Chapter 7:

Alpha Damon’s POV

The forest grows darker, the swirls of the wind a color of white smoke penetrating my skin. The winds howl, trees laugh, the birds threaten, and the cold bites with every step I take. 

The land beneath my feet breaths sinking me deeper and deeper until I reach the end of the tattered black iron gate hoisting crows as the guards, bats as the protectors, and skulls as the deity. 

“Alpha Damon, the king of the wolves.”, The voice cold and shrieky echoes in the air, the smoky wind leaving my body, entering the gates marking the start of the territory of the witches. 

“To what do we owe your visit to the witches' territory.”

I square my shoulders standing straight dropping the suitcase on the white gravel that peeks at me. 

“The great protector of the witches, I Alpha Damon, the king of the wolves is here to meet the queen.”

The gate screeches, opening windings of arms that stretch my way.

“The territory stands by one rule: three worthy sacrifices;-mind, soul, and body will take you closer to the queen.”

The protector declares in a voice gentle as the hurricane inside an ocean.

"So, what do you have as an offering".

I clear my throat, mustering myself to draw a gentler voice.

“Thy protector- for mind I offer you my feelings, emotions, and memory of my beloved wife. You can take them forever, for now, she will be at your mercy. ” 

My ears perk.

The flap of the wings intensified, black objects flying my way. The bats swirl around me, in circles emitting radiation that traps me. 

It crescendos, sucking my brains out.

A gruesome cry leaves from between my lips and I drop to my knees panting. My vision goes blurry, the picture before me, nothing but a vivid haze of orange with a hue of black. 

“The soul”

“Thy protector”, My breath hitches, the blur in my vision returning to normal, “ Thy protector - my soul belongs to the witches when this body perishes. My soul will be at the mercy of the witches forever, and they shall use it as they please.”

In the next second my words collapse in the air, and the caw of the crows erupts, thousands of the very creatures rising in the air and dropping their way right to me. 

The crows pierce me one by one dropping through my chest like the rain of the arrows before arranging in concentric circles. They watch me, their eyes shining emerald green. 

Caws fill my mind, the unison and the pitch burgeoning inside my ears. The sound is so loud it deafens me, shattering me from the inside. 

A howl erupts from my chest, my wolf whimpering at the impact of the sound that renders it motionless. My body gives up, my hands landing flat on the ground holding my body from falling until the voice subsides only the residual ring of flatline lingering in my brain. 

My chest heaves up and down. The impact of the sacrifices too hard on my body. 

“The body”

“Thy protector” My voice scares me, it falls in broken cries molded with the edge of pleas that spread shudder along my body. 

“Thy protector - For body, I offer you a part of me. My blood, my child, my youngest the pure bloodline of the Alpha along with the womb that carries it.”

The eyes of the skull ignite with a fire, the demonic laugh filling the air. The ache in my heart intensifies, the mate mark along my skin burning and fading every passing second. My wolf growls at the loss of his mate, and his child ready to grow rampant, but something stops it inside.

Or rather my madness does.

“Alpha Damon, you have given the queen every worthy sacrifice. It makes her happy. You shall proceed to meet her.”

Harsh pants leave me, my heart beating inside my skull. A new surge of adrenaline mixes with victory creating a melange of euphoria that runs in my veins. 

My fingers curl along the white gravel, a smirk replacing the straight line on my lips, a snort just about to make its way out of me.

The witches are dumber than I thought. They took away the piece of my mind that holds my mate, sparing me from death when they took her life. It's like, I gave up everything I never wanted, and now they will give me everything I want - even the power to rule them. 

I stand dusting my pants off the inevident dust, the madness in me howling with the wolf inside me when a carpet flies my way. 

I pick up my belongings, standing on the surface. It rises in the air, slowly when a crow sits on my nape, draping its wings around my eyes in a blindfold.

They say respect the witches; if not, fear them. Huh. The world might be afraid of them but I am not.  After all, I am the Alpha King, the biggest, the baddest and soon to be immortal. I have fooled the witches twice. 20 years ago, to make sure I hide the biggest power in the universe, and minutes ago to make that very power mine forever. 

The carpet slows, the airy shuffle around me coming to an impasse. Heavy thumping fills the room, the place surrounding me sending back the noise of the blood flowing in my veins right to my ear. The wings around my eyes unfurl, a pitch black surrounding greeting me with the glory of my own heartbeat dwindling on me. 

I can hear the increase in the tics of my heart, indicating my wolf is on the edge. Alert, ready to pounce.

“Ares can you see anything?”, I ask my wolf. He takes over, scanning the entire place with his senses.

“What place is this? I can't sense a thing in here,” he says, when a flap of wing swishes along my face. The feathers cut the surface of my cheek, a drop of my blood soon hitting the surface and vibrating the place like a gong. 

