CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE

"What do you mean by that!?" Alpha Zephyr questioned angrily.

"Please be calm Alpha, we are doing our best to solve this problem." Lucas, his beta wolf said in a placating ms

"How can you come to my office to tell me that some children are missing? What are the guards doing?" 

Although he was known to be heartless, he never played with the safety of his pack members especially when it had to do with children. 

"Apparently, some group of people invaded the pack and made away with few children" Lucian, Zephyr's beta explained calmly. 

"How did this happen?" Zephyr said sitting behind his desk, listening attentively. 

He wanted to settle this matter as soon as possible before the council of elders start nagging at him and claim that the reason for the missing children is because he didn't have a mate. He really hated those pesky old men, all they did was sit lazily and wait for him to do all the work. 

His pack had tight security so it was almost impossible for intruders to get in unless they were helped by an insider or through some sort of witchcraft. 

The whole situation was very confusing. 

"No one is able to provide us with correct information." Lucian explained.

"What about the CCTV cameras?" Zephyr asked. 

"I tried checking the CCTV footage but everything seems normal. There was no unusual activity." Lucien answered. 

This was strange. How did these intruders avoid the CCTV? Not only that, they also managed to bypass all the traps in the pack. 

"Who could be doing this?" Zephyr muttered to himself, he was totally clueless and he didn't like it. 

He had so many enemies as a result of his status as the most powerful alpha in London. But none of his enemies has ever tried to invade his pack talk more of harming any member of his pack. 

This was pure display of cowardice. Why involve innocent children in this matter? 

He needed to get to the bottom of this and properly deal with whoever was toying with him. 

Alpha Zephyr was not someone to joke with. He was ruthless and killed people without thinking twice. Wherever he went, heads rolled. 

"Inspect the site and search properly for clues. Take some men with you, go to the house of one of the missing children and get his scent then trace it. Don't return unless you find something." Zephyr ordered. 

"Yes, Alpha." Lucian bowed and left the office. 

This was how Zephyr worked. He only came out when it was important, he rarely showed his face in public to prevent unnecessary attention. 

When Lucian left the office, he immediately went over to the spot the children were last seen, taking some other skilled wolfs with him to inspect the place. 

'The intruders must be conversant with the pack, otherwise, how did they skillfully managed to avoid the traps and at the same time, successfully sneak out twelve children without anyone seeing them?' Lucien thought to himself. 

"Let's get to work, search the whole place, don't miss a spot. Show me anything that looks suspicious, understood?!" he instructed. 

"Yes, beta" They chorused and started searching immediately. 

The whole crew immediately went to work, searching all around the scene, careful so as to not miss a spot. 

They searched for a very long time, even when they didn't find any related evidence, Lucian urged them to search some more. 

He didn't want to go back to alpha hopeless because he knew Zephyr wouldn't like that. 

"Beta, there's nothing" Nathaniel, one of the wolf spoke up. They were exhausted, they had searched for a long time now and everything seemed futile. 

"Impossible!" Lucian exclaimed. He was persistent that there must be something, at least a clue because how would ten children suddenly disappear without a sign. Something was wrong. 

"Beta! The alpha is calling for you" An omega said while panting heavily, it seemed as though he had ran all the way here to deliver the information, meaning it was urgent. 

"Continue searching, I'll be back" He informed and left with the omega. 

Lucian walked back with a fear filled heart. This was the first time Zephyr assigned him a task and he was unable to do it. He feared for his life. 

On arriving at the Alpha's office, he met him standing close to the window. He looked like he was thinking very hard. 

"I'm sorry Alpha, we didn't find anything. If you could give me a day, I promise I'll be back with something" Lucian went on his knees and explained. 

There was no one in the pack that didn't fear Zephyr. It was a crime to be given a task by him and come back empty because there was always a punishment for every failed assignment. 

"That's not why I called you" Zephyr spoke with a calm eerie voice which never failed to scare anyone who he used it on and Lucian was not an exception. 

"is... is...is there a problem, Alpha?" Lucian stammered. 

"Someone's playing with me and the person is going to suffer when I find him/her because you don't play with fire without getting burnt." He let out a wicked chuckle 

"I don't understand, Alpha" Lucian said in confusion. Whenever Zephyr was this calm, trouble was blooming. 

