Gamma No More - Book 3

Toni stared at the mess in the room, of all the things she had been expecting this mess wasn’t it, for a man as meticulous as this mastermind had been, to sew and keep track of all the threads he had in motion, she had expected an almost spotless office.

So was this the after-effects of an outburst as he already had news of his defeat, or perhaps someone had got here first and had ransacked it?

“Everybody out of this room,”

Toni is suddenly aware they could ruin any scent trace if too many entered the room, and it was important to know who had done this, the work of the wolf they were hunting, or had another wolf already been there before them, or worse, was there more than one wolf behind all this.

But worse, the dominant scent tugged at her memories. Somewhere deep inside her, she knew she had met this person before.

‘Report in,’

She sends the message out in the pack link:

‘No movement outside’

‘Upstairs clear,’

‘Back clear, but there’s a locked door. We think it’s to a staircase,’

The voices of Cam, Danny and Eleanor come back to her, reporting their progress before Toni speaks again.

’I need the Alphas to meet up with their best tracker out of the wolves they have with them in the Hall as soon as possible.

Brand, that’s you for our pack, so I need you with me. Everyone else hold your positions for now and remain alert’

Tane stares at the two humans cowering in front of him, knowing he will make an example out of one of them, it’s just which one, Jasper is more used to him on a general level, Rowena has far more situational use, but, her wards would break if she died.

An evil smile takes over his face. They had to pick today to test him; he had needed an outlet for his anger and they had presented themselves on a plate.

His eyes flick between them. Landing on Rowena, he moves quickly, grabbing her by the throat.

“A wolf’s hearing is exquisite. You think I didn’t hear your murmuring human?

You’ll find it hard to cast spells when you can’t breathe.”

He enjoyed the feeling of her choking beneath his hand. Mostly, he’d made sure to not involve himself directly in killing people. Not because he couldn’t kill easily, but because it left little to trace back to him, but right here, right now, he can see the appeal in being able to take things into his own hands, literally.

Grinning, he knows he was right about deciding to kill Killian and Toni, but especially Toni, and to do it himself.

“Has she completed the Scrying? ”

The calm manner in which he asked, all the while slowly draining the life out of Rowena, took Jasper aback. Even though he wanted to intervene, the blood bond prevented him from laying a finger on him. “No Master, please… “

He stopped himself for a second but realised it didn’t matter if Tane knew he had got close to Rowena, and saw her as a sister, if he was to die, then he wouldn’t die without trying to save her and all he could do was plead for her.

“… please don’t kill her.”

Jasper’s words came out, rushed and panicked.

“Kill me instead”

Tears filled his eyes. He would never see his family again, but then he’d already suspected that. This way, it was him making the choice.

Tane lets go of Rowena’s throat, leaving her gasping for breath

“Aww, how sweet. Jasper has a crush on a witch, two pathetic humans together.”

The venom in Tane’s voice is clear to Jasper, but he doesn’t correct the misunderstanding. He sees Rowena as a little sister, someone to save and someone who shares his pain of being a captive of Tane’s.

“Chain and gag her in the scrying cell.

For every failed scrying, for each body, she cannot locate you will take the punishment.

Shall we see if she holds the same feelings you do, or whether she only cares for her own life?”

He watches as Jasper follows his instructions. He’d never bothered being interested in how humans got attached. Not having any form of mate bond made him think they were lesser beings.

His Grandmother had once tried to tell him about how humans fell in love, but he didn’t care. It seemed messy to him. All the dating and courtship appeared to be wasted time, proof of their inferiority.

Yes, his real mate had died in childbirth almost taking him with her, but his new mate, a chosen mate was in some respects better because when he was in power, he still believed he would win and when he did, he would take a few concubines, something he could never have done to his real mate.

But before he gets too distracted by that thought, he focuses himself back on the Witch, now bound in chains and gagged and sees genuine fear on her face and gets a warm feeling inside and he hasn’t even got to the good part yet.

Turning, he unlocks a cupboard, getting a few items out, a gun, a whip and two handcuffs. He turns back, grinning widely, but without a trace of humour on his face.

“Face against the cell bars and arms up, Jasper.

The time for playing nicely has ended. ”

As Toni looks at the gathered Alphas, a look of hard determination spreads across her face.

“I think he is still here. His scent is too recent, but we need to be sure before we go in further.

Only one wolf’s scent has stood out to me, along with some mixed human ones, but someone destroyed his study, so I need to work out if there’s been another wolf in there recently or not.

