Chapter 4 Suspicious accusations

~Kael’s POV~

“Aunt Mia, Auntie please, you said you were only going to lose strength, not leave me alone.” Her voice cracked as she dropped to her knees beside the lifeless body. She clutched at the woman’s clothes, sobbing with a raw grief that tore through the silence around us. Watching her broke something deep inside me. The sight was too familiar, too close to an old wound I had buried long ago. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered through her tears. “I have nobody else.”

“Crazy witch using magic on me. You really want to die,” Dagan muttered under his breath, his face twisting into a grimace of rage. He stormed toward her, his every step filled with fury, and before I could stop him, he grabbed her roughly by the arm and yanked her away from the body.

“Leave me alone! You all killed my—” Her words cut off abruptly when Dagan’s palm met her cheek with a vicious slap. The sound cracked through the air like thunder, and the echo of it burned in my chest. The pain that rippled across her face seemed to travel through me and Rudy both. A violent urge to rip my beta apart surged within me, my blood boiling under my skin. Goddess help me, if I did not step in now, I would spill blood, and it would not be an enemy’s.

“How dare you use magic on me, bitch?” Dagan growled, his voice low and venomous. “The fact that I pleaded for your life to be spared does not mean I can’t end you right here.”

She turned her face slowly, defiance shining through her tears. Instead of fear or submission, I saw something else in her eyes, something fierce and unyielding. The fire burning in them was the kind only seen in someone who had already lost everything and had nothing left to fear. The sudden switch marvelled me.

“Go ahead and kill me, coward,” she spat, her voice shaking but steady. “Is that not what you are known for? One slap is not enough. Go on, hit me again if that is what it takes to make you feel alive and powerful.”

Her words struck like lightning, bold and reckless. Dagan’s nostrils flared, and his hand lifted once more, ready to strike her again.

But not this time.

“Don’t hit her again, Dagan,” I ordered through our mind link. His head snapped toward me, his expression contorted in disbelief as I approached.

“What do you mean, I shouldn’t hit her? Did you see what she just did? Did you hear what she said?” His voice thundered in my mind.

“I saw and I heard,” I replied evenly, my calm tone only making him angrier. “She is an important prisoner, as you said earlier. We cannot damage her before we know what use she might serve.”

“What are you waiting for, coward? Kill me! Hit me like you killed my aunt!” she screamed at him, her voice raw and trembling with grief. Her words echoed through the clearing, shattering the last threads of restraint Dagan had left.

“I will take it from here,” I said aloud, finally reaching them. “Let her go, Dagan. She rides with me.”

He hesitated, his jaw tightening, but he obeyed. He released her arm and stormed back to his car, fuming with silent rage. The witch turned her glare on me. Her wrists were half-bound, and I realized she had escaped their grip earlier while she was being tied up, leaving one hand still untied.

“Fin,” I called.

“Yes, Alpha,” he responded, running toward me.

“You ungrateful beast,” the witch hissed, directing her fury at him. “I should have ignored you and left you to die like the animal you are. You live because of my mercy, yet you bring soldiers to destroy my home and ruin my life. Mark my words, Fin, I will make sure you find no peace in this life or the next.”

“Not one word, Fin,” I said through mind link, noticing how her curses rattled him. “Just tie her up.”

“Is that all you can do? Tie me up?” she said to me, her voice trembling but sharp with defiance.

I wanted to laugh at her audacity, but I didn’t, at least not right there. I believed she didn't know who I was, the reason why she was feeling so audacious. If she knew who I truly was, she would never have spoken so boldly.

“Seal her lips,” I instructed Fin, my patience thinning. Her running mouth may eventually force me to do something I would regret.

After the tape was put in place, I turned to her, gripping her arm firmly. “I will hurt you if you test me,” I warned in a low voice. “So, for your sake, do not test me. And do not bother trying to use magic on me. It is useless.”

She glared but offered no protest. I guided her to my car, and the journey back to Iron Fang began. She remained silent the entire way, her gaze fixed out the window, her face expressionless. But I could not relax, and neither could Rudy.

“What if she’s our mate?” Rudy asked inside my head.

“She’s not,” I replied quickly, though uncertainty gnawed at me.

“She feels like our mate,” he persisted. “She feels right.”

“She’s not, Rudy.”

“You felt it too,” he pressed. “You can’t deny this is what it feels like to meet our mate.”

“Yes, I felt it,” I admitted reluctantly. “But she’s a witch. Our mate cannot be a witch. People say she’s powerful. It must be her magic playing tricks on us.”

Rudy went silent for a while, but I could feel him brooding.

“I want to know her name,” he finally said with a sigh.

“Yeah,” I murmured. “Me too. We’ll find out soon enough.”

When we arrived at the pack house, the members gathered as always to welcome us back. I stepped out of the car, circled to her side, and helped her out. Holding her by the arm, I led her toward the dungeon. Her tears had dried, but her silence felt heavier than any words she could have spoken.

“Witchcraft is forbidden within these walls,” I warned in a low voice close to her ear. “If you want to stay alive, you will refrain from using it here.” I gave her a light shove into the cell and turned away.

Dagan stood by the entrance, his glare so sharp it could have sliced through stone.

“You are going to burn a hole through her skull if you keep staring like that,” I told him without breaking stride.

He followed after me. “I can’t believe you humiliated me in front of everyone because of her,” he said, his voice filled with disbelief and wounded pride.

“Stopping you from killing her is what you call humiliation?” I asked without slowing down. I already knew his answer. Dagan’s pride had always been second only to mine, and for once, it felt like a burden instead of a strength.

“I wasn’t going to kill her,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “I was only going to teach her a lesson for speaking back to me.”

“A lesson that might have killed her,” I countered, finally turning to face him. “You need to control your temper, Dagan. Especially when dealing with someone you call an asset. Leave her alone. You can have your vengeance after we get what we need from her.”

He went silent, his expression unreadable. I thought the matter was settled so I resumed walking away. But then he spoke again, his voice low and accusing, and his words made me halt once more.

“You hate witches, Kael. So why do I get the feeling you’re protecting this one more than necessary? Is there something I should know?”