Discovery of a Queen: Chapter 11

“Before we do that,” Connor interjects, “I’d like to know what happened to the messenger we sent—Jonas. I attempted to track him down yesterday, but with all the chaos, it was hard to figure out exactly where he was.”

“I’ve moved him to a room here in the house. It’s been warded to keep people away since he still has a long way to go before he’s fully recovered.” Kelly smiles over at Connor. “I can take all of you to see him after breakfast if you’d like.”

“What do you mean ‘fully recovered?’ He was perfectly fine when we sent him off.” Malcolm and Connor share a concerned look. Caleb merely narrows his eyes on me.

did , my dragon points out.

he “We aren’t sure what happened to him before he showed up in town,” I inform them. “But he was pretty close to death when he got to us. I could feel the demonic aura once everyone in town had been tucked away. I initially thought he was working with the demons.” When all three councilmen go to speak, I glare and hold my hand up. “We had no way of knowing he was with you. There wasn’t anything on his person to suggest he was with the Council, and he was dead to the world. I needed to make the safety of my community my first priority.”

“How did you know where we were and that we needed help?” Caleb remarks, his eyes still glued to me.

“I, uh…” I flick my gaze over at Olivia and Kelly, mentally nudging them to be on guard because the three males in front of us might freak out. “I might have done a little digging in his head.”

I can feel the shocked rage that flies through Caleb thanks to our bond. Connor and Malcolm, judging by the expressions on their faces, are feeling similarly. Witches can dive into a person’s mind, but it takes someone with a great deal of power to do so. It is also frowned upon by the Council because not only can it permanently damage an individual’s mind, but it is also extremely excruciating physically because of the drain on the diver’s magic.

“Look,” I start in self-defense, “I honestly thought he was working with demons and he had led them right to us. The instant I realized who he was and why he had been sent here, I pulled out of his mind. He was also unconscious, so the damage to his mind should be minimal because he wasn’t able to fight back.”

“He doesn’t appear to be brain damaged,” Olivia chimes in cheerfully, a pleased grin stretched across her face. I fight the urge to facepalm. “I brought him some dinner last night. I had to have a community member bring him food this morning because of our meeting, but he’s awake at least. And he’s not drooling or anything, seems to have all of his motor functions. Not sure how bright he was before the mind dive, but he doesn’t seem to be dumber than a rock or anything like that. Hell, if he was before, maybe Ayla actually helped him.”

I groan internally.

“He will be fine, physically, in a few days. As I’m sure you all know, demonic wounds take a bit longer to heal, and his wounds were extensive. Based on my preliminary analysis, he’ll fully recover mentally as well.” Kelly glances between the three angry males with a kind smile.

“You had no right,” Caleb grits out between his teeth.

“What would you have done? An unknown shifter suddenly appears out of thin air, nothing around him to suggest he was sent by friendlies, and he can’t speak because he’s barely clinging to life. When you’re finally able to sense something, you realize there’s demonic energy everywhere around where this mysterious shifter showed up. You can’t question the shifter because he’s still out cold. If there was a potential threat to your community would you just wait for it to come at you, or would you attempt to figure out when and how it’s coming?” My eyes drill into Caleb, and I allow my own rage to blast through the bond.

“Look” —Connor holds his hands up, drawing everyone’s attention— “right or wrong, it’s been done. We can check in on Jonas after the meeting. While we certainly don’t condone delving into someone’s mind, given the circumstances, I think we need to move on here.”

Connor’s right, there’s no point in arguing about this now. If Caleb wants to plant the damn flag here, that’s on him. I know that, while not optimal, diving into Jonas’s mind was the best decision at the time. We both know that Caleb, if he had the ability to do so, would have absolutely done the same thing.

“Patrick,” Olivia calls, “why don’t you recount what happened before the Council arrived? Then the councilmen can give us their account. We’ll fill in the blanks from there.” Patrick nods and takes a deep breath.

“We’ve had females going missing for about five years now.” My body stiffens. Five years? “My alpha had been investigating, but every time he seemed to get close, evidence would vanish. Most of the females would show up dead a few months after they went missing, typically dumped in the surrounding human towns and cities. I was concerned and kept telling Sean, our alpha, that we needed to reach out to the Council, but he was confident he had the situation handled.”

I suppress the urge to snort. I just bet he had the situation “handled,” but not reporting any of this for five years? Was Patrick in on all of this?

“Admittedly, I hadn’t been beta very long, and I’m sure Sean didn’t like hearing his orders questioned. His old beta died, I’m still not sure how, and I won the challenges for the position about a year ago. Everyone in the pack knew about the missing females, but we all assumed Sean really did have it handled. It wasn’t until I became beta that I started to notice some weird things going on. A lot of the females who went missing dated Sean’s friends. Now, I won’t say that Sean had any hand in what happened, but I couldn’t just sit quietly any longer. So I called the Council in to investigate.”

