Gamma No More - Book 3

The door lets out a whining, grating noise as it’s pushed open, echoing loudly in the almost empty area as he steps into the dank environment of the cells.

The noise is there to set prisoners on edge rather than being from age, playing mind games, that was something Alpha Vincent was good at and he had taken that onboard himself, once prisoners hear the noise they feel the dread of knowing they are no longer alone, setting their body on edge, a good state to have them in.

At the moment, he has only one prisoner, and his sensitive nose wrinkles a little. The smell down here is unpleasant, not a place he frequents by choice, but then that makes it perfect as a place that garners obedience from people.

Plus, she is only human; saying those words to himself made him smile. All his life, he has looked down on them as second-class citizens.

His mother’s mother, he doesn’t like to refer to her as his grandmother any more, had been human and as mate to a wolf, she had been quiet and not at all social, very unlike every other wolf in the pack.

She had taken a job cooking in the pack kitchen, something he had to admit she was good at, even as she aged that and hugs, but he’d grown out of those a long time ago.

He had hidden his heritage from his friends as much as possible because she was weak and he didn’t want that image to tarnish him.

He had worked hard to be seen as a full wolf, not that other people cared, but he did.

Still, without her, he would never have realised that humans were good as servants. He had, as a young pup, watched her delight in serving the wolves food, but he couldn’t ever imagine doing such menial tasks himself.

He thanked the fates that his father had been from a strong bloodline, one that he would use in the end to state his claim.

Coming back to himself, he looked around the cell block, inwardly he laughed at the people who think cells should hold running water and toilets, being civilised isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, holding people in this dank, dark, unsavoury area means compliance is easier to achieve.

Although the witch is here because she failed him and that’s not something he lets go unpunished, not now, and definitely not when he rises to his full power.

He may hide who he is outside of this house, but here, he doesn’t need to hide anything; here, he is the wolf that will change up the world, and people will know his name as a benevolent ruler, as long as people comply with his rules, but the flip side of that is he will not tolerate failure.

“Rowena, are you ready to try again?” He crosses his arms, knowing she is awake.

“It won’t end differently. There was nothing wrong with the spell.”

Her voice is weak and raspy, there’s a harshness to it, no longer the youthful, energetic voice he’d heard three weeks ago, she barely lifts her head from the slumped position she had in one corner of the cell and Tane can detect an undercurrent of death in the air.

A look of annoyance crosses his face.

“Jasper, get your ass here now.” He shouts loudly, anger clear in his voice.

“Yes Master,”

Jasper is at his side in less than a minute, head down and voice barely whispered, trying not to annoy his master

“When did you last provide food and water to our ‘guest’?”

His eyes glowing a deep amber, his wolf, Dixon, barely holding back from lashing out.

“I told you to keep her weak, her power level reduced, not kill her. I have money invested in that witch!”

“She ate and drank three days ago, Master, and then three days before that.”

Jasper collapsed into a frightened heap on the floor, from a savage backhand from Tane, he’s a weak human who is working off his debt as a servant, unable to leave until it is; of course, his food and lodgings get added to the amount owed, at the current rate his debt will take at least five more years to pay off.

“She’s a witch, not a wolf, you worthless piece of shit. That means she needs to be fed on the schedule I set up for human prisoners, water daily and food every other day.

Do you understand?”

Jasper can barely look at his Master, knowing his Master’s wolf will be upfront and he’s learnt to never look at him when his wolf is like that. It’s the only way to avoid extra punishment.

“Yes, Master,” he breathed out quietly.

“Feed her daily until she’s stronger. She has no reserves to call forth her magic, and without magic, she’s worthless to me.

The cost of her extra food will add to your debt until she is strong enough to cast the spell I need, so it’s in your best interest to bring her back to strength as quickly as you can.

Now get out of my sight and bring her sustenance.”

He turns his back on the human male facing the witch again. She’s too weak to be useful to him at this point, without risking her dying; Tane is aware magic is called forth by joining their inner energy reserves with those from their element, with Rowena, that’s the earth.

That’s why the cell she is in, had to be lined with plastic to limit her connection to the elements, but he can see, she doesn’t even have the energy to stand, her breathing is shallow and her heartbeat is weak and thready, not nearly as strong as it should be.

He debates whether to force her to try the spell anyway. If it were to kill her, it would be one less problem for him to deal with since she knows who he is, and her wards do not affect her. Finally, he remembers she was unsuccessful with her last scrying spell, so if he forces the issue now and she dies, he’s left without a witch.

Sighing, he watches Jasper bring some cold day-old gruel and water to her; she slurps it noisily, a testament to just how hungry she was, out of principle he wouldn’t bring himself to eat that kind of slop, but it meant she hadn’t given up on life, which was good for him.

It will take days, maybe weeks for her to be strong enough to call on her power his domination over the humans can’t come soon enough, finding one naïve witch wasn’t hard, but her disappearance will have unsettled her coven and earth witches are the best at scrying; their connection with the ground seems to provide accurate results on maps, air are also not too bad at finding people, since the air element caresses all parts of the land they stand on, but their covens are in the mountains, harder to ‘bump’ into one.

