PLEASE READ
1 - I had to make a change to the last chapter where Lincoln said he was going to see a witch, which I planned to be Kat. But it just didn't line up with the timeline at all, so sadly I had to change it.
Sorryyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!! I wanted to write about her too.
It'll be an Amorenia witch just not Kat but hopefully, you guys don't hate the change too much.
2 - This book is set quite a few years before Alpha Mates, so that's why things are modern and yet still ahead of events that were shown in Linked before it was taken down.
For now, try to read the book like if you didn't read Linked if you did because it'll just keep confusing you until the reason is revealed. Hope that clears some things up, for now.
Enjoy the chapter and I'm sorry again!!!!!!!!!!
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Lincoln's P.O.V
"I spy with my demon eyes something white," Wequie starts suddenly making Malcolm make an overly eager sound while my eyes find themselves rolling.
"A cloud," Malcolm guesses quickly.
"No," Wequie shoots back just as fast.
"Uhhh a flower!" Malcolm tries even though there were no flowers in sight.
"No," Wequie replies with an excited chuckle.
"A white flower!" Malcolm tries again making Wequie snort.
"No you fucking idiot!"
"Oh, I know!" Malcolm all but screams, as I look over my shoulder I find him smiling widely while he pointed a finger at me. "Lincoln!"
"Ding! Ding! Ding!" Wequie cheers and the two celebrate while making amused jabs about how pale I was.
"I rather be eternally pale than eternally ashy," I say to Malcolm whose laughter immediately dies out while Wequie's doubles so he shoots a hand up to cover his mouth.
"That was rude," He says from behind his palm, acting as the perfect instigator as always. "Personally... I wouldn't let him get away with that, but it's up to you Malcolm."
"I am not ashy," Malcolm replies ignoring the clearly entertained incubus beside him. "I cream every day and every night, this skin is healthy and beautiful." He says while running a hand down his arm that, in all truth, kind of glowed under the midday sun.
But there was no way I was telling Malcolm that.
"Sure," I say as I turn back and continue walking through the vegetation. "I'm sure Kalem was mistaken when he said that the elf found your skin to be quite... dry."
"Damnnnnnnn," Wequie stretches through his laughter. "He is going for the jugular today!"
"Aias did not say that!" Malcolm shoots back defensively.
"As I said, I'm sure Kalem was mistaken," I reply with a smile knowing I already won this little game.
Kalem had said no such thing and as much as I hated bringing my angel into such lies, it would make Malcolm quiet for some time as he pondered how much truth there was to my statement. It also tasked the egotistical elf with the task of dealing with an insecure and sad Malcolm when we returned, which was more of a chore than cleaning itself.
I truly was brilliant.
We continue our journey towards the destined coven in silence, weaving our way through the thick woodlands that made me scowl with aggregation.
I doubted that I'd ever come to understand what it was about living in the woodlands that got witches so fucking wet.
Malcolm had parked the car as close to the coven as we could get, but with how deep they were in the woods, we had no choice but to make the rest of the trip by foot which was undesirable for all of us.
Which is precisely why Wequie had tasked himself with filling the silence with conversation. I didn't quite know if it was an incubi trait or a Wequie trait that made him so restless, but he was the living, breathing personification of the word discourse.
I suspected not more than five minutes would go by before he spoke again.
"I just have one question," Wequie's voice calls out making me sigh with exhaustion. "How did you, Lincoln Wolf who rightfully hates all things witch related, come to know a witch?" Wequie asks in a tone that told me that he was more so amused by the idea than interested in the answer behind it.
"I did-"
"And not just come to know one, but know them well enough to request a favour?" Wequie continues, effectively cutting me off just as I started to answer. "It's quite peculiar, I'd appreciate the answer."
"I'd give you the answer if you could find the control to be quiet and listen to it," I grind out and Wequire releases a purr of sorts that had me glancing back at him with disgust.
"Oh don't give me that look," He says with a chuckle from behind Malcolm who was smiling quietly to himself. "If you don't want a reaction like that, don't use that tone on me or else I can't be held responsible for how my body reacts."
Turning back to face the expanse of shrubs, trees and greenery before us, I brush off that disturbing remark and refocus my attention on answering his original question.
