"Thank you, Alpha, for bringing me with you", Cassandra said while bowing to Talia.
Instead of responding to Cassandra's pleasantries, Talia spoke to Yasmin. "You said that she can be healed."
"I will work on that.", Yasmin assured her.
Talia could feel uncertainty from Calla who was looking at Cassandra, and she understood that Calla was wondering how Cassandra's return will impact Calla's newly acquired position that she shared with Remi.
"Calla", Talia called. "I hope you and Remi will take advantage of Cassandra's stay here to learn more about the rituals she performed. Don't allow your titles as head healers to prevent you from asking for help and guidance when a person with more experience is around."
Calla bowed her head in order to hide her smile. "Yes, Alpha!"
Talia's words confirmed that Calla and Remi will remain the leaders of healers regardless of Cassandra's presence, and also, there was a possibility that Cassandra's stay in the Midnight Guardians pack was temporary.
"Go now…", Talia said to Calla while waving with her hands toward Cornelia and Yasmin who were examining the teleportation diagram that should take them to the main house of the Midnight Guardians pack. Six visiting witches were also there, and that reminded Talia, "Calla, as the head healer, you will be responsible to ensure that our guests from the realm of witches are comfortable."
"Yes, Alpha. Leave it to me, Alpha!"
Talia felt weird with all the Alpha-this, Alpha-that, but Damon told her how that was important to remind everyone of the hierarchy.
'Alpha, may I have a word?', an unknown male voice sounded in Talia's head, and she turned to seek the source of it. One of the guards that were at the portal was facing her with his head lowered, and Talia guessed that he was the leader.
'You may speak', Talia responded through the mind-link.
'We were instructed by Beta Kai to inform you that we have an intruder.'
Talia's mind was spinning. Did she hear him right? 'An intruder?'
The guard confirmed. 'He disguised himself as one of the Omegas and Gamma Sandy was the one who identified him as an outsider.'
Talia didn't know how Sandy could identify intruders, but the sheer idea of someone coming here sneakily was disturbing. Was their group followed when they came here? Cornelia used a spell to teleport them close to the portal, but they crossed the last stretch on foot and then they entered the portal. Or what if another portal was active? How many intruders were there? What if the person disclosed the location of the portal before he was caught? What if more were coming? What if they were already here?
Talia jolted when Damon's hand landed on her shoulder, and his presence helped her focus. Right. she was the Alpha now, the person people looked at for guidance and she couldn't succumb to insecurities.
Talia took a deep breath to compose herself before asking the guard through the mind-link, 'What were his motives for coming here?'
'I apologize, Alpha, but this is how much I know. Betas and Gammas have more information.'
Talia knew that this was a message left only to notify her that she should head straight to the main house without delays. Besides, just having outsiders here was a problem regardless of their motives. 'I understand. Thank you.'
'Problems?', Damon asked Talia through their private mind-link. He felt Talia's unstable emotions and based on the way the guard was bowing to her, Damon guessed that the guard was reporting something unpleasant.
'I'm not sure. But we have a situation.', Talia responded. 'We will find out more from Kai and Meg. We need to meet with them as soon as possible.'
Talia glanced at Axel whose solemn expression told her that he also got the news.
Next, Talia's eyes landed on James, and she called him to the side.
"It seems that someone came to this realm without authorization", Talia informed James. "I suggest that you stay in your room until we investigate the situation. Or if you wish to leave right now, we can arrange for you to go to the Dark Howlers pack right away. I have no idea who the intruder is, but let's not risk Alpha Edward finding out you are here."
"We will stay here for now.", James said right away. "Without knowing who that person is and his motives, we might be walking into a trap if we leave."
Axel, Yasmin, Talia, and Damon went straight to the study to meet with Kai, Meg, Tyler, and Sandy.
Without any delay, Kai told them that Sandy identified a man as an outsider on the previous evening, and he was kept in the dungeon that was specifically made to suppress prisoners from using their abilities.
Tyler passed them folders that had logs with timestamps regarding the intruder, and two pictures that looked nearly identical.
"This one is the intruder", Tyler explained. "And this is Austin, an unmated Omega in our pack."
"How did you know that he is an outsider?", Damon asked Sandy. If someone shuffled those pictures, he wouldn't know which one was the intruder.
The only thing that connects pack members is the mind link. Alphas can feel if someone has a mind-link, and forcibly communicate with their pack members. However, Sandy is not an Alpha.
"The air around him was wrong.", Sandy said.
"Can you explain that?", Talia asked.
"It's my ability", Sandy responded. "If I focus, I can see the aura around people. With Tyler's help, I figured out that the color of the aura I see matches the color of the wolf of the person I'm looking at. In order to improve my control, I am always practicing. I am new here, so I don't know people well, however, when I passed by him in the hallway, I realized that he is an outsider."
"Is something wrong with his wolf?", Axel guessed.
Sandy shrugged. "I don't know, but I remember that for the pack run everyone was amazed by Alpha Damon's black wolf, and Tyler told me that no one in the Midnight Guardians pack has such a dark wolf. The aura of the outsider was black."
"The intruder's disguise went beyond physical", Tyler said. "He knew his way around and even smelled like Austin. Without Sandy, we wouldn't know he was fake."
"What happened to Austin?", Yasmin asked.
"Austin is fine", Meg assured Yasmin. "We found him in his room sleeping. We couldn't wake him up, and healers confirmed that he was drugged. He woke up in the morning, not remembering how he got into his room after dinner."
"Do we know why the intruder came here?", Axel asked, and Kai, Meg, Tyler, and Sandy were shaking their heads.
Talia listened to all this and her frown was deepening. It all sounded like a guy walked in, got caught, and no one got hurt, but how can someone just walk in here? He was probably dangerous, and he choose not to harm anyone. Or did he have a specific target?
"There is no point in sitting here and guessing. Let's go and meet with the guy", Damon said.
Talia raised her hand. "No."
"No?" Damon looked at Talia like she said something silly. "How are you going to find out why he sneaked in here if you don't talk to him?"
"I will talk to him. You won't.", Talia deadpanned, seeing that Damon's frown was deepening, Talia quickly explained, "We didn't announce our relationship, Damon. People outside our small circle don't know that I am your mate, and they believe that Alpha of the Midnight Guardians pack and Luna of the Dark Howlers pack are two different persons."
