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Yet, I still wasn’t exactly sure what the witch had done to Milo. His strength was more than what a rogue omega should be, and the poison in his claws was pure dark magic. I could feel the way it attempted to infect my magic as I pulled the poison out. The way it beckoned me to turn to its power.
They always described dark magic as being like a drug, since it filled the user with a sense of immortality. Many witches who fell for it lived centuries longer than they should have. It was unnatural and stole away the soul of the witch who wielded the power.
With only that small taste and temptation, I understood what the books meant. Had I not gotten rid of it as quickly as I had, I was certain I would have fallen for the call of the darkness. It made me wonder if the witch had truly done what he had demanded, or if she held her own ulterior motive.
“Dad!”I linked as I dodged back from another swipe of the poisoned claws.“Warn Mom! I think the witch is trying to infect the coven!”
“We already know! Don’t let any of the rogues scratch you! The witch has fled, but her magic remains on the rogues with red eyes.”
I dove out of the way as Milo flew at me, his eyes glowing more red than brown. The ooze of the poison in his claws increased as he moved faster and faster. It was getting extremely hard for me to maneuver around them. I felt the sharp pain of his claws in my arm more than once.
My magic was beginning to be depleted as I rushed it to cleanse myself of the dark magic. The pain was excruciating, and I feared missing even a slight sting of the dark magic in my veins that could reach my child.
“She’s using you!” I yelled at Milo.
“She’s a witch! I’m using her!” he retorted with a humorless laugh.
He left himself open in that moment, just enough for me to dart close and dig my claws into his chest. I felt the snapping of his bones around my fingers. His blood warmed my hand as I dug in deeper to incapacitate him.
He howled into the dark night air and shoved me back from him before I could do any more damage, his hand pressed to his bleeding chest. I felt in control of the moment. I thought for sure I had him beat then and there; but beneath his hand the red blood changed to black tar and the wounds started closing, leaving little more than a scar over his chest.
Milo looked down at his injury and laughed before he looked back up at me.
“You see,” he chuckled, “I am the one benefiting from her magic. I am the one in control. She is doing what I ordered her to do and there is nothing you can do to stop me from taking my revenge.”
“Dad!”
I swung around at the sound of Xander’s voice, his scent rushing to me at that moment. He looked between me and his father with fear and disbelief. I watched as his eyes raked over me before he turned back to his father. He looked at me once again after he noticed the blood on his father’s chest.
“Dad, you don’t have to do this. She’s my mate! Killing her would curse me to the same pain that you felt when Mom died. Just stop this. All of this. Take the rest of the rogues and go if you can’t accept that, but do it peacefully. Your war is pitting brother against brother and child against father. It’s not right. It will not lead to any of the happiness our people have asked for.”
I could hear the sincerity of his wishes for his father. I could see the way my mate only wanted to give his people the peace they desired, while his father only wanted destruction. He would see the pack destroyed before he saw my family remaining in the alpha seat. I just wished that Xander could see that as clearly as I did.
Xander had hope in his eyes that his father would accept our bond. He wanted his father to come to the pack and pledge loyalty to our family and be there for him as only a father could ever be. But Milo wasn’t the father that Xander deserved. He was far from it.
It was just the brief interactions I now had with my mate’s father. I knew the man didn’t care for his son. Losing his mate had left him too broken to care. Too far gone to ever love anyone else the way he had obviously cared for her. My heart broke for Xander. I now understood just how he must have been raised and just how torn he must have felt when he realized that I was his fated mate. Yet, he chose me at that moment over his father’s training and desire for revenge.
“They’ll be happy to have avenged your mother and uncle,” Milo said.
I gasped as I turned around and realized that he was far closer than he had been when Xander first appeared in the clearing. His hand wrapped around my throat and he lifted my body into the air.
I could feel his sharp claws digging into the skin around my neck, leaving small crescent moon marks with the poison seeping in. My magic rushed to fight off the darkness, my vision tunneling as it invaded my weakened senses with the lack of air.
“Come with me, son, and make your mother proud. Do you honestly think that she would want to see you sharing a home with her enemies? With the ones who killed her and took everything she had worked so hard for you? Her memory deserves more honor than that!”
My lungs screamed for air as my vision tunneled even more; and from the corner of my eye, I watched Xander’s face contort with pain and anger.
Chapter Twenty-three
Xander
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I could never in my wildest dreams imagine that my father would be this strong. The magic surrounding him was beyond anything I had ever felt. I noticed his blood-red eyes, glowing against the dark forest.
“Dad, let her go!” I yelled and took a step closer.
“Xander, don’t you see? She isn’t worthy of you! Her parents killed your mother! The only mother you will ever have. They took her before you could ever really get to know her.”
“Yeah, and that was her choice,” I replied. “She chose her fate. She chose to keep me hidden and keep her distance from me while alive. If I never got the chance to know her because of that and not anything else.”