"Diablerie is gone" 

"What? How?" The sudden news took Lucian by surprise

"my thoughts exactly"  

"but the security was tight, both physically and spiritually." Lucien said. 

Diablerie was the last magic mirror that allows and grants one the power to see the past, present and future whether hidden or secret. But one needed to possess an extraordinary amount of power to control it. 

"Apparently, the intruders used some kind of charm to make the guards fall asleep but I'm yet to find out how they managed to get pass the spiritual border." Zephyr calmly explained. 

"Black magic!" Lucian exclaimed. 

"That's what I thought too but who would be using black magic. I made sure to get rid of those evildoers, the only surviving one is the one in the dungeon. It's impossible for someone to still possess such powers." 

"Who could this be?" Lucian muttered to himself. 

"Whosever it is has just stepped on a lion's tail" Zephyr said with a merciless smile. 

"you sure have quite a number of foes but we've never seen anything like this." Lucien said as he thought about who this could be. 

Lucian stopped talking when he noticed that Zephyr was over the chit chat. Zephyr sat back on his seat, sipping wine and looking like he had no worry in the world. 

'How was he calm at such a time like this?' Lucian couldn't help think to  himself. 

Children were missing, diablerie had been stolen, and some intruders were probably hiding in their pack and the only thing important to the Alpha was to savour wine? 

He wanted to speak out but he didn't want his head to come rolling off his body, he knew better than anyone to keep shut. After all he still loved having his head on his body. 

After a while of silence, a knock was heard and the door opened afterwards revealing the council of elders. 

"What a pleasant surprise!" Zephyr said sarcastically. He knew it was only a matter of time before the pesky old men came knocking. 

"With all due respect, Alpha, you know the situation at hand but you're not doing anything" One of the elder nagged. 

"Is that so?" Zephyr asked with a wide smile. 

"Yes, this is no time to drink wine and relax." the elder replied. Lucien couldn't help but agree with the elder, but he knew better than to show any sign of agreement. 

"what should I do?" Zephyr asked him. 

"You're supposed to investigate this matter thoroughly" 

"Well, you're old and ought to be wise so you should know better." 

One of the elders choked on his saliva as a result of Zephyr's statement 

"Utterly disrespectful!" They said but it didn't seem to faze Zephyr rather he looked as though he was trying to listen to something. 

"What's wrong, Alpha?" Lucian pryed but didn't get any response. 

As he was about to ask again, the office door flew open revealing one of the guards that Lucian took to investigate the scene of the missing children. 

"How dare-" 

"I'm sorry to barge in, Alpha but the children have mysteriously returned and without a scar on any one of their body" The guard spoke, cutting Zephyr's words. 

"What?" The elders exclaimed. 

"Are you sure of what you're saying?" Lucian asked. 

"Yes, beta. I'm very sure. You can come with me to see for yourself." The guard said. 

"Lead the way" Zephyr spoke up 

"Yes, Alpha" The guard rose from his knees and lead them out. 

The scene that graced their eyes was unbelievable. The children were playing in the same spot they were before they mysteriously disappeared. 

What was going on? 

"Are you okay?" Zephyr called one of the children aside and asked gently. 

"Yes, Alpha." 

"How did you and your friends return to the pack" 

"Huh?" The child seemed sincerely confused. 

"How did you guys return to the pack? Did anyone bring you back?" Zephyr asked again in a more gentle tone. 

"How do you mean, Alpha? return from where?" 

"Where have you been?" Zephyr continued patiently 

"I and my friends have been playing all day at this spot" 

"Are you saying that you guys never left?" 

"Yes!" The child said confidently making the elders gasp in shock. 

Zephyr studied the little boy, he didn't seem like he was lying. He knew when people were lying and the boy was telling the truth. 

"Alpha, do you not believe me?" The boy asked innocently, without waiting for Zephyr's response, he took him by the hands and said"you can come and ask my friends." 

"No, it's okay" Zephyr said, he pattedy the boy's hair and left them to play. 

"Lucian, release the wizard from the dungeon and bring him to the room Diablerie was kept immediately." Zephyr commanded, his voice deep and fearful. 

"And, don't keep me waiting." He had had enough of these intruders and it was time to get rid of them.