Chapter 3

Arsen

Ophelia never gave us a chance to fight. I didn't mourn my mother, the rightful luna. She scorched her body. There was no ash or anything left where she had once laid. I tried to mindlink my father, but his wolf had been tethered. Everyone else must have been doing the same before they looked at me. I still had the will to fight her, and I was going to fight...

 "Submit mutt," Ophelia moves, looking at me.

"You are not my luna." I look at her.

"Submit before I made things even harder for you."

I looked at the alpha's wolf, searching for guidance once more before I felt darkness twisting and swirling inside the pit of my stomach. I was not submitting. I was trained for this. As I felt my body break and tear, I refused to yield. I wanted to believe that this was my ultimate test. A test to see my strength and will to protect my pack, but what came next was devastating to me.

The witch suspended me high in the air. She used the authority of the luna to make everyone stand still. A few Torgan Hunters moved slowly to the pack and began the slaughter. I felt the power surge in me as I felt every life fade. Young and old did not miss the blades of the hunters.

"Stop this madness," I roared.

The witch heard me but cackled. I saw warriors, trackers and all those fit for battle falling. My wolf wailed and fought for control. This slaughter was not something I could watch. I was the son of Valerio. I was of a strong bloodline. The blood of my ancestors was flowing in my veins. I was not failing my pack.

My eyes glowed darkly and I let my wolf take control. The power surged in me and I hauled before I fell. My wolf Shadow landed with a thud on its paws. My wolf could sense that she did not expect this resistance. She was whispering something that my wolf shook.

'Wolves of the Black Dessert Moon will not surrender.'

Chaos broke loose. My wolf was unhinged and out for her blood. Her wavering cause madness from the pack. Her hold on them was broken. She stumbled back and whispered, but my wolf would not stop. 

Blood!

That's all I could see and smell. My wolf sprung up, ready for her pulsing neck, before a wolf jumped on my hound. I felt a powerful wolf on my shoulder ripping flesh. My wolf howled. I was standing on my three paws. I stared at the black wolf fighting submission.

Daring the alpha was a fight to the death. My black wolf was slightly smaller. Shadow was nudging me to go forward and challenge the alpha. He was willing to fight until death. My father's wolf circled me. This was a warning. My wolf was stubborn and out for the witch's blood, Ophelia, who was floating in the air with her hands on opposite ends.

Shadow snarled through the bleeding shoulder before setting the fourth paw on the ground. The mayhem of the fight faded. My wolf sped up and jumped on the boulder before leaping up high for the witch. A force knocked my wolf down harder. Shadow whimpered when a paw clawed the hind. My wolf howled in pain, trying to shake off the claw.

Another thud and a few snaps made everything silent. My wolf whimpered low as the wolf's claws scratched off the fur. Shifting to my human form could end my life quickly. Staying in wolf form was also going to kill my wolf eventually. I wanted to shift, but Shadow refused and endured it before the witch called my father's wolf off.

Something tingled in my body for a short while before it stopped. It was a short flow of energy that made me shift. I wheezed and buckled to the ground. My droopy eyes looked around and watched the heap of bodies on the ground. Wolves and Hunters alike, but the fallen were mostly wolves. 

I felt my body being lifted and dragged behind the witch and my father's wolf. The way they moved me made the huge wound on my shoulder bleed intensively. I saw Corey just as badly wounded. I couldn't see my delta or gamma. My scent was weak. I couldn't scent who was alive or not. The air smelled sulphuric.  

The hunters dropped me inside the pack house before more wolves were brought in. I tried to mindlink the alpha, but he was huddled on the witch's leg the moment she sat down. I glimpsed outside at the failure of my efforts that caused so much of my people to die. 

"All of this bloodshed would have been avoided if you had submitted. This uprising would have been avoided."

The witch spoke, looking at me as if seeing my thoughts. I hung my head down, but the hunter lifted my chin up, and the witch smiled.

"You mutts are a proud race. You always want to end everything in a fight. Look how that has turned out."

I averted my gaze to look at her hand, stroking my father's fur. I watched Corey and tried to communicate with him, too, but I couldn't. She cackled before looking at me.

"I own your link. Unless I open the link, all of you cannot communicate."

"Why are you doing this?" I whispered.

"Isn't it obvious?" she smiled.

"Our race has not waged war with your kind." I wheezed, "The true alpha made a command for peace. We only fought with those who threatened us."

"I'm aware," the witch nods, "but this war is a show of wills. I want to show you all I can, make you all fall. Wolves, dragons, vampires, faes."

"Faes are a peaceful kind. They never hold arms."

