The Witch Prophecy

by Mary Goldberger

  “She trusts you more than anyone else,” they told her as they glanced over at the scene they pulled up.

  “Is there a way to save her?” Caden asked urgently.

  They sighed in unison as they told him, “Even the three of us, who see almost everything, can’t answer that question for you as it hasn’t been decided yet.”

  Caden groaned his eyes going back to Abella as he uttered, “She believes I chose Leana over her.”

  “Didn’t you?” The three asked.

  Caden didn’t answer their question and they merely smiled as they said, “We will let you go back now, Alpha Caden. What happens when you return is your choice and no one else’s, we only wanted you to know the truth of our actions.”

  They gave him a shrewd look before they said with humor in their voice, “We know that you have learned what you wanted to know other than what you learned today, and we wait to see how you use that information.”

  Caden nodded his head as they waved their hands. “We wish you luck Alpha Caden, and may you deviate from what the other two have done before you.”

  Caden’s eyes flicked open as he sat up in bed looking around remembering everything that happened as he asked, “Was it a dream?”

  If you think that I’m going back in hiding, his wolf told him sarcastically.

  For the first time in weeks, Caden laughed as he looked down at the book that had fallen to the floor when he sat up and he reached down picking it up.

  Clasping it in his left hand, he got up from the bed and went to the door. Next time, give me warning if you going to force me to sleep, he told his wolf as he went down the stairs.

  Hopefully there won’t be a next time, his wolf told him with a smirk.

  “Hey Caden,” Stone said coming out of his office.

  “I can’t talk right now, Stone, but I will explain when I return,” he told him as he walked out to the porch and putting the book between his teeth he shifted where he stood before taking off through the woods.

  He reached Oden’s small house without delay and he shifted back to his human form taking the book from his mouth before he knocked on the door and walked in not waiting for an entrance command.

  “Oden we need to talk…” Caden’s voice died off as his eyes widened at the scene before him, and his wolf howled in laughter at the passionate embrace between Cicely and Oden that they interrupted.

  “Cicely…you were the witch Oden fall in love with,” Caden asked bluntly in the silence after his sudden entrance.

  “Jessa, be careful,” Timothy called out as Jessa ran up the stairs the minute they walked in Cicely’s house.

  Natalee and Asilynn were right behind her as Gregory laughed and told him while closing the door, “Timothy, she will be fine. She-wolves before her have been pregnant and have fought so why don’t you calm down before she ends up hurting you.”

  “I have to agree with Gregory,” Briac said patting Timothy on the shoulder as he walked around him. “You need to cool it.”

  Timothy scowled at both of them before he shook his head and muttered, “What until your mates are pregnant and then tell me differently?”

  Gregory and Briac laughed at him as they headed upstairs behind their mates, but as they reached the room the laughter slipped from their faces.

  “It looks as if she is wide awake,” Asilynn said as they entered the room.

  Each man couldn’t help the shiver that went down their back at the woman on the bed her eyes wide open and the normal grey almost black, which was eerie in the least.

  “You knew, didn’t you Abella?” Jessa stated sitting on the edge of the bed. “You knew about the prophecy so that’s why you were prepared for Caden to choose his mate over you.”

  “Why didn’t you tell us, Abella?” Natalee asked in a low voice. “We are your friends but why did you keep us out of the loop?”

  “Because we are part of Caden’s pack and she knew no matter how much we liked her, Caden is the one we will side with as he is our Alpha,” Gregory said in the silence that followed Natalee’s question.

  Jessa sat there before she reached out a shaky hand and placed it over Abella’s stomach as she placed the other hand over her own. “They will be cousins, Abella, and I would really like for them to have a chance to meet and be friends like us.”

  Jessa started to sob as Timothy took her in his arms and glanced down at the woman on the bed her body still and unmoving as her eyes stared straight up at the ceiling.

  Someone is crying, Abella thought as she continued drifting along everything dark around her. I guess this is my punishment for not dying that night or thinking that I should be happy.

  She couldn’t see anything around her and she was unable to move as her body felt numb. She knew her eyes were open but she couldn’t see anything although she heard voices not that she could tell what they were saying so she assumed that it was her imagination.

  This crying seemed so real and heartbreaking as if someone’s heart was breaking, but she couldn’t tell who it was.

  “Abella,” a voice said through the darkness.

  Abella heard the voice but she couldn’t see or move in the direction of the voice.

  “Abella,” the voice said again much closer as if it was coming toward her.

  “Yes,” she thought she muttered but she couldn’t be sure about anything at the moment.

  “Do you know what is going on?” The voice asked, and she felt a sense of déjà vu.

  “Mom,” she muttered, and she heard the light laugh.

  “Honey, answer my question. Do you know what is going on?” Her mother asked her again.

  Abella thought about it and she said slowly, “It’s what Uncle Jed was telling me about if my concentration is broken before I fully leave a trance.”

  “It’s called the living dead,” her mother told her. “Unfortunately, it has never truly happened before so no one knows how to reverse it.”

