Page 4 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

It was a control spell. His way of forcing living beings to do and say what he wanted them to. A power that could bring about world domination if used in the wrong hands. I could see the Vampire’s tongue loosening even more now, unable to resist giving up the information, even if he wanted to.

“The forest just outside of town! Its scent is disguised with licorice! She leaves it open for me to collect the ingredients in exchange for free blood!”

This time Ayden seemed confused; his head tilted to the side. “Why would she need blood?”

I smirked as I realized he had no idea about her mate, the former headmaster of the Pacific Academy of Magick. Vampire John Thorne.

“It’s probably for her mate,” Rory suddenly shared, my gasp audible as I turned to look at my cousin in astonishment.

“Rory!”

“Her mate huh?” Ayden chuckled. “Good to know she has a weakness.”

He pushed the vampire back over the counter and straightened his shirt casually.

“Thank you for being so accommodating with your answers. I promise you won’t have any more trouble from me, and the council won’t hear a word of your…,” he looked down at the bottle labeled as blood again. “Supply choices from me.”

He turned and headed for the door as I stared back at the vampire in horror over the deal that Ayden had just made. Baer and Rory followed him, whispering together before I finally ran after Ayden and pushed him up against the alley wall.

“What the hell kind of deal was that? How could you willingly walk away from an obvious illegal harvester like that?” I demanded, as he stared back at me with a bored expression on his face.

I glared back, seeing every bit of the evil that I knew he could be behind those eyes. He didn’t care about what I had to say. He didn’t care that what that vampire was doing was illegal. There was no telling if this so-called portal was even real, or if it was just a ploy to help Minerva get even further away.

He rolled his eyes, my fury for him growing as he pushed me away from him and turned in the direction that Minerva had disappeared in.

“I gave him my word that I wouldn’t tell the council. I never said anything about you three and I never said I wouldn’t tell anyone else. Like, say, my great aunt Nikini who has quarterly meetings with the council. Or my mother who is bound by her position as coven leader to report illegal activity.” He looked back at me smugly. “I don’t have to tell the council for it to get to them.”

I growled at his tone, my hands shifting to claws, ready to rip him apart until Rory’s finger wrapped gently around my wrist.

“Sasha, don’t,” she said, her eyes hazy as if she were halfway between this world and a vision.

“Rory?” I whispered, my eyes now glued to hers as the mist within them grew heavy and her body relaxed into the trance of her vision. “Shit! Baer!”

I grabbed her in my arms to ensure she didn’t fall as I looked for her mate, only to find him in the exact same state. His large body going limp as his eyes glazed over with a vision of his own. I watched in horror as he began to teeter on his feet, the alley’s ground covered in broken glass and debris before him. I couldn’t get to him. I wouldn’t be able to stop his fall, even with magic. Not with Rory in my arms like this.

A gust of wind exploded through the alley then, the glass and debris clearing away as the wind pressed Baer’s body against the wall of the nearest building before slowly easing away. His body slumped with the wind, gently sliding down the wall and onto the now cleared ground.

I threw Rory over my shoulder and rushed to Baer to make sure he hadn’t been injured in his trance, my breath coming out in a deep sigh as I found him perfectly well.

“Don’t they usually have some kind of warning system, so they don’t fall over like this?” Ayden asked. I turned with surprise to see him suddenly behind us, a frown on his lips as he looked down at my cousin and her mate. “Their parents are two of the most powerful Seers known today. Isn’t there some kind of an evolution requirement by this point to have some sixth sense that tells them The Fates are calling.”

I scoffed and shook my head. “The Fates don’t give warnings. And the seers don’t always fall over like this. Usually their bodies lock up, but this was different. I don’t know if The Fates came to them this time or if maybe they went to The Fates.”

I thought about the journal entry my uncle left as he gave up on his research. His regrets of not spending enough time with Rory as a baby and the strong vision he had received by The Fates to stop his search. How he had seemed to enter their realm and had stood before the three goddess sisters as they showed him he held no more connection to the darkness and should stop his search for answers that he would never find.

I hadn’t ever told Rory about it. I didn’t want her to be scared off from this mission. Something in me told me that we couldn’t stop the search. That this was what we were meant to do, but I knew that my younger cousin would see her father’s journal entry as a warning to stop and forget about it.

Now, I wondered what exactly The Fates would tell Rory and Baer, and if this was the end of our journey together. Because no matter what The Fates had to say to my cousin and her mate, I wasn’t going to give up on finding these answers. I would go on without them if I had to. I just hoped that I didn’t have to.

Chapter Three

Ayden

AuroraandBaerbothslumped 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.

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