On one hand, my best friend represented an apple pie order; clean handed, congenial and above reproach. On the other hand, the witch represented a way for me to get what the gods never gave me - free will and justice. To top off her offer, she was promising a life for my best friend whereas couldn't even give me that. As though late for the winter, the witch snapped her fingers with an upward turn of her eyes that showed her annoyance at being kept waiting. I took a very slow step toward her, still weighing my options.

"Whatever she may have offered you," Dani's voice was soft with a clear warning. "We don't know the cost."

I stopped, of course, Dani was right. I didn't know the cost of the offer but I knew the price I stood to win from allying with her. I was worth it and I tried to explain it to her but she cut me off with trembling impatience. "Come with me," she shook her hand, with frantic despair. "Brady needs you. If he dies or loses his wolf, my head will not suffice. The pack will demand for my family's vein too."

"Ugh. Go." The witch retracted her hand and allowed me to take Dani's hand but not without a warning. "You have already agreed to the offer, I will call when I'm ready for you and next time. I will be not easy on an oath you made to me. Do you understand?"

"I understand." Under my best friend's gaze, I felt all kinds of shame, so I tried to explain again. "She has promised me your life and..."

"And no word of this to anyone. Do you understand?" Mr. Hannez warned with a farewell gesture just as empty as the witch's facial expression.

Dani pursed her lips, "Understand what exactly? How you've misplaced your loyalty and chosen to lie in bed with an enemy to the pack? Mr. Hannez, our people died, because of people like her." then she looked at me; lowered and cindered her tone, "This is different from last time. This is so much more than a tantrum Malik. You have to take back your oath..."

Before she could even finish the rest of her sentence, she was lifted off her feet by a strong current of the wind. Strong enough to twirl her in the air and fit enough to drag her against the corner of one of the tall walls. We screamed until we couldn't, until it was clear who had been doing this. The witch grandly lifted off her feet, levitating toward Dani and spat Latin words that echoed off the walls like vibrating water waves.

Sooner than you can ever suspect it Dani started choking on her own cries, wet eyes bulged with fear and pain as she fell with a thud to the floor on bended knees. She landed in a form that made it seem as though she was bowing to the witch. Trembling hands trying to unlatch whatever invisible thing that had a hold of her neck.

Desperately I fell to the floor to help her anyhow. "What are you doing to her!" When my efforts proved to be in vain I cried to the witch, who was now on her two feet and the elder who was simply standing there. "Please stop it!" I begged with my whole heart.

Silence.

The sounds of my best friend's choking were now flat yet thicker and slower. It filled me with fear, if their intention was to put the fear of magic in us they had succeeded. "She won't tell, I know her," I promised; hands soothing Dani, eyes fixed on the twosome.

At my promise, the witch's eyes swirled an array of unnatural tints. Eerie red and silver glistened in her irises that seemed to be as cold as her disposition and hot for violence as...well, everything she'd been doing so far. Her face harboured neither clemency for my best friend's suffering nor care for me at all.

Dani choked some more and I sobbed for mercy.

Mr. Hannez wore pride on the scrunch of his wrinkled face as he retreated from the door. Slowly padding on the tiles floor, hands folded behind his back. He only released them to take a seat in the chair next to where the witch stood; demoniac, almighty and vicious. "It is funny hearing anything about loyalty from her." He stated with gruff humour that wasn't at all. "It is the old case of the pot calling the kettle black."

The witch sniggered a laugh in a deprecating manner. "Indeed. Tell me superstar where was this righteousness when you traded your loyalty for fame?" the red tint in her iris filled as she pressed. "Where was this commendable loyalty for all of five years?" her irises stormed with silver and her hands burst with hot flames that took off to swelter the wind still around my best friend's neck.

Dani screamed, her whole body falling to the floor like a rag rat, writhing as though she was epileptic before she turned into her wolf form. Her wolf was battered, tired and confused. In her eyes and the sound of her whimpers, I could tell that she hasn't turned on will. It killed me and so I wept and begged the elder and his witch for clemency.

Tears flowed from my eyes, I'd never known anyone who'd been forced to shift forms before but this woman was a witch. A moon creature that wasn't supposed to exist, an enemy that was working with a trusted member of the pack behind everyone's back. She'd promised to break my bond with Brady, which I trusted she would do because it would serve her motivations as well. However she had no motivations riding on my best friend's life, who's to say if she wouldn't kill her and still force me to be bound to her? I imagined she could kill my best friend if she wanted with zero remorse. I couldn't have that, Dani has just recently escaped death, I couldn't let her exchange one form of death for another. So I shifted onto my knees, hand over my thrumming chest. "Please Stop, we won't tell. I promise." I bid, in begging prayer. "Please! I'll do anything, just stop." I cried. "Please, we're so sorry."

