+CHAPTER 42+ A Life Growing Inside Her

"Since I met him, he carries more anger and pain than a thousand armies can ever bear. He was betrayed, deceived, hurt. Believe me when I say he has already crossed hell and the only time I saw peace in his eyes was when he saw you, Amber."

The Oracle's wasn't above a whisper when she mumbled those words while looking at Aric who was sitting near the fire, staring at the flames rising from the wooden logs with a deserted look in his eyes.

The four of them were sitting on the ground around the fire in the middle of the night. Lost in their own thoughts.

"Don't tell me that you are in love with Aric, Ines. I will kill him with my bare hands and make you watch." Amber's eyes snapped towards the Dragon.

He had the Oracle sitting on his lap. His arms around her, locking her as if he was scared that she was going to flee at any moment.

"Touch my father, Dragon and I will gladly chop off your hands along with your dick." Amber hissed at the Dragon.

Amber's eyes flickered towards her father, he was already looking at her with a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

He might have heard Amber. Amber's cheeks turned red.

She didn't know why she threatened the Dragon. Maybe Amber had begun caring about her father more then she likes to admit. And why wouldn't she? The man had not hesitated even a bit while choosing Amber over his soulmate.

From the past days, it seems impossible for Amber to keep her emotions in check. She can feel a change in her body but she can't pinpoint the reason behind the change.

"Don't chop off his dick Amber!" The Oracle shrieked. She curled her fingers around the Dragon's cock protectively and Amber almost choked on her own saliva.

"I like it between his legs." The Oracle said sweetly to the Dragon before she glanced at Amber with a pleading look on her face.

"Rest assured my love, no one's gonna cut my dick." Resting his chin on her shoulder from behind, the Dragon whispered in the Oracle's ear but Amber can hear him clearly.

Gripping the Oracle's chin between his thumb and forefinger the Dragon pulled her face to him and slid his lips over hers. The kiss was simple yet Amber can feel sparks flying between them before the Dragon pulled back.

His orange eyes with spikes of yellow color held love and desire in them for his bride.

The Oracle looked like a fragile doll in his arms.

The way the Dragon was making the Oracle melt against him made Amber feel like he must have taken classes in seduction. . .

Just looking at them was making Amber all hot and bothered. Her heart longed for her mate. It was getting dark in her heart without him.

The moment the Dragon and the Oracle had come back from the woods the Dragon's been attached to the Oracle's hip. Aric had told Amber that the Oracle was the Dragon's bride and she's been on a run from him from the past centuries.

For a moment the Oracle's eyes went vacant and she started whispering things in a language that Amber did not understand but her mumbling was stopped when the Dragon pinched her nipple hard.

A gasp escaped from the Oracle's lips.

Her eyes gained focus again.

The Dragon bit on her ear lobe playfully and whispered in her ear. "Focus my love. Next time you lose focus I'm going to gain it back by fucking you hard." The Dragon's lips curved in a teasing smile while he tightened his arms around his bride. However, his bride didn't pay attention to him.

The Oracle looked at Amber and then she stared at the woods, Amber followed her gaze and saw Lost Souls standing there.

Thousands of them~

A gust of breath left Amber's lips. . .

Amber remembers that once she had feared The Lost Souls. She had tried to hide from them, she was frightened of their beatings. The Lost Souls used to mock Amber, they use to call her a walking tragedy but now things have changed.

Amber had made every single one of them bleed. She had made them regret laying a hand on her when she was a little girl.

The Lost Souls are known for helping people who are in an agony that matches their own pain. But they had never helped Amber.

Amber had always waited for someone to save her from them until she became tired of waiting and took matters in her own hands.

Amber became her own savior~

The Lost Souls that used to mock Amber now whispers when she passes. The Lost Souls who used to scare Amber are now terrified of her.

Because now Amber is a witch with a Crown of blood. The Oracle's words pulled Amber out of her thoughts.

"They are going to be a new breed rising if they won't be released from the chains that are holding them to this world. They have emptiness in their eyes, they don't fear anyone. They have nothing to lose. They are hanging somewhere between life and death."


Amber's eyed Aric who had abandoned his previous place and was now sitting beside Amber on the ground.

His focus was on Oracle. The Dragon's hand that was busy in giving the Oracle's breast light squeezes went still too.