Tall, dark walls bleed fire pumping life to the unknown words scribbled on them. Fire torches ignite, filling the room with a hue of orange. 

“Alpha Damon, what a pleasure to have a wolf king inside the territory of witches”. A smooth velvety voice fills the space. I look over my shoulder following the source, to see the queen of witches sitting on her throne carved in bones. 

Long black hair sits in stark contrast to her pale white skin. The ashy color and texture too cruel to ever be on any other creature than a witch. Black orbs shine like marbles, with no white to highlight the pupils. Lips a shade of blood red, bleeding like the vicious fruit. She sits with her back pressed against the surface of the throne, a cruel twitch of lips, legs crossed, and fingers drumming the skulls on her armrest.

“My queen”, I bow my head “ Verses do you no justice. For you are as beautiful as the moon. Your beauty signifies the night sky. Stars twinkle in your eyes, the fruit of passion sitting right atop your lips.”

A laugh echoes around me. My eyes bounce on her, her posture more proud than before. She tilts her head back, exposing the violet veins that run under her skin. Like cobwebs in a haunted house. Symmetric. Eerie.  

“Alpha Damon” her voice bounce off the walls. The space gives a perfect acoustic to her voice.

“Creatures love to caricature witches with long black dirty nails, withered pale skin, and blood-lined teeth. They forget we aren't animals that growl and scratch their prey. We end them with a snap of our fingers. Not flinching a muscle on our beautiful face.”

Her voice draws the euphemism, her face morphed with a smirky twitch doing nothing to hide the bite. 

I force a chuckle out of my throat, biting down the rage that floats in my head in an attempt to swallow the remarks she obviously made to our kind. She should be thankful I need her. I wouldn't have hesitated to snap her head otherwise.

"Well, I was here"

"Because you want to know how you could inherit the power you captured years ago".

She completes my words, and I look at her drawing the best expressionless face I could. 

"Yes".

“Poor us. No one has ever visited us without any purpose.”

“Do you know how I could do it?”, I ask. My voice falls in desperate beads, and I could tell from her face she basks in my torment.

“Of course I do” She moans, taking a deep breath.

" The only way to do it is to break what you created. Make the powers aware of themselves, let them flow, and create a melange of miracles. Once the body owns the miracle, own the body itself and you would have the powers".

"Break what I have created… but how can I break the witch's magic, without a witch herself". I ask, bewildered. 

Nobody can break the magic of the witches. It's like a golden rule written on the clouds.

"Didn't I say. Creatures love to caricature us. What you said is true, but not in your case". I tilt my head, the lines on my forehead running deeper. 

"The power you captured belongs to a different realm than humans. And witches have a pact, not to interfere with the powers of a different realm. The power is just not mystical it's sacred. My mothet helped you because she was indebted by your father, but she knew all too well not to go againsy the contiguous sanity."

My insides melt with the anger bubbling in me. My wolf too desperate to take over and snap the neck of the woman sitting before me.

" So how do you propose I break the magic". Hysteria captures me, but I try to keep the monotone in my voice until my purpose is served. 

" Honestly, I can't tell you what can break it unless I know what cast the magic." 

"What?", I cry loud enough to deafen myself with the echo that reaches me. The queen rises from her seat, lips quirked up eyes squinted, enjoying my misery. Walking my way, she circles my form standing right behind me.

" You see Alpha Damon, every witch uses a unique element to cast a spell. And my mother being the queen could usually cast spells with almost every element that exists in this universe."

Her fingers lay on my shoulder blade, the tip of her nail dragging and hooking near my nape. A shudder passes through my body, my member twitching to life at her touch. 

" So you can break the spell". My voice turns raspy, my body heating and turning on as if it has starved for years. 

" I can find the way to break the spell", she circles my body, standing before me. Her fingers unbutton my shirt, trailing along the line of my chest. 

" But, I need something in exchange for my favor". My lips twerk, along with my member as I pull her closer to my body. 

" Dint know witches are into sex". The coldness of her skin irks the warm blood in me, but the assets she flaunts drive me insane. 

" We are not", she says and I raise my brow. Her nail trails back the path she traced. The light pressure now running into a deep gash along my chest. Blood oozes out, in streams seeping into her nail. 

"Hot human blood increases our power. Wonder what makes it hot?", her eyes spark red, her skin turning a dusk wheatish tone. A low laugh leaves her throat. 

"Your libido, our powers".

My vision turns blurry, the words falling from her mouth growing silent. The room spins, the bleeding words closing on me until I drop to the floor. 

" Oh, Alpha Damon, I forgot to tell you something". Her voice echoes seconds later, inside my brain. 

" The shackled power you want to capture stands between time and eternity. Time heals, and eternity holds. The power has found its protectors, and it will soon bleed a demise too cruel. For death will be shy".