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She knew. I felt my heart stutter and skip a beat as a cold sweat beaded along my forehead. She knew about my baby. But how? How could she possibly know?
The potion was still there. I knew it was by surprise in both the vampire and the rogue’s faces. They couldn’t smell me, so how did she know?
“Go now,” she commanded, turning back to the rogue. “Go get your revenge.”
As he huffed, casting one last glance my way, the rogue transformed, his silhouette shifting fluidly from man to beast as he stalked down the hallway. We all watched his departure, and I silently implored the gods to intervene, to shield my mate from the vengeance-seeking creature now on his trail.
Breaking the heavy silence, the vampire’s voice filled the room with a low, contemplative tone. “So that’s why you said to keep her safe?”
The witch’s gaze shifted from the rogue’s fading form back to us, her black-veined eyes momentarily softening as they met the vampire’s red stare. “Keep a close eye on her. I can sense something different about her baby. I’ve never seen a she-wolf carry a child with magic. I’m curious now. It’s been ages since I’ve been curious.”
I swallowed a lump in my throat as she glanced at me again. That curiosity was there, mixed with an undeniable disgust that she could not, nor seemed to try, to disguise.
“I have some work left to do here before we leave. Watch her close, John.”
“Of course, Minnie.”
She left us then, disappearing into a room three doors down the hallway. The rogue was now gone too. Even his scent was now washed away. The only scent that remained was from the decaying man sitting once again to my left.
“So,” he said, drawing out the O in the word. “You have yourself a little hybrid pup inside you. That certainly explains why Minnie decided to keep you around then. She does love her little hybrid babies.”
I growled low. “They aren’t hers.”
“Well, sure they are,” he laughed. “She has been trying for centuries to create the species. So much research and trial and error. Never had she ever had a successful birth. Not until the Crete witch and the Rigel alpha mated. It was the birth of their daughter that brought back Minerva’s will to complete what she started all those centuries ago.”
“She had nothing to do with their mating! That was The Fates.” I snapped at him. “Not that I believe a vampire like you would ever understand. The Fates don’t typically give your kind mates. I guess they don’t think you deserve that kind of love, given you aren’t even alive. Defying their plans for you by refusing to die.”
He leaned forward, his eyes crimson beams as he narrowed them at me. “First, my name is John. Professor John Thorne. Second, who said that The Fates don’t look fondly on my kind? Who says they didn’t plan for my thread to never be cut? Who says they never gave me a mate?”
I slowly turned my head to the opened door, my gaze finding the room that the dark witch had disappeared into.
“That’s right,” he purred. “She’s my gift from The Fates. The same Fates that sent you to Brady. The same Fates that will determine now if you get to keep him, or if Tristan is worthy of his quest for revenge.”
“He won’t die,” I vowed. “He isn’t that easy to kill.”
Thorne smirked and slowly leaned the chair back on the two hind legs again. “We will see.”
I turned my head away from him again. My teeth pressed into my lips as I fought the nerves and pit in my stomach.
He was going to be okay. He had to be okay. There was no way in hell that The Fates would play such a cruel trick on me, giving me a mate I hadn’t even wanted, only to snatch him away. Not after all the work that went into accepting him. I couldn’t believe that they could be that ruthless. There was no way they would put anyone in that kind of torture.
I began to look around the room to take my mind off of those fears. There was an old bed in the far corner with a broken table beside it.
Soot covered the walls and floors as ceiling beams dangled from the ceiling, many resting at an angle on the floor.
The entire room, on its own, had such a decrepit appearance that it seemed as though it should have been condemned. Then again, maybe it was. What better way to hide out than to find refuge in an abandoned building, its dilapidated walls and creaking floors deterring anyone from entering?
“Tell me,” Thorne said with a yawn. “What is my former pupil, Paige Ramirez, up to these days? I’ve heard she is the mother of one of the hybrid children recently born. I can see great promise with that one taking on her gift for premonitions.”
I snarled at the mention of my former luna and friend. “You don’t get to ask about her. Keep her name out of your blood sucking mouth!”
Thorne’s laughter filled the room as he continued to lean precariously on the back legs of the chair. “Feisty little she-wolf. I can see promise in your little abomination as well. For a hybrid to be the child of the second strongest wolf on the Pacific coast, certainly will be interesting to see how they all grow into themselves. I can hardly wait to see.”
A chill ran down my spine at the thought of these monsters watching my child. Watching Baer as well. It suddenly dawned on me that they must have been secretly observing Brady and Liberty all along. Thorne revealed that their births had reignited his dark witch’s quest, reigniting her pursuit of whatever mysterious goal she had been working towards all these years.
It was then that I remembered the book, its pages filled with descriptions of the ancient fertility ritual. The way the pictures depicted different beings mating together as she studied them and the results of their mating. In none of the books had it actually mentioned a successful hybrid born. In fact, no history I had ever been told spoke about a successful hybrid born. Not until recently. Not until Liberty had been born.
“What does she want with the hybrids?” I asked in a hushed voice.
