Kage

"Please, eat," I beg Layla, who stares at her plate, her eyes glazing over.

She doesn't answer, just continues staring at the food, her slight body frozen solid.

I have seen Layla in many conditions, happy, sad, angry-Gods, can she get angry- but never catatonic.

"Layla, eat," I snarl, a surprising amount of rage flashing through my body. My emotions have been everywhere, as they do before a wolf becomes of age, and it's even stronger for those of Alpha blood.

She jumps in surprise, her eyes flickering up to meet mine.

"Sorry," I apologize, pulling my shadows back in, forgetting to put a reign on them. "I-I don't know what's gotten into me."

"Do you think Killian is going to be mad at us?" Layla whispers, her eyes devastated. "We failed him. We failed them both."

I sigh, moving to sit in the chair next to her, and pull her into my arms, and as soon as I do, she starts sobbing.

It shatters my heart into a thousand pieces.

"S-She's going to die," Layla sobs, soaking my shirt with her tears. "A-And we couldn't stop it."

"There was nothing we could do," I murmur, rubbing her back, wishing there was anything I could do to save Katrina, to soothe Layla.

"We suck," Layla cries, her body shaking harder.

"Stop," I say, pulling away and grabbing her by the chin, forcing her to look me in the eyes. "We did everything we could. You have to hold it together, Layls. Killian is going to need us to be strong, to be there for him once she passes. You can't fall apart or he will too. Do you understand me?"

Her eyes widen, then dialilate as her lips part slightly.

"Layla," I whisper, my heart racing for some reason.

"I have to go feed my dog!" she says in a high pitched voice, practically flying out of her seat and out of the Pack House.

"What the fuck," I mutter to myself in disbelief, shaking my head slightly. Layla is as confusing as she is gorgeous.

And she's the most beautiful person I've ever seen.

The Pack House is quiet, everyone in the circulus having stayed away to give Killian privacy while Katrina takes her last breaths, but I have to stay to be here for him once she's gone.

My brother would not handle her death well.

The entire pack could feel his pain, his agony, and it was so powerful, so debilitating, if another pack attacked us right now, they would easily be able to slaughter us.

I had no doubt that my brother would try going on a rampage after her death, likely starting with trying to slaughter the vampire coven. Perfectly controlled, my brother, until he isn't.

And Katrina has always been the one person that unravels him.

Rage floods me, my claws extending and sinking into the table, before I rip them out.

This wasn't supposed to happen.

We were supposed to save her.

Layla was right. We suck. We failed them.

Katrina had already said her goodbyes, to all of us individually. Made me promise not to stay in the shadows.

My breathing turns heavy as my chest tightens. Katrina was too good for all of us. Too good for her Sight.

Her worthless fucking Sight. Helpful until it's not, and it always chooses to be useless when we need it most.

Like finding a way for her to stay alive.

And unhelpful in many more ways. The book, the fucking worthless blank book that was supposed to save the wolves.

I'm going to burn that piece of shit.

I stalk angrily into the library, where I stashed the book once we got back from Dorian's that day.

Sure enough, the useless leather crap is sitting on the shelf where I left it.

My claws extended, I rip it out, and open it to tear the pages out one by one.

Only the blank book isn't blank anymore.

It's filled with words.

"What the fuck?" I whisper for the second time today, flipping through the pages, and see a drop of blood on one of them. Katrina's, from when her nose bled on it from a vision.

The blood glows slightly, and my shadows hiss, sensing something magical at work.

What the fuck.

I skim through the pages, until a heading makes my blood run cold.

Seers

I look around me, feeling uneasy for some reason in the empty library, and my shadows wrap tighter around me.

I begin reading the section.

One of the most unique instances of witch offspring is between a witch from a blood coven, and a werewolf.

As previously discussed (Re: Witch Beginnings Section, Paragraph 3) witches can only harness magic by drawing from something of nature. In the case of blood witches, they must drink blood in order to harness their power. If a blood witch attempts to use power without first consuming blood, the results can be catastrophic, often resulting in death.

When a blood witch mates with a werewolf, the offspring is always werewolf, due to the stronger nature of the wolf, that is guaranteed. However, magic remains in the bloodline for all of eternity, no matter how much werewolf blood dilutes it.

Not all offspring have magical powers, and most do not. Rarely will Hekate bestow the gift of magic on a werewolf with blood witch in their bloodline, but when she does, they are referred to as Seers, or Oracles in some cultures.

