Page 18 of The Alpha Wolf Defying Fate

We talked as we passed meadows filled with wildflowers. Small colorful insects moving from each bloom, one after the other. I felt myself lightening at the sight of it. The calm of the world around us. As if nothing could go wrong here. As if the wisps hadn’t just attacked us back in the forest.

“It is beautiful,” I gasped.

Rory nodded and hooked her arm through mine. “Kind of makes you feel sad when you think about how this place has been forgotten. Could you imagine the history it may have held for our people? Maybe even for the humans as well!”

I looked around again with her words in mind, pushing away the fear that I had been feeling lost in my head. The strange voice finally died out as I watched a strange bird fly overhead of us.

She had a point. This place didn’t even have a name anymore. It made me wonder what it was once called. If maybe the wildflowers each had their own name as well, long forgotten by the outside world.

And the bird, while strange looking to me, it would have once upon a time been known to those who lived in this region. It might have even been kept as a pet, or maybe livestock, to feed a village. It also would have a name forgotten long ago. Forever living apart from the rest of the world.

“How much do you know about the Forgotten Realm?” Baer asked Ayden then, the two walking ahead of us and taking in the same views.

Ayden shook his head. “Most of the research my family has done has been centered around the forest. It was a common practice for Alkmene to use the forest as part of her trials to prove our worth. We wanted to make sure that if any of our future descendants found themselves facing her trials, they would at least have some knowledge of the terrain.”

“What happens if she doesn’t use that place again because your family has studied it?” Baer asked.

Ayden shrugged. “Then I guess I’d better play close attention to the rest of the realm then and write down all that I see and learn. We don’t want anyone to be blindsided by her the way my uncle had been. Although, we also have taken precautions with the young ones by using his story as a cautionary tale.”

Baer laughed. “Oh yeah? What exactly did your uncle do to lose his magic? And why didn’t anyone know he lost his magic? We knew he learned that new technique, but no one knew he completely lost his family magic.”

Ayden sighed. “He complained about his magic. Wished that he didn’t ever have it while he was drunk. Unfortunately, Alkmene had been watching him during that time when he said it. So, she showed him what his life would be like without his magic.”

“And why didn’t he get it back?” Baer repeated the question we had asked before.

Ayden sighed and looked forward. “Why do you think I’m after the same witch as you’ll are?”

I frowned as Rory gasped, both of the men looking back at us with raised brows. I spun my gaze away when Ayden met my eyes, his gaze narrowing at me suspiciously.

“Minerva stole his magic from Alkmene,” Rory surmised.

Ayden looked away from me and nodded at her. “Yeah. She tricked my uncle. He had no idea who she was, didn’t exactly trust her, but still, she led him to the final trial where she made sure to steal his powers. For what reason, no one knows. Although my uncle seemed to believe that Alkmene had an idea. He said that she and her friends seemed shaken at what the other witch had done, but despite all her own power, The Fates still held her tongue from revealing to him what was happening.”

“So, all you want from Minerva is your uncle’s magic returned? What if she no longer has it?” Rory asked him.

Ayden flexed his fingers at his side. “Then I will make sure she tells me where it went.” He looked back at me. “By any means deemed necessary.”

Again, the voice whispered in the back of my mind, the sound distorted, but there nonetheless to remind me that Rory, Baer, and Ayden no longer trusted me. They all would still question me and how it was that I knew what I knew back in the forest. And even if I were to tell them the truth, that I didn’t know how I knew, they wouldn’t fully believe me, if they believed me at all.

Rory cleared her throat then, her arm tightening around mine as we walked.

“Are you okay, Sasha?” she asked quietly.

“Why do you ask?”

She let out a sign. “Because I know you far too well to not notice when something isn’t quite right. So, if you won’t tell me on your own, I have to ask you.”

“I’m fine, Rory,” I lied, the guilt of the false claim plummeting into my stomach.

I had never lied to her in my life. Never even wanted to. Never needed to, and yet now, I couldn’t bring myself to tell her the truth.

That I wasn’t okay. I wasn’t even close to okay.

I had a strange voice in my head telling me exactly how to fight off creatures I had never seen before in my life, and I couldn’t bring myself to tell her.

“Sash, you know you can tell me anything.”

“I said I’m fine, Rory. Please, just leave me alone. Watch the birds. Check out the flowers. Just leave me alone, please.”

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