Chapter 14

Gentry

Hidden Creek was on high alert.

Two of our wolves were taken overnight: an elder named Lancel and his grandson, one of our youngest Enforcers, Leon.

They were abducted while most of the pack was sound asleep. There were signs of a struggle, but from what Alaric had gleaned from the evidence left behind, they were outnumbered. The commander identified five sets of tracks around the scene of the crime.

We didn’t find their bodies, and there was minimal blood at the site of the attack, which led us to hope they were still alive.

The other possibility was that Blood Moon took them as hostages and wished to interrogate them. What they would do afterward, I could only imagine.

My wolf snarled. The violation of his packmates set him on edge.

We were all wound tight. Our last battle with an unsanctioned pack resulted in dozens of deaths.

But this time, we weren’t weak. We were solid, stronger than before, and the coming battle would test how far we’d come.

Alpha Wynn issued a lockdown. Every member of our pack was restricted to the den and market sectors. Only Enforcers, healers, and security had access to the third and fourth sectors closest to our borders.

I’d been in the security building for nine hours, overlooking the camera feeds. Everything seemed normal until I came across a skip in the time stamps. I frowned at the screen and rewound the feed.

“What is it?” Ezra, our head of security, asked.

“There’s a time jump. The feed cuts out, but the audio is still intact,” I said.

Ezra pushed his rolling chair toward me and looked over my shoulder, a scowl on his face. Tensions had been high since the lockdown. The past nipped at our heels, and we were determined not to let Hidden Creek fall back to its agonizing history.

My fingers flew over the keyboard as I pulled up the video and hit play.

Lancel and Leon were coming back from a run when Leon heard something and stopped to investigate. The screen went black as if an object physically covered the lens. Growls and shouts erupted, and someone cried out in pain.

“Grab them! Quick, before the patrol comes around,” a voice ordered.

There were faint scuffling sounds, followed by the rustle of dry leaves.

The audio quieted, and the visuals returned without a trace of Leon, Lancel, or their attackers.

“Pull up the internal security system,” Ezra said. “I want to check the functionality alongside the recording.”

The vein in his temple pulsed. I knew the gesture all too well. He was trying to figure out how they managed to jam the video without damaging the audio.

What concerned me most was why they went through the trouble. Was this tampering the result of a calculated effort, or was it an oversight on their part?

We replayed the video, focusing on the system’s internal command.

“Do you see that?” Ezra said, taking a closer look at the screen.

I scanned the code, looking for errors. “The video is still running.”

“They didn’t jam the system. Something blocked the camera lens.”

Which meant they knew exactly where our surveillance was. Our gazes clashed. The Blood Moon pack had been sniffing around for longer than we realized.

Ezra scrubbed a hand through his inky hair. “We need a full reconfiguration of the system.” He looked at his wrist and muttered a curse. “And we need it done in four hours.”

Alpha Wynn was having his first face-to-face meeting with the Silver Fang Alpha tonight. We couldn’t postpone any longer—there was too much information we needed to share, and its sensitive nature required a careful exchange. If we were compromised, a fix was necessary. The negotiations had been going well, and from what I heard, Alpha Declan believed the intelligence we provided about the Council and was willing to back us.

The discussion would help strengthen our alliance. If we had Silver Fang on our side, Alpha Wynn was confident the Hollow Wood and Greyson packs would join us. The three Alphas were cousins and always stood together. A leak during the meeting could put us at risk of an attack from the Council and the Blood Moon pack.

If either party knew what we were planning, it would allow them to get ahead of our attack and turn the tables on us.

“Parameters?” I asked, pulling up a fresh screen.

It would be tight, but I would make it work. I had to.

My wolf chuffed in agreement. We would fight if it came down to it, but this was how we protected the pack. I was responsible for ensuring we had eyes and ears on our territory at all times, and I had failed.

I wouldn’t make that mistake again.

I thought of the contents of the video again, and it hit me.

A fucking lens cover. How in the name of the Goddess had no one noticed anything sooner?

“They blocked it manually,” I said.

I saw Ezra connecting the pieces as he let out a curse.

“I want trip wires everywhere,” Ezra instructed. “Make the firewall a damn labyrinth if you have to. I also want alerts installed for skips, glitches, changes in lighting, and repeated movement.”

