Chapter 4

"Sarah?” I heard my mother call for me. Alpha Dax just got out of eye sight as she walked out from behind a tree. “You okay?” 

“HA, yeah, sure, just peachy.” I shook my head as I slowly started walking back to the palace to go to bed. 

“I’m not talking about Molly…” Even if my mother wasn’t an empath, leave it to her to know exactly what’s going on. She always said it was a mother’s intuition, but it was a little scary. 

“I figured, but my answer hasn’t changed.” 

“He’s your mate?” like she didn’t already know.

“Yup.” popping the last P. We had reached the garden. There was a bench that sat in the middle of it. As a little girl, I loved to come here and watch the stars and moon. Something refreshing about being in the moon’s light. 

“Don’t give up on him yet. Not everyone meets their mate and they are instantly in love.” 

“Did you and dad have a rough start?” 

“Oh, yes and no. I met your dad about a week before he turned 18. I had people after me, even though we didn’t know it at that time and him and grandpa had planned on killing me if I turned out to be a bad guy. Thankfully, I didn’t, but we still have rough patches to work through. You know I had to kill his sister.” 

“I remember the story.”

“Well, that brings me to my next topic.” I waited for her to continue. She suddenly felt really guilty. “That man, tonight, he was a spinning image of Grant.” 

It felt like my stomach dropped out from body. A sense of doom drafted over me. Mom has told me the story. Grant was her uncle that was part of the council. They made the council up of five men. Five men that were corrupt and ran a sex trafficking ring. Each had their own crimes, but Grant pretended to be on her side, even helped her bring them down so he could ultimately kill her and take the crown. Thankfully, she beat him and ended up killing him. Many people witnessed it are still alive and around here as it only happened 25 years ago. 

“He must have had a son.” Mom continued. “He could have raped a woman or forcefully mated one. Either way, when I killed him, he didn’t have a mark on him. He never told us about a kid or if he even knew he had a kid.” Mom felt scared about this. I could feel her literally vibrate with nervous energy. Tapping of fingernails on wood filled the air as she talked. If this made my mom nervous, then we were in trouble. She voluntarily gave herself up to be tortured so she could get information. Who does that? If she can do that, but this makes her nervous…. I can’t even think about it. 

“We will need to send a search party out for him. Get information and track him down. I sent the black team, but I doubt they find anything. I’ll have to go with them. Not only because I am the head of black ops, but because I need to prove myself to the other alphas.” 

“I agree. Tomorrow, we will come together and figure out a course of action.” Mom stood up, signaling she was done talking. 

“Okay.” we walked in silence as we made it to our own rooms. My room was eerily quiet, as Molly’s stuff was all over my room. I half expected her to walk in and just yell at me for how dirty everything was. It didn’t seem real. Truthfully, I was just pissed. Pissed my sister died, pissed I have to leave and prove myself. Pissed, my mate is a complete douche, just fucking pissed. 

I didn’t even bother to take a shower or clean my room. Stripping off my dress and putting on a basic t-shirt and panties, I crashed into bed. 

After tossing and turning all night, I just said fuck it and got up as the sun was rising. Showering quickly, I got dressed in combat boots, pants with a black tank top. It was in the middle of summer but since I will be leaving this afternoon; I didn’t bother to hide my intentions. My hair got pulled into a side braid. I loved seeing my mom’s hair like that and I have always stolen it from her. Grabbing a small duffle bag, I packed two sets of the same clothing and basic bathroom items. We will probably be sleeping outside, so I didn’t bother with makeup or anything. Hopefully, I don’t get too much blood on my clothes, but it isn’t a huge issue either way. 

I didn’t even spare my room a second glance as I stormed out of it to go to my office. The smell of eggs filled my nasal passage, but it just made my stomach turn. I didn’t want food; I wanted blood. Unlocking my office, going inside was painful again . Molly’s stuff was still around, as she liked to use my office as her own. I never minded as I was always on the go, but this was hard. Everywhere I turned, she was there. My eyes filled with tears that I choked back. Nope, I will not cry. Setting my bag down, I went to my gun cabinet and pulled out my set of knives. Time for interrogation. Might as well get this over with. I made it all the way to the front door of the palace before I ran into anyone. 

“Warrior Princess…” the velvety voice just pissed me off.

“What are you doing here?” I asked without breaking stride. 

“I like to go for morning runs, but I see you are all business this morning. Where are you headed, dressed like that?” 

“You go for runs and I spill blood. Don’t let me stop you.” I picked up my speed as I walked, which did little. He easily matched my pace. 

