Blood like
Killian
Feelings were of little consequence, I remembered my father saying. At least, he said that every single time he punched me in the face or somewhere less visible. Feelings, or more accurately pain, mine at the very least, were of little consequence to him. Which is why my confusion hardly took root.
I watched the witch’s pale face with a raised eyebrow. “You’re kidding me, right?”
Calypso shook her head. “Some things remain to be seen, but just because they’re not seen doesn’t mean they don’t exist.”
Her apprentice left and stayed away for quite a while. Of course, I found myself growing bored by the exchange. I walked back into my office and found Selena in the lounge area.
“She can’t be here. You had no right,” I said, cutting her off. “This is pack business. Pack security is my business.”
“I am Luna,” she said. “I have been acting Luna for a while now. Pack security, your security—all these things are my business in as much as it is your business. You can’t gainsay these things. You always forget your wellbeing, Killian. This is one of them. Your wellbeing is my concern.”
Her dark blonde eyebrows furrowed as she gazed at me with a worried expression.
“This is one of those things you don’t have to bother yourself with. Leave the human to me.”
“But she’s your mate, isn’t she?”
“I’ve rejected her,” I said.
“You rejected her, or she rejected you?”
I felt my eyebrow twitch. “The details are not important. What matters right now is that I need the witch to wipe her memory.” I dismissed her.
“And why hasn’t it been done? You should have done it by now. You should have called for the witch long since. As soon as you found her here, you could have called the witch. The witch would have—”
I held up a hand, interrupting her. “I have done what I need to do. The witch was away on her personal business at the tower. You know very well she governs herself. After being alive for several centuries, she can do whatever the fuck she wants to do. y ou wouldn’t tell her what to do, and neither would I. It’s only a suggestion, you know that.”
Selena closed her lips. “Whatever it may be,” she said slowly. “I don’t subscribe to it.”
When her mouth moved to continue, it was no sooner interrupted by Lucas.
I cast my eyes downward. But the message was clear—his voice rather sharp in my mind.
“She’s gone,” he said.
I stood up from where I sat, wasting no time. I walked out of my office, and in less than a few seconds I was in front of her cell. She was gone. The only thing left was her lingering scent—that lingering sweet human scent of hers that caused my beast to stir within me.
“Fuck it,” I whispered harshly. “Follow her scent and find her. I want her back here now and under strict guard.”
Lucas turned to leave, barking orders through the link we shared with the collective warrior base. She should soon be found, I thought to myself.
Not so far from the cage, however, was the elf. Cloaked, arms folded across his chest, his staff leaning against the wall beside him. As always, he was emotionless. He was, however, more reasonable than his master—speaking less in crypts and more in puzzles. What was the difference? They were draining creatures.
“You did this?” I said, jumping to an easy conclusion.
“Under orders from my master. She wishes to test out her theory.”
I took one quick step toward him, closing the distance between us. “My pack, my rules. The day you make another mistake undermining my authority—”
He lowered his silver eyes to the ground.
“I will snap that little neck of yours and give your head to your master. I know it would take you at least fifty years to grow another body, so maybe while you do that, you would think about your insubordination.”
“I’m sorry,” he said rather solemnly. “It was not my intention to cause this much trouble.” He looked up. “But I believed it was better this way to avoid the trouble I see in your future.”
“What trouble?”
I took a step back from him but kept an easy distance between the both of us. His eyes glazed over. His expression became well guarded.
“You’ll do well to tell me what is on your mind, elf, or I will buy an issue, and it would cost me nothing. The master would find another one to bring here. She always does.”
I chuckled.
“I saw great turmoil.” His voice was low and heavy with emotion. I t was known that his pale eyes saw little of the physical and more of the ‘other’. His sight was to be taken seriously.
“She carries it on her shoulders, dragging behind her. It ties her down, many of them—the strings around her limbs. Each step she takes, she pulls them. The misfortunate being around her, the most fortunate being with her. You’d do well to stay away from her. Her blood, her ego, her presence in and of itself is detrimental to the future of your pack.”
