Chapter Three

Aurora and Baer both slumped against the wall, neither moving nor speaking. It was eerie to see. Nothing like what I had witnessed in the past when the two seers would receive messages from The Fates. It was more like their souls had been stolen, their bodies nothing more than empty shells before us.

Sasha didn't seem as disturbed by their state as I was, making me wonder if this was some secret her family had been keeping from the rest of the community. This new way of communing with the deities who controlled us all.

My eyes began to wander along her body as she kneeled on the ground. My gaze moving along the curve of her back and the rounding of her hips. I couldn't help but imagine her on her knees before me, an image I admittedly fantasized about often as a teenager as well. Though now, my wolf added his own desires to the fantasy.

I clenched my fists to hold back from him, taking control. I could see his plan in my mind's eye. If I lost control for even a moment, he would have her up against the wall with no regard for her cousin and Baer's unconscious bodies beside us. His instincts were to take what he deemed his, and his mate was absolutely his to claim. Even if I had no intention of ever doing so.

"Rory!" Sasha suddenly called out, my eyes ripping from her to Aurora as she began to let out a soft groan.

Baer beside her pressed his hand to his forehead and let out a groan of his own. At the sound of Aurora, he turned and pulled her into his arms protectively, only his eyes giving way to the ache he still felt in his own body.

"What happened?" Sasha asked nervously. I narrowed my eyes with suspicion. Her body language was clear that she had some idea of what had happened to her cousin.

Rory let out another groan and pressed her hands to her head. "Shh, give me a minute," she whispered. "Your voice is really loud right now."

Sasha pursed her lips but waited as the two seers slowly pulled themselves together. I turned in the direction of the forest, my teeth gritting again with impatience.

This was taking too long. Too much time had passed, and we still had to get to the portal before that witch closed it off and we would all be back to ground zero.

There was a chance that maybe I could find Alkmene and get her to open a portal to the Forgotten Realm for me, but those chances weren't good. I never actually met the witch myself, and even if she was my ancestor, she was still a dark witch herself. From what my uncle and aunt had described, she came to them and she lived in the Forgotten Realm.

"The portal won't close," Baer said, startling me as I looked back at him.

"What?" I asked.

"It won't close. The witch can't close it, she wasn't even the one who opened it. She just uses it to travel back and forth. So, there is no rush to get to it. It will be there when we get there." He said as his body seemed to relax and the pain in his eyes began to fade.

Sasha looked between the two of us, her brows drawn. As she looked at me, I couldn't help but see the suspicion in her eyes. Suspicion she had held against me for years now.

Growing up, she just disliked that I wouldn't submit to her. That I was just as smart as her. That I fought her tooth and nail for the top of the class at school. But there was also a small amount of admiration in her eyes when we would challenge one another. That is, until graduation night.

Ever since then, she viewed me with nothing but distrust, and it was for that reason I never visited the school as an alumnus. I was no longer welcomed there.

"Sasha, he has to come with us," Aurora said then, Sasha's attention on me broken as she looked dumbfounded at her cousin.

"What? What do you mean? What did you see?" she demanded.

Aurora shook her head. "You know I can't say much. I can only tell you that we need him, and he needs us for both of our quests to be fulfilled."

"But…" Sasha began before looking back at me once again with suspicion. "Can we really trust him?"

Aurora and Baer both looked at me, Aurora's eyes bright and shining. Neither of them held any doubt in them, both giving Sasha a nod.

"It's the only way," Baer said.

I frowned at the two. Not that I minded them joining me. Obviously, we were both after the same witch, but I could tell that Sasha wasn't convinced, and it's not like I could blame her. After all, it was The Fates who told her not to trust me.

"No, you had to have gotten something wrong with the visions. There is no way that The Fates want us to work with him here. I refuse to believe it."

Baer let out a growl. The first I had ever heard him utter towards his mate's cousin. He stood and towered over her, my wolf letting out a growl of his own as he fought to protect Sasha from the other alpha male.

‘Calm down,'I assured him. ‘He won't hurt her.'

Even as I told my wolf that, I couldn't help but step closer to her side, watching Baer closely in case he did more than intimidate Sasha. Baer's eyes didn't miss my movement, his eyes conveying something that resembled respect.

He looked back at Sasha.

"I have never cast doubt to any prophecy given in the name of The Fates. Not even from those who had never shown signs of being gifted with the seers' gifts. It is not my place to judge whomever The Fates choose to speak through. That being said, I will not tolerate anyone who casts doubt on the word of The Fates simply because it doesn't correlate to their personal views." He stepped back a single step and pulled Aurora to his side. "We both were in the realm of the gods. We stood face to face with The Fates and heard their words through their own lips. They told us to travel with Ayden and to trust in him to help us see through to the darkness. Without him, we will not stand a chance."

