkwardly splaying his hand across her upper back had Annie jumping a foot in the air. Rising to her feet to put distance between them, Annie turned to face Clay. His eyes squinted at her as he studied her. If her nightmare was real, and Clay was trapped in an abandoned version of Stonehaven, then who was this Clay? A mirage of magic? An alternate universe Clay? Or an imposter using his face?

"I need some air." Turning towards the front door, it was Paige who called out to her.

"We're going to start Savannah's initiation soon. I thought you might want to watch."

"Why would she want to watch?" Clay asked.

"To better understand what we are. How magic works. So she can better understand how hers works," Paige responded.

"We don't know I'm part witch," Annie whispered, hugging her arms around herself.

"Paige is right. Your dreams of the future are a sign of magic, old magic, but magic all the same," Ruth stated. She didn't know how nature allowed it, but something in her bones was telling her Annie was one of them.

…

Aleister wasn't sure what to make of Annie. According to Paige and Ruth, she was part witch and her dreams had a tendency to be prophetic. It'd been decades since a witch had that type of magic, now a half wolf, half witch mutt could? She had seen something when she passed out. Something that caused her to hesitate when interacting with him in Clay's body. But he didn't know her well enough to tell which actions were normal and which weren't. Until she posed a threat to his plan, he would simply steer clear of her the best he could.

While Paige and Ruth prepared for Savannah's initiation, Annie retreated to the kitchen to make herself something to eat. Antonio had a valid point earlier: if Annie couldn't remember the last time she ate, it was probably too long ago.

"Dad said you passed out," Nick said as he took a seat beside Annie at the table. "You okay?"

"I had another dream," Annie retorted after swallowing the last bite of her sandwich. "This time, Clay spoke to me. He told me Aleister is still alive. That he put Clay…wherever he is."

"You're stressed, you've been through a lot these past weeks. You're minds trying to process everything," Nick reassured her, rubbing his hand across Annie's back.

"No. I know somethings off with Clay. I can feel it. I'm not stressed and I'm not crazy. Something's not right," Annie insisted, swiveling on her stool to face Nick.

"Okay. I believe you," Nick murmured. "All your previous dreams gave you a glimpse of what was coming. Maybe what you're seeing is something that is going to happen to Clay."

"You think I should warn him?" Annie asked. Nick was right. Her dreams had all been foretelling the future. Wherever Clay was in her dream, whatever happened to him, perhaps it hadn't happened yet.

"Honestly, I don't know what to think. This is as new to me as it is to you." Nick didn't know what to think about magic being real and Annie having some. But he would have her back no matter what.

"Clay should know. They all should. Even if I sound crazy. Even if I am crazy. It's better to be prepared for the worse and have it never come than be blindly ignorant." Slipping off the stool, Annie paused on her way to the back stairs to kiss Nick on the cheek.

Annie passed Elena in the hall. She was looking for a vessel for Savannah, having found nothing in Clay's room that would work. Not knowing what a vessel was, but wanting to help, Annie offered Elena freedom to choose anything from her room if she found something that would suffice. As Elena started up the stairs to Annie's room, Annie continued down the hall to Clay's room. Seeing as her dream was about Clay, he should be the first to know about it.

"Clay," Annie knocked on his door. "Can I come in?"

There was a beat of silence before Clay said she could come in. He was standing by his desk, just like in her dream. The similarity sort of freaked Annie out.

"What's the matter?" Aleister felt obligated to ask the question, as the girl seemed uneasy. He had to act like he cared, as Clay surely would.

"I think Aleister is still alive," Annie cut straight to the point. Out of everyone, Clay would never laugh her off.

"What makes you say that?" Aleister stiffened at Annie's declaration. She couldn't know. No one could know. It could ruin everything.

"I had a dream. You were trapped, by Aleister, in an abandoned Stonehaven. I don't know if it's another dimension, or some sort of spell. I just needed to warn you." She might not understand her magic, but after ignoring the dreams before, Annie couldn't ignore them anymore.

"Aleister is dead, Annie. Your dreams, are just dreams. You want to help the pack? Get Elena to back off from Savannah. The girl's dangerous." Aleister dismissed the girl, hoping she would forget her dream. If she pursued it, he would have to kill her. He didn't need anyone else believing he was alive.

