Chapter Thirty-five

Ayden

"Why isn't he shifting back?" Aurora asked, her hand covering her mouth in horror as she stared down at the bloody mess from my forced shift.

Baer watched me closely, his attention more on me than what had happened to me. I could see distrust in his eyes as he watched me pace along the wall of shadows where Sasha had disappeared.

"I don't think he can," he said.

I growled my acknowledgement at that assumption, hoping that at the very least, their wolves would recognize the response and relay it to their human counterparts.

"Shit," Baer groaned as he scrubbed his hand over his face. "This seriously complicates things."

"What do you mean?" Aurora asked, her eyes widened. Tears stained her cheeks, though I suspect that she no longer had the energy to shed any more now. She'd been crying from the moment Sasha was taken. Her tears filled with remorse and frustration that I could smell lingering in the air even now.

"We can't mindlink him. He's not pack Not officially anyway. Communication is out the window with him in this condition. And our wolves' communication can only go so far."

He stood up and began to pace the same as me. Both of our energies matched in the frustration.

He was right. Even now I had information to give them. I could even follow the bond to Sasha, though it seemed to be tampered with. I could still find her through her wolf. But I couldn't tell them anything. Not easily.

I had to warn them about who we were up against. Had to show them the way to Sasha so we could get her back and destroy that darkness they had come here to fight.

‘The book,'my wolf reminded me.

I jerked my head up at the reminder. How had I forgotten? It had been on my mind the entire shift. It held all the answers they needed.

Baer and Aurora had their backs to me now, their heads pressed together as they whispered between them. I could hear them questioning how to find Sasha and who it was that came from the shadows.

"What kind of creature could move like that?" Aurora asked.

"Didn't Sasha talk about having some nightmare or something where a guy was in the shadows?" Baer mused out loud.

Neither of them noticed me moving towards the bags. Not until my nose dipped down and my teeth were trying to rip into my backpack. I rocked my head to try to force the bag open, and Baer's head turned to me.

"What the hell?" He walked over and bent next to me. I backed up to give him space, my teeth bared instinctively with a warning growl that gave Baer pause.

‘Fuck,'I said to my wolf. ‘Why did we do that?'

"You got something you need to tell me, Ayden?" he asked, his eyes darkening as his wolf rose to the challenge.

I growled again against my control, my teeth flashing even as I shook my head to try and stop it. Baer stood up and stepped between Aurora and me, his claws extending as he stared me down like a threat.

"Why is he acting like that?" Aurora asked, her eyes wide as she looked between her mate and me.

"I think he's going feral," Baer said.

I snapped at him at the mention, surprising myself even as I snarled.

‘Fuck,'I said again to my wolf. ‘Is he right?'

My wolf let out a growl, the sound bubbling up and out of my mouth before I could stop it. My wolf wasn't answering me. I could feel us separating.

‘No, no, no,'I blurted as I grasped for control. ‘Listen to me. You don't do this. We can't give up. Think about Sasha. If we go feral we're as good as dead to her.'

I could feel him calming, his mind coming back to mine with heavy pants. Our body began to relax, and I felt some of the control returning to me to move.

I walked back to the backpack slowly, nudging it with my nose towards Baer with a pleading look for him to open it. He bent down slowly and frowned at me as he unzipped the first pocket.

He peered inside and frowned more as he pulled out the book and held it up for me. I gave an excited bark and wagged my tail excitedly.

"This? Really? Right now?" he asked.

I barked again and spun in a circle before letting out a sniff with a dip of my head. He tilted his head, then opened the book, the pages fanning out on their own in his hands before landing on the exact page of the image with The Fates and their brother.

"Holy shit," Baer gasped as he stood up and showed Aurora the page.

"That's him! That's the guy who took Sasha! How? How long did he know?" She glared at me, my wolf letting out a low growl.

"Rory, calm down. There was no way he knew that this was who Sasha was seeing in her dreams. She barely had a description when she woke up. All she knew for sure was the sound of his voice." Baer reasoned with her.

"He knew though, Baer. He knew and he did nothing to help her." Tears ran down her cheek as she took the book and read the page opposite of the picture. "He's a fate."

Baer nodded. "Tell me, Rory, what is it that The Fates can all do?"

She looked up at him with widened eyes. "Send prophecies."

"And what prophecy has always bothered us especially given what The Fates told us back when we met up with Ayden."

She looked at me, her eyes growing even wider. "Sasha's prophecy about Ayden."

"It was him, Rory. This was who sent that prophecy to her. He had to have known that she and Ayden were mates. It was just before they both turned eighteen. Right before they would have known they were mates. He's been watching her all this time. Doing his best to keep them apart until he could come for her. And now he has her."

I growled again, the pair looking back at me. Aurora dropped her gaze back to the story.

