264 WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
Sebastian came to July’s office room because he couldn’t find Knox, since the man went out of the manor to meet with the people from the coven. They came to make a deal with them regarding territories.
The witches wanted to seek asylum from them because their kind was hard to be accepted by the other supernatural creatures. Almost all of them saw the witches as a threat, since they could use their spells to manipulate them.
Moreover, it was widely known how cunning and conniving a witch could be.
Therefore, neither packs of werewolves, vampires, dragon shifters, or any other supernatural creatures wanted to accept them, even though their number was not that high.
“July, we got a visitation,” Sebastian reported this to July, while the woman was staring at the garden through the window in her office room. The light of the afternoon sun illuminated the room and herself. She looked beautiful, but somehow, she gave off this gloomy vibe from weeks ago.
Sebastian didn’t know why July had been feeling down lately, but he could say that it had something to do with Knox.
Both of them seemed to have an argument, which was a little bit uncommon for the two of them.
“What is it?” July turned around and looked at Sebastian. Her face was slightly pale and she looked tired. She didn’t look like herself.
“Are you okay?” Sebastian walked across the room and approached her. He had been by her side since Knox left and helped her with the organization, thus it was safe to say that the two of them were quite close. “Do you need me to call a doctor?”
.....
“I am fine.” July waved her hand, she didn’t want to make a big deal out of this. “Who is coming?” She didn’t want to beat around the bush, nor did she want to see any pity in Sebastian’s eyes.
Sebastian looked at July intently, but then again, he knew there was nothing he could do to face her stubbornness. “Three shifters came to the manor and asked for protection.”
“What shifters?” July walked toward the door with Sebastian following beside her.
“Werewolves. It seems they are family: a man, a woman, a kid, around the age of two. They don’t look good, so I asked them to be checked first.” He opened the door for July and the two of them walked down the corridor. “They are in the north wing now.”
July said nothing, and just listened to what Sebastian told her. It was what they did; building their own empire, their own organization, their own people, to strengthen themselves during this unpredictable situation between human and supernatural creatures.
But not just that, even among the supernatural creatures, there was hostility, such as; werewolves and the vampires were natural enemies.
July and Sebastian arrived at the north wing and the first thing that caught July’s attention was a young girl, around the age of two years, with deep blue eyes, staring at her. She looked adorable and could melt your heart within a second with her little smile.
“How is it here?” July asked the healer there, Gaia. She was one of the supernatural creatures that sought protection in this manor.
“They are all fine, just the baby has some minor injuries because her healing ability has not yet developed well. After all, she is still little.” Gaia took the mother’s hand and caressed the wound on the back of her hand, which seemed hard to heal. Whatever weapon that had hurt her, it must be made of silver.
“What happened to you?” July asked the man, who looked a little bit better, but it should be because all of his wounds had been healed.
“The vampires hunted us down, we managed to escape.” He looked at the wound on his mate’s hand with anger. “We decided to come here for help since we heard you help people like us.”
Sebastian then took over the task of questioning them, since July’s focus was on the little girl, who was hiding behind her mother who was sitting on the bed. “Why didn’t you stay in your pack?”
The man looked even gloomier. “That is not our original pack. Our Alpha was killed and they mistreated us. Made us omegas. We ran away when there was an attack on the pack, but we were attacked by the vampires on our way here.”
“What pack did you come from?”
“Shadow Moon pack.”
“I know that pack,” July said. “Zuri came from that pack too.” Her eyes were still on the little girl. She was captivated by her dark blue eyes.
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Zuri felt the little wolf in her arms become restless. The little creature snuggled closer to her and shivered.
She was afraid? What was she afraid of?
Zuri and Chaos walked toward the other side of the forest and could hear the sound of the flowing river. She could also smell the same mixture of scents that stuck to this little wolf from this direction.
“Over here,” Zuri said, but she sensed something else, another smell that disturbed her. It smelled of blood and there was so much of it.
How could she realize it only now?
“Stop,” Chaos said grimly, he put his hand on Zuri’s shoulder to prevent her from walking even closer to the clearing, where the sound of the river became more vivid.
“What is it?” Zuri let Chaos take the lead. “I smell blood.”
Chaos said nothing, but he knew. It was not just blood, but also something else, another creature was there.
“Stay here.” After saying that, Chaos walked through the last trees that hid them from the clearing in front of them.
For a moment, Zuri obliged and stayed where she was, but it didn’t last long, because her curiosity got the better of her, especially when she heard a loud shrieking sound that pierced the peaceful afternoon.
With the little wolf still in her arms, she sneaked a peek through the dense trees and watched how Chaos tore apart three creatures that looked like huge bats, each one at least twice the size of a grown up man. They even had sharp, little teeth inside their mouths.
Zuri didn’t know what kind of creatures they were, but her main focus was not that. Her eyes glued to Chaos’ expression.
He was literally tearing every limb of the three creatures, but there was a smile on his lips, as if he was blissful, as if he enjoyed what he was doing right now. He looked peaceful by seeing how those creatures met a painful death.
And for the first time, Zuri felt she couldn’t see this side of Chaos...
The glint of dark in his malevolent eyes made Zuri turn her head around, while hugging the small wolf. It almost felt like something rapidly changed within Chaos. Something evil and malignant...
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Nikolai came to report everything that had transpired during their mission in the Shadow Moon pack, also the list of people that had died during the mission, while Commander Jasmine was being held as a captive by the alpha of the pack.
A small impromptu meeting ensued upon their arrival. They tasted defeat.
“So, now they have Commander Jasmine?” the minister of defense spoke, he looked old, but stern. He was someone that you didn’t want to mess with. “And what will you do in this situation?” he looked at Archie. “She is your daughter, but we will not agree to negotiate with those nasty creatures.”
It was a tricky question for Archie, since the president was there and it was widely known that the minister of defense and the founder of the Hound were not on good terms, especially regarding the safety of the nation.
On the other hand, Archie didn’t give away what he felt. His expression remained calm. It was hard to say what was in his mind right now.
“Commander Jasmine will be out of duty, until we can come up with a perfect plan to take down the whole pack,” Archie said in the end, which meant, he would neglect his own daughter rather than take a risk to send another team to save her, until further notice.
Next to him, Sol stared at his father in shock. He hated Jasmine with passion, but she was still his sister and it was so cruel to leave her in the enemy’s den.
Meanwhile, Nikolai’s mind was not there. He was still in denial upon the death of Xo. He was like a brother to him and the fact that he would never see him again or even have a chance to visit his grave, because he wouldn’t have one, since they left those who died behind in that damned pack, only added to his distraught mindset.
The lycan... the black lycan... Mohan said it was that filthy creature that killed him.
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Jasmine finally opened her eyes. She didn’t know how long she had been drifting between sleep and consciousness. She almost woke up a couple of times, but every time she regained a bit of her consciousness, the pain was the first thing that she felt.
Her whole body was in pain, especially her neck, she felt like someone had just rammed her with a baseball bat.
“You are awake,” Liam said happily when she opened her eyes. “Let’s begin?”
July frowned when she heard that. She didn’t understand what he meant.
“Don’t worry, it will be over soon,” Liam said, as he injected something into her blood and Jasmine couldn’t do anything to avoid this.
After doing that, Liam leaned over to give her a kiss on the lips and then smirked at her.
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*Read my new book: KISSED BY THE DARK ALPHA*
Alpha Micah Donovan’s second chance mate.