Chapter 31

Sorry this update is so long coming!!! I apologise for how terrible my updates are!

I've already finished the next chapter too SO my lovelies,

The book should be finished within the week!!💔

This makes me sad because I've loved this journey (maybe that's why I've dragged it out so long😬)

Enjoy this chapter xxx

The woods were dark, ominously quiet. Like a promise of death lurked behind the fractured bark of the trees. Dusk had settled on the forest, final traces of amber light fluttering below the horizon line, plunging the landscape into a dimly lit red hue.

I was in a clearing by myself, but I could feel the soothing waves Asher sent through the mate bond, ensuring I remained calm. Although I couldn't see them, hiding in the trees with their scents covered by Laurent, I knew I was as safe as I allowed myself to be.

Grabbing the knife out of my sheath, I slit a large gash on my forearm, blood immediately cascading onto the meadow, staining the grass a dark crimson: an alert for the untamed rogues that blood had been spilt.

Almost immediately my wolf felt a primal response, an alertness that danger was lurking, an imminent threat.

Wolves seeped into the clearing, around 20 in total their ribs poking through the matted fur of their rugged, dirty skin. White scars marred their fur; war wounds.

Gravelly growls made me suddenly more alert and wary of them. Despite their appearance, these animals were bloodthirsty, barely even human anymore. And there primal instinct was to snap my neck.

I wasn't going to let fear show on my face, no weaknesses. They prowled closer, with a look that none could mistake for anything other than the need to kill. Yet, their stealthy movements seemed to slow, apprehension drawing on their faces with an air of anger.

She was coming.

Moments passed, the rogues growls growing angrier and louder as they realised they couldn't kill me as quickly as they desired.

Ash grew unsteady in my mind, I could feel his anxiousness and primal need to protect me running through the mate bonds in waves.

Suddenly, a dark tornado seeped through the trees, obsidian tendrils lashing out, unveiling a striking woman dressed in seeping red leather gear.

With locks of white hair and war tattoos, she looked truly remarkable. Her stunning features were masked by her coldness, overall emanating an intimidating appearance.

It all made sense. The attacks had only been occurring since Asher found me, his mate.

From the shock I could feel through the bond, Ash knew this woman. But now wasn't the time to ask questions.

This fury of hers must have derived ultimately from her jealously of me.

And now she could kill me,

And kill my baby.

This witch had a personal vendetta against me, and that made her tenfold more dangerous than anything I could have imagined.

This reality sunk in deeper than I cared to admit, fuelling the knowledge that I had to kill her, not just for my safety, but for my baby's safety, this little part of me and Asher growing inside me that scared the hell out of me, yet also, weirdly, felt right. I still felt like It wasn't real, that I was going to wake up from a dream, and all of this was fictional, that I would wake up back in my old room in England. But it was, and what I wanted in my future was becoming clearer and clearer.

And I knew that I had to fight for it, and if killing this witch would secure this happiness, then I would do it tenfold.

She wandered closer to me, swaying her hips and gazing at me with an soft look on her face.

Threateningly soft.

My barriers were completely up now, and as she wandered closer I could feel Asher begin to lose control in my mind, knowing that she could kill me in an instant.

"Asher, you let out your pet human I see. When it comes to it I'll let you decide which way I kill her, I've been planning this for quite some time you see" She  broke into a manic laugh.

"Look, I understand that you feel it should have been you. You an Asher obviously have a past, but me and him are mates, you surely must know how sacred that is. So I'll give you the chance, before you regret this, to go and never return. And if you do this, I give you my word we won't come after and slaughter every last one of you." Malice dropped from my tone, conveying just how serious I was.

"Sweet, sweet girl, you think I have come to take back Asher? No, you are far from right. I want your alpha to feel the burning loss of a mate, forced to watch his mate be tortured-" Her voice broke as a whimper escaped her lips, betraying her emotionless facade.

"The only thing I have come for is revenge. And I shall get my revenge.

NOW!" She screamed, her rogues running straight for me, drooling at the thought of blood.

I quickly transitioned but the first line of rogues was wiped from the field in a flash, Asher and Tolkien ripping Vanessa's wolves to shreds.

The meadow was alive with sounds of pain and anger, wolves growling and ripping bones and skin, snarling in dominance.

We heavily outnumbered them, rogues writhing bloodily on the floor, a defeated battalion. But there would no doubt be reinforcements.

Asher and tolkiens united pack stalking towards the witch , brutally snapping rogue necks as they inched closer, barely even releasing a breath of exertion as if this was a daily occurrence.

But she was close to me.

Closer than they and I predicted.

She moved quicker than lightening, holding a sharp nail to my throat.

"Boys boys boys, when will you ever learn?" She tutted.

"Yeah , boys" I replied, using one of the techniques Ash and J taught me to snap her wrist away from my body, a audible crack sounding through the field, and punching her stomach winding her, then pushing her down to the floor.

But she just cackled, as though this is what she wanted all along. Her mad, psychotic nature protruding from this facade of normality.

She had lost all sense of reality.

And as I spared a quick glance around the field, I noticed that we had lost our perception of reality as well.

The wolves were staring into the distance, clenching their eyes shut, some howling, whining in pain and fear and terror. The enemy was no longer physical, the rogues had been slaughtered, this terror stemmed from within their own minds, a seed planted by the witch

To play for us our deepest darkest fears.