The witch's govern on Dani stopped.

And I watched my best friend start to turn back in the most painful way I'd ever seen.

The witch tilted her neck from side to side and once she was done she smiled down at me. With a wide beaming smile that was devoid of any emotion and offered me a vial from the pocket of her dress. "I want your blood for insurance."

I stretched out my hand without hesitation.

Dani growled but the sound was pitiful.

"Never mind, I'll take hers." She lit a speck of fire by the snap of her red painted fingers. Dani started to shift into her wolf form again and once done the fire touched her front left paw to extract blood. "It's called safekeeping and if you tell anyone what happened here I'll curse your friend, by this blood." she finished as she lifted to admire the red content that now filled her itty bitty small vial.

"You don't need her blood, you have my word," I promised, hand still outstretched. "And my blood."

"Sweetheart, I find that I much prefer her blood because..." She met my eyes with a sultry gaze and explained. "your friend has a big mouth but this vial ensures her silence." She elegantly swirled around and went back to her seat. "That means she'll turn into a wolf...well basically a dog...a bitch really. For the rest of her days the very minute she tells anyone, in any form of form telling. I have a feat to my agenda that will be squandered by belated righteousness. So tread carefully."

Hot temper fed into my soul but I was overridden by vexation to do anything about it.

Beside me, I heard Dani turn back into her human form.

Apprehensiveness brought on by a cocktail of fear and guilt filled me.

Mr. Hannez assisted Dani up to her feet "The issue at hand is of grave importance, we trust you to keep this secret. We also trust you have practiced skill in sealed lips, isn't that right kids?"

She hummed, dejected and panting loudly.

I nodded and wiped away my tears.

The witch's eyes gleamed with a fierce challenge.

"We promise." I made it clear.

Then she seemed appeased.

No few seconds later the door closed behind us leaving Dani and me in a long corridor. "Mal, gimmie that." Dani crossed her legs, one arm over her exposed bosom and leaned forward to help me out of my jacket.

"I am so so so sor..." Dani cut my apology. "I'm sorry too. We're class A idiots huh?" it was a rhetorical question she didn't wait for me to answer as she started to lead the way. All guards seemed to have evacuated the space, which explained why no one had come in to investigate the noise.

I followed behind, in silence until we reached a white and gold handled door. "I'm sure Brady and his family are in there. I can't face them." She held my hand and squeezed once before she let go. "I'm gonna go find Tyler before he starts looking for me."

"How'd you escape him, to begin with?"

"I didn't," she sniffed away a tear. "He allowed me to come to find you but he expects me back in custody." then she turned to leave.

"Dani.."

She turned, slowly and heart-breaking. "Go in. Whether you like it or not and until that bond is broken his family is your family now. The sooner you deal with them, the sooner..." she shook her head and sniffed with a burst of overwhelming emotion. "I'm so sorry."

"You have nothing to be sorry for." I rushed to have her in my arms and apologised back. "You hear that? Nothing. I did this to us and I'm so sorry."

"None of us is more guilty or innocent than the other," she replied.

We stayed in embrace for a while until we had no tears left in us, then she kissed my shoulder and nodded at the door behind me. "You go in now. Make it right."

I looked at my feet through a glass of wet regret. "Nothing will ever make any of it right."

"An apology might be a start."

"I never got one." I looked at her, "Besides, I just brokered a deal that will make this worse."

"Or better," She searched my face, "All you can do is your part at the moment. Start with his injuries, the blue bloods are probably in there beside him. They are your family now...just go in and do your part." then she left.

In all honesty, the thought of Brady's whole family in there tending to his injuries daunted me. Guilt cemented its weight on my shoulders and soul, but not for what you may think. I was loaded with wired fear at that moment, but despite that, I swore to myself that I would apologize to all of them.

At the fifth knock, the door was opened by a shirtless Brady who seemed genuinely surprised that it was me at the door. We both stood there staring back at each other before I reached out my hand to feel his fevered skin.

It felt softer than I thought it would. I noticed that there were no visible burns on him. "I heard you got burned?" I asked hesitatingly because maybe, maybe he didn't want me there since I was the cause of his suffering.

"I did, by a kid no older than sixteen can you imagine?" he stepped back and allowed me to enter as he finished. "Sir Isaac treated me with your blood, I hope you don't mind?"

"Sir Isaac has my blood?"

"No. But your parents do. I'm exhausted; mind if I lay down?" he asked as he lowered himself on his wide king sized bed.

I shook my head as I searched the room with my eyes for somewhere to sit.