The Oracle had their attention~

Only the Oracle and Amber knew that they were talking about the Lost Souls. The Souls had not made their presence known to anyone, only Amber and the Oracle can see them.

Amber looked at the Lost Souls, they held hope in their eyes.

Hope for what. .?

"They fear me Oracle, I have made them bleed." Amber confided, her eyes didn't leave the Lost Souls.

"That was before your Fey overpowered your mind, Amber. Charlie was supposed to release the Lost Souls from their bounds and now you are her successor. You have to slash the chains that are holding them to this world." Amber felt Aric moving close to her protectively.

Her heart twisted at her father's gesture~

"How can I do that?" Amber queried, trying to keep her voice neutral.

"You can't cut their chains until you free your own soul from the chains of hatred you had bound it in. Free your soul Amber before it develops a taste for misfortune. Before your soul starts craving pain." The Oracle warned.

"What are you talking about Ines?" Amber called the Oracle from her name.

"Forgive your mother. Sometimes even when people don't do their part, it's still up to you to do your part. She failed you as a mother but you can still choose to be her daughter. She lost the battle with her Fey but you can choose not to repeat her mistakes." The Oracle explained calmly.

"How can you even ask me to forgive her Ines? All my childhood I have wandered these wastelands, I lived in violence. She could have saved me from all those traumas but she chose to throw me away. I was cursed to pay for the rest of my life for just being born! My mate hates me too. He would not have left me if my own mother had accepted me. But the pampered Princess preferred to abandon her own daughter and run away from her problems." Aric flinched at Amber's sharp words. When he tried to reach out for her Amber jerked out of his reach.

Amber felt self-conscious. The scars that her mother had given her weren't healed.

"You have no right to judge her Amber. Don't compare your life with others, you have no idea what Emmeline's journey is all about. You don't know how much your mother had suffered." Amber can detect sympathy in Oracle's voice. Sympathy for Emmeline.

"Do you think that I care about her journey or hardships?" Amber snarled.

"You should care, Amber because you weren't born to waste your life in the flames of retaliation. You are a Queen and Queens are not allowed to make mistakes. You are born to lead, to free the lost ones who had waited so long for peace." The feverish look in the Oracle's should have unnerved Amber but it didn't.

"Why would I free those fucked up souls? They had made my life a living hell. Give me one reason why should I save them?" Amber challenged.

"They didn't make your life a living hell Amber. They were trying to provoke you to a point where you could unleash your powers on them. They wanted you free them. Even as a child you had unmatched powers. The Lost Souls sensed the powers of a crone in you. They knew that you can free them. They are in pain Amber."

Amber didn't respond.

"Make peace with your past because it's spoiling your present. Forgive Emmeline Amber, forgive her before fate makes you realize your mistakes. Do you think I don't know that you had located Emmeline? I know that you can locate her, she can't hide from you, no one can. But you are using your powers for the wrong cause. These powers were not bestowed upon you to exact vengeance." Amber resisted the urge to flinch from the Oracle's cutting tone.

Before Amber could comprehend a reply, Aric beat Amber to it.

"It's not your place to interfere, Oracle." Aric sneered.

"Watch your tone Aric. The woman you are talking to is my bride. Keep that in your mind." The Dragon snarled viciously.

Amber watched the Oracle giving the Dragon an odd look before she looked at Aric. Like she didn't expect the Dragon to take stand for her.

"You are feeding her hatred beast. You want acceptance from her but don't you think that you are destroying yourself by agreeing to her terms? She is a child but you are not." The Oracle shot Aric a sharp look.

"She was a child back then too but that didn't stop Emmeline from throwing her on the poisonous snow. Why would she do that to her own child Oracle?" Aric urged.

"Any women in her place would have done what she did at that time." The Oracle reasoned.

"That's not an explanation good enough for her actions Oracle." Aric growled, his eyes flashing golden.

His beast was at surface~

When the Dragon tried to pull the Oracle behind him the Oracle shot him a warning look, telling him to not to interfere.

"Tell me beast how would you feel when you will hold your firstborn in your hands and the child will have another man's essence?" The Oracle didn't cower from Aric's beast.

The beast only gave a low growl in warning. His eyes held a predatory glint in them yet the Oracle didn't give a fuck and continued to provoke him.

