I throw up as soon as I hit the floor of the Pack House.

"Luna," Knox breathes in relief once I'm done hurling the contents of my stomach from being thrown into the in between without a tether.

"Killian," I say in horror, looking at Knox. "He forced me to make the oath. It was an Alpha Command, he wouldn't... I tried..."

Knox looks at me in despair. "He... He showed us what was happening through the mindlink once he teleported us out. We saw what happened."

"The mindlink," I say, and try reaching out to Killian, but my thoughts are sent into a void.

"It cut out once the oath was made," Knox says quietly. Just like the witches had done with the other wolves they stole.

"We have to go back," I insist, but as I say that, a sharp pain attacks my skull, and I inhale sharply, grabbing my head that feels like it's splitting in two.

"You made an oath," Knox says calmly, no doubt trying to curb my panic. "If you try breaking it, you'll die."

I look around, seeing only the circulus around me. "Where is everyone else?" I ask in confusion, noting the lack of vampires and Viatoribus. And Ares Alstott, an army of her own.

Gabe says quietly, "He sent everyone back to their homes. The Blood Luna called to tell us to keep her updated."

"He should have sent himself back," I choke on my own words, unable to hold back my tears.

Kage shakes his head at me sadly. "He would have never left you there."

"We have to-" I begin, but the sharp pain comes back, even harder than last time, so strong I fall to my knees in pain.

"Stop," Jae snarls at me. "You can't push the oath, Luna. Don't hurt yourself."

"We can't do nothing," I gasp out, my chest tightening.

But there was nothing we could do.

****

Killian

The pain the witch inflicted on me didn't loosen up after I sent Katrina back home.

Back to our home.

I would have traded my life for hers a million times over. There was never a question about it.

It takes multiple warlocks to carry my paralyzed body to a cellar, the same cellar from Katrina's drawing from all those months ago.

Leo is chained up to the wall, a tube draining his blood slowly. His face is pale, and sweat drips down his forehead. His eyes flash in surprise when he sees me.

I can't move as I'm chained up across from him with silver chains. The witch kept the shield around me, the magic somehow blocking me from opening any portals.

The witch, appearing to be some kind of leader to them, takes my weapons of out my pockets, and uses one of my blades to slash the palm of my hand. I don't move, can't move, as she licks the blood, smiling.

"You have the sweetest blood, Ultimum Viatorem," She coos. "And you're so handsome too."

I try snarling, but no sound leaves me.

"No wonder that Seer recovered so quickly," she muses. "I have to admit, we were not ready for the attack. We waited until we Saw the Seer die to steal the other Alpha. She was not supposed to live."

My wolf claws to get to the surface at the mention of our mate, but the silver chains prevent him from rising.

The paralysis eases up around my throat. "I'll kill you," I promise her.

A shadow casts over her face. "You killed almost all of my coven," She hisses, and kicks me in the stomach, hard. I don't flinch. "Believe me, draining your blood will seem merciful compared to what else I plan to do to you."

She uses the blade against me, stabbing my stomach, unparalyzing me so I feel it. She continued stabbing, and when that didn't get a reaction, she uses magic to break my bones one by one.

It didn't matter what she did to hurt me, my wolf was completely relaxed, knowing that our mate is safe in Crimson Shadow. If anything, I felt relieved knowing that Katrina couldn't come back here due to the oath she made.

So I took the stabs, the broken bones, feeling absolutely nothing but overwhelming relief. Katrina could still get her happy ending. Knox knows to give her complete control over the pack in the event of my death, or in this case, my eternal disappearance.

She'll do a fine job of running the pack.

Slowly, my bones begin to mend, and the stabs wounds close.

The witch is healing me.

A warlock hands her a tube, and she shoves it into my vein, blood flowing out at a steady rate.

"Yes, you are much stronger than the other one," she murmurs, and caresses my face, which makes me flinch when the knives didn't. Being touched by anyone but Katrina makes me recoil.

"So beautiful." She runs her thumb on my cheek, and bile rises in my throat at the horrid feeling. "Maybe I will have other uses for you after all."

I snarl, snapping my teeth at her, but she leans away, laughing gently.

"So much potential in you," she murmurs, and rips open my shirt. "Such a fine male."

One of her nails traces along the lines of my abs, and I tug on my restraints to no avail.

"I would kill to see your future," she admits, still stroking my skin. "But I'll admit, the mystery that surrounds you is quite intriguing. I'm sure that's why the Seer is so taken with you."

I pull harder on the chains at the mention of Katrina, my eyes flashing dangerously.

