CONNOR

"Will this harm Connor or Catrina in any way?" asks Fenris, ever the King, remaining alert to the consequences of such a deed whereas I am willing to believe Dominic. He's her godfather and definitely a well-wisher which makes him worthy of my trust.

"No. Since Connor is giving his blood to me as a selfless deed to search for his soulmate, he doesn't have to be worried. But he'll be bonded to me for a lifetime. I'll be able to locate him anytime, even when I go feral," he answers Fenris who shrugs at his last words.

"If you track down Connor when you are feral, chances of saving you are more and even if we can't save you, I'll personally come and behead you to avoid a bloodbath," answers Fenris, coolly.

I watch their interaction, not understanding why Dominic would go feral in the near future.

"I have no problem with this. You can locate me anytime you want," I add, hoping to divert the conversation from the death threats that are being thrown randomly and focusing on the matter at present.

Dominic grunts at my response whereas Fenris just nods his head at me, giving me the signal of going ahead with the ritual.

"Connor. Stand facing towards the north. Turn your head towards the sky. And don't wince at all," instructs Dominic while walking towards me. I quickly follow his instructions and wait for him to come and stand in front of me.

"Nora. What do you suggest? Jugular or wrist?" asks Dominic, his face appearing as if carved from stone. His seriousness tells me that this is going to hurt a lot.

"Let's try with the wrist first. Just take a big sip. That's enough. Nothing more," replies Nora.

A vampire is forbidden to drink any supernatural being's blood. Supernatural blood is very potent, like a decade old scotch. If a vampire drinks from a supernatural, chances of the vampire sucking him dry are very high which is very painful to the supernatural being. A lot more than a human's experience of being sucked dry. A vampire usually creates a haze for the human so that it doesn't hurt much but a supernatural is immune to a vampire's illusion, so it won't work on me, causing this to hurt much more.

That's the reason why there are strict restrictions put upon such consumption.

Only when the representatives of the vampire, the respective shapeshifter and the Witch heiress is obtained, such a ritual can happen.

Fenris will play the role of pulling Dominic back when he becomes high with my blood. My blood has Catrina's essence in it so he can track her, locate her within minutes just by following the thread of her essence.

It's illogical to me but I was once told by my mate, there's no logic when God's magic at work.

I guess this is where the Goddess is working, to give me a sliver of a path, to follow and save my mate.

Sending a quick pray to have my mate back, safely in my arms, I stand still when Dominic takes hold of my upturned wrist and bends toward it. His fangs touch the inside of my wrist first, which feel like a tiny prick but the moment he starts sucking my blood, is when I feel the first lash of searing pain.

My wolf roars in pain at such an abhorrent action which causes my knees to buckle a bit as the pain overwhelms me. Gritting my teeth, I take a deep breath, waiting for him to be done.

Somehow, keeping my feet planted on the ground, I take deep breaths, tolerating the pain. I watch Dominic as he sucks from my vein. His eyes are closed but it's like he's not ready to let me go.

I think one big sip must be done by now, but the bloodsucker isn't ready to let go. The people around me also realise that, maybe, because Fenris walks towards Dominic and keeps a hand on his shoulder. The vampire shrugs of my King's hold indicating that the vampire is indeed high.

"Back off, Dominic," urges Nora but the vampire pays no attention.

"Back off," instructs Fenris this time but still the vampire's eyes stay closed.

"BACK OFF, DOMINIC," shouts Fenris, this time which causes the vampire to buckle on his feet but somehow, he dodges that command too.

"I SAID BACK THE FUCK OFF," roars Fenris and pulls at Dominic at the same time which luckily gets me out of the vampire's fangs.

My head spins with all the blood loss when Dominic lets me go suddenly but I keep myself balanced, not wanting to show any kind of weakness in front of the now inebriated Vampire King.

"Relax."

I hold my wrist as the wound closes very slowly, the pain only subsiding now as I watch Fenris keep an eye on the Vampire King. Dominic's eyes are closed, with no hint of blood on his mouth or face.

"Your wound is slow in healing," observes Nora to which I can only nod. It's because my wolf's getting weaker. I found my mate but didn't claim her, it makes me weaker since I don't have my mate near me, to anchor me.