“Ah, interrogations. Mind if I sit in?” 

“I could command you to leave me alone.” I threatened. 

“Somehow I don’t believe you could command me to do shit.” We arrived at the cells and the guard nodded to me as he opened the door. He looked weirdly at Alpha Dax but greeted him appropriately. Screams already echoed down the hall. 

Stopping instantly, I looked at the guard. “Jason?” He nodded as he frowned. “How long?” 

“Ten minutes or so.” 

Fuck! “Why didn’t you call me?” I said angrily, not even giving him the chance to explain. I ran forward down the hall. The concrete floor did little to hide my approach. I opened the first door on the left. “Go in there and stay here. Don’t disrupt my interrogation.” my eyes were glowing green over my anger. Thankfully, he didn’t argue as he walked in. Shutting the door behind him, I went to the next door and opened it.

Jason had three men handing naked from the ceiling. Under the middle one was a drain that already had blood running into it. Jason had a whip in his hand with a crazed look in his eye. When I walked in, recognition ran through him as he started questioning his actions. 

“Good morning boys, looks like we got started without me.” I said, not wanting to scold Jason now. I understood his grief. 

“F..fuck you…b-bitch.” the middle on stuttered as he pit blood at me. Jason provided another whip across his back thighs for that remark. 

“And here I thought we could get along. Now…” I pulled a table out so each man could see it and laid my collection of knives out. They were all rolled up, so it made for quite the show to unravel them and pull them all out. They all grew a new level of fear within themselves. Perfect. “Now, I want the name of the man that you were working for.” I just needed one to answer. There was always one that was the pathetic one out of the bunch. Just got to find him. 

“Stupid bitch, aint tellin’ ya nothing!” Not my guy. Grabbing my dull smaller knife, I walked over to him, grabbed his balls and slowly cut away at his sack. He was trashing, which caused me to slip and stab his thigh, but eventually, I got it all. The other two were watching as I struggled to get it off and saw how the artery shot out with each heartbeat. 

“Dull knives always make it harder to get the job done…” I said, shaking my head as I put the knife back. “Anything to say now?” 

His eyes rolled back in his head as the last heartbeat pushed what little blood out of his system and he died. The other two looked at each other in fear. “Can’t do it, man!” 

“How about this? First man that talks, get a painless death. Whoever doesn’t talk, I will make small cuts all over your body. Then I will bring in rats and let them eat you alive until you die…. with my dull knife.” 

“Wedon’tknowhisname!” the first guy blurted out so fast. 

“He paid us to just scared you. He said that your security was weak, and we were going to make the palace stronger! He said he was an inside man and wanted to help! He didn’t tell us he was going to kill that woman!” 

“Where did you run into him?” 

“In Texas. We are just rogues there, but we had stable jobs and…” he left off but looked at the other guy.

“Ah fuck, we are dead either way. A witch approached us and asked us to do something for her and in return, she would grant us a potion to make ourselves a millionaire! She wanted us to do this job with that guy and help out to make the palace stronger.” As soon as the words left his lips, their bodies started boiling. Literally boiling from the inside out. Their skin turned red, steam erupted from their eyes, ears and nose, and blisters formed and popped. Their piercing screams radiated off the walls. It felt like my eardrums were going to burst. Suddenly, their bodies started swelling. 

Jason and I started taking steps back as it looked like they were going to blow. The door flew open and Alpha Dax was standing there, waving us out. We barely made it to the door before the sound of an explosion threw us out the door and it shut right as pieces of tissue slammed against it. 

My head hit the wall across the hall, so it took me a minute to realize what happened. Rolling over on my back, I felt the blood trickle down my temple and eventually drop to my tank top. Jason was looking at the door, confused about what had just happened. Alpha Dax was looking at my head. 

“The fuck was that?” Jason asked to no one in particular. 

“A witch’s spell. If you go into an agreement with them and they swear you to secrecy, they put a spell on your to make sure you keep your mouth shut. If you don’t, you die.” Alpha Dax said, shrugging his shoulders. 

Jason finally noticed him and then looked at me. “You’re bleeding.” He said nonchalantly before standing up and holding out his hand to me. Taking it, I stood up too, and we all headed for the door. 

“How do you know about witches?” I asked.

“I educate myself.” Alpha Dax said. 

“Care to explain yourself?” I stopped walking as we reached the forest. The smell of burned flesh followed us outside as it was latched onto our clothes. I will forever smell that smell now, and the sight of their whole body looking like a massive sausage will haunt my dreams. I’ve seen a lot and have done some messed up things to a human body, but that was a first for me.