'Calm down, boy,' Sapa spoke to Damon, who was on the verge of losing his mind. 'Mate is not far.'
Damon turned around frantically, searching for Talia, but the only one in sight was Cassandra who was bent at an awkward angle under the pressure of Damon's aura.
'Talia!' Damon called through their private mind-link.
'Woah!' Talia's voice sounded in Damon's head.
'Where are you!?'
'I think I'm in one of the adjacent labs,' Talia responded. 'Let me get into the hallway and see…'
Damon rushed to the door to open it, and he nearly bumped into Talia.
A flood of curses was at the tip of his tongue, but first, he pulled Talia into his embrace. His heart was beating so strongly that he was confident Talia could feel it smacking into her cheek.
"Damn it, kitten," Damon spoke under his breath while pressing her into him.
Damon never cared for anyone so deeply, and since he met Talia, it was just one thing after another. Even before he knew her name, Talia demonstrated her ability to give him the slip, and the more time they spent together, the more dangers around them grew. There were conceited she-wolves, power-hungry Alphas, rogues, Guardians, and now there were exploding necklaces and random teleportation. At this rate, he will die from stress.
Talia looked up at Damon. "I am OK. I think this necklace has teleporting abilities."
"You think?" Damon asked sarcastically. "What if it teleported you into the ground? Into the wall? Inside a volcano? On another planet? So many things could go wrong."
"But it didn't."
"Do you think you can control the distance and destination?" It was Cassandra asking.
Damon stiffened as another wave of rage swelled inside him. How dares that woman interrupt his time with Talia?
Talia and Damon looked that way to see Cassandra wiping the sweat from her forehead. Her body was recovering from the attack of Damon's aura, but her spirit was not shaken. Cassandra was too excited by recent developments to care about matters of the flesh.
Talia could feel Damon's hostility rising, and she guessed that Cassandra's sorry state was because of Damon.
Talia quickly put her hands on his cheeks to make him focus on her.
"I'm not going to stop at this one, Damon. If you react like this every time, maybe you should sit this one out."
Damon scowled. "And leave you alone with the treacherous Oracle and that chest of trinkets from Hell?"
Talia bit her lower lip. She would laugh if she couldn't sense Damon's distress. He was worried about her, and she didn't want to be the cause of his worries, but this was something she needed to do. She was the only one who could do it, and Damon knew it.
"We could find something useful, Damon. We could find things that will protect us from rogues and Guardians. Maybe one of these can allow us to open and close portals with ease."
"And maybe we could get ourselves killed. You could…" He was unable to finish this, but Talia knew. There was no point in talking about it.
"You put your life on the line many times, Damon."
Damon couldn't deny that, but… "I can't bear the thought of you getting harmed. The tiniest scratch on your body feels like someone stabbed me a hundred times over."
Talia smiled. "I feel the same about you, Damon. You are the source of my happiness. But the fact is that others are set on getting between us, and unless we get a bit braver, I fear they will succeed. So… how about we protect each other?"
Damon pulled her into his chest and breathed into her hair. "That's why I'm here, kitten."
Damon spoke bravely, but the truth was that he felt useless. Talia was doing everything and putting herself in danger, yet he was stuck watching and worrying. How was he an Alpha if he was left on the sidelines?
Talia took Damon calming down as a sign that it was OK to proceed. She waited for his heartbeats to stabilize before pulling away.
Cassandra was writing things into her notepad.
"You can mark this necklace as a teleporting aid," Talia said. "I don't want to spend more time on this as our goal today is to identify what they do. Let's try another one."
Talia's real goal was to figure out how to activate these relics. Once she gained confidence, she would try to activate the necklace her parents left behind, but she didn't want to do that in front of Cassandra.
Damon and Talia had dinner in the main house. Also present were Axel, Yasmin, Meg, Kai, Tyler, Sandy, Amelia, Liam, Pierce, Daria, Cornelia, Keith, and Caleb.
Varya and Grady didn't leave their room yet, and no one wanted to disturb them, so Yasmin arranged for their meal to be left in front of their door. Talia suspected the newly mated couple will stay in their room for a few more days, and since Talia and Damon couldn't wait so long for them to come out, she left instructions to Axel, Yasmin, Betas, and Gammas to take care of newcomers, show them around, and include them in daily activities. It was important for Varya and Grady to feel welcome and accepted; otherwise, they will be looking for a way out of there.
While Damon and Talia were busy with relics in the lab, Pierce, Daria, Keith, and Caleb were training with the warriors of the Midnight Guardians pack. Keith was impressed with their improvement when comparing performance from the last time they visited, and Kai, Tyler, and Sandy were happy to hear Keith praising the results of their work in front of Alpha Talia and Alpha Damon.
Tyler was never into training; he was more into electronics and modern science. However, that changed when Sandy became his mate. She was Alpha Talia's personal guard, one of the top warriors in the Dark Howlers pack, and Tyler didn't want to lag behind his mate, so he attended morning drills regularly.
Talia listened to them talking about training and updated patrol schedules, and she happily accepted all food that Damon offered. She was hungry. Those few hours of charging ancient relics with energies contributed to working out a good appetite.
Other than the necklace that can teleport people, she also identified items that can create a force field, turn into a magnet, and heat up to the point of cutting through stone like it was butter while Talia thought of them as warm to touch. Most of the things barely affected Talia, so they concluded that the one who activated the relic was immune to its effects.
There was also a bunch of items that Talia charged, and nothing happened. Or maybe it did, but Talia, Damon, and Cassandra didn't notice.
Damon was pleased that nothing exploded, and Talia didn't disappear again. But the whole session was super-stressful, and he was sure his lifespan was shortened by a decade with every next relic Talia charged.
There were more items that needed testing and also to see if the ones that were tested could be controlled with precision. It all required time Talia didn't have. Damon and Talia had many things to do, and she wanted to return to the Dark Howlers pack and deal with matters she left behind, like meeting Lulu's father.
