Page 47 of The Alpha's Fated Destiny

"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 ofthese 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.

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