He looked down. “And I don’t mean to tell you what to do. It is your pack.”
“I’ll decide whether or not she causes enough misfortune. But no sooner does your master figure out how to wipe her memory, no sooner do we get to put this pathetic play behind us.”
At first, her scent wafted into my nose, calling me, easing me. I wanted to touch her, amongst other things. Then I heard her voice, loud, piercing in my ears, causing my beast to stir in the winds.
“Let me go! Let me go, you fucking dog! You beast! Let me go or I swear I will tear out your hair!”
“There’s something else,” Lucas mumbled just before the thrashing mate of mine was dragged in. “Rogues.”
“I caught their scent not so far from her. They’re in the pack.” He panted slightly.
I frowned. Rage clouded my vision.
“Their scent was around hers,” I said slowly.
“Yes.”
I wanted to ask him again. She could have easily been in danger, I thought. Too easily been in danger.
“I want her put under strict guard,” I said.
Her eyes found mine, wide with anger, fear, and hatred too. All burning together in that little body of hers.
“Let me go, I swear I’m going to—”
“Not an option,” I answered, brushing past her. “Take me there,” I said to Lucas.
The both of us hurried through the pack territory with one thing on my mind. How did she manage to run this far, this quickly? Surely it couldn’t have been more than thirty minutes since she escaped, to when she was found. They must have been several miles.
I crouched near the area, ,my eyes focusing on each blade of grass pressed down by the human’s weight.
Lucas stopped. In truth, her scent was here, along with the unmistakable scent of rogues. A coppery reek, along with that unmistakable wet dog stink, pricked my nose in the most unpleasant manner, causing me to wrinkle my nose and turn away from the area.
“They’ve been found?”
“Yes, Alpha.” Lucas crouched beside me.
“It’s too much of a coincidence, don’t you think?”
“Maybe.” I said to myself, vaguely remembering the human’s expression just as I left her. She was doing that thing again. Her eyes were slightly glazed over, eyebrows scrunched in focus. She was plotting something, she was planning something. She would escape again, I knew it. But this time, deep down, I felt as though she would be in true danger.
I stood up. “I’m going back. Take them to the dungeons, interrogate them. I’ll join you shortly.”
I took a quick ride back to the pack building and then to the human. Truth be told, she was still in her cell. Her arms folded across her chest. Her eyes were so focused on the wall she hadn’t heard me coming.
I looked at the wall and then back at her, hoping to catch something interesting on it—maybe an inscription, or perhaps the making of a plan.
“There’s nothing there,” I said slowly. “But does it help you plot faster?”
Her eyes found mine. They burned with anger so deep I felt it sear me from within. But this was for her own protection.
“You can’t keep me here,” she said. “The only way this is going to get resolved is if one of us dies, and it’s not going to be me. So, one way or another, I’m going to kill you—or you’ll just kill me.”
“Remember, your memory will be wiped once this is resolved. In the meantime, I would advise you, for your own good, human, stay here,” I said.
I met her eyes, and she held my gaze.
“Also, since you made me so mad the first time, you can make me do it again.” She smiled, taunting me.
But I had no time.
“He’s not the only one, Alpha. We just caught one. I caught the scent of another, and maybe another.”
I turned away. “I have rogues to catch,” I mumbled to myself.
I spent the next few hours combing some of the woods around the main pack settlement for the rogues, I found none. Suddenly, I felt it—a sudden withdrawal, a sharp tang within me. She had escaped again. And this time I knew she was walking right towards the rogue trap.
I followed her scent, and knowing where she was going, soon I was right. She was backed up against a tree, her breaths coming out in short pants, her face pale, blood pouring out from a busted lip, a bruise forming on her left cheek, and a gash on her side running from her torso, bleeding profusely.
Rage took over me, and in a few moments the rogues were dead and she was unconscious. Her silence was deafening, and her stillness agitated me till my hands shook as I picked up her limp form.