Chapter 5

5

KIERAN

“ W hat do you mean you can’t help me?” Indignation has me yelling at Rico, my brother, in response to the denial of my BOLO request. “Are you out of your mind? That’s your job!”

He brings his hand down on my shoulder as if to give me a consolatory pat and then thinks better of it, withdrawing his arm.“Like I said, brother, the elders have stated that we can’t assist with anything that has to do with Seraphina.”

“I’m the Alpha. I’m the one in charge,” I sputter. Yeah, I’ll play the card if it’s necessary.

His dark eyes meet mine, full of sorrow and regret and a little bit of ire. I expect all of it and it definitely doesn’t help me find Seraphina. “You might be, yes, but the elders said that Fate will decide,” he replies. He lifts his hands to his sides in a shrug as if to apologize.

“And you’re going to leave your brother hanging?” I push up from my chair.

“No. I’ve…I’ve called Dad for you, Kieran.” He weathers my glare. “He’s your only choice, since he’s living outside of pack law.”

Although I’d had the same thought and planned to find our sire regardless, I wanted it to be on my terms. Not about needing him. Not about having Rico step in. None of those things. The man had cared about his sons so little, he only sent birthday cards in the mail, each with a wrinkled $5 bill stuffed inside.

Communication never came but those cards did.

How did Rico even get Dad’s number?

The hierarchies of the pack means that although I am Alpha, I have to work in conjunction with the elders and their rites and rules. In fact, all of the pack does, no matter their job within the social construct —everything must work in tandem with the universe and its laws. Even me.

Now, I’m about to step outside the boundaries for the first time in my life.

“Is he expecting me?” I finally ask.

Rico nods solemnly. “If you hurry, you’ll catch him before he turns in for the night—you know the routine.”

I huff out a laugh. “Some things never change.”

Dad’s been going to bed at 7 p.m. for years, early to rise at 2 a.m. to start his day. He’s predictable that way. Always has been.

“Good luck brother, as this is your test alone.” Rico reaches for my hand to shake and no matter how frustrated I am, no matter how angry this situation makes me, I clasp my palm to his.

It takes 60-minutes for that 35-minute trip. Driving up dad’s dirt road toward my childhood home, I pause. There are so many things that need to be said. And as I grow older, I’m not sure I have the ability to clear the air entirely.

Too much time has passed since he left, too many words unsaid and with the passage of time, I’m not even sure I’ll be able to order my thoughts.

I’ve got to try. What other choice do I have?

I pull the car to a stop just in front of the porch, staring at the old place with the engine clicking and cooling.

The wood cabin has seen better days, but it’s still maintained. Of course, mom and dad living so far away, still quite isolated although they don’t have to, is something I’d once tried to talk to my parents about. I’d begged them to move closer to pack land in case something should happen to them, god forbid. There was no easy way to get to them in case of an emergency. But they’d always refused.

Then Dad had walked out on us, only returning once Mom got sick.

Forcing myself out of the car, my footsteps fall heavy, and I rap on the door frame. Within seconds, the porch light springs to life.

The tall, giant of a man stands on the other side of the screen door, just as muscular and tough as he’d always been, the years showing up only on his wrinkled face and graying hair.

“You’re late.” He picks up his coat hanging from the hook. No hello, no greeting of any kind. Hardly any eye contact.

“You’re not going to invite me in?”

“And worry your mother even more? No. Let her rest. She’ll be happy to know we talked, even if she wasn’t there to listen in.” He shoots me a smile, his eyes dancing with a bit of joy.

Despite all they’d been through, mom and dad had found a way back to each other. I might not have a relationship with the man but that, his devotion to her, I appreciate.

We must have made too much noise, because I hear mom’s footsteps on the stairs and her voice call, “John? Are you heading out?”

“It’s just Kieran here needing my help.”

“Kieran?” Suddenly she’s there, robe pulled tight around her, pushing the door wider open. “Hi, baby.”

“I’m really in a hurry, Mom. I’m sorry.” I lean against the storm door still holding it open.

“You always are,” she says, reaching out to pinch my cheek. “I’m happy to see you though.”

Her words are heavy. I’ve not made it out here enough. I lean in and gave her a one-armed bear hug, squeezing her tightly. “I’ll be back soon and we can have lunch or something together. I really need dad’s help right now.”

