CHAPTER 49

LEO'S POV.
The moment the witch reminded me that I should alert my guards against the arrival of my brother, I saw reasoning in what she had said. Even though the witch had injured my brother before we took Olivia away from him, the witch had told me that given how strong Julian's wolf was, there was every likelihood that he could wake up. If I still knew about Julian's temperament very well, then he would storm over to this place once he was awake.
That wasn't a chance I wanted to take with Julian and I guessed that even the witch didn't want to either. I knew that the witch had only been able to defeat him swiftly because of whatever the powder she had blown at him had contained. If it were to be a normal battle of power, I am sure that the witch would not remain unscathed like she was now. This means no more parading about with her effortless beauty.
But still, I wasn't ready to face my brother or the threat he would pose to my survival if he got in successfully. Especially if he came in his wolf form, then containing him would consume a lot of energy, time, and men. To cut such a long story short, it would simply mean bloodshed on my land. While I didn't care if the lives of the foolish people I call my pack members ended like candlelight that went out of the flame, I did care a lot about my reputation.
"You!" I pointed to one of the werewolves I had assigned to be my security. "Get over here," I commanded him.
"Yes, Alpha." He answered and like lightning, he was at my side in only a few seconds.
"Go over to those incompetent fools at the main gate and tell them that once my brother makes an appearance, he should be taken and beaten to a pulp. Do you understand?" I instructed the man.
"Yes, Alpha." The mam chanted once before he went out of the door in hurried strides.
"Would you like to have a cup of tea?" The witch asked me.
"Sure," I answered her.
It wasn't like I was ready to spend any more time with the arrogant and self-centered woman but there was nothing else for me to do with my time. I would rather spend it with the witch since we still needed to discuss strategies to take just in the case of an attack. We both got to the table and I sat down opposite the witch. One of the maids brought a teapot and two teachers over to us and she poured each one of us a cup of tea.
"You may leave," I commanded everyone with me.
"Yes, Alpha." They all chorused and they went out of the room with immediate effect.
"So, what's the next step?" I asked the witch.
She didn't bother to reply to me as she lifted her cup of tea in front of her and took a sip. When she was done, she dropped the cup back to its first position and she let out a heavenly sigh that would have made even the purest of the saints hard for her. I sighed inwardly as the jeans I wore suddenly felt too tight for my cock. How could my traitorous body have reacted to a woman I had the thought of killing? Well, I love women, I reminded myself. It doesn't matter if I wanted to kill them but if I had a lustful feeling toward one, I would rape her multiple times first before I send her right back o the moon goddess.
"He's here already." The witch explained to me.
I knew who she was talking about instantly.
"Julian is here?!" I exclaimed.
Just then, the guard I had sent to warn the people ahead of my brother's arrival returned.
"I gave them the strict warning you asked me to." The man said with a slight bow of his head.
"Then, why is he already in the packhouse compound?!" I yelled at the man who fell on his knees to the ground immediately out of fear.
"I don't know how they were careless, Alpha." The man pleaded with me.
I took three angry strides toward the man and when I got to him, I wiped my claws to grow to their wolf form. I was about to slash the man's neck open with it when the witch who had kept silent through all my fuming spoke up.
"Don't kill him, Alpha." She said, stopping me.
"Why not?" I asked her in an angry tone.
"Because your brother didn't arrive through the main gate. He took the forest route." She told me.
I turned back to her and I switched that she was already on her feet.
"Go to the forest route and warn her men not to let Alpha Julian into the packhouse." She instructed the man I had wanted to think.
I watched in chagrin as the man scurried away in fear that I might change my mind and still have him executed. When the man was gone, I moved straight to where the witch was and I waited for the explanation I knew was forthcoming.
"This is going to be so much fun." The witch squeaked like a child experimenting with something new.
"What do you mean?" I asked her.
"Just watch the magic." She told me.
She cleared the air in front of her and the magical mirror appeared in front of us. I saw that my brother had already killed one of the men and he added his hold on the man I was going to kill earlier. I smiled as I thought that the man was going to meet his death anyway.
"Now watch the most interesting view you would ever see in your life." She said.
I looked at the mirror and before my eyes, the witch was standing in front of Julian with a smile.
"Alpha Julian. I am so glad you could join us."
I heard her say to my brother. I looked beside me to be sure that I wasn't hallucinating and sure enough, she was still standing beside me and an evil smile decorated her face.
