Chapter 4 : The Key to a Prophecy

Onyx

The tall, slim woman with the dark eyes was staring at me, just like I was staring at her.

I knew who she was the moment I saw her, although I didn’t know her name.

I had seen her all those years ago when I had destroyed the Autumn coven. She saw me that night. Her face had stuck in my mind, although I didn’t know why. I had seen the horror in her wide eyes and paused in my rampage. Before I could react to her sudden appearance, she turned and fled.

I had started to pursue her, but something stopped me. Instead, I watched her flee into the forest and I chose to let her go. She was young and afraid, but that had never stopped me before.

I had thought of her often through the years and wondered what happened to her.

Now, here she was, and she was my fated mate.

She was only a girl when I had seen her then, but she was a woman now. She had grown not only in beauty, but in strength. I could feel the power of her magic crackling in the air as she stood there. She must have been masking it as she walked, or there’s no way I wouldn’t have sensed her.

The pull in my chest was undeniable. She was my mate. I wanted to go to her, but I knew it would be incredibly stupid to do so. I couldn’t let my guard down around a witch, no matter what my instincts were telling me.

Something in her eyes changed as she looked at me, and a cold chill washed over me. The movement of her hand startled me into action before I could process what she was doing.

Her attack wasn’t unexpected, but it was sudden enough to take me off guard.

At first, it was all I could do to stay ahead of her blasts. She was fierce and the force of her attacks was deadly. Her speed was unmatched by any other magic user I had ever fought.

I dodged away from her attacks and didn’t dare to take my eyes off of her. I had to keep her in my line of sight in order to time out my movement. If I got sloppy, that would be it.

She was trying to kill me, not just injure me or distract me in order to escape.

I cursed under my breath when a sword appeared in her hands. It was obvious right away that she was unskilled with the weapon. It clearly wasn’t something she had any proper training in. I knocked it from her grip easily, but it didn’t even slow her down.

She was a match for me in combat, I had to admit it. She must have realized it too, or she wouldn’t have started this battle. Unless she remembered me…

If she did, it would explain the blinding rage that flashed in her eyes whenever our eyes met.

I had to put an end to this. She was wearing me down and waiting for me to get sloppy. It was a good strategy against a larger and physically stronger opponent. I had to find an opening to end this before her plan succeeded.

Her bolt attack nearly shocked me into making a mistake. She hadn’t uttered a spell to charge it, so I wasn’t prepared when it came. I was going to have to take a risk in order to defeat her.

Luckily, she was getting frustrated by the prolonged fight and it was making her sloppy.

She went still without warning and I stopped running and stared at her. She was planning something, but I wasn’t sure what. Her right hand was trembling at her side and it dawned on me that she must be charing another silent attack.

I recognized the trap she was setting for me, and I ran into it headfirst.

The surprise on her face when she realized what I had done was almost comical. She hadn’t counted on me shifting mid-air.

I crashed into her and we both hit the ground hard. She was winded, having been crushed between me and the ground. She flailed at me, but I acted quickly.

I managed to pin her arms above her head and there was no way I was letting her go again. Those hands of hers were deadly. I had only ever known a few magic users that could attack without speaking their spells aloud. It took incredible power and focus to do such a thing. It also put her opponents at a serious disadvantage, since it made it much more difficult to predict her movements.

She writhed beneath me and twisted her hands so viciously that I could feel the bones in her wrists grinding, but she wasn’t able to break my grip on her. I had the advantage when it came to brute strength.

“Get off me!” she yelled.

Despite my body’s rection to her voice, I held my ground.

“Stop it!” I snarled in her ear.

Her struggles slowed as she realized she couldn’t overpower me and she glared. She started to speak quickly in a soft, serious tone. I realized that she was reciting a spell and I growled threateningly. The sound seemed to carry in the silent forest and she fell silent.

Fear flashed across her face before her eyes locked with mine. There was such hatred in her eyes as she looked at me that it sent a chill through me. If she had the power to kill with her mind, I would be dead already.