“Really?” Mom beams at me. Maybe it’s because I’m finally trying to stitch up a wound that has long plagued our family, and asking for help is a first step. Maybe it’s the lunch offer. More than likely it’s a combination of everything, but her smile is sunlight after a storm and loosens a bit of the knot in my chest. “Well, that is what sons should always do. Go you two. Be safe.” She gives dad a peck on the cheek, and I head back to my truck with him close behind me.

For the first ten minutes, we drive in silence.

Dad clears his throat. “Thanks for reaching out and asking for my help. It…it means a lot to me.”

“I couldn’t think of anyone else who might understand my situation.” I take a deep breath before launching into the explanation. “It’s about the woman I met?—”

“Ah ha, girl problems?”

I shake my head, tightening my hands on the steering wheel. “No, pack problems. The elders don’t like her because she’s a witch.”

“Well, don’t let them do what they did to me.” He stares straight ahead, his slightly open expression shuttering at the mention of the council.

I wait to see if he’ll say more, and just when I’m about to give up, he heaves a big sigh. “Back when your mom and I got together, we were two fools in love. She, of course, was from a magical line of witches and I was from the pack, in line to be a contender for Alpha.”

“Yeah, and they ousted you because they didn’t agree with wolves and witches being together.”

“Nope,” he corrects. “That is probably the rumor all these years. But no, your mom had a vision, a vision of our pack and the neighboring pack reigniting our blood feud.”

It feels so similar to what’s happening now.

“She’d told me,” he continues. “And I’d been foolish enough to inform the elders. You’d have thought I’d cursed us. So, they ousted us off of pack land, made sure the pack knew I was a traitor. And that’s when we built the cabin. You boys were small, and raised outside of the pack ways until your aunt made peace to bring you both into the fold, but that didn’t include us.”

Everything I thought was true is nothing but a lie. It spins around me in a hurricane of bullshit I have to fight through. I’d thought Dad not being around had something to do with his not wanting to be a part of the family, but really it was about his having to make a living outside of pack ways…and off of the pack lands.

“That’s why you could only send us cards?”

“Yep.” He nods. “The elders haven’t allowed me back on the lands since your mom’s visions turned out to be true. People fear what they don’t understand, and if you are doing this for some woman, I’m guessing that she is quite special, even if the pack doesn’t agree.”

“More than special.” I clear my throat. It will be my job to ensure the pack understands that having Seraphina there will be a boon to keep us all safe, a benefit to the pack’s survival.There will always be prejudices. Hopefully, with time and the right gentle guidance, they will see.

We have to find her, first.

My fear continues to grow as we pull up to the parking area where Seraphina had been earlier. Dad and I hop out of the truck and I direct him toward her car.

Dad’s tracking skills came in handy as we move out of the parking lot and through the neighboring woods, catching not only broken branches and wolf tracks, but also something else. Suddenly he stops.

“Did you two bond, son?” He shifts his nose into the wind, when I don’t smell a thing.

This isn’t something I want to talk about and my lips press together.

“There’s candy apples on the wind,” Dad then says.

“Candy apples?” Growing up, that is how mom had always likened her magic, to the sweet scent of sugar, cooking. Something cloying and soft.

“Go grab your truck and drive like hell. The candy apples are going to take us right to your witch.”

My witch? I’m relieved and apprehensive. What if I don’t arrive in time?

With the window rolled down, and my father’s nose deeply inhaling the scent on the breeze, I follow his directions.

The trail between trees slowly widens into a recently used dirt path wide enough for a vehicle to pass through. Branches and brambles scratch the sides of the truck through our passage.

“Just a little bit further.” Dad scrunches his eyes shut and inhales deeply again. His face screws into a frown. “Hurry. Something’s…wrong. I can feel it.”

Within minutes the path opens up into a small clearing on a hill’s rise and tucked against the hill is a cabin. A fucking cabin I know nothing about, right there on the edge of pack land. There are about five trucks and cars parked out front, and I recognize them all. They belong to members of our pack.

Dad and I exchange knowing looks.

“Well I’ll be damned,” he says. “Looks like your pack knew where Gloria might be holding her after all.”