"You will kill the child, the beast in you won't let another man's bastard child live. The beast won't get over the fact that his mate slept with another man while wearing his claiming bite on her neck. So how can you expect Emmeline's Fey to cope with Amber having Charlie's essence?"

They were discussing all this as if Amber wasn't sitting there listening to them talking about her origin.

"How the fuck is that possible? Why would my daughter have Charlie's essence?" Aric's eyes flickered towards Amber before he set his eyes back on the Oracle.

"Charlie was a crone Aric. A crone who fell in love with the charming beast. Witches are not evil as everyone thinks, we are the protectors of Nature, Nature resides within us." She looked at the Lost Souls before continuing.

"You won't be able to survive without us but like everyone we are also a part human. We too have greed like every other species. We too have good and bad within us. But we are often labeled as evil because we aren't easy to defeat and when they can't defeat they start to despise us." The Oracle had a stray look in her eyes.

"How any of this has any link with my daughter being a witch? Why are you telling me all this?" Aric grumbled impatiently.

The Oracle smiled gently at his question. At that moment the King of Beasts looked like an impatient child.

"My sister was in love with you Aric and in her love, she had tried to win you from Emmeline." The Oracle smiled again but this time her smile didn't reach her eyes.

Her eyes were blood red~

"You are Charlie's sister?" Aric's breath left him.

"I'm her twin, beast. Cut from the same clot." A terrifying cold smile marred the Oracle's lips.

"You came to the cursed woods when she died that night. I saw you before I passed out." Aric said and it wasn't a question it was more like a statement.

"I felt her life energy draining when she transferred her powers to your unborn daughter." A lone tear escaped from her eyes. "I felt her pain, I felt her dying. She was my other half, we were connected and that night a part of me perished with Charlie just because she fell in love with you." The Oracle's tone was bitter.

"I told her from the beginning that I won't claim her as my own. I told her that my relationship with her will be a no strings attached then why would she had to come back and ruin my life?" Aric sneered.

"She tried beast but she was unable to forget you!" The Oracle shouted at Aric accusingly.

"She was being selfish and she knew it but she was helpless in front of her heart's desires." Amber didn't take her eyes off the Oracle, the Oracle's eyes were shining with unshed tears.

"She paid a great prize for her selfishness." The Oracle whispered, looking at the woods, trying to hide her tears.

"Her selfishness got her killed by my mate." Aric said but this time his tone wasn't bitter.

"You think that Emmeline killed her?" Oracle looked at Aric with fury in her eyes. When he didn't reply, the Oracle continued.
"She was a crone, our leader. Despite you thinking of her as an evil being she was a gentle soul who was searching for love in the wrong place." The Oracle snarled, defending her dead sister.

"Charlie knew she made a mistake when she sensed that your mate was pregnant with your child. When she sensed a life growing inside your mate's womb."

No one dared to interrupt the Oracle's flow. Her red eyes had turned into lifeless black color.

"That night when Emmeline walked into both of you having sex, Charlie realized her mistake. She sentenced herself to death. She was one of the strongest witches to ever live and that night that stupid witch let Emmeline kill herself because my stubborn, stupid sister knew that she won't be able to live with the guilt of ruining your life. She didn't put a fight against your mate because she was too afraid to see hated in your eyes for her if she harmed your mate. She truly loved you Aric. She had already given up on life before Emmeline pulled her spine out." Amber noticed the Oracle unconsciously leaning into the Dragon for support.

With the fierceness the Oracle was defending Charlie made Amber realize that she had shared a very strong bond with her sister.

"She gave her life for me?" Aric's lips parted in astonishment.

"Falling in the love with the wrong person cost my sister her life."

Turing her head back the Oracle glanced at the Dragon. "For my kind love is a plague. We don't get the love back that we give to others. That's why we prefer solitude. Having a kind heart in the supernatural world is our only weakness which cost Charlie her life."

"Having a kind heart in a cruel world is courage, not weakness my love." The Dragon placed a soft kiss against Ines's lips.

"I can't give you what you want Aidan. I'm a breath away from madness. I don't even know if I'll remember you tomorrow or not." Ines's voice was thick with emotions.

