~Layla~
My body ached as though a tree had fallen over my body. Every bone in my body when I moved was sore.
“How are you feeling?” Kade hunched down next to me on the ground.
He looked over at Danielle, who stood by my feet. She was the reason I didn’t shift. Danielle got into my mind as I was shifting and blocked Clara from going any further. Memories were a fickle thing. They could bring you to your knees, have you stand in the eye of a tornado, and beg for it to take you. However, they could also bring relief to the hell that roared inside you.
Danielle showed me my sister. Tracey and I, on Christmas, baking cookies and eating them before the icing was on. She showed me my birthday when Tracey surprised me with a doll I had been begging for months.
I felt the tears pooling around my eyes, and I let them fall. My parents showed up. My dad stood at my side while my mother cried on the ground, hovering over Tracey’s body.
“Alpha.” Kade turned and watched the Omega come walking through the woods. His head was low, and there was worry over his face. The fresh scar on his face showed a struggle.
“Alan.” Kade walked over and looked at the note he held in his hand. “What happened?”
“I’m sorry, this was on the doorstep. I took it, and the second I grabbed it, my face started burning.”
Kade grabbed the note.
A wound opened on his neck. I flew to my feet and looked at the note.
“It’s for me,” I said and grabbed it from him.
However, Kade pulled his hand away. Alan’s wounds began to heal the second his hand let go of the note. Kade’s wounds were growing. Blood wrinkled down his neck, and his face was getting blotchy.
“Give that to me,” I said and ripped it from his hands.
Kade growled in disapproval, but he didn’t attempt to retrieve it.
It was addressed to me. My hands touched the note, and I waited for the pain, but it didn’t come.
The letter on the note glowed, and my eyes met Kade’s in shock.
“What’s it say?” Justin asked behind me. Cara, Mason, Anna and Danielle joined us.
I opened the note.
“Dear Layla. Love is every werewolve’s greatest weakness. For the more we love, the more pain we sign up to endure. True pain doesn’t come from the thoughts of losing those we love but from having them taken from us. Everything was taken from me. Everyone was taken. Look around you. On is down, I want you to ask yourself who’s next. All my love, the one who got away.”
Every wolf stood up. It was a deadly situation when our wolves rose to our defense, especially when the threat was not here.
“The one who got away?” Justin said with a raised brow. He looked at me in question.
I turned to Kade. He knew.
“Sebastian,” I growled.
“Why is there no scent?” Danielle asked. Her eyes glowed blue, and she turned her head in the different paths he could’ve entered the pack.
“The note has been enchanted. He has to have a witch,” Cara said.
Mason looked at the note and took it in his hands, but as he did, the letters seemingly disappeared.
“No one is untouchable,” he said and looked up at me through his lashes. “We’ll find him.”
I turned to Kade. There was no waiting, no planning. There was not a day that would go by without my daughter here.
“Let’s go.”
For a moment, I saw her in him—our daughter in his eyes. I knew she had his eyes, but now I saw them, and I saw her.
My dad came up behind me. Tears pooled in his eyes.
“We’ll be back. Kade’s parents will help you while we’re gone,” I said. I had to push it down one last time. Not to feel. My daughter was out there, and I needed to bring her home.
“Go,” my father said without hesitation.
Only one person could help us right now. It was either this or I scour the ends of the earth until I had her in my arms and his head on a shelf.
* * *
“Tarisa?!” I yelled and knocked on her door.
The door opened, and she stood there.
“Come in.” She stepped aside and let Kade and me in. The bed was filled with bags that had been neatly packed and zipped.
“You’re leaving?” I asked.
“I am. My job here is done. Well, almost done. What can I do for you?”
Kade stepped around me.
“Our daughter had been taken. Tracey has been killed, and the person behind it is Sebastian. He has a witch working for him.” Kade handed her the note. Her eyes pierced the paper, and her jaw dropped an inch.
“This magic is dark. Whoever he has on his side is not connected with nature. This kind of magic requires a powerful source of unbalanced power.” Her brows furrowed. “The source,” she said and sighed. A revelation bared itself, and her face fell in a horrific epiphany.
“Yes?” She looked at us. Her eyes hardened. “I will help you find them, but that is all I can do for you.”
I nodded. “What do you need?” I asked.
Half an hour later, we were sitting in her room. The table was filled with candles. A chalice was standing in front of her, and Tarisa gathered her strength to perform the locater spell.
“Give me your hand.” My palm was facing up as I placed it in her hand.
She grabbed a knife and sliced a big cut into the center of my hand.
Kade stepped in. I put my hand on his chest and held him back.
“It’s okay.” I winced from the pain. The knife was dipped in wolfsbane for some ungodly reason, and the poison was seeping into my body.
She flipped my hand and let the blood pour into the chalice. Tarisa started chanting. The fire burned brighter in big flames, and a soft wind blew around us.
It took another five minutes before she opened her eyes.
She laughed, but it wasn’t joyful. It was demeaning and loaded with anger.
“The Nightingale Forest. He’s in her cottage,” she seethed.
Annalise’s cottage. We turned for the door after saying our thanks.
“Layla, wait!” Tarisa came running after us to the door. She looked conflicted. “There is one thing you need to know before you leave for the forest. The power he’s drawing from, the unbalanced source that is not bound by nature, is your daughter.”
“How can that be?” I asked. I felt my brows pressing together and my heart clenching in my chest.
Tarisa grabbed my hand.
“Your daughter is an Emberclaw.”
