29 – INVASIONSTEPHANI heard a hissing sound and then out of the blue, one of the witches came flying at me from the dark.It was a good thing that I could see in the dark else that attack would have been really fatal.I spun to the side and she missed me wildly.She landed on the floor on all fours and then let out a high pitch piercing scream.The entrance to the cave began to tremble and everything around me felt like it was vibrating at an exceedingly high pace.I staggered as I tried to find my footing.The face of the witch had already changed from that of a woman in her mid thirties to that of an old granny.Her cheeks sagged and there were wrinkles on her forehead and her eyes were sunk into her socket.Her former lush red hair was now in strands and there were boils all over her scalp.My heart skipped a beat as I saw the monstrosity before me, so this was a witch’s true form?She came at me again, moving on all fours like some sort of insect and then she leapt on me driving
30 – BLOOD VISIONREBEKKA“Stephan and I are already discussing our wedding which will be happening anytime soon…”Lady Vanessa’s words danced around in my mind as I walked away from the Duncan’s pack house.My legs felt weak and my head felt heavy.What did she mean by she and Lord Stephan were planning a wedding?Would a man that was planning a wedding kiss me with such passion and hunger? She must be lying.But she sounded so sure, so smug and confident… could she really be lying? Why would a high born feel the need to lie to a nobody like me, she must be telling the truth.My heart felt like it was going to give out any second now, I could not bear this anymore.“So, just remain out of sight and don’t try to stir up any trouble else… being attacked by thugs and getting poisoned would be the least of your worries!”There was something about the way she said it that didn’t sit well with me. First of all, how did she know that I was attacked by thugs and poisoned?Apart from the thu
31 – INVITATIONDAMONI led them down and deeper into the cave, with my super hearing, I could hear the distinct sound of running water up ahead, surely there must be an opening somewhere there.“Wait here, let me check it out,” I told the coven leader.She nodded, “Be fast about it.”Foolish woman. If she had been fast about accepting my proposal earlier, we would not have been scrambling to find a new exit now.We would have just walked out the way I came in and been long gone before Stephan and his merry band of witch killers made it to the hideout.True to my hearing, there was a hot spring located somewhere up here in the mountains.I followed the sound until I came to the source of it.There was a slit in the rocky outgrowth and the rays of the early morning sun streaked in through the crevice.The problem was that it was not big enough to fit anybody.In a network of caves such as these, there was bound to be more exits but we could not risk it, we might run into wild wolves.I
32 – CLAWEDSTEPHAN“That’s odd,” Claude commented.He was saying out loud what I was thinking.I looked at him, “I have been thinking the same thing.”“What’s odd?” Flint asked.He and Claude banded together when I told the group to split up and they went searching left.I had remained in front of the main tent, a part of me thinking that there was some secret bunker or something here and that any time soon, witches would pop out of it and attack.Nothing of sort happened and time passed and finally Claude and Flint were back.Claude looked at Flint, “Are you an airhead?”Flint frowned, “That does not call for insults man, just tell me what the fuck is going on.”“Can’t you smell?” Claude yelled. “What do you smell?”“Nothing!” Flint protested.“Exactly,” I chipped in, “Nothing.”“When we came into this hideout, we could smell the witches, their stench, their sweat and even to some extent, their bloodlust but now… now we are in front of the leader’s tent, there is no scent whatsoever
33 – SOLEMN VOWSTEPHAN“This does not make any sense,” Claude said, leaning down to take another look.“Wait… does that mean that the witches have a wolf on their side?” Flint asked.“Shut the hell up!” Claude screamed at him, “How can you suggest something so preposterous?”“How else would you explain this?” Flint asked.Yes, how else could I possibly explain what I was seeing. Wolves killed by another wolf.It was one thing when packs fought and killed each other. That was normal and acceptable but for a wolf to kill another wolf for witches?That… that was unheard of for decades, since the war began.“What are we going to do?” Claude asked me.“I’m thinking…” I replied.For some reason, beads of sweat were forming on my forehead and my whole body felt hot. How would my dad handle this situation if he were here?“We bury them here.” I said.“What?” Flint sounded shocked, “Trent and Danny are the sons of high born wolves, we cannot bury their corpse out here in the middle of nowhere
34 – DISTURBING WORDSREBEKKAI had forgotten all about the scary conversation that I had with Dr Purcell yesterday in his office.How did all that escape my mind?Right now, seeing him standing before me, demanding for an answer, I was short for words.“Sir?”“Don’t Sir me and answer the damn question,” he snapped at me.I jumped in shock, Dr Purcell was not usually like this.Sure he was not friendly but he was not aggressive either. This must be a really big issue to him.“From today, Sir, you don’t have to worry about any more drama of such sorts,” I said.Even as I spoke the words, I knew it was a big fat lie. What power did I have to make such a promise?I just needed to get Dr Purcell off my back.He eyed me seriously, “It better be,” he walked off.I breathed a sigh of relief.Even though I didn’t mean a word of what I said earlier, I still needed to come up with a way to make it happen.How would I get Stephan to stop coming to the clinic to meet me?What about Damon?It is