"You are everything I have ever wanted Ines. I'm too selfish to let you go. It doesn't matter if you don't remember me tomorrow because I'll be there to remind you, my bride, that you belong to me." The affection shining in Aidan's eyes was proof that he was bloody in love with the mad Oracle in his arms.

But the moment both of them shared was gone with Aric's next question.
"Why do you want to help the daughter of a woman who killed your twin sister, Oracle?" Aric had a puzzled look on his face.

"Because what Charlie did was wrong and I can't change the damage she had already done to your life beast but at least I can try to change the outcomes of my sister's actions. She made a mistake and as a parting gift, she made your unborn child her future heir. Charlie had blessed Amber with powers beyond your conception. It was Charlie's powers that helped Amber to survive against the deadly poisonous snow." Oracle replied but she was still looking at Aidan.

Amber felt like she was going to throw up.

"She saved me. She gave me her soul." Amber mumbled in shock.

"No child, Charlie didn't give you her soul, she just gave you her powers and along with her powers she gave you the destiny she had to fulfill." When Ines looked at Amber her eyes were red again.

Amber noted that Ines's eye color indicates the clarity of her mind. Her eyes turn soulless black when madness clouds her mind.

"If I don't have her soul then how do I have her essence inside me?"

"When a crone dies she can take her powers to the grave or she can make someone her successor. A true crone is born in a millennium and not many survive the birth. So if a crone senses a soul worthy of her powers then she makes the soul her heir to lead her kind and you Amber are Charlie's successor and her heart beats within you but not her soul."

"I have her heart?" Amber's lips parted.

"Heart is the key to the transfer of powers. When a crone transfers her powers she had to donate her heart too. Because a witch's heart is filled with kindness and compassion. It leads their successor toward the path of light." At the Oracle's words, Amber recalled the Goddess of Nature's statement.

'Eva you're wrong~ You don't have Charlie's soul.' The Goddess's words ringed in Amber's ears. Amber had not listened to the Goddess. She had accused the Goddess of lying.

"Emmeline had sensed Charlie's essence in you Amber, in her own daughter. It was the last blow to her pride. You were a Witch from birth, born with a Beast and Fey sleeping in your soul. Amber can you imagine holding your firstborn in your arms and she had another woman's essence. How would you feel knowing that Darach slept with someone else? Will you be able to love that child knowing that the child will be a constant reminder of your mate's betrayal?"

Amber stood from the ground, she looked at the Oracle as a dear caught in the headlights. She was ready to run away at any moment because the idea of Darach sleeping with the other woman made her blood boil. Ines's words had filled Amber with rage. She wants to destroy everything in her path.

Any woman Darach will bed beside Amber will be a dead body...

Sensing his daughter's inner turmoil Aric came at Amber's rescue, he didn't let his daughter answer Oracle's question.

"I cheated on Emmeline because I was under Charlie's spell but Emmeline wasn't under any spell when she had thrown our daughter for an agonizing death. You can't justify her deeds by manipulating us Oracle. How can she do that to her own daughter?"

"Don't judge what you don't understand. You have no idea what a woman can do when she is betrayed or hurt." This time the Oracle said these words while looking in Amber's eyes.

Amber looked away. She felt intimidated by her.

"Don't look away from me, child. You are making me feel like my sister put her faith in the wrong soul. Amber my dear, I think that your heart remembers the destiny it has to fulfill. Your soul yearns to go where all the wild things went but the chains of hatred holding you back are stronger than I thought." Standing from the Dragon's lap the Oracle walked towards Amber.

She met Amber's gaze with a burning intensity.

'You are oblivious to the life growing inside you.' A voice echoed inside Amber's head, startling her. Oracle's voice.

Wide-eyed Amber looked at the Oracle. She had heard her yet the Oracle's lips didn't move.

The Oracle's eyes were set on Amber's stomach.

Amber's breath hitched in her throat~

Amber had felt a change in her body but she never thought that the change will be because of a life growing inside her womb.

Amber felt her throat constricting. . .

All of a sudden Amber could not breathe.

With a wave of dizziness and sickness, Amber emptied the content of her stomach on the ground.

Darach had called her ugly, he had told her that she was ugly from the inside, he had scorned her scars.

What if the child growing inside her despised her scars too?

