Filed To Story: Secret with Betas Daughter: Skylar Story Series
“My guess is that attack was a test to see our defenses and how we respond to a basic attack. No idea what they learned, but I do know a few guys got away.”
Wyatt mumbles over his food. “That isn’t good for us, other than we took out quite a few. But, they were probably the weakest rogues and could spare them.”
“Well, Oliver said he will come by tomorrow and help too. He’s just as natural with magic as I am really. He seems to understand how it works almost like it has its own personality, like it can think and feel and respond to my thoughts and feelings.”
“He’s probably right. My training was mostly in the physical, herbs and tonics for health and healing. I never did any casting with my aunt.”
“So tomorrow. We join in the patrol and training as normal. Let’s see if we can get Sam or Mateo to talk to us too. The more allies we have the better if we have to go after our own leaders as well as the Rogue King and his goons on the outside.”
“Let’s take a look in the book Elena gave you and see if there is a basic protection spell we can find to protect us and maybe the rest of your guys from whatever Kaley and her dad are using. It will be hard because we don’t know what we are fighting, but maybe we can give them a small portion of their brains back.”
I nod in agreement. I feel so useless right now and all of the information we keep finding is just that, information. There isn’t anything that we can use to take action, so maybe this will be a catalyst.
We finish and clean up. Wyatt and Nathaniel take their post in the living room which has become our makeshift surveillance headquarters. With all of the talk and blatant reveal of cameras all over the packhouse, none of them have been taken down. Just another sign that they are under some kind of control, but whatever it is, whoever holds the reins doesn’t seem to have access to their memory or the information they hold. Cause if it was me, that would have been the first thing I took over, knowing that we have cameras all over the school and packhouse and the pack borders.
We now take shifts monitoring the packhouse, the school and the perimeter. There are only five of us and we are exhausted, but this is the requirement of the mission, we can sleep properly later. If we can gain back some of my friends and hopefully their parents, things will get better, so that’s my focus now.
Jena, Lil and I pour over the grimoire. It’s like a diary, filled with notes about the moon at that moment and the best place to find certain plants at specific times of the year. Then there are notes scribbled into the margins all around the spells and incantations. So many different hands have touched and contributed to this book, I feel special just being allowed to read it. It’s not lost on me that my friends can now read it too. When it first came to me, only I could see the words. I’m not sure what’s changed, but I love it.
“There!!” Jena shouts as she points to the topmost inner corner of a page. There is tiny purple writing, “To counter an attack start with the most simple solution, cut the cord.”
She reads out loud. “What in the hell does that mean?” Lil asks.
“We are looking for a spell to use against whatever Kevin and Kaley are doing, but what if we can find something to just block whatever it is? Something simple to cut the cord of control. Instead of wasting Sky’s energy constantly casting a spell to protect everyone.”
“Huh, I like where this is going. Elaborate for those of us in the room who don’t actively practice the witchcraft.”
Lil points to herself and I smile.
“They aren’t casters so they have to be getting, most likely herbs or a tonic, from somewhere. Meaning they have to go get it and they have to continually give it to them, like for us when Mike had us locked up We were fed herbs every single day. The spell isn’t as strong as when a caster places it directly themselves, no witch is going to tell people that part if people are willing to pay good money for a spell. Especially if they are going to get paid over and over and over again.”
“Okay so how do we ‘cut the cord’ as you say?”
“We need to find something that they can wear, like a stone or an amulet that can block the effects and protect them from further spells. Like Sky is able to fight most spells and poisons, she is literal living proo of that, we might be able to give the guys the same kind of protection.”
My heart lifts. For the first time in a very long time, I have a purpose and a mission where I get to save my friends and not the other way around. So many terrible things have happened and I don’t know how we will get past those, but I do know I don’t want any of them to die or be harmed. No matter how awful they have been to me. I just can’t bring myself to hate them.
We search for the rest of the night. This time combining the information in the grimoire for protections and a good old fashioned highly encrypted internet search.
We were able to find stones and runes that should help us in our efforts, and I have an idea of how to make them wearable, but the problem was getting them to my guys and then getting them to wear them, constantly. And we also need to get access to the stones we found. We decided to ask Lenny when she came in the morning if she had any ideas. Her and Oliver are our only true allies right now.
Lil went to relieve Wyatt and Nathaniel so they could get some sleep around four and Jena and I went to run our patrol route, we’ll sleep after training.
Oliver was pleasant this morning, despite Kota looking like he wanted to murder someone. I also found that I could mindlink Oliver, he just couldn’t respond through the link. Apparently the Alpha command was literally they can’t talk to me. That has to be Kaley, but she didn’t think that through very well, but everything she does borderlines on childish.
My link is stronger than the pack’s due to the warrior brand so I can communicate with him from a pretty far distance. And even though it’s weird to basically have a conversation with myself, I am able to keep him up to speed with what we find.
I also reached out to Delta Kyle, Sam and my brother, but I haven’t seen them to know if they got the message or not. I’m not ready to reach out to the twins or Luna Ava. I don’t know if Kaley’s hooks are deep enough that they would tell her I have access to their minds or not.
As we head over to the training grounds Lil meets up with us to relieve Jena. Lil and I head to the training grounds and see Sam and Delta Kyle waiting at the gates and my whole heart seizes. It’s like deja vu from years ago when Delta Kyle was one of two people who saw me, really saw me and the things I was fighting through.
I could feel the warmth pool behind my eyes as we walked closer to them. They both look around assessing the surroundings, but I don’t care. At this point I’m ready to rip out each fingernail and stand of hair individually for what Kaley has done to me and my friends. I walk straight to them and let Sam wrap me up. No words, just emotions are shared. The moment doesn’t last long though and we head into training like nothing has changed and they haven’t been MIA for weeks.
Delta Kyle lets me lead though with the Elite Warriors, just jumping in to assist where needed. It is strange to think so many things are going on behind the scenes and most of these people have no idea anything out of the ordinary is going on.
I mean they obviously know about the rogues and the most recent attack, but we are werewolves and someone is always attacking someone else for better land, more power, whatever. That was made clear to me at the Alpha summit I went to with Alpha Reggie. But they don’t know that their Alpha is being mind controlled by one of their own pack members or that their future Alphas haven’t been around because fighting the mind control is basically making them crazy.
They are all getting stronger and more confident in their abilities everyday. An that is a bright spot in all of this. I can at least know that I am still being a positive influence on the pack. We were able to finally move all of the pups out to the Royal Pack for safety. At least Kevin and Kaley didn’t get in the way of that. But, maybe after the incident in the tunnel, Kaley realized that even the pups were seen as more important than her and she didn’t mind the removal of that distraction.
As we all start to pack our gear and head out. Sam slips something in my hand as he passes by, not looking at me. Someone must be watching. This is so stupid. I bend down like I am digging through my bag so I can read it.
Bonfire, midnight, just you.
“What the f*ck does that mean? ‘Just you’ like anyone is going to let you go anywhere alone right now.”
“I don’t know, but they can’t mindlink me to tell me and clearly this was written so it didn’t matter if it got lost or found. This could be for anyone.”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.