Chapter 10: Chapter 10

Standing next to Ben, I saw the damage that the silver had done to him. The jagged entry wounds were burnt and surrounded by angry blisters. They would almost certainly leave him with scars. The poisoning effect of the silver meant a slow, painful recovery too.

“We couldn’t stop them. There were too many of them, Reece,” Ben said quietly.

“It’s not your fault. We never thought they would be armed as no weapons were used in the other attacks. There’s nothing you could have done against so many rogues, Ben,” I tried to reassure him.

“What happened to them all? Is the pack safe? Is anyone else hurt?” he asked, weakly.

I told him everything that had happened. I knew he felt guilty but there really was very little that he could have done in the face of such an attack. In all honesty, he was lucky he wasn’t killed. He needed to rest and heal now. We left Ben in the care of the nurse and Brad, and I left to wait for the Alpha, who was on his way.

A few minutes later, he arrived at the hospital wing. Cole was with him. We were joined by Doctor Stevens too, who updated him on Ben’s condition. Then it was my turn to fill him in on everything else that happened. Up to this point, I hadn’t managed to let my dad know that I had found my mate. When I told him, he was surprised that I could have found her at a time when we were under attack but was pleased.

“Your Mother will be overjoyed!” he said, smiling, “You had better take me to our future Luna then, Reece.”

Cole went to Ben’s room to sit with him, and Doctor Stevens led the way to her room.

“What do we know about her so far?” my dad asked, as we walked into her room.

“Virtually nothing,” I confirmed.

“And you are sure she is a siren?” he asked, addressing Doctor Stevens.

“Yes, Alpha. All signs point to it. I’m positive,” he responded.

The Alpha was silent for a few seconds before speaking. “Many years ago, there were two sirens who lived peacefully within the pack. Sirens were peaceful creatures, with extraordinary powers. So extraordinary that their abilities sparked fear in some. The Alpha of a pack in the north, Lucien, became increasingly frustrated at sirens being able to live among regular werewolves. He felt it was too dangerous and their power posed too big a threat to his leadership. His allegations were completely unfounded but that didn’t stop him from launching a campaign of terror against the sirens that led them to extinction. He was a ruthless leader and treated his pack badly. He became deranged, seeing himself as the most powerful Alpha there ever was, wiping out the sirens in the process. He trained his warriors to hunt them, using dark magic to weaken them. As far as I am aware, the two sirens from our pack went into hiding. But they, unfortunately, were killed by Lucien’s hunters. I’m not aware of any other sirens. Are you sure she is part of our pack?”

“I believe so. She has our pack scent,” said the doctor.

“What happened to Lucien?” I asked.

“He was stripped of his Alpha title and banished by the Elders. All of his actions were illegal. He was forced to leave his pack. No one knows where he went or even if he is still alive. He hasn’t been seen since then,” said my dad, “It’s impossible to say at this stage whether he is in some way involved in this. Interrogation of the captured rogues will begin tomorrow. Brad will be leading that operation. I think it’s the safest option if you stay here with your mate. At the moment we still don’t know why she was attacked or even if she was the intended target.”

Before he could say anything else, a bright white light twinkled in the corner of the room. The light swirled around gently, and a woman dressed all in white appeared. She had shoulder length bright blond curly hair and a kind face. When she saw my dad, she bowed her head. As she raised it, her eyes darted around the room scanning it. She saw my mate laying in the hospital bed.

“Allie!” she yelled and ran over to her, grabbing her hand. I ran over too. I had no idea if she was a threat yet, and Maddox was in protective mode.

“What happened? What’s wrong with her?” she asked desperately, tears running freely down her pale cheeks.

“Who are you?” my dad boomed in his Alpha tone. His tone did nothing. This woman was not werewolf, but she turned around slowly to face us and answer the question.

“My name is Melissa. I am Allie’s godmother,” she said, gesturing to my mate, “I am a white witch, Alpha. I mean no harm.”

“Godmother?” I asked, “Where are her parents?”

“Her parents died when she was a baby,” she said, sadly.

Collectively, we told her what happened to Allie. And Doctor Stevens reassured her that Allie was doing well, and that he is hopeful she will wake soon. By the time we had finished explaining, she looked horrified, her face drained of all its colour. Her hands were shaking.

