Spirit Wolves : A New Path (Book 2)

7. Another Piece to the Puzzle

**Nate**

With all of the potential advancements that happened yesterday, I was over the moon excited!  For the rest of the day after they left, my mind was reeling at all the new information and what to do with it.  So much so that I had to resort to asking Aurora and Aria to put a small sleeping spell on me after tossing and turning so much that I was keeping everyone else awake in our tent.  With barely sleeping the night before, I thought it was best before someone seriously lost their s**t on me.  They were short fused just as much as I was from fatigue, but it’s much, much worse when your mind just won’t shut off.  It’s almost like your body was in slumber and your mind was like a toddler ready to play.  Honestly, you start to get to the point where you are angry with your brain for not shutting the hell up. Considering they contemplated hitting me over the head with a cast iron pan a few times, they were more than happy to put me out of my misery (one way or another) and thankfully the sleeping spell worked.

I woke this morning feeling refreshed, with a new outlook on everything.  I made a coffee and made my way to a small lookout near our camp to enjoy it.  On the walk, I realized that the Alpha’s from the other packs might be right about having the Alpha’s at the meeting, that was a hard pill to swallow, but if it is what is needed, then it is what it is.  Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?  Maybe after everything is established, it would be opened up so that they can appoint someone to stand in their place if they could not attend?  That way their voice would still be heard by someone of their choosing….Turns out that as soon as I opened my eyes, my mind jumped right back to where it was last night without skipping a beat.  

I jotted a few notes down on a pad of paper while I sipped on my morning coffee and enjoyed a very nice sunrise when that feeling of being watched started to take shape again.  Knowing that I am no longer exhausted and not losing my mind since Aria and Aurora felt it the other day as well, I linked them immediately.

‘Aria, Aurora.  I need you, but from where you are.  Please do not come to me, but I think there is someone watching me again.  Can you please look into it again and see if there is anything you can do to track it down or something?’

They agreed right away and I could feel them working away through our bond.  I went back to writing down my ideas but was disturbed through the link.

‘Alpha, you have visitors.  It appears they did not wish to wait until after breakfast.’ Luca linked me

‘I’m on my way, invite them into camp.  I will be there shortly.’ I replied as I finished jotting down one last thought, packed up and headed back.  Everyone knew that I liked my sunrises and sets by myself at this point, and I knew that Luca would have already tried to stall them knowing this, so they must have something important to say.

As I approached camp, that feeling got stronger but was too consumed with our guests to pay too much attention to it.  It would have to wait until after they left because this would need my full, undivided attention.  I greeted them as I walked onto camp and walked straight over to the fire where the boiled water was and offered them coffee.  At first they looked shocked at how we had been roughing it, but soon realized that because of all of our travelling, we had no choice but to only go with the necessities.  I wasn’t about to tell them that most of the pack had lived in the bush for over 20 years and preferred to be in wolf form, then they would really be looking at us like we had 2 heads.  Some things are just left better unsaid….

I walked over to the table that they were at and was surprised that they came alone, well somewhat.  They all had left their Beta’s behind (or close by) and I was so consumed with my thoughts, the excitement of meeting with them with the promise of my vision becoming reality and the little problem that Aria and Aurora were looking into that I failed to not only see, but smell a fifth person.  At first, the hair on the back of my neck stood on edge as I sat my eyes on this intruder to our space, until Alpha Hunter Spoke before I was able to let out a growl.

“We apologize for the surprise, and….bringing a guest into your camp, but we were invited in.  We had planned to meet you in the park again.  You see,  after we left here yesterday we spent all day in discussions and decided to reach out to a couple of covens that we work with from time to time.  It is not often but sometimes we do come across some unusual circumstances where we need to use each other's special abilities.  They returned our call with information of their own.  Alpha Nate, I would like you to meet Sky.  She is from a nearby coven and we think that she may be of great help to us.”  He explained and introduced us.

Sky was an average, slender woman who looked to be in her mid 20’s.  She had soft features and long blond hair that had a fair amount of body to it.  She stood up and as she walked towards me to shake my hand, I couldn’t help but notice that she wasn’t really walking at all.  I mean, her feet and legs were doing the motions, but I don’t think the bottoms of her soles touched the ground at all!   I could feel power coming off of her and I knew right away that she was a fairly powerful witch. I swear she was hovering!  I could only imagine the amount of training and concentration to maintain something like that.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Alpha Nate, your reputation precedes you.”  Sky greeted me as she extended her hand, which I took and returned her greeting.

“Welcome Sky.  It’s a pleasure to meet you as well.  I hope you didn’t have to travel far.” I replied as I shook her hand.  The moment our hands touched, the amulet began to heat up in my pocket.  I chose not to wear it around my neck because if I used my powers, it tended to glow and I didn’t want to give anyone any more reason to be afraid or hate us.  But this was the first time it had reacted like that.

She smiled a warm and welcoming smile before commenting “Our coven is just outside Seattle, but I am an air witch, so it doesn’t take me long to get here.  Besides, it’s a good thing I did.  You were right Alpha Hunter.  This is where I need to be.”  

“Oh?  Do tell…?”  I replied as I took my seat at the table.

“Well, I know you have connections with Whispering Winds Coven.  They have been contacting all of the covens and explaining what we are up against.  I am an air witch and have been training really hard to hone in my skills as you could see me hovering a few moments ago.    I didn’t know about any of this until a few days ago when I was called into a coven meeting.  They explained that they had an amulet that belonged to my great, great, great (keep going for a while) grandmother or something like that.  My Uncle told me that only the elders knew about it and it was left with explicit instructions that it should never be used unless it was to save us.  By what Whispering Winds was saying, my elders believed that this meant it was time for one of us to stand up for our coven...or something like that. 