"He needs her," she said. "Something else has been bothering me ever since the incident with the kelpie. She resisted the dark magic's call. Even when she faced up against the griffin, I could see she wanted to use that magic again, but she held back. She resisted against the most addicting magic known to us. And this guy, this so-called god, he is all dark magic. He needs her for something."

Baer nodded and scratched the back of his neck. "I know. There is something there. That's for sure."

I couldn't stand it anymore. They were doing too much talking and not enough moving. I showed them what they needed to know. Now we had to act.

I let out a growl, my wolf taking over then with a sharp bark. They both looked back at me, startled, before I ran for the nearest window and leaped through the glass.

Shards cut into my skin, though my fur protected me from the worst of it. As soon as my paws hit the ground, I went running. I spared only a single glance back at the house to see if the others would follow and gasped as I saw the perfect dwelling was no longer there.

They stood, as confused as I was, in a crumbling ruin with no more walls than the buildings around them.

It had been an illusion. We had walked directly into his trap, and we hadn't even known it.

I growled at my failure and turned towards the path ahead. The fork was no longer an obstacle to me as I turned towards the westward path. I could feel Sasha's bond calling to me. A faint image of her tether vibrating as her wolf called out to us.

‘They're separated,'my wolf growled, his anger at the knowledge vibrating through us both.

‘How is that even possible?'I asked, though we both knew that Morus was more than capable of it. He wouldn't have been able to completely remove the wolf from Sasha. Not without killing her, but he could certainly separate their minds so they couldn't communicate.

It was a dark form of magic. Darker than anything we've ever faced. To separate two halves of a soul was a cruelty that only the evilest being could willingly do.

I pushed harder, digging my prints deep into the ground for Baer and Aurora to follow.

My wolf kept ebbing in and out, the curse speeding up the process of turning feral. The only thing that kept him going was the bond's pull. The way it tightened the closer we came to the pristine white castle up ahead.

There was pain trickling down from the bond. The pain of Sasha and her wolf being separated. I could feel every moment her wolf tried to reach her, the pain splitting my head as we ran. My wolf pushed forward even as my mind faltered from that pain. I took the brunt of it so he could stay in control of our movements. I used it as my punishment for ever allowing this to happen. For not protecting her the way I should have.

Aurora had been right in her anger at my knowledge. I could have shared what I'd learned with them. I should have told them that very night that I read the story of The Fates and their banished brother. Although I considered them family, I didn't have the same level of trust as I do with my actual family.

Had it been my mother or uncle with me, I'd have shared the book immediately. Had it been my cousin or her mother, I wouldn't have hesitated a moment to tell them my suspicions.

The more I thought about it all, the more I realized how wrong keeping information from one another truly was. It hadn't just been me.

Maybe if our covens hadn't been so hesitant about sharing information with one another, we wouldn't have even been here. At least not without an army of shifters and witches at our side.

Our families were just as much to blame for where we were today. The four of us have to face this darkness that has been affecting all of us for generations now.

Even though Alkmene had been scared, someone prevented her from sharing her information with us. She had wanted to warn my uncle about something. He told me about the interaction when he had last seen our dark ancestor.

All of our problems now centered around the failure to trust one another with shared history. History that then was forgotten and sent to this realm.

‘Shit,'I said to my wolf. ‘We're all to blame for this mess. Sasha is suffering because of everyone who is meant to love her.'

My wolf growled, his tongue hanging out of our jaw as he panted with each quickened stride.

‘It's going to be love that saves her,'he said back. ‘And with that love will be trust. You are going to have to trust her the same way you trust me.'

I nodded. ‘I know.'

Smaller buildings began to appear as we came closer to the castle. I could hear another set of paws gaining behind me and turned to see a large brown wolf and a smaller red wolf catching up to me.

I didn't slow down, but I made room for them to reach my side as we ran together. The brown wolf met my eye and gave a sniff as his mate kept her eyes forward, locked on the castle gates just up ahead.

We were nearly there when the scent of decay hit our noses, followed by the unmistakable scent of dark magic.

"Well, well, well," the familiar voice of the witch said. "I can't say I'm entirely surprised. After all, you wolves do have a strong sense of familiar ties and all. Still, it was bold of you to come all this way just to lose even faster than you already will."

We skidded to a stop as the dark magic plumed around her and she and her vampire mate stepped fully into view.

"Wolves really are just the most basic creatures," the vampire chuckled. "It's a miracle they've lived this long."

The witch chuckled and stroked his cheek with her finger. "Careful, Dearest. If not for their tenacious survival skills, I would never have met my goal to begin with." She looked around us as we growled, her blackened eyes landing on me. "Ayden, I have something else that you want. If you can make it inside that castle, I will offer you a choice. But, you'll have to get past them first."

With another laugh, the smokey magic engulfed them both again, their scent disappearing. And in their place, an army of shadowy creatures stood.

‘Are you ready?'My wolf asked me.

I smirked. ‘Of course, I'm god damned warrior.'