"Due to what I figured must've been a misfortunate, unwelcomed turn of events, Renée Amorenia ended up at my front doors," I explain as my mind produces an image of the frail women who'd showed up in chains years ago. "The woman was on the run - from whom, she never said, she claimed to have found my castle by mere accident... I still don't believe that."
"Wait a second? Amorenia?! An Amorenia witch came to your door and you didn't kill her on the spot?" Wequie exclaims with a hum. "That little human has really made you soft."
"This was before Kalem," I snap hoping my tone would encourage him to keep his mouth shut until I was done.
"And Kalem isn't human," Malcolm interjects which only helps to sidetrack Wequie.
"Since when?" He asks with a budding interest in the new topic.
"We suspect always, but nobody picked up on it because it seems to have come out with Lincoln since he's comfortable with him now and he keeps showing new abilities,"
"Oh shit, that would explain the excess amount of precum that I smelt on him that day," Wequie says thoughtfully as if he wasn't discussing my boy's arousal openly. "If he isn't human, then what is he?"
"No clue, we're still trying to figure that part out," Malcolm explains quickly before stopping as if sensing my aggrevation at being cut off, yet again. "I'll tell you more about it after Linc finishes telling his story."
"Right the witch," Wequie says with a breath. "Why didn't you kill the witch on the spot?"
Releasing a slow, steady breath I try to talk myself out of just leaving these two in the woods to talk each other's heads off. They had the attention span of a fucking walnut.
"I was going to kill her, I almost did actually," I continue once I've put a lid on my frustration. "I only stopped because I heard a second heartbeat inside her."
"She was pregnant," Malcolm says softly, understanding washing over him.
We promised each other to never be like them, the ones who created us or any members of their ghastly species. No matter the situation, no matter how big the crime of their predecessors, we didn't hurt the children... never children.
No one was born evil, and so they deserved the chance to be different than the ones before them.
"She was pregnant," I repeat as I recall the way she had begged not for herself, but for her unborn child's life. "I let her live, and let her stay in the castle for a few days to gather her strength. Of course, I kept her in one of the cells, never let her leave it and kept an eye on her at all times, only a fool would trust a witch and an Amorenia at that. But she didn't try to pull anything even when she recovered a bit. After four days, she left and promised that she, or any in her bloodline, would repay her debt whenever I came to collect it."
"And you're wasting it on this?" Wequie deadpan after a moment of silence, quickly dismissing the parts of the story he didn't find interesting in favour of the parts her preferred. Malcolm laughs and I find myself rolling my eyes for the umpteenth time while the pest continues. "She gave you the equivalent of a genie's wish, and you're wasting it to get to this Nuke Clan?!"
"Anouk," Malcolm corrects though his laughter overran his words. "And it's not a waste if she has the magic to teleport us all, as Linc is proposing."
"Exactly, proposing," Wequie counters as if speaking to a child, "The magic it takes to do it requires a lot of strength and isn't the spell like super top secret or something. Plus, I've been around a long time, and you two way longer, yet I've only heard of a very small, handful of witches who could actually do it."
"I've only met two," Malcolm adds in agreement.
"And me, one," I interject making Wequie stutter over a response but I continue before he could manage one. "Even so, it's not a proposition or a gamble, I saw it with my own eyes when she left, she has the magic to do it."
"Hmmm sure okay," Wequie replies doubtfully. "I hope this wasn't during the time we spiked your blood with wolfsbane."
"He lost his fucking mind," Malcolm replies before he releases a chorus of laughter that Wequie quickly joins.
I'm going to kill them.
I try to think of other things as the two buffoons continue talking their usual nonsense. My thoughts lead me to the witches and the power they'd gathered throughout the centuries.
History recorded that there were three great bloodlines amongst the witch species, three that a now-forgotten section in their accounts recorded to be the strongest of their kind. But it also recorded them to be the most ruthless of the vile species.
Amorenia. Vorgium. Thoras.
They were the ones who pushed their species to be greater, concocting spells that defied nature in the pursuit of being better than any before them and any after. It was the members of these three bloodlines who'd come together to create my despicable species.
Today, those names did nothing amongst witches where it once was held on a pedestal, something to aspire to. They'd been stripped down by their own kind, trust witches to tear down their strongest in the blind need to take their place - the cycle never ended. As far as I knew, the remnants of those bloodlines were now on equal footing with the rest of their kind, if not below.
