Alpha's Fate (Black Moon Saga Book 2)

Chapter 1: The Prisoner and the Witch

Present Day

David makes his way inside the witch’s cottage from her back garden, carrying bundles of carrots and potatoes. He is surprised to see her lying down in her bed with her eyes closed, her breathing steady and shallow. She rarely sleeps, and when on occasion she does, she always makes sure that he has been returned to his shackles first.

He gently deposits the vegetables on the counter by the stove, then makes his way to the chair by the door to think and consider for a moment. He knows this could be a trap, but he also wonders if the witch is finally trusting him. He has been working for some time to convince her that he stays here willingly and would not betray her if given the chance. He pretends not to remember any of what she has done to him, or his life from before, opting to play the part of someone whose mind has been addled by too much compulsive magic. Yet, he also does not want to get too eager and act before the time is right, jumping at the first opportunity to leave even if it is not ideal.

He does not remember much of his journey to Black Moon territory, but he does remember waking up in this very cottage, sore, confused, and with a massive headache. He also remembers when the guardsmen and the Alpha’s brother came a few days later and forcibly took him away to be kept in the dungeon cells. The conditions there were terrible, but he knew he would never stand a chance against the guards if he were ever to try to escape. He has never been a strong man, especially not in his advancing age, but he is a clever one.

He decided his best bet was to be obedient, compliant, and not give them any reason to believe he would try to escape. In time, he won their trust and was given the opportunity to choose a work assignment. He convinced them to let him put his knowledge of magic to good use, and the Alpha decided to let him assist their resident witch for a few hours a couple days a week. The rest of the time they made him join the other Elders in their heavily guarded residence.

He came to find out that the Elders here are not as revered and respected as he is used to back home at Spirit Moon. They are kept in a building not unlike a nursing home on the outskirts of town where they will not bother the Alpha with their useless opinions and advice. They are not trained and educated like where he is from, just simply locked away and left to live out the rest of their years separate from the rest of the pack. It is a sorry existence and was his first real look at how different this pack is from his own.

In time, the witch seemed to grow fond of him, and he convinced her to appeal to the Alpha to let him stay in her cottage and assist with more of her work. His intent was to get himself someplace with fewer guards around, but he underestimated her power and how far she would go to keep him under her thumb.

Initially she cast compulsions on him to keep him obedient and trustworthy, not unlike the first time they met after she lured him away from the home he shared with his family. But recently, she decided that physical restraints would be enough to keep him, since he had shown no intent of trying to escape. In fact, he seemed to enjoy the work she gave him.

The witch interrupts his thoughts by suddenly speaking out, “David, I know your intentions. I have come to care for you, and for this reason, I would urge you reconsider.”

David stills in his chair but says nothing. Now he is wondering if the witch can hear his thoughts. He also wonders whether she has been onto him this entire time.

“I know you do not care for me, and I do not expect it,” she says as she sits up from where she has been lying in the bed and slowly lifts her gaze to meet his.

She hears a sharp intake of breath as their eyes meet and recognizes with sadness that making eye contact with him is something he still finds unsettling after all these years.

“But I feel you should know that what you seek cannot be gotten that way,” she continues. “There is the door, and if you choose to leave, I will not stop you, but just know that your freedom does not lie that way.”

She gestures to the doorway of her small cottage and holds his gaze, trying to sense what he might be thinking now.

He regards her for some time, glancing to the doorway after a few moments have passed and wondering what she is on about now.

“What do you mean?” he says wearily with a sigh.

He finds it odd that she is speaking to him this directly, because usually she seems to prefer trying to trick or trap him in word play and riddles, relishing in how he pretends to struggle to figure her out. He dreads what it could mean that she seems to be taking this conversation so seriously.

“I know you asked to be sent here not because it was your preferred assignment, or because you hold any sort of attachment to or fascination with me, but because you felt that in time, you would find some opportunity to escape my custody and return to your family. I also know that you think that day is today, and I had considered just letting you go and think you had won. But I have decided I won’t do that. I have decided that you should know what lies ahead for us both, and know that if you are patient, what you seek will come to you.”

He decides that since his jig is up, he might as well just be straight with her.

“Well, then tell me,” he demands. “Why should I trust you, the woman who is responsible for me being here in the first place? And how do you know all this?”

She smiles at him sadly, and he watches as her gaze loses focus and she seems to be allowing herself to drift away in her mind. He is quiet and tries to remain patient, now understanding that even when she seems not to pay him any mind, she is watching him somehow. He also can’t help but wonder what else she knows.

After a few moments she speaks, her eyes still focusing on some point off in the distance.

“I haven’t always been this way, you know. At one point I was merely young, lonely, and naïve. I yearned so desperately for approval that I let people persuade me into using my magic in a way that felt a bit off even as I dabbled with it but seemed harmless to me at the time. People would come asking for simple potions and poultices, which I knew could be used to harm others but liked to tell myself would be kept reserved for protection. Try as I might, though, I never could convince anyone to look at me as anything more than a tool to achieve their goals. I was not a person; I was a solution to certain problems, and I came at a reasonable price. That was all anyone ever wanted of me.”

