THREE DAYS BEFORE THE WEREWOLF QUEEN'S HEAT REACHES ITS PEAK
I couldn't believe that one seer could cause such a huge mess. The protective veil that Agatha had cast over my territory was completely destroyed. When she cast it, we had found out that, unlike the rest of the Werewolf Kingdom, my territory was not immune from witch magic.
What Evangeline did could have left us completely vulnerable against Raphael and the witches. Had it not been for Elizabeth being here and casting protection over my territory like Azrah said who knows what could have happened.
Evangeline is one of the strongest seers in my kingdom and although she is annoying as hell, her visions have helped me and so many other people on multiple occasions.
"Her scent was almost hidden, King Mathew", one of my guards informed me. "It was so intertwined with the scent of evil witches that it took us quite some time to decipher it."
"But why?, I growled at him. "Why would she rip apart the protective veil and allow witches to kidnap her own Mother of Seers?"
Agatha snorted at me, but didn't say anything.
I glared at her. "If you have something to tell me then tell me, Agatha. I don't have time for games."
She still didn't answer me. She just kept staring at Jonathan and Audrey with a raised brow. Audrey balled her fists and tightened her jaw as if nothing would get her to speak.
Jonathan looked rather displeased and shocked with Audrey's behaviour. He looked at her like he expected her to say something.
"What the hell is going on?", I roared at them.
"Fine!", Jonathan growled at Audrey, "If you won't say anything then I will."
Audrey grabbed his hand to try and stop him, but he had obviously already made up his mind.
"Evangeline hates Audrey, Mathew." His voice was laced with so much frustration and anger that it sounded like something he's been dying to share for the longest time. "I thought it was just jealousy, but this right here and what I saw the other day confirms that she's a traitor."
I narrowed my eyes at him. "What are you talking about, Jonathan? What did you see the other day?"
"I went with Audrey to her meeting with her Order of Seers!" We all snapped our eyes at him. The seers made it clear that absolutely no one could see their sacred meeting place. What Audrey and Jonathan did was against the rules of the seers, but that wasn't my domain. I would leave the seers to deal with that themselves.
Jonathan pulled Audrey into his chest as he continued talking. "I was hiding so that no one would see me. I saw her leave their sacred cave and use a spell to disappear into thin air. She isn't just a seer, Mathew. That woman is also a witch and she's found a way to hide it from all of us all these years!"
I looked at them all. We all know it's impossible to hide ones true scent. When I first met Keyon, I could smell the alpha scent on him, but it also had traces of a seer. When I met King Killian's mother, Anha, both her witch and gryphon scents were practically invading my nose. Evangeline smells like a seer through and through. Even if she had managed to fool an ordinary wolf, she wouldn't have been able to fool royal werewolves or the Werewolf King himself.
"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?", I gritted my teeth. "Why didn't you tell me the second you found out what she was?"
"Because", Jonathan's voice almost cracked, "because we thought you and Elizabeth deserved some time together without any interruptions."
Hearing her name sent a bolt of pain through my heart and I almost had to clutch at my chest to steady myself. I was yet again forced to rule without her by my side.
Orion was confident that we would see her and Phoenix in two days like Agatha said. Holding onto that thought and constantly smelling the clothes she wore was keeping us from tearing everything apart. She was in heat and I had no idea where she was. If she....I didn't even want to entertain that thought. If she got marked and claimed by someone else that would kill me. I would have no reason to go on. I would die.
She is currently walking around with no proof that she's already taken, no proof that she belongs to me. All I could do was hope and wait that she returns before her heat reaches its peak.
I clenched my jaw and tried to focus on the matter at hand. Evangeline was a traitor and if she was willing to turn against the Mother of Seers, she was an enemy that needed to be dealt with quickly. But worst of all, she has somehow managed to conceal a part of her scent and was working with evil witches.
"I want every pack, every coven and every clan of seers- I want every darn person looking for her!", I roared at the guards. "Get our trackers to find her. I want to be the one to interrogate her."