But no matter how far they fell, there was no denying their strength when it appeared and was given the chance to bloom.
"So we're going to trust an Amorenia witch to keep her word?" Wequie asks sarcastically before he laughs wickedly. "Okay, I can not be the only one who sees how dumb that is."
"Perhaps, but it would do her more harm than good to betray us," I reply as I try to believe my own words. "Malcolm found her for me, she's now an outcast amongst her own people. In her coven, she is not accepted, therefore, us going to her is more trouble than she will want and attacking will only make her situation worse."
At least, that was what I hoped. Witches rarely saw beyond their own selfish desires and though she may have made a promise at her lowest point years ago, there was nothing to say that she would keep it now.
It was a risk, but one I had no choice but to take.
"I also found out that they stripped her of all magic," Malcolm adds because he just had to put that out there. "She's tied to the coven lands and bound to the perimeters of her home, so we may be worrying about the wrong matter entirely."
"Peut-être," A voice interjects making us all freeze in our tracks as we look up in its direction.
Renée Amorenia stood with perfect balance at the centre of a thick, tree branch above the three of us. Though her features were just as I'd remembered, she wasn't as sickly as when she'd come to me with eyes full of a wild fear that had made her appear mad.
Now, as she looked down at us with alight purple eyes, she looked confident and strong in a way that completely opposed the intel Malcolm had gathered. The air sizzled with magic that rippled off of her in waves, one that dripped with something evil and wicked.
"I wondered when you'd come to collect," She says as she lowers herself to the ground, the second her feet meet the earth, the grass beneath her toes wilted and dies. It spreads like an infection until the space around her is black and all life attached dead.
"What the fuck..." Wequie comments mindlessly, for once almost speechless.
Renée glances down before she looks back at us with a guilty expression. "Side effect, désolé."
"Side effect of what exactly," I question carefully. There was an air around her that completely opposed the one she'd once carried, it was something dark and wrong.
"Your friend wasn't wrong when he said I was stripped of my magic," She answers calmly, her words devoid of shame or anger as she held my gaze. "However, clearly, I am not tied to my lands or the perimeters of my home."
"Yet you still have magic," Malcolm replies seriously, sounding just as alert as I felt.
"C'est vrai," She replies with a smile that turns wicked at the ends, "but that is not what you came to me for."
"No," I agree deciding to bed the topic for a later date. "I need you to teleport me and my fr- acquaintances somewhere."
"The Anouk Clan," She replies making my eyes narrow but I nod nevertheless.
"Yeah, this woman is fucking scary," Wequie breathes out and for a moment I wondered if he knew he said some things that should stay in his head, out loud. "She's freaking me out guys, and I'm a demon so that says a lot."
"I can do what you ask, but after you never come to me again," She says pointedly ignoring Wequie.
"Agreed," I say and she nods.
"Will you find your own way back or does the task of bringing you back also fall to me?" She asks with a raised brow making me frown.
"Can you bring us back?" I ask carefully.
It wasn't that I needed her to bring us back. It would be no trouble for the three of us to fly back but if I could shorten this trip and get back to Kalem even a minute sooner than planned, then I would.
"I can," She says as she busies her fingers with the ends of her hair, "at a price."
"I'm good with one way," I reply quickly before fuck getting involved with a witch further than I had to.
"Don't be so quick to dismiss," She replies with a chuckle. "I'm delivering on the favour I owe you, yes, but I'm also putting myself at risk by doing so. At least listen to what I ask."
"Don't listen Lincoln, that's how they get you," Wequie warns but I ignore him and gesture with my hand for her to continue.
"You saved my child's life before, I ask that you do it again should the situation arise," Renée says with a tone far more serious than she'd held before. "If I'm not here to, save her life."
"Save the life of a witch and get involved in the affairs of your species, for a return ticket" I reply while chuckling, "I have more than enough on my plate at the moment, no thank you."
"She's powerful," She presses, her armour cracking for a moment to expose the fear that still lingered beneath. "Katerina is very powerful... there isn't a doubt in mind that she will become of the strongest of our kind."
