Chapter 12
Awoman with dark hair and ivory skin looked over the destruction in front of her. “You’re certain it was only a werewolf and two vampires?” she hissed.
“Yes, Beryl. Those are the only ones that escaped from their cells.”
Beryl scowled as she took in the sight of her deceased dark elves and other followers.
She clicked her tongue, shaking her head.
“What the hell did you guys capture? This isn’t the work of regular wolves and vampires.
” Her eyes slowly widened as a realization hit her.
“Of course!” Her eyes glowered over the dead bodies.
“A normal werewolf couldn’t have done this, but the wolves I’m after could. ”
“What about the vampires?”
“Unless it was their nobility or elite, this would be impossible. And you had only the two in captivity, with the wolf being the only new one. No … we don’t have to worry about the vampires.
” Beryl raised her finger to her chin as she scowled.
“If it was one of the damn Chain werewolves, then they must be on to me.” She looked back at the witch doctor behind her.
“We’re going to have to move our timeline up a bit ahead of schedule.
I won’t let those damn wolves get the jump on me.
I’ve waited too long to take them down.”
She turned away from the scene and stormed away. As she left, she passed a couple of goblins. She pinned her icy gaze on them and growled. “Get this mess cleaned up.”
The Chain family would pay for what they did to her grandmother Meryl. When she was just a child, they killed her grandmother, and she had to remain in hiding as an outsider. She wasn’t welcome among the covens after that and was hunted down. She found a new home among the demon witch doctors.
She had gathered blood from the Werewolf King and Queen in secret, blood that was spilled in the main coven house the night of the attack.
She handed this blood over to the witch doctors in order to create something strong enough to take on the Chain family.
They took everything from her that night, and because of them, her world was forever changed.
If it wasn’t for the potion her grandmother had prepared for her as a precaution, she wouldn’t have been able to escape without being detected.
She owed her life to her grandmother and would get justice for her.
Beryl was just a child when she joined the witch doctors.
Of course, joining them came at a price.
She made a pact with Wicker, the most powerful witch doctor and their leader.
Wicker had agreed to take her in and help her out.
In exchange, when she died, her soul belonged to him, which he would devour to become even stronger.
She was a child when she’d agreed to these terms and didn’t realize the magnitude of her promise.
She thought she would be dead anyway, so in the end, it wouldn’t matter.
Now that she was older, she realized what type of agreement she’d actually made.
Her soul would live a torturous existence inside Wicker until his death.
Only then would the agreement be broken and her soul could finally find peace.
She needed to have strong allies, and the witches had turned their backs on her.
They were all eating out of the Werewolf King’s hand now.
It was repulsive. She did what she had to do.
Who else could be strong enough to help her but the demons?
And they would be bitter enough to do it after the demon war, when the Chains and their allies had killed one of their powerful original demons, Mephisto.
There would be plenty of demons wanting revenge for this.
Being a witch, the witch doctors seemed like the best place to start.
She’d made a deal with the devil, but what did she expect from working with demons? What choice did she have?
She could have run back to the covens and cried that she was forced by her grandmother, and they would have accepted her as a poor child who was manipulated.
However, she couldn’t let her grandmother down like that.
She would avenge her and finish what she started, and that was to destroy the abomination, Freja the dhampir.
Well, she was more than that now, and still an abomination.
Just like her children. It was disgusting for a high witch’s blood to run through their veins.
They must be purged from the world. As for the Werewolf King, Hunter, he sealed his fate the day he took Freja as his mate.
She didn’t care about anything else but their destruction.
Wicker had other plans, though. He didn’t want the unity of the werewolves and vampires.
Instead, he wanted to pit them against each other by coordinating attacks on werewolves and making it look as though vampires were responsible.
And it was going well, until now. They wanted to stir more trouble and provoke a war between the two species, but it looked like they were running out of time.
Somehow the Chain family already suspected something. She wondered if they knew it was her.
The dark elves said they’d captured a female werewolf.
Which Chain female was she dealing with?
Was it Freja or her daughter? In either case, she would try her potion out soon.
And if it worked, she would hit the rest of the family with it.
It was a powerful potion that had taken almost twenty years to complete.
She needed something extra powerful in order to take that family down.
The King and Queen of the Werewolves were underestimated before.
Somehow, they were able to break a powerful blood potion.
She needed to develop something that was even stronger, and that was what the witch doctors had done for her.
Her lips curled upward in a cruel smile as she walked deeper into the woods.
