6: The others

Adonis POV

She could not have gone very far.

She is injured and I could still smell her.

“I will be back later,” I threw over my shoulder but Helga grabbed my arm. Her grey eyes staring intently at me.

“Maybe it would be best if you let her go. She is more trouble than she’s worth,” she said in her ominous voice.

I had vowed to myself to always listen to Helga’s advice after I had gone after Zaphri the witch against Helga’s warnings. I almost paid with my life.

I can still smell the smoke from that cursed night, the blood gushing from chest, the whining sound in my head and Zaphri’s glowing purple eyes….

I would have let the half breed go, I didn’t even want her. But I needed her to live. I had just one year, not even my pearl would stop me from dying. The half breed was my only chance of survival and I had to take it. I had nothing else to lose.

“I will bring back the half breed and you will make a cure for me,” I said with finality in my tone.

She sighed in defeat. “Alright.”

Stepping outside, the cool even air hit my face, easing the unsettling feeling that had brewed inside me. Helga was not only wise but she was the most powerful witch I know

.

She had acted as an adviser to my great grandfather, helping him win wars and maintain the peace and at the same time expanding our territory. After my grandfather was attacked and killed by a group of witches known as the white circle. My grandfather, Herrad, began the ‘cleanse’ which saw the death of thousands of witches and removing witches from positions of power, including Helga.

No one really knows how old Helga was.

I had been beyond devastated when Helga told me she could not break the curse and heal me. Because if there was anyone that could cure me, it was she. I had lost all hope, until Helga told me that there was one way to break the cure.

And if she believed that my mate could cure me, I have to hang on to that belief, no matter what.

“Adonis!” Fang’s voice drifted into my ears, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I glanced up and saw him jogging towards me. Shirtless, with his strawberry blond hair, tousled. And I could already tell what he wanted to talk about. The half breed.

“I don’t have the time right now Fang.” I said and started walking away. The half breeds scent was becoming weaker by the second, which means she was getting further away. And if she succeeds in getting out of my territory, I do not even want to imagine what would happen to her if an enemy pack takes her. It would be over for the both of us.

“The warriors are beginning to talk and it would not take long before the news of the half breeds spreads like wild fire,” he spoke quickly.

“What would you have me do?”

“Contain the situation, before you decide what to do with the half breed,” he replied.

I paused abruptly, causing Fang to bump into my shoulder. I turned to look at her. “Don’t you understand? She is the one. My -” I reduced my voice, just in case someone was eavesdropping, “- my mate.”

His eyes darkened. “What did Helga say?”

“She said the same thing. I can beat this curse.”

Fang dragged his hands through his hair. “But she is not one of us. The people will not accept her as their queen!”

I frowned and Fang muttered an apology. “She will never be my queen. As soon as I am cured, she will pay for stealing from me. With her wretched life.”

I just had to find her first.

He nodded in understanding. “What do you need me to do?”

“In the meantime, contain the situation,” he nodded and turned to leave, “and have Maria prepare a room for the half breed. A bedroom close to mine.”

Then I hurried towards the direction her scent, albeit very weak, was coming from.

You better not lose her, Nate growled.

It was getting really dark and I still hadn’t found her. And her scent was getting really faint, I almost could not sniff it out anymore. Which was surprising giving her wounded situation, I should have caught her by now.

If I didn’t know better, I would think she was in a moving vehicle.

Or a horse.

Fuck!

These pathways were too steep and small for a car to go through, so it had to be a horse. She must have found a way to get a horse from my stables.

Fucking half breed!

There only way one way I could catch up now. Nate chuckled as he growled, taking over my body. The sound of my bones breaking and readjusting filled my ears as thick black furs appeared covering every part of my alabaster skin.

Nate was an amazing tracker. It wasn’t long before we discovered horse tracks and droplets of blood. Just like I thought. She had managed to get her hand on a horse to escape. Dealing with this half breed might be trickier than I thought.

She was smart and cunning. Traits of a typical human.

I felt Nate panic. Nate was not scared of anything not evening death. But then I saw what he saw. Blood along the tracks, more blood that usual. The whining sound of a dying horse, echoed in the distance.

We hastened, with Nate diving and trudging like our lives depended on it. Which it did.

And then we stumbled upon the dying horse. A brown, brown stallion and beautiful brown mane, with a deep claw mark, running from his neck to his stomach. I knew this brown horse from anywhere. He was Selene’s.

Selene would not be happy when she finds out.

But that was not the only thing. There was three different set of tracks too.

It could only mean one thing.

They others had taken the half breed. Fuck!