“When Patrick told us what was happening, we realized we needed to come see everything and talk to Sean ourselves,” Connor continues. “We should have been informed of the missing females well beforehand, and it concerned us that we hadn’t heard even a rumor of any missing females or their deaths.”

“We made our way out to the pack with the intention of putting the heat on Sean, especially since he should have come to us about this,” Malcolm explains. “We did a bit of digging into the pack’s paperwork, and we found some random deposits into Sean’s personal bank account. When we were able to determine who they were from, it confused us. A local drug lord, a human drug lord, had been wiring money to Sean. The times didn’t line up with the missing females, but it was odd enough for us to ask him about it. Sean merely admitted to helping test drugs for shifters.”

Drugs for shifters? Most shifters wouldn’t ever put drugs in their bodies. We’re raised to cherish our bodies and what they can do. Besides, adding magic to drugs is a tricky business and can go horribly wrong. Thank the gods alcohol isn’t that risky, we need some way to let loose.

“Before we got a chance to dig any deeper, the demons launched their attack. Took us completely by surprise. I have no idea how they knew we were even in the Rocky Mountains. They weren’t on our itinerary, we had been on a tour to change our representatives in Canadian, American, and Mexican communities when we got the call about Patrick’s pack.” Caleb sounds frustrated and rakes a hand through his hair. “Which tells me one of the pack members called them in.”

All eyes go to Patrick, who is pale and looks horrified. I would be too if someone had lobbed that at me. But he really shouldn’t be all that surprised, and he should have realized it himself. Though I ought to go a little easier on him since yesterday had been a complete shitshow. If Sean had been colluding with demons, it’s possible more members of the pack were in on it. I close my eyes to read his aura—nothing demonic. I’ll need to see Sean’s body to determine if he was tainted, and I’ll need to go through every member of Patrick’s pack to make sure that no one else is working with the demons. The last thing we need is for the legion to attack us here.

“Alpha, I…” Patrick swallows, and his eyes frantically meet mine. “I have no idea how the demons found us. I swear.”

“He’s telling the truth.” My voice doesn’t allow room for arguments. “His aura is clean. He wasn’t working with the demons.” Surprisingly, Caleb nods and doesn’t comment. Patrick slumps in relief. “Olivia, Kelly, I need you both to take Connor and Malcolm to see Jonas and round up the Rocky Mountain Pack with Patrick. I need to fill the Alpha in on things here. We’ll keep the bonds open so everyone can stay in the loop.” They nod and get up to leave, Patrick shakily scrambling to do the same. Connor and Malcolm, however, don’t budge.

Caleb nods his head, and only then do they follow the others out of the room. If I wanted to push the matter, I could demonstrate that they have to obey me over Caleb, but it’s not worth my time. If they want to act like children, that’s on them. Caleb and I have a lot to talk about.

After I’m through telling Caleb about the last six months, we each refill our coffee and head out into the yard. I need some fresh air. My head is buzzing with all the information I’ve learned, and I’m trying to piece it all together. Why do the demons want female shifters? Why the hell do they want drugs for shifters? Why use the humans at all?

“There are a lot of similarities between what was happening with the Rocky Mountain Pack and what happened here.” Caleb’s words rip me out of my thoughts. “You said that Morgan was tainted. Would you be able to tell if Sean was tainted, even though he’s dead?”

“Yeah. It’s not as easy, but if he spent the last five years having dealings with demons, the taint should be pretty strong. My concern is the rest of his pack. What if he wasn’t the only one who was involved? I’m going to need to meet with each member of the pack to know for certain.”

“Why don’t we go back to the Rockies today and find Sean’s body? We’ll see if you feel anything else while we’re there. We can tackle the pack tomorrow. I don’t want you overdoing it. You’re the only one here who can sense these fuckers before they come. We need you at the top of your game.”

I bristle at the implication that merely searching for demonic energy will weaken me. But after my performance against Malick, I suppose I would question Caleb’s strength and stamina if our positions were reversed.

“Fine. But we take a team with us to handle the dead. Then I want to train. I’m clearly a little rusty, and I need to degrease the wheels, as it were, before facing off against Malick again.”

“You won’t be facing him alone.”

“That’s not the point.” I sigh, running my hand down my face. “I need to beef up if I’m going to take him out. And we need to learn how to work better as a team. You can’t alpha-hulk-out every time there’s a demon around me. I was made for this.”