She would dive back into the darkness for just a little longer.
Just until the finishing touches could be made.
She had waited this long and wasn’t going to rush in without being prepared.
They would gather their army and provoke the Chain family to respond, and that would be the moment they would meet their doom.
She felt almost giddy as she laughed to herself.
Her loud cackling echoed through the forest as her body drifted into the darkness. Little did she know … she was being watched.
Lucie wasn’t sure how long she slept. She could feel a presence in the room, but her senses already told her who it was.
Their mate bond pulled at her chest as his sweet scent engulfed her.
She felt happy and comforted by his presence.
Her eyes fluttered open slowly and met beautiful amber eyes.
She gulped slightly, finding his face close to hers.
So much that she could feel his breath on her skin.
He gently cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb over her soft skin. “You are so beautiful,” he cooed to her tenderly.
She gulped as her heart rate picked up. His gaze focused on her lips.
She could see his eyes darkening with desire, and she felt like she had to have him …
she had to at least taste him. He was her mate.
She should be able to at least share one kiss with him, right?
Would it be too awful to kiss the other half of your soul?
Was that really cheating? Yes … but she was going to run with the technicality that since it was her other half, it wasn’t.
Hell, at this point, she honestly didn’t care.
She couldn’t contain how much she needed him.
She needed to feel his warmth. She needed this one moment to feel connected to her mate.
Just one moment of weakness, and that was all.
Something she could always hold dear and tuck away in her heart, something she could remember.
This moment would become her light in the darkness that she could hold onto.
His thumb traced over her lips, and she closed her eyes.
Her breath grew shallow as her chest tightened in anticipation.
She shuddered as she felt his other hand trace a slow, deliberate path along her side.
Small sparks of electricity shot up and down her spine.
The sensation from his touch alone made her gasp as her body leaned into him.
“Lucie …” His soft voice made her eyes flutter open.
His breath beat upon her lips, and the moment her eyes closed, he’d moved in even closer.
She licked her lips as her chest heaved up and down in anticipation.
She could see he was waiting for her objection.
He was giving her a chance to tell him no, even though he had to have been burning with the same intense desire.
She had only a moment to stop herself from crossing a bridge she couldn’t uncross.
But damn it, she couldn’t do it. She wanted it.
His hand held her cheek captive, and she watched as he inched closer, torturously slow.
His lips pressed against hers, and she felt like she was melting internally.
Her fingers gripped his brown locks, holding his head against hers, and he moaned into her mouth.
She wasn’t expecting how sweet it would feel when his tongue slowly massaged hers, his strokes deep and gentle.
On reflex, she arched into him as their tongues tangled together.
She gently sucked on his bottom lip, pulling on it with her teeth.
His deep, throaty moan sent butterflies fluttering inside her.
The kiss felt like everything, so natural.
And for her first kiss, it was perfect and everything she could have imagined.
He then began to move, peppering her face with sweet, gentle kisses while his hand explored her body.
His mouth traced a trail down to her neck, where she felt the warm flick of his tongue against her sweet spot.
He slowly licked her neck, and his fangs lightly grazed her.
He pulled back and stared down at her, his amber eyes dark as he searched hers.
When she slowly shook her head, pain shone in his gaze, pain she was causing by not accepting him. She felt a heavy weight on her chest.
It was too much. This life was too much.
Her fate was too much. Wouldn’t it have been great to just be a regular werewolf?
To not have to worry about the fate of two species?
She could see her life with Ryan. They would be happy, and she could have what her parents had.
As she thought about the happiness she was giving up, tears began to pool in her eyes.
She wanted to bury herself in her mate and seek his comfort.
But this was a comfort she couldn’t have.
“Lucie.”
She looked up at his kind, gentle eyes and smiled.
“Lucie…”
“Lucie, wake up baby.”
Wake up?
She felt his hand on her cheek. “Lucie.”
His voice sounded farther away and almost muffled. Suddenly he began to blur away and she was covered in darkness.
“Lucie.”
Ryan’s voice came through clearly now. She opened her eyes to see him sitting on the bed beside her.
“There, you’re awake.” Ryan looked down at her and sighed. A wry smile spread across his lips. “It’s a good thing you are, because I don’t think I could have continued to just sit here and watch you during a dream like that.”
Lucie blinked a few times, and then her eyes widened in horror. It was all just a dream, and yet somehow he saw it?
Moon Goddess, just kill me now.