“Oh, no. He’s back,” she said quietly. We all looked at her in confusion.

“Melissa,” my dad said, “Please explain.”

We listened carefully as she explained. “Allie’s parents, George and Suzanne were my best friends. They were both sirens, the only two in this pack. Against all the odds, the Moon Goddess paired them together as mates. Alpha, I’m sure you are aware of what happened to the sirens. When the threat from Lucien became real for them, they asked me to protect them with magic. I cast a spell, but it was only powerful enough to protect one of them. We went into hiding together. When Suzanne got pregnant, she wanted to keep the pregnancy secret, so that the baby’s existence was not known of until it was safe. My powers were still in their infancy, I was young, and they hadn’t reached their full potential yet. I was unable to cast spells to protect both Suzanne and George.”

She took a deep breath and continued. “Lucien’s hunters inevitably found them, and they were killed. On that day, Suzanne had me orb Allie out with me and I left her in a safe place. When I returned it was too late and my powers could not hold back the attack. I had failed to protect my friends and they both died at the hands of Lucien's hunters.”

“I decided to care for Allie myself, I registered her under my surname, and kept the truth from her so she would have no ties with sirens. I raised her as a regular werewolf and cast a masking spell to cover her siren scent,” she admitted, reluctantly, “I also hid the truth about me too; she had believed I am human.”

“It’s Allie’s 18th birthday today. She shifted for the first time, and then I sat her down and told her the truth. I told her they died in a car accident when she was a baby, so she was quite upset earlier and ran out of the house into the forest before I could tell her about Lucien. Now that she is 18, the spell I cast will no longer cover her scent. I tried to go after her, but she was too fast. When she didn’t return, I cast a spell to find her,” she explained.

“Shit,” I said, “that is a lot to take in all at once.” I reached for Allie’s hand, and Melissa looked at me puzzled.

“I am her mate. I found her in the forest in the midst of the attack and brought her back to the hospital. She was injured, shot with silver bullets, but doesn’t seem to be suffering any of the usual effects that inflict werewolves. The wounds have already healed. We think she is immune to it,” I said. She looked sad and comforted at the same time by the news that I am her mate, but suddenly looked confused again.

“If you witnessed her creating a force field, that is a gift from the Moon Goddess. How can she be immune to silver too?” she asked.

“We think she has been bestowed with two gifts, which would indeed be strange if only one of her parents was a siren. The fact that both of her parents were sirens is such a rare occurrence that it is entirely believable that she would have two gifts, one from each parent,” Doctor Stevens explained.

“When will she wake, Doctor? It is vital that I tell her about Lucien. She needs to know she is in danger,” Melissa said desperately.

“It is impossible to say when she will wake. All of her physical injuries are fully healed, but her wolf has been weakened considerably by conjuring the force field and needs time to recover. We will continue with some fluids, glucose and some supplements. I’m hopeful she will wake in the next 48 hours,” the doctor said confidently.

“She will be protected here,” I said sincerely. The concern Melissa had for Allie was obviously immense, and I didn’t intend to let Allie out of my sight if I could help it.

“Melissa, please tell us everything you know about Lucien,” said my dad, “If Allie is in danger, the whole pack is in danger and we must consider everyone’s safety, yours included. We need to know as much as we can so we can be prepared.”

“Of course,” she said softly, and gazed back at my mate, “It’s all my fault. I was so focused on protecting her that I denied her the truth. And now here we are. I’m so sorry I’ve put your pack in danger, Alpha. More sorry than you will ever know.”

“If Lucien is as dangerous as you believe, I don’t think your past actions would have changed his plans. If he’s behind the other attacks that our neighbours have experienced, then it seems that he has been building an army for years, likely believing sirens were extinct, like the rest of the werewolf community. It’s possible that he still harbours wishes to become a powerful Alpha and amassing a pack and territory of his own, and sensing Allie tonight was unexpected,” said my dad.

“I suppose that is possible,” she said, sounding unconvinced, “I know he is alive. Every year I cast a spell which tells me if he is dead or alive, but I don’t have the power to pinpoint his location. I was able to find Allie because of our bond, but it took a lot out of me. Please allow me to stay with her, Alpha. I will help in any way I can.” Looking at her now, I could see how exhausted she was. Her face was pale and fine lines stretched around her tired eyes.