Annie took in Clay, shocked at how abruptly he pushed aside her worries, as if she was silly for believing her dreams. It wasn't like him at all. Clay shifted under her gaze, his arms in front of him, his hands folding together as he stood alert. Something about it was off. Clay always stood with his hands at his side, always ready for a fight.

The stance triggered something in her memory: a flash of Aleister at the compound before Paige blew him away with her magic. His cold calmness: back straight, head tall, legs apart with his hands folded just like Clay's was now. Except it wasn't Clay. Physically it was, but his speech pattern, the way he held himself, was different.

"You're right." Annie had to force herself to keep her voice even. "I'm being silly. I should go find Elena. Pack always comes first."

Annie had just stepped into the hallway when Clay called out to her.

"Did you tell anyone else about your dream?" Aleister needed to know if the girl had poisoned anyone else's mind. If anyone else might believe he was alive.

"Only you," Annie responded, praying that he couldn't see her lie. When he let her go without any further questions, she knew he hadn't known she was lying. She'd be dead if he had.

Forcing herself to take the stairs slowly so she wouldn't draw Aleister's attention, Annie flew through the house searching for Nick, Jeremey, Antonio, any and all of them would do. They needed to know what they were up against.

For once, Stonehaven was empty of wolves. The first person Annie stumbled upon was Paige in the basement. Shaving bits of wood off of sticks, Paige didn't even look up from her work as Annie approached.

"You missed the first part of the initiation. Savannah chose her element and her familiar," Paige said when Annie stood across from her.

"Familiar?" Annie asked.

"Every witch has one, chosen for them by the universe. It's our spiritual helper manifested in animal form," Paige explained, moving on to shave the bark from a different stick.

"I'm guessing mine would be a wolf," Annie commented causing Paige to smile.

"It would be fitting. Savannah's is the rat. She's none too happy about it. But they're intelligent creatures."

"So your magic, it's harnessed through the earth?" Annie asked. From what she'd seen, Ruth and Paige have always used nature in any magic or rituals. The bark from wood, roots from plant, using animals to harness more power.

"Yes. Nature is powerful, witches have just learned to harness its energy."

"But there is magic that goes against nature, right? Aleister didn't use the same kind of magic you do." Annie didn't know much about magic, but she'd seen the different results Paige and Ruth had when using their magic, and what Aleister had done with his magic.

"He used left handed magic. Dark magic. Powerful, but damaging. Both to those it is used against and those using it." Left handed magic was means of expulsion from the coven if you were discovered using it.

"Would dark magic allow someone to take over another's body?" It went against nature, for someone else's consciousness to exist in another's body. Just like Alesiter's magic went against nature.

"Like a possession spell?" Paige paused in her task, glancing up at Annie. She couldn't understand what would bring up such a dark subject.

"That exists?" Annie asked.

"Theoretically. I've never actually known of anyone who used it, but there are stories. It's dark, even for those who practice left-handed magic." The stories were horrifying. To take possession of another's body meant killing the person's consciousness. It meant committing murder in the most twisted and brutal way.

"What's got you asking about possession spells?" Paige asked, her voice hitching in curiosity.

"I think Clay is being possessed," Annie whispered. It was the first time she'd voiced the theory since she made the connection while talking to Clay. She didn't know Paige enough to predict how she would react, but Annie hoped she'd believe her.

"By who?" Paige asked, eyebrows raising.

"Aleister."

A/N Happy New Year! I've finally finished watching Bitten Season 2. I hope you enjoyed this update. I'm excited for writing Annie into the final episodes of the season. It should be fun.

For those that are interested, I've started a twitter specifically for my fanfiction. My twitter handle is GracelesslyRach and my profile picture is the same as it is on here. I'll be posting aesthetics for this story as well as my other fanfics, some polls about the fanfics, and just random updates I have on the story as I continue to write. So go friend me if you want to participate in all that and feel free to message me on there. I love talking to all of you!

Onto Guest Review Responses:

To the guest who liked the scene of Nick meeting his mom: I enjoyed writing that scene! I thought it was cool how the show had Lily knowing about the wolves. And I can't wait to explore Annie's magic further and how it will affect her fighting style as well as her place in the pack.

To the guest who said they like my story better than the original: Wow. That is a huge compliment. I'm glad you like my take on the seasons and how I've merged Annie into them. I hope you continue to enjoy the story just as much as you have been!

Rach

xoxo