The Secrets of the Panther

BLAKE

I walk toward the office, and Axel stirs in my head. He has a stupid grin on his face but saying that, so did I when I woke up this morning.

Axel looks through my eyes and pouts. “Where’s mate? I want to see her.”

I smirk. “Not our fault that you were asleep, but you made her sore this morning.” He grins. “I fucked her good,” he says. I laughed. “Yeah, you did. You left some questioning marks on her, though, and I had to apologize on your behalf, too,” I say. I walk to the door of the office.

I place my hand on the door handle, but Axel stops me. “I don’t know what came over Puna and me. I thought it was their power, but they placed it in the amulet.”

I stare at the door handle; that’s right. We can’t blame what happened to us on Izzy’s power. She wanted to store them and wanted to have a break.

“What do you think happened?” I asked.

Axel stares at me momentarily. “the only way to explain it was a pull to her. I needed to mate with Puna, and I had to do it right then.” That sounds more like magic than anything, but what the hell?

Suddenly the door opened, and there stood Dale, who had a stupid grin on his face. “Alpha,” he says.

I nodded and walked in.

We usually speak like ordinary people by calling each other by actual names, but when we were professional, he called me alpha. So, I knew we weren’t alone in the office when he called me that.

Dale stared at me; he must have realized I was thinking the same thing. He opens a mind link to me. “Tilly is on the phone with your father, and he has her on loudspeaker. She has another person with her, and they go to help Alpha Dawson and Drake with the pack. You just in time to hear about it.”

I say nothing but nod at him as I walk into the office.

I stare at my father, who looks up and smiles at me. “Ah, Blake, just in time,” he says. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ FɪndNøvel.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

“Morning everyone,” I say.

“Blake,” Tilly says through the phone. “I’m so happy to hear that you are here in the office. Like I told your father, I had a phone call from Alpha Dawson and Drake to come to their pack to help with something; we were shocked at what we discovered when we got there.”

I glanced at my father; what the hell was she talking about?

My father stares at me but opens a mind link to me. “It’s bad, Blake. I only just now found out what has been going on; due to all the commotion of the war and the information before that, I never knew,” he says. His face held a lot of emotion. Something had happened, and it didn’t sound good.

“Tilly, what are you on about?” I asked as I sat in the chair in front of the desk.

Tilly was quiet for a moment but sighed through the phone. “Blake, Drake never knew where the vampires were getting their food supply. He found out when he got to the pack with Alpha Dawson. Elder Johnson was sending unwilling pack members who wanted nothing to do with the witch and vampires; they were killing them,” she says. I stare at the phone in shock, but what does that have to do with… something clicks. “Tilly, have any members from our pack been missing?”

Tilly takes a deep breath in and out before she answers me. “It looks that way,” she said. “A few discovered bodies were not members of Drake’s pack. But there were more, but most were humans, and there was another handful of wolves, young ones.”

I couldn’t help but growl.

I turned to my father. “How didn’t we know about the missing wolves? or more like, how didn’t I know?” I asked him.

My father was riddled with guilt. “I was up all night trying to find out what pack members were missing, and I discovered only a few. Well, mainly ten pack members have gone missing, but I can’t be certain. I need to keep looking into it.”

I stare at him in shock. “How did no one know or even tell us? They must have had families missing them,” I say to him.

My father stares at me for a moment, but he sighs. “That’s the thing. Elder Johnson asked for a pack member’s history a few weeks back. People who were living in the pack. I thought nothing about it. The history is all about the pack members, everything from who had family and who hasn’t,” he says. “It looks like they were taking the ones with no families left. Elder Johnson knew who was without families, as he had prior knowledge of everyone’s circumstances, including those who had no one. I never placed it together as most members we have without families are the ones who lost their mates, or people they cared about were killed in rogue attacks over the years.”

I stare back at him in bewilderment. How could an Elder do such a thing? I look at the phone. “Tilly, how did Drake not know about all this?” I asked.

