Her Second Chance Alpha
Chapter 27

The discussion about replaceing a witch was quickly tabled, as none of us were able to come up with a way to even replace one who would be willing to help.

Everyone seemed to be lost in their own thoughts now as the discussion ended. Holly reached over to Sara taking her hands in her own.

“We will do everything we can to replace someone to help prove Liam was under a spell.” Holly says with full conviction in her voice. She ment every word she had said she would not stop until she had exhausted all options.

As dinner began finishing up I received a mindlink from one of my warriors that was on border patrols tonight.

“Alpha, I think you need to come see this.” He says. You can hear a tinge of nervousness in his voice through the link.

“Ok Eric and I will be on our way. Where are you at?” I ask

“Northwest end of the territory.” Comes his reply as he cuts the link.

“Is everything ok?” Holly ask, I can see the worry in her eyes as she tries to hide it behind a sweet smile.

Placing a smile on my own face, I lift her hand from the table, bringing it to my lips placing a gentle k**s to her knuckles.

“Yes everything is fine, Eric and I just need to check on something. We should be back in a little bit.” I tell her as I rise to my feet.

Eric following my lead also stands placing a k**s to his on mates lips. The two of us exit the dinning room walking down the hallway we stay silent until we reach the doors leading outside.

“What’s going on?” Eric ask as we walk through the doors and out into the fresh night air. We walk down the coble brick path of the garden that leads to the edge of the forest.

“The warriors seem to have found something and they said I needed to see it.” I say as we strip out of our clothes placing them on one of the low hanging tree branches.

I give Knight control and I can feel my bones start to snap as they begin to brake, elongate and rearrange themselves. I watch as jet black tufts of fur begin to sprout all over my body until there is no more of my human skin to be seen. Leaning forward as I finish shifting I land on all fours, my paws digging into the soft ground beneath me. Knight shakes out his fur as he stands at his full height.

Jax steps forward once he finishes shifting as well, his dark grey fur shines in the moonlight as he to gives it a good shake.

“Where to Alpha?” Jax ask through our mindlink.

“The Northwest border.” Knight replies and the two take off into the forest making their way through the tree’s to the border.

It takes us about twenty minutes to finally reach the area that the warriors were at. Jax and Knight come to a stop as the trees start to thin out into a open area of the forest. The warriors are searching what looks to be some kind of make shift camp site that had been set up.

There is the remains of a burned out campfire with logs placed around it. There are several areas around the fire that are cleared of any debris indicating that who ever was here did stay over night. By the number of similer spots it had to be ten to fifteen people that were here.

“It looks as if they did not stay long. Do you think it could have been just some humans that took a wrong trail and got lost.” I ask my Wolf.

“Maybe, but why would our patrols not have noticed them sooner. With the way this looks, it seems that several people were staying here.” Knight replies.

He lifts his snout and sniffs the air trying to pick up on any scent that may still linger around the area but he can not seem to replace anything.

“They must have left a few days ago.” Knight adds as he continues to circle the area, examining it thoroughly for any sign of who had been there.

Knight gives me back control and I shift back, taking a pair of basketball shorts from Eric and slipping them on.

“Alpha” Riley says as he steps out from a group of warriors motioning for Eric and I to both follow him. “Patrol came across this about a hour ago” he says as he continues to lead us through the trees.

“Do we have any idea who this was?” Eric asks.

Riley shaking his head, “No Sir, at first we thought it was just a group of humans that lost their way but this made us think otherwise.”

He leads us about thirty yards into the forest away from the campsite. The trees begin to thin out some and there in the center is a pile of animal remains.

Deer, hogs and rabbit peices are all piled together, you can see that there is paw prints all around this area.

“Wolves” Knight growls in my head.

“This isn’t humans, this is wolves.” I state matter of factly as I look at both Eric and Riley.

“But how are they getting in undetected? It just doesn’t make sense, our guys should have picked up on their scents.” Eric adds as he surveys the area.

“Have there been other sites found like this one close by?” I question my warrior.

“If it is we have not came across them yet. I have sent scouts out to search this area thoroughly and another team was sent past the border to see if there are any more signs that way as well.”

