Chapter 6

Chapter 6

His men seemed confused, but they eventually let us inside. Once we were through the doors, I looked up at him.

“Why did you lie to them?”

He glanced at me. “Who said I was lying?”

He led me down a hallway and stopped in front of a large oak door. He knocked twice, and an older woman opened it. She looked at both of us before turning her attention back to Nicklaus.

“You brought a fairy here?”

“Please, Martha. I need to speak with you,” Nicklaus said.

Martha stood there for a few seconds before opening the door fully and letting us in. Her room was large, and it looked so different from the rest of the castle. Somehow, it reminded me of home. Herbs and different kinds of plants sat beside her window, filling the room with a familiar scent.

We had people like her in our kingdom. We called them healers, and I was guessing she was one too.

We sat around a small table, and the whole time, I wondered why Nicklaus had brought me here.

Martha sat beside him and looked between us.

“Why have you brought a fairy into our home… son?”

My eyes widened.

Son?

Now that I thought about it, they had the same silver eyes, the same dark hair, and even the same way of carrying themselves.

Nicklaus looked at Martha with a straight face. “I have a problem.”

“I can see that. Care to elaborate?” Martha asked, glancing at me.

They were talking about me as if I wasn’t even there.

“She is my mate, but that shouldn’t be possible,” he said, narrowing his eyes at me. “I think she is using some kind of magic on me.”

I scoffed. “You must be joking.”

He ignored me, but Martha smiled.

“It’s rare, but not impossible. It’s as rare as some wolves having human mates. The goddess can be tricky sometimes, but fate is fate.”

“She is a damn fairy, so what? We’re going to have half-fairy, half-wolf babies? There must be some sort of mistake.”

I sighed. “You seriously brought me all the way here for this? I have no intentions of having a happily ever after with you either. My union is already sealed, and it’s not with you,” I said, standing up.

He grabbed my hand and pulled me back into my seat.

“Union?” he asked, looking genuinely pissed.

I was beginning to think he was bipolar.

“Yes. Now can we start the investigation? I don’t have time for anything else. What are you, jealous now?”

He released my hand.

“No.”

Then he looked back at Martha. “Can you confirm if she is truly my mate?”

Martha looked at both of us.

“Your wolf already knows the answer, Nicklaus. I cannot answer that for you. Like I said, it’s as rare as having a human mate, but it’s not impossible.”

Nicklaus stood up and grabbed my hand again.

“Let’s go.”

I smiled at Martha as I followed her son out. He was taking this a little too seriously. I didn’t know how this mate tradition worked in his world, but in our kingdom, if you didn’t like someone, you could easily bind yourself to someone else. We also had the option of falling in love with whoever we wanted. It was only the royals who had it tough, like me.

My fate had to be chosen by my parents for the good of the kingdom, which sucked, but we had learned to live with it.

“Where are we going now?” I asked curiously.

He didn’t answer, so I stopped and narrowed my eyes at him.

“We are going to see one of the fallen. They will be dead within the next hour.”

I frowned but continued to follow him.

We entered a dark corridor, and to be honest, every inch of this castle felt ice-cold. I could feel the cold crawling through my skin.

I shouldn’t be here.

It felt like death surrounded this entire place.

We entered a large room filled with beds. There were sick people everywhere. A lot of them were coughing loudly in pain, while others looked as though they had already given up on life. A few people moved between the beds, attending to the patients while wearing dark masks over their noses and mouths.

Nicklaus looked at me.

“These are dark times.”

He let go of my hand and walked toward one of the beds.

A woman lay there, pale as a ghost. She could barely open her eyes, let alone move an inch. She was weak. I could sense it.

The worst part was that I could sense the dark magic behind it.

“Who is she?” I asked softly.

He gently held her hand.

“My Gemma and my closest friend, Anna.”

I looked at her, confused by the way he introduced her.

“How did this start?”

“Two weeks ago, my people started getting sick. Then, a few days later, they started dying.”

He looked around the room before turning back to me.

“I’m an Alpha. I can sense the dark magic, and I can tell it’s fairy magic. The only fairies in this kingdom are your people. We let you have your way, let you have most of the land, and this is what we get?”

He pointed toward Anna.

“My father would have ended your kind, but when his rule came to an end, I chose peace. Maybe I shouldn’t have.”

I was speechless because he was right about one thing. The only fairies here were my people. There was no denying that.

But who could have been strong enough to pull this off?

It had to be a higher-ranking fairy. That was why he needed my help specifically. He could have easily asked any other fairy, but he had chosen me.

Watching all these poor people dying broke something inside me. This was pure evil, and it had to be dealt with before it was too late.

“I will help you find out who is behind this. You have my word,” I said, looking up at him.

For the first time, it almost looked like he believed me.