"How are you in two different places?" I asked her, astonished.
"Illusion." She said simply.
I looked back into the mirror and I saw how surprised Julian was. That alone gave me the satisfaction of a lifetime.
JULIAN'S POV.
"Alpha Julian. I am so glad you could join us."
I heard a woman say in a sing-song voice and I looked up, only to see the witch looking at me with all the evil of the world. I didn't wait for her to say the next words or even give her the chance to knock me down the way she did the other day when she had taken Olivia away from me. My hands shifted into wolf form and I made a rush at her. When I tried to slash her neck, a peal of loud laughter rang in the air and she dispensed into thin air.
Illusion.
I thought to myself. Perhaps, they didn't know I was here and they had just simply thought about frightening me to make me turn around without looking for the woman I was here for. But that was never going to happen because, without her, I wasn't leaving for anywhere. I turned back to the man I had my hands on before the witch interrupted us and I saw that he was already crawling away from me.
"Where is the woman your Alpha can home with?!" I screamed at him as I walked toward him.
He refused to answer me and just kept crawling away. When I got to where he was, I stepped on his leg to stop him from moving. Cruel, I know but I needed to know where Olivia was kept. And that too, it had to be very fast before my brother and his witch returned.
"Alpha Julian, please. I don't know anything about where the woman was kept." The man pleaded.
I knew he was lying because I saw him briefly that night Olivia and I were attacked before I lost consciousness. I twisted my wolf arm in front of him to show him that I meant business.
"Now, look here. You and I both know that your Alpha will kill you for acting like a weakling before me. But, if you tell me where my woman is, I promise to take you away with me when I am leaving. Between the two of us, I'm sure you know who the lesser of the two evil is," I told him.
I saw the indecision in his eyes for only a second before he fixed his eyes on me.
"She's in the dungeon." He told me.
"Very good," I told him and I pointed to the forest I came from. "Follow that part and stay hidden there. I'll find you when I am out of this place," I told him and I sniffed him a little so that my wolf would recognize his smell.
I looked around but didn't see anyone stop me from leaving again. I retracted my wolf arms and I went into the way of the dungeon. Even though I stopped leaving here a long time ago, I still knew each and everything associated with the packhouse. I knew how to evade the guards and securely get to the dungeon, so it didn't take me more than five minutes to get to the place.
When I saw Olivia, she had her head in her palms and she seemed so lost in thoughts that she didn't even notice that I was there.
OLIVIA'S POV.
All my life, I had always been the one who had an unlucky destiny and I didn't know why. I didn't know why I had such a cruel fate. Neither did I know why the moon goddess thought that it would be amusing to place upon me the time of suffering and pain. Why had she given me the chance to see what happiness was then? I asked myself with a little sob.
To think that I had never done anything other than just wanting to survive and live freely for myself without hurting anyone or having anyone hurt me. After I had stayed with Julian and his pack members for all these times, I thought that I could finally achieve that little dream of mine. But alas, the moon goddess, the wicked Alpha Leo, and the evil witch he had as support had other thoughts toward me.
And what had that evil witch said about me earlier? That I had a tree essence sealed in me? And it wasn't just any tree, it was the tree of Alexander. The one man who every supernatural being of ancient times had killed and drank from his blood to give them powers? The man whose blood had grown the Khoyata trees that led to several clan wars that made them destroy the trees until there was only a tree left?
The man whose existence forever separated the people? That same man? How could I have his essence in me? Why me of all the people that could have been given the fate? Why do I hate suffering the same cruel fate as the man in our history had?
I knew that there was no way I would not suffer such a kind of fate since people of our times would be greedy and hungry for power if they ever found out that they could tap the energy of the most powerful man that ever existed from me and my wolf. A practical example of the gravity of the matter on the ground was the evil witch that had been forcing me to shift so that she would steal the power from me.
And that was the kind of life I was doomed to have if words ever got out to the rest of the clans and the tribes. This means that I couldn't be with Julian since he would be entangled in the message my existence would pose to him. I have to leave him, I thought. But to do that, I had to escape from the clutches of the people that had captured me first.
The more I kept thinking about my predicament, the more I kept losing even the last of the hopes I had, and the more I kept sobbing to myself.
"Olivia!"
I heard a voice that sounded like that of Julian and I shot my teary eyes up.
"Julian!" I shouted in shock as I looked at the man I had never expected to see.