“She’s fiery, but she’s kind of timid,” Kane said. The worry there was enough for me to question his sanity. Kane was the go-all-in type, not one to hesitate or second guess.
“I could approach first, feel her out a bit?” Avi offered. At first, a spark of jealousy hit me, but it passed quickly. He was right. It was the smartest choice. As a beta, he was a walking anxiety reducer, and from her initial reaction, this would be a delicate situation.
“What’s with the witch thing?” Levi mused. “She said we couldn't mate because we’re witches. Or you are, rather.”
“Some kind of strange upbringing maybe? Some covens have strange rules, and not all are traditionalists.” I shrugged. “Look at what Kylan and his coven were facing when we left Maybe someone is trying to normalize that. Either way we won’t know until we talk to her again.”
“True,” he said with a frustrated huff. “Hopefully she’s not like that.”
“She looked panicked at the thought, not angry,” Avi pointed out. “I think fate will soften whatever hesitations she has, but we shouldn’t overwhelm her. Taking this slow makes the most sense.”
“It does,” Kane sighed. He looked out of his element, and in truth, he was. Before he spoke again, he narrowed his eyes on Levi. “What about you, Levi? Another omega coming into our group?”
He shrugged. “We’re mates. It’s not like she’s here to steal my man or my family away.”
“Good, then it’s settled. We stay, see how it goes, then drop the bombshells. Depending on how she takes it is how we move forward,” I said firmly. “Either way, we stay vigilant and keep ourselves and our new mate safe.”
6
Arch Mage
“Report,” I demanded of my assistant. The man fumbled with his tablet, so nervous that magic sparked in his hands. He was powerful, an asset to my collection, but he was a bit too chaotic for my tastes. The fact that my bodyguards had escaped the prisons, along with our greatest tracker, was my single biggest loss to date. And that was saying something. Just the reminder had my fury boiling. Of course, my assistant noticed, and the fool promptly began to stutter.
“Th-they were last seen entering a s-small t-town,” he said.
Hearing that they’d run to another coven had me sending a magical blast into the stone wall of my tower. I’d found four men with nothing to lose and molded them into magical, killing machines. Trained and willing to lay their lives on the line for me. Yet one act of betrayal and they’d fled like thieves in the night.
They’d cost me everything. I’d risked the reputation I’d spent years building to gain their powers. Once the elder council had marked me as deceased, I was going to slip in and take their magic, leaving my personal guard dead husks in their cells. No one would have seen me come and go, the elders believing I was gone, that I’d started a new life elsewhere. They were paid enough for their silence and I’d bound them as a failsafe, there shouldn’t have been a single obstacle in my way. But before that could all happen, the entirety of the university’s guards were tracking them through the forests surrounding the school. I knew the guards would fail, so I’d have to hunt them myself. I had resources on my side, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use them. The four men who’d spent ten years guarding me had honed their powers in that time.
“And now?” I continued on, gritting my teeth so the words were strained.
“Unsure. We can’t find word of them anywhere, even in your vast network, Arch Mage.” Snapping my head to face the shaking beta, I let my true form show enough that his face paled and his tablet clattered to the floor. Fear wafted through the air in the room. I breathed in the intoxicating scent, reveling in its power.
Needing a release, I sent a blast of energy straight into his heart. He was dead on impact, his magic draining as quickly as his life force. I breathed deeply and pulled his errant magic into myself, adding his power to my vast collection. It was a skill I’d honed over the years, starting with runes and words, slowly gaining confidence until it became an innate ability. One unique to me.
My body didn’t protest, used to acclimating the addition of new powers. As the magic settled into place, my form changed. Years were shaved off of my appearance and my body, my features shifting to include the dead mage’s eyes and hair. It had been so many years since I’d seen my true face that I could scarcely remember what it looked like.
Sighing, I stepped over the corpse to get a better look in the nearby mirror. The new face was disconcerting at first, and far more innocent than I intended, but that could serve me well. Bending down, I picked up the tablet, happy to see that it was unharmed. I swiped through his notes and information long enough to see that he was being truthful. They were leaving no tracks or paper trails, which was unsurprising.
In a move of desperation, I’d had one of my technology-inclined witches scour public camera feeds, but they’d come up empty there as well. They were ghosts, but that wasn’t a hurdle I couldn’t move past. In the end, their powers would be mine. I never gave up when I made up my mind, and I’d made a promise to myself the day that I met them—one day, they’d join my collection. Now, it was just a matter of time. With the university behind me, this was my sole focus.
Walking out onto my balcony, I gazed at the desert below. It was peaceful out here, and isolated, two things that served me well. With a new face and renewed patience, I knew I’d win soon enough. After all, I always got what I wanted…
7
Farren
My eyes felt like sandpaper as I forced myself out of bed. It had been a long night of nightmares, so I'd barely gotten any sleep. But as I pulled on a clean uniform and got ready, I gave one final thought to everything that had happened yesterday. Over the course of the night, I’d come to terms with at least one thing: my parents had to be wrong because Zehra was right. Fate didn't make mistakes, and I knew without a single doubt that those four men were my mates. I’d been around alphas, betas, and omegas my entire life, but none of them affected me the way they did. From the moment I met them, I knew I was irrevocably changed, body, mind, and soul. All I had to do was let go of my reservations and take what was mine.
‘Then get out of your head and get down there! Unless you want Molly and West’s wrath?’Zehra warned. I could feel how anxious she was to see them again, but so was I.
Not wanting to hear Molly's nagging, I skipped the morning coffee for now and went to the desk. It was a dangerous game since I’d missed dinner last night, but I’d take my chances.
When I reached the lobby, I noticed West was there, sitting right on the counter with a mischievous grin spreading across his face. He’d skipped the morning perimeter check just to give me shit.Great.
"So, I hear you had an interesting shift yesterday," he accused. The pure glee he was experiencing at my expense had me flipping him off.
"I take it my mates have big mouths?" I grumbled.