"Then she'll protect herself,"
"They will try to break her, one day someone or something will try as they always do," She continues, her eyes glowing brightly now as whatever venom came from her feet began to spread even more. "If they succeed, that will be the end of it. But if they don't..."
She lets her words hang and the silence that follows to speak for herself. The threat was hidden but there, if this child was to live through whatever sick shit her kind put her through, she'd pose a threat to not only her kind, but anyone she pleased.
"She's an Amorenia," Renée says, her voice strong and proud, "would you not want an Amorenia on your side."
As her offer settles, I tongue the inside of my cheek in contemplation. I truly was not one for negotiations, especially when they involved witches, but her words could not be ignored. There was the possibility that she was bluffing, but she was Amorenia and if her child possessed even a quarter of the strength her mother was exuding, she could be a threat.
Even so, I would usually say no and leave it at that. But as I thought of what my future would hold when I was successful in taking control of my kind, being on good terms with an Amorenia witch would undoubtedly be an advantage.
"Save her life," I repeat and she nods with clear desperation. "For only one occasion, I can promise only one time that I will try, there's no guarantee that I can."
"Yes, yes," She agrees quickly and when I nod, she releases a breath, dropping the skin of confidence and power she'd originally faced us with. "Thank you."
"Alright then, get us to the Anouk Clan, the closer the better," I say as I look to Malcolm and Wequie who were looking back at me with expressions that seemed to question my sanity.
"Are you sure about that?" She asks and I nod dismissively, I was tired of all this talking and already wanted this entire trip to end. "Comme vous le souhaitez. Remember your promise."
Deciding that our interaction had come to an end, Renée barely raises her fingers before the image of her standing before me amongst woodlands is replaced with a view of white, tipped mountains and clouded skies that make my mind swirl for a moment.
Gone were the empty, warm woodlands as we stood now in what could only be the Anouk Clan, all of whose members were surrounding Wequie, Malcolm and me from every angle with clear bewilderment written across their faces.
The bitch had really put us as close as we could get.
"Oh fuck," Wequie groans before he doubles over and empties his stomach in the middle of their make-shift camp.
That seems to snap the young vamps out of their momentary daze as they scramble to their feet, taking hold of their weapons as they tighten the circle they were forming around us. All the while, Wequie continues to empty his stomach before us all.
"Who the fuck are you and where the hell did you come from?" A man asks while his fingers tighten around the arrow he had aimed at my head.
I frown while I study the useless weapon in his hands, it was clearly made by one of their own, it was bend and awkward in many places and a very foolish weapon when it came to dealing with vampires.
"My name is Lincoln Wolf, I'd like to speak to your Pylen," I say calmly and bite back a smirk as they all noticeably stiffen at the mention of my name. "I'd appreciate it if you lowered your weapons, it's been a long day."
The one who'd spoken first seems to falter as he tries to decide what to do, exchanging glances with his equally confused members, he decides to keep his weapons as do all of them.
As much as that annoyed me, the fact that they were cautious, even in the face of two vampires who was stronger than any of them, was a positive.
"Vampires don't appear out of thin air," The woman beside him argues, she held two large knives that were almost swords in both hands.
"I can't feel my fucking intestines," Wequie croaks softly as he dry heaves on the ground, "my balls, oh my God my balls."
Everyone ignores him.
"True," Malcolm replies to the woman, his tone diplomatic and free of any anger, "But I'm sure you can all sense that we are vampires, and what type we are."
I take that as my queue to let myself ease the tight reigns I kept around my power, I let it escape my veins to spread to each and every one of them like an infection. Once I've tethered myself to each of them, I send out the command to drop their weapons and each of them does without hesitation.
I detach myself from them and the control, tying it back down and burying it back inside of me as they all stare at me with clear fear in their eyes. They were free to move and yet not a single one of them dared to.
The Anouk Clan was one of the earliest formed, though their numbers had decreased significantly, they were old enough to know that only one of our kind possessed the power to control vampires. And though I'd become basically a myth in my choice to stay alone for centuries, there was no denying who I was now.
"My name is Lincoln Wolf and I would like to speak to your Plyen," I repeat with my best attempt of a smile, before I add in a cordial, "please."