Seers range in power, some only given incredibly weak Sight (also known as Clairvoyance) in the form of mere intuition, whereas some Seers are incredibly powerful, having full prophetic visions. The stronger the Sight, the more blood the Seer will have to consume.

If the Seer does not consume blood, most times, they unknowingly sacrifice their own blood, usually causing them to decay, and their blood to die, drained from using their Sight. They will die slowly from the inside out, in severe pain. Due to their Sight being Gifted because of their blood coven heritage, the use of Sight always requires a blood sacrifice.

If the Seer does not know to consume blood, and most do not due to their lack of knowledge of their ancestry, then they run the risk of death or insanity. The stronger the Sight, the more likely the Seer is of dying. Therefore, blood consumption is necessary.

My breath hitches in my throat.

I know how to save Katrina.

****

Killian

My thumb wipes away a drop of blood from Katrina's eyes as she sleeps soundly, just as I had done in the office of the Blood Alpha what feels like forever ago.

Her heart beats weaker every time, so softly, even with my Alpha hearing, I strain to hear it.

Before she left a month ago, I asked her how I was supposed to sleep at night without hearing that little heart beating.

I still don't know the answer to that.

Another shallow breath, a faint heartbeat that falters once.

There's not much time left.

Our love was always an hourglass, sand slowly dripping to the bottom as our time ran out.

I just didn't know it.

"I love you," I whisper to her, kissing her cold forehead, greyed as her body gives up on her.

I would find her in the afterlife. She was always meant to be mine, mates or not, she has been mine since I laid eyes on her.

Not even death would change that.

I hear a loud noise, looking up and seeing Kage open the door.

"Blood," Kage says, panting. "That's how we save her. The visions were never about the missing wolves."

"What are you talking about?" I ask, my chest feeling hollow. I have no hope. There was nothing to be done. For once, my little liar has told the truth.

"Feed her some of your blood," Kage says urgently. "Please, there's not time. Just do it."

Sighing, I extend a claw and cut deeply into my wrist to make sure it doesn't close up, and open Katrina's jaw, placing my bleeding wrist into her mouth.

My blood drips into her mouth, and nothing happens, her heart still beating weakly.

"Kage-" I start, sighing.

And then I feel canines sink into my wrist.

I groan in surprise, looking down at her, and her eyes stay closed, but her hands roughly grab my hand and forearm, pushing her canines in further and she drinks it.

"Um, I'll leave the two of you alone," Kage says, tossing a red book on the side table and dashing out of the room.

I no longer need to strain to hear her heartbeat, it beats faster than it has in the last few months.

Color returns to her face, and her red hair is no longer dull and dry, it's glossy and the shade of blood.

I shift uncomfortably underneath her, her bite that once stung like fire now giving me pleasure as she sucks more blood from my body. I bite back a groan, and I'm glad Kage left. When I begin to feel lightheaded from the blood loss, after minutes of her swallowing mouthfuls of my blood, she unlatches her jaw, though I would have let her take it all if she needed it.

Her heartbeat stabilizes, still strong, but no longer sounding like a hummingbird. She sighs deeply, contently as her arms drop on to my chest.

I freeze, unable to believe the possibility that she could be alive.

Until Kage opens our mindlink and shows me everything he read in that damned book.

Thank you, I tell him, words not able to cover the depth of my gratitude . I owe you everything. Thank you, brother.

He doesn't answer, only sharing his feelings of joy.

Happiness spills from my soul so intensely, I know it's flooding the pack link.

In the distance, I hear six wolves howl.

Not in grief.

In celebration.

*********

On that happy note, an announcement: I recently started writing an exclusive book series for the iReader app titled The Shadow Empire. It's a modern romance story that takes place in an urban city crawling with witches, vampires, and of course, werewolves. 

The first few chapters are posted on Wattpad already (I already see some of you reading it haha) and if you like it, you can find it on iReader under the same title/ username. Yes, you have to buy "coins" to read it, but you can also get free coins on the app I believe by watching videos or whatever. 

As always, the completed Between the Dimensions book is on my Patreon. (btw-- you don't have to keep asking if I'm finishing the book on here. I have stated before that I will finish this book on Wattpad. Also, you'll know the book is finished when I post an Epilogue chapter and mark it as completed. When Dimensions is finished then I'll make a post about what's happening with the other books so there's no confusion). 

www.patreon.com/vviticus