Emira placed another roll of the large, detailed scroll onto the table, aligning it carefully with the rest. One after another, the pieces of history were falling into place much to her satisfaction. The only problem? They were of no use to her.
Soon, she would reach the part she had been waiting for - the beginning of it all. The war between the Witches and the Werewolves and whatever it was that the Witches had done .
Only after she understood what had truly happened could she move to the next part of her mission - planning her revenge. It wasn’t something that could be done in haste. Every move had to be precise, and for that, she needed to know everything, every hidden curse uttered.
She glanced at the next set of scrolls stacked neatly in the corner, the inked symbols glinting faintly in the lamplight. Pulling her stool closer, she sat down and let out a quiet sigh full of lethargy.
While her wolf was still sulking somewhere deep inside her over Zen’s leaving in the morning, she felt more relieved than disappointed.
She didn’t want him to know what she was searching for, or how close she was to finding it. With his habit of appearing without warning and being too intuitive, his absence from the pack was, for once, a blessing. She would not even have to look out for unprecedented ’attacks’ on her senses like the one last night...
She reached for the next scroll, her fingers tracing the brittle edge before unrolling it with care. And felt a glimmer of excitement. This was it! The first trifle where two tribes fought each other.
Excitedly, she started to read through the scroll, when suddenly the words in front of her started to blur. She frowned. What was happening? Why was she feeling sick suddenly?
Just then, her senses shifted and she heard the distant sound of the heavy door closing.
Her wolf stirred suddenly on alert and a low, warning growl echoed faintly in her mind. Something’s wrong.
Emira froze and her hand tightened around the edge of the scroll as a strange heaviness crept into her limbs. The air felt thicker suddenly, heavy with a faint, sweet scent she hadn’t noticed before. Her wolf’s voice grew sharper, insistent.
There’s something in the air... a drug. She felt her pulse quicken and pushed herself away from the table and reached for her phone on the shelf beside her. Her fingers brushed the smooth surface, but they felt oddly numb, as if her body no longer obeyed her or belonged to he. She clenched her jaw and tried to force her her hand to move, and finally managed to grab it.
But, as she tried to unlock the screen, her vision was swimming and even the phone felt too heavy in her hands. The device slipped from her grip and hit the floor with a dull thud as she collapsed onto a chair nearby.
Her breathing quickened as her surroundings tilted and the edges of the room started to dim. while her wolf’s growl became a distant echo, muffled and fading.
"Stay awake," She tried to remind herself desperately but as her consciousness shifted, she could not hold on. and fell backwards with her eyes still closed.
For a long moment, everything seemed to come to a standstill still and there was no movement. Then, the door opened and someone stepped inside, carefully, making sure that their drug had worked.
Emira frowned as she felt her senses shift, and even as she struggled to lift her head, a strange smell filled her nose and she realised that someone had entered the Scroll room.
But the bitter scent, laced with smoke made her stomach twist.
Her eyelids fluttered as she tried to move and push herself away, but her body felt like it had turned to stone. Her head lolled weakly to one side and yet, she could hear footsteps now, moving across the cold floor and she felt the panic rising within her. Who could it be?
A hand slid under her chin then, forcing her head upward. She tried to open her eyes and see what the person who was here looked like. Maybe she would be able to find out who it was and what they wanted but even as her eyes opened, she could barely make out a shadow leaning over her.
"Still awake? Tsk tsk. Never seen an Omega awake after this. I wonder if it has something to do with that mark on your neck..."
Emira tried to speak, but the sound that came out was nothing more than a broken exhale.
Then, she felt herself being lifted. The shift made her head fall against a shoulder sending her senses reeling from the motion.
"No—" she tried again, her voice barely audible. Her body jerked slightly as she tried to push away, but the motion was weak and clumsy.
The person holding her gave a low sound of irritation. In the next instant, the person shifted and she heard them mutter," I tried to make this painless for you. It’s your fault." And then, her head was banged against something solid! Emira felt her senses go blank in that moment as pain exploded in her skull and she fully lost consciousness.
The last thing she heard was her kidnapper cursing her for being immune to the powerful drug that could make horses fall and then... there was only blankness.
Meanwhile, the person who was carrying her away threw her into a waiting car and then turned back. With narrowed eyes, he looked at the large room and then, picked up an old style torch, dipped in oil and lit it slowly before throwing it inside and sealing it closed. Now, by the time the pack was alerted to the Omega missing, the Scroll room would have burnt down to the ground. It might even take them some time to make sure that the Omega was not there, which would give him a good window to escape...