*Selena POV*
Staring at the blank walls around me, I felt almost emptiness. It's almost
impossible to tell how long I've been here in this room. To me, it could have been years since I've been in this room.
I felt like I was having a hard time remembering how I got here in the first place. The more I struggled to recall, the more resistance I felt pulsating through me.
"Oh, Selena. You are one tough wolf to crack. If you would just relax, you would slip into a peaceful tranquility. I'm only trying to keep you happy..."
I can't even remember why I am fighting at this point. The only thing I am focused on is fighting.
"Though, I have to admit I'm impressed. I've never met anyone with such intense control over their mind before. The only wolves I've met who have put up such an intense mind-link block have all been Alphas."
As he was talking, I felt my mind starting to remember.
Oh yeah. Alpha Jordan taught me how to effectively put a block up. But I can't for the life of me remember why...
Slowly but surely, parts of my memory seemed to be fading away. Despite my attempts to remain calm, this feeling was causing me to panic.
"Hmm, I must have had a slight oversight. I couldn't have possibly predicted that you would have had Alpha blood. But, lucky for you, I like a challenge."
"Stay out of my head, Aaron," I slurred.
Suddenly, his twisted laugh could be heard right next to my ear.
"Oh? Don't like that, huh? I think I may have found something. A slight sliver of..."
Suddenly, he went quiet and, much to my horror, I saw the room began to morph and twist as if it were being melted by intense heat.
Shutting my eyes from my dizzying surroundings, I tried to stay focused on one thing. Whatever Aaron was trying to do was starting to take an effect on me.
"Open your eyes, Selena. I want to show you something I know you'll enjoy." His fake innocent voice was enough to make anyone cringe.
Though, I shook my head, hoping that I could shake off the strange feeling I was beginning to feel all around me.
Unfortunately, my body began to betray me as I felt my eyes beginning to twitch. I wanted to keep my eyes shut, but it was almost as if they were slowly being forced open against my will.
"No..." I muttered softly before my eyes finally opened just enough for me to feel my heart tighten in my chest.
I wanted to look away, to forget what was happening but there was no escape. It was all around me. In that moment, I suddenly started to feel the atmosphere become thick, cold, and wet.
As I began to panic, the atmosphere momentarily suffocated my cries as the thick air filled into my lungs. Quickly, I shut my mouth and tried to close my eyes, but I couldn't. My body, softly suspended in the thickening air, was no longer able to move.
I was drowning. And I don't mean figuratively. I was quite literally engulfed in my worst fear.
Having been forced to look at my surroundings, I found myself underwater in freezing cold water, much like that night I almost drowned. Any attempts to scream out only seemed to exhaust me and muffle my cries for help.
In my mind, I attempted to cry out to Jake, but to no avail. I knew my cries
wouldn't reach him here.
"Well, that's interesting... I would have expected you to cry out to your mate. Regardless, Jake can't help you here. He cannot protect you. You are drowning. And you will die here."
You. Are. Drowning.
My mind echoed softly as my survival instincts fought my whole sense of logic and reasoning.
I knew what he was trying to do. Aaron wanted me to freak out. He wanted me to scream, protest, and lose control of myself. If I reacted wrongly, he would surely know how badly this fear could potentially cripple me if I let it.
"Hmm, maybe this isn't enough..." He muttered.
Suddenly, the space around me got smaller and smaller to the point that I could see I was stuck underneath what appeared to be ice or glass. My breath was running short as I was beginning to believe this illusion.
Don't panic, this isnt really happening...
Attempting to prove it to myself, I tried to breath in only to feel choked by the water that came flowing through to my lungs. Panic started to set in.
No way, I'm really drowning...
With all the strength I had left, I started to fight back. Banging on the glass, I tried desperately to free myself only to struggle against the water around me.
Every blow was cushioned by the water as I was unable to use enough force to shatter the ice. The more panicked I got, the more real this illusion felt.
Please Jake, Josh, anyone. Save me...
With my last attempt at freedom slipping away, I slowly drifted away as I gave into the water around me and felt my consciousness fade.
*Josh POV*
"Speak fast, Witch, we don't have all day," Jake spitefully growled as he plopped down on the nearest couch.
Nathan nodded in response, "I'll try my best as I know you guys want to find Selena as quickly as possible."
Nevertheless, Jake rolled his eyes, probably holding himself back from making a sarcastic comment.