I looked over at Sasha and watched as a vein in her forehead pulsed. She narrowed her eyes at Baer, not at all as intimidated by his presence as I would have expected. Her alpha energy protecting her from his, though I could feel him holding back on it, mostly.

She turned towards Aurora, who simply nodded and gave a small smile to her cousin.

"He's right, Sasha," she said. "There is no point in continuing if we don't have Ayden with us. There is a reason we all came to this alley at the same moment. The Fates designed it so."

I shrugged when they all looked towards me, Sasha's eyes filled with doubt. "I don't mind you joining me. Just know that I want the first go at that witch. She has something important that I want returned. After I get what I want, I have no interest in what you all want with her."

Sasha snorted, but it was Aurora who replied quickly. "That's fine, we won't get in your way."

The two cousins exchanged looks, a silent conversation that only they understood passing between them before Sasha ultimately sighed and nodded.

"Fine, but if I so much as smell betrayal from you, I will personally end you and the witch. And if whatever she has that you want so much is deemed dangerous to the world, then I will do everything in my power to make sure you never get your hands on it."

I growled at that threat, but that was my only response. I turned and began to walk down the alley as we had before, the forest edge just beyond the next darkened street.

The others began to follow, Sasha closing in the distance and pressing ahead of me. I rolled my eyes at her as she attempted to lead the way into the forest. We all heard what the vampire had said. However, all we needed to do was find the smell of licorice.

"Don't mind her," Aurora said from behind me. "She'll come around."

I chuckled and shook my head. "I wasn't even worried. As soon as we're done with that witch, we will all go our separate ways, and I won't have to worry about her again."

I smiled to myself; the expression forced as my wolf revolted at the thought of losing his mate. Aurora didn't react to my words, her face remaining straight with a glint of what I could only believe to be disbelief. It was as if she saw right through me and knew something that I didn't.

Although, she probably did.

I shook off the thought of whatever the seers were hiding from us. What futures The Fates may have shown them a glimpse of. I didn't want to think about it. Not when I was certain that those very same goddesses had to have made a mistake with their pairing. There was no way they meant to make Sasha my mate. And there was no way that either of us were willing to accept that bond.

My gaze moved from the approaching trees to the very she-wolf that I was resisting. Her hips swaying with every confident step. The movement entranced me, my mind going to all positions I'd like to see those hips move.

I smirked as she seemed to move more sensually before my eyes. As if she knew I was watching, and she was giving me more to see.

She dramatically bent over to avoid a low-hanging branch, arching her back as she straightened back out and sniffed the air.

"I think I smell it," she said over her shoulder to the rest of us. "It smells just like black licorice. It's amazing. I don't understand how anyone could resist following this scent."

"It's your wolf side," I said, sniffing the air and finding the scent myself. "Canines enjoy the scent. It's like catnip to cats. The scent is actually star anise."

"How could you possibly know that?" Sasha asked, her attitude returned.

"Because I've known this scent for as long as I can remember," I said, taking back the lead as I followed the scent to an old tree that had seen better days. "Growing up, I enjoyed the scent so much I wondered why, so I did some research on it and found out the connection to canines. It was pretty clear then why I loved that scent so much. Why my grandpa loved it so much too." I smiled at the thought of my family, the smile falling as I remembered the message my mother had left me just hours earlier.

I cleared my throat and pointed to the tree. "It's here."

The others sniffed the air, their pupils dilating as the licorice scent hit them.

"That's incredible," Baer said. "I can' t believe I've never smelled that before. I'm sure my family has used star anise in a potion or two."

I shrugged. "It may not have been strong enough. I noticed that the scent has to be very strong to affect my wolf. The herb itself barely reached him, but something with magic that carries that scent. It's harder to resist."

"So maybe it's more than that scent. Maybe there is something with the magic that calls to wolf shifters." Aurora contemplated aloud.

"Who cares," Sasha said sharply. "We are getting completely off track with this. Minerva could be miles away by now and even if we get through the portal, we don't have any idea which direction she went."

The others nodded as I turned towards the portal. "Don't worry," I said as I moved a branch that blocked the rippling portal from view. "Even if we knew which direction, the forest isn't going to make it easy for us to follow." I paused just before stepping through and looked back at them all. "You should all prepare yourselves to use that magic my uncle taught you. You're going to need it here more than anywhere else in the world."