Alpha Ryker's Little Witch

Tamara's POV:

"You need to eat more, darling; look at your lips." Maggie poured too much soup in a large bowl. She insisted that I needed to add more meat on my bony self.

"But it's been barely 30 minutes since you forced 2 pieces of arrowroot down my throat." I was so full, but the mouthwatering aroma of the sizzling soup as it wafted through my nostrils posed a temptation. It was filled with white beans, roasted chicken, and hearty root vegetables.

"Just ten spoons." She placed the spoon inside the bowl and urged me to take a sip.

"Mm-hmm." My taste buds exploded as the savory herbs settled on my tongue. It was scrumptious, the taste of it making me forget my manners. I placed the spoon aside and picked up the bowl, downing the soothing fluid in big gulps. "This is so sweet." I wiped the side of my mouth with the back of my hand.

"I will prepare it for you till you give birth." That had my heart palpitations increasing again. It had been days since I let out Mrs. Kagwe, and yet there was nothing exciting from her. Had Monica discovered her friend's intentions, or was I just been a little fretful?

"You know you can always talk to me, Mara." Maggie sat beside me at the dining table. She took my hands in hers, squeezing them in assurance.

"Thank you, Mother." The woman had insisted I address her as such, and I realized it didn't feel odd at all. In fact, I enjoyed having her around to guide me. I needed someone to get me back in line anytime my attention wavered. "Two days ago at the infirmary, you said something that I still can't seem to grasp." I knew she was talking about my grandmother.

"Ryker kind of called me a stupid witch when we were arguing earlier that day. It happened so fast, but the next minute I felt power I had never experienced before spreading like wildfire in my systems. It was unstoppable and it invisibly choked Ryker as a warning against insulting me." I paused, wondering whether my story was plausible enough to her ears.

"He deserved more than just choking."

"Mother!" She shrugged her shoulders airily.

"Tamara, Ryker knew better than to say what he said. His actions... I would have whipped him raw had I been there at that time." It was all over, and yet there was this distant worry that had since embedded itself in my heart.

"So, when I passed out, I was caught up in dreamland. There was nothingness at first, so desolate and dark, but soon I started hearing whispers. 'Tamara,' they called several times, then the whispers finally became clear as day." I paused, the memory of what had transpired still surreal to me.

"What happened?" Her presence and proximity calmed me the way my mother used to.

"She told me a bit of our family history, then explained how her spirit had taken charge of my body for those few seconds. When Ryker refused to forgive me from the start, she said my magic was raging. As part of the ancestors, she was sent to calm me down before I burned the entire pack down. She was just in time when Ryker insulted me, and with my magic stormy, she was able to inhabit my body only for seconds."

It sounded so preposterous and improbable, but it was the truth. I was scared when I heard the whispers, but as soon as she had introduced herself, I relaxed. I began wondering whether she had been the one invading my systems whenever something sinister was happening in the pack. Could she have been the invisible force that took over my body and took me to where the bloodied pieces of paper were always placed?

How farfetched could that be? How I wished I had asked her that question. Now I was back with new information on how to protect my child against Addanc. I just needed to brief my mate face-to-face. He had been so busy combing through every angle of the boundaries to determine Addanc's entry point. Uncle Pete was MIA, and Ryker had refused to release Theo until he confessed about why he was spying on us.

"I believe the ancestors will protect you at all costs. Addanc thinks he's going up against you, but well, he is facing those raging powerful ancestors again." Maggie smiled before leaving me to my own thoughts. I needed to go see Theo myself. Maybe I could get a few words out of him. Also I needed to tell Ryker what my grandmother had relayed to me in the dreamland.

After mind-linking him, Mateo was tasked again with escorting me to the dungeons. I did not want to imagine Ryker's cousin's state at all, the torture of having his wolf weakened with silver repeatedly. I didn't agree with my mate's ways of getting the truth, but again what other methods did we have?

"My little witch." He pulled me in his arms, giving me a chaste kiss. My wolf had been calling out to his. I was glad things were back to normal. He stood outside the dungeons, waiting for me.

"Your mother won't let my mouth rest." He chuckled, the vibrations on his chest tingling the left side of my head.

"Today we will go back to ours. That's enough feeding for three days." The former Luna had taken me with her the moment Doctor Bashir had discharged me. She argued that I needed proper feeding and full-time care, and Ryker couldn't do that. I missed my man, and now that I was okay, I wanted to spend time with him.

"Shall we?" He held my right hand in his and we made our way into the underground prison cells.