Amber vomited her guts on the ground, her eyes watered, her throat burned and her whole body ached.

Darach had called Amber a bitch. He doesn't love her.

Suddenly two strong arms steadied Amber before she could hit her face on the ground.

Amber leaned against her father. She felt protected in his arms. She felt safe.

Maybe her father was her safe place. . .

"Don't cry, my girl. I'm not going to let anything happen to you." Aric wiped her tears.

Amber looked at her father, even looking at him makes her heart hurt. Will Darach ever look at her child as Aric was looking at her?

What if Amber gave birth to a witch?

Will he forsake his daughter just like Amber had been abandoned by her mother?

Too many questions, Amber's mind felt like it was going to explode at any minute.

This can't be happening. Amber can't be pregnant. . .

It's not her child, it's Darach's child. What if the child turned out to be a Lycan?

What if the child looked at Amber as if she was an abomination? Darach made her feel like an abomination.

Darach's child is growing inside her, Amber can't let herself be Darach's breeding whore. She can't give birth to his child who will see her as a vile creature.

"You even think like Emmeline. Your mother had the same thoughts." The Oracle gave Amber a pitiful smile.

"Enough witch! Can't you see my daughter can't deal with any more of your shit. Aidan, get your mad bride away from Amber. She's hurting my daughter!" Aric yelled at the Dragon.

"I do not think like her. There is nothing in me like her. I won't forgive her she had to pay the price for the pain I had suffered." Amber growled at the Oracle as if her father had not spoken.

"'I can't let the witch's essence inside me' Emmeline had the same thought." The Oracle whispered.

Amber felt her father's hold tightened on her shoulders. His fingers digging into her skin.

Aric knew~

Aric knew what they are talking about.

Aidan knew too. . .

"Fate has a twisted sense of humor my child and today you are standing in your mother's place. Choose wisely." Her eyes flickered towards Amber's stomach.

Amber's felt sick. . .

The Oracle turned her gaze from Amber and this time she addressed Aric.
"Tomorrow you are going to meet your mate beast. After centuries you're going to catch a glimpse of her for the first time or it's going to be the last time you will ever see her."

Aric trembled against Amber, this time he leaned against his daughter for support. Amber was afraid that Aric was going to fall because his body was trembling violently.

Amber put her arms around her father.

Both of them were holding onto each other for support but none of them had the strength to be strong for the other.

"I know that forgiveness isn't your strongest pursuit Amber and maybe that will be your undoing. Maybe Charlie did make a mistake in choosing her successor." The Oracle's insult was like a whiplash on Amber's soul.

"Ines I think that's enough!" Aidan stormed.

When he tried to get her away from Aric and Amber, the Oracle screamed at him like a crazed woman.

"Can't you see the blood? A pool of black blood! Aidan she's going to lose her life, I can see her lifeless eyes staring at me. .!! SHE NEEDS TO BE STOPPED!! She doesn't get it, Aidan, It's no longer about her or Emmeline of Charlie. She holds the fate of thousands of souls in her hands. They are in pain, I can feel their pain so why can't she?"

When the Oracle tried to reach out to Amber, Amber along with Aric staggered away from her.

The Oracle's eyes were wild, her skin was shining as she had walked through stardust.

"I told you not to call me from my name, I told you not to call me Ines." The Oracle whispered as if it was a secret.
"Do you know my child that every time my name passes through anyone's lips it gives me power. The power that you have no idea how will I wield. You, my child, are from the house of Untouchables just like Charlie but do you know to which house I belong?"

"Get a fucking hold on her Dragon! She's losing her shit again!" Aric growled at Aidan which seemed to pull him out of his shocked state but when he tried to hold his bride back the Oracle gripped his neck in a bone-breaking grip.

She looked straight at Amber and smile coldly. "I'm Ines from the 'House Of Untolds' also known as the unstable killers." Her voice echoed in the silence of the night.

Panic began to fill Amber's heart. The woman holding her own mate's neck in an iron grip was far away from the Oracle Amber had spent time with.

The woman in front of her was terrifying, standing on the edge of madness or maybe Ines had never been sane. Amber felt a familiar feeling of fear gripping her heart.

Her body ached~

Another wave of dizziness hit her but this time her legs gave away from under her and she passed out in her father's arms.