"That's where you are wrong," the witch challenges, "The faes hold unknown magic. That alone should be alarming."

"Why?"

"I'm searching for a power that is far greater." 

"The ancient power of the wolves is not yours."

"It's not yours either." She rises.

The witch whispers and slowly makes her way to me. My body shifts from her dark energy. I'm on my knees before she grabs the sides of my temples. My eyes roll back before a gush of wind swirls in my vision. I gasp for air before I'm sucked in. 

I look at my body in confusion because I'm not bleeding. My body circles around looking at my surroundings. I'm standing outside the pack house. The witch's voice echoed in my head and urged me to observe and follow the wolf. A black wolf my size shifts and sprints out of the open door quickly. My feet move and I'm pulled to the end of the pack borders. 

Ophelia?

I frowned, but when I walked closer; I saw it was not her.

"Watch." Ophelia was now standing beside me.

I shifted and watched.

"I could scent you from the pack house. You are not a wolf."

"Who- who are you?" 

"Valerio, son of the true alpha Alden," he smiled, "You are my mate. I have been waiting for you."

"No," the woman shook her head.

I watched my father's eyes gloss over. "You don't want us?" his voice sounded pained.

"Stay back," she shouted and took a step back.

"Mate?" 

"I said stay back," she shouts before she whispers the same way Ophelia does.

"You are a witch?" 

Her eyes snapped toward the two pack warriors patrolling the ground.

"We heard voices." the male spoke.

My body moved closer, and I saw my mother and tried to reach for her. My body moved back to where I stood earlier. I tried again to reach for her, but I was pushed back. 

"Watch," Ophelia's voice thundered. I rotted in my spot and watched.

My father cranes his head at the wolves. "Leave us." 

"I'm sorry," the witch cried and whispered.

She moved and grabbed my father's hand before drawing my mother's body to them. She grabbed at the two of them and whispered for a while, knocking the other male wolf out. Something moves from the witch and enters my mother. Wind swirls them before it stops, knocking both of them down.

The witch gets up and puts on a cloak that masks herself but doesn't move. I watch my father and mother shift before they look into each other's eyes and they both whisper to each other. Mate. Their wolves' eyes gloss over and they embrace. The invisible cloak moves and touches the male wolf that was knocked out.

"Leave my mate alone," the wolf shouts.

"No!" my mother shouted.

"Mine," my father growls and walks to the wolf and slits his throat with a claw.

I see my mother scream clutching her head, but the witch removes her cloak and whispers. The body of the dead wolf burns and disappears. My father and mother are looking at each other and they both scream as the witch forces the new reality in them before they embrace again like they were mates who had finally found each other.

I gasp and look at the witch. "What did you show me?"

"That was my sister, Tabitha. Foolish girl. Breaking a mating bond out of fear. She would have been powerful if she was not a coward."

 "What is wrong with you, witches?" I look at her in horror. "A bond is sacred."

"I care less about such futile things. I merely bonded with the alpha because I knew you would challenge me. Now you will submit to me or else I will show your alpha, who my sister mated, and drive him to madness."

"Why has he not shifted yet?"

"Because I'm keeping his human side. He will remain my wolf and protect me with the possessiveness alphas have for their mates." She cackles. "I have always wanted a mutt to rein. What better than a true alpha?"

"You are mad," I winced, trying to get on my feet.

"What difference is it from you making lower rank wolves submit? Do you not kill those who challenge your command?" I looked away.

My wolf suddenly clawed to the surface. I wanted to lunge at her, but she stopped me and I screamed. My wolf was gone again.

"What are you doing to me?" 

"Keeping that mutt inside, you locked away. It's a nuisance. Untamed. I can't fully banish it before you heal." she smiles.

"Why do you care if I heal or not?" 

"Because you showed me something when you first attacked me." she curled her lips in a cruel smile. "That bite would have been your death, but it showed me a vision. I saw her." She hissed.

"Who?" I asked, "Your sister? Are you going to doom us all?" I looked at the dark witch and she cackled, shaking her head.

"I saw something far greater that my sister gifted her. Something only you will draw near. She will come for you." She cackled before she spun around and walked away.

I saw movement in the pack house. Shadow was going berserk in my head, clawing and thrashing. My eyes were obsidian. I could scent the wolf moving to me. Shadow calmed and stared at the wolf. I shifted looking around before looking at the white wolf I seemed to be only seeing. If it wasn't for my wolf in my head, I would have thought the wounds were making me see things that were not there. 

'Mate.' Shadow whispered in my head, looking at the wolf. 'You are finally awakened.'