I walked away before they could even respond.
"There's something else you should know!", Audrey shouted nervously.
When I turned back to look at her her lips were quivering and she looked at Agatha with so much anger in her eyes. "When I was kidnapped, a witch named Freya said something."
Agatha gasped at this.
"The witch Freya said Agatha is her sister and...", tears started forming in her eyes, "she said Agatha is the one who taught her how to revive a dead soul."
Ken, Keyon and I watched Agatha, the oldest and most powerful witch we know, stumble and almost fall to the ground while her face turned so pale that her skin almost became translucent. She kept gasping for air, but couldn't seem to get any.
"Agatha, it's okay", I tried calming her down. "I already knew that Freya is your sister."
She looked up at me with tears and guilt in her eyes.
She gulped nervously. "How..how did you know?"
"I met Freya before I met you Agatha", I explainedto her. "I will never forget her scent. She almost killed me and Orion. When I met you, I noticed you had a similar scent to hers. A scent only a sibling could have. I immediately knew you were sisters."
She held back sobs and wiped her tears. "Did you think I was a spy, King Alden?", she spat at me. "Is that why you saved me and my coven? Because you wanted to keep a close eye on your enemies?"
I took a deep breath and put my hand on her shoulder. "I saved you because you needed my help, Agatha. It doesn't matter to me who you are related to. You're good. You've proven yourself countless times before and I trust you."
More tears started gatgering in her eyes while she tried her best not to cry.
She started nodding her head repeatedly while looking around, as if she was still figuring out what to do.
"I should have killed Freya a long time ago." She still continued nodding her head rapidly without looking at us. "I was only 22 years old when my 20 year old sister asked me to teach her a forbidden spell- how to revive the dead. She was mated to a warlock, one who couldn't wield magic of course, and he died."
She was shaking and nodding her head so much that I tried to calm her down again. I grabbed both of her shoulders and bent down ro her level to look the old woman in the eyes.
"Agatha, calm down", I commanded her. "You are not in any trouble."
She pursed her lips and took a deep breath which seems to have calmed her down.
"I refused to teach her that spell. I refused for weeks, but...", her voice cracked, "but she was my sister and seeing her cry herself to sleep because she didn't get to say goodbye to her mate broke my heart."
"So you taught her the spell?", Audrey asked hesitantly.
"It's not what you think!", Agatha quickly retorted. "I taught her a spell to keep a dead soul in the land of the living for an hour so that a loved one can say goodbye properly."
"Raphael has been alive for a whole lot longer than an hour, Agatha", Audrey said defiantly.
"She took that simple spell and changed it, made it evil and infused it with dark magic! It took her hundreds of years to get it right but she did it and...", she started taking deep breaths.
"And what?", Audrey growled at her.
"I'm the reason she has made it this far. I had an opportunity to kill her when I first learned what she was trying to do, but I never thought she would actually get it right and...and she's my sister for goodness sakes. How can I kill my own sister?"
I squeezed her shoulders. I sure as hell couldn't judge her. My magic was used to revive Raphael. She had done so much to help us. I wasn't going to hold her past against her and Audrey had no right to do that either considering everything Agatha has done for her.
"Agatha you don't need to explain yourself to us", I tried comforting her. "No one is judging you. You couldn't have known that all this would happen."
She looked up at Audrey as if I hadn't even said anything. What Audrey thought of her obviously mattered to her more than what I thought of her.
Audrey bit her lip for a few seconds, but then sprinted to Agatha and within seconds the two women were hugging and crying. "She isn't your family anymore, Agatha", Audrey demanded through her tears. "We are your family and if you want to live for another 350 years then remember that we are magical creatures as well. We can stay by your side for however long you decide to stick around."
They were both laughing through their tears now.
"In the coming days you will once again be faced with the choice to kill her or let her live, Agatha." Audrey was now looking at Agatha very sternly. "In my vision, you let her live, but I am telling you right now that you have to kill her."
