The Last Spirit Wolf (Elena Norwood)

-Vera-

I didn't think it was possible, but I went back to sleep in that cold, humid cell after a few hours, uncon

I must have been very tired for this to happen since I spent hours racking my brain, trying to figure out how I had been careful, extra careful in fact. I had taken my birth control as usual all these months and ev Then, I remembered.

I missed one pill the night that Noah and I slept together at House Cerulean.

One night.

One night is all it took.

Everything makes sense now. My wolf not wanting to turn, my weird food cravings, my sleepiness and But now, I have bigger problems to worry about.

I have to protect this baby. If the Witch Mother finds out that I'm pregnant, I don't know what she wou Would she keep it? Would she use it for more sinister purposes? What's even more pressing is, is this My wolf and I have agreed that she'll stay under the veil, using her magic to guard the baby's presence Suddenly, the large metal door opens, creaking against the stone floor and drawing my attention. "Mistress! She's awake!" the cheery, childlike voice says.

When she walks in, I notice she does in fact, look like a child. She has short, curly hair and the appear indeed a powerful witch; and as I have seen, a witch can appear any age she wants to.

"I see," the elegant voice says with a melodic voice.

I hear her before I see her as she descends the stairs.

When the Witch Mother comes into the room, it's striking how beautiful she is. She has long. wavy bla she's actually a

monster.

"Well, you're looking rather well, aren't you?" She says, approaching the cell and looking at me up and down. "Marcus, can you fetch some water?" She calls out.

y guarding my stomach with my arm.

this* had happened.

ore leaving to the Castle; this shouldn't have happened.

lity. The baby should be fine even with me turning to my wolf, since I'm not too far along. Most she wolves don't even find out they're pregnant this early.

agical at all? If that's the case, she might be able to feel him if we're not careful. fully this will keep the Witch Mother from finding out about it.

f a teenager. She looks innocent enough; her appearance is deceiving, however. As she gets closer, the ringing in my ears gets louder, indicating that she is

that reaches her hips. She has porcelain like, fair skin and full, red lips. She's a vision and she walks with such grace and elegance; it's easy to forget that

I hadn't noticed, but a man had come in with her; he had stood at the door as the Witch Mother made her way to me.

He nods, turning around and ascending the stairs.

I say nothing as the Witch Mother paces in front of my cell, never taking her eyes off of me.

This goes on for some time, until Marcus returns with a jug of water and hands it to the Witch Mother.

"Here," she says, opening my cell and placing the water jug in it.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I eye it, but make no move to go towards it. For all I know, that thing could have poison in it.

"Dear, if I wanted you dead, you would be. You are no use to me unless you're alive," she says, closing my cell once again.

I didn't notice her using any type of key when she opened the cell; I make a mental note of that. It might be some type of magical lock or spell.

"If you don't drink this, I'll force you," she threatens, her voice sounding slightly menacing.

It's a reality that I'm dehydrated; I can already feel the symptoms, and if I want to escape, I'm going to have to drink up.

I move slowly towards the jug, watching the With Mother carefully.

Once I grab it, I down it quickly, some of it spilling down my chin, landing on my robe.

It's cold and refreshing.

The With Mother smiles at me.

It's a warm smile. If I didn't know better, it could even lead me to believe she has redeeming qualities. But I have to remember that she doesn't know that I saw how Spirit Wolves are created; how she would t*****e mothers and force them to have babies, to then just discard them like trash.

In her eyes, this is the first time we're meeting, when in fact, I know her better than she'd probably like.

"Now that you're hydrated, we can proceed," she says.

The man, Marcus, comes into my cell. Again, I notice it's the Witch Mother who opens it. Maybe the spell is linked to her only.

Marcus grabs me by the arm, dragging me out of the cell. I don't put much resistance; I have to save my strengths for later.

Once out, he puts me in front of the cauldron in the middle of the room, cuffing my arms and feet to the floor with heavy chains, he lifts me up in the air by the turn of a lever on the wall.

My arms rise over my head, painfully suspended by the chains as he creaks the lever.

I watch the Witch Mother carefully, observing her every move.

She moves towards a table to the side and retrieves a finely decorated knife. It's unlike anything I've seen before, with true white metal and an obsidian handle; but just like my spear, there's a purple crystal dangling from it.

"This, my child, is a *extractionem* knife. Us witches use it to draw out power from each other.

You see, as much as you hurt a witch, we can always come back, unless you use one of these to drain us of our magic for good."

I gulp involuntarily.

"Yes, exactly," she says with a wide smile, enjoying my fear, "now, my dear Harriet here came to us some months ago to allege that she knew a witch outside these walls and that said witch had killed our beloved Mehra, but well, we had our doubts to say the least." She turns to look to her side and I follow her gaze.

Inside one of the cells, lies Harriet, seemingly unconscious.

"She believed we would take her in, you see. Since she no longer had a home to go back to, she assumed that if she came with us with this information, that she could stay here, with us."

To my side, the little girl laughs loudly, hysterically.

"But, well, you mutts are only useful for one thing and one thing only," she finishes, looking up at the hooks dangling from the ceiling.

Sacrifices. She means sacrifices.

"After all, we draw our magic from living beings." I hear her say, but to my surprise, she's standing right in front of me, and not a few paces away like she was a second ago. Quickly, she slashes her knife across my cheek, drawing blood.

I hiss.

For some reason, this wound hurts more than just a regular cut, considering it's a superficial one.

It must have something to do with what she explained about the knife.

She takes the knife to her lips, quickly dabbing her tongue on the blood.

Immediately, her eyes go wide, her mouth slightly gaping. Her white eyes take on a gleam that they didn't have before.

"She was right," she whispers after several moments.

"So, she's the one that killed Mehra?" The man asks.

The Witch Mother nods, absentmindedly licking her lips.

"Marcus, put her back in her cell. Bring her some food and water, she'll need it. Helena, come with me, we have to prepare everything. We start tomorrow."

"Yes, Mistress," they both chime at the same time.

Marcus again pulls on the lever, releasing the chains from the ceiling that kept me dangling.

This time, however, he doesn't remove the cuffs and instead, bring me into the cell dragged by the chains.

"It's finally happening." the Witch Mother muses, pure glee on her face.

I notice both Marcus and Helena are beaming with joy, too.

All I can do for now, is figure out what exactly this bitch wants, how I fit in, and how I'm going to get out of here.