He doesn’t understand why wolves keep their distance from witches; they are useful, if a little annoying; as they age, they become more cryptic with their responses but when they are young, like the witch in this cell, they answer openly, not yet fully trained in the arts, but strong enough for his needs.

He sauntered into the cell, ignoring the ever-increasing smell as he moves towards the unkempt woman. Crouching lower, he inspects his prisoner, not hiding the look of disgust at the foul smells that emanated from her.

“I thought you said scrying was a foundation-level spell, one taught early to prospective witches?”

“It is,”

She answered slowly after putting down the empty mug; he nods to Jasper to fill up her mug again. Water is necessary for all beings, but humans seem to need so much more of it, even with their small frames.

“Then tell me why you failed to scry for Antonia Woodfield the last time you tried,” his voice drops menacingly.

“There is no werewolf that lives with that name.” She almost whispers the answer, expecting more violence.

“I don’t believe that!

What about if she were on a different continent?” he snaps.

“The scrying crystal would pull off the map in the direction she’d travelled, but it didn’t move.”

He signals Jasper away. While the human is bound to him and this house, information is still power and he doesn’t need him getting to know too much.

“Tell me again why it wouldn’t work?”

Rowena’s eyes are drooping, her body weak. Already it needed to process the food she’s just eaten. Tane is aware the blood flow is being directed towards her stomach, which he can see is currently spasming from the sudden assault of food into it.

Mostly, he knows that if he hit her there now, it would be far more painful. He grinned, but held back.

“Stay with me, Rowena,”

He slaps her lightly on the face while holding her chin to ensure she looks at him as she speaks, knowing it will be harder for her to lie to him this way.

“Several reasons.

The pendant was directly over where she was

Or she’s within a warded building

Or.. dead…”

She takes a deep breath knowing he won’t want to hear this part, but all it does is to invoke a coughing fit, as she grips her sides, broken ribs screaming in pain from the beating he gave her when she failed to scry for her.

“or it wasn’t her real name.”

Rowena’s voice is growing quieter, and he can knew she was struggling to stay awake.

“Can you scry for her remains, because I know she existed and her birth name? There’s no trace of applying to live in human territory, so I doubt she’d know or be able to ward her house!”

Rowena nods.

“Cantate pro mortuis, but it will only be accurate if she’s buried or died on the earth. You’d need a water mage if she’s died in a body of water.”

Her breathing is getting heavier and slower, and he knows he won’t get much more out of her today. Jasper fucked up and he may need to pay a more physical price for his failure to keep his prisoner in an useable condition.

He hadn’t thought to scry for her after she killed Alpha Vincent; it was only when he wanted this house warded that he even enquired about tracing another wolf through magic but that was not that long after the broadcast, but Rowena had tried just three weeks ago.

Five months after the broadcast, could she have passed away so quickly after staying alive after killing Vincent? He didn’t feel that it was likely he was sure he would have heard about her death if one pack had brought it about already.

“Pray to your gods that the next time you scry, you find her, or her body, otherwise what is the use of keeping you alive?”

He has an evil smirk on his face, that will give Rowena something to think about, he called it ‘personal motivation’, in reality having an earth witch under his control is not a bad thing and he’ll keep her around for other tasks, but if she failed to find Antonia again, he’ll need to up the punishment, just motivation to be successful the next time.

Stalking upstairs, he moves to his private chambers, needing to wash the stench of the cells off him, the smell of human excrement isn’t a good one, maybe he’ll get Jasper to wash the cell and her down a cold jet wash may bring her to her senses.

He smiled at that idea, stopping only when he realised, she’d probably just up and die on him at the moment, prisoners are unpredictable like that, especially one in such a weakened state, he’ll ensure she gets fed daily for the next week and then do it. Build them up before you knock them down. He likes that idea.

Grinning, he dressed and looks at the clock, he’ll need to head back to his main home, he has to keep up the appearance of his old life for a little while longer, hopefully, it will only be a few months longer, definitely less than a year before everything should come together; living the two lives can be tiring, but as long there are no more unexpected events, he can see an end in sight.

The image of himself as the King pleases him, that’s how it will start before he then unites the packs to show the humans the real power base of the wolves. When he controls both kingdoms, maybe Emperor will be more fitting at that point.

He’s read up on the great interspecies war, he’s identified where they messed up and he won’t make the same mistakes, he’ll attack the humans at Dawn in strength, hard and fast, take over the main towns and subdue the masses before the Vampires are even wake.

The control the Humans have on their borders will work well when he holds power, the witch’s wards will leave the vampires unable to attack, along with using humans as potential shields, the Vampires have become too civilised and won’t attack, they won’t risk high casualties.

He just needs to know about the Purebloods and Exalted, to find out if their power has waned as he believes, in which case his life will be even easier, but in reality, he has planned and prepared everything twice over, there can be no failure.