“Got it,” I replied.

“I’m going out in the field to check the physical monitor and add new posts,” he said as he slipped on his jacket.

“Take Valor with you,” I called after him.

He paused and raised a brow.

“Don’t be an idiot.” I didn’t break eye contact. “You’d be a valuable hostage.”

He blew a low breath, conceding to my rationale and calling Valor on his comms system.

Satisfied I wouldn’t lose my head of security tonight, I turned to the screen and began the internal software reconstruction.

My comms unit rang two hours later. My fingers ached as I picked up the call. Leighton—an Enforcer and Hidden Creek’s witch intermediary—was on the other end.

“We have news,” he said. “Shiloh picked up on a magic signal while checking the tampered monitor.”

“Shiloh? When did she get here?”

The witch was the one who’d created the tonic to conceal our Alpha’s mate’s pregnancy from the Council. Though many shifters were prejudiced toward witches, our Alpha understood that the will of one was not the will of the many.

When it came down to it, the Council was using black magic, and the only way to successfully stand against them was to beat them at their own game. Luckily for us, Leighton knew a witch who was willing to help.

“Alpha Wynn asked me to get her when Lancel and Leon were abducted. We met up with Ezra, and when Shiloh scanned the area, there were two different dark magic signatures.”

Shiloh was a white witch. Her magic came directly from the earth and its elements. Dark magic came from the ether, a spiritual plane of death and chaos. One couldn’t exist without the other—their laws dictated balance among all things.

But one thing remained true for all witches: the magic was only as strong as the wielder. Shiloh was one of the strongest white witches in generations. She was a legacy—the prophesied daughter of one of the last pure-blooded white witch families. She held the knowledge of all her ancestors before her—a hive mind of memory and magic that made her one of the most dangerous witches ever to walk the earth. The white witches had tried to ally with Hidden Creek before, using Shiloh as a bargaining chip, but the former Alpha refused. He was too wrapped up in his hatred to see past what they were. Exposing her had the opposite effect, and he grew more wary. Not much was known about the inner workings of witches, but there was no doubt about how strong she was.

It wasn’t clear how Leighton met her or when they became so close.

“We’re heading to the medical building now,” Shiloh said.

“What for?” I asked, confused.

“To look at the rogue bodies you found. I want to confirm their cause of death,” Shiloh said evenly.

“And why am I being contacted?” I rushed to add, “Not that I don’t appreciate the update.”

“Because if what Shiloh suspects is true, you’ll need to reinforce your encryption with a little magic,” Leighton said grimly.

The implication was harrowing.

The unsanctioned packs bartered with witches, but they wouldn’t use them to fight their battles. They had too much pride to impose such a tactic. They would personally handle a transgression against them.

That left only one culprit for the dark magic attack: the Council.

I heard a door open and close on the other end of the line, and faint murmuring filtered through the speaker as Leighton and Shiloh checked into the building. My heart sped in my chest. Seconds felt like lifetimes as I waited for her to inspect the rogues’ mangled remains.

All I’d ever wanted was a mate to raise a family with. The Goddess had a cruel sense of humor, because just as our unit found happiness, danger threatened to steal it away.

The Council, the unsanctioned packs, and now . . . this. Dark witches in our territory.

Everywhere we turned, another enemy appeared.

My instincts flared, and icy fingers of foreboding gripped my chest. I knew what the report would be before Leighton spoke a word. Shiloh’s suspicion wasn’t a coincidence—her interest in the bodies meant the attack was not as it seemed.

Leighton’s voice was a dark storm as he said, “The attack was fabricated. The bodies were spelled to make it look like a shifter attack.” Korren let out a string of curses in the background. “We’re on our way to you now.”

“I’ll inform the Alpha,” I said, knowing he would contact Alaric.

I steeled myself. Hidden Creek was known for overcoming unfavorable odds. I wasn’t foolish enough to believe this life would be easy, but we had done harder things before. We’d bled, sacrificed, and conquered—all for a better future. And we would do it again.

Our pack was forged by fire, and our purpose was clear.

He picked up on the second ring.

“Alpha Wynn,” I said. “There’s been a new development.”