Chapter 10

Sophia

Confusion fills me.

Where am I? And why isn't Alex here?

A strange headache is brewing in my temples and I groan. The sound is immediately followed by another wave of nausea and I vomit once again. Sludge exits my mouth—dark, foul-smelling sludge that makes me gag at the sight of it.

The headache is getting worse, and I gasp forair.

Stumbling to my feet, my feet, slipping in my own vomit, I look for a way out. The only light in this place is coming through the cracks in the straw roof. The moonlight reveals a bare room with a mat on which I had been lying. Aside from that, there are afew pots and pans placed in a corner.

How did I end up here?

Gripping my head, I try to remember.

The village. The old women.

I was eating that beef stew. I was so tired.

After that, nothing.

Did I pass out? Did Alex bring me here?

But I can't catch even a whiff of his scent in this place. Why would he leave me here by myself?

Using the mud wall for support, I stagger toward the entrance. But before I can reach it, I hear footsteps and the cloth covering the entrance parts. One of the village women enters and she looks pleasantly surprised. "Oh, you're awake."

"I…"

She doesn't seem alarmed at my being awake. Maybe I really did just pass out. I have been so tired lately.

"Where's Alex?"

"Alex?" She sounds genuinely confused.

"My mate. Where is he? Why was I alone here?"

"Oh, that young man who was with you?" The woman beams. "He went out to hunt for us. Oh dear! Have you been ill?"

She's looking at the vomit on the ground, her eyes sympathetic. "The stew mustn't have agreed with you. Come along. I'll make you some tea. It will soothe your stomach."

Confused, I let her take me out of the hut, her hand around mine.

"What time is it?" My brain is a little foggy. I have a hard time comprehending the situation. "How long have I been out for?"

"A few hours," the woman responds with a soft smile. "You must have been very tired."

"But Alex…why didn't Alex stay with me?"

Her laughter is gentle. "We put your young man to work. We so rarely get able-bodied men around here, and he was more than willing to help."

Her words make sense to me, but my wolf is not satisfied. Alex wouldn't have left me by myself, not with everything going on. I know my mate.

So why did he leave me alone?

I don't know why I'm so hyper-fixated on the fact that I woke up alone in the hut. Was I always this clingy? Is that what's happening?

My wolf seems on edge.

The woman guides me to the same hut where we had our meal. As I enter, I look up.

The moon is high up in the sky. But that is not what I'm focusing on. I've spent enough nights under the sky to know how late it is. When we had arrived at this village, the sun had not yet set. It is past midnight. Why would Alex be hunting at this time of night?

The woman helps me sit down on the mat and then begins boiling some water. "I never expected the Silver Wolf to arrive in our village."

I start at her words. "You know what I am?"

She looks over her shoulder with a soft smile. "I've been alive for a very long time, child. We all look quite young for our age. We know about the Silver Wolf. I would say that we have been alive for at least three generations of your kind."

Her words make me swallow in shock. None of these women look past their late sixties. But if what she is saying is true, then they're much older. Almost ancient.

"If you don't mind my asking," I watch her put some herbs in a clay cup, "how old are you?"

She makes a humming sound. "I have experienced over three hundred winters. You lose count at some point."

I stare at her back, my head still pounding. Can witches even live that long?

"Here." She turns around and hands me the clay cup. "This will help you feel better. Be a good girl and drink it up."

I don't know why but the way she's watching me so intently has me hesitating. I lift the cup to my mouth and pretend to take a sip, but my lips are sealed shut.

When I lower the cup, she looks satisfied.

Just then, a noise makes me glance outside, and she gets to her feet. "I'll be just a minute."

As she walks out, I notice something peculiar.

She's still wearing that basket on her back.

At this time of night? Why would she do that?

What I had once considered a quaint little village, now seems strange and unnerving. I sniff at the contents of the cup and make a face. Underneath the sweet scent, I can smell something strange and off-putting. My instincts are telling me not to drink this. I walk over to the pot in which the woman had been boiling the water. I pour the tea back into it. Turning around, I'm about to hurry back to where I was sitting when I hear the hushed voices.

Creeping toward the entrance, I peek outside. The woman isn't there.

However, I can hear her voice from the hut right next door.

Why are these witches awake at this time of night? Why did they send my mate to go hunting at this time?

Something isn't adding up. Creeping toward the hut, I focus on the voices.

"She's drinking it."

"Has she been asking questions?" The second voice has me flinching. It belongs to the woman we had met at the edge of the village.

"She's alert. But we should've expected this. After all, she is the Silver Wolf."

I frown.

What the hell is going on?

"Have you secured the male?"

"Who knew we would find someone like him here," comes the third voice. "The first one is on his last legs. This one should last us for quite a long time."

