Denied by Destiny: Trapped in the Shadows of the Mate Bond

Chapter 0224 Kaia POV I almost jump out of my skin from a voice coming behind us. I thought we were being watched and part ofis glad it was her and not what I thought... the trees.

She had long silvery hair that was thinning slightly on top. Her eyes were a grey blue that seemed to be covered with something, almost like she was currently in a mind-link and they were glazed over...like a white shadow.

Her lips were more purple than a soft red and she hold aging spots on her face, neck and arms but rather than be a translucent brown...they were purple.

She pays Hector no mind, he was the biggest thing in this woods but she seems unbothered by him. Her eyes only for me.

"We were sent..." I try to cover the awkwardness that had settled between us.

"I know who you are. You should cin...never can be careful of who is watching." Her eyes turn behind her, her level of paranoia was unsettling.

It hadfeeling at unease but I wasn't sure if it was to where she was looking behind her or from actually not wanting to enter the small hut with her.

She picks up skind of wooden bucket off the ground before moving past us and towards her hut. She opens the door, leaving Hector and I both watching from a distance.

A soft glow of a fire provides a source of light in the otherwise dark wooded area.

I take a step forward, Hector's arm coming out to stop me.

"Maybe we should head back." His voice is a low growl.

"It would look rude." "Sweetheart, I don't give a fuck about pleasantries..." He barks back at me, my eyes closing to calm the rising unsettling feeling within me.

Of course I wanted to head back but she had seen us now and we may not get another chance to meet her. "It's fine, she might have answers." I place the palm of my hand on his chest before I follow her path and take my first step inside the hut, Hector breathing down my neck as his hands wrap around my waist. His touch was addictive, and I wanted more. "Put her down, I won't hurt her!" The woman clicks her tongue as she places water from the bucket into a pot on her fireplace.

"I can hold my mate all I like." Hector growls out, tactfully moving ahead of me. He was on edge...but I don't think she will harm us. She seems...sad to me.

I watch her as she moves to a counter, grabs a bottle of something and walks back to the fireplace.

She adds a few drops of liquid from the small bottle into the water before stirring it with a large wooden spoon. The best way to describe her was as skind of hermit witch that had been banished to the woods from her coven, but I know she wasn't a witch but the woods outside still leftspooked.

She plunges a cup into the boiling water, places it to her lips and drinks it down in one go.

A painful gasp leaves her lips as they part. Her body starts to shake as her hands clasp at her throat before a muffled pain escapes her. Whatever she just took, caused her severe pain. "Are you alright?" I call out to her, her eyes reopening as they turn a spectre white.

"What did you just take?" Hector growls, pullinginto his lap as he perches against a dusty armchair where the fabric had all but worn away.

"Wolfsbane." She responds as if we just witnessed a normal thing and we were the crazy ones.

"What?" Hector roars, standing up and pullingbehind him in one swift movement.

"I knew this was a bad idea.." He growls.

"Why did you take it?" I ask out as Hector backstowards the door.

"It's the only way to keep them out." "To keep them out?" "The pack." "Pack? Aren't you rogue?" I push against Hector as he almost hasout of the door.

"I'm a fate worse than rogue, I'm in my own never-ending purgatory. A product of my own creation." She sighs out before sitting on a small chair by the fire.

It was clear she wasn't willing to chase after us. I don't think she physically could.

She was no risk to us.

""How so?" "I rejected my mate and the pack, but he did not accept my rejection." Her eyes close, her hands clenching by her side. "Pack?" ""The White Moon." She mutters as she starts to sway on her seat.

"The White Moon? That was your pack?" I was keen to get as much information as possible before she passed out on us.

Samson mentioned a pack called the White Moon when he had been roped to the bed.

"Yes, my mate, he is the alpha. He still huntsnow.." "Which is why you take the wolfsbane, to suppress your wolf, to suppress the bond." Hector asks understanding that we might not have long. "Yes." Her eyes flash open to look directly at Hector.

"She's not as old as she looks, if she is taking that every day, it would take a toll on her body." My wolf's voice enters my mind. My sadness for her was only growing. "It would explain her appearance." I agree with my wolf.

It explains her shadowy eyes, her purple lips and her age spots...her body continues to fight against the wolfsbane, the poison that had been torturing her every day. "He cannot find me." She snarls, which without her wolf coming forward is a little lack lustre.

"Why, what happens if he finds you?" "You are the white wolf?" Her eyes roam uponand I feel Hector shuffle behind me. "Yes, yes I am." "But you have lost your memory." She tilts her head.

"I have amnesia." "We were told you would help us, that you would cooperate." Hector rumbles next to me.

"And that I will. But first I have to be sure you are of no threat to me." "We are no threat to you!" Hector rattles out, his patience was wearing thin.

"How can we prove that to you?" My eyebrows furrow.

"You must drink the water." She points to the pot on the fire.

"Not a chance in hell." Hector roars, the flimsy hut shaking like trees moving in a storm.

"That may be boy, where you end up. The choice is yours. I have nothing to gain by helping..." My teeth flash at the way she speaks to Hector. She needs to know I do not appreciate her tone directed at him.

"CKaia, we are leaving. We will have to find another way." Hector wraps his arms aroundprotectively, her eyes not leaving mine once.

"There is no other way. What I have to say you will not find in research books." She chimes out confidently, a small smirk entering on to her lips.

I look at her, this frail female beforebefore looking up at the strong yo at the strang physical height and broadness of my mate. We needed to stay, we needed to hear her out.

He reads my expression, but he also must feel a sense of my emotions through the bond because he has never once had to second guess me, he's always known what I am feeling and how to approach me. The mate mark on my neck giving him a source of intelligence. Wouldmarking him givethat slevel of awareness, makemore cognizant of our bond with one another.

"No Kaia..." He shakes his head as his hand pushes on the flimsy wooden door.

""It's a test." "I know it is, one we are not taking." His aura smashes into me.

"I was told you were the true mate of the white wolf?" The woman shouts out.

"I am.." Hector's shoulders tense before his chest puffs out.

""Then prove it." He seems to ponder for a moment, his eyes looking betweenand the woman.

"Only I take it, she doesn't." His finger points at his chest.

"She has a wolf..so no.." She shrugs.

"She doesn't take it." He takes a step forward, his aura swirling around the hut, spreading on to her.

"I can agree to that." She smirks.

"Hector no." I quietly protest, pulling him back towards the door. I didn't like the idea of this.

"Just be ready to run if this goes tits up." He walks to the fire, plunging the cup into the water pot.

"No Hector." I pull at his arm, stopping him from placing the cup to his lips.

"There must be another way." This was wrong. She must see that we are no threat to her. I'll be fine, just keep her talking so my wolf can recover."