We all watch as Dominic gets down on his haunches and then as he tumbles forward a bit, going on his knees now. Fenris goes to support him, maybe, but Dominic raises a hand to stop him, effectively making him freeze in his steps.

A few minutes pass by but Dominic is still on his knees, with his eyes closed and his head upturned. Suddenly, he moves. I would've missed the movement had I blinked.

"She's further in the dark forest," he whispers but we hear him clearly.

Within a second, Dominic takes off at vampire speed which leaves us with no other choice than to follow him. Fenris shifts into his wolf the next moment, me following suit. Nora glides on the air beside me whereas Calum follows faster acting as a mediator between Dominic and Fenris, informing Fenris about Dominic's thoughts.

"Dominic says she's somewhere underground," Fenris conveys his thoughts to me through our Alpha link. I growl, releasing the pent-up frustration and take off at a faster pace now, almost matching Fenris's speed when he links me again to inform that they are somewhere near the Crimson Shadow.

"See. I told you," I link to Fenris to which he replies by a snarl. I snarl back.

"Be ready. There are lots of traps here. Dominic is bounding through the trees but we are forced to run through the ground," links Fenris and I agree. Grunting in confirmation, we both spread out through the forest, taking a little help from Fenris's witch kin to make it to the castle. Usually, the winds ruffling over my fur calms me but today, the thought of my mate in the hands of a rogue and on the verge of being defiled by him has me and my wolf both on the threshold of losing our patience.

Pushing away, the image of my mate's scared face, I turn my head upward and spot Dominic through my excellent night vision. He slows down, which signals us to slow down too. He then motions us to be quiet with a finger on his lips.

"Be quiet and look around. There's a rogue on the entrance of the huge debris," links Fenris and I immediately shift my gaze to assess the debris. As informed, I do spot a rogue standing guard on the debris, looking out for us, probably.

I look around him and find another rogue. There are two more in wolf form.

"There are many rogues here," I link to Fenris and I watch from the corner of my eyes as he nods his wolf head.

"The rogues are here but Catrina's not in that debris. Dominic says she's somewhere underground," replies Fenris, linking back to me.

"Was there any hideout in the castle? Any chances Xanthos found it?" I link to Fenris, not looking at him but keeping an eye on the rogues and looking out for any new movements.

Fenris does the same but I hear his reply in my head, ringing clearly, "No, the last time I saw this castle, it was in ruins. It's the same. But Elder Raoul had once said that my grandpa had a huge underground dungeon. Maybe Catrina's there?"

"Let's check out then. Lead the way, Korol," I link to Fenris and hear his grunt in reply. A few seconds pass by. Maybe he's talking with Dominic.

"Cover your ears," links Fenris. I immediately do, thinking about the why of this action. As a reply, Dominic lets out a huge shrill whistle. It causes the rogues to go haywire and then because of the high frequency of the whistle, the rogues collapse forward, leaving the ruined castle defenceless.

"Okay, now let's go."

I trot along with others, making sure to have a thorough look at the forest. I've never seen a forest as thick as this one. It's daytime but there's not a single ray of sunlight able to touch the ground because of the heavy foliage. The snow-covered ground is light to walk on and I make sure to cover my tracks with the back of my tail. The rest of the tracks are covered by Nora.

As we get closer to the debris, I spot an opening as if a groove through the snow. It's a small one but there are paw prints around it which increases my suspicion.

"Dominic says we should move toward the back of the castle," links Fenris but I don't actually want to go to the back of the castle debris.

I grunt to catch Fenris's attention, motioning with my head towards the groove when he turns to look at me.

"What do you think?"

"Yes, I think we can get some clue here," links Fenris and then turns towards Calum, I guess to let him know. A few minutes later Dominic lands right beside me, startling me. I growl at his sad attempt of threatening me but let it go when the vampire stumbles a bit.

My blood's still pumping through his veins, I guess.

Dominic observes the said groove and then goes down on his knees to put his head inside the groove.

I watch Nora from the corner of my eye as she's closed her eyes, trying to track my mate and her twin. She opens her eyes after a few seconds, but from her resigned expression, I know that she cannot track them.

