Chapter 12

Dax

That wasn’t what I was expecting, though she certainly was powerful enough to kill a wolf. I’d wager she could hold her own against more than one.

“You’re worried about one wolf?” I asked confused.

She shook her head again. “You don’t understand.”

Again, I waited for her to explain.

“My coven… they made a deal. I broke that deal, and the consequences… My mother and sister helped me escape in secret, if anyone found out they helped me, they’d be killed and possibly the whole coven along with them. I don’t want that to happen to you too.”

Alright clearly there was a lot more to the story, but she was afraid to tell me for fear of my life. This is about more than just one dead wolf….

“Okay,” I soothed her, pulling her close. “Okay,” I said again as I stroked her hair. I guess I would have to wait and see what Benedict found out.

Nearly a week had gone by when I got a phone call from an unknown number. It was Benedict, calling from New York City. It seemed he had found a pay phone that still worked.

“I can’t talk long, but I have the information you requested.”

I walked out onto her balcony before responding. “What did you find out?”

“First I need the rest of the money you owe me.”

I sighed as I completed the transfer practically draining the account. I would definitely need to get a job.

“Excellent,” he said after receiving the transfer. “Your girl was part of the coven I was telling you about. Her real name is Melody Saylor. Her coven is the Silver Dawn coven, or at least it was. Supposedly she fled the coven after killing the son of the Blood Moon pack’s alpha.”

Shit. I’d heard of that pack, back when I was still with the family, years ago. They were a cursed pack. They are trapped between their wolf and human forms, giving them the head of a wolf, a fur covered, hulking, human body with a wolf tail and wolf legs. According to witnesses, they had access to they claws and all their wolf abilities, but on the full moon they were driven mad, becoming feral and savage do to their inability to shift. They were ruthless. Legend had it that generations back, their alpha made a deal with a coven to curse their pack to forever remain in this form so that they would always have full access to their power and to give them extra strength. No other pack has been able to get near them in centuries. Marianna, what did you do?

Benedict continued, “There’s more. I was able to get in touch with someone who is close with the Silver Dawn coven. They had made a bargain with the Blood Moon pack. The bloodlust of the pack had been steadily growing over the years, especially under the new alpha. The coven felt it was time to intervene, and they finally had what they needed to undo the curse: a powerful ice witch. Apparently ice magic is a key part of the spell that froze them between forms. The coven was preparing Melody to undo the spell when the pack attacked the coven. The coven was powerful, but their powers couldn’t beat the physical strength of the cursed wolves. Nothing would keep them back long. So they were forced to bargain with the pack: the lives of the remaining silver dawn coven in exchange for the only witch that could break the curse. You can imagine what the alpha had planned for her.”

I was horrified, not only by the thought of what that pack would have done to my mate, but also that her coven sacrificed her like that. I understood why they did it, one life for the sake of many and all, but still. They gave over a girl to a fate worse than death.

“Now what exactly happened after they handed Melody over to the pack is unclear, but we know for a fact she killed the alpha’s son, and she escaped the pack by somehow freezing most of them in time. The only ones who weren’t frozen were the children, the alpha, and a handful of his top ranking wolves. After that, her coven couldn’t take her back for fear of retaliation.”

“Why wouldn’t the alpha have retaliated anyway? The coven could have traded her in knowing she could do that.”

“The bargain was sealed with a covenant spell. The spell wasn’t broken after Melody escaped. So what does that tell you?”

“The coven had no idea she could do that, and they didn’t break their end of the bargain. So if the alpha did retaliate, he would lose his pack,” I concluded.

“Exactly,” Benedict confirmed. “Okay that’s all I’ve got for you. I have to get to the airport before nightfall so that the Blood Moon pack can’t track me. Oh and Dax? No more favors. No amount of money is worth my life.” He hung up the phone.

Fuck me. This was not good. Marianna might have been right. I don’t think I can handle this threat, not alone anyway. I was going to need help if the Blood Moon pack ever did track her here. But in the meantime, I could still do everything in my power to make sure that didn’t happen.

I stepped back inside, and she was staring right at me.

“What was that phone call about?” she asked nervously.

“That was my acquaintance. He told me what happened. Why you had to leave your coven.”

