Enslaved To The Alphas-Chapter 168: Tampered

"What are you doing here, Zen? Shouldn’t you be with the Great Witch? How did you return so early? And why were you hiding here, waiting for me?"

Zen shook his head, his expression unreadable. "Let’s wait for Kael to come. We’ll talk then."

It wasn’t long before Kael stepped into the cabin. The moment he did, both men stiffened. The air shifted—thick with something unmistakable.

They could scent her.

Emira.

Lance’s gaze flicked to Kael, disbelief tightening his chest. Kael had always been particular about keeping his scent clean, never letting anyone leave their mark on him. But now... he was willingly carrying Emira’s scent. Or rather, showing it off...

And this worried both of them, though for very different reasons.

Lance looked at Zen and Kael. Since Zen was already here, he realized that his suspicion about the mate bond being tampered with could be dealt with sooner rather than later. He felt a small sense of relief—maybe the truth could finally be uncovered before things got worse.

Just as he was about to speak, Zen broke the silence, his voice calm but serious. "I came back early because of what I learned in the Enchanted Forest. The Grand Witch and Miss Dorothy will be back soon. But before that, we need to clarify some things between us—things that cannot wait."

Lance and Kael stiffened, feeling the weight of Zen’s words. Zen looked at them both steadily. "Brace yourselves," he added, letting the words hang in the tense air.

Then, with careful emphasis, Zen said, "Our mate bond... has been tampered with."

For a moment, the room felt smaller. Lance’s stomach tightened, every nerve on edge. Kael’s jaw clenched as he tried to take in what Zen had just said.

Lance’s thoughts raced. He had only just begun suspecting this, and now Zen was confirming it. Did that mean the witches had discovered some kind of proof?

Even as the thought settled in, a slow, simmering anger rose within him at the idea that someone had tampered with something so sacred. Yet beneath that anger, he felt a surprising sense of relief. If this was true... Ramona wasn’t their mate.

Just as he was about to speak, Zen delivered the next shock. "And the reason for the tampering," he said, his voice calm and heavy with gravity, as if he were bracing himself for the worst, "is Emira. She is the one who did it."

"Zen! Stop speaking in fragments! Just tell us everything straight!" Kael snapped, his impatience clear. Even Lance nodded in agreement. What did he mean that Emira was the one who had tampered with the bond?

Zen took a steady breath and spoke slowly, "When I entered the Enchanted Forest, I was warned that I had been affected by black magic. At first, I didn’t understand."

"Later, the grand witch seemed quite curious about Emira and other things. However, only when she explained the slave bond did I understand," Zen continued. "It’s a part of dark magic. A slave bond can be used to replace a fated mate and even break the original bond completely. Whoever did it doesn’t need to be near you- it’s done through objects, usually stones or crystals and slowly so that you would not be suspicious of it.

Kael’s jaw clenched. "So someone did this deliberately... without us knowing? Impossible! You know I don’t believe in all this..."

But Zen shook his head, " Tell me then, Kael. Have you not been considering rejecting Ramona as your mate? And what about you Lance? I am sure you are having doubts too, aren’t you? About Ramona? Did you have them before this? Or maybe you did have doubts, but were you willing to ponder them? However, with Emira’s return, hasn;t that changed? If I had not come here tonight, Kael you were still planning to come and discuss about rejecting your fate with Ramona and taking Emira as your fixed mate, weren’t you?"

It was this vision that had brought Zen rushing back and leaving the Grand Witch and Great Witch to their own devices. Because if this happened, then things would be out of control!!

Without further ado, he continued the story, "Miss Dorothy Green and the Grand Witch both will return before the golden moon. For now, they think that Emira is the bride of the dark Master and while she has indeed bound herself to as a slave, she does not realize the power of this bond and how it can shape everything. However, we cannot be certain of it, Lance. Emira is smart and manipulative when she needs to be. She is the daughter of a dark witch called Ember... So, for now, we have to keep things to ourselves...without letting either Ramona or Emira know.

Once the two witches reach here, they will be able to handle things...

Lance’s wolf growled low, restless beneath his skin as he realized the girl they had been drawn to could really be the one who had manipulated the bond itself. Every memory of her charm, every instinct they had trusted, was now shadowed by suspicion.

But just as he heard all this, he shook his head," Zen. She is not just the daughter of a black witch. She has blood of both the black and the white witches running through her..."

Zen looked at him in shock then. " What do you mean? What do you know?"

Slowly, Lance explained the entire conversation that he’d had with her wolf, leaving them all the more confused as to what was going on until Kael spoke up," There is one thing that all three of us are forgetting..."

As Lance and Zen looked at Kael, he said," Emira may be manipulative or not, all of us know that she came here for a reason. Something that she hid in plain sight... The Scroll Room. She was looking for some answers. And from what I understand, she had been about to reach them when she was kidnapped. So, we just need to go to the Scroll room.."