Chapter 2

Callan

“Harlow,” I bellowed, startling my sister, who was in the process of sneaking in again. How my sister thought she could get away with sneaking out and in my pack with no one telling me is anyone’s guess. This is the second night in a row she’s tried to sneak in and the second time we have caught her. Although I can’t take credit for last night, someone set the Forest on fire and by the time I’d got there with my men, Harlow had already put it out. “Where have you been?”

“I just went to the pictures with Gabi. I’m pretty tired, so I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Uh huh” honestly this girl was a terrible liar, so much so that I struggled to keep a straight face. “Goodnight Harlow. Oh, and before I forget, Gabi called three times tonight looking for you, so you might want to call her back.” I walked up the stairs, laughing at Harlow’s shocked face.

I know Harlow’s dating a boy from the town just outside our border. She’s keeping it hush-hush, probably because our mom wouldn’t approve of her dating before finding her mate. Also, the fact that he’s human won’t go down well either.

The next morning, I walked into my office to find Harlow sitting at my desk, waiting for me. It was unusual for Harlow to show up unannounced. She always called, text or mind linked me. She’s very considerate like that, so I was immediately concerned.

“Hey is everything ok?” I asked, sitting at my desk across from her.

“I’m ok but curious about why the witches tried to set the pack on fire.”

I took a deep breath, contemplating my answer as I didn’t want to scare her as she’s quite sensitive because of my mother’s overprotective behaviour towards her. “You don’t need to worry about anything Harlow, you’re safe here.”

“I know, Callan.” she smiled warmly. “But what started the animosity with the witches? I mean, we are half witch, so shouldn’t that help smooth things over?”

“I don’t know what started the war. You’d need to ask mom but I know they’ve been trying to get us to retaliate for fifteen years.”

“Ok,” Harlow nodded. “Why haven’t we retaliated if it’s been going on for so long?”

“I want to, but mom and dad have been pretty insistent that we leave them be, at least for now. Why the sudden interest?”

“Just curious, that all,” she stood to leave waving bye.

“Remember, curiosity killed the cat,” I called after her. “Be careful.”

Once my sister left, I called a meeting for my border patrol. I wanted to check if anything weird had happened last night, maybe something insignificant that they hadn’t mentioned. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but something about the witches' latest attack led me to believe that they might be gearing up to something bigger and I want my pack to be prepared.

I spoke with the border patrol and explained that anything strange, no matter how small, was to be reported to myself or the Beta. I then spent the rest of the morning in training. There is nothing better than starting the day training. The rush of endorphins gives me an enormous boost. My best friend, and Beta, Brett, is the total opposite. He trains to keep in shape and also in case there is an attack, but he would rather do anything else and often spends most of the training huffing under his breath, which if you know anything about werewolves you know we can all hear him perfectly. After training, I got some work done more than I thought I would actually do. I then walked to visit with my parents, who are loving their retirement.

“Hey baby boy,” my mom greeted me as I walked in the door as she rushed to give me a hug and kiss on the cheek. I’m twenty-four years old and my mom still calls me her baby every time she sees me and hugs me like it’s been a year instead of a day.

“Hey mom, how are you? Where’s dad?”

“I’m good and your dad is away playing golf with Derek. So it gets him out from under my feet,” she laughed, shaking her head. She may joke about my dad getting under her feet and, to be fair, he usually does, but they would be lost without each other.

My mom then insisted on feeding me. She honestly thinks I would starve without her. I think she forgets I live in the pack house and eat there. While we were eating, I tried to think of a way to bring up Harlow’s curiosity, but my mother, as usual, brought it up first.

“Has your sister been asking questions about the witches?”

“Yes Mom, she brought it up this morning,”

“She was here this morning too, but now I don’t know where she is. Why all the curiosity suddenly? Did you tell Brett?”

“No, I haven’t mentioned it to him yet. I think she’s only curious because she was there the other night and had to put out the fire. Before that it was just stories she heard so never thought much about it,”

“Should I be worried she’s going to do something stupid?”

Laughter escaped a little mostly to calm my mother, but the thought of Harlow being reckless was a little funny. I think she was born middle-aged. “I’ll keep an extra eye on her, but I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,”

“Unlike that boy, she’s still dating,” mom said, raising an eyebrow. Turns out mothers really don’t miss anything. 

Soon after, I was called away to deal with a nearby back Alpha that wants the three closest packs to arrange a ball of some type for unmated wolves to help them find their mates. He’s really doing it so his eldest son can meet his mate as he is refusing to hand over the Alpha title until his son has a Luna to help him. My father handed me this position on my twenty-fourth birthday so I’m still learning the job and I haven’t met my mate yet but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking but I have a lot on my plate learning to be a good Alpha so haven’t been able to go looking. My mom keeps telling me that when the time is right, I’ll meet her, but I don’t know if she’s just trying to make me feel better. Brett found his mate six months after his eighteenth birthday. Turns out she was the girl next door and they are so sickly sweet together. If anyone deserves some happiness though it’s Brett, we’ve been best friends since we were babies, it was kind of destined though our mothers who are witches were best friends and grew up together and they found their mates were the Alpha and Beta of this pack so we had been together since the day we met and he really is like the brother I never had. Brett had a little sister who was killed when she was four in an attack orchestrated by the witches. Apparently, there was a prophecy about her and that’s why the witches attacked to stop it. I know little about the prophecy as my mom and Keira, Brett’s mom, kept it hush-hush after the attack and Brett and I were only eight at the time, so we remember little about what they said about it. I don’t even think Harlow knows as it was before she was born. That’s why my mom was so protective of Harlow. I think she’s scared the witches may try to come after Harlow. 

