For the past week that I have spent in the witches' territory, I have done nothing but learn how to protect myself. Each day, I spent training against powerful warriors, leaving my body with bruises, wounds, and broken bones, only to be healed by Odette's potions.

I fought through the pain, courage above all things. I fall only to get shouted at to get back up. I scream in pain only to be told to suck it up. I endure every agonizing hit, kick, punch, and blow because I aspire to be a true warrior.

There were days when Odette didn't heal me. Her reason was that she won't be there all the time with me, to patch me up and fix me again. I had to tend to my own wounds and let them heal by themselves until I had to fight again.

Nothing from everything I have been through helped me through one thing. Since the day that I have been here, with my family, I felt empty and alone. Despite everyone that I have easily made as my friends, I had an unsettling, uneasy feeling of missing something, someone.

Brushing off my emotions, I never admitted that I missed them and him. I thought that getting out of the vampires' kingdom would feel like a liberation yet here am I, wondering if they're also wondering where I am.

Then, a part of me still never got over the fact of what my brother has done to Katherine. After everything we have been through together, I still cared for her like she's my own sister.

I went over to Jonathan's room and knocked twice before practically barging myself to his door.

"We have to talk." I grabbed Jonathan's arm, dragging him somewhere private. My family may have been with me for the past week but it does not change the mistakes in the past.

Jonathan followed me, knowing what I wanted to talk about. When we reached my little cottage, I told him to sit down before I hear his side of the story.

I cared for Katherine despite everything we have both been through. Not one part of her deserved what my brother has done to her. Vampire or not, no one deserves losing their virtue to someone who forced themselves upon them.

"Tell me the truth, Jonathan," I told him earning a sigh in response. Hearing his side of the story won't change what happened but it would at least let me know the whole truth and he did tell me the whole story.

"She knew from the start how much I loathed vampires, Felicity. Katherine played with my feelings, she manipulated me into believing that vampires are not cruel. I never knew that she is one and the nights she disappeared, I saw her after a week, getting sold into that auction house," he said.

She didn't manipulate him. Vampires are indeed not cruel. If they are, I should have been deceased by now but I'm not. He himself knows that Dimitrius and his vampires spared his life and my family's.

"So you knew her before you bought her. Jonathan, you wouldn't have done that if you didn't care who could have bought her that day." Isn't it true? Why would she get Katherine if he loathed her so much?

"No, Felicity. I bought her to show how much anger and hatred I felt when she deceived me. Katherine used to be everything to me, I snuck out every day just to see her but never did I thought that she was a bloodsucking creature!"

I knew that he wasn't telling me something else. His story that was filled with wrath seemed to have a deeper meaning and I just had to hear it from himself. "You loved her, didn't you?"

Then, he sat back down on the ground and said, "Yes, I did."

"Then why did you rape her?" I screamed, not caring who could have heard me. If he loved her even before he found out, why would he do such horrible thing?

"Because I wanted to show her that even if she calls me her 'mate' she can hate me for the rest of her life. Believe me, Felicity. I regretted every damn moment when I did that to her but it was my only way of making her let go of me."

He broke Katherine, he shattered her heart, mind, and soul. Because of what he did, Katherine could never look at her the same way she did and it's true, even if they were mates.

"You treated her like a slave, Jonathan. Don't ever tell me again that you once loved her. Are you that afraid to let go of that hatred you keep against the vampires? You cared for her, you fell for her personality and not because you thought that she was a human. Vampires are not cruel!" I started hitting his chest, screaming, telling him that humans are much worse with what we have done.

"You don't understand the hate we feel, Felicity. I don't like myself for it but it's there. The feeling of wrath upon them, we all feel it. You just don't because you are the girl from the prophecy, aren't you?" When he said that, I shut up. Is that why everyone despised them so much? Because of the so-called 'birth of hatred'?

"Hatred made us do a lot of things we didn't want, Felicity. It's forced upon all humans and vampires, even if we don't like it," he argued back.

I'm not buying his own reasons and stories. Yes, vampires and humans may hate each other but not to the extent of such disgusting actions.

"Tell me the truth, Jonathan," I stood seriously and demanded his honesty.

"I broke her so that she couldn't have the will to fight. Her once fiery spirit, I tainted it with my own demons. Even if it hurt me as much as it did to her, I had to," he said. Why would he have to?

"But why!" I impatiently snarled. All the images of Katherine, wounded, broken, shattered, begging for her life, it all came back to me.

The times when I looked into her eyes and all I saw was emptiness. No emotions nor feelings. Never did I once knew that she was capable of love and out of all people, he loved my brother, who was, unfortunately, her own mate.

"Because if she kept on fighting for the prophecy, she would get herself killed by Dominic, just like her sister. I'd rather see her broken than dead, Felicity. So, I did everything to stop her from even trying to defeat that beast. After that dreadful night, I drowned in guilt since then but I achieved one thing, Felicity," he said while tears started to form in my own brother's eyes.

He looked at me and for the first time, I saw compassion, love, and care. "Katherine stopped fighting."

Jonathan broke down into tears, I stood there, not knowing what to do. He expressed everything, telling me how he wished to bring back the old Katherine back.

But he already made his mistake. Jonathan wanted her safe, alive. He did the unreasonable to keep Katherine from fighting back. He turned their love to hate because he did not want to lose her.

Still, he lost the Katherine he once fell in love with.

• • • • •

9.14K reads, thank you so much! We're so close to ten thousand and it's been motivating me more to write for you, guys. A simple vote, comment, and share really inspire me to continue this story. I hope that so far, you've been loving my book.

1.) What do you think of this chapter? (In my opinion, I literally teared up on writing about Jonathan and Katherine.)

2.) Do you think that Felicity's becoming a true warrior, a fighter?

3.) Who misses Felicity and Dimitrius? (I do!)

4.) What's your favorite part of the book so far?

5.) I'd love to know where my readers come from, comment on your country name!