Do we have a single irate wolf or more than one behind this unrest?

Was it Tane that caused that damage in a fit of rage, maybe hearing about the war, or a fight between two wolves?

And at some point, we need to document everything in that room, especially if we don’t find Tane here.”

She looks around at the assembled wolves, then focuses on the four warriors

“I know you are warriors. I’m just asking you to do your best with the scents in the room, essentially how many fresh ones are there apart from at the room entrance.”

The four wolves, summoned for their tracking ability, headed to the study to start their search and Lance spoke up

“The other part we need to determine is whether we should search for a key to the locked door, or barge our way in. If he’s down there, breaking the door down will alert him.”

Cage chuckles quietly

“As Dimitri can tell you, I was a bit of a tearaway. Picking locks was one of my less savoury habits, so just leave the door to me”

Dimitri looks around the group nodding before he added

“I say we should head down immediately.

If he’s down there, the less time he has to plan, the better.”

“Forget giving him time to plan.” Lance interrupted.

“We built escape routes under our pack when the tension rose. He could have one as well.”

Toni nods

“Ok, as soon as Cage, sorry Dominic, has opened the door, I’ll go down”

“We’ll go down,” Cage growled

“We’ll all go down,” Joseph confirmed.

Toni bites the inside of her cheek as she thinks

“We need to leave enough wolves up here in case he’s in the forest and comes back, especially to protect the paperwork in the study.

Which of you will hold back and arrange it?”

Toni looks around at the assembled Alphas. They all want to be in there, but it’s Joseph who speaks up.

“In cramped quarters, I will probably be a liability. I can’t shift fast.

I will keep my wolves up here and start stripping the house of anything helpful and incriminating. If you want that trial, we’ll need all the evidence we can get.”

Toni nods at him but it’s Dimitri who clasps his arm

“You are a good wolf Joseph, self-awareness is a trait we all need, but more than that, I have the utmost respect for a wolf that isn’t scared of facing paperwork.

Because I hate paperwork”

He laughs as they leave, heading to the locked door, ready to tackle whatever was behind it, but all hoping it would reveal Tane.

Tane has Jasper chained against the cell, the image of the two humans chained and under his control settles his wolf, this is going to be his future, it had to be, or he wouldn’t feel this relaxed and happy to be in this situation.

Rowena’s eyes fill with fear and concern, and it pleases him. He walks back over to Jasper and rips his shirt apart, exposing his back.

“I’m going to un-gag you, Rowena, so you can scry. Fail and he will get whipped.

Try to cast an offensive spell. I will knock you out and gag you.

Once you are awake, I will whip him and then I will leave you both here to die of starvation. After gagging you again, of course.

Do you understand?”

His voice is calm, and quiet as if demanding their attention, but it’s the coldness that seems to exaggerate the evilness he exudes that causes Rowena to let out the smallest of sobs behind the gag

Slowly he walks over and removes her gag, before finally handing her the Earth pendant she uses to scry. All the other symbols she needs before her already.

She started to scry with Alpha Knight as first on the list, placing markers on the map for each wolf she finds.

When she gets to Antonia’s name her hand trembles, she has never found her under that name, only under Emma Marshall, so she starts the spell using her alias, but this time, the pendant doesn’t move; she repeats the process once more and swallows deeply as the pendant remains stationary in her hand.

“First failure,”

Without warning, Tane slices the whip through the air with a deafening whistle. Jasper’s body tensed in anticipation, but nothing could have prepared him for the searing pain that erupts from his back as the whip makes contact. A guttural, terror-filled scream escapes his lips and reverberates off every wall in the cell block, sending shivers down Rowena’s spine.

She can barely comprehend the level of agony he must be feeling as she watches, tears streaming down her own face, lost in the moment and unable to process the failure of their rescue plan. The sound of Jasper’s screams echoes and amplifies in her mind, drowning out any other thoughts or sounds in the cell. This was not how it was supposed to go.

All the time she had been scrying, she had expected a rescue party to come through the door, but now, she was concerned that she had given Jasper and herself a false sense of hope, maybe they should have fought more, but she didn’t know many offensive spells, only defensive ones and she searches deep in her mind for one she can use now, that would protect her and Jasper from further punishment.

“Next failure and I shoot him in the leg, waste of a silver bullet, but what can I do?”

He shrugs as if it wasn’t his fault, but the evil look on his face scares Rowena more than anything else, leaving her terrified of what will happen to them both.