35 – EMERALDDAMONThis was going somewhere that I was not expecting it to go.Something that started out as a ploy to frustrate Stephan was now turning into something else.Wordlessly, I followed the coven leader and the rest of her subjects as we made it through the rough mountain terrain.Some of the people with us had stayed backed and said they would deal with any of the attackers who accidentally came this far.I didn’t care about any of them at all, all that was running through my mind was how I was going to handle this opportunity that was being presented to me.Being taken to meet the supreme mother, the head of all witches was a very big deal, I could not let such a chance like this slip through my fingers.While I schemed for possible avenues of opportunities, I was not blind to the dangers either.When I walked into this witches’ hideout earlier, I was confident that if things went badly, I could fight my way out of it and come out in one piece.The same could not be said
36 – UNINVITED GUESTDAMONEverything about her was mesmerizing, from her deep alluring green eyes to her head dizzying hip movement.I growled and gnashed my teeth, this was the meaning of enchantment, I was not going to fall for the spell.I looked away with much difficulty.“Supreme Mother,” the grand warlock said and bowed.All the witches and warlocks that had gathered bowed down too.I was the only one left standing upright.“Such disrespect, get down on your knees!” the grand warlock yelled at me.I gave him a side eye and stood my ground.“You vile creature,” he started towards me.“Enough!” her voice echoed round the cave causing the place to shake as if an earthquake was about to occur.The voice was so disembodied that it sent a chill down my spine.The grand warlock dropped to his knees, “Forgive me, Supreme mother.”I tried to meet her gaze but those green eyes were too off putting, it was as if they were searching the very recess of my soul. So I broke eye contact.“When
82 – OUTBREAKREBEKKA POVMy eyelids fluttered open and the familiar ceiling and walls of the clinic room came into view. I blinked as I felt the soft rays of the sunlight filter through the curtains and hit me.What time was it? How long had I been out of it?I strained to sit up, my body felt very heavy like someone was sitting on my chest. I took my right hand to the side of my head and then brushed it over my face.Peeling faces, very crimson eyes!These two images flashed through my mind and I suddenly became alert, all the lethargy leaving me.I jumped to my feet and ran barefooted to the mirror at the side and looked into it, I let out a breath of relief.My eyes were back to the old nondescript color. But what happened? Last time, they were very crimson, just like…“Lord Stephan!” I yelped suddenly and then cupped my mouth, afraid that someone might have heard me.It was all coming back to me now, I had just escaped the thugs Lady Vanessa sent after me when I had some sort of
81 – PLAGUE CARRIERTHIRD PERSON POV“Make way for the Supreme Mother,” Baylor’s strained voice sounded from the entrance of the cave to the Witches’ headquarters.He had Lady Cecile’s right hand swung over his shoulder and he was half carrying, half dragging her as she could barely walk on her own.The rest of the warlocks and witches poured in with them, pushing back the eager and scared crowd that was beginning to gather.Lady Cecile still felt a trembling in her hand as her head hung low and was pounding like someone was using a mortar to strike relentlessly against it.She still could not believe what transpired, never in a million years did she think that she would run into alpha Michael herself. She came down there to supervise his demise but she never planned to actually face him.That was the whole point of a well calculated ambush. How did everything go wrong? Why didn’t Damon inform them that he was coming?Was he in on the whole plan? So many thoughts were running through
80 – CHIEFDAMON“I can’t believe that Chief is dead,” Vane said.I sneered as I looked at him from the side of my eyes, fucking kiss-ass. He never liked the old man for one day, why was he here pretending like he was hurt?“His weak ass should have retired months ago, he got what he wanted,” I said.Vane gave me a sharp look and then his face turned dark with a frown, he shook his head, “Could you not be a normal person for once? Would it kill you to show some sympathy?”I sneered in his face, “Would it kill you to stop pretending and kissing ass all the time? Could you not show your true self for once?”A low growl escaped Vane’s throat as he glared at me, I could see the visible effort he was putting in to control himself.“If I were you, I would be careful how I talked, the Chief is not around to keep you safe any longer,” he said and then looked away from me.I grinned, “That’s more like it, say things like you mean it, life’s more fun that way.” He looked back at me and then he
