Invisible Mate ( Mate Series Book 1)
The journey continues...

” Why did you do that?” Liam cried out, almost in tears.

" I...”

" We know you are mad at us,” Chris stated. ” But you didn’t have to put out your anger on the poor puppy.”

" Listen to what I am saying...” Adele said when the puppy in her arms attempted to escape.

Liam tried to grab the puppy from Adele, but she backed away.

" Give it back. He is in pain,” Liam said, looking hurt.

" Didn’t you observe something distinctive about the puppy?” Adele asked before they could interrupt her again.

" What?” Liam asked, confused.

" What’s unusual?” Chris asked, gazing closely at the puppy. Suddenly he noticed a change. “Its eyes...?”

" Exactly,” Adele agreed. ” Previously, the puppy’s eyes were blackish-brown, but now it’s golden like that of a cat.”

" It looks similar to that of Mr. Ugly. Does that mean it is...?”

The puppy was desperately trying to escape from Adele’s clutches, and it managed to jump by scratching at her hand.

" How dare you?” Chris screamed in anger and pounced on the puppy and held his leg before it could run away again. His leg was broken, so his moments were relatively slow.

" If this one is the shifter, then where’s my puppy?” Liam asked, looking around the bushes.

" I think they are all the same,” Adele remarked.

" What do you mean?” Chris asked, keeping a death grip on the pup.

" The moment I saw it in this dark forest, I felt something was amiss,” Adele said.

" But this is a magical forest, so obviously, everything is unusual here,” Liam said.

" I agree,” Adele said. ” So I thought of giving it the benefit of the doubt. But when I saw the change in its eye color, I was confirmed that it was not a normal puppy but a shifter. ”

" That’s impressive,” Chris praised Adele looking at her proudly.

" Or rather, this shifter is a fool,” Adele said, pointing at the pup. ” While changing his form back to a puppy, he forgot that his eyes were supposed to be blackish-brown.”

" But how can you say the puppy and Mr. Ugly are the same?” Liam asked.

" There’s one way to replace out,” Adele said and approached the dog.

" Show yourself now, or get ready to die,” Adele threatened, but there was no reaction.

Alexa was getting impatient and suddenly took control from Adele and broke the pup’s other leg. " Let me handle him, Ad. You are too forgiving.”

The dog cried out in pain and fell to the ground.

" I know it’s you, Daniel. There’s no way you could escape now,” Alexa sneered.

" Daniel?” Liam was shocked. ” You mean the vampire?”

Alexa’s nails changed into claws, and she was about to slash the pup when he shifted back to its human form, and indeed it was Daniel.

" You are too smart,” Daniel said, looking at Alexa with hatred. ” How do you always manage to see...”

Before he could complete his sentence, Alexa had slashed her claws against his neck, cutting off his windpipe and killing him instantly.

" You sure didn’t waste a second,” Chris said, shaking his head.

" First act, then talk. Often many fights are lost because people spend their time bragging rather than concentrating on the prey. If I had given him a chance, he would have turned into a bug and flew off again."

" I will kill you bitch,” Samara screamed out of the blue, trembling in anger.

" So, you are back?” Alexa mocked Samara. “I thought you had died of boredom.”

" You think this is a joke? I will show you real fear,” Samara said, and they heard a rumbling sound.

" What was that?” Liam asked.

The rumbling sounds increased, and they could hear footsteps from all directions.

" Wild animals...!!” Chris exclaimed as they could smell them from everywhere.

" What do we do? There are so many of them, and we are just three,” Liam said, standing in a defensive position.

" At this time, the best option is to run,” Alexa said. ” Let’s go inside and lock ourselves.”

The three rushed inside the castle in record time and locked the castle door. All three frantically checked for any open windows and doors, and thankfully everything was closed.

They could hear the animals roar and scratch their claws onto the doors and walls of the castle.

" Why did all the animals attack at once?” Chris asked, confused.

“It’s Samara. She’s controlling them,” Alexa replied.

" The witch again,” Liam said, irritated. ” When will she be out of our lives?”

" Soon. That’s why we are here,” Chris assured him. ” But we cannot hold them off for long. We have to look for a way out.”

" Let’s search. It’s an old castle, so there might be a secret passage or something,” Liam suggested.

They started looking around every nook and corner of the castle but didn’t replace any door or secret passage.

" How can this be possible? Every castle has a secret passage,” Liam said, frustrated.

Adele then remembered something she had seen in the Arts room. ” I think I know where it is.”

