Chapter 4 Chapter 4

His men seemed to be confused, but they let us in. Once we were inside, I looked up at him. "Why did you lie to them?"

He glanced at me. "Who said I was lying?"

He led me to a hallway and stopped at a large door made of oak wood. He knocked on it twice, and an older woman opened the door. She looked at both of us, then back at Xavier.

"You brought a fairy here?"

"Please, Martha. I need to speak with you," Xavier said.

Martha stood there for a few seconds before opening her door fully and letting us in. Her room was large. It looked so different from the rest of the castle. She almost reminded me of home. She had herbs and different kinds of plants next to her window.

We had people like her in our village, and we called them healers. I was guessing she was one. We sat down at a table. The whole time, I was wondering why Xavier had brought us here.

Martha sat next to Xavier. "Why have you brought a fairy into our home... son?"

I widened my eyes. Son?

Now that I thought about it, they had the same silver eyes, the same dark hair, and even the same way of carrying themselves.

Xavier looked at Martha with a straight face. "I have a problem..."

"I can see that. Care to elaborate further?" Martha said, glancing at me.

They were talking about me as if I wasn't there.

"She is my mate... but that shouldn't be possible," he said, narrowing his eyes at me. "I think she is using some kind of magic on me."

I scoffed. "You must be joking."

He ignored me, but Martha smiled. "It's rare, but not impossible. It's as rare as some wolves having human mates. The goddess can be tricky sometimes, but fate is fate."

"She is a damn fairy, so what? We're going to have half-fairy and wolf babies? There must be some sort of mistake."

I sighed. "You seriously brought me all the way here for this? I have no intentions of actually having a happily ever after with you either. My union is already sealed, and it's not with you," I said, standing up.

He grabbed my hand, dragging me back into my seat. "Union?" he asked, looking pretty much pissed.

I was beginning to think he was bipolar.

"Yes. Now can we start the investigation? I don't have time for anything else. What are you, jealous now?"

He took back his hand. "No. Martha, can you confirm if she is truly my mate?" He turned back to Martha.

Martha looked at both of us. "Your wolf already knows that answer, Xavier. I cannot answer that for you. Like I said, it's as rare as having a human mate. It's not impossible."

Xavier stood up and grabbed my hand again. "Let's go."

I smiled at Martha as I followed her son out. He was taking this a little too seriously. I did not know how this mate tradition worked in his world, but in our kingdom, if you didn't like someone, you could easily bind yourself to someone else. Plus, we had the option of falling in true love with whomever we wanted. It was only the royals who had it tough, like me.

My fate had to be chosen by my parents for the good of the kingdom, which sucked, but we learned to live with it.

"Where are we going now?" I asked him curiously.

He didn't answer, so I stopped and narrowed my eyes at him.

"We are going to see one of the fallen. They will be dead in the next hour."

I frowned but continued to follow him. We entered a dark corridor, and to be honest, every inch of this castle felt ice-cold. I could feel the cold crawling through my skin.

I shouldn't be here. It felt like death surrounded this whole place.

We entered a large room. There were beds everywhere and sick people. A lot of sick people. Some were coughing loudly in pain, while some looked like they had given up on life itself. A few people attended to them, wearing dark masks that covered their noses and mouths.

Xavier looked at me. "These are dark times."

He let go of my hand and walked towards a bed. Someone, a woman, lay there pale as a ghost. She could barely open her eyes, let alone move an inch. She was weak. I could sense it.

The worst part was that I could sense the dark magic behind it.

"Who is she?" I asked him softly.

He held her hand softly. "My Gemma and my closest friend, Anna."

"How did this start?" I asked, watching her.

Nobody else could see what I could see, but dark energy surrounded her. They looked like shadows, and they were sucking the life out of her and everyone else in this room.

"Two weeks ago, my people started getting sick. Then, a few days later, they started dying. I'm an Alpha. I can sense the dark magic, and I can tell it's fairy magic. The only fairies in this kingdom are your people. We let you have your way, let you have most of the land, and this is what we get?" He said, pointing at Anna. "My father would have ended your kind, but when his rule came to an end, I chose peace. Maybe I shouldn't have."

I was speechless because he was right about one thing. The only fairies here were my people. There was no denying that. But who could have been strong enough to pull this off?

It had to be a higher-ranking fairy... That's why he needed my help specifically. Because he could have easily asked any other fairy.

Watching all these poor people dying broke something in me. This was pure evil and had to be dealt with before it was too late.

"I will help you find out who is behind this. You have my word," I said, looking up at him.

For the first time, it almost looked like he believed me.