-:Cecelia's POV:-

My body was in too much pain and I wanted to just rest. Almost all visible skin was black and blue. I could only imagine what my face was looking like. My hands were tied back with wolfsbane doused silver chains. I tried to move them as little as possible to keep the burning feeling to a minimum. I was stiff. My body was begging to be let free. I had had only one bathroom break with three guards watching me simultaneously so far.

Once, a girl came for my first aid. She was so reckless and brutal with the process, I had wished that they'd just let me rot instead. It all felt a hundred times worse with the wolfsbane inside my body and the fact that my body felt like lead after being strapped to the chair for Goddess knew how long. To support my recovery and because I had nothing better to do, I was trying to sleep.

Trying being the keyword since. I was already too addicted to a certain person's presence to be able to sleep without them.

It wasn't long after that I heard the door to my freedom open . . . then close again. I didn't give any indication that I'd noticed the obvious entry. I didn't open my eyes. I couldn't smell them, but my ears picked up their tread.

Andromeda.

I kept myself from smirking. I knew this would happen and I was waiting.

Coldwater splashed on me. It had happened before, but I still couldn't help the small gasp that escaped my lips. It was already getting chilly and the ice-cold buckets of water were definitely not helping. They eased the burn of the wolfsbane momentarily and helped my bruises, but the way I would be a shivering mess afterward was a big demerit.

On the plus side, the wolfsbane seemed to be wearing off faster than before.

"Good, you're up," Andromeda flashed me a fake grin. I rolled my eyes.

"This is getting old, you know?" I said, shaking my hair trying to get them off my face.

"You look like a wet dog," she commented.

"Well, I unofficially am," I pointed out, unbothered.

The thing with this 'couple' was that they hated my calm. They wanted to see me panic and break down. It was evident in the way they were constantly trying to intimidate me. My smiles, laughs, and carefree attitude was ticking them off. They wanted the satisfaction of seeing me cry and beg but I wasn't giving them that. 

And it was distracting them.

"Don't act smart with me," she scowled.

"Who says I'm acting?" I quirked an eyebrow.

"Bitch."

"That I am."

"Do you ever shut up?"

"No, I don't find it as easy to shut my brain off as you nincompoops do. I'm open to tips, though. I can imagine you have a lot."

She let out a frustrated huff, glowering down at me.

"This is getting me nowhere," she muttered. "I need to talk to you. Can you cooperate?"

I looked at her questioningly.

"I want you to tell me about mates," she elaborated.

"Did we not have this conversation before?" I pretended to be bored. 

"You telling me that Vincent will leave me as soon as an unspecified yet specific bitch comes into the picture is not a conversation," she stated.

"Fair enough," I relented, not risking my plan too much.

"Well?" She asked impatiently.

"Mates . . . " I worked to make my voice dreamy. "They're your everything," I hyped it up, "You meet them and for a second, you forget anyone else exists. They hold a piece of your soul. When you're broken, they heal you. You fall, they catch you. Pick you up. Support you. They'll love you unconditionally. A love that won't judge how you are but accept you for what you are and cherish you. 

"They'll have eyes only for you. They'll make you feel beautiful, loved, sacred. They'll never leave you if they had a choice. Every moment with them is better than the last. You'll have differences but they only bring you closer. They'll make you complete."

I remembered how effortlessly Ashton had become an essential part of my life so quickly. We didn't have the best start. We had had misunderstandings. So many. But luck was on our side so we got past them and ended up falling in love. Now that's what I thought was beautiful. A love that creeps up and grows on you.

I realized I was getting too lost in my thoughts and colored up.

"Nothing can compare to mate bond," I concluded, clearing my throat and averting my gaze.

Don't get carried away.

I shook my head and refocused. I noticed how her hands were clenched, her jaw set, and her eyes defeated. I could practically hear her thoughts racing in her head. I looked away again and shammed being interested in the stained wall opposite to me.

"Why do you ask?" I prompted her after a good five-minute silence. Her face had become unreadable and guarded. She turned to me, eyes blazing. I kept my face impassive.

"I hate you," she spat in response. I didn't react. I didn't know how to. I couldn't deduce whether this was her catching on to the fact that I was manipulating her or the fact that she was just angry with the miraculous revelation that Vincent was using her.

I hoped for the latter.

She looked like she wanted to murder me, but she settled on glaring at me.

"You wanted to know," I shrugged, holding back a wince at the movement. Damn, my body hurt.

She backhanded me so fast I didn't see it coming. She was quite powerful for a witch. I tasted blood on my tongue again.

"C'mon!" I groaned. "It had just healed! Do you know how hard it is to heal at a human pace? It hurts!"

"Good," she snarled, "You deserve it."

And then, the diva stormed out, slamming the door shut behind her so loudly it made me cringe even with my human hearing.

Lovely.

**********************

-:Ashton's PoV:-

"Another dead end!" I grumbled, standing up and pacing around Cecelia's room, taking deep breaths full of her scent to calm me down. It was the next best thing to going on a run. I didn't have time for that.

"We'll find her," Noel coaxed.

"I know. I just hope it's not too late when we do," I mumbled, leaning on Cecelia's work desk with my palms against it. I studied the map once again, trying to think.

We had narrowed down a few places on the map. So far we had had six secluded and abandoned buildings in a ten-mile radius from the borders of the pack. It was a gut feeling that she wasn't too far away. But after the second team of scouts reported back with negative results, it put a dampener on our positivity.

I still tried to be optimistic.

Two down, four more to go.