  “So where am I exactly, mom?” Abella asked quietly still hearing the sobbing although it sounded like it was coming from farther away.

  “You are stuck between the living and the dead,” her mother told her softly.

  Abella thought about her mother’s words before she sighed saying, “I guess this is my punishment then.”

  “Oh, honey,” her mother said.

  “Think about it, mom,” Abella argued. “I survived the attack when you and dad died, I survived living with dad’s relatives although they treated me like a piece of trash, and then, to top it all off, I fell in love with a man minus the werewolf portion who had a mate destined for him.”

  “Abella, you know that she isn’t right for him,” her mother countered.

  “She is his mate, mom,” Abella stated in a firm voice a frown on her face frustrated that she couldn’t see her mother.

  “He doesn’t love her,” her mother stated.

  “He chose her, mom, in the end she was the one he chose,” Abella told her.

  “Are you sure about that?” Her mother asked in a cryptic tone, and Abella tried to shake her head but like the rest of her body even that wouldn’t move.

  “Mom, what is the point of this?” Abella said. “I am tired. I just want to relax and not worry about anything anymore.”

  “Do you want to stay here where you can’t move, can’t see, but you can hear what’s going on around you?” Her mother said sharply.

  Abella was silent at those words before she uttered quietly, “No.”

  “I know you thought about moving away as did the other two witches before you, but you knew that you had no other place to go and you were scared of starting over again.”

  “I like it here, mom, but I don’t want to live in a place where I have to worry about running in to Caden and Leana,” she told her mother softly. “I have made friends here that I never dreamed of having, but I don’t want them to have to feel bad when they have to cut me loose or displease their Alpha.”

  “Abella, do you know what an A
lpha order is?” Her mother asked her, and Abella didn’t answer her.

  “An Alpha order is one that no one in the pack can disobey because if they do then they suffer severe pain for disobeying it,” her mother said, and Abella frowned as her mind began to work.

  “But Jessa, Natalee and the others have talked and seen me since the order was given, and yet they didn’t show any signs of pain,” Abella stated softly.

  “What does that tell you my daughter?”

  Abella groaned as she said, “I don’t know. It doesn’t make any sense so why say it if it wasn’t exactly an Alpha order although it sounded like one?”

  “Why do you think...?” Her mother began.

  “Mom, it doesn’t matter because Caden has his mate,” Abella said interrupting her.

  “Such insolence even though you are in this state,” her mother said with a note in her voice that Abella thought was satisfaction although she didn’t understand what her mom had to be satisfied about. “Leana is pregnant.”

  Abella’s heart stopped at those words and she felt like crying but all she said was, “Then I am glad for them.”

  There was silence before her mother said, “It isn’t Caden’s pup.”

  “Why…” Abella stated a touch of anger in her voice before she stopped herself. “It doesn’t concern me.”

  Her mother laughed lowly hearing the lie that echoed through Abella’s voice and Abella stilled as she heard her mother’s voice right next to her ear.

  “You are pregnant, Abella, so are you going to let my grandchild die before they have a chance to live.”

  It was as if her eyes snapped open at those words because Abella thought she saw a light in the distance, and she could hear her mother’s voice in her ear whispering, “Your dad and I want to see our grandchild even though we will never get the chance to hold them, but we want to watch them grow up from our place in the sky above you.”

  The darkness that enveloped Abella began to drift away as something brighter began to enter the place around her, and she wondered what she was in store for now one hand moved slowly and hesitantly to settle over her stomach as wonder and confusion went through her mind.

  Chapter 52

  Caden stood in the doorway his naked body in the shadow as Oden and Cicely drew apart.

  “I didn’t think you would be showing up so soon,” Oden remarked walking over to a pile of fresh cloths and throwing him a pair of shorts which Caden caught before slipping on.

  “I wanted to speak with you as soon as possible,” Caden told him absently his eyes still on Cicely whose face was flushed which he thought was actually cute even on a woman her age as she turned away.

  “Where is Jed?” Caden asked deciding to ignore what he learned for the moment. “Is he still watching over Abella?”

  The flush that stained Cicely’s cheeks vanished as she turned back to him and said, “Caden, there is something I need to tell you.”

  Caden’s eyes narrowed as he walked farther in the room. “Is there truly no way to reverse the state of the living dead,” he asked.

  Cicely stared at him astonishment but before she could answer Oden stated, “The only way to reverse it is if the person who is in the state wants to come out of it. In that state, even though they are caught between the living and the dead, there is no worry, no stress just blackness that shrouds one’s body and over time one’s mind.”

  Caden and Cicely turned to Oden as he sat down at the table watching them closely. “So he is the one you called when that power stealer took you.”

  “He is the one who loves Abella more than anything and would do anything for her no matter what,” Cicely stated without a second thought.

  Oden glanced over at Caden who merely looked back at him and he chuckled raising his hand slightly. “I won’t ask anything else, but I think you may have some questions for me,” he said nodding at Caden, “or should I say us.”

  He indicated Cicely as Caden walked over and sat down at the table also while Cicely went over to the couch and sat down.