"It shouldn't be so hard to break him."

The woman I had met in the village speaks up. "I'm still not sure about this. I think we have been too careless. We have to keep them separate."

"It won't be that hard to break the bond."

The voices are melding together, and I don't know who is speaking. All I know is that they've done something to Alex.

My heart is beating painfully fast. I have to rescue Alex. I have to find out what they did to him.

"She has the nose of a wolf. We won't be able to keep her away from him for long."

"I wiped out all traces of him." I hear a chuckle. "And he's somewhere safe. She will never find him."

Never find him?

Anger and fear make an odd combination. What did they do to my mate?

I want to barge in and confront them, but my current condition might lead to me being captured. I have to go look for Alex. I have to save him.

Looking around, I try to rack my brains. He's clearly not in the village. They want to keep us separated. They won't keep him here.

Tense, I try to calm down and think. There has to be a way to track Alex down, even if I can't find his scent.

My head suddenly whips toward the entrance of the hut. I can't follow Alex's scent to his location, but I can follow the scent of these witches. And right now, all three scents are in the direction of the fields.

Without a second thought, I begin running toward the fields. My stamina has weakened considerably and I try to summon my wolf. However, nothing happens. I can feel its anger and its concern, but I can't shift.

Is this because of the witches? Did they do something to me? How were they even able to subdue an Alpha?

Does it even matter? They've done something to Alex. The only thing I need to do is to find him and make sure he's all right. We just need to get out of here. Stopping here was a mistake.

As I reach the fields, I hear cries from behind me. Turning my head, I see the three witches running after me. For a moment, I stare at them, stunned. Their backs are no longer bent. They've dropped all pretense of being old and frail.

I can't let them catch up to me.

Running through the field, I keep sniffing around for Alex, desperate to catch just a whiff of him so I know where to go.

However, there's nothing of him here. But my nose does catch something else—a smell of rot and decay. Death.

I come to a halt, looking around, shaking.

What is this smell? This entire field smells like a rotting graveyard.

"Stop!"

The witches are still chasing after me. I don't have time to be worrying about why this place smells like death. I need to get my feet moving.

I run through the fields, trying to force the shift but to no avail. Helpless and frustrated, I keep looking over my shoulder. They're catching up to me. Even with the baskets on their back, they're fast. Too fast.

I'll never make it.

"Sisters! Stop her!"

Sisters?

The thought has just entered my head, when I see figures rushing at me from the side. In my haste to get away, I stumble over my own feet. Falling hard on the ground, the breath is knocked out of me. Groaning, I struggle to get to my feet, and my hand reaches out to gripthe closest thing to me for support. It lands on something hard and yet a little mushy. My eyes fly open and I come face to face with a human skull with some muscle tissue still attached to it. It's protruding from the ground.

I'm not a screamer.

I really am not.

But the sound that leaves my mouth is close enough to a scream.

Bile rising in my throat, I scramble back, my eyes dart around wildly, and my heart is ready to jump out of my throat when my eyes land on another body part extending from the ground. Horror seizes me by the throat as I realize that the smell of decay and death is from the bodies buried all over the fields.

What kind of coven is this?

I can hear them drawing closer and I struggle to my feet.

My feet pound against the ground, on the bodies buried here, as I try to get away.

The forest is just up ahead.

The night air is silent. Even the insects seem to have sensed the dangerous creatures afoot.

The heavy footfalls have ceased.

I look in the direction of my pursuers and stumble to a halt when I realize none of them are moving. Instead, they're standing eerily straight, staring at me. Unnerved and disturbed by the sight, I take a few more steps.

Why are they just standing there watching me like that?

A dark feeling of foreboding washes over me. This field of corpses tells me that they are dark witches who deal in death.

I have to get out of here!

My body moves desperately.

I've barely managed to take a few steps, when I feel a painful slash against my back. The sound of my shirt tearing is secondary to the white-hot agony radiating from my back. I can smell my blood in the air.

I nearly fall over, but when I turn slightly, the witches have not moved.

I try to summon my magic, but whatever was in the beef stew, it's done something to me. I can't shift. I can't use my magic.

It could either be something they've done to me, or it's because of whatever has been happening to me lately.

My lungs are burning as I receive slash after slash against my back, my vision blurring from the pain and the fatigue. The bond! I can't even feel Alex. I have no strength left. But I can't give up.

I make it out of the fields and I hear screeching sounds from behind me. I'm not waiting around to face whatever the hell made that noise. Staggering through the forest, I'm no longer tracking any scent. Now this is just about survival. I've lost too much blood and I'm losing even more. I need a place to hide.

I need to escape.

I try to bring about my shift once again, fueled by desperation, but no matter how much my wolf struggles, it can't come out.

