The Gamma's Dark Witch

24 - Moonless Night

(Cam)

I turned on my heel and ran back towards the packhouse

Gamma - One of my warriors linked me

Do as I told you. Exactly.

(Nisha)

Something familiar tugged at me, and I excused myself from the table. I knew it must be that the night was settling in, and the darkness around me called to my darkness within.

I took a few steps outside, breathing in the warm summer night. The air around me stirred, and I was on my feet facing the dark tree line. It was Zephyr’s wind. I knew it in my bones.

Was she calling me home?

“What do you want?” I asked. “Where did you go to?”

The wind died down completely, and the feeling unsettled me.

“I’m safe,” I called again, “are you?” The wind didn’t come again.

A sheen of sweat covered me, I wasn’t sure if I was worried for my sister, for myself, or for the wolves, but something wasn’t right. I rushed back in, needing to find Cameron. I knew that he would fix it; he would make sense of it make it right.

I hurried past the open doors of the dining room, scanning for him but he still wasn’t back from the gate. I rushed to the large front doors, but they opened before I could get to them. Cameron came in, his eyes locked with mine. His gaze raked over my body, and his jaw ticked as if he was deciding something in that brief second.

He closed the distance, and his arm encircled my wrist gently. “The Alpha’s floor, I need you,” he said. Those words melted my paranoia.

I fought to keep up with him. Jackson and Lucas were following, but Jackson broke away from us before we reached the Alpha floor. Warriors crowded the hall, and Cameron pushed out his own brand of power, one I hadn’t felt from him since the first night. It broke through a wave of warriors. They parted, and Cameron grasped my hand and pulled me through.

I couldn’t see what was going on, but I trusted him. Completely.

Cameron stopped outside a door and listened. “Can you shield?” he asked me.

“Yes,” I replied. Shield from what?

“Be ready,” he whispered, “I promise I won’t hurt them. I just need you to protect yourself.”

I called to my power, and it burst through the surface, enveloping me. I pulled it close, willing it to wait, to take form. To protect.

Cameron nodded to two men flanking the door, and they opened it. He tugged me in, his large hand encircling my own and not dropping it.

The shatter of glass, fiery red, and a flash of light. I gasped and pushed myself in front of Cameron; a wall of shadows enveloped us. Then nothing.

(Cam)

I blinked back against the bright light. Nisha’s shadows swirled and then vanished, evaporating into thin air as she lay in a heap in front of me. The window was shattered, and iron bars stood in place of the glass, but besides Nisha and I, the room was completely empty. Completely still.

“Gamma.” A warrior stepped in.

“Not now,” I growled, coming to my senses. I turned Nisha over gently; her hair pooled around her, and her eyes were closed, but she was breathing.

I scooped her gently into my arms. I had to get her help. She saved me. I owed her.

“Half of you stay here; the other half join the team at the perimeter,” I commanded before linking Jim.

Jackson? I asked.

Everything is good here - He linked back - Thank you.

I’m taking Nisha to the hospital. She’s alive but unconscious.

I’ll handle it from here.

I held her body close, she was warm, or maybe that was the mating bond. Either way, she was alive.

Jim was waiting at the entrance to the clinic. His cool composure made me relax if just a bit. I would never live this down if I were the reason someone else was injured. I couldn’t let someone else protect me like that; it wasn’t in my nature.

“Gamma, this way.” Jim ushered us to an empty room, and I settled her onto the hospital bed. She dipped in it as if she were on a cloud.

She looks like a goddess - Alex purred

Stop it, she’s injured.

She’s okay. You know it too. You just deny the bond.

I couldn’t stand still, but pacing didn’t help. I wanted to link my warriors, but I didn’t want to leave the moment. Nothing made sense, everything was muddled, and I didn’t like not having something to do. Well, not something that I wanted to do.

“She will be okay,” Jim said, a promise in his voice. “Her vitals are fine, barely a scratch on her. I can do a scan-”

“Do a scan,” I commanded without meaning to.

“Yes, Gamma, one moment.” His eyes clouded over, and moments later, a few nurses came in to wheel her out of the room.

