Chapter 14
CHAPTER 14
B arnabus was walking the Hayes pack lands. There was no way Ares should have been found and released. He could only think that that turncoat Tatum had rescued him. There was no other way Ares could have got out. And now he couldn’t get more abilities as MacKenny had been thrown in prison. He had to find another way to mess things up.
As he was walking he came across the pack shaman, who was seated inside a stone circle.
The shaman stared at Barnabus. “What do you need, demon?”
Barnabus smirked, “Do you know who I am?”
The shaman nodded. “Barnabus. Alpha Tom told me he was working for you.”
“I was a fool to trust that idiot. But tell me what he had you do for him. There might be something you’ve tried that can help me.”
The shaman nodded. “Be welcome in my circle.”
Barnabus entered the circle and sat down cross-legged, mirroring the shaman’s pose.
“Begin.”
Puff and Paris had just walked into the kitchen when his phone pinged with a message. He opened it and saw a message from Tudor.
We need an urgent meeting to help Cade with an issue he is having can we meet in the kitchen in half an hour we need to pool our resources.
Puff glanced up and saw Paris reading the message as well.
“Do you know what this is about?” Paris asked him.
Puff shook his head. “No, only that we would understand everything soon.”
“Whatever’s wrong, I’m sure someone in this pack can help,” Mateo said.
Puff spotted Mateo and Atticus sitting at the table, coffee in front of them. “Hey,” he greeted, walking over to them and sitting down next to Atticus, with Mateo on the opposite side. A travel mug was on the table in front of them.
“How’s your throat?” Atticus asked him.
“Sore, that elm bark tea with lemon and honey really does help, though. I should make some more,” Puff croaked out.
“Already did,” Mateo grinned, pushing the travel mug to him. “I thought you could carry this with you.”
“I knew I liked you,” Puff said happily, opening and taking a sip as Mateo and Atticus chuckled.
Paris brought a coffee over and joined them. “Have the three of you started training together yet?”
Atticus shook his head. “Not yet. I need to start blocking time out in my calendar so we can.”
“You work too hard,” Mateo worried, looking at him.
“I know. I need to delegate more. It’s something I’m currently trying to do.”
“Anything we can do to help?” Puff asked, frowning. “Did I create more work for you when I made you an ambassador? I can find someone else if you want.”
Atticus smiled at him. “No, it’s all slowly sorting itself out, but thank you for the offer. I need to look at bringing more of my things here. I didn’t plan for a forever stay.”
“Two future mates messing up your plans,” Paris joked with a laugh.
Atticus grinned. “Something like that. I also had a request from my brothers, asking if they could come for a visit. I’ll check with Blake later.”
“I’m sure he won’t mind them coming,” Mateo said. “Are they older or younger?”
“Younger, a lot younger,” Atticus told them.
“What are their names?” Paris asked.
“Chaos, Mayhem, and Destruction,” Atticus said with a laugh.
“Seriously?” Puff asked.
Atticus shook his head. “Not really, but that should be their names. No, they are Archer, Andrew, and Artimus. My parents liked ‘A’ names.”
“When they come, we’ll make them welcome,” Puff affirmed.
Just then, Tudor and Alex walked into the kitchen, saying hi and getting drinks. Soon everyone invited was walking in, coming for the meeting.
“It’s time for the meeting,” Peyton said softly to Cade, who was still kneeling in front of him.
Cade nodded. “It is. I’m not afraid to admit, just to you, that I’m scared nothing can be done,” he whispered nervously.
Peyton moved his right hand and laid it against Cade’s cheek. “I have every confidence that this amazing pack can help. Now, stand up and let’s go and find out what can be done. Because if you stay here, looking at me like that, I’m liable to kiss you.”
Cade gave a happy, relieved laugh. “As much as I want to kiss you as well, I’ll not do that until I know it won’t kill us,” he said, standing up and holding his hand out to Peyton.
Peyton took the offered hand and stood. “Pretty sure kissing won’t kill either of us, but if it does, what a way to go.” And with that, Peyton pulled Cade into his arms and kissed him, and not being stupid, Cade kissed him back.
Finally, they pulled apart.
“So good,” Peyton said softly.
“It really was, but now we need to get to the meeting,” Cade replied, taking Peyton’s hand and leaving the library.
Cade was surprised by the number of people in the kitchen. Along with Alex and Tudor, were Puff and Paris, plus Mateo and Atticus, Blake and Baylan, Saxon and his two mates, Oz, Jason and Ares, Demi and Dask, and lastly Ashton and Donovan.
Two seats were left in the middle of the table, and Cade and Peyton sat down.
“Thank you everyone for coming to this sudden meeting but I need your help well actually Cade and Peyton do,” Tudor said in a rush.
Alex put his hand on Tudor’s arm.
“What can we help you with?” Blake asked, looking at the two of them.
Cade blew out a breath. “Well, the thing is, Peyton is my mate,”
Congratulations were offered by those gathered.
“But as things stand, I can’t mate with him,” he continued.
“Why not?” Blake asked, peering curiously at Cade.
Cade explained his predicament. “And Tudor said that someone in this pack might be able to help break this curse, hex, cycle, whatever it is,” Cade finished.
“No wonder you wanted to leave,” Donovan sympathised. “I’m sure if we pool all our resources that something can be done.”
“There’s always a way to break anything,” Saxon agreed.
“Saxon’s right. I’m sure between all of us we can help you, Cade,” Atticus said. “We need to know everything you know or can remember: when the deaths started happening, what was going on at the time, anything you can tell us will help.”
Peyton looked at the three gods with hope in his eyes. “Can’t one of you just wave your hands and fix things?”
“Not really. With curses and hexes it’s better to find out everything first. You never know if there’s a, for want of a better word, fail-safe written into the curse or hex which would make things worse if we did,” Dask replied.
“I didn’t know something like that was possible,” Ash said.
“It was in the old days. I’m sure I’m not the only god that encountered such things,” Ares explained.
“So what do we need to do?” Peyton asked.
“We research everything. Like Atticus said, we need as much information as possible, but Cade, we’ll fix this for both you and Peyton, plus the rest of your family,” Oz promised.
Tudor smiled. “I told you Sir Knight that our amazing pack mates will be able to help I’m so happy that you’ll be staying you will be staying right because we love having you here –”
Alex touched his arm.
Cade beamed gratefully at Tudor. “Yes, I’m staying, sire. Thank you, all of you, for helping me.”
“You’re pack and family, Cade. We help family,” Blake stated simply.
“So, Cade, grab a notepad and pen and write down everything you know. Once we have that, we can all meet again and get to fixing you,” Oz concluded.
Barnabus walked back to the Hayes pack house grinning madly. He had the perfect plan to wreak havoc on the Fortuna pack. He couldn’t wait to see what happened.