Logan
The Oracle caves are an ancient place deep in the woods, surrounded by rocky hills. It was used in ancient times for sacrifices to the moon goddess and for other spiritual rituals. This gets me wondering if Donovan is planning to sacrifice Arya’s family to whichever god he serves.
The closer we get, the more I can scent vampires. We stop running and decide to encircle the entire area, being careful and silent. Each of us masking our scents, decide to go undercover to study the environment. I doubt masking our scents will work because of how we have blood smelling all over us. The vampires have the greatest s of smell, they might be able to detect us.
The humongous rocks stand out of the dark woods, reflecting the light of the luminous moon. I sneak through the entrance, followed by Cole. The rest have remained outside, waiting for a signal.
It is very dark inside, there I no sound, no sign of life, though I can scent vampires. I haven’t been able to smell a familiar scent, but I don’t let that bring me down.
The entrance tunnel is quite long and it goes down, through a stair of stairs that had been put for the pilgrims and priests who used to visit often. All those things are history now after all the creatures decided to embrace civilization. The cave was abandoned and no one has been there in a long time. It smells of rotten organic matter, fungi, and vampires.
There is an underground stream down here and its waters splashing on rocks is the sound that welcomes us. The stream is still alive. Its waters are still fresh and I can spot some fish in it. There is an opening on top where moonlight penetrates which enables us to look around. There is nothing around here but there is a stack of rocks leading up to another opening. Jumping onto the rocks, we go up.
There is light. Fire. Sensing movement, we stop moving. On the wall, a shadow moves and then disappears. I don’t sense any footsteps, but I am sure it can only be a mother-fucking vampire.
We finally walk into the light.
Donovan is standing in front of a fireplace, where sparks of flames fly up from the burning wood. His back is turned to us, facing the fire. Looking around, other vampires are surrounding the place, but no sign of Arya, Eric, or any wolf. They seem to be only a few but I am sure there are so many others of those demons around here but we can’t see them
“I see you made it, Alpha,” Donovan’s voice cuts through the silence. I have never been more irritated to hear his goddamned voice. He turned to face us.
“Oh, you brought company,” he says, regarding Cole who is behind me. “Ha! I guess the more the merrier.” He has this smug look on his face that makes me want to dismantle it with my claws.
Maneuvering around the curve toward him, my eyes stay fixed on his. I know he had the ability to hypnotize but that doesn’t work on me or any werewolf or vampire for that matter. It only works on weak humans who are unlucky to be his meal.
“Sorry about tonight, about stealing your bride. It was just inevitable,” he says with a side smirk.
Finding it unbearable, I shift.
“Where is Arya?” I growl out the question. He chuckles, fixing his gaze on my groin area.
“Ooh, you are such a man, I see,” he says, a smug grin spreading on his face. Pouncing onto his in a blink of an eye, I land a heavy, jaw-cracking blow on his cheek. He staggers but quickly recovers.
“I am not here to play any games with you Donovan, and wowing about ducks is not on the list of issues I have come here for,” I tell him, trying hard I contain my fury. His vampire friends have already surrounded me, coming to protect their master, but he holds up his hand to stop them. The retreat but stay close.
“I get that you are very furious and I don’t blame you, Logan. You have every right to be,” he says, cleaning the open wound on his lips which immediately starts to heal. Vampires have a quicker ability to heal wounds than werewolves, which makes them even harder to kill than werewolves.
“But you know who you should blame? Fate. You were not supposed to be a victim of this battle. You should be an accomplice on my side: the winning side. If this stupid mate shit hadn’t come around, you wouldn’t be like this. It has already weakened you, Logan. Look at you, losing your pack members in this battle defending your father’s enemies. Your father must be covering his face with shame down in his grave, to have left behind a son like you to be the Alpha of the formerly mighty Blacktooth Guardians,” he sniggers.
Now he is taking this way too far.
I aim another blow toward him but he dodges it.