"You know." Brady lifted himself to rest his weight on his elbows facing me. His voice was hesitant and apologetic. "I get it. Why do you hate me but..."

I surprised myself by interrupting him.

For the longest time, I wanted him to apologize yet right in that moment in that room I felt I was the one who owed him the most in apologies. I felt the world's weigh on my shoulders and it killed me that even after getting the vibe from him that he was sincere I was going to go ahead with the mate-bond-wrecking because I honestly had no option anymore.

It was either Dani or me losing out on love.

I had to live with my choices, just as I'd made sure Brady lived with his.

"I'm sorry," I told him.

Brady arose from his bed and took steps towards me to cup my face in his strong, calloused and warm hands "Can we start over?" his voice was a breathy gravel that fell into my ears like a symphony. His touch sent waves of desire through my bloodstream and his offer was definitely everything my wolf wanted - everything I wanted.

My heart pounded in my ears as my emotions went haywire wanting to agree with him, but it wouldn't have been fair to give him false hope.

I looked up at him, his blue eyes were so blue. They sheltered a gentleness that was offering me hope. Hope I couldn't draw into because it was false hope.

A storm cloud gathered itself in my eyes and fell wildly down my cheeks, there were no words to express my frustrations without giving too much away. So, all I managed after he asked me if he'd upset me was to wrap my arms around his neck and kiss him on the lips.

I made sure to kiss him with enough fervour to ignite feelings in parts that I hadn't felt in such a long while, or ever really. He kissed me agonizingly slow, sitting back on the bed and pushing me onto his lap. His large and warm hands slid under my shirt. He threw it on the bed and proceeded to pull me back in by my hips as though I was forgiven and as though we'd done this before.

I grew as hard as I felt his equally excited length rub against mine. Creating a delicious friction that send shivers down my spine. Brady's hold on my hips tightened, and I could smell the heat thickened with human desire in the air. Paired with Brady's groan it served me as an aphrodisiac and need had me fumbling with his zipper.

In that moment he was all needed and he was all I felt and heard.

I wanted all of him.

And for once, I didn't feel bad about what I wanted.

Brady flipped me to be under him, back against the mattress my front pressed against his front. His teeth nibbled on my neck as his hands travelled over my hips and ass urging me to wrap my legs around his hips as he continued the hair raising foreplay on all my erotic zones.

My hands explored his divinely built torso, it seemed he liked the pressure I was putting on pulling his hair. It drove him to dominate me seeking pleasure with my body in ways I couldn't get enough of. In ways that coated and inspired me to move along with him with the sheer need to get with him, right then and there.

An erotic groan escaped his throat.

Reality struct my consciousness.

Under normal circumstances I'm sure would it have thrown me over the edge. However, at that point all the groan managed to do was remind me that I was being epically selfish. Utterly pathetic and fucked in every witch way except the one that mattered. I was giving him false hope.

False hope wasn't healthy for me either.

"Wait." I slid out of the body moulding; picked my shirt up from the floor. "I have to go," I said heading toward the door.

"Hey. hey. hey..." He grasped me by my elbow "what is it? Did I do something wrong?" he searched my face and I slid my gaze from him to my feet. He sighed and suggested, "We can go slow if that's what you want?"

I didn't reply.

"Well I guess this is a good time as any to tell you that, it was agreed. That you'll be staying here until we sort out our issues."

I looked up and he misread me, "I know, I know but you can't object to this. You will be staying in the room next to mine at least, until we deal with the witches. On a short term solution, it may take months."

I wanted to ask him more about witches, but I also wanted him to touch me. I felt so indecisive all I could do was accept the key from him without meeting his gaze or replying.

Our fingers touched, the spark of electricity that shot up in my veins made it very clear, beyond doubt that the gods had been right to pair him and I, together.

A lump settled in my throat.

Regret sank to the pit of my stomach.

What had I done?

The burn of it - regret - hot as steam clung itself across my chest.

Why had Brady been so awful to me?

I wanted to cry.

"Sorry I took it too far, I don't know what came over me. I'd hate if you were to think I was taking advantage of you." He was lying, he wasn't sorry. I shouldn't have been able to but I could practically smell the heat off him, he was entirely horny. The actual kind of arousal that came not from heat but from desire and so was I. But if I were to give in to my desire, I wasn't sure what the cost would be.

If the witch would know?

What it would mean for Dani?

I left without another word or glance at him.

I had never felt worse in my entire life.

It was of no use to stand there and swoon when I had the obligation to challenge what was written in the stars.

The difference in last time was that this was entirely on me. Not on Brady and definitely not on the gods.

I had no one to blame.