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The Anouk Clan had more members than we'd anticipated, their numbers wandering the edges of five hundred. If I were to hazard a guess, they must've been trying to replenish their numbers with young vampires, and they were young, barely over the age of a century from the taste of things.
But even so, if Malcolm and I had come to kill them all, we'd have no trouble in doing so.
"If I may ask, what had brought you to my clan?" As I register the question, I pull my eyes away from those who passed outside the makeshift tent with curious eyes and refocus my attention on the female who sat across from me.
Alexander Villin she'd introduced herself as when she stepped out from amongst her people and declared herself to be their Plyen. It was impossible to ignore or dismiss the way she held her head high as she faced me and kept it there when Malcolm introduced himself soon after. Anyone could see the fear in her eyes, but right beside it was the will to die for her people if it came to it.
"I would like to make you an offer," I explain and ignore the way Malcolm groans from beside me while Wequie works on the plate of fruits they'd put in front of us.
Malcolm had been quite adamant on taking the diplomatic approach and I had agreed to follow his lead, after all, he had always been better with handling people than I ever hoped to be. But that was before I was tasked with enduring a maddening journey with him and Wequie and then making negotiations with an Amorenia witch.
I couldn't make small talk if I tried.
"An offer?" Alexander questions after she returns her gaze from an annoyed Malcolm to me. I nod. "For me or for my clan?"
"Both," I reply and her eyebrows pull together at that but she manages to hide her confusion just as quickly as it appeared. "But first, I must know, do you have slaves?"
Alexander doesn't stiffen the way her guards who stood behind her did, clear questions written all over their faces as they struggled to stay still under the weight of our gazes on them. Instead, she loses any decorum she'd attached due to rank and glared at us with spiteful gazes.
"The Anouk Clan has never, and never will aid or participate in the act of slavery," She says sharply, making sure to articulate each word with a tone that almost dared me to question her words. "If you offer has anything to do with your revolting practices, then I must decline on behalf of myself and my clan as well."
Alexander's disapproval only grows at the sight of my smile that formed before I could tame it, clearly misunderstanding why her words pleased me so much.
This would work.
"We do not take part in or support slavery," Malcolm inputs and I turn to him with a raised brow.
He glances at me and raises one back as if asking me if I really wanted to jump down that rabbit hole at this moment. Deciding to drop it, for now, I look back to a pointedly, cautious Alexander.
"We want to end it, amongst all of our kind," Malcolm continues which clears away her caution and replaces it with surprise. "It's one of our goals which we will achieve, whether or not you take our offer."
Alexander studies us both with narrowed eyes before she glances down at Wequie who I honestly forgot was even there. She rolls our words in her head for a few minutes before she releases a breath and folds her arms over her chest.
"Do you truly expect me to believe that?" She asks finally making me frown. "You are the first of our kind, and you the fifth, two of our strongest and I'm supposed to believe you want to put an end to what has been running rampant for generations. You have an incubus slave beside you as we speak."
"Now you wait one fucking second lady," Wequie starts taking his interest away from the food to glare at Alexander with disgust, "I am nobody's slave unless we're roleplaying, least of all these two, so you take that right back."
Alexander looks to us as if surprised that we let him speak like that, I just shrug as Wequie continues to mumble profanities beneath his breath."A fucking slave, she must be out of her goddamn mind."
"Wequie is a friend," Malcolm says with a chuckle as he looks back to the clan's Plyen, "not a slave. As we've said, we do not support it."
"But you let it happen," She counters with eyes that suggested this matter was a personal one, "you were there when it started, grew and became a part of our kind. You could've stopped it, but you didn't and now I'm to believe you want to, after all this time."
Malcolm immediately tenses beside me, his eyes locking on me with clear worry as if he could feel the way her words has cut through me, feel the way they steered the dormant rage within. But even though her words made me want to rip her throat out, she hadn't uttered a single one that wasn't true.
"Yes," I reply with a voice much calmer than how I felt inside, "I've never been an advocate for the practice and I've tried in recent times to put an end to it, but it is like an infection, one which has etched its way into our world. But you are right. I could've cut it out before it had the chance to spread, but I didn't."
"Why?" She asks, her words tight and strained as she stared at me as if I'd been the one to start it. "Why didn't you?" She lost someone I realise. Somehow linked to this vile practise, she'd lost someone she cared about and had never forgotten.
