15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

" W e're here."

Jax finally noticed his surroundings and realised they had already stopped at the Crimson Valley territory gates. He'd been stuck in his head for hours but it was time to put his emotions aside. Layla would be there when he got home; they would fix this mess once and for all.

"Why aren't they opening the gates?" he asked with a frown.

Maybe he should have asked why he couldn't sense anyone at the gates. How would they keep anyone safe if there was no one to patrol and alert them of intruders?

"I'll call them," Dylan said as he pulled his phone out.

While his Beta ordered the gates to be opened, he rolled down his window to understand what they were up against. There was no scent of magic in the air, light or dark. There should have been a little if the pack had protective wards.

"Do they have witches in their pack?" he asked.

Since he'd been cursed the day he'd taken the throne from his father, he'd been too messed up to keep up with such details. He hadn't given much of a shit about anyone else except his pack. Many small packs in his territories didn't believe in mixing species and therefore didn't rely on any covens to keep them safe. Those packs would have a problem with Layla being their queen. He already had them on the top of his list as potential threats.

But the Crimson Valley pack kept to itself, much like Braxton did. Or rather, much like Brax did before he discovered Layla and Rebecca weren't myths after all.

"They did the last time I checked," Dylan answered.

"There's no protection here."

Dylan alerted the rest of the warriors to remain vigilant as the gate slid open. A young boy, about thirteen or fourteen, opened the gate, not a warrior. He didn't look capable of dealing with intruders if there was an ambush. How the hell was Erik running things in his pack?

"They're sending kids to the gate?" Dylan asked when the boy waved them through.

When both of their cars drove through, the boy closed the gate again and locked a heavy chain to secure it. But that chain wouldn't stop anyone—not a witch and certainly not a Hunter.

The boy turned and ran into the woods beside the gate, leaving them alone.

"We're not staying here tonight," he stated. How did Erik let his territory become like that? The security was non-existent, and he didn't sense much activity even further in.

The car rolled slowly through the compound, and it looked abandoned. It felt abandoned. The Crimson Pack hadn't built homes as his pack did over the generations. Instead, they lived in mud and wood structures without electricity or running water. They preferred to live in their wolf forms most of the time, so those things were not important to them. It was only the packhouse that they made an effort with, and as they drove closer to the sprawling building, he sensed only a few people inside.

The pack was small, but not that small. Where was everyone?

A man he recognised as the current Alpha came out of the double-storey building. Alpha Erik. The older man had lost some weight since he last saw him, and his hair had turned grey. Wolves didn't age quickly until they reached a certain age, and even then, the process depended on how strong their wolf was. An Alpha like Erik should have looked younger than he did.

A warrior opened the door for him, and he stepped out of the car. Erik lowered his gaze immediately. He sensed defeat all over the Alpha.

"Welcome, Your Majesty."

"Alpha Erik," he greeted, and then he looked around.

Small faces peeked from behind the curtains in the packhouse and the trunks of the trees surrounding it.

"What happened here, Erik?"

"My warriors went out to look for the missing scouts, Alpha," Erik answered.

"All of them?" Dylan asked.

"Some of them went into the woods when you permitted us to leave."

"I didn't permit you to leave your territory. I said you could send some people out to search."

Erik's shoulders tensed, and a frisson of fear radiated from him.

"My Beta Jude went out to search. The others didn't want to take any chances in case the Hunters got our scouts. They went into the woods."

He looked around at the faces in the windows again, and it all made sense. They abandoned their kids. No other adults were on the territory; no one could shift and defend them if anything happened.

What the hell was wrong with these people? Did they not know what it meant to be in a pack?

"Are you still linked to the missing scouts?" he asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty. They're alive. I don't sense anything else other than that."

If Ryker's scouts hadn't gone missing, too, he would have assumed the Crimson Valley scouts were tired of living the way they did. Out of the whole pack, they travelled far enough to know how everyone else lived. But then again, Ryker lived in an unpleasant place, too, so that reason applied to his scouts as well.

But there would have been no way scouts from two different packs would have gone missing at the same time.

"Where's your witch?"

"She and her coven moved away after the hunting party came into town last year."

A year? Had they been unprotected for a year?

"I'm sorry I couldn't come to your birthday celebrations and pay my respects at the memorial," Erik continued. "As you can see, I have my hands full here."

He looked over at Dylan and then at his men, who were already securing the area. It wouldn't do much good without a witch's protective spell. Anyone could stumble onto the territory, even humans, if they decided to brave the walk through the forest.

‘Bring some trucks over and help them move. We can't leave the children here,' he said, linking Dylan.

But something Erik said struck him. He frowned and turned back to the old Alpha.

"You mean they have been missing since before my birthday? Why the fuck didn't you report this?"

When Hailey hexed the wolves, she chose rogues for a reason. There would have been no one to report that they were missing. And when she'd gone for the packs, she'd got the Alphas on her side either by hexing them or promising they would take his place as king. Erik sat on this shit for over a week. They probably wouldn't have known what was happening if Dylan hadn't come after the memorial.

"We thought they went into town. The younger ones like to do that often because there aren't many women of age left in our pack."

"I'll need a list of all the places they could have gone. My warriors will take over the search. I've asked for transport to take you and the children to my territory; you'll be safe there."

Erik's eyes widened but he didn't look up.

"We are safe here, Your Majesty. We're not in the way or visible from any angle until you reach the gates."

Whereas his place was huge. The implication that he was an easy target was not lost on him.

"My territory isn't visible, either, and it's warded. It's the safest place to be right now."

"When their parents come back—"

"They should never have left the children in the first place," he growled.

He was all for living wild or whatever they did in that pack, but how could a parent leave their child's survival to fate? He couldn't imagine doing that to Hope.

"It's not a discussion, Erik. Pack what you need; I don't know how long you'll have to stay."

Erik nodded and walked back into the packhouse. The kids that were hiding behind the trees slowly stepped out. The boy who'd opened the gate was one of them, and he seemed to be the oldest of the little group. That was probably why it was his job to open the gate. And unlike the younger children, he wasn't quaking with fear. He would probably make a good warrior one day, but it wasn't his time yet.

If his father had still been king, he would have disagreed. King Richard trained warriors from when they could walk.

The boy bowed before he led the other kids into the packhouse.

"When's the last time anyone checked on this pack?"

"Before you found Layla. I believe it was Micah..."

Dylan let his sentence hang, but it had already caused some emotional damage.

"I'm going to look around to see if I can find anything." He was already pulling his t-shirt off and kicking off his shoes

"We should stay together. Something isn't right," Dylan said. "I'll come with you."

Something hadn't been right for a while. But he was the king; he couldn't hide from it.

Dylan's phone vibrated as he started to take his clothes off.

"It's Ryker," he said with a frown.

He already knew that it wouldn't be good news before Ryker spoke.

"My search team is missing," Ryker said. "They didn't check in when they were supposed to. We can't find them; their trail has gone cold."