Doureena walked down the trail within Vania, heading in the direction she was informed to go to meet with the witch that was rumored to be one of the most powerful witches in Nadia.
A week had passed since the incident at Faelock. She had ordered Riley and the troops to come home. There was no point in fighting Sous. They would lose. In fact, that was the reason why she walked down this trail with the wisteria trees and their purple coloring.
She was tired of losing, tired of running away from a child.
Crunch!
She looked below to see what she stepped on and saw she had stepped on a branch that had fallen from one of the trees.
The further she got to this witch's supposed home, the more she saw ravens. Black birds that gawed at her and flapped their wings when she passed by. She growled at them which only irritated them further, having them fly around her, making loud noises that caused the witch to exit from her home.
Doureena stopped in her tracks and looked at the old hunched back woman who walked with a staff. She truly was old, centuries, practically immortal.
The witch smiled at Doureena. She laughed, coughing as she did so, spit coming from her mouth. "Aren't I a little old to mate with?"
Doureena twisted her face, disgusted by what she just said. The witch laughed again.
"You prefer them young, I see."
Doureena became defensive at her character being slander. "I mated with my Omega when we were eighteen or nineteen, maybe twenty."
The witch walked around her, the ravens mocking the wolf as they flew just above her. "Its the other one that likes them young. She mates with them barely after puberty."
The witch was speaking about Zhiliary.
"Some packs are like that," Doureena did her best to excuse Zhiliary's perverted desires. "First heat, first rut and they mate."
The witch snorted, walking back to her hut.
Zhiliary opened the door to the sparring arena and her foot stepped into the blood that soaked under the door instantly. She stepped back and turned the lights on, seeing the decapitated bodies that littered the gym floor.
She glared into the distance and walked forward with her arms behind her back. She stood in the center to get a good look at what the two new recruits did. Doureena had told them to not clean up because she wanted Zhiliary to see their efforts.
The Alpha enjoyed what she saw. It was rightfully done. The wolves were no good to them without their ability to transform. She turned around and looked at Curtis and Lucio who stood at the position of At Ease, their feet shoulder width apart and their hands behind their back, the right over the left.
"You did good!" She yelled out to the men. "Very pleased. You are good elites. Follow me, I'll show you the territories that you will be in charge of moving forward."
After she was done with the men and had ended her day, she walked to the house of Doureena, knowing that she wouldn't be there but hoping Kara would be there.
Knock, knock!
Derrick opened the door, visibly red and sweating but he wasn't in heat. Zhiliary looked into the house and saw Jacob hurriedly getting dressed by putting his shirt on. She glared at the boy in the distance.
"What is that betrayer doing here?" She asked the fifteen year old boy.
"He just came over to say hi," Derrick lied.
Zhiliary scuffed at the remark, rolling her eyes. She would have slapped him if it weren't for him being the Alpha's child.
"I want to see Kara."
Derrick twisted his eyebrow. This was their first real time interacting with each other. "Why do you want to speak with a thirteen year old when you're nineteen?"
Zhiliary laughed. "Why are you interrogating me. Let me see her." She tried to get through the door but Derrick blocked her path.
"She's still at school. She didn't want to come home. She wanted to study."
Zhiliary stepped back and nodded her head, unsure to believe the Omega. Regardless, she bowed her head and walked off.
"You can not win against Sous as long as Tania Cruci and your daughter, Kara Apex are within her grasp."
Doureena listened while the witch spoke to her, even noticing all the details the witch knew of her family and even children.
"Both girls are in love with the young Alpha." The witched walked along the trail that led to a small pond with large orange fish within it, koi. She placed her staff into the pond, turning the water into ice, fitting with the weather of the nation. "I can give you power. But these two witches can supersed it. You must tear them apart from Sous, otherwise, you do not stand a chance."
"What do I owe you?" Doureena asked.
"Kara's first born. I will raise her as my own."
Doureena stepped back, not expecting such a request. The desire for Kara's baby to be given to the witch just for the chance to beat Sous. Doureena thought about it and then nodded her head.
"She will come to hate you. Are you willing to lose your child for this?"
"Yes," Doureena didn't hesitate. "Sacrifices must be made for the good of the pack."
"Then so it shall be done."
The witch took her staff out of the water. The pond no longer of ice and she took the end of the staff, and placed it on Doureena's forehead.
Doureena felt an electric shock go through her as the witch did this. The witch turned around and walked back to her hut, leaving Doureena to walk the trails past the ravens, past the wisteria trees, back to the docks of the river so she could make her way back home, alone, still unsure what exactly this witch did to her.