Suddenly one of the windows broke open, and a jaguar jumped in. Behind it, they could see a few other animals struggling to get in.

" You go and look for the door, ” Liam said to Adele. ” We will fight them off.”

" I am fed up of fighting with animals. Are there no humans here,” Chris said, annoyed.

" Then let me take care of them. I am a pro with animals,” Conan said and transformed into his black wolf.

Adele entered the art room and headed straight toward the painting she had seen earlier. At the corner of the picture, there was a symbol that resembled a crescent moon. She vaguely remembered seeing this symbol somewhere and looked across the room. Beside the painting was a sculpture of a woman holding a spear with the same crescent moon shape on the top. When she rotated the moon-shaped thing, the painting moved and slid across the wall, revealing a passage.

” Found it,” Adele said excitedly and ran out to call the other two.

" Come on; I found it,” Adele screamed from the top floor and saw a huge vulture flying towards her to attack her. The bird was trying to poke her in the eye, but she dodged it, held its neck at the right time, and threw it across the corridor.

Conan and Lex had managed to come to the top floor fighting off the creatures one by one. Both were hurt and bleeding in multiple places. Conan entered the room, but Lex was still fighting two hyenas at once.

" You guys leave; I will hold them off,” Lex said, breaking a hyena’s neck.

" We are not leaving without you,” Adele and Conan said at the same time.

Adele took a knife from her bag, threw it at the other hyena, and yelled, ” Now.”

Lex quickly raced towards the art room, and Adele closed the door immediately, stopping three animals at the door.

Adele showed them the passage, which was dark, but luckily she had a flashlight in her bag. ” Get in,” Adele said to Conan and Lex.

Adele followed them, picking up her and Liam’s bag, which she had grabbed earlier. Once inside the passage, she pressed a button, and the door closed instantly.

The passage led to a tunnel that was not very big but could accommodate around ten people easily. They walked for hours, but there was no sign of an exit, and to their utter irritation, Samara pestered them with her annoying threats and curses all through their way.

" Will you shut the f**k up,” Alexa yelled in frustration.

" No, I wish I could kill you with my curses,” Samara retorted.

" Shut up, or I will tell them your secret,” Alexa threatened.

" Don’t you dare? ” Samara was suddenly not so eager to cuss at them. She knew Alexa was hinting at the time when she had scared and threatened to kill her while in the moonstone. Being the prideful person that Samara was, she couldn’t let Alexa reveal the shameful moment, so she decided to keep quiet for now.

At some point, Alexa stopped to rest. " We have come quite far, so I think we can relax for a while.”

Chris and Liam agreed and sat down, feeling exhausted.

Alexa saw their bruises and was worried. She took out the potion from her bag and said, " You guys are injured, so you should have it.”

" Argh!!” Liam fake screamed. ” I think I have a nasty bruise on my back. Instead of drinking, it might heal faster if you directly put it on the wound. Please, can you help me?” Liam requested Alexa.

" Why don’t you ask him to do it?” Alexa snorted, pointing at Chris.

" I can’t even move my hand,” Chris said, scrunching his face in pain. ” Even I need your help.”

" Fine,” Alexa huffed and went behind Liam. She lifted up Liam’s shirt, and he had a cut near his left shoulder. She poured a few drops on the wound, and Liam winced in pain.

" Does it hurt?” Alexa asked, looking concerned.

" No, not anymore,” Liam said in a husky voice, and Alexa felt her heart skip a beat. She was transfixed for a few seconds but soon came to her senses.

" Okay... Done.” Alexa blushed and moved away. " Have a few drops to heal all the other bruises in your body.

" What about me?” Chris asked, holding his arm.

Alexa rolled her eyes and checked Chris’s hand, which didn’t have a wound at all. " You are not hurt. Were you lying to me?” Alexa asked, raising her brow.

" No,” Chris said in a hurry. ” My wrist is broken.”

Alexa slowly held Chris’s hand and checked his wrist. She moved it a bit, and Chris cried out in pain.

" I-I am sorry,” Alexa said. " It’s an internal injury, so it will heal only if you drink the potion.”

Alexa took the bottle and placed it near Chris’s mouth, who gulped it immediately.

" You guys should sleep for a while. I will keep watch,” Alexa said.

" But you must be tired too,” Liam said.

" I will rest later once your injuries are healed. We can take turns and watch.”

" Okay,” Liam and Chris said and laid down on the floor. They agreed because Alexa didn’t like to be treated as a damsel in distress who was dependent on men. They finally slept, keeping one eye open.