Chapter 56 #2
Yep, that’s Joel, doing what he always does.
Like me, he’s always looking out for the pack.
And in his case, particularly the young alphas who all wind up on Joel’s roster to help with security and surveillance.
He teaches the younger alphas and betas how to take care of the pack.
He rarely relaxes. If he’s not managing security and surveillance, he’s running his online businesses and investments, fattening the bank balances for the council as well as the pack treasury.
I’ve spent a whack of money this past week, but generally keep my expenses low, so I’ve still got a healthy surplus.
My and Grey’s business is doing well, but since I’m about to write a check for half the value of my house, it’s thanks to Joel’s efforts with our money that I can still take a few months off if Bailey wants to go to Alaska.
It’ll be good when Linc and Joel have what I’ve got, what Tyson, Mason, Riley, and Grey have. Someone to do life with.
No. Not just someone. The perfect one.
My eyes swing to Bailey, hearing her laughter.
Bailey belongs in the middle of this. Always has.
And not just because she's Grey's sister. Not just because she’s mine.
She is an elemental part of our pack. She belongs here as much as I do.
Loves this pack, this land, and everything we stand for.
She wants to spend her life making it better for all of us while cataloguing everything for the benefit of our future generations.
Fate didn’t just give us these females to warm our beds. They matched them with us not only because they’re perfect for us, they’re also a perfect fit in this pack. We’re all puzzle pieces fitting together to shape the coming years for this village.
I don’t know what sort of fight we’ve got ahead of us before the last two matings are done, but I know we’ll get through it.
Something weird hits my chest from the inside.
Erica, Danica, Ronnie, and Cat are now crowding Bailey, showing Bailey Cat’s phone. The music is too loud so I can’t make out what’s being said.
Bailey’s eyes pan up to find me, and I can tell by her expression as well as the sensation in my chest that I need to move that way. Riley is on the move. So is Grey.
And now Bailey marches out of the town hall, leading the three Young witches, Tyson’s mom, along with me, Grey, Riley, Mase, and Tyson to the conference room on the other side of the lobby.
I tell Linc I’ll fill him in as soon as I know what’s up.
We all file in behind her and being last in, I shut the door.
Bailey says to me, “Dani went down to the river to check it out after Cat couldn’t figure out what those green things that burned my paw are.”
“And?” I ask.
Cat speaks up. “A variety of nightshade I’ve never seen. It didn’t burn me, didn’t hurt Tyson. We both examined it today in both forms. I didn’t recognize it, so showed photos to Dani tonight and she had suspicions and confirmed it once she saw it up close.”
“Also known as angel’s trumpet,” Bailey answers. “A highly toxic nightshade plant.”
“It’s what the Starling witch used to disable me in that basement,” I tell them. “They didn’t bother you there,” I say to Bailey.
“Maybe because my wolf was dormant then?”
“Most likely,” Cat agrees. “There’s a lot to be learned about mixed race supernaturals.”
“They used a rare variety. They’re all toxic, but these ones read as extremely toxic. Especially to wolf shifters,” Danica adds.
Cat says, “And they’re not indigenous to this region.”
“These pictures and video show a lot of it. Much more than we noticed yesterday,” Bailey adds. “Dani says some rare varieties like the one the Starlings used in Europe don’t generally bother shifters until they begin flowering.”
Cat pipes up. “It wasn’t just in the spot you told me about, either.
It’s now carving a path along the riverbank all the way out to the lake.
We need to make sure it’s not elsewhere, too.
Shifter pups have been historically more sensitive to environmental toxins as a survival mechanism.
We’re really lucky Bailey’s wolf happened upon those at this stage. ”
“Shit,” I say.
“That drone belongs to the Starlings,” Grey surmises.
“They’re checking on their little project,” Riley adds, then asks, “How the fuck did they get those flowers planted here? That drone was old, not like they were using aerial seeding tech.”
Bailey’s spine snaps straight. “Alta wants something from us. When I was in the bathroom and she was talking to those two guys I think she was talking about a secondary plan. She was speaking another language, Italian I think, but I’m fairly certain she was talking about Arcana Falls.”
