AMELIA’s POVI gasped in shock looking at Gamma Raphael, who had a wicked grin on his face.

‘Gamma Raphael was a sorcerer? Oh, my!’ I exclaimed internally.

How come nobody in the pack knew about this? Since my stay in the pack, I hadn't perceived any sorcerer aura from him. I thought he was just a stupid pervert who abused his power.

Charles dropped me down and pushed me gently to stand at his back.

“Stay at my back Amelia. This just got much worse than expected.” He muttered.

Charles was indeed right. The portal of the forest of the dead was intentionally shifted to the route we passed through. From the current situation, it was obvious that Gamma Raphael was responsible. He was the grade D sorcerer who had shifted the portal.

He knew about our escape plan, he had been following us. But why? What business did he have with us? I understood that he would want to play the role of catching a breeder who had killed the king and escaped. But why would he go through all this trouble of even revealing his identity as a sorcerer?

The creatures remained in one position at the other side, making small screeching noises and clawing their hands in to thin air. Then didn't leave that position, it seemed the purple light emitting from Raphael gamma was preventing them.

“Surprise, surprise.” Gamma Raphael cackled, revealing his brown teeth, which he had gotten from taking too much tobacco.

“Surprise indeed. Who would have thought that the infamous loyal and persistent gamma was a grade D sorcerer.” Charles sneered.

“I’m pleased that the beta recognizes my competence.” He grinned.

“My precious omega, hiding behind him would do you no good.” He said, referring to me.

“Cut straight to the chase. What do you want? Why did you do all this?” Charles asked.

“What an impatient little beta.” Gamma Raphael laughed, and Charles growled.

“I’ll feed your curiosity, after all you will be gone from the surface of the earth soon.” He said, and my eyes widened. He wanted to kill us.

“You don't know how long I’ve been waiting for this day. You don't know how hard I tried to get you, yet that stupid Luna of the Blue Moon pack kept rejecting my offer and collecting my money. Only for her to offer you to the Lycan king.” Anger flashed through his eyes.

‘He knows Luna Chloe?’ She even planned to sell me off to him. Wow, Chloe's cruelty was reaching greater heights. He said he tried hard to get me, for what?

“What do you mean by that?” Charles asked, sounding confused as I was.

“My precious omega is a key to unlocking potential powers that will help me to not only become the alpha of the red claw pack, it would also give me supreme power over other packs.” He laughed.

I cringed when he said, ‘My precious omega.’ ‘How was I a key in his crazy quest for power?’ He was definitely planning some kind of ritual like sorcerers to achieve this.

“Leave her out of this. Leave Amelia out of your stupid plan. So you've been pretending all this while. Acting all loyal, jumping at any mention of work. All these were just a guise to cover up your true act.” Charles shook his head.

“Keep shut fool! I should have done this sooner, but you were always obstructing my plans. I had always known about your plan to escape. I was there last night, when you fed the herb to the king. I heard every single thing. I quickly seized the opportunity, and here we are.” He grinned.

“I’ve gotten the ingredients for the ritual ready. All I just need is to get your blood by slitting your neck. That's very simple, isn't it?” He said as he hovered around us.

“Who would have thought that a mere omega like you would be a descendant of the divine herb makers.”

“You think it's that easy? You wish. You really underestimated Talon. He isn't the Lycan king for nothing.” Charles scoffed.

“I know, I know.” Gamma Raphael hummed. “Now you're underestimating the power of this ritual. We’ve had enough chit-chat. Let's get down to business.” He smiled evilly.

He raised his hands, muttering in an unknown language, probably spells. All of a sudden, my body jerked up with so much force that I coughed out blood. I was now floating in the air.

“Amelia!” Charles yelled, and he transformed, leaping high to attack Gamma Raphael when he was suddenly tossed to the creatures by a swipe of Gamma Raphael’s hand.

“You might have some powers, beta. But we are on a different level now. You don't know what I’ve taken to get to this level.” He said as dark, purplish veins popped on his neck.

The creatures immediately started moving and jumped at Charles, attacking him. Charles fought at them, swinging his claws and slashing at them.

I watched afloat, helpless and unable to move my body. Charles fought the creatures, while looking at me from time to time. Any time he did, he got distracted and the creatures would claw at him.

There were too many of them and I could see he was getting exhausted. He let out a large growl, which resounded through the forest and sent some of the creatures flying. He took this opportunity and leapt on a tree, before leaping towards gamma Raphael, whose eyes were closed and was chanting a spell.

He managed to claw at his right hand, when the purple light surrounding gamma Raphael increased. A force pushed him, and he hit back at the trunk of a tree with blood gushing out of his mouth. The creatures surrounded him again, and the fight continued.

I tried to scream, but only a muffled sound came out instead. Gamma Raphael opened his eyes slowly. Below us, a large pentagram appeared on the ground emitting purple light. He reached for his pocket, bringing out some small bottles with a strange liquid in them.

He descended slowly, bringing me with him. He poured the liquid at the centre of the pentagram.

“Time for the interesting part.” He said with an evil glint in his eyes, as he fished out an ancient dagger from his pocket and pulled me towards him, placing the sharp hilt of the dagger on my neck.