“What would he know about that?”

“For starters, he told me the name of the pack the wolf you killed belonged to. That pack is extremely dangerous. But more than that: your coven basically sacrificed you to them. We are going to talk about that, but that’s for another day. I’m more interested in what you did to that pack when you escaped and how you managed to do it.”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged her shoulders at me. She looked as if she was trying to make herself smaller, the way she hugged her knees to her chest. “I don’t know how I did it. It just sort of happened. I didn’t even know I could do that. I mean I knew the role ice magic played in the spell they were trying to teach me, but freezing time? Come on! You can’t literally freeze it; how could my ice powers possibly have done something like that without the aid of a spell?”

“What exactly happened when you froze them?”

I saw her shut down then. This is where the PTSD was coming from: the moment she escaped and killed the alpha’s son. “I already know the rest,” I promoted her.

“It’s not that I don’t want to tell you about it; it’s just not easy for me to talk about. I haven’t told anyone what happened,” she said in a small voice.

I moved to her side and pulled her into my lap. “That is in the past. It happened, and it’s over now. You are safe. I am here. Right now, they can’t hurt you.” I hoped my words helped her.

She took a deep breath and snuggled into me more. “It was the night they brought me back to the pack’s den. I remember thinking it could have been a beautiful old manor if they hadn’t trashed it. Instead it looked like something out of a horror movie.” She shivered a little at the memory.

“I knew they were going to kill me as they dragged me to their alpha. I was so scared I couldn’t move. I just… froze.” She was starting to shake, but the temperature in the room remained steady.

“They brought me into this huge atrium. The room was filled with wolves. I didn’t know how many, but it most have been almost the entire pack. There was an enormous fireplace with a roaring fire in it on one side of the room. I remember wondering if they planned to burn my corpse after they killed me. I knew it wouldn’t be a quick death.” The temperature in the room dropped a little, and I held her tighter.

“They brought me before a throne. The alpha hadn’t yet arrived, but his son was there standing next to it. He um…” her voice began to crack, and ice was slowly creeping along the walls. “He said things to me; he…made threats. Told me he would… he would rip my arms off and rape me before he let the pack finish me off.” I stiffened at that. He was going to do that do my mate? Part of me wished I could go back in time and rip his arms off. Tears began to slide down her face, and it began to snow in her apartment.

“And that’s when I lost control,” she sobbed. “I was terrified. I felt my magic rip out of me across the room, freezing them in time. There wasn’t time for me to think about what had just happened. I took the opportunity to escape. I ran out of the room as fast as I could. I made it to the woods before the alpha’s son began to chase me. For some reason my magic didn’t affect him. Maybe he was just strong enough to over power the spell. I don’t know, but I kept running.

“I made it to an old shack. It probably belonged to an omega in the pack. It was dark and cold, and I knew I couldn’t run much longer. I hoped I could stay hidden in that shack, but I knew better. I knew he could track me. He broke down the door, and was prowling in on all fours. A massive grey wolf, well, half wolf. And in that moment I was so angry. I was still terrified, but angry too. Angry that this was my fate. Angry at my coven. Angry at this vile wolf that was about to eat me. I lashed out with my power. Ice shards sliced him to bits. A larger bit of ice took his head clean off. The shack was a bloody mess by the time I was through. I was covered in blood too. Then I heard the alpha coming.

“I knew I had to get out of there. I was almost to the door when I saw him moving towards me on all fours as well. I used my brain a little this time and froze him in ice instead. I knew that wouldn’t hold him long, but I didn’t have time to spare before the remaining pack members found me.

“I made my way back to the coven’s territory. I found my mom. She couldn’t be caught with me, but she and my sister quickly packed some things for me, gave me some money and helped me sneak back out of the coven’s territory. I made my way to the city, and I decided to come here.”

She continued to sob for a while after that. I didn’t know what to say. All I could do was hold her tighter. As she cried, the ice began to melt. It seemed she had needed to talk about this all along. When she finally settled down, there was water everywhere. She would have to use her powers to get rid of it.

I kissed the top of her head and stroked her hair. “Thank you for being brave enough to tell me,” I praised her.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, she turned in my arms and kissed me.