His Mute Luna

Chapter 2 - The Tattoo

Morgan

I ran at the head of my team, my father's Gamma, Charles, just to my left and my team of ten warriors and five trackers, all in our wolf form.

As we approached the eastern border, Shane came into view. He was hardly inconspicuous in the dead of night. His chin-length, platinum hair almost glowed under the moon and his ghostly pale skin was subtly illuminated in near-invisible moving colours, similar to that of my white fur under the moonlight. His violet eyes swirled brightly, showing his adrenaline was pumping with readiness to hunt down these criminals. His incredibly tall, willowy figure stood on the forest's edge looking out onto the grasslands that lay ahead.

As we approached, he turned slightly to greet our party, his father's sandy coloured wolf instantly rubbing himself up against his son's side. The two were incredibly close as Shane was his only child.

'So, silver mines... this'll be a treat,' Shane mind-linked sarcastically.

He was right in his trepidations in this whole mission. Even though the mine had been disused for years, silver particles could still cling to the air, especially if wolves have to traipse in and out. And I had no clue how going down there would affect our mind-link, it could either be fine, scrambled, or be cut completely. We'd have to play this smart and with caution... a good thing my twin brothers weren't here, they had a tendency to jump into things without thinking.

'We just need to be careful and not stupid,' I replied.

With Shane picked up, we headed off, another 30 miles lying ahead of us. My Gamma didn't need a wolf to keep up with us, he could outpace anyone and, even at times, myself.

As we ran, my dad mind-linked me with an update, none of the assailants had been seen and the trackers hadn't picked up any scents around the abd*ction sites, so they'd been covered immediately. The description of the four missing women was a little more disturbing. All of them were in their early 20's, all were blonde and all had green-blue eyes...either there was a specific target that these people weren't sure about or they had specific criteria they wanted to take, like an order to fill.

That last thought was enough to have me seeing red, that if we were unsuccessful these women could very well be sold and never seen again.

We had to get them back!

'Morgan, this is sketchy as f**k. They knew their targets, they got across our borders undetected, all their victims sound identical and I don't know what the hell kind of scent cover they used was, but it's expensive. Nothing gets by my nose and it's pissing me off that I can't smell anything of them', Shane ranted in my mind, he wasn't one that liked failing and was always an overachiever at school.

'...You don't think they had inside help, do you?'

'I hope not...they could have been using the scent cover to gain access without us even knowing for who knows how long,' I replied.

Thinking through logically, we had just changed the patrol rota today, which is why I had put myself down for the graveyard shift at 3am. If this was an inside job, they probably would've given a heads up to these people. The fact that they'd knocked out the patrol at the eastern border suggested they weren't expecting their presence. These 'rogues' or whoever they were, had wanted an undetectable 'snatch and grab' operation.

I was now glad that I insisted on changing our rotas weekly, instead of monthly as my dad had been doing. It was more work but made us more unpredictable.

After running for a while longer, Shane mind-linked again.

'There's blood up ahead guys, I can smell it on the wind,' he announced to the group.

And he was right, faint, but growing stronger as we approached. From the strength, I could tell it was a lot...enough to be fatal, even for a strong wolf.

We were only a few miles off the mines where we found the male's body, a heavy s***h mark across his neck at his jugular. The s***h was thin and even, from a knife not a claw.

Sniffing around, there were scents of a second person's blood, another male, but not nearly enough to be severe. Maybe just a superficial wound.

It appeared one of the females had managed to fight off one of her attackers but not the other.

Both my wolf and I felt a surge of pride warm our chest that whoever she was had put up a hell of a fight.

I mind-linked my dad, feeling the strain of the connection because of the distance, telling him to send the backup to our location.

Shane searched the guy, going through all his pockets. He was dressed all in black, in utility style attire, practical with good mobility and a mask lying at the side of his head.

