Chapter 51

Letting Tahlia in first, I shut the door and turned, almost slamming my face into Dallas. He was looming in front of me with his hands on his hips. I raised my eyebrow at him.“What? I’m home before the sun went down, Dad.” I waved outside where the light was painting the sky in an orange glow.“You’re going to run yourself into the ground. Again, Ephraim. You’ve been sleeping what, three or four hours a night? You’re taking up multiple patrols and you’re trying to still do work while you’re at it!”“I am! I am trying to figure out what the hell is going on! Without having to take some random she-wolf as my Luna just to get a couple knights out here!” My voice rose, the air shifting around me.Dallas wasn’t backing down. “You need to allow me to go out more so you can come in! I’m fine taking full patrols! It’s my job as Beta…”“You’re a new father, Dallas!” I growled at him. “I am not going to take you away from your pup more than I need to! I can handle a few fucking patrols. What I

Chapter 52

I woke up feeling so rested, and I checked to make sure I hadn’t overslept. Sitting up, I rubbed my eyes, and ran my hands through Tahlia’s fur. She hadn’t moved from the end of the bed all night. My phone had flashed five-thirty and I knew I had time to run before the meeting with the guys.Getting up, I chuckled before turning to the window. Pushing it up, I looked down below. The fog still clung to the ground, the sun not up quite yet. It definitely looked like the sun was going to be coming out anytime soon with how low and dark the clouds were hanging.Tahlia perked up with the sound of the window scraping against the frame. Winking, I climbed out of the window and jumped down. My feet landed in grass and I rolled before shifting into a wolf. I wasn’t expecting Tahlia to come out after me, but her entire body jumped out of the windows. She landed on the grass near me, far more graceful than I had.Her nose pressed into my side, a little hard. Chuckling, I nuzzled her side. She wa

Chapter 53

My jaw locked as I took the first step down into the basement. It didn’t help that my wolf had been growling loudly in my head from the moment the door opened. Still, I kept my eyes focused on stairs. Everything in my entire being was screaming not to go down. Something was seriously wrong down here.The moment I stepped into the basement, I took in the scene before me. The entire basement was covered in runes emanating from the a center circle. Within the center of the circle, there was a huge crystal a shade of purple that made me almost think it was an amethyst, but it was bigger than my head.Worse, the runes were written in red. Not bright red, a deep red. A red that had dried into this color. My heart beat wildly in my chest. Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my phone. She was going to yell at me again. I knew all too well, but she also already knew the issue we were having. Especially since we had been keeping in touch over the witch turned hunter.“Do you even know wh

Chapter 54

“You need to destroy the catalyst. Once you do that, cleaning up the runes so that there isn’t a chance of a single accidental activation would be next.”My eyes locked on the crystal in the center. “I’m guessing I can’t just take a sledgehammer to it?”Norah chuckled. “No. There is probably a protective barrier around it. You also need to make sure that you don’t touch any of the runes. If you smudge the circle, there is a chance that it just removes that from the circle. So the amount of magic it needs drops and could prematurely explode.”“Lovely. Just lovely.” I ground out, my anger seeping through. “How do I destroy it, Norah? I need to fix this. Now. Before more rogues try to kill my warriors or something happens and the people who did this decide to explode it now.”“You need something magical. You can use a sledgehammer, but it needs to magical. It needs to have some kind of enchantment on it.”My eyes narrowed. “What about…the sword you gave me for eighteenth birthday. Would

Chapter 55

It took two hours to get everyone evacuated. All of it was being extra cautious. It wouldn’t help if this thing really did have a twenty plus mile radius, but not at full power, I hoped it wouldn’t do too much damage. I hoped that it would just be me hammering away at the thing until the catalyst was too small to be useful, but that was being a little too hopeful. What was the saying? Hope for the best, but plan for the worst?Dallas and Reese came to my side after we got confirmation that all the warriors, along with the pack members had been moved. I could tell Dallas wasn’t happy with me right now, but with everything going on, we were too on edge to work through it. I know it was out of concern for me. Later I would apologize for snapping, but not right now.“I am going to show you guys what is going on. However, after I show you, you will leave and go to the edge of the evacuation zone.”“Absolutely not.” Surprisingly, Reese was the one who said it. “What the hell is going on?”I

Chapter 56

“Ephraim!”Squinting my eyes, I tried to move, but something was heavy on me. Peeling open my eyes, I came face to face with Tahlia. She looked grey, a power covering her brown fur. It all rushed back to me after that.The crystal.The explosion.The house crumbling.Looking around, I tried to see through the rubble, but it was too dense. Beams, floor boards, destroyed furniture I could make out, but it was like everything was poured into the basement. Worse, Tahlia wasn’t moving. I could hear her heartbeat, but she hadn’t moved.“Tahlia, mate, wake up.” I brushed her face. “Come on.”“Ephraim!” I heard my name in both the mind link and through the rubble.‘Dallas.’The relief in his sigh that came through the mind link was palpable. ‘Damn it, Ephraim. I have been trying to reach out for a half hour. We are digging to get to you.’I tried to turn my body, but there was a beam that had been holding up the foundation of the house now across both Tahlia and I. We were pinned. There were