Outrunning the witches is becoming harder and harder.

If I was in my wolf form…if only Alex was here…

A boost of energy comes out of nowhere, almost as if my desperation and fear have reached through to my mate. My wolf immediately takes control. I've never experienced a more violent shift, but I'm running on all fours now, my back still bleeding.

Get away!

We have to get away!

That's the only thought raging in my mind at this moment. I still can't use my magic. It's almost as if my wounds are festering and affecting my agility. Another boost of energy. This time I know it's from Alex. He's using the mate bond to send me energy. I didn't even know this was possible.

But he's also weak.

Are these Karina's witches?

Did she send them to infiltrate the South Alliance to capture me?

I can't let myself get caught.

This second boost of energy has the air around me crackling with magic, but I'm not a fool. Using magic right now would weaken me considerably. I have to hold on until I'm backed into a corner. A blast of fire from behind me has me howling. I'm thrown into the air, my body slamming against a tree.

I feel a sharp pain in my ribs that has me whimpering.

Unable to hold its form anymore, my wolf collapses inside my mind, and when I look down, my bruised human hands are before me.

Damn it!

I grab the tree to stand up and hiss in pain. My ribs. Gritting my teeth to hold in a scream, I force myself to my feet.

There is no way I can keep running. Not in this condition.

I need to hide.

But where?

The witches are on my tail. They'll track me down.

Looking around for a spot where I can be concealed, I see a rock formation. Normally, I would have run past it, but from where I'm standing, I can see the vines covering it, hiding the entrance. I take two steps and fall on my face when my right leg refuses to support me. Looking down at it in dismay, I see the bone protruding out.

I didn't even feel it.

A lizard runs past me and I stare at it, dazed.

I don't know what to do.

But when I see it, an idea comes to life in my head. It's an idea so absurd that it might just work.

Closing my eyes, I cast a curtain of magic around me, trying to blend myself into my surroundings like the chameleon staring at me right now. I see the change in my body and begin crawling in the direction of the cave. Panting, I feel like I'm at death's door. My back is throbbing with each movement. My blood, which spills on the ground, also changes color, and despite the pain, I feel relieved.

I don't know how I do it, but when I make it all the way into the cave, I can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

However, I'm still at the entrance. If they walk in…

I begin dragging myself deeper inside the cave, biting back my whimpers.

"Alex, A broken sob escapes me, "what have we gotten ourselves into?"

The cave is deceptively large. It seemingly ends a few feet in front of me, but when I drag myself to the very end of it, I realize that there is a passageway to the right, camouflaged by the rocks. I summon up the courage to go even deeper inside.

That's when I see the faint glow coming from the end. When I reach it, I realize the glow is coming from the entrance to some chamber. I make my way inside. At this point, even I know it would be wiser to just hide in the darkness, but I can't stop myself. A voice in my head is telling me that the deeper I go into the cave, the safer I will be.

But when I enter, a shocked gasp leaves my mouth.

There are candles all over the chamber, and in the center, on top of some sort of pentagram drawn on the cave floor, is a man suspended in the air from his arms and legs.

His dark hair is scraggly and long, and his body is badly scarred.

He's a shifter.

I know he is.

His scent is obvious.

Before I can turn back, I hear footsteps and the voice of the dark witches.

"She's in here. I can smell her blood."

I look down behind me and although my blood is concealed by my magic, I can't erase its smell.

I have no way out of here now.

Where do I go? What do I do?

When I look back at the man, my heart nearly stops in fright.

His eyes are open, a beautiful shade of amber, and he's looking right at me.

How he can see past my magic is beyond me. But he's clearly looking at me.

The voices are getting closer.

Confusion and fear battle against each other.

"Release me."

His voice is a deep growl.

When I stumble back, frightened, he continues, his voice raspy. "I see you. I smell you. Release me."

I have no choice but to hide in the chamber.

My magic is fading and I let it. I might need it to face off against the witches, not that it will do much good.

I crawl inside and the man watches me. When he speaks, his voice is gentle this time, gruff, but gentle. "I can save you, little wolf. What they'll do to you is so much worse than death. You need my help."

He doesn't even know who is after me. How can he say all this so confidently?

Only, I know he is right.

The footsteps are seconds away now.

"Look at yourself," he growls. It's obvious that speaking is hard for him, but his eyes are both angry and desperate. "You won't last a second against them!"

"And you will?" I gasp out.

His smile is slow and filled with a hatred that makes my blood go cold.

"I have a better chance than you."

They're at the entrance.

My heart is beating like a drum and I'm out of time now.

I lift my hands toward the chains.

I'll take my chances with him.

A crackle in the air.

A scream of anger.

And the sounds of chains breaking.

That's all I see before darkness consumes me.