“Good, I want extra patrols here incase they try to return.”

“Yes Alpha.” Riley says bowing his head, he returns to the campsite to give out the orders.

“Do you think this could be from the last attack?” Eric ask as he walks around the the pile of animal remains, his nose scrunched up at the putrid odor that is beginning to fill the air.

Shaking my head, “No most of this is still to fresh for it to be from then. This has to be over the past few days.”

Not replaceing anything else besides the dead animal carcasses the two of us return to the campsite. All the warriors are now huddled around one another in a circle looking at the ground. I step into the center of the warriors to see what has gathered their attention.

Laying amongst the fallen leaves and dirt is a necklace, it was made of three straps of leather that were braided together, carrying a single black stone in the center. Picking it up I dust it off, the black color shining in the moonlight.

“Let me see that” Eric ask quickly taking the necklace from my hands. A troubled look now on his face as he studies it, turning the stone over in his hands. “I think I have seen this before.”

“Where?” I ask watching my Betas face morph in to a shocked expression.

“I need to check the library again to be sure first.” He says his eyes rising to meet mine.

Turning my attention back to the warriors that are still watching us, “I want the area comb throughly for anything else that may have been left behind that can tell us who may have been here.”

“Yes Alpha” They all say at once.

Turning back to my beta, “Come on then, let’s see if we can replace out what this is.” I say.

I quickly shift back into Knight. He takes the necklace in his mouth while Eric also shifts into Jax. The two then take off running back to the pack house as fast as possible.

I think we made it back in half the time it took us to originally get to the campsite. We both shift back into our human forms, quickly dressing and making our way back up to the pack house.

Eric rushes into the house and down the hall into the massive library. I quicken my pace to keep up with him as he throws open the double wood doors. The handles slam against the walls behind the doors causing a loud bang to sound throughout the room.

“Sh*t man what has got into you?” I say as I watch Eric begin to rummage through the stacks of books that are covering the table. He doesn’t even acknowledge me at all as he pushes the books around combing through the pages quickly.

Joining him at the table I begin flipping through the pages of one of the books. Every book I notice happens to be on witches, witch craft and black magic.

“What exactly are you looking for?” I ask as I pick up another book and flip through the pages. Information on herbs and ingredients that are used for spells and their meanings fill the little leather book.

I notice he has stopped on a particular book, scanning a page he turns to the next one an there is a photo of a necklace with same braided leather chain and black stone in the center of it.

“I knew it.” Eric says as he pushes the book over to me for a better look.

I pull the necklace out of my pocket laying it next to the picture. It is identical.

“According to this it is a masking pendent. When worn the wearer can go completely unnoticed by any supernatural by masking their scent and making them appear as if they were a human.” Eric says.

“That explains why our warriors were not able to pick up any scent in the area.” I say as I scan the page myself. “If they all had similar pendent then we would not have noticed anything out of the ordinary until now.

Looking back at the book I flip the page back over reading the description:

OBSIDIAN MASKING PENDENT

USE WHEN ONE WISHES TO GO ABOUT UNDETECTED BY OTHER SUPERNATURALS.

HARNESSES THE SHADOWS TO HIDE ONES IDENTITY FROM OTHERS.

MOSTLY USED BY BLACK MAGIC USERS

A growl leaves my chest. Looking back at my Beta I can see that he is now unsettled by this replaceing. He takes the book back and continues to read more about the pendent and what it does.

“She was right” he mumbles under his breath.

“Who was right?” I ask confused as to who he was referring to.

“Sara, she was right.” He says looking up from the book. “Whoever was out there does not have good intentions and if I have to place any bets on who it is I would say it was whoever Silver Bow is using to get to Holly.”

A low growl rumbles in my chest again. Knight is livid at the thought of Alexander using magic to get to Holly. He wants to hunt him down a tear him to pieces immediately.

“If this is him again then we need to be prepared for anything he could do. We don’t know if they are just using things like this that are just enchanted or if the witches are with them and activity casting spells to make us vulnerable.” I tell my Beta my eyes not leaving the pendent in his hands.