Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Two
Catherine walked around the world she knew with her mate. She walked through the cabin he’d bought for them to share. She peaked her head in the door to their home in Blackmoore. She swung her legs on the table in the kitchen of Shepherd’s. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t anywhere.
“You’re wasting your time,” Julia’s grating voice came through her meditation.
Catherine opened her eyes and glared at the witch who was watching her from the open doorway.
“Men like Graham don’t sit idly by while their fated mate is in danger. He won’t sleep until he’s found you. Stop spending so much of your energy trying to contact him,” Julia advised.
Julia walked into the room that Catherine had taken over. The curtains were ripped to shreds. The bed she sat on was reduced to feathers and mattress coils. Three sections of the carpet were stained with blood.
“Let me guess, you think you know my mate better than I do?” Catherine asked, voice cold.
Julia chuckled. “I know his type.”
“Do you?”
“Believe it or not, the men I capture in my web are not the finest of gems. Timone and Toma’s father for instance. He was having an affair with me long before his precious Luna died. No magic needed.” Julia smirked and crossed her arms. “I never wasted my breath on men like Graham MacTavish. Too devoted for my time.”
“What do you want?”
Julia picked at the untouched food on the plates perched on Dominic’s desk. “You should eat something. Dominic’s special sauce or not, you’ll need your strength.” Julia shoved the plates off the table and they crashed on the floor. She hopped up on the desk and crossed her legs. “Dominic thought I might be able to make it in here without you going all primal. He’s tired of losing men.”
“Too bad he made it out alive himself,” Catherine said, a dangerous edge in her voice.
She wasn’t sure what Dominic’s condition was after she went into her first haze. She’d heard whispers from the other side of the door that he’d been given medication to speed his recovery along. She’d asked the second guard who came in with a dinner plate if she could have a copy of the footage. When he laughed at her and threw her plate at her head, she’d gone into her second haze.
She didn’t know what would happen if she continued to lose control. She remembered reading that oftentimes when a lycan continued to experience haze after haze, it was possible for them to be stuck in the lycan form for weeks if not months until the animalistic side of them knew they were out of harm’s way. Perhaps that’s why Dominic had changed strategies after the third guard Catherine sent flying out the window.
“What did Muriel do to you?” Catherine asked after a few minutes of silence where Julia merely filed her pristine red nails.
Julia smirked. “Curious, huh? Want to know what drives a daughter to kill her father? Why don’t you tell me why you want to kill yours and I’ll tell you
mine.”
Catherine scoffed. “I don’t want to kill my father. He doesn’t mean enough to me to consider ending his life.”
Julia laughed. “You’re lucky then. Do you like the bracelets I gave you?” she asked suddenly.
Catherine looked down at the stone bracelets that had somehow remained attached even when she grew three times in size. “No.”
“Ouch… Eh, they’re hand-me-downs anyway.” Julia jumped from the desk and walked toward the bed. She curled her arms around the bedpost and leaned closer to Catherine. “He gave you a few lessons, huh? My dad.”
“We had one visit where he gave me a history lesson and then we meditated,” Catherine said.
“Hmm, then he taught you more than me,” Julia said. Her expression twisted from sweet and innocent to evil and conniving. “He saw his death before I was even born. His own daughter would kill him.” She shook her head, her eyes gleaming with disgust. “He fucked who he wanted and if they ever got pregnant he would work his magic and make the baby disappear… for good. My mom was smarter,” Julia told her. “A wolf herself, she knew better than to tell dear old dad about her state. She had me in secret. Unluckily for her, it’s hard to sneak anything by an oracle.” Julia leaned even closer, forcing Catherine to sit back
slightly.
“He hired the best tracker on the continent to track down a couple ‘traitorous rogues.’ Graham killed my mother right in front of me. I was just a teenager. I didn’t even know I had magical abilities yet.” She chuckled darkly. “When Graham turned to do the same to me… Well, like I said, he’s one of the rare ones. He made the same mistake as he had with Dominic. He let me go. Told my father he’d killed me. Real Snow White and the Huntsman vibes.”
Julia walked around the room, picking up random items to inspect. She opened drawers and tossed clothes on the ground as if she worshipped chaos.
“So, why align yourself with Dominic?” Catherine pushed.
Julia shrugged. “Muriel has a way of hiding himself. Most oracles do. ‘It’s for the protection of our dwindling kind.”” She scoffed. “I had to find a way to draw him out. Then I met Dominic. He had some good intel about where dear ole dad was hiding. He wanted to try to corrupt me. Hah! I told him to shove it where the sun don’t shine and headed for Wa-ya pack myself.”
“But Lucien is no spring chicken and your father’s own wards kept you from entering,” Catherine guessed, getting annoyed at the long confessional.
“Right-o. So, I went to Dominic with a new offer: the pack of rogue wolves I had panting at my feet for scraps of my attention in exchange for a seat at the endgame. I knew Muriel would come for you. He’s the only oracle left in the Americas. He would have no choice but to seek you out. I helped Dominic find Chloe and then Curtis. With my pack of rogues he infiltrated MoonStone and took out Lionel and Isobel. Then I set up the Achmond Rais and worked as a double agent.”
“Easy peasy!” Catherine cheered with fake enthusiasm. “So Graham saved your life and you repay him by helping to kidnap his fated mate.”
“In my defense,” Julia said. “I didn’t know you were Graham’s fated mate.”
“And now that you do?”
“Sorry, toots, bigger picture.”
“Like father, like daughter.”
“No, I’m much worse,” Julia argued. There was a knock on the door. Julia went to open it. Dominic’s face appeared and Catherine growled. “Easy, doggie, easy,” Julia said condescendingly.
“Have you convinced her yet?” Dominic asked, casting Catherine a reproachful look.
“Not yet.”
“What the hell have you been doing here this whole time?”
Julia looked over her shoulder at Catherine and winked. “Girl talk.”
“What do you want, Dominic?” Catherine asked, stepping off the bed, prepared to fight.
Dominic shoved Julia out of the way so he could enter the room. Despite what she’d heard from the guards, he seemed to be in perfect health. Pity.
“I want you at dinner tonight. We missed you last night,” Dominic said.
“I’ll pass.”
Dominic growled. Julia placed a placating hand on his shoulder but Dominic brushed her away. “We have some special guests arriving tonight. I want you to see them and they’d like to see you.”
“Tell them I send my deepest regrets,” Catherine hissed.
Dominic’s hands turned to fists. “Why hasn’t the heat accelerant worked?” Dominic barked at Julia.
Julia held her hands up. “Relax. It’s working. She’s been putting off some serious heat since I’ve been in here. I told you it wouldn’t take full effect until the moon is high. Patience.”
years,
“Heaven forbid you be patient for two more days,” Julia chastised.
“I’ll go,” Catherine suddenly said. Julia and Dominic looked at her. Dominic with a look of hope and Julia with narrowed eyes of suspicion. “I’ll go and be on my best behavior. I have two conditions.”
“What?” Dominic asked eagerly, perhaps thinking she was finally giving in to the idea of being with him.
“No one touches me, including you,” Catherine began. Dominic’s smile twitched but he nodded for her to continue. “I want to see Chloe.”
“No.”
“I want to see Chloe and I want to see her alone,” Catherine repeated. “Either you give me these two conditions or I stay put and unleash fury on whoever walks through that door.”
Dominic’s fists clenched at his side. His skin shivered and his eyes turned bright gold. “Fine,” he hissed between his locked jaw. “Dinner is at 7. You’ll wear what I pick out. That wasn’t one of your conditions.”
Before Catherine could either gloat or protest, he was out the door and slammed it behind him.
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