Healed by the Alpha (Hunted Book Two)

Chapter Twenty Six

Logan

"Where is my mother? I was told that she'd be set free if I came." I said, my voice projecting with the threat I'd laced it with. Suddenly, out of the dark I could see a figure walking towards me. Instinctively, I raised my hands and put myself in a defensive position. I hadn't even had to think about it, the years of pack training had made me ready to defend myself at any given time.

My hands were solid, my form was perfect, and with a deep breath out I charged. As soon as my feet left the earth, pouding at the mud and moss blanketed forest floor, I felt a heavy weight form in my chest. Something was wrong. It was too dark to really see and the figure was fast approaching. I slowed, stopping a metre away from the advancing silhouette. My eyes squinted and I could see that this person was a foot or two shorter than I was. The person opposite me paused at the same time, "Mother?"

She stayed perfectly still, "Logan, hear me out, please." I was confused, she wasn't running towards me, she wasn't running away from them. She didn't look to be in any danger whatsoever. "They said they'd kill you if I didn't come." I told her, hoping that this would gage the kind of reaction I could work with. It didn't. Someone from behind me laughed, "we never said anything about killing her. We said we'd bargain for our freedom."

I was frustrated and confused, "Why would you possibly need to bargain for your freedom?" I was spinning in circles, not entirely sure where these people were, "you've been free this whole entire time!" I shouted. This forced a laughter to erupt like an applause around me. This time they didn't stay in the shadows, I could see my mother physically tense up as an army of women marched from the trees around us.

I ran forward and spun around, backing up until I could feel my mother's hand grip onto mine. "Want to explain to me how the hell you managed to convince yourself to trust a coven of dark witches?" My eyes were darting left and right, there were too many witches to count. "Logan, don't attack. They only want to talk to you." I choked on my laugh, "yeah it sure looks like it mother." They were closing in, creating a giant circle around us. I crouched down, ready to shift, ready to let my wolf deal with this. I could hear his internal growls, desperate to get us away from this situation.

"Enough." A loud, echoing voice commanded. The witches that had formed a circle around us started to part. I watched as part of the coven in front of me looked behind themselves. I noticed that a shimmering light was making its way through the crowd towards us. I had no idea what I was anticipating, but it definitely wasn't the woman I was soon faced with. This woman was of a medium height, her lips were ruby red and her hair was as black as a crow's wings. Her hands were stretched out in front of her and a glowing orb was floating in her palms. "Are you ready to talk, Mr Fenton?"

She didn't look much older than myself, but she sounded like she had years on me. It must be magic, I thought to myself. "You have questions," the witch explained, "I can answer them. But you need to be willing to cooperate." No one moved, no one made a sound, but from behind me, my mother gently squeezed my hand. I suppose that was going to be the only form of confirmation. I nodded once and the woman in front of me and she smiled, "let's get you somewhere to patch up those cuts shall we?"

With all of the excitement of seeing my mother again, I'd completely forgotten that my head had taken a bang. Now, at the mention of it, it started to throb again. My adrenaline was fading and my exhaustion was creeping in. I was led towards a cave, it looked like it had been drilled straight through slate. I didn't trust these witches, regardless of their history with the pack, and I wasn't about to be taken blindly to my death. "Where are we going?" I whispered to my mother. My mother opened her mouth to reply, but it was the voice of the woman at the front of the entourage that replied, "we're taking you to our home." Creepy.

The walls of the cave were dark and lined with damp moss. Torches were lit along the way to cast shadows and reveal hidden passageways. I'd never given thought into where the dark witches lived before, but if I had, this would be it. This place practically screamed 'horror movie', all it was missing were the bones of their victims. We turned a corner and I gulped, okay, no I was right. There were hundreds of skulls lining the walls, most of them were open mouthed and appeared to be screaming silently. I was definitely going to die here.

I looked towards my mother but she was staring dead ahead, how did this not phase her? I suddenly remembered my father's journal and her advice to hear the witches out, of course she would be bothered. She'd probably see this stuff countless times by now. They both had. I was furious, there was still so much about my own pack that I had no idea about. I had been the alpha for four months now and I was still finding out hidden secrets. Trust my father to be the one hiding them.

The last tunnel we turned towards led into a huge room. It must've been the centre of the cave because on a raised platform, in the middle, was a huge beam of light. It shot through a hole in the centre of the space and up towards the sky. I was just about to ask why the hell it was when again, my question was already answered. "This is the moonbeam. You can't see it outside of the cave because of the ancient cloaking spell binding it to this space, but it tells us just about all we need to know about you Mr Logan Fenton."

I looked at her confused, how could a ray of light tell her anything about me? She stalked towards me, a dagger appearing in her right hand, "the only thing it can't tell me, is exactly why you are here." The dagger was getting increasingly light in her fingers, at any second she could throw it and end either of our lives. Instead, she looked down the blade towards me, "who exactly is Jessie Elio, Logan?"

Who?