"You seem to know our history, more than the new age vamps," I say as I look at her, deciding that she deserved the truth. "After the life we were forced to live, one of servitude and death, I did not concern myself with what the rest of them would do. I didn't care what happened to them since I only cared for myself, so I separated myself from our kind and I have cultivated a life away from it ever since."
"And now, after centuries of men, woman and children being sold, beaten and used, you're ready to change things," She replies with a sickening laugh that felt wicked to my ears. "Now you're going to make things better, for no reason at all."
"All things have reasons," I reply as an image of Kalem appears in my mind. "Now, we plan to destroy this infection and kill all those who try to save it, including Diablos. A war is to come, we've come here to ask you to join our side."
"Diablos," She breathes out slowly as if to calm herself, "You want to go after Diablos."
Hmmm, was Diablos the one to hurt her?
"Precisely," Malcolm replies, "He's at the forefront of it all, if he falls, they all fall."
"And you plan to take his place when he does," She finishes with understanding finally settling in. "'Build a new world in your image'."
"That's one way to put it," I reply with a smile I couldn't help. The more we spoke the more comfortable she seemed to get, less worried about offending and watching her tongue. "I am forming a clan of my own, one which will become the strongest and the staple for our entire species. We need structure, proper rules and discipline, without it we're all just acting on miswired urges."
"This is your offer? You want us to join you," Alexander fills in as understanding seeps in. "Induct the Anouk Clan into your own."
I nod and Alexander leans back with a sigh as she takes in all we'd said and the implications that came with it. It was a lot to consider, it'd require discussion and deliberations not only between us but amongst her own people.
"I assume you don't expect a decision at this very moment," She asks looking between Malcolm and me, we both nod and she does as well. "Very well. The night is fast approaching and your presence puts my people on edge. We can continue this discussion tomorrow, I wish to hear more before I bring it to them."
"Is there a shield between us and this tent I don't know about?" I ask as I look outside at the busied vampires. They had ears as far as I could tell, they likely heard every word we shared.
"They do not listen to private matters," She replies confidently and I bite back a counter-response I knew would probably piss her offer.
"Are we free to stay in your company until we make an agreement or reach an impasse?" Malcolm interjects quickly and I have to bite back a laugh at the way he spoke when he was serious, a complete juxtaposition to the guy who kneeled for an elf.
Alexander studies us for a long moment before she nods slowly, "You can stay, however, your tents will be guarded at all times and you must not leave them without your guards." She'd selected the word guards to suggest that the men watching us would be there for our safety rather than to help cut us down, should the moment arrive. "And I'd ask that you didn't use your... power shall we call it, again while you are here. If you do, I will decline this offer of yours and ask you to leave."
"I won't," I reply with a nod and I meant it but I could see the clear mistrust in her eyes.
My words didn't mean shit to her and wouldn't for some time, but I hoped I'd be able to change that.
The room falls into silence as Alexander studies our every move as if trying to find the lie or the underlying reason for the reason we'd come. I could see why she was Plyen of her people, she was calculated in all things and yet brazen when she needed to be.
Alexander, no matter how shielded, would be an asset. She was the perfect warrior and an even better leader, she'd do well amongst our ranks if she agreed to our terms by the end of our time here.
"Well those fruits were nice but I'm running low on cum," Wequie says suddenly, his smile friendly and face almost innocent as if he didn't hear the insanity in his own words, "so can we have dinner before I have to seduce a vampire....or five."
"Lord have mercy," I mumble under my breath.
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Long chapter oh my lordddddddddddd
Thoughts??????????
Thoughts on Malcolm, Wequie and Lincoln together? Thoughts on Wequie? Did we like Kat's mom?
Sorry that it wasn't Kat herself, when I was writing I was like - this does not make sense with the timeline, like at all. Like it would've fucked up the timeline even more than it already is. But I hoped you did like her.
This chapter honestly gave me soooooooo much stress, it was mostly the convo between Alexander and Lincoln cause I was trying to find a way for it not to be too much all at once but then certain details needed to be in it.
All I can say is, thank fuck I found a way.
Vote and comment if you enjoyed, if you didn't ummm yikes.
Until next time,
Byeeeeeeeee Humansssssssssssss