"Dispatch the third team," I rubbed my hand on my forehead, straightening up. I put my finger on the warehouse to the South of our borders, indicating our next target. We had already scouted the ones in the North since they were near where the camp was and came up empty-handed.

Hayden nodded and walked out.

The Alphas had finally given the power to us. It was like they were only waiting for us to get our bearings to hand over the main work. Yes, Cecelia was missing and she was the priority but they still had huge packs to run. Cecelia was one person. They had hundreds of other Weres counting on them. Since the rest of us didn't have that kind of responsibilities and obligations, we were giving our all to finding Cecelia.

Julian, Aaron, and some guy named David were studying the warehouse layouts they found lying in the pack libraries and archives. They were strategizing. Thinking of every in and out. Battle plans. Attack plans. Pros and cons. They were our masterminds.

Noel and I were making sure we had pinpointed every probable place Cecelia could be held at. Hayden was our coordinator and was helping any party in need. Till then we'd gone through five detailed maps of the surrounding territories.

The girls were making sure we didn't pass out from working without food and water for too long. They helped keep us calm, gave us strength, and pointed out flaws in our plans. They were also our mediators. They were finding and reading the books they found on witches in the libraries. We were trying to find a way to counter a witch's magic without another witch's magic.

"Ashton, if you don't sleep now, I'll knock you out." Riley threatened when I let out yet another yawn. I scowled.

It had been a little over twenty-four hours since Cecelia had been taken. An excruciating twenty-four hours wherein Xavier hadn't stopped whining and I hadn't had a wink of sleep. My eyes were burning a little but I had stubbornly kept awake studying the territories and maps.

"I'm fine," I dismissed.

"Ashton," she growled. I growled back.

"You want to find her, don't you?" Bree asked.

"What kind of a question is that? Of course, I do!" I snapped.

"Then sleep. You will be useless to us if you can't function because of your sleep-deprived state." She said calmly.

"I won't," I protested. "I'm perfectly functional."

"Go sleep, man," Noel joined. "I'll wake you up when the third scout team comes back."

I scowled harder. They were ganging up on me.

"Fine," I gritted out, understanding that they wouldn't give up. They nodded in satisfaction. "I just have to finish reading this book once."

They groaned in defeat.

*****************************

"Get up, you corpse!" Someone hissed in my ear loudly. My head shot up from the table where I had passed out and I winced as my forehead hit a hard object.

"OW!" Hayden yelped.

"What the hell?" I mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. Bashing brains with Hayden had made me alert and chased away all the residue sleep quite effectively. I didn't even know how and when I fell asleep.

"Someone is here and they are asking to see you," he said, rubbing his head.

"Who?" I asked. "Never mind." I changed my mind, smoothing out the page that had folded itself at an awkward angle from when I slept on it. "I don't have the time. I need to get ba-"

"She says she knows where Luna is," he cut me off. My hands stopped moving and I gave Hayden my full attention. He looked serious.

"Who is she?" I asked, getting up.

"She won't tell us," he began leading me to wherever she was.

"I see," I frowned to myself. Well, as long she helped. He pushed the door to the office on the ground floor that Alpha Rivers had given us temporarily. He was using his home office. I must say, for someone whose daughter had been kidnapped, he was quite calm. Except for the one time when he left us in charge and threatened to kill me if I failed to get Cecelia back. But then, he was the Alpha and he couldn't afford to freak out.

Sitting on the chair facing the door was a young girl. She was in her late twenties, maybe? She had a smart and crisp appearance. I felt as if something was off about her and Xavier agreed. He became alert, ready to act at a moment's notice.

"My Beta says you can help?" I skipped the pleasantries, taking my seat at the head of the table. Hayden preferred to remain standing at the door which was good because right then I wanted to snap his neck.

"I can," she confirmed, the side of her lips quirking up just a little.

"So?" I prompted, keeping my eyes on her.

"I know where they are," she said simply, crossing her legs and putting her joined hands on them. She leaned back in the chair, a picture of ease.

"I see," I nodded. "And why would you help?"

"Because I want to."

"And I'm an Omega," I scoffed. "I want the truth," I stated, glaring at her.

"I am tel-" She began.

"I can have you thrown in the prison cells in a second," I warned, cutting her off. "If I were you, I'd not lie again."

'What are you doing?' Hayden asked, scowling. 'She knows, Ashton! She can he-'

'You guys are stupid,' I snapped in reply. 'Who let her in so easily without permission?!'

'What the fuck? What's wrong with you? She's offering to help!'

'Smell her. She is not a wolf and she doesn't smell completely human either. We don't know what she is. And you lead her to the very heart of the pack?!' I growled through the link. I didn't take my eyes off the woman in front of me to look at Hayden's reaction.

"I mean no harm," she raised her hand in a gesture of peace, the smile not leaving her face.

"What are you?" I snarled, dropping all pretense, and hitting my palms against the office desk. She didn't seem in the least bit affected by the loud bang that echoed at the impact.

"You have a sharp nose," she commented, examining her nails. "And I don't just refer to its shape. Can't say the same for the pack, though."

"Tell me or I swear I'll kill you right here." I bristled.

"Alphas and their tempers," she rolled her eyes uncaringly. "If there's one thing that hasn't changed in the last three hundred years, it's that."

"Don't test me," I snapped, barely holding Xavier back.

"You really want to know?" Her eyes glinted mischievously when they met mine again. My eyes blackened as Xavier lurched forward.

"Fine, I'll tell you," she grinned. "I'm a witch."

I was pretty sure I heard Hayden's jaw crash to the floor.

*********************************

A/N:-

Lol, a new chapter is out. I hope you like it.

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