“Then one day,” she continues, “I wandered near the Black Moon territory and was immediately scooped up by patrols and taken to their Alpha. I was quite accustomed to working with werewolves, but this place was different. The Alpha took me quite seriously, and though he did not regard me any differently than anyone ever had, still wanting only to use my talents to further his own motives, his ambitions were so much greater than all the rest. He did not want trinkets and potions and tricks, he wanted spells. He wanted results – real, tangible, observable results. He set me up in an actual home and started inviting me to important meetings to offer my advice and experience. He began asking me to do things that were difficult for me to come to terms with, at first, but I didn’t know how to turn down the first real opportunity to grow, learn, and be part of a community, even if it meant living outside their borders and only showing my face when someone thought I could be useful.”

She smiles wistfully, seeming to remember something bittersweet from her past.

“And then there was the Beta of the pack, the first man to ever look at me the way a man should look at a woman,” she reveals, her voice filled with sadness and longing. “He desired me, I knew it from the first time I met him, and something drew me to him as well. I later came to understand that this likely means I am his true mate, though the werewolf blood in me is not enough to truly give me a wolf aspect, and without this I was not built to recognize a mate in the way a true werewolf would be. Eventually we let those feelings get the better of us, and though he had no intention of leaving his wife and chosen mate for me, we did manage to produce a daughter together. She could have been the light of my life, but once I felt her quickening in my womb, I began to realize the true depths of my power.”

“You could say that my gift is my burden,” she continues as her tone shifts to something colder and fiercer, “because ever since then I have carried the weight of the future with me always. I dread going to sleep, because most nights I dream of what could be, and what will be, and am cursed to spend my life looking out for the signs that will tell me which way things seem to be going. And once the Alpha found out about this ability of mine, well, my plans to leave my daughter to be raised by her father and steal away in the night to prevent my inevitable meddling in her destiny dissolved into thin air. He could not let someone with this gift get away and risk it falling into the hands of his enemies. His son has only continued that legacy, not content to merely follow in his father’s footsteps. He seems to view everyone as his enemy, and every place as his to conquer.”

She gives a short, bitter laugh and adds, “I wish I had seen that when I made the ill-fated decision to construct the future I wished to see come to pass. You see, it was me who laid the curse upon your wife. More specifically, I laid it upon her mother’s breast during her mating ceremony. I do not know why they felt it necessary to have such an open and public celebration of their joining. Such an event was only begging for someone like me to come along and taint their future together, and I didn’t even have any motive to see them fail when so many others probably did. I only wished to secure my daughter’s future, seeking to prevent her from following in my miserable footsteps. Because you see, when I had my first dream of the future, it told me that she had only one real chance at love, and it was your wife standing in her way.”

She shakes her head at herself, reflecting on the unfortunate combination of her own arrogance and naiveté that contributed to that ill-fated decision long ago.

“But now I realize that I may be the architect of our current reality,” she admits aloud at long last. “Perhaps if I had not intervened, and your bride had been an acceptable mate for her true mate, she could have tempered his nature and helped guide him in a gentler direction. Nevertheless, destiny always corrects itself. My meddling interventions may have knocked it astride briefly, but it will soon be on course once again.”

David has listened to her tale, not quite knowing how she hopes or expects him to feel about any of it. Does she seek his pity? His understanding? His forgiveness? That she will surely not be getting.

He clenches the seat of his wooden chair so tightly that his fingers are beginning to lose sensation as he attempts to hold back his rage. She speaks so nonchalantly of the ways in which she has harmed so many others, his own beloved included. He tries to hold onto his thought that without her intervention, he may never have met Abigail, taking a breath to calm himself.

Then he asks, “How do you figure it will be on course after all you’ve done?”

“Because, sweet David,” she coos as she looks him directly in the face at last, “there is a war coming. The tides of power are shifting. I have seen it, and I can feel it. I could warn the Alpha that his daughter is coming for him, but I will not. I do this for you, David, for all that I owe you and all that you have suffered. And if you are patient, I will help you get to your family when the time is right.”

“You expect me to sit here and be patient when you just told me my daughter is about to march herself right into the lion’s den and throw herself in harm’s way?” he questions her incredulously.

The witch smiles at David’s revelation that he is well aware of the true paternity of the girl he has always considered his daughter. She knows he is clever but has always wondered how ignorant he might be of their situation. It pleases her to find that he is as sharp as she is.

“And you expect me to believe that it will not be you they place in her path?” he continues. “If you really want to help me, don’t do it. Come with me, now, and let’s leave this place.”

“David, I cannot leave here. Not while the Alpha still has my daughter. I understand that you want to protect your family, but I must do the same for mine. I can assure you of one thing, though. It will not be me that the girl must contend with. I will not help the Alpha in this way, and not because I pretend to be honorable.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I will be far more concerned with fighting off the most powerful warlock this world has ever seen. His power may even be greater than my own, and he is coming for me and me alone. I won’t even get a chance to think about harming the girl you call your daughter.”

David inhales sharply, liking the sound of this war less and less. “How do you know for certain that this future is assured?”

She gazes at his chair for a moment, as though he is not sitting there and she is seeing beyond him. “Because, David, you confirmed what is to come when you decided to try to leave tonight.”

He nods to himself, seeming to accept that response. “And if I still choose to leave?”

“There is the door, as I said. I do not wish to influence your decision any further. You have heard my plea, now do what you will. I owe you that much.”

David sits for a moment regarding the witch, mulling over all she has revealed, before finally deciding to make his way to the kitchen to make them some supper.

“I was thinking of making some stew,” he informs her calmly, all hints of his emotional reaction to their discussion now gone.

“Would you prefer I use up the rest of that venison, Hazel, or are you in the mood for duck tonight?” he asks.

She smiles at his back, silently thanking the universe that he has chosen to heed her warning.