"I know you both probably know what a Wielder is, but I know Jake doesn't know the story about how Aaron came to be." Nathan looked to me, asking me for permission with his eyes. He knows how sensitive this topic is to me.
"Go on, but keep it relatively short" I prodded, slightly concerned for what would happen to my cousin if Jake got more impatient.
"Ok. As you know, Witches are powerful beings with powers far beyond what a healer possesses. Throughout time, Witches were often enemies with werewolves for obvious reasons. Werewolves posed a threat because of their inhuman strength, while witches possessed the abilities to potentially neutralize a werewolf using magic imbued staffs made of silver. In medieval times, with magic being rare, the myth about Werewolves being weak to silver began to crop up, prompting villagers to go to the witches to buy this "silver". Since the witches were making money off of this scam, some werewolves secretly began to orchestrate what is now known as the Salem Witch Trials. This posed a threat to most witches in that day, leading to most of them being wiped out."
"Get to the point," Jake threatened.
"Ahem... Right." Nathan cleared his throat.
"Point is," Nathan continued, "No one would have ever expected witches to get along with werewolves. August of 1692, a Werewolf fell in love with a Witch. The Witch became pregnant with their child, thus marking the first record of-"
"A Wielder," Levi said, finishing his sentence.
Jake suddenly stiffened in response.
"Yep. Two months later, she gave birth to a half-witch, half-werewolf hybrid. A very powerful being that defies nature itself. Even in this wolf's young age, he was able to master his unnatural talents. He not only was able to shift even earlier than an alpha, but he was also able to wield magic as if he were a fully trained witch. You can see why this would be extremely dangerous."
"Yeah, no kidding," Colt scoffed.
"In October of 1692, this Wielder attempted to use his magic on a girl who happened to be a witch in hiding. She was horrified at the monster that was created by the Witch/Werewolf offspring. So, she accused the wolf and he was shot with a silver imbued bullet, ultimately killing him. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, there was another Witch/Werewolf couple, John and Sarah Bradstreet respectively."
I turned my head slightly, "Wasn't that the one that they had a hard time
killing?"
"Yeah, a lot of the details have been lost to time, but because of Aaron, I know what happened."
"Because of Aaron? What are you talking about?" Jake questioned.
"There is a reason why every time a wielder is born, they become more
powerful and harder to kill. Normally, werewolves die and later on, the inner wolf is transferred into another werewolf upon their coming of age."
"Yeah, but we already knew that!" Jake slightly raised his voice. I shot him a look that made him slightly relax.
"Well, yeah, but Wielders aren't like that, Jake," Levi said.
"Correct," Nathan said, "A Wielder is it's own unique entity. Every time a wielder dies, all of them collectively get transferred into the next Wielder, including the wolf that was already transferred when the Wielder is born."
"Wait, wait, wait." Jake waves his hands to stop Nathan, "You mean to tell me that if, say, 50 Wielders died in the past, all 50 of those Wielders goes into the next Wielder that is born?"
"Yeah. Not only does it make each successive Wielder more powerful than the last, that also means that Wielders are the only beings that can actually take someone's wolf," Nathan emphasized.
"This also makes sense as to why Wielders are born masters of magic and born with the ability to shift before they turn 15 like alphas or 18 like any other werewolf," Levi said thoughtfully.
Now that is something that I didn't know. Does that mean that Aaron could have potentially taken Brooke's wolf?
I shudder when I think about what this could possibly mean for Selena.
"What? That psycho could be taking Selena's wolf right now!"
"Don't panic just yet, Jake..." I attempted to be the voice of reason.
"Oh, forget that. I don't know why you are so calm about this, Josh! If I were you, I would be livid if I knew that monster could steal Selena's wolf!"
Nathan shook his head, "But, he's right, Jake. It takes a long time for a Wielder to simply take someone's wolf. Plus, I'm sure there isn't a DIY tutorial video out there to teach wielders how to take a someone's wolf. Most of the time, it happens naturally when a Wielder dies and another Wielder is born."
"Well, now I guess we know why Werewolves found Wielders to be such a threat," Colt said.
"Perhaps we didn't know it, but our inner wolves could tell that we needed to stop the Wielders. Which is why it was forbidden for a Witch and a Werewolf to be together," Levi added.
Jake ran his fingers through his hair.
"So, how do we defeat him, Nathan?" I tried to refocus us on the task at hand.
"The only way we can," Nathan breathed.
Both Jake and I looked at each other before looking back to Nathan.
"Set the wolves free from Aaron."