Chapter 7
Konstantine
Cyrus was pacing the floor of my office like a madman.
“A human? Another fucking human? Right on our doorstep, and the piece of shit didn’t light up! Again! What the fuck is going on?”
“Cyrus, relax,” Drake said calmly, trying to keep my beta from ripping his own hair out.
“Don’t tell me to fucking relax, Drake! You weren’t there last time! It wasn’t your mate who was taken or your daughter who was almost killed!”
“I know. I know,” Drake said quietly, his face grey from the concern he was trying not to show.
“Stan, what is happening? And why are we harboring her?”
“She’s injured,” Drake replied in my stead. “She might not make it.”
Cyrus was having none of it. “So what! Why was she even here?”
“I don’t know, Cy, but we don’t know if the two instances are related. She may not have anything to do with them.” Drake’s reasoning only added to Cyrus’s anger.
“What are you, in love with her already?” he snapped and turned toward me. “Please tell me we’re going to dump her somewhere the first chance we get.”
“Best if we don’t,” I said, responding succinctly and receiving Cyrus’s answering growl.
I knew why Cyrus was angry. I was angry for the same reasons, which I had been putting off addressing.
I’d always found my pack’s dependence on the Eternal Fire to be problematic.
For over a millennium, we relied on the Fire to act as a beacon, sending up a beam of light from the tower where it burned to alert us when potential danger was near or if someone or something unwelcome had gotten too close.
Carefully kept records detailed its ability to keep our lands fertile and our weather temperate.
Most importantly, the Fire was our protection, not only in shielding the Halo from being detected by anyone not belonging to the supernatural world but by physically weakening any enemy who tried to set foot on the land.
Centuries had passed without any sort of threat, and as a result, I feared we would become too complacent and take our safety and comfort for granted.
It was my grandfather who had begun the process of having the pack become more self-reliant.
The Fire’s strange origins, based more on legend than fact with the passage of time, were cause for concern.
My father had continued his efforts, not factoring in the Fire’s powers at all and instead focusing on the multiple family businesses we had owned in order to keep the pack stable.
I built on that, employing additional security measures, such as upping our training program to include anyone over the age of fourteen who wanted to participate, and reinforcing the infrastructure of the territory itself.
I needed to know that if the day ever came when we’d lose its protection, we wouldn’t be dead in the water.
Therefore, two humans and one wolf somehow managing to bypass our patrols and make it onto the territory undetected two months ago was a concern that went far beyond my pack.
They had infiltrated the castle grounds where my sister and my niece, Eleni, happened to have been taking a walk.
Per Penelope’s account, they’d tried to slip past them, but Eleni had spotted the three.
Before Penelope could shift, they bound her in silver chains and took both mother and daughter hostage.
Luckily, she was able to partially alert Cyrus through the mindlink before she had been fully restrained.
We scoured the castle, and by the time we found them, they were in the tower where the Fire was kept.
The intruders’ efforts to steal it had been thwarted, however, as the Fire was untouchable by anyone but me.
When they attempted to collect it, it sent off a powerful flare, stunning me and knocking everyone else out, including Eleni, who sustained an injury to her face that formed a scar she will carry forever.
Being only three and too young to have her wolf, she did not have healing powers like the rest of us.
The three escaped, leaving behind no trace of who they were or why they’d wanted the Fire in the first place.
It was a lofty endeavor, trying to take it.
The Fire was tied to the Alpha of Crimson Halo—or the Halo as my pack was called—and I saw no point in making physical contact with it, preferring to let it burn undisturbed.
As far as was recorded, no such feat had been undertaken before, and it was largely assumed that the only way the Fire would change loyalty was if its alpha was killed in a challenge.
Every pack within the council was notified, and despite a massive search, no one ever discovered the identities of the trio—or any evidence of their existence whatsoever.
They had been dressed in camouflage and tactical gear; therefore, we had no idea what they looked like and nothing to assist with tracking them down.
Their lack of a scent was also confounding and most likely deliberate.
The incident raised many questions, most of which remained unanswered.
“I still want to know how those fuckers got away,” Cyrus said for the hundredth time since the occurrence. “We all got thrown on our asses that day, but not them, why?”
I had no answer for him. Not only had the three seemed unweakened by being on our land but the flare didn’t appear to have affected them either.
A guard had reported that one of the humans was apprehended and wounded but had been able to get away after the wolf in their group had attacked.
Whoever they were, they were strong and not vulnerable to the Fire’s powers.
Cyrus had every right to be on edge. He was already wary of anyone who wasn’t a werewolf, but after that day, he’d developed a particular hatred toward humans.
“Look at it this way,” Drake said with a sigh. “If she’s is connected to them in any way, then we have a lead. If not, she’ll get better, and we’ll send her on her merry way.”
“If she gets better,” I said pointedly.
“Right.”
“You said she was taking pictures?” I asked. I was hung up on that detail, along with needing to know how she had passed through into our lands.
Drake nodded.
Long ago, before history was written or remembered with certainty, our world was one and the same.
Until the humans came, and our existence was split in two.
One world for them, one world for us: the supernaturals as they coined all the beings they could not explain.
It was the god or gods, however many or few of them there were, that deemed this the best course of action.
We called the barrier between our worlds the Aora.
The witches used another name, the vampires yet another, and so on and so forth.
They terms were different as were the chronicles of how it came to be, but one thing remained the same within each tale: to cross it as a human or creature not of our world was supposed to be impossible.
“Get a team together and comb the area where we found her,” I told Drake. “See if she left any personal effects behind. If she did, call Reece. If there’s nothing, get her prints and send those over to him.”
“That’s a start,” Cyrus said roughly, his paranoia letting up a little. “If you don’t mind, Stan, I’d like to spend the rest of the day with my kid.”
“Fine, go.” With Penelope off to look after our mother while she performed some diplomatic duties, and no one else to calm him, it was better to let Cyrus cool off with Eleni. Today had jogged too many bad memories for him.
Drake watched him leave and sat down, throwing himself onto an armchair. “That whole thing fucked him up bad.”
“Can’t say I blame him,” I replied. “He thought he was going to lose his daughter and his mate that day.”
“What do you think?” Drake asked curiously. “You believe there’s a link?”
“I’m more worried there isn’t,” I said, thinking out loud.
If there was no connection between today and what had happened a few months ago, then it left us with a dozen more questions.
There were many obvious similarities that needed to be analyzed, but one big discrepancy stood out more than anything.
This girl had a scent, and I couldn’t seem to get it out of my head.
Istayed in my office for the entirety of the afternoon.
The twins were put on house arrest in separate bedrooms until we figured out a different approach.
Though they were apologetic for their wolves’ behavior toward the girl, we couldn’t risk them being out, even supervised, so I continued having guards stationed both at their doors and outside, beneath their windows.
Drake came by a little while later. They had located the girl’s backpack, which contained more than just her camera.
Her wallet and phone were in there as well.
The latter two were couriered to Reece, who was Drake’s sister’s mate, and someone useful when human affairs were involved. The camera he brought to me.
“What are you hoping you’ll find?” He grinned, setting it on my desk.
I glared at him. “Something useful would be ideal.”
“I can think of a few things that would be ideally useful,” he quipped, then laughed when I snarled at him to leave me alone and go find something to do.