79 – SON OF THE ALPHA AND THE OLD CRONESTEPHANWas I seeing things or was the monstrous fleshless face smiling at me?“Pretty eyes….” Her scratching voice purred.I winced, my shoulder still burned from her first attack.Where the hell did the silver come from? I could not see it. Just a second ago, before her monstrous transformation, she licked her bloodied nails.If she scratched me with mere nails, I should have effortlessly healed from it but the fact that I wasn’t healing meant that she used silver. Where was it?If I didn’t know, I could not recklessly attack her again, I could end up dead. My heart was thumping in my chest, this was terrifying and at the same time exciting.As wolves, we loved to fight, it was our nature and ever since I was little, I had been fighting but as I grew older, the fights grew easier and easier until it didn’t feel like a fight anymore.That was why I was so stunned by Damon, he was the first wolf who I had ever met that was able to really hurt me
78 – VERY CRIMSON EYESREBEKKA“Ahh!” I let out a shrill scream as a face that looked like it was rotting right before my eyes appeared before me.The darkness had faded away and now what I was seeing was dust caught up in a gust of wind along with the inhuman face.My shoulder felt like it was on fire for some reason, all my senses seemed to suddenly be kicked into overdrive.The smell of blood as well as dirt and decay filled my nostrils and my ear could pick up the fierceness of the wind as well as a scathing voice that felt like it was scratching the insides of my skull.I was rolling on the floor of the marketplace, writhing and yelling and pulling out my hair.People passing by started to notice the commotion, at first they all avoided me and went along their normal business.I felt a long tear on my upper thigh and I let out another piercing scream, I could not see anything, it was all dusty and windy, with rocks and little pebbles flying all over the place.Then I heard the sc
77 – CASUALTY OF WARDAMON“Go round, make sure that there are no survivors,” Vane ordered the men.I stood there in the settling dust and smoke and scanned the area before me. It was littered with the corpses of both witches and Elite Guards.“How many casualties did we sustain?” Vane was asking one of the officers.I was just absent-mindedly paying attention to their conversation, my thoughts however were fixed on how alpha Michael had easily evaded my trap.Did he know? Once again I didn’t think so but then again, it was hard to explain what had just happened here.“Sire, no survivors and the Wolf Killer is not among the dead,” another officer reported.Baylor was not here… where could he be? Still with Lady Cecile if I was to guess, what about the Old Crone?Stephan had been sent after her. Did he succeed in getting her or was there still a chance that the ambush could happen?I realized that I was just doing wishful thinking to keep hope alive and I hated it. But I was not wrong,
76 – A FUCKING MONSTERSTEPHAN“What the hell did that bastard want this time around?” Claude asked as I reached him.I looked back over my shoulders and watched Damon walk away. I sighed, all I’ve wanted since he came here was to rock his jaw with my fist but I was scared of doing that in front of the alpha.Damon’s whole plan was to make me look bad in front of the alpha, I could not give him the satisfaction of success.“What else but to shoot his mouth off,” I said.“I don’t know why you tolerate him, if I were you, I would have fucked him up a long time ago,” Claude said.I chuckled and then became serious, “We have a new mission.”“Oh c’mon,” Claude threw up his hand in frustration. “Can’t we catch a break?”“It is from the alpha himself,” I looked at him.Claude stiffened and became serious as he met my gaze.“That’s what I thought… gather the rest of the squad immediately, I’ll brief them.”He ran off.Not long after that, Claude, Flint, Louis and Hayes were all gathered round
75 – HISTORYTHIRD PERSON POV“Lord, we could have at least gone with one of the commanders, preferably Damon,” Chief Tyrell said to alpha Michael.Alpha Michael rode on in silence, his mind was busy. If the Supreme Mother came out of hiding all the way to Dragon’s Foot then it was likely that she had somehow found out that he was here.If that was the case then allowing herself to be sighted was done to lure him into some sort of trap. If West was where she wanted him to go, the west was definitely where he would not go.It had been a long time since he had been out and actively involved in a hunt like this but his senses had not dulled one bit. He knew Dragon’s Foot better than most, he had explored the shit out of the place in his younger days.By studying the map, he had guessed where she could possibly be if her plan was indeed to set an ambush for him in the west.If the commanders were as good as Chief Tyrell hyped them up to be, they would have no problem handling the witches
74 – TAKE NO PRISONERSDAMON“Sire, sire!” an enthused elite guard ran up to me smiling happily.I sneered at him.“Sire, we are moving out now,” he said, still smiling.I let out a soft exhale. Alpha Michael had managed to fuck me in the most unbelievable way possible and now I was left holding my balls in my hands.I got up from the tree trunk that I was sitting on and looked at him, “If I were you, I would stop baring my teeth and lock in.”“Yes sire!” he saluted and then ran off.I sighed, I was not going to give up that easily. There were still witches lying in ambush in the west. As long as we walked into that ambush, I was sure that I could find a chance to take out the alpha.This would have gone a lot better if the damn Old Crone and the Wolf Killer were in the loop and knew what our plan was.I could not believe that right now I was needing the help of the wolf killer of all people. He was good at what he did, with him at my side, I would feel a lot more confident taking on