  “What happened after you chose your mate?” Caden asked without hesitation. “I remember that man saying something about you killing ‘her’.”

  Oden’s face became a mask as he told him, “Not too long after I accepted my mate, we had a group of hunters attack our pack and in the process some of the pack members died. It was meant as a tactic to piss off some of the pack members to draw them out and away from the pack which it did. Emil, the rogue from that day, was a fighter for me and he was a damn good one but he went in to a rage when he saw what happened. He led a group of wolves to the hunters’ location to exact revenge and although they took their revenge, the main group wasn’t there because they had gone after the pack again. Emil, in his desire for revenge, had taken most of the fighter wolves with him leaving the pack defenseless.”

  “Why would he do something so reckless to leave the pack defenseless?” Caden asked in growl.

  “Because my mate, the one I chose, assured him that it would be okay, and he believed her as she had him fooled from the very beginning,” Oden said looking over at Cicely.

  “He never really liked me from the moment we met, but when Oden’s mate returned she made it seem that everything bad that happened to the pack was because of me,” Cicely stated her eyes clouded with past memories. “Although a few members didn’t believe her, many did and in the end, I left because my presence was causing problems within the pack.”

  “I was going to choose Cicely, Caden,” Oden said, “but I was constantly harped at from either side that in order to restore peace, I chose the mate that I had already proclaimed as mine. I didn’t know that she had been paid to come back to me and to lead the hunters directly to the pack. I had been called away for a meeting suddenly, or so I was told, but when I arrived it was a trap. I was able to escape it but by the time I returned most of the pack had been destroyed and killed. I thought my mate was one of the casualties but I learned differently a few months later when Emil found me. He blamed me then as he did that day of causing the pack’s destruction although what he truly blamed me for was the death of his mate who was my sister, but at the time I had been so lost that I didn’t pay attention so when I learned the truth is shocked me.”

  “Did you track your mate down after learning the truth?” Caden asked his voice cold.

  “No,” Oden revealed in a hard voice.

  “I did,” Cicely revealed her eyes hard with anger and grief. “I liked Oden’s sister and when I learned what happened, I had to find out why Oden hadn’t protected his pack when I knew that it was the one think in the world he wouldn’t let be destroyed unless he was dead. When I discovered that his mate was the one behind it, I paid her a visit and let’s just say it didn’t end very pretty for her.”

  Caden shook his head a ghost of a smile crossed his mouth before he asked, “So why didn’t you tell me any of this earlier?”

  “Because you weren’t ready to hear it,” Oden said bluntly. “You were in confusion about your mate’s return for one thing and then when you did show up, you wouldn’t even speak to me not counting the fact that you hadn’t talked with your wolf or read the book yet.”

  “I was on a fact finding tour,” Caden admitted.

  “Yes, we know but not on what you should’ve been checking out although that was important too,” Cicely told him in angry voice. She hesitated for a second before she said, “Did you learn that Leana is pregnant?”

  “Yes,” Caden said with a nod of his head glancing around the room not meeting either of their eyes. “I also know that Abella is pregnant too.”

  “Which one is yours, or are both of them yours?” Oden asked leaning back in his chair and the next thing he knew he was flying across the room Caden standing where Oden had been sitting.

  “Caden, he was only asking,” Cicely said as Oden got up dusting off his clothes.

  “I know what he was asking,” Caden growled low in his throat before he sighed. “I haven
’t touched Leana since the day she returned so the child is definitely not mine, but I know for a fact that the pup Abella is carrying is mine.”

  “Without a doubt,” Oden asked lifting an eyebrow at him.

  Caden’s words were full of confidence and firm when he said without hesitation, “Without a doubt, the pup she is carrying is mine.”

  Oden looked over at Cicely who leaned back against the couch and smiled at him before he shook his head at them.

  “Was there anything else you needed to know?” Oden asked as he sat resettled his body on the couch next to Cicely who blushed again.

  “No,” Caden said with a grin, “because you have already answered it without me asking.”

  He nodded his head at them and said, “Thank you” before he headed for the door.

  “Where are you going, Caden?” Cicely asked getting ready to stand up when Caden turned to look at her.

  “First, I’m going back to Stone’s place and tell him what he has been wanting to ask me, and then I’m going home because there are some things I need to do,” Caden told her.

  “Caden, she is at my house,” Cicely called out as he walked through the door and she hesitated briefly before she asked. “Did Jed know the entire time what was going on?”

  Caden stopped and stuck his head back in the house although he didn’t comment but winked at her before he strolled away and shifting to his wolf he headed back to the pack house.

  You knew, but you didn’t tell me, he scolded his wolf.

  So I did, but you were being stubborn, his wolf argued back. They argued the entire time back to the pack house and as he shifted back he remembered that he left the book at Oden’s house.

  “Damn,” he muttered aloud as the door opened and Stone came out.

  “Here,” he said handing a pair of his own boxers and jeans, and after he slipped them on Stone handed over the book. “I believe you left this somewhere.”

  Caden nodded his head giving him a rough grin as he took the book from him and said, “Let’s go inside and while I eat, I will tell you about it.”