Chapter 259 - His Mate or His Girlfriend

“You cannot over exert yourself the first time!” an echoing voice spoke harshly.

The voice was scolding Melanie as her head swirled with the memories of what had just happened. It had been surreal. An otherworldly power had seemingly entered her and made her speak. She’d lost complete control of her body as the emotionless voice spoke to Rose. It was beyond terrifying to enter into a trance which left her completely helpless. Almost as if she'd been possesed.

“I don’t think I can do this again,” Melanie admitted fearfully.

Losing control of their body was the last thing anyone wanted. It was a rather helpless feeling and one that brought back awful memories of a time she'd been drugged and almost violated.

“Nonesense, you’ll get used to it. We are the guiding spirits of the previous oracles and we will be here to help you. We channel the will of the universe and help you interpret your premonition. But you need to train yourself first.”

“How do I do that?” Melanie asked uncertainly.

“You need another Earth Witch to help you,” came the defeaning reply.

Melanie’s eyes flew open and she woke up drenched in sweat, still on the floor. Rose was huddled next to her, a syringe in her hand.

Heaving for air, Melanie sat up abruptly, fear in her eyes.

“It’s O.K. you’re O.K.” Rose assured soothingly.

Melanie noted Rose's movements her eyes zeroing on the Luna transferring blood from the syringe into the vial.

“We need your blood,” Rose explained. “And this was the only loophole I could think of. Blood doesn't necessary mean all of your blood. If blood is your lifeforce, then spilling some of it should be enough.”

Melanie’s eyes hardened as she looked at Rose who was screwing the cap onto the vial detereminedly.

“If that doesn’t work, you know what I need to do. A sacrifice of selfless love, you know what that means.”

Rose's hands shook over Melanie's words.

“No Melanie, you can’t….think of your son!” Rose frantically tried to reason with her.

“I am thinking of my son…and everyone else,” Melanie explained softly. “There will be no world for him to grow up in if we don’t stop Asmodeus. So it would be the perfect sacrifice of selfless love…I’ll be doing it out of love for my son, my coven, my pack….”

“We’ll think of something else. Don’t make this decision alone,” Rose implored. “I’m here to help. Please,” Rose pleaded with her big eyes. “I’m the Luna of the Crimson Pheonix Pack. Join the pack so that we can mind-link each other. Do it now, I can accept you into our pack. Don’t go into battle like this.”

Melanie took a deep breath, wondering if she should do what Rose suggested. Or should she just open a portal and leave to fight Asmodeus? All Rose would do is try to stop her from sacrificing herself if it came to that.

Aria found herself pushed on her back, blood streaming down her face. She’d been hit pretty hard with an blast from the demon. His under-demons were spawning out of the hole created in the crater that led to the demon world. They were ugly red hunchbacked skeletons with wings and were thirsting for blood. Aria just managed to shoot a blast of electricity towards one that was drawing close to her with a hungry look in his eye.

Suddenly, Lana's wolf was infront of her, growling in warning. Aria was thankful that the she-wolf was buying her some time to recuperate. A demon lunged towards them but Lana jumped forward, ripping it’s head off with her bare teeth viciously. It was a good reminder for everyone why she was the head warrior now as well as the female-beta. Though petite and seemingly harmless to an onlooker, Lana was ruthless in battle.

Wiping the blood from her face, Aria heaved herself up. She had to try again. Sarea and Maria were alone at the frontline. They needed her. Aria winced as her ribs protested. She was pretty sure she had a cracked rib but now was not the time to get medical attention. Time was of the essence.

A flash of white light made Aria wince as a portal was opened right next to her nearly blinding her. As Aria took a few steps back and shielded her eyes, she watched Melanie stepped through purposefully. Aria’s eyes widened in shock. They’d agreed to keep her away from all of this, how did she end up here?

“You’re not supposed to be here!” Aria called out, limping towards Melanie.

Melanie’s piercing gaze met Aria’s and it was then that Aria realized she was glowing, a soft white light emitting out of her very being. And her eyes….looked different. Very different. They were glowing yellow. Her wolf was out.

"You had no right to decide where I should or should not be," Melanie said firmly, the voice of a leader resonating in every syllable of her words.

Takenaback, Aria stood frozen in shock. She could sense the power Melanie was exuding. Power that Aria had never been able to sense before.

Determinedly, Melanie walked towards the center of the battle where Sarea and Maria were shooting spells towards Asmodeus who seemed to keep laughing and evading their attacks with ease.

“I grow bored of this, it’s time to finish you witches,” Asmodeus spoke with a sneer.

“No,” Melanie growled low in her throat. “It’s time to finish you.”

Sarea and Maria both gave a start as they realized Melanie was here.

“Wind, Water, Earth, Fire…” Melanie chanted, summoning her strength and calling up the four elements. She only had one chance.

Vines erupted from the earth to wrap around Asmodeus. They disintegrated almost immediately but thanks to her mind-link with the crimson phoenix pack, she was able to distract Asmodeus with a surge of wolves attacking him.

She’d joined the pack, she’d made a plan with Rose’s help. Now all she had to do was pray it worked.

As Asmodeus tried to stop the wolves from attacking him, the vines began creeping up his ankles again. Melanie became worried as she saw them disintegrate again.

“I’ve got you,” whispered Maria, who fell to her knees, palms flat on the Earth.

Maria concentrated all her strength on summoning more vines.

They popped up in succession, one after another, so fast that the speed they were disintegrating into dust was slower than the speed with which they grew and wrapped around Asmodeus’s ankles. A blast of wind hit him, encasing his body in a pool of white light. Another blast of blue water droplets doused the flames he’d caused around him and turned the white light encapsulating Asmodeus blue. And then Melanie’s blast of fire sent him reeling back to the edge of the crater, the globe of light trapping him now glowed a dangerous red.

Melanie began to chant the sealing spell, hoping this worked.

“Blood of the summoner,” Melanie chanted, taking out a vial of her blood. She flung it across and into the opening to the demon realm, making sure it shattered and spilled onto the site he’d been summoned from.

A tear fell from her eye as she watched an immobile Asmodeus snarl as he fought the pull of the demon realm calling him back. Melanie turned into her wolf, knowing the next part of the battle wouldn’t be fought here. She checked to see if the silver dagger she'd taken from Rose was still tied to hindleg. Thankfully, it was.

‘Melanie, you said you wouldn’t!’ Rose’s frantic voice spoke into her brain. ‘You can’t sacrifice yourself!’

‘A sacrifice of love,’ Melanie spoke through the mindlink to the entire pack. They had to know there was no other way. ‘Tell my son, I love him.’

It hurt because she wouldn’t be able to see his first laugh, his first word…she wouldn’t be there to kiss him when he had a nightmare or his first heartbreak. But she had no choice if she wanted her son to grow up in a world of peace. This had to be done.

And then she spoke again to the entire pack, sensing that Brad was unconscious but atleast everyone would be witness to her declaration.

‘I always loved you Brad, and I always will.’

Then she lunged herself straight at the demon in her wolf form, both of them hurling straight into the portal that led to the demon realm.

Everyone cried out in horror, realizing what Melanie had done. The under-demons were being sucked back into the demon portal against their will and they cried out in agony over being denied the right to wreak havoc on earth.

As the portal began to close up, two other wolves bounded out of nowhere and jumped in before the portal closed.

Xavier howled in protest, realizing that one of those wolves had been his brother Brad.

The other one was Antonio, bent on saving his daughter.

“We can’t do anything now except hope they find their way back to us,” Aria whispered fearfully as she saw Tony and Lana frantically pawing at the edge of the crater, trying to figure out how to follow Brad.