"Tragic, isn't it?" she continues bemusedly. "The whole time, she was supposed to die, and you were supposed to mourn her. Now she'll mourn you. How's that for irony?"

Better this way, truly. I wouldn't be able to live without her, but she could live without me. Knox would take care of her, we have had this conversation before, in the event of my death, he has agreed to provide for her, to protect her.

With my circulus, she'll be in good hands.

The witch moves the end of the tube out of the bucket, and places it in her mouth. As she drinks, her eyes turn completely black, as Katrina's do when she has visions.

"Incredible," she gasps after drinking. "Yes, you can fuel generations of blood witches."

Every bone in my hand breaks at once.

"Effortless," the witch whispers. "I've never had so much magic available with so little blood."

The sound of a door opening crashes in my ears.

Katrina runs to me, ignoring the witch.

"What are you doing?" I snarl. "Get out!"

"No," she whimpers, taking my face in her hands, looking at me with bright green eyes. "I love you."

The witch breaks her neck with one flick of her wrist.

"No!" I bellow, about to break out of the chains.

The witch laughs, and Katrina's body disappears. "Such a simple illusion." She giggles. "You fell for it so easily! I can see now that mental torture will hurt you much more than physical. How many times can you watch the Seer die before you go insane, I wonder?"

Not many. Seeing that once nearly made me feral. "Let the Alpha go," I say, my voice strained. "That was the deal."

The witch nods. "It was, but I never agreed on when. Now we have two playthings."

I raise an eyebrow. "You should really get a move on."

She frowns. "What?"

"The oath my Seer made was to stop our pack from coming," I explain slowly. "Not everyone there was from my pack. They will come back here."

Panic flashes in her eyes, before she laughs it off. "You dogs are so dumb," she says condescendingly. "You shouldn't have told me that."

"I can help," I say. "They'll be here soon. Drop the shield and I can teleport us out of here."

She rolls her eyes. "I'm not dumb, dog. If I drop the shield, you'll teleport yourself out of here."

"I won't," I insist. "I'll make a blood oath not to teleport anywhere without you."

She looks at a warlock hesitantly.

"Fine," she agrees, distressed by the idea of more wolves returning. "Your language better be clear. You will not teleport yourself out of this house without us."

I make the oath.

"Where do you want to be taken?" I ask calmly.

She gives me exact coordinates, and I nod.

She drops the shield.

I open a portal beneath all of the witches' feet, and they go into the in between.

Leo looks at me in confusion. I ignore him.

I tug on the chains, using all of my strength to break out of them, and Leo blanches.

"How did you do that?" he croaks.

I snort in mild derision. "I'm the strongest wolf on the continent, a true born Alpha. They would have had to use multiple of those chains, and soak them in wolfsbane to contain me."

After shaking the chains off of me, I break apart Leo's with my bare hands, ignoring the way the silver tears apart my flesh, because I need to hurry back to my Katrina. She's probably so worried about me, the poor thing.

Unfortunately, the damage the witches inflicted with the silver prevent me from mindlinking anyone.

"How did you break a Blood Oath?" he asks in shock as he stands shakily up.

"I didn't," I respond, my tone clipped. "I didn't teleport anywhere without them. They teleported without me."

"Where did you send them?"

"Bottom of the ocean."

"Can they use magic to get out?"

"Ocean has salt," I say shortly, not caring to elaborate.

"Thank you," he says quietly after a moment. "I don't know how you found me but... thank you. I'm sorry about... before."

"Katrina found you," I say, trying to keep the venom out of my voice and failing. "I thought we should let you rot but she thought otherwise. You're lucky I care deeply about what my Luna thinks."

He freezes. "What?"

"Katrina is mine," I say darkly. "Can you not smell your former mate's scent mixed with mine? She is my Luna, my mate."

There are a few more choice words I'd love to say to him about the situation, starting with what an idiot he is for choosing Gwen over Katrina, and ending with threatening to rip him and his mate's head off if they ever hurt her again. But, I'm in a rush, so taunting and threatening him will have to wait for another time.

He swallows. "I see. Thank you both."

I ignore him, going through the coven's home, looking for car keys, taking the first two I find. I toss Leo one of them. "Head west. You'll hit your territory eventually," I instruct him, turning away.

"Wait," Leo says hesitantly.

"I have to go," I say, turning around, annoyed. I need to see my mate, immediately.

"Can you..." He hesitates, looking conflicted. "Will you tell her that I'm sorry? That... That I owe her everything."

Narrowing my eyes at him, I nod once, turning away, clicking the alarm on the keys until I find the car.

As much as I want to hate Leo, I just can't.

Because if he wasn't him, I wouldn't be returning to her.

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