He looked to Leticia for anything more she could share, but she seemed to be done with him. He was unable to decipher the meaning behind Leticia's vague guidance and was desperate for any help he could get.
"Please," he begged, "I need more than cryptic messages. Redwood is treading on very thin ice."
Leticia chuckles softly at Caleb's impatience. "Ah, Alpha Caleb, you underestimate the depth of this cosmic design. The answers lie in the truths yet unveiled."
Caleb feels his frustration building. If there was a table anywhere near, he would be flipping it, but he currently settles for balling his fists. "But what about Marisol? You said she could save us.... But how?"
The witch's laughter resonated through the room, causing Caleb's eyebrows to twitch in slight annoyance. There was nothing amusing about Redwood's predicament. "Marisol, oh, Marisol. Do you even know what she truly is?" Leticia inquires with a knowing smirk.
Caleb answers without missing a beat. "She's a hybrid werewolf, daughter of Liam Hallows, and her mother is a witch bane. A powerful lineage...." He hesitates before adding, "That much I know." In almost a whisper.
Leticia's laughter, this time, bounces off the wall with the loudness of it. Caden cringes, "Ignorance and impatience, young Alpha. Marisol is much more than that. There are layers to her. You haven't even come close to unveiling it."
Caden lost the battle against his growing annoyance this time, his voice rising with his next words, "Then tell me! Show me the way! You keep speaking in all these twisted riddles when you know I'm as good as blind compared to you."
The witch's amusement remains, proving time and time again, how unintimidated by Caleb she was. "The way forward lies in discovering the truths obscured by veils of uncertainty. Seek the truth, Alpha Caleb. That is your path."
"Can't you give me another prophecy? Some direction.... I don't even have the slightest idea of how exactly Marisol is expected to save us! Does that seem fair?"
Leticia's gaze turned solemn. "I'm sorry, but there are no more prophecies. The threads of fate intertwine in labyrinthine ways that even I can not predict. You must watch it unfold."
With a surge of anger, Caleb decides he'd had enough and storms out of Leticia's room without another word, feeling more lost and frustrated than before. The weight of Redwood's precarious situation bore down on him, leaving him seething with emotions he couldn't contain.
He bumps into Sophia on his way back, and she regards him with an expectant look as she looks between him and Leticia's door with a raised brow.
"Caleb, what did she say?" she asks, tenderly, her wolf sensing Caleb's unconcealed anger and disconcerted state.
Exasperation is evident in his tone as he recounts their conversation. "She speaks in riddles, Sophia! No prophecies, no clear answers. Just... 'seek the truth'!"
"Perhaps there's wisdom in her words, Caleb. We need to uncover the truths hidden beneath the surface." Sophia placates softly.
Caleb shakes his head, still seething. "But how, Sophia? Marisol's supposed to be our saviour. How do we work with just that fact, knowing nothing more!!"
"We'll find a way. We must trust in our instincts and unravel the mysteries together."
Despite her words, confident as they were, Caleb's heart remained heavy with doubt and apprehension. Grappling with the cryptic guidance offered by Leticia was messing with his head a lot more than he would like to admit. Letting out a groan of frustration, he grips at his hair.
"I'm sick and tired of it all at this point!" he confesses.
"Look Caleb, these prophecies are never straight. They'll never be. We've done our part and brought Marisol here. That's already a step completed successfully. Now, we should focus on getting her to cooperate."
"Cooperate how?" Caleb growls. "Even if we are able to get her to listen, how then would we proceed when there is no clear indication of what exactly she's here for in the first place?"
Sophia shakes her head, lips parting to try and reason with her mate, but he continues, "Do you realize that she's being held hostage? If we're to get her to agree to our terms, we need to have those terms spelled out atleast! But we have nothing! Everything is a mess that seems to only grow messier!"
"How about...... we calm her down enough to lead her to Leticia's presence? The prophecy came when you sought Leticia's presence, didn't it? Maybe directions will be revealed when Marisol is led there."
Caleb blinks, processing the words. Sophia, as always, was making a lot of sense.
"That does sound valid." He acquiesces, "But, how do we get someone that livid to visit a witch?"
"We can lead her there?"
Caleb huffs with a shrug, "Okay let's try that. But I doubt it will work."
Before dawn the next morning, Marisol stirs from her restless slumber, her once vibrant spirit now subdued by the recurring effects of the sleeping spells. Caleb and Sophia stood by her side in wait, witnessing the toll it took on her frail form. She looked disheveled, weary, and unnaturally pale.
Her breaths were coming in short and fast. She'd been asleep most of the time for the past few days, and that could not spell good for her health. They were going to give her one last shot at this before they resorted to other means to get her to cooperate.
As Marisol's eyes flutter open, a soft growl escapes her lips. In a display of resistance, she turns away on sighting them, ignoring their gentle pleas for her to eat.
The Omegas persisted, trying to entice her wolf with the scent of food.
Marisol coughs and stubbornly remains backing the food presented to her.
"No, I will not eat, and you can't make me." she refused weakly, her voice coming muffled. She could barely move as it was.
"Marisol, please, you need to eat something," Sophia tried again. "You haven't had anything in days now. You need energy."
Marisol refuses to budge, ignoring her words. No amount of talking was going to convince her.
"Leave me alone." She rasps out, curling into herself.
Caleb, torn between the urgency of their mission and the guilt he felt towards Marisol, moves closer to her.
"We're doing this to protect you and Redwood. Please understand -"
In an instant, Marisol swipes her extended claws and seizes Caleb in a vice-like grip around his throat, catching him completely off guard and sending a shiver down his spine. Her claws threatened to sink into the soft skin and tear out his jugular. Any swift movement could kill him.
She bares her teeth at him and growls, the animosity wafting out of her in waves. "You!" She growls, "What do you want from me?"