“Since she couldn’t tap into dark magic with her ancestor’s wand, she might have plans to do it here,” Erica warns. “The magic in this area is magnetic to witches.”
“Let’s go,” Riley says. “Me and these guys will grab a bag of gloves from my workshop and flashlights as well as some weed killer. Nobody touch any of those plants.”
“No weedkiller,” Erica denies. “I’ll use magic to extract those plants. Weedkiller will harm the ecosystem and the energy of the whole area. I need to do an extraction instead.”
He asks, “You can get rid of them with magic without hurting yourself? Without putting anyone at risk?”
“I can.”
“Anyone? Even an unborn someone?” he asks.
“Are you guys telling us something?” Cat asks excitedly.
“Not yet, but we’re on watch,” Erica answers with a smile. “I can do it safely, honey. Don’t worry.”
He pulls in a big breath and releases it slowly.
Ronnie offers, “Maybe I can help. If I can put my hands on it ahead of that, I may be able to tell how it got here and as it’s fresh I might be able to pick up on the energy and intentions of whoever planted it.”
“Good stuff,” Tyson says, reaching for the door.
“Where’s Aunt Mimi?” Bailey asks as we all file out.
“Vivi drove her home,” Erica answers.
“Good thing you guys are still here,” Bailey says, eyes darting to me as Ronnie replies.
“We were leaving too, but just before we packed up, Vivi got a feeling we might be needed.”
Bailey’s eyebrows lift up with her eyes still on me.
During pillow talk last night, she talked about how awesome these girls are. I muttered I was looking forward to them leaving, hoping it’d mean the drama was done. Without words, she’s rubbing it in right now that it’s good that they’re still here.
I’m thinking it’s also good that my mate’s wolf is a little pup, too. If she were full-grown, she wouldn’t have alerted us to this plant by catching that burn on her paw.
***
We’re behind my house and Ronnie is sitting by the water, hands on some of those seedlings.
Beside her, Erica and Danica have made one of their magic circles. A big stone cauldron was brought from Riley’s and put in the middle of it.
“There’s a magic block on them,” Ronnie says. “I can’t identify a single thing about them. It’s as if they’re not even registering as plants in my mind.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” I ask.
Danica answers. “They’re spelled. I’m getting next to nothing from them.”
“Same,” Erica states.
“I take it they were planted through magic rather than physically planted?” Grey asks.
“Exactly,” Erica replies. “If not, because of how new they are, Ronnie in a meditative state should see who planted them or how they got here. I’ll isolate their energy, extract them from the ground, drop them in the cauldron, and we’ll go from there.”
“Where do you go from there?” Bailey asks.
Erica replies. “We’ll attempt to neutralize them so we can safely discard them.”
Ten minutes later, the Youngs as well as Grey are inside the magic circle, surrounding the cauldron by the riverbank. The rest of us are in my yard watching.
Mason has been keeping Linc and Joel informed. Linc is watching over Ivy, Stacy, and Amie. I tried to send Bailey to go sit with those girls, but she looked at me like I was out of my mind.
“I can test the ground while shifted after they pull them, silly,” she informed me.
I growled, frustrated with the notion of her being anywhere near anything remotely dangerous. Her answer to that was to wrap her arms around my waist and plaster her body to mine, filling my senses with her arousal.
But it was the right thing to do. She’s standing here against me, in the safety of my grasp, away from the danger of the riverbank.
“They took footage from the falls to the edge of the village on that drone?” she asks.
“Yes, why?” I ask.
“I’m trying to figure out the motivation here.
The Starlings wanted their artifacts back.
Alta said she needed that wand to do with her love, who I’m assuming is Eduardo because Anya said that name when they were on the phone.
Alta told me her love was gravely ill. That house smelled like a hospital. ”
“I caught that scent when I finally got out of that basement away from those flowers,” I reply. “Since we no longer have those artifacts, what’s the point of this? Revenge?”
