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The Healing Souls
Sacrifice
Sacrifice2118words
Update Time2024-11-01 09:41:06
[Austin]They took us to a lower cavern. This one was larger than the last by a lot. It surprised me. I didn’t think anything that huge would exist in western Oregon, at least not outside of the mountains.There was an area that looked like a platform, and the rest was gaping darkness. Oberon led the way to a human-sized altar in the middle of the platform. My entire focus was on it until I saw Carmen sniff and shudder.That was when I registered the scent, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly what it was. It was powerful, bitter, and made something inside my mind feel like it was collapsing. The scent, though not familiar, triggered memories of fear, sadness, and pain.Oberon made the guards stop, then took Carmen’s chains and pulled her to the altar. She walked slowly but didn’t resist. Deep down, I was sure she was hoping taking as much time as possible would increase the chance of us being saved.The elf didn’t seem to mind. The way he was looking at her reminded me of how gleefully the Alpha would watch when I tried to escape a beating. He knew what she was doing and what she was hoping for, but he also knew it would never come.I started silently praying to the goddess for her to save Carmen. I prayed the hardest I ever had. A sudden, earth-shaking growl filled the cavern and the guard holding my arm pulled it up painfully, making me yelp. The elf left Carmen at the altar and approached me. I glared at him. He wouldn’t intimidate me. “Praying in the home of another deity is considered rude, wolf.” “He’s not a deity,” I spat. His hand rose quickly, and he backhanded me hard enough to toss me from the grip of the guard who was holding me. He hit a hell of a lot harder than my Alpha did. My wolf worked to heal me while I struggled to my feet and turned to the man. I didn’t back down from his intense gaze. He was smirking at me, enjoying the pain he had inflicted. I bared my teeth at him, ready to fight back. The cavern walls amplified the sound of my growls.“He cares more about us than the goddess ever did,” the guard who’d been holding me replied with a sneer. “Just because you’re disappointed with life doesn’t mean the goddess doesn’t care. People have freewill. That’s what makes life interesting. It also makes it painful. You can be happy, but you have to stop trying to find someone to take the blame for your disappointment,” I replied. Carmen was smiling tearfully at me. I went from barely accepting the goddess into a much more spiritual person because of the influence of the people who had saved me and my mate. If she needed us to buy time, then I would do everything I could to distract them for as long as I could. Oberon’s eyes narrowed dangerously at my words. “You dare lecture my men on disappointment and blame, wolf? You have no idea what they have been through. What your goddess put them through.”“No, but I know what I went through and the evils that can be found even in the places where the most love is supposed to exist. The past is painful, but when you let it go and move forward, you have the chance to change what it looks like. You control the narrative of your past. Choosing to do evil in order to correct evil is not how you heal,” I told him, standing straight up and wiping the blood from the corner of my mouth. Oberon’s face twisted with anger at my words. His hand twitched as if he were about to strike me again, but he hesitated. “You speak with such conviction for one who has never known true suffering,” he growled.I met his gaze with a cool expression. “You don’t know me or my past. I may not have suffered the same way any of you have, but that doesn’t mean my pain is any less valid. We all have our own struggles, and it’s not up to you to decide whose is worse.” There was a tense silence in the cavern as Oberon and I glared at each other. Carmen’s dad whined, and Oberon smirked. “Hold him,” he ordered the guards. The one holding the lead on Carmen’s father let go, and both men advanced on me. I dropped into a fighting stance Rock had taught me. They might not have thought an omega could put up much of a fight, but I wasn’t like other omegas. I threw a punch toward the guard to my left, and he stumbled backward. I swung around and kicked the other guard. He yelped in pain but kept coming at me. Omegas weren’t strong enough to deal real damage to stronger supernaturals. Even though I knew fighting was pointless, I had to try. I’d nearly gotten one to the edge of the platform, but they had overpowered me before I could knock him out. “That was rather pointless,” Oberon scoffed. “Was wasting your energy worth it?” “More worth it than standing by and just letting you do whatever you wanted,” I growled. Oberon laughed and waved his hand. A collar like the one on Carmen’s dad appeared in his hand. As he advanced, I realized what he was planning to do. “If you put that on me, I swear I will eat your faces.” Oberon’s grin widened, seeming to relish in the prospect of my suffering. “You’re a feisty one, aren’t you?” he said, amusement glinting in his eyes. “But I think you’ll find that this collar will put an end to that.”“What the hell does that mean?” I snarled as I struggled against the men holding me. “Why do you think Matthew hasn’t tried anything? He growled a little but didn’t bite the guard and he never tried to attack me.”