Gamma No More - Book 3

It doesn’t take long for the meeting to restart, but every time she looks at Cage, a grin hits her face and it’s all she can do to hide the chuckling at the idea of how his nickname originated.

But beyond that, it’s how Alpha Dimitri admitted so freely that he had been a troublesome youth. She does briefly wonder who led whom astray, but overall, she got a warm feeling of a pack that allowed pups to be pups.

She’s broken from her thoughts as Raine speaks up, Toni hasn’t dealt with witches or Raine before, but while she’s probably the smallest person in the room, she seems larger, her personality and inner strength making up for what she lacked in stature.

“I need to bring up an issue we have because one of our witches is missing.

Rowena is a young witch, a little too trusting and naïve, even for one so young, she’d led a very sheltered life and doesn’t see the bad in people, or more importantly, how spells are twisted for evil purposes.

She left a letter for her family, as she was due to be away for a few weeks to help with warding a house, and the pay she was going to receive would settle some of her family worries.

They didn’t think to raise the alarm. None of them were from a magical background, so don’t understand the protocols and it seemed like a gift had fallen in their laps.

According to her letter, the house was within werewolf territory but she had guaranteed safe passage by her contact and she had been told it wasn’t ‘deep’ within the territory, but once she was over the border, who knows where she may have gone.

She asked her family to keep it quiet as it was an ‘extensive job’ that should have gone to the council.” Raine sighed.

“Whenever we ward a house, we put processes in place to protect the witch, placing a tracer spell on them so that we can always find them, plus we need to know why it’s being warded.

Warding houses isn’t normal in times of peace, so when someone wants to hide themselves, the first thing we ask is why and it goes to the council for review, at a minimum a second witch or wizard has to know the details for safety. There’s also the issue that as soon as she stepped over the boundary to cast a spell, she technically broke the peace treaty. If that wolf causes issues…then they could claim that we’ve, as in witches, sided with wolves.” She shrugs.

“But she’s been missing for over a month now, so there are several concerns, especially when news of unrest within werewolf territory came to our notice from Dimitri.”

She looks to Alpha Dimitri as he takes over

“The contacts I have within several of the packs are uneasy, a lot more wary of working with my pack for trades.

One specific contact, that I will keep nameless for now, but I trust him, has twofold concerns

One,” he looks over to Toni grinning

“There’s talk of a recently formed rogue pack that is strong and coordinated that is causing the issues.

The second is a wolf from the Shadow pack, who is ‘visiting’ packs under the guise of the Royal Pack, finding out where loyalties lie, most refuse to name him, but I’ve heard unofficially it’s one ‘Killian Parker’ an older warrior, but no less able.

Wolves are always wary of that kind of interference, so” he shrugs before continuing.

“Packs are taking precautions, quietly gearing up for war, while denying that they are, but far more dried foods than normal are being ordered from the Neutral zone.

A few, have admitted that this Killian had almost been pushing them to confirm whether they would support an unnamed heir but being clear it’s not anyone in the current Royal Family, with enough finesse or threats, I’m not sure which, to stop anyone accusing him of treason.”

Alpha Dimitri looks around the room.

“Call me paranoid, but I also find it strange that a ‘Mr. Parker’ has chosen this time to ask about Leif’s prisoner Edwards… although I am not sure how those facts link as yet.

But someone who takes a bribe and is a prisoner cannot be a player, but maybe he’s a pawn. Something for you to think about Jenna with his release approaching.”

Jenna nods before Alpha Dimitri looks down at his own hands before continuing.

“There is talk about a civil war coming for the werewolf packs. Simultaneously, the King is sending out wolves to repeat the five-yearly audits, saying the data got corrupted from last year’s review.

No one believes him” he raises his hands in a half shrug.

“Most packs are pointing the blame at Toni; she has started the talk of civil war single-handedly.”

Alpha Dimitri looks apologetic as he says the words.

“But they don’t seem to see she has no links to the Shadow pack, but there is talk of a very indirect link to a Royal predecessor in her heritage, so technically fits the criteria for a claim to the throne, however distant that may be.

Just to be clear, I don’t ascribe those actions to her, just repeating the rumours for clarity. She’s an easy figurehead to blame.

There’s also a story going around that she forced a punishment at the Shadow Stalkers’ pack as they rebelled against her.”

The room goes quiet for a while before Toni breaks it.

“Well, can I just say I have zero plans to start a war or take over anything.

All my pack and I want is to live quietly, but I also won’t sit idly by and watch people hurt any of my pack members, as Alpha Randall and a few of his leadership in the Shadow Stalkers’ pack found out.”