There's some black magic blocking her powers from tracking them down. Witch business is a tricky business!

I am getting impatient now, waiting for Dominic to get his head out of the groove and diving straight into it and searching for my Cat.

"She's in here," whispers Dominic and that's all the encouragement I need, as I shift back to my human form. Pulling the pair of jeans that I tied around my neck, I quickly pull them on and watch as Fenris does the same.

"I'll go first," says Dominic. I don't want to agree but since it's the most logical thing to do at this moment, I let it slide and follow Dominic when he crawls into the groove.

As soon I crawl in the groove, it gets pretty tight but I squeeze my way in through the snow and then suddenly I hear a thump. As I am in motion when I hear it, I am surprised when the next thump is caused when I land on my ass on the hard ground.

"The Fuck?" I whisper, getting up on my feet while watching Fenris tumble into the cavern. He quickly gets up and catches Nora when she's about to fall and then lets Calum make his grand entry of sliding gracefully in the cavern.

Mind-reading mudak!

"Where to?" I ask instead focusing on Dominic as he shakes his head a bit before focusing on the three ways inside this cavern.

"There are people in all three of these caverns. And I sense Catrina in two of these. One is fresh and the other is stale. There's another scent, but I don't recognise it."

I wait but my patience is running thin so without waiting for any one of these people, I quickly make my way towards the cavern where Dominic pointed the fresh scent to be coming from.

"Connor. Be calm. Watch out," commands Fenris who is quick to follow me, but Dominic is still at the entrance looking at the other cavern from where that unfamiliar scent is coming from.

"Dominic. We anyway have to free every prisoner. The person whom you are scenting will be one of them. We'll come back for them." Fenris tells Dominic in a hushed tone. Dominic looks at Fenris for a long assessing moment and then clears his throat a bit. Then as if nothing weird happened, he slips into his carefree charm while passing by me. I can't help but wonder how he can shift his mood in milli-seconds.

"Come on, Alpha. Your mate's this way," says the vampire, startling me out of my thoughts.

I mutely follow him through the dark cavern, my instincts on alert and my wolf on the edge. I sense so many rogues, the smell of rotten egg getting on my nerves now as we make our way deeper and deeper into the cavern. It's dark here, pitch black but at a certain distance, there's a candle kept.

One of the candles catches my attention as I watch that it's burning even when there's no wax present in it. I tug on Nora's cloak and point out toward the candle. She frowns and then looks at it. Fenris and Dominic stop too, to observe the candle now.

"My goodness! This is not an ordinary candle. It's a witch candle," she mutters.

"There's no candle here, Nora," I speak, my voice rumbling in the cavern.

"Yes, a witch candle means that it burns with a spell, not with fuel. Only a fire witch can do that," she whispers, giving out some new information about witches.

"I didn't know that there are fire witches," mutters Fenris to which Calum shakes his head and mutters, "there are many other types of witches, some having very eerie powers. They usually slip into black magic."

"Let's move ahead," whispers Dominic and once again we start walking behind Dominic.

"There are steps here," he whispers and we all immediately brace ourselves to go down the cavern.

Again, there's a candle here because of which we can see two diversions but Dominic mutely goes to the left without even looking at the right.

The more we walk deeper into the cavern, the more my wolf goes on the edge. At a particular point, my wolf has started snarling inside my mind, as if some sort of intuition.

"How much more time?" I ask, feeling the same fear as my wolf.

"Her essence is fluctuating," he says at the same time Calum whispers from behind me, "I hear someone."

I quickly turn around to see Calum concentrating hard on the voice he's hearing in his mind. He raises his hand and Fenris immediately supports him as the Wizard loses his balance.

"What is it?"

"It's a female. She's screaming. She's in pain but she's thinking too loudly," whispers Calum.

"What's she thinking?" I ask, hoping that the thoughts would give an idea if they belong to my Cat.

"She's calling you. She's hurting and she's worried for Cayden," breathes Calum and then opens his eyes to look at me in the eyes, the knowledge of my mate's presence in this cavern being confirmed in his gaze.

~~~~

Thank you for reading!!

Catrina's calling for Connor and worried about Cayden? What do you think will happen next? 

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