“He’s blind and can’t see what to attack. It would be foolish to charge something you can’t see,” I replied. The elf wouldn’t convince me of whatever mind game he was playing. I snarled, backing up as he came closer. The guards held me tightly, and I could feel the tension building in my chest.“You’ll see, child,” he chuckled. Just as he reached me and opened the collar, there was a chorus of roars and growls that came echoing from the outer cavern. It was followed by faint screams and the sounds of fighting. They were here!“Don’t look so relieved, wolf. I’m still going to do the ritual and Drakaris will feed on the fools who thought we were nothing more than a supernatural cult. They have no idea what they’re going up against.” His attention went to the guards. “Hold him until I finish.” He dropped the collar and turned away. I tensed my arms, making the guards grip them harder against their bodies, giving me the leverage I needed. We were still near the edge of the platform. I used their hold to swing my body, kicked Oberon's hip with all my might, and knocked him off balance. He stumbled toward the edge and nearly caught himself, but didn’t quite make it. The look of shock on his face, when he fell over the edge, was worth whatever happened next. Next, I used the leverage again to stomp on the foot of one guard as hard as I could with the heel of my foot. There was a satisfying snap when I made contact. The guard howled in pain and let go. I swung around and punched the other guard in the diсk. He was too tall and had me held at an odd angle. I couldn’t hit his face with that swing. When he let me go to cradle his injured junk, I reached down to grab the collar Oberon had dropped. Once I got hold of the collar, I put it on the neck of the guard closest to me. He gripped it tightly and his eyes bugged before he started shifting. I watched in amazement as the guard shapeshifted into an animal I wasn’t expecting. Not a wolf, but a regal-looking red stag with giant antlers and bright blue eyes. It was huge, easily twice my size. He let out a loud bleating bellow before taking off at a gallop toward the exit. The scents had been overpowering in the dungeon, and the smell of the demon was even stronger. I didn’t know what he was before. That made me wonder what the other guard was. They had to both be shapeshifters because Oberon would have wanted to make sure they could subdue another shapeshifter. “Austin!” Carmen called out. “Stay down and don’t touch me or my friend,” I growled at the other guard. “If they don’t find you causing problems, they probably won’t kill you, too.”He hissed at me like a cat and I realized he must have been some sort of large cat shifter. If I had picked him instead of the stag, he might have decided to try to kill me instead of running. The sound of fighting was getting more intense. It must have spooked the stag. I stayed away from the edge of the platform and made my way over to Carmen. When I reached her, I started pulling the chains off her. There was another earth-shaking growl, but nothing attacked us. “What did you do? I heard fighting.” “I kicked Oberon into whatever lies below this platform. He tried to put a collar on me that was like the one he put on your dad. I put the collar onto one guard. The other is nursing a broken foot. It won’t be long before he heals it. We need to get out of here,” I replied urgently. “Right,” Carmen said. We finished removing the chains and left them on the ground. I grabbed the lead that was attached to Carmen’s dad. He was a little resistant. “I’m getting you out of here, but I need you to stay close to me, since you can’t see,” I explained to him. “I’m going to hold the lead tight, and I want you to trust me.” “Trust him, Dad. This is Gemma’s mate, and he would never do anything to hurt us. Austin is one of my best friends now. He’s a really good man,” Carmen told him. After a little more hesitance, he nodded and let me get a tight grip on his leash. Carmen got behind me and gripped my shirt. I was grateful to have at least one arm free while trying to escape. As we left the enormous cavern, there was a roar that shook the walls and made all three of us yelp. I hurried faster in the direction where the fighting was. I would look for faces I knew and would defend Carmen and her dad as much as I could until we were safe, or I was dead. “I can’t believe you did that, Austin. You’re a proper warrior now. You saved me. Gemma’s going to be so proud of you,” Carmen said as we hurried up the path. “Don’t tell Gemma I did that. She would be upset that I risked myself. I don’t want her to be mad at me,” I replied. She laughed. “Okay, I won’t tell her, but if you ever want me to, let me know and I’ll let her know you’re my hero.” I blushed at her words. It was a big deal for me. I had to push myself to do what I did, and I wasn’t even sure the elf was dead. That was one of the biggest reasons I was in a rush. I knew nothing about elves, and if that didn’t kill him, it might have just pissed him off. A sudden impact shook the earth. I stopped and looked behind us. It came from back there. The demon was trying to break free. “We have to run!” I told the blind wolves urgently. “Keep near me. I think things are about to get even more dangerous. Let’s go!” “Right!” Carmen replied. Her dad gave a bark, and they increased their pace a lot. We rushed up, not stopping as we reached the floor where the dungeon was. The path was still rising, and it was a lot darker than I liked. Whenever I came to a branched place, I stayed quiet and turned in the direction of whatever fighting I heard. That was the only way I was going to find our rescuers. We were going to get home if it killed us.