“Look, if you had rejected her earlier, everything would be fine now. You wouldn’t be here heartbroken. Instead, we would share a toast to our new conquest because now the Alpha of Blue Blood Pack is no more,” he adds cocking his head to mock my anger.
“What do you mean no more? What have you done to Eric?” I tell, finding it hard to remain calm.
“He is probably on his way to meet alpha, Max. His father is probably going to be more disappointed in him than yours in you,” he responds.
“You fucking piece of shit!” I tell, shifting and landing on him. We both land on the rocky floor. I aim at his neck, more than ready to disjoint the head from it. This senseless head is just full of shit and can’t think of anything meaningful!
He throws me off him, surprisingly very strong. I land on the wall behind me, hitting my back. I quickly get back on my feet.
“I see you are not willing to have a civilized conversation. You would prefer that we go animal,” he says walking to me.
“Civilized? You are talking about being civilized? Do you even know what that means? Civilized creatures don’t cause such bloody wars anymore. This is such an outdated way of acquiring anything you want, Donovan. Do you know how much loss you have caused? How many lives you have brought to an end tonight? How many of your clan members you have lost?” I inquire. Trying in vain to talk sense into him.
“I know that very well, young Alpha. I have fought a lot of battles all my life, son, probably more than you will ever fight. I know how this works. For success to be archived, there have to be some sacrifices. They had to go, it was their day,” he replies with a shrug, looking so unbothered by the harm he has caused.
“If you had joined hands with me, maybe all this would have never happened. You wouldn’t have lost a lot of your warriors. You were going to get Blue Blood pack as an annex and you know very well how rich that land is,” he says.
“You must be having a very wrong impression of me, Donovan. I am not as desperate as you are for the Blue Blood pack’s territory. I can work for my own wealth and power without shading all this blood,” I tell him.
“Don’t be coy, Alpha. Who wouldn’t want to have it? You are only corrupted by the mate bond with that female. Soon, you will be a senseless leader figure just like Eric and we are all aware of how things have turned over for him. A strong leader never lets a woman control at any level. She is supposed to submit to you, but not dominate over you,” he adds.
“Shut The Fuck Up!” I yell at him, jumping at his face and scratching his cheek open with my claws. I land on all fours, trying to keep my wolf at bay. I still have questions for him. I want to know.
“Where is Arya?” I growl.
“She is still able to breathe,” he replies, rubbing his cheek which is healing.
“Fucking tell me where she is! I don’t have the time to play games with you!
“I am sure you do. You can be a little patient when it comes to your precious mate, can’t you? You would do anything for her. She means the whole world to you, am I right?” he raises his eyebrows at me, a smile playing on his lips.
God! I wish I could just slay that head off.
“I never knew you are such a romantic. I guess you have embraced civilization as you said,” he snickers.
I have concluded that talking to this imbecile is just a waste of time. I should just kill him because he is just getting on my nerves.
I shift with a growl, and I attack his neck, sinking my fangs in his neck. My claws dig into his face, tearing his skin apart. He pulls me off him.
“You want to kill me before I tell you where your precious angel is?” he asks, his skin building up again. “If you kill me, they will kill her, immediately.”
He sneers when he realizes that he has got me now. I walk around the fireplace, trying to calm myself down. Donovan’s proving to be more difficult than thought. I wonder how things are back in the Blue Blood territory. I hope the battle is over.
“What do you want?” I ask, realizing he is up to something.
“It’s good that you are finally ready to talk like a man,” he smirks.
“I will give you your mate, but Blue Blood pack’s minerals will be mine, all of them. I will withdraw my troops. As a bonus, I promise to recover all the losses Blue Blood Pack has suffered in this battle,” he says.
Donovan, you fool!
“You know, I can’t do that. I am not the alpha of the Blue Blood pack,” I say, chuckling at his insensitivity.
“But you will be, soon,” he responds, confident. I freeze when I understand what he means by that.