'This has to be one of the guys we're after, he's got a spray canister of that scent cover. It's empty, but this is definitely the stuff...and look at this,' Shane linked us all with his findings.

He showed a metal case, inside filled, neatly, with five needles; four filled, one empty.

As we had thought, the women were knocked out before being carried off. I could feel it within the pack bonds of my team, we were beyond outraged that these men would take our females like this. When these men were found...they would not be walking away. We were not a violent pack, at least not anymore, but we would make an example that no one took our pack members and got away with it.

'What do you make of this?' Charles mind-linked us, nudging the dead man's hand with his nose.

Shane turned it fully so we could all see, as he was the only one in human form. The man had an unusual but simple tattoo on the inside of his wrist, a black outline of an ellipse with a circle inside and a line passing across both, almost looking like an eye.

'It feels like a symbol, but I've never seen it before...could be some gang ID? These guys are far too organised with expensive gear to be rogues,' I responded and others seemed to agree.

The man himself looked large, strong, well-fed and groomed, not exactly the standard appearance for a rogue.

I updated my father once again for backup to pick up the body as there may be more we could learn from it.

We didn't have time to search anymore and, not wanting to waste another minute, we set out again for the mines.

The terrain had become increasingly craggy and rocky as we neared our location and through the thinning trees, we spotted the old entrance to the mine.

The outbuildings and entrance archway looked decrepit with disuse, but what was left of the old headframe marked the main vertical shaft. It was doubtful, if this was where they were hiding, they would have gone down that. There had to be a service tunnel or something.

Moving further round the side and downhill a little, we spotted the tracks leading to a small tunnel and a dark, lurking figure near the entrance. We had the right place.

'Shane, we'll head up and jump from above.'

Neither of us were discreet in our appearance, so sneaking would be tricky through the sparse trees next to the entrance, but we were the fastest.

'Try and incapacitate, but we'll kill if need be. I want you and your dad to stay out here with the trackers while me and the warriors move in. If all this goes to s**t, you seven are our last line of defence.'

They nodded and we moved into position, ready to pounce…

'Stop! There's movement coming out!' One of my trackers warned. 'Two, with some sort of big bag.'

Looks like they were off to pick up their dead comrade...damn, they'd smell us! It appeared things went to s**t before it even began.

'Move in!' I commanded.

Shane and I leapt down, both of us landing on the entrance guard. While he finished the guard with his knife, I grabbed one of the other two, bringing him down and snapping his neck. One of my warriors grabbed the other as he turned to run back to the tunnel with Charles moving quickly to end him.

We all stood in silence, listening to see if reinforcements were heading our way...nothing. Hopefully, we had ended them before they could mind-link. But unfortunately, now we were down four prisoners to interrogate with no idea how many lay waiting in that mine.

The tunnel looked tight. If we went down it in wolf form, we'd struggle to fight in a tight space. We would have to go in on two legs.

'We go as planned. Warriors shift, we need to do this in human form.'

As I mind-linked I shifted, already feeling my human skin covered in sweat from the night's exertion and having to push the damp auburn curls out of my face.

Shane removed his shirt and cut strips off, handing them to each of us.

"Here, don't know what the air's like down there. Might not offer much protection against silver in the air, but at least it's something."

"You too, Alpha," he gave me a pointed look, knowing I was about to refuse before the needs of my men.

'Resistance isn't immunity, Morgan. You're the best shot those girls have in being saved and you know it,' he pushed.

Being a white wolf, I could tolerate silver more than most wolves and it didn't affect my healing. And wolfsbane, although it stung like a b***h, didn't affect my connection to my wolf either.

I grabbed the makeshift mask from him and tied it around my face, covering my nose and mouth like the others.

'When we locate the women, we get them out as a priority. Shane, Charles, you don't wait for us; if we get them out, you get them to the pack ASAP,. Everyone understood?'

All nodded.

Taking a deep breath, we stepped into the dark abyss that lay ahead.