The Beast's Possession

**Killian

pov**

The time was running out, but I was the lucky one who had to be favored by the Goddess herself. Not only did I have an entire Coven of witches on my side, fighting for all the wrong reasons, but also, I found out that Bane wasn't with his pack. The cocky fucker was out, Goddess knew where, unable to protect what he deemed to be his.

My men and the witches surrounded the pack borders, taking their places, ready to attack whenever I would give them the green light.

Salem stood close to me, jumping around as if someone had set her ass on fire. She was a woman to be reckoned with, a lethal weapon if used correctly, but sadly, she was as stupid as a bag of rocks. All she cared about was the cat she had taken a liking in torturing.

"Come on, we need to go. My kitty is there, I can feel her, I need to get my kitty back. No woman can be a proper witch unless she has a cat and those dogs have stolen mine. Killian, send your men in, let them slaughter the thieves!" Salem whisper-hissed next to me.

Although her attitude was admirable, it was the wrong one. I fully intended to get in and take what was mine, not slaughter Bane's people.

In all honesty, I didn't care about the cat Salem wanted to get out of here. My game was all about my bride, no one other.

Also, I did understand that killing Bane's people would be basically the same thing as signing my own death sentence. Sooner or later, he would come back and see the destruction. Everyone knew that Alpha Bane was a subject of nightmares and once pissed off, he was unpredictable.

Humans said they shouldn't poke the sleeping bear. Us, wolves, we knew that poking Bane was the worst decision possible, even for the strongest ones. Someone, who saw no issue in wiping packs off the face of Earth just because he felt like doing that was too dangerous to play around with.

Slowly, I placed my hand on Salem's shoulder to stop her from jumping up and down like an idiot.

"Calm down, we have enough time to wait. Remember where we are, we must look over our shoulders before we decide to attack. This is no child game, Salem. The beast that expects us inside that territory might be more than we can chew. We still don't know if he's really out. For all we know, Bane might have returned, and sadly, we are no match to him. You know witches, you know Covens and the system in your world, but ours is nothing alike. Instead of potions and words we have claws and blood."

While my words would have convinced any werewolf, Salem just rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I don't get why all these wolves, including yourself, keep acting like some pussies. Can't you just go there, kill some of them, grab what we need and leave? Isn't that how it works in your world anyway?"

Obviously, she had no idea what she was talking about. Salem kept looking at the surface stuff, forgetting that there was an entire iceberg hiding below the water. We feared what was hidden, not what stood out in the open for everyone to

see.

Bane, in a way, was an artist. He knew how to distract those around him and pull their attention to everything that didn't matter while he still had something in the shadows - something so dangerous and powerful, we couldn't get out alive if we took a wrong step.

I ignored Salem's sulking as my eyes sought out the commander of my army. As soon as I found him, right in the position he agreed to take, he nodded at me and opened the mind-link.

*"Positions are clear, Alpha. We don't see the enemy nearing us, I suspect they already know about our arrival and that's why we don't see the patrols. They have secured the pack house and most likely are laying low, waiting until we step in their territory."*

*"How safe is it for us to attack now? Do we have any news about his whereabouts? The last thing I want is to enter the territory with him, waiting for me."*

As soon as the questions escaped me, the mind-link cut off. Both of us looked at each other, eyes wide, shocks evident on our faces. How did this happen? Since when mind-links cut off so abruptly without one of the participants wanting to stop talking?

The answer to my silent questions came sooner than expected. A chuckle left Salem as she looked at her hand, a smug smile across her lips. "I suppose you're finally done talking, right? About damn time, move your ass and get the kitty out of there."

I stared at the witch in pure disbelief. Did she seriously use her voodoo bullshit magic to break the mind-link between wolves right in the middle of the conversation?

Perhaps she didn't know the possible consequences of her actions, but her lack of knowledge didn't make me pity her. She made her bed and now, she had to lie in it.

My hand shot towards her throat before she could react. A scream left her lips as my hand wrapped around her neck and I slammed Salem into the nearest tree. Salem grabbed my hand, kicking her feet and gasping for breath. "Killian!" She hissed.

Adding just a little pressure to her throat, I leaned closer and spoke through gritted teeth, "do you have any idea what you just did? Have you got any clue about the damage your stupidity could cause? To use magic to break an active mind- link! Are you fucking braindead? Are you, Salem?"

Her eyes widened so much, I almost feared they would pop out of the sockets. Almost. Then, her face turned slightly purple and darkened with every second I held her against the tree.

The kicking of her legs wasn't as intense anymore and her grip on my hand wasn't nearly as strong as earlier. Salem was giving up on her own life. Fucking pathetic. Where was the attitude she was showing earlier? Where was the anger, the greed and the lust for blood? Where was her determination to get back what was stolen from her?

Witches were unstable creatures. One moment, they acted high and mighty, better than others, and once confronted or overpowered as in this case - they couldn't do shit for themselves.

The best part was that her Coven sisters didn't stand up for Salem. I expected attacks, but none came. As if they were here to show an united front and hide the cracks within their own system. All of them were just as pathetic as Salem. "Alpha, we just got the news from the inside. He's not there and it doesn't seem like he will return anytime soon. They have a situation inside so no one is paying attention to the borders. Spy is in the cells, easy to access and get out. Your woman is around too, looks like she's not imprisoned so getting her out will be a piece of cake," one of the warriors announced, pulling my attention away from Salem.

I looked at the guy and smiled. "Sounds great. How about the women, did you get them out already?"

Letting go of Salem, I let her body collide with the hard ground and stepped aside. No one seemed to care about the coughing and gasping witch as all attention was turned to me.

The warrior gulped and nodded. "Yes. All of them fought back, neither wanted to leave for some reason, but we still got them out of that hell."

"Good," I grinned and scanned the hopeful faces around me. "Get in the positions, we're going in."