“I’ll stop being so protective once the bond is fully formed.” I wince at his words. “You know that’s not just a dragon thing. All males are a bit more protective of their mate until the bond is whole.”

The kicker is, he’s right. Unless I fully bond with Caleb, he’s going to be a hulking caveman who pounds his chest at any threat. That could be a demon or a rival male. Hell, someone could look at me the wrong way and it might set him off. He seems stable enough now, but I’m not sure how long that will last. Damn it, I knew I shouldn’t have had sex with him. That makes this so much worse.

“I’m trying to stay out of your head, Ayla, but I can feel how hard you’re thinking.”

“I’m not ready for the bond. I told you last night that I won’t leave my community. And I doubt you’re willing to give up being the head of the Council. So this isn’t going to work.”

He growls and steps in front of me, right in my space. I have to tilt my head back to look him in the eye.

“We are mates. You know this. The bond is already forming.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to let it finish forming.”

He snarls at my words. “I’ll give you time, but we are going to finish this bond.” His brogue is thick and causes shivers to run down my spine. “You are mine. I am not letting you go. End of story.”

I sigh and shake my head, deciding it’s not worth my time or energy to fight with him. He didn’t even mention leaving the Council, which tells me he won’t, and he expects me to leave my community. There is no way I will do that. These people are etched into me now. I’m going to have to keep my distance from here on out. I can’t let the bond progress any further than it already has. Maybe I can see if the witches know of a way to stop or sever the bond.

, my dragon roars.

She claws inside me, raging over the fact that I won’t just accept Caleb.

A witch comes jogging up to us before we can continue our discussion.

“Alpha.” He nods to Caleb. “High Priestess, there is an envoy of vampires here. They wish to talk to you.”

Shock runs through me. I knew vampires might eventually find their way to me, but I didn’t expect it to be so soon. Contrary to popular fiction, vampires don’t burst into flames in the daylight. It does severely weaken them, and they need to feed more often if they’re going to be day-walkers, but it’s doable. Typically, only the older vampires choose to day-walk, since the older a vampire is, the more powerful they are, and they’re less likely to be drained quickly.

“Bring them to my sitting room.” The witch nods and races off. I turn to Caleb, who has his narrow eyes trained on my face. “No, you can’t come. If they came to talk to me, this is my community’s business, not Council business.” He growls but doesn’t argue. “Why don’t you go see about getting a search party together so we can head off to the Rockies when I’m done?”

He growls one last time before walking away. I allow myself a moment to just breathe. Dealing with him on top of everything else is exhausting.

If I could bitch slap a dragon, I would. I swear.

. My dragon’s tone is childish. I simply roll my eyes and head into the house.

When I get to my sitting room, the envoy of vampires is already seated and drinking wine glasses of blood. I didn’t even know we had blood. There are three of them, all male. They stand as I enter the room, which makes me feel hella awkward.

“Please, don’t get up on my account.” I smile and take a seat near the fireplace. I flick my hand out and start the fire again. Being toasty is soothing. I close my eyes to scan their auras. After the last few months, I am not taking any chances anymore. All three are clean.

“Thank you for meeting with us,” the man closest to me says. He’s African American, insanely tall if his legs are anything to go by, with close cut hair, and stunning hazel eyes. He’s dressed in a three-piece suit and has on sneakers instead of dress shoes, which makes me smile. “We’ve come on behalf of our nest. We’d like to join your community. When word hit us that you had merged the shifters and witches together, we were all eager to become part of such a society. There are few of us who remember when such communities were common.”

I arch my eyebrow at him. He seems a little too eager.

“I apologize for my progeny,” the man sitting next to him interjects. He is Asian, and like his progeny, tall as all hell. Why am I the only short person around here? It’s going to give me a damn complex His hair is long and tied at the nape of his neck. He’s also wearing a three-piece suit, but unlike his progeny, he’s wearing dress shoes.

“I am Xin, my progeny is Dante, and this is Rafe.” Xin gestures to the third man who has olive skin and blond highlights in his brown, shaggy hair. Rafe is dressed like he’s a surfer ready to hit the beach. It’s surprising because of how the other two are dressed.

“Why so eager to join our community?”

“I was part of such a community in China many centuries ago.” Xin’s admission is laced with ancient sadness. “It had been led by a queen. I had been sent to another queen to assist with some minor demons, while they weren’t overly strong, they vastly outnumbered the other queen’s community. Myself and some of our warriors were sent to aid as best as we could. When we returned, our community had been decimated. The seven of us have dedicated our lives to finding the demon who destroyed our community and ending its life.” Xin studies me for a moment. “But I see now why this community has formed, and why we have felt such a pull. You are a queen.”