“Of course,” said the Alpha, “I will have a guest room made up for you at the pack house.”

“That’s very kind of you, Alpha, but you needn’t go to the trouble. If a bed could be brought to this room, that will be all I need. I want to stay with her until she wakes up. I have a lot of explaining to do,” she said.

“As you wish,” my dad said, nodding.

“Thank you,” she said gratefully, and bowed her head.

“Please excuse me,” he said and left the room. “Reece? You too.”

Brad and I followed him out of the room, leaving the Doc tending to Allie.

Outside the room, my dad took a deep breath and said, “So, we have a power-hungry, deranged, banished Alpha, with dreams of ultimate power, with a rogue army, now seeking the ‘thought to be extinct but actually isn’t’ siren in our pack, who just happens to be our future Luna!”

“This is fucked up, man” said Brad, shaking his head.

“I know,” I said. Truly, it was hard to believe.

“Reece, you know I’ve felt it time for you to take over as Alpha for some time now,” he said. I nodded, and he continued, “Now you have found your mate, it’s time to lead our pack. I will arrange the ceremony for next week. In the meantime, I want Brad to lead interrogations of the captured rogues and focus on intel gathering and defence. I will contact our neighbouring packs and let them know what’s happened. Then you can decide how you want to proceed.”

It was my turn to take a deep breath. I’ve known he wanted to hand over power of the pack to me for about a year, but with no Luna by my side he was reluctant. I knew this day was coming, I just hadn’t thought that it would happen so soon after finding her. She isn’t even conscious right now! But I had little time to ponder on it anymore. There was a lot of work to do.

“Ok, Dad. I think we should suspend the extra training sessions for now. They did the job we wanted, and the younger warriors have now got enough experience to protect the borders. We will need some of them to guard the pack house and hospital wing too. Let’s hope some of the rogues are willing to talk so we can start looking for this crazy bastard before he comes looking for Allie again and puts everyone in danger.”

A gentle smile crept onto my dad’s face. “Good job, Reece. You will make an excellent Alpha, son. Now I need to find your mother and let her know what is going on.”

With that, my dad left with Brad, heading towards the dungeons.

I returned to the hospital room and pulled up a chair to sit next to her. Just being close to her calmed me and Maddox was content. It was late now, and hospital staff had wheeled in a bed for Melissa. She had also pulled up a chair to the bed on the other side and sat holding Allie’s hand.

“It’s all my fault,” she whispered, her eyes filled with despair and shame, “After her parents were killed, I didn’t know what to do. I lied to keep her safe. You have to find him; you have to find him and kill him. I’ve lost too many people at his hands.” Tears fell silently down her face.

“We will. I promise I will protect her in every way possible,” I reassured her. She gave a small smile through her tears.

“And if you had not done such a good job of protecting Allie all this time, I would not have a mate,” I said, smiling. I hoped she would wake soon. There was a lot to talk about when she did. Now that the adrenaline had worn off, Maddox moped miserably, whimpering like a love-sick teenager. I couldn’t blame him. The mate bond had me craving her touch, and I longed to look into her eyes, hear her voice and taste her lips.

Melissa seemed to calm down and eventually lay on the bed to rest. I had some food and refreshments brought in for her. I checked the wound sites on Allie’s body. There was now no visible signs of any injury, no scarring at all. The Doc must be right, she is immune to silver. After witnessing the force field she summoned in the forest, it’s possible that she will indeed be more powerful than me, or any Alpha.

I held her hand and let the sparks of the mate bond skate across my skin. It had been a crazy night, one that nobody had expected. I sat and held Allie’s hand for hours, trying to make sense of tonight. It was obvious to me now that the dreams had been a warning from the Moon Goddess because it had all played out exactly as it had in the dream. It would be nice to think that the warning was to allow me to secure her safety, but she killed some rogues herself before we got there and then let off the force field to deal with the rest. A little damaging to my ego, but I didn’t care. I had found her and that’s all that mattered. And I would never leave her side.

There were some hard times ahead for my little mate, and for the pack.