Alpha of the Dead

Chapter 22

(Siobhan’s P.O.V)

Tiernan and I made our way into the conference room, where my team along with Ty’s parents and brother, Drake’s parents, and mine along with Brian, sitting around the table. Preston was standing up, pacing at the head of the table. My eyes landed on a woman who I didn’t recognize. She’s tall, and has delicate features, with beautiful grey eyes, short brown hair, and a slim build. She was naturally beautiful, and I could tell she was Fae by her smell.

“Preston, will you stop pacing! You’re giving me a headache!” Artis says, rubbing her temple.

“Sorry, I’m just…I don’t even know…” He huffs out.

This isn’t like Preston; he’s always been extremely composed, even under the worst kind of pressure. The woman that was standing off to the side, comes up to him and places her hand on his shoulder. He immediately stops his pacing and the tension that was in his shoulders is finally gone.

She’s his mate.

What!? No way!

Bet!



“Preston, who is this?” Camilla asks, pointing to the woman.

“Oh! This is Julia, she was the keeper of the Royal Archives in Eferhile, and she’s my mate.” He says beaming.

We all congratulate him and give hugs all around.

“Okay, now that’s over, can you please share with us what you found?” I ask, anxiously.

“I was able to find records that held the ancient magic that I felt at the Johnson house, and I was correct. It’s eons-old dark magic, stemming from the Underworld or Annwn. This magic hasn’t been felt or seen since Scàthach, the Goddess of the Underworld, was banished to the Underworld with Arawn. In Celtic mythology, we have one God and one Goddess who oversees the Underworld; Arawn is a just ruler of his home and a skilled magician while he may be associated with dark intentions, his Annwn is considered to be an almost idyllic place for souls of the departed to rest. On the other side of the coin, we have Scàthach, She was once a celebrated shadow warrior and when she was given dominion over a portion of Annwn, she was the guide for the souls of the Lost. Arawn is the guide for the souls of the Pure and Innocent, and jealous of his powers, Scàthach began to feed off the souls of the Lost.”

Preston pauses to see if we are keeping up with the information he was giving us.

“Okay, so this magic is coming from Arawn?” Patrick asks.

“No, that’s the problem. Somehow, Scàthach was able to convince the spell caster God, Thoth, to bestow powers upon her. When she feeds off the souls of the Lost, her magic grows. When the Gods and Goddesses of the Celestial Realm found out what was happening, they banished her to her palace in Annwn.”

“Okay, so she’s the one kidnapping the children?” Tiernan’s brother, Jacob, asks.

“I believe so.”

“Why?” Brian asks.

“In one of the ancient texts, there’s a ritual that can be performed on the Blood Moon if there are 13 innocent AND pure people being sacrificed. What is more innocent and purer than children? She is planning to use these children as a sacrifice on the Blood Moon.”

There was silence around the room, everyone was stunned into silence, thinking about those poor children and their families.

“What is the ritual? What does it do?” My dad asks.

“That’s the difficult part, the scroll that had the information was so old and worn that there were spots where we couldn’t make out the text. It was also written in an ancient Fae language and only a portion of it was translated. It was enough for me to understand WHO was doing the kidnappings, but not the entire reason as to WHY it was happening.”

“So where do we go from here?” Tiernan’s father, Marshall, asks.

“I need to do more research about the Blood Moon and rituals that are associated with it.”

“The Blood Moon is in two weeks!” Drake’s mother, Carla, gasps.

“This is why I need access to as many ancient texts as I can possibly have.”

“You have free reign of our archives here, Preston. You don’t need my permission to be there,” Tiernan says.

“Thank you, Alpha. I will have the others request the ancient texts from the coven High Priestess, Winona. They’ll be seeing her tomorrow.” Preston responds.

“And when were you going to tell me about this?” Tiernan asks, looking at me.

“Well, we were supposed to go and see the High Priestess and the spell caster family at her coven two days ago, but they rescheduled because you were too busy f*****g my brains out,” I say, with absolutely no shame whatsoever.

Tiernan blushes, like full-blown blushes and I couldn’t help the feeling of smug satisfaction that I had caused him to get embarrassed. Everyone shifts uncomfortably around the table, obviously having not been prepared for my brashness. My team, however, was howling with laughter at the look on Tiernan’s face.

Patrick clears his throat and says, “Okay, so where else do you need us to get these texts from or will our archives and the ancient texts from the coven suffice?”

“Honestly? I won’t know until I look at them. I wouldn’t be opposed to reaching out to other shifter species, though I have a feeling that their history and ancient texts will be parallel with yours.” Preston says, after getting his laughter under control, wiping a stray tear from his eye.

“Okay, so we all have our marching orders. Siobhan, when are you and your team meeting with the High Priestess tomorrow?” Tiernan asks.

“I have no idea; you need to ask them,” I answer, pointing my finger at my team.

“We are going to meet her at 11, the coven is about an hour or so from here,” Anders says.

“Okay, I will pack an overnight bag and we will all go back to the suite. I will accompany you all to the coven.” He states.

“