“Make us all sick with those flowers for what happened with that other Starling witch, for what happened with the wand? Maybe Eduardo didn’t make it.”
“But what would they do after we got sick and were all laid up?” Tyson asks.
“Good question,” Mase adds.
Riley’s jaw muscles bulge. “When they’re done over there, we’ll run it down with them.”
“What about Aphra?” Mason asks. “Why don’t we get her out here?”
“She’s staying at my house,” Tyson says. “Her daughter’s been sick, so Ivy gave them a guest room.”
“Should we be concerned?” I ask. “She’s a Starling.”
“Absolutely not,” Riley says at the same time as Bailey.
“Has Ronnie ever laid hands on her?” Mase pushes.
“Don’t think so,” Rye says with hesitation.
Me and Mason look at him.
Tyson says, “We’ll make sure.”
Then Bailey gasps, “Oh!”
We all watch as what looks like fireflies float up from all along the river, lifting, then divebombing into the cauldron.
They’re coming from everywhere around us now.
Thousands of tiny orange sparks from this side of the river, all heading for that cast iron pot.
There are red and blue sparks in the air around Grey and around Erica.
It goes on for a few minutes before there’s no longer anything floating through the air. The orange glow from the contents of the cauldron is now a bright beacon. There were way too many. And they came from beyond the riverbank. They were definitely growing elsewhere in our village.
Erica, Ronnie, Danica, and Grey surround the cauldron at close range, hands joined, heads bowed.
A couple minutes pass and the glow burns out before Grey lifts a lid from the ground and sets it on top.
The group of us go back to the town hall.
It’s after ten o’clock now and the party will wrap up soon as Brody’s people have a big day ahead of them tomorrow.
We decide to go in to have some food and say goodnight, ending the evening on a high note to give Brody our best wishes.
But I don’t like the feeling in my gut, and I know none of my council co alphas do either.
***
“I don’t think it’s over,” Bailey whispers to me in bed a few hours later.
We connected physically when we got back, me peeling that gold dress off her. It was slow, unhurried, gentle, and fucking awesome, but both of us are restless.
“I don’t think it is, either,” I say, sifting my fingers through her hair and pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “I don’t want you out of my sight until we know it is.”
“I don’t think it’s Aphra. I’ve been thinking on what happened after Anya phoned Alta.
About the things she said upstairs to those guys.
They were arguing. Just before they left, I heard Alta say, arcano.
She also said grotta. I also remembered the word cascata somewhere in there.
I suspected they were speaking Italian and I remembered those words so looked them up on a translator on my phone tonight and those words were for sure about our village, the word waterfall, and the word cave.
I knew by their tones as they were arguing that the one creepy guy was upset that their plan was thwarted, and I don’t remember the order of the words she said, but I’m thinking what she said was around her having a solution to the problem of not getting the wand. ”
The cave behind the falls is a sacred place. It’s where the Young coven called upon magic to form our bonds in the council way back whenever it was decided we’d be led by a group instead of one alpha.
We’ve always had important conversations there for privacy. It’s the council’s space. The cave walls house layers of crystals. We’ve always known there’s special magic there.
“She also said if we tried to retaliate for her taking us like that, she knows more magic than the Youngs do. Called Erica and Grey wet behind the ears.”
“We haven’t retaliated,” I say. “And we should. The Young coven said they thought it should be reported to the SCC. We’ve been occupied so I don’t know if that was done or if anything came of it.”
And now I’m a little pissed, because why didn’t I make sure something was done? I know why and I can’t let myself dwell on it. My head was elsewhere. And if I do let myself dwell for another second, she’ll feel it. I need to keep a clear head now, eyes open, senses on alert.
“Regardless, I don’t have a good feeling about this,” she says. “And I can tell you don’t either.’
“Nobody does, baby. But let’s get some sleep. I’ll be meeting with the council in the morning. From there, we’ll talk out a game plan.”
I pull her close and purr until her body is relaxed, her breathing evened out.
I thought our drama was over.
Fuck!