The Alpha's Keeper

IX: Questions

The three witches looked at each other, and death continued. “Do not hate, do not fear, and do not love and death for you will be a comrade, and you could impart it to whoever deserves it. May who dared to challenge me to know the true power of death!”

All the witches but Edith smiled when she opened her eyes on the floor of her house. The blood that she had spilled from her knife returned to her body, and when she saw Joshua, she remembered her commands, and she knew that her life was in danger.

Edith frantically searched her books for some creature that could steal her existence from another, but no matter how much she read, she couldn’t find anything remotely like that. She was desperate, and the words that death had dedicated to her echoed in her mind.

Her job was to clean up the disasters that the north side tribes caused and make sure they did not enter the human world. This was simply because only their existence reaffirmed the barriers that the four of them had placed around the world. Despite being in the same place as the human world, its dimensions were clearly separated.

In all the years of her performing these tasks, she never had to worry about her own safety because no creature would be so insane as to place a servant of death itself as the target of an attack. But now, this creature had done it, and not only that. She had been successful.

Death had reaffirmed her power, and it had told her that she would certainly count on it, but the conditions it had set were terrible.

Do not hate, do not fear, and do not love.

Just knowing those conditions caused her heart to ache. These conditions were incredibly difficult due to the new circumstances that afflicted her.

“Are you okay, Edith?” Joshua asked, reaffirming his fears. He was looking at her worriedly.

She looked at him, and his eyes expressed that tenderness that calmed her heart, but it was precisely that fact that terrified her.

And that was a problem in itself.

Confused, she looked at him coldly, trying to hide her feelings as if that way she could make them disappear.

“I’m good!” She said with the driest voice she could conjure.

He looked at her with surprise. Edith was completely different than before, her gaze and her voice did not sound with the same passion as days ago, and her posture was so cold that it made him wonder what had happened.

The day passed, and she kept silent. She tried to avoid eye contact and spoke as little as possible with him. Joshua felt the distance from her, and that hurt him, but Edith tried to keep him away for the good of both.

She had to be able to protect herself if this murderer showed up. But if she was unable to protect herself, Joshua’s pack would take revenge on him. In her ability to dispel those feelings that she felt were their lives.

On the other hand, Joshua was trying to fully understand why Edith suddenly had a change of heart, why she had decided to ignore everything that they had clearly felt and now opt for this posture so cold that it hurt them both.

When morning arrived, four days had passed since Edith had taken this new attitude. She felt how her indifference bothered Joshua.

That morning the wolf who was sitting bitterly on the porch asked carefully, “Can I ask you a question?”

Edith looked at him, and nonchalantly she said, “That in itself is a question.”

The wolf snorted bitterly. While he was looking directly at her, he then asked, “Do you want me to go?” As he said those words, Joshua felt like his heart was being squeezed.

His wolf within him was getting ballistic. Saying those words was torture to him, more so when Edith was taking a while to answer him.

Those words struck Edith’s heart. Just that little phrase had caused such deep fear that her vows would undoubtedly be compromised.

She gasps for air said in great difficulty, “If you leave! Your pack will kill you!”

The wolf smiled forcefully. He was staring at her intently when he replied, “I had already made peace with that fate... Why do I want to live here if you behave like this?”

She felt a stabbing pain in her chest and while looking at the ground, and she then said, “You cannot go away. If you leave, I won’t be able to protect you!”

“I don’t want your charity. I’d rather try my luck out there!” He said, pretending to smile with exasperation and bitterness.

She, with a throbbing fear in her chest, Edith asked, “Can we talk when I get back?”

“When you come back, I won’t be here!” He replied while looking at her coldly.

And with those words, he entered the cabin. She was devastated. She felt like her tears would fall from her eyes and determined not to show her feelings.

She ran towards the forest. After a few minutes of running, she left the cabin. The icy forest accompanied her while her eyes filled with tears did not stop crying.

Edith didn’t want him to leave, but she didn’t know what else she could do. If he left, she would always be afraid that he was okay. If he gets killed by his pack, her heart would undoubtedly feel hatred for what happened. If he stayed, she would not be able to control that love that grew unabashedly within her.

Regardless of the decision she made, she would be completely lost. His vows could not be sustained, and her ability to protect themselves would be completely lost. No matter what she did, she was a slave to the situation.

As she walked through the forest, she spotted something that she had never seen in that place. When she saw it, her heart skipped a beat, and she calmly walked closer to the clearing where the impossible was happening.

A brightly colored waterproof canvas tent appeared in front of her. Inside that tent, two empty sleeping bags and several lamps and cans of food were there.

She was looking in all directions, and the fact that it was there was unheard of.

“Humans!” She said, looking around her. A camp of human beings set up there. She had seen it in the human world because she could cross. However, when seeing those objects in that forest terrified her.

Humans were not supposed to be able to enter, within the limitations of that dimension. Her job was to keep the human world and the magical world clearly separate, which was impossible.

Her mind working at high speed, thought of Carol, the witch who had been killed, and how the link between the four was what kept the dividing lines of this dimension clearly stable and firm.

Seeing the camp, she took a flashlight, and with fear, she understood. As Carol died, the energy to keep the world intact split, and now a gap had appeared.

“Damn it!” She said, looking around her to see if she could find a trace of the owners of that camp.

She had to find them and quickly get them out of that place, those humans were in great danger, and if she didn’t help them, they would soon end up as food for any creature in that forest.

As she walked through the clearing, she looked at a few drops of blood, and her heart stopped. As she followed it, she reached a tree behind her, showing the face of a murdered man.

His insides were open, and his terrified expression showed that what had attacked him had terrified him before killing him.

“He didn’t taste as good as this one!” A voice said that she could not recognize.

Looking from side to side, she tried to find the origin of that voice, and at that moment, a drop of blood fell on her shoulder.

Looking up, she saw how a man dressed in black clothes and with long hair was holding a sweet young blonde in one of his hands.