“You’ll have to stay here for a few minutes,” Jim said, stopping me at the door.

The room felt cold and lifeless without her here, a moonless night.

(Nisha)

My head was ringing. Muffled sounds started to form around me. A splitting headache and a soft, warm spark replaced the pain. I blinked my eyes open and was met with his.

His rich green eyes widened for a second, and the warmth I felt in my unconsciousness stopped abruptly. He leaned back and swallowed.

"You're alive," he stated more than asked.

"So are you," I noted, and something that might have been the beginning of a smile tugged at the corners of his lips. "What happened?"

He cleared his throat. "You shielded me, us."

"From what?" I tried to recall. I just sensed danger and threw up a shield. I didn't know if it would even work; it was on instinct more than anything tangible. Usually, it took me at least a few moments to set up a solid shield. "Did it work?" I asked another question.

"Yes." He nodded.

"What happened?" I asked again. "What was that?"

He shook his head, his sharp face slipping into the stoic look he usually wore. "I, I set up something like a trap, in case a ... hunch was correct."

"And what did you trap?"

His mouth formed a thin line, and his jaw ticked. "Nothing."

"What were you trying to trap?"

His gaze raked over mine. He paused and glanced at me as if he were trying to read me, and I felt that oftentimes he could.

"Do you remember when we talked in Jackson's office?" he asked, "with everyone there?"

I nodded slowly. That was only a few days ago.

"What do you remember about it?"

"Oh."

A Few Days Before

“I need you to tell me everything you told Soleil, everything, even small details.” Jackson paced, not bothering to look at me. I felt a cold power radiate through the room, it was beautiful and ancient, but it didn’t affect me.

“He’s not mad at you. He’s worried,” Isla explained, but her voice wavered and chin dipped.

I repeated every question Soleil asked when I returned from my solo scouting, protection mission, whatever it was. Cam cut in and asked me when she paused, where she looked, and the inflection in her voice when she was speaking.

I tried to remember, but I felt things getting fuzzier. The more I tried to remember the exact conversations, the more I felt that I was misremembering them. So many events had happened since then, so many things took a toll on my emotions, and that conversation wasn't as important as the other things I uncovered that any of us had yet to make sense of.

“I think that’s enough for today,” Isabella, Lucas’ mate, cut in, “we have the gist of what was asked and what Nisha shared. All the small details aren’t going to help."

“They will,” Cam said.

“They would,” Isabella corrected, “if she remembered them correctly.” Cam’s jaw ticked, and he shook his head but didn’t say anything else.

I noticed that Isabella seemed to get through to him when others couldn't. She seemed rational, his voice of reason, a good balance between his childhood friends and Isla, who usually was the peacemaker between them all.

"If you think of anything else, let me know," Cam said to me, looking exasperated. I nodded and went to leave. "Jackson, I need to speak with you." I heard him say as I shut the door behind me.

Present Day

"You think this has something to do with Soleil," I breathed, not quite believing it.

"I know it does."

I glared at him. "How?"

"From what you told me, from what Soleil knew, I made a few changes. We made a few changes," he said.

"Like?"

He assessed me again before deciding to trust me with the truth. "Such as moving the nursery and Isla and Jackson and stationing guards on the Alpha floor..."

"And?"

"And having iron bars added to the windows in case of a break-in." He shrugged. "Just things like that."

"And the iron bars?" I asked, and he said he didn't trap anything, anyone.

"Too late. They, she, didn't even make it inside. It was hard to make out, even on camera."

If it was hard to make out, how did he know it was Soleil? But even as I thought that, I knew what he claimed was true. Zephyr was there last night; tonight, I wasn't sure of the time. Soleil knew the position of the nursery and what floor they were on. But that didn't mean anything. They didn't know my sisters like I did. There was a reason; I just needed to find her to ask her.

Cameron looked me over in a way I couldn't decipher, I don't know what my face gave away, but I felt nothing. My emotions were fully frayed, and this last bit of confusing information just tipped the scales, and I felt nothing....