Tilly sighs. “I asked him the same question, and he was torn up. He never knew they were doing anything like this to his pack. He was always made to find people who would join their cause. Elder Johnson took over his pack as they deemed him unfit, which is the document I have in front of me. Drake was shocked at it as his signature is on it, but he can’t remember signing anything like that,” she says.

“They spelled me,” blurts Drake through the phone.

The realization of what had happened to him. He never knew about Anya being alive. They must have done more damage to him than we all realized.

“Blake,” he says. “I don’t deserve to be their alpha.”

I stared at the phone and could tell my cousin was hurting and in pain. He loved his pack as much as I did when we were younger.

“I never thought a man would be so cruel in his efforts to control,” says Alpha Dawson.

“How many members of the pack are left?” I asked, feeling slightly nauseous.

“There are a few. The pack was over a thousand large, but now it is merely four hundred,” says Alpha Dawson. “Many members even were forced to do the Elder Johnson’s bidding or were too scared to say anything, just in case they would be gone like the rest. The members that stayed didn’t have a choice in the vampires being there. Many left during the nights, but when Elder Johnson realized that some had left, he turned to the human villages, but there were reports of missing people. We discovered that the vampires killed over twenty humans in five locations. They kept some for days before they died.”

Axel was pacing in my head, but I looked back at him. His eyes were full of emotion. “We need to help them,” he said with a low growl.

I look at him. Nothing ever gets to Axel, but knowing they were taking innocent lives would make it hard to bear, as I felt the same.

“Blake,” calls Tilly, who pulls me back from my wolf. “We need action to ensure nothing like this happens again.”

I stare at the phone momentarily, but an idea comes into my head.

“Tilly, since you are the new Elder of the Elder pack, can you make sure there is no Elder in that pack,” I ask her.

“What do you mean?” she asks, confused.

“I mean, only you will go there, no other Elder. I think we place just you there, the leader of the elder pack. The pack has been through enough at the hands of Elder Johnson. They might come around,” I said to her.

“That makes sense,” she says. “Pack members were shocked to see me, but I think I can develop a few ways to help them. And Blake, this pack is under my protection and guidance too.”

I smiled.

Tilly has been on our side from the start, and I know the Red Moon pack will be in the right hands.

“Alpha Dawson and Drake, monitor the pack members,” I say. “I will come and visit you. I want to see what the three of you have come up with. Let me know what you need, and I will send help.”

“Okay,” says Alpha Dawson.

Drake was quiet for a moment but sighed down the phone. “I feel like a failure. I promised myself I would never be my father. And look what happened. I believed a madman’s beliefs and actions have consequences, and my pack has suffered for it,” he says.

I stare at the phone. “Drake, everything you went through was at the hands of a witch and vampire. You had no control over what was going on,” I say to him. “Your pack will learn to forgive you, but you must be open with them. Tell them everything that you went through. Everything from the spells to the heartache of thinking that your mate was dead. They need to know.”

“How am I going to get more pack members in? When I came here with Alpha Dawson, I had to leave as they wanted my head. I had to come here when it was lights out, when everyone was asleep, and no one was around. The place is not what it used to be. The stench of death and betrayal lingers in the air.”

I cut him off with a low growl.

“I’m coming to your pack today,” I tell him. “Alpha Dawson will announce a meeting and tell the pack members I will be there, and Drake, we will do this together.”

Drake was quiet, but an inaudible sigh slipped through. “Okay,” he says. “Blake, I don’t deserve your kindness, but I’m eternally grateful for everything you do for me.”

“I know, but Drake, we were once brothers, and we will be again,” I say to him as I look toward my father. “I want to help you. I know there is some good in you, and I want to make sure you have a second chance at happiness. But Drake, if you don’t show willingness or change, I will take Red Moon from you, even by force. I will help, but you need to do the work.”

Drake sighs. “I know. And I will,” he says. “When will you be here?”

“I will leave shortly,” I say to him. “I have to deal with something first.”

We all said our goodbyes, and we hung up the phone.