Toni looks around the room at each of the key members

“We wouldn’t have invited you here if we believed you were involved, but I think you are the best bet to help the witch that has gone missing.” Raine delivers her words gently.

“Our concern is why someone has employed a witch if it’s just a werewolf civil unrest.

The laws set down after the Great War forbid any one species to get involved in, support or otherwise interfere in civil unrest unless it directly affects another species, as I mentioned earlier.

So, a wolf has no reason to involve a witch if it remains solely within wolf territory, since none of us could help to track them down without breaching the laws. It’s adhering to those laws that have kept peace in our world.

We can only get involved to help clean up if peace gets restored and then only for a specific reason with council approval.”

The discussion goes on for a little longer, Raine explained she had applied to the Royal pack for an audience with the King, but that had refused and Toni could partially understand why, the ‘facts’ were sparse and the area to look in too large to be realistic, it was all just too unsubstantial.

The room turns to look at Toni expectantly.

It’s now clear to Toni why she had an invitation, they want her to go hunt for Rowena, Alpha Dimitri doesn’t have the skills and his pack would have no reason to be skulking around werewolf territory since he is officially part of the Neutral Zone.

They need wolves that aren’t affiliated to the Neutral Zone to do the research and recognisance, but she doesn’t feel her pack is expendable just because they lack a registration in a database and she doesn’t like the feeling of being manipulated, that’s happened far too frequently in her life already.

Toni looks to the heavens and sends a brief question to the Goddess asking ‘Why us’ looking to Delta Ezra, who is deep in thought, before answering Raine’s unasked question.

“I understand you are asking me to investigate the missing witch, but that affects not only me but also the Veiled Pack.

And to some extent, if I am found poking around, it validates their darkest fears that I am involved, which will bring further trouble to my pack, and I need to think about their long-term protection.

If you could give me some time to talk to those who came with me, this is not a decision I can make alone as the consequences are wide-ranging for everyone involved.”

“Thank you for at least considering it,” Raine’s words are heartfelt as she passes across a file on Rowena.

The rest of them get up and file out of the room to take a break while Toni calls her team together.

She, Ezra and the warrior group took over an hour to discuss the matter, involving the rest of her leadership team by phone, she’s a little annoyed that Leif didn’t give her a heads up on the meeting content, but she keeps that to herself.

Having the request sprung upon herself like that made it harder to say no, whereas had Leif warned her, she could have declined to come. Part of her rises against the feeling of being controlled, however, subtly.

The request caused a lot of uneasiness among the wolves, but every member of her pack involved in the discussion still had family ties to other packs, even if those relationships were currently strained. This sentiment was something she knew that most of the wolves in their own pack felt as well.

Either way, a civil war would put them at risk, and if it went further and became a war between the races, then nowhere would be safe.

What surprises Toni is not one of them wants to stay safe and keep out of the brewing trouble, but conversely, they also don’t want to push others into doing the research for the missing witch, agreeing it should be completely voluntary.

This leaves only one problem. How do you track a human somewhere within the werewolf territory, with a trail that can start and finish anywhere and is over a month old? She leaves that conundrum with Delta Ezra for now to do some further investigation.

If they are going to look into it, they will need to get an item that holds her scent from her house even then. It’s like looking for the proverbial needle in a pine forest!

Eventually, the rest of the Neutral Zone council file back into the room to hear their answer.

“After discussing it amongst ourselves, we are not against helping you. However, the fundamental problem is that we don’t know where we should start. But we can take it away with us and create a few plans.

Delta Ezra already has some ideas, but that involves him meeting with Rowena’s parents and getting an item with her scent on it to give us a starting point, but without something concrete, we are unsure where to start.”

Raine coughs lightly

“Rowena’s parents are close by, not because we assumed you would help, but in case the council needed to talk to them.

It will take about twenty minutes for them to get here, maybe a little longer based on the time. I know the rest of us have had a break, so if you wanted to take some time, now may be good.”

As the wolves head to the drink station, Toni can see Leif making his way over and the last thing she wants to do right now is talk to him, he had persuaded her to come to the meeting but had claimed there was no subtext, just wanted to get her involved in more than just pack related issues, something she now doubts.

It’s at times like this she wonders just how much she is being played by those around her, initially, they were more dependent on the Vampires and to some extent they still are, using their land as part of the trade route limits the chance of them being seen using the mountain pass, but maybe it’s time to change that.

Part of her knows that this is probably not a normal feeling, more of a knee-jerk reaction to the feeling of being controlled, something that she hasn’t experienced since leaving the Nightshades pack, but Leif must have known this was on the agenda and she needs to think through what he had to gain, why he didn’t warn her when he asked her to attend