Agatha gave her a very pained expression, but still managed to nod her head.
"We should go now", I interrupted them. "You said those kelpies are arriving tomorrow, Audrey. I don't want to waste time getting to and from your pack."
I know this seemed a bit rude, but I wanted to get this over and done with. The sooner we left, the sooner we could leave so that I would be here when Elizabeth came back.
They both nodded their heads as we all left the royal garden.
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Elizabeth's POV
I raised my knee to hit Killian in the groin. Both Phoenix and I refused to let a man other than Mathew touch us like that and be that close to us.
Killian must have expected me to do that because I kneed him in the groin the last time I was here. He shifted his body before I could make contact and held my knee up, making me almost fall on my back. Before I could hit the ground, he had his one hand on my back while the other still held my knee.
I only got a glimpse of his dark blue eyes before he crashed his lips against mine and thrust his tongue in my mouth. It lasted a few seconds because when I looked up, he was metres away from me on his back and Mike was standing infront of me, growling at him.
Killian quickly got on his feet. He still had that look on him like he was a predator and I was his prey.
"You dare interrupt my first kiss with Star fire, Mike?", Killian snarled at him.
"She's not yours, Killian!", Mike roared at him. "You know that."
Killian didn't even respond to Mike. He inhaled again. He inhaled the air so deeply and for so long that we thought he was going mad.
"You taunt me, Star fire!", he roared at us. "Fuuuuck, why do you smell so good...so much more desirable...so ready for me to spill my seed inside of you, Star fire. Fuuuuuuck!", he roared again.
Mike and I both stared at each other. Obviously Killian has gone mad. Even though Mike had hit him pretty hard and caused him to land on the ground infront of his servants, the man was still turned on. We could all see the desire in his eyes and his pants growing. He knew I wasn't here for him and yet he seemed unbothered by that fact.
"I don't want to hurt you, Mike", he growled while stalking us. "But if you keep me away from that woman today, I might just kill you. She needs me. She wants me. She's mine!"
"She's already told you she has a mate, Killian!", Mike roared at him. "Are you going to force yourself on her?"
Killian cursed at himself and seemed to be having an internal struggle with his beast. His eyes kept shifting between blue and black while he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth, until his eyes remained fixed on blue.
"Star fire, even if I choose to help you and that's a very big mother fucking if, Alden will only be able to mate you. He will never be able to mark you. Your beasts will either go insane or another man might force his mark on you. Surely that's not what you want?"
"I want choice, Killian!", I snarled at him. "I choose Mathew whether you like it or not. I will bear the consequences of that decision."
He started slamming his fists into the ground repeatedly and more violently each second. When he finally stopped, there was a huge hole in the ground, deep and wide enough for a boulder to fit in it.
"We must speak alone, Star fire" He demanded without looking up. "Taranis wants to see your beast. You and I will speak on Mount Moria. That is where our story started."
"I can go to Mount Moria alone!", I tried to counter.
"No!", he quickly retorted. "If you were my queen, you would be able to go alone. But you're still a guest in the Gryphon kingdom right now. I will accompany you."
Without letting me respond, Taranis ripped out of him and he stood there, waiting for me to shift.
Mike looked at me and I knew he could tell that I had decided to take up Killian on his offer. This was the only way. The witch from Agatha's coven told us we needed the holy waters from Mount Moria for the potion to work. Only a potion made with that water would be strong enough to weaken the curse and allow me and Mathew to at least mate each other even if we will still not be able to mark each other.
If this was the only way to get the water, then I needed to go with Killian. I could handle him if he tried anything.
"Don't even think about it!", Mike growled at me.
"This is the only way, Mike!", I tried convincing him.
Taranis was still looking at me. He refused to let me out of his sight.
I shifted into Phoenix before Mike could stop me.
I stood infront of Taranis. Phoenix and I were just as big as he was and covered in flames. Taranis' eyes got darker as a mighty roar left his chest and he took off into the air.