~~
Reece
~~
After everyone had eaten I gathered them all in the assembly hall so I could explain what had happened in detail. And inform them all of the visions I'd had of my Little Bunny, and where she might be. I would need to work fast to find her and get the help I needed.
As I gave my explanations I saw that every face in the room was looking at me with rapt attention and shock. It seemed that no one could quite believe the level of betrayal that had come out of my pack. I saw several members from my own pack wearing angry looks.
"Caleb, the former beta, and any other pack member that took direct part in the kidnapping of the Luna will be considered traitors. Your orders will be to execute them on sight or to bring them to me to do it if you feel unable to do it yourself. If you aid in their escape, you will also be considered a traitor and therefore subjected to the same fate. I will not tolerate this type of behavior in my pack." My voice held a firm edge as I stared sternly at every face in the room. I needed to make sure they all understood not to double cross me.
"We expect cooperation from each and everyone of you. That is what it means to be part of a pack." Riley added. "This is not a matter to be taken lightly."
"But where is the Luna? Where are the traitors? Where is the fight going to be?" One of my pack members, a man only about twenty years old named Julius, asked the questions that everyone in the entire room was waiting for me to get to.
"I don't know the exact location, yet. But I do know the general area. I will be heading there ahead of all of you to get things ready with that territory's alpha."
"What territory?" a member of Riley's pack asked.
"The Black Canyons." I answered solemnly and heard several people in the room gasp in response, including Riley. The Black Canyons' Alpha was said to be ruthless and volatile. He was known to be unpredictable when angered. That was the main reason many packs ignored them in the yearly rotations, which their alpha never took part in.
"Are you sure about this?" Riley asked me, his voice full of doubt.
"Very sure. I know she is in that area." My voice was full of conviction as I looked over the room, trying to give them confidence.
"But we know nothing about that pack?" Someone in the back yelled, I didn't know whose pack they were from.
"That's not entirely true." I said as I thought of my mate's other cousin, he had spent some time in the Black Canyons, it was time to use the knowledge he had gathered for us.
"Everyone, please wait outside. Split into groups of four or five so we can prepare for the long journey." Noah ordered them, he really did act more like a beta that Caleb ever had.
"Riley, Noah, come with me." I told them as I left the room to head for my office.
Riley started to talk the minute my office door was shut.
"How the hell do you know she is at the Canyons?" He asked me furiously. He had backed me up at every point in front of everyone, but alone he needed verification as much as they did.
"I've seen her." I told him.
"What!" The two of them exclaimed at nearly the same time. They wore nearly identical looks of shock.
"How is that possible?" Noah asked me, doubt written all over his face.
"Well, you all know we can use mate marks to track our mates."
"Yeah, but I've never done it." Riley said sheepishly.
"Of course."
"Well, when you do, you get a visual." I told them. "But, what I see, might be different than anyone else's."
"Why, what would make you so special?" Noah snapped but it sounded half playful.
"You mean besides the fact that I am the alpha?" I smirked at him. "There is the fact that I have this." I said, pulling aside the collar of my t-shirt.
"What the hell is that?" Riley asked as the two of them stared at the mark on my neck and shoulder.
"Reece, is that a mate mark?" Noah asked me incredulously. I nodded my head in response. "How the hell did you get a mate mark?" He was shocked, but still able to talk, Riley was just looking at me with his mouth hanging open.
"Well, I imagine it happened the same way any mate mark happens." I smiled.
"But how?"
"Well, the other night when Trinity and I were-."
"Stop!" Noah yelled. "I don't need specifics." He glared at me before continuing again. "How could she have bitten you though? She doesn't have a wolf."
"Oh, she has one, I've seen it in her eyes and her partial changes when we're in the middle of-."
"Reece." Noah growled, making me smirk in response.
"When we were together." I amended. "She partially changed when we were together on Friday and Saturday. Her teeth and nails were longer and I could see the wolf straining in her eyes. Her wolf is in there, it's just trapped."
"Why is it trapped?" Riley asked, confused.
"I have my theories about her, but I don't know if I am right. But if I am , it explains a lot."
"What theories." Noah seemed even more angry. It was either because I had talked about having sex with his cousin or about my theories about her.
"They have to do with who her father might be, or more specifically, what he might be."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Noah asked me. His face was full of outrage. Just like Carter was said to have always done, Noah got angry whenever someone bad mouthed his cousin. He was good at hiding it around me at first but he was not doing such a good job of that any more. He was growing more and more protective of her as time went on. I was beginning to suspect that there was something else bringing out his protective instincts that he just hadn't figured out yet.
"No one knows exactly who her father is, right?" Noah nodded, anger clear in his jutted jaw and crossed arms. "Well, with almost every attack that has been aimed at Trinity over the last few months, what is one thing that they have in common?"
"Rogues." He said immediately.
"That is one thing, but there is another similarity, the other, more important thing, is the involvement of the Warlocks." I saw his eyes go wide.
"What do the Warlocks have to do with your mate?" Riley asked me confused.
""If I'm right, then everything."
"What?" Noah was still not following me. He had never thought of her as anything other than her family, and I was happy for that, she needed that from him, and I didn't want to change that.
"First, Noah, promise me something."
"What?"
"No matter what I say, or what we find out when we save Trinity, you, and everyone in your family, will continue to treat Trinity the same way you always have. Don't change anything even if you find out who she really is."
"She's my family, that's who she really is." He snapped at me."
"Good." I looked at him firmly as I spoke. I eyed them both, hoping they were ready to hear what I had been suspecting for a while now.
"Alright, Noah, Riley, what I think, is that Trinity is half wolf, and half something else."
"What else?" Riley asked me, his curiosity piqued.
"Warlock, well witch since she's female."
"No, that's impossible."
"Is it?"
"My aunt never would have done that." Noah was denying it vehemently.
"And if it wasn't a choice she made?"
"You mean that she was raped?" Riley asked, shock and anger filling his voice for a girl he had never met.
"But why wouldn't she have told Grandfather what had happened then?" Noah was hurt, he was a child when his aunt died but he still remembered her, that was clear. "Why did she say she didn't know what happened? Why did she lie about it?"
"She might not have lied, she might not have remembered. I'm not used to dealing with warlocks and witches. They tend to keep to themselves and the coven we're dealing with is rogue, we do know that. And it is the same coven that was here almost twenty years ago."
I saw his eyes go wide as he thought about that. He was the one who had given me the report on the rogue coven in the area to begin with, that they were the same coven that was here almost twenty years ago. He hadn't thought that the coven had come back for any unfinished business. In truth, it took me a while to put it all together as well.
"So, these rogue Warlocks, they not only kidnapped my cousin, but they're the reason my aunt killed herself?" Noah asked in a weak voice. I didn't know much about Noah's childhood, but I knew he never knew his grandmother, she had died when his father was younger. Because she was lonely and afraid of losing more family, his aunt and my mate's mother, Reagan, spent a lot of time with her brother and nephews. Noah was very attached to her when she died, and this conversation was opening an old wound for him.
"I can't answer that with certainty, but I think so." I watched the darkness in his eyes turn to a murderous rage at my words.
"And what exactly do you think they want with my cousin?" He spoke through his clenched teeth, his anger was reaching a boiling point.
"I don't know, but I can tell you what they've already done to her." His eyes locked onto me with a furious intensity.