I hated myself for it, but the way she was looking at me made my heart ache. I forced the feeling aside. I couldn’t trust her. No matter what my wolf and my instincts were telling me right now, I could not let myself lower my guard.

She’s a witch, a sworn enemy. She had every intention of killing me just moments ago, why should I expect anything but hatred and violence from her?

I wouldn’t let my judgment be clouded by the mate pull.

I stood and yanked her up after me. She staggered as I grasped her wrists in one of my hands and held her close to me so that she couldn’t try anything else. I could feel the heat between us and my wolf was barely held in check.

Judging by the way she was looking at me, there was a very real possibility she would bite me if I tried to kiss her. The force of the pull had to be kept in check.

I looked around for some way to keep her immobilized. I didn’t have anything on me that would be helpful. I needed to restrain her

Near the tree where I had first spotted her, I saw a travel bag lying on the ground. It was a tattered leather bag that had been patched in several places. It must be hers.

It seemed like she had been traveling for a long time, so she must have some kind of rope.

I hooked the toe of my shoe in the strap and kicked the bag up, then snatched it from the air with my free hand. She continued to glare at me as I dug through her bag. Just as I had hoped, there was a rope inside.

I pulled her over to a nearby tree, struggling to keep her from slipping out of my hand as she thrashed and cussed loudly. I pushed her back up against the tree. Her breath hitched as I pushed my chest against hers to hold her in place, then put my arms around her.

Her scent, a sweet smell like crisp apples, was all I could process for a moment, but I quickly shook it from my mind. She seemed dazed by my proximity and I took advantage of her distraction.

I released her wrists, then I wound the rope around her and the tree to secure her in place. She struggled, but I was able to work quickly enough to keep her from breaking free.

“You bastard,” she seethed.

I paused and stared at her. Anger filled me at the insult. No one dared to talk to me in such a disrespectful manner. To my surprise, the anger passed quickly. Honestly, I liked her spirit even if her anger toward me made my stomach sour.

She opened her mouth to curse at me again and I forced the rope between her teeth. She screamed unintelligibly as I secured the rope tightly so that she couldn’t wriggle free of it.

“Until I know what to do about this, you’re not going anywhere,” I told her.

I still couldn’t understand what she was trying to say, but I understood her tone just fine.

The Moon Goddess must have made a mistake. There was simply no way that a witch, no matter how powerful, could be my mate. We were blood enemies.

Shifters and witches had been slaughtering each other for decades. Something as simple as the mate pull couldn’t overpower that truth. I owed my allegiance to my pack. I couldn’t betray them by choosing this woman.

Even if she didn’t hate my guts, there was no way that the pack would ever accept her. This simply had to be some kind of mistake. Maybe it was a trick of some kind. Could she have somehow manipulated me into thinking that she was my mate, in order to lure me to her?

No.

She had been just as surprised by our encounter as I was. If she had been trying to lure me in, she would have been better prepared to fight me.

Besides, this feeling in my chest was real. I knew it as surely as I knew my wolf. My wolf whined in distress when I looked into her hateful gaze. She was meant to be mine.

Why?

It seemed unfathomably cruel for my mate to be a witch. It also seemed like it was just my luck that I would be mated to someone that I could never be with. Had I offended the goddess in some way? Why would she do this to me?

I growled in frustration. This didn’t make sense.

Maybe I was missing something. Or… could it be that I was misunderstanding something?

Could it be that the Goddess was giving me the chance to fulfill the old prophecy?

The thought sent a wave of excitement through me. I tried to stop that train of thought as soon as it started. I couldn’t get too hopeful.

It seemed nearly impossible that she could be the answer I had searched high and low for. I had been trying for most of my life to find the key to the prophecy and bring this damned war to an end. It was all that I had wanted for as long as I could remember. I wanted to bring some semblance of peace back into the world. I just didn’t know how to do it.

Could it be that this witch was the key I had been seeking?