The Gamma's Dark Witch

23 - The Man at The Gate

(Nisha)

It wasn’t half as hard to leave that hollow place as I thought it would be. It was the longest place I remembered staying, and I got comfortable there. I was happy to be going back to Silver Moon Stone; it felt safe and secure everything that slipped away from me since the night I saw the small abandoned werewolf village.

(Cameron)

I couldn’t stop my mind from turning. It was going faster than I could keep up with. Flicking through everything that Nisha said and everything I saw from her sisters. I didn’t sense that she intended to withhold information from me.

She didn’t know the answers to things herself and seemed to be bubbling with questions that replaced the sense of assured confidence I saw in her during our first two interactions. Or maybe it was the mate bond that was attuning me to her real feelings under the steely confidence she wore like beautiful armor.

- - - -

Days went by, but there weren’t any other reports from where Nisha and her sisters last stayed. I told my men to stay far enough away, but no one returned to the cabin. Nisha was reserved. I started re-joining the others for dinner, not letting my mate keep me from my friends. When she joined us, if she did, she seemed elsewhere, and I picked up on her scattered emotions.

- - -

She joined us tonight for dinner. When she walked in, everyone else was sitting, and I sensed everyone's gaze flickering to mine. I could feel their apprehension, as if I would implode being in the same room as her. I couldn't wait until this was over and I could get back to my normal life without everyone feeling the need to walk on eggshells around me.

Once Nisha and I parted ways. For good. Everything would go back to normal.

“Someone is here to see me, a wolf from The Northern Campus,” Jackson stated, standing up. “Cam, Lucas?” he asked.

Lucas and I rose, following him out. I linked some warriors to stand near the dining room, but Jackson led us to the front door. “Why are we meeting him outside?” I asked.

“The guards said he looked a bit skittish. He requested we speak outside,” Jackson said. I glanced at Lucas, who just shrugged.

The man was older, and he wouldn’t stop shifting from foot to foot. He swallowed when he saw us, and I sensed his fear, but it was mixed with something else, apprehension? Resolve? Both.

“A-Alpha,” the man said, hanging his head in an awkward rendition of a bow.

“What is it?” Jackson said, some of his cool aura slid around us.

“I shouldn’t be telling you this, but I have to, I’m risking it, but I - I have to, I can’t turn on my own.” The man shook his head violently. “I didn’t want you to think that I was ever going to.”

“Get to it,” Jackson said, crossing his arms.

“There was a witch. She hired me, tried to... She wanted me to come here and collect information.”

“What information?” Jackson growled, his leash on his aura loosened at his ancient power enveloped us.

“Jax,” Lucas whispered, “not helping, man.”

I glanced at Jackson, and he gave me a short nod to cut in. “I’m that Gamma here,” I introduced myself, but I was sure he knew. “What information were you supposed to seek?”

“Security, the whereabouts of rooms and locations. I was supposed to ask to seek refuge, but I'm already a part of this pack." He seemed genuinely confused.

"Why did the witch seek you?" I demanded.

"She didn't. Not me, I guess, I just got unlucky. I ran into her, or she ran into me, or maybe she was waiting."

"You're really bad at storytelling," Lucas muttered under his breath.

I ignored him. "What else did she want you to find out? What specifics?"

"The nursery." The man swallowed, looking at his feet. Jackson's aura ripped out, and he growled loudly. "I didn't I wouldn't I swear. That's why I'm here to tell you. I just, I just left her. I'm here to tell you, I would never." His eyes were wide and misted over with fearful tears.

“How were you supposed to relay the information to her?” I asked.

“She said she would come back to where she found me in a week's time.”

“And where was that?” I asked.

“In between Silver Moon, er, The Northern Campus, and down here. I was coming to visit my sister and decided to take a run to let the old dog out and-”

“We don’t need the backstory,” Jackson growled.

I linked the patrol leads to be on alert. We didn't run patrols between the campuses, it would be too far and we still didn't have the numbers for it. But I didn't like that someone could essentially walk in between our territories and harass one of our own. A problem for another time, we didn't have the numbers, I reminded myself.

“What did she promise you?” I asked, “In exchange for your betrayal?”

“She promised me money.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

He nodded. “I never would have, but I didn’t want you to think I would, so I wanted to explain out here.”

“Money?” I asked again.

Wolves didn’t really need money being part of a pack. They could work, many did, but it usually wasn’t enough to lure us. We all lived comfortably enough, and money would not sway loyalties from our pack, from our brothers and sisters.

He nodded; he was still visibly shaken. “You were born in Silver Moon?” I asked, and he nodded again. That was the confirmation I needed. He would have lived most of his life thinking a cruel, incompetent leader was his Alpha; it made sense why he was so nervous telling us now.

“We aren’t going to punish you,” Lucas spoke up saying what I was thinking.

“What did the witch look like?” I asked. I didn't want to confirm what I knew. For some reason, I didn't want Nisha to feel that betrayal, to feel even more hurt and confused than she had been. It was hard on us too.

We have to protect our mate - Axel echoed my unspoken thoughts.

“Red hair, very pretty but a weird sort of power," the man said with a visible shudder. S.hit. Lucas and Jackson didn't seem shocked in the least, and I guess I wasn't either. But the confirmation did fill me with an uneasy dread for Nisha, not for me. Axel whined in my head.

“F.ucking redheads,” Luas muttered.

“Hey,” Jackson cut in.

“Isla is darker.” Lucas shrugged.

I flicked back through the information Nisha gave me. She knew that wolves were loyal to their packs. She mentioned that first night we met, the night that I still wished away, that she thought we were killing our own, not defending ourselves, and it sat bad with them.

Her coven, sisters, whatever, were loyal to their kind and thought it was the biggest atrocity to kill or betray their own. Nisha thought that applied to all species, and she learned most of her beliefs from Soleil-

It’s a trap.