"Tamara, are you sure you want to see him?" There was an old spiral staircase that I could see winding down and disappearing in the dark. There wasn't any source of light. I mean, werewolves had sharp eyesight in the dark. The more we descended, I started hearing muffled cries and moans through the walls.

"How many prisoners do you have in here?" I didn't see a single window. Even now on the passageways, there were only cells beside the narrow passage.

"Quite a few.” As we went further, each cell became smaller and darker than the previous one. I didn't stare, afraid of what my eyes would be subjected to take in. At the furthest end was a steel door that was heavily guarded. No doubt Theo was in there. Seeing their alpha, the guards bowed, and then we got inside.

The room was extremely dark, and it reeked of blood and stagnant water. The uneven floor was covered with shallow water and I could hear water dripping from the ceiling. How could they lock a person here for days? In the corner, I could see a figure sitting down with his back resting on the wall and his head hanging.

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"Theo," I whispered. His hands were chained with silver chains. The burns around his wrists were evidence enough. A closer look-his face was surprisingly okay apart from the dark circles and the swelling around the eyes. At least Ryker hadn't beaten him up.

"C-Come to I-laugh?" The words were heavy on his tongue. He was weak, and I couldn't sense his wolf at all.

"What have you done to him?" I let go of Ryker's hand and squatted in front of the prisoner.

"What I said I'd do to him."

"You've already proven your point, Ryker. We established that I made a mistake, and we made up, my love. Why are you still holding him here, Ryker? Why hasn't he been given the anti-silver concoction yet?" I was mad. Deep down, I knew that this would be the case, but I had hoped for better.

"I will let him go when he admits his role in the sabotage of this pack."

"Let him go, Ryker, please."

"Not until he speaks the damn truth!" This was escalating really fast, but I wasn't going to back down.

"I can't, Luna. I...want to tell you everything but...but not when they have my-" He struggled with the words. It was as if they were jamming in his throat.

"Who are you talking about and who do they have?" That piqued my interest, and I shushed Ryker through our bond link to at least let me do this. "M-Mate."

"They have your mate?" He let out a hoarse anguished cough then gave me a single nod. I could see his Adam's apple bobbing and his eyes screwed shut too tightly. From the age of 35, male werewolves were known to go mad if they didn't find their mates. He was strong and he had no signs of losing his sanity.

"If they have his mate, then they are making him do dirty jobs for them." Many questions ran through my mind and I couldn't quite understand how they even knew his mate. "Actually, that is blackmail," Ryker answered back, his mind running miles in an attempt to counter this.

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"Theo, did you see your mate? You can answer through the mind-link. Clearly you do not have the energy to speak."

"He says that he was covered with a cloth such that he couldn't see. But he could feel her; he was even allowed to touch her. Says the way he felt when she entered the room drove his wolf crazy."

Dark magic-it could be used to identify mates even before they knew they were fated. It was only Addanc who could perform such. This was indeed a confirmation that Addanc was the mastermind of those papers with Pete as the associate and Theo as the inside man. But why did Pete resort to such evil measures? Even going so far as to blackmail his own son?

"Then that means that your mate could also be going through extortion. Or your bond could be suppressed by magic so that the two of you cannot sense each other even in close proximity." This ran deeper than I expected, and for someone to go to such extremities... Something bigger than us was at play.

"He says that we are too late and that we have little or no time to prepare for the havoc that awaits that will finish us." Ryker spoke in a low tone, watching his cousin closely.

"Is he telling the truth?" Ryker asked, and I immediately opened my inner eye. A pink cloud mixed with yellow polka dots hovered on his head fear for his mate's safety. He was speaking the truth. Even his heartbeat gave away nothing. "Someone will give you the concoction. If they are near, you will need your wolf to find your mate. Nobody deserves to be denied the bond." After Ryker's last word, we left the dungeons, each of our thoughts focusing on preparing to defend the pack.

"Ryker, I need my mother's journal and the chalice. My grandmother told me what to do at the dreamland.

"And what is that? Check my thoughts and memories, you will know. In two days, you will accompany me to my mother's grave. I need to channel her power into me. Also I will need my mother's spare keys. I know where the remains of my grandmother are; I will need those too."

"Tamara..."

"What is it, Ryker?" As we made way up the staircase, Ryker stilled; someone was mind-linking him.

"You were right, my little witch."

"What are you talking about?" I raised my hands, pulling my shoulders up in wonder.

"Mrs. Kagwe just mind-linked me. Monica is at her house as we speak."