When Alpha Hunter called yesterday afternoon, they sent me here with an invitation for you and your pack.  They asked that you accept their invitation as they feel they have some information that may help you and that the covens have been forming as one unit in preparations.” Sky answered and then pulled something out from under her shirt.  

When I saw it, I was thrown!  I leaned in to have a closer look, as did everyone at the table.  But while they were looking at a glowing trinket, I was admiring everything about it and couldn’t help but notice the similarities to mine.  The chain was similar, the pendent had five intricate shapes of triangles and lines and 1 circle with lines around the outside of it with a cloud white stone set in the middle.  No one could take their eyes off it as the stone seemed to be pulsing light in a steady pattern.  I couldn’t help but see the similarities between hers and mine.

“Oh, wow!  I was given an amulet like that too, but mine was passed down from my parents.”  I began as I reached into my pocket and pulled it out.  It was still glowing and pulsing bright blue just like hers and seemed to be on the same pattern!  I placed mine right beside hers and sure enough, the pulses were in sync.  Wonder and curiosity crossed everyone's face, except for Sky’s.  Her face looked more like confirmation of something.

“Yes!!! They were right!”  She exclaimed

“Pardon?  Right?  About what?”  Alpha Hunter asked bewildered as this part was news to him as well.

“They told me that my pendant will glow when I draw power from it and it will pulse when it is near it’s mates.”  Sky explained as I was taking a sip of my coffee.

I nearly choked on it because of what she said.  My necklace has mates???  How the hell did my necklace find it’s make and I have yet to?  We have been to most of the packs now and I had been a little discouraged not to find mine yet and here, my freaking necklace found its mate?!?!  Un-freaking-believable!   My necklace does not pulse around Luca’s..I pondered.  Apparently I wasn’t the only one that thought what she said was a little off the wall because they all looked at her like she had a few screws loose.  I tossed the idea to bring in Aurora, Aria and Luca back, but something just wasn’t sitting right as though something inside me was telling me that it wasn’t safe to do so.  I mean, I wasn’t getting any weird vibes from anyone here, but I stuck with my gut and kept my mouth shut-for now.

“No,” she began through a laugh.  “These pendants were created with a lot of power and magic at the same time.  The Elders can explain it better than I can when you come.”  She answered.

“What do you all think?”  I asked the other Alphas.

“We came to the agreement last night that if you are willing each pack to choose their own person, even if it is the Alpha then we will join and we will even play nice with the witches as we have some experience with that too.  We will even reach out to other packs that we are friendly with and convince them to join for that sake of our races.”  Alpha Marcus replied and I had to agree that it was a fair proposal.  To insist that a certain member must be on the council was a little foolish, but I did like the idea for what it was.

“Yes, you will find that it will most likely be only Alpha’s and Coven Leaders that attend, but if you have a set of rules in a blood oath before they enter the building for talks, then that would be the best way to get everyone to behave.  There is no stronger oath than a blood oath.”  Alpha Abe commented

I thought about what everyone was saying and if this was true and everyone was willing to work towards the same thing, then I felt like this invitation was something that should be extended.  Why should only our pack be the ones invited?  I didn’t want to keep secrets when it came to this stuff as that would only cause tension.  I turned back to Sky and answered as best I could without trying to offend her.

“Can you contact your coven and say that we accept their invitation on one condition?  The invitation is extended to all Alpha’s here.  It would be their choice to attend or not, but in the spirit of sharing and not hiding anything, I think that is the proper thing to do considering we are trying to build on something here.”  I was met with thanks and appreciation by the other four as they not only realized that I was thinking of everyone, but wanted no secrets.  Hell, this would never work if there was lies, deceit or sneaky behaviours.

“I sure can.”  Sky replied as she pulled her phone out and stepped away from the table to make a call.

Alpha Dorian turned to me with this puzzled look on his face

“Whatt?”  I asked, waiting for a snide remark to come from him

“Oh, nothing.  I just realized that I was completely wrong about you.  I still had my doubts, but I know that you only want what’s best for all of us.  I am not wrong often, but when I am, I can at least admit it.”  Alpha Dorian commented which caught me completely off guard and made me wonder if that big tough hard ass was only a front and realistically, he was a fairly level headed man.

Sky returned announcing that our counter offer was accepted and that we were welcome to come the day after tomorrow.  She thanked all of us before stepping back from the table, I watched as her eyes clouded over so they were pure white.  The wind picked up blowing her hair all around and in a flash, she soared up into the sky and was gone.  I just stood there, wondering if I was now still dreaming because what I just saw could not be real!  I looked back to the others and they began laughing their asses off at me!  

“We….We…” Alpha Abe tried to speak, but couldn’t form words because he was laughing too hard.  Alpha Hunter collected himself and finally filled me in.

“The look on your face was priceless!  We were the same when we first saw her do it too!”

“Well, that’s one way to save money on flights!”  I finally managed to say before we all started laughing again.  All in all though, this was the best day yet!  Not only did we manage to merge another 4 packs, but the first coven too!  I was anxious to get back and tell the rest and also plan the trip out to Seattle.  As the other Alpha’s stood up, I spoke to them in thanks.

“Thank you for doing this even though you didn’t have to.  We appreciate it and please, let me know if any of you would like to join us on the drive to Seattle.”

“Considering what we are up against, it’s the least we could do.  Chances are that one or two of us will join you, but is it not a good idea for all 4 Alpha’s to leave at the same time.  We will decide that and get back to you.  Enjoy the rest of your day.”  Alpha Abe replied as he shook my hand, followed by the others and I watched them leave through the park again.