Brett met me in my office after lunch to go over some pack business when I told him about Harlow. I wanted him to be aware of her questions in case she asked him, and it brought back horrible memories. I remember Aunt Keira wouldn’t leave the house for months and would only allow my mother to see her. He didn’t seem worried and told me it was normal for her to be curious about the war and what had started it, but I should probably expect more questions as she digs in further. After seeing how worried my mom was about Harlow, even if it was her being overprotective, I asked one of my warriors to shadow Harlow for a few days and report back to me. Apparently, after speaking with me and mom, she then went to the library and has been camped out there all day. 

The next morning, I had breakfast in the pack house with Harlow before she left to go back to the library. I spent the rest of the day in meeting after meeting with Brett and the neighbouring alphas.

“I need a beer,” I said to Brett after we hung up with the last Alpha. 

“Come on, first round’s on me.” Brett headed for the door and I followed.

When we got to Angelo’s, the local bar, we waved to the server Cindy and slipped into our usual booth at the back of the bar. It’s almost out of sight, which is why we like it. Cindy quickly brought us two Budweiser then left to serve some other patrons.

“You ok, you’re awful quiet,” I asked when we were alone.

“Yeah, just Evie’s parents are on us to settle down and have kids. It’s driving Evie mad. We just don’t see the rush. We’re only twenty-four,”

“Yeah, I think if I met my mate tonight, my mom would want us to try for a baby tomorrow. Is Evie coming for a drink?”

“No, she’s still at the hospital.” Brett’s mate Evie works at the hospital in the human town, training to be a nurse.

Brett and I ate for a while in the sort of comfortable silence that you can only get with someone you’ve known for a long time.

“Alpha, Harlow has disappeared.” Mitch mind linked me. 

“What do you mean, she’s disappeared?”

“Like she vanished. One minute she’s near the edge of the protection spell, then poof she’s gone.”

“I’m on my way,” I snapped, closing the mind link.

“Harlow’s missing,” I told Brett, as I jumped up and headed for the door. I didn’t need to turn around to know Brett would be right behind me. He’s my ride or die and I’m his. We ran to the border and we’re met with half a dozen of the patrol, all looking worried and very confused.

“Alpha,” Mitch was the first to speak. “I discretely followed Harlow from the library to this location, where she was looking around as if she was waiting for someone and then she just vanished into thin air. I’ve checked with everyone that’s on border control tonight and no one has seen her. There is no way she could have gotten past.”

“So we’re thinking, spontaneous combustion?” Brett asked sarcastically. I could tell by the look on his face he wasn’t amused in the slightest. He obviously assumed that someone had screwed up and possibly left their post. “Has anyone tried to mind link her since she went missing?”

“Yes Beta, we tried, but she’s put up a wall. We were hoping Alpha could try.” Andrew said, knowing that as Alpha, I can break through anyone’s wall.

“I can’t get through,” I said. I couldn’t understand what was going on. “This has never happened before.” I started to worry something bad had happened. “You would feel if she was dead.” Caleb, my wolf, whispered to reassure me, although it helped a little. 

We quickly decided into pairs and searched everywhere Harlow would usually go. We came up with nothing and I was starting to worry and think I would have to contact my parents and let them know. I knew my mom would immediately panic, so I was trying not to do that, but as time went on, I knew I didn’t have a choice.

My parents arrived quickly and, as predicted, my mother was panicking and assuming that the witches had kidnapped her. Luckily, my dad was more level-headed because of his many years of being the Alpha of this very pack.

“What exactly happened? Tell me everything.” Asked my dad.

Mitch quietly stepped forward. “Sir, I was tasked with monitoring Harlow. She spent most of the day in the library, then at 9.25 she got up and left, heading for over here.” He pointed to the bush ten yards away. “Then poof, she was gone. I didn’t take my eyes off her, I swear.”

My dad nodded and went silent, then a light went on behind his eyes and he pivoted to face my mother. “Vanessa, remember when you and Keira used to sneak off the pack to go to that awful bar that Derek and I hated?”

“What?” my mother snapped, obviously not knowing where my father was going with this. “Yes I remember,”

“What was it you did to get out of the pack unnoticed?”

“You mean the cloaking spell?”

“Yes,” my dad nodded. “Did you teach Harlow?”

“Of course not, but she could have looked it up on her own,”

“Do it now.”

My mother nodded, waved her wrist the way I had seen her a thousand times before when she was doing a spell, then she was gone.

“That’s what happened with Harlow,” Mitch exclaimed.

“At least we know she wasn’t taken,” I said at the same time my mother said, “I’m going to kill her.”

“We will keep looking. Why don’t you go home, mom and I’ll let you know when we find her.”

“Not a chance,” my mom snapped while my dad shook his head, showing that he wasn’t going anywhere either.

We arranged for another walk around when my mom’s head snapped up. “Harlow, where the hell have you been?”

“I just went into town and I was sick of being followed.” She said, throwing me a glare.

My mom hugged her, then placed her hands on Harlow’s face for a few seconds. “Who were you with?”

“No one,” 

“Don’t lie, I can feel the magic of the cloaking spell and it isn’t yours, so I’ll ask one more time who were you with?”

“I don’t know her name. Someone who wants to know more about the war with the witches.”

“She’s one of them,” my dad practically screamed.

“Well, yes, but she’s not like them. She’s a hybrid like us and the witches have been lying to her about us starting the war and she wants to help us stop it.”

“And you believe that?” My mother scoffed. “There are things you don’t know about.” my mom stopped and glanced at Brett, her heart almost breaking before taking a deep breath. “Let’s go home. There are things you need to know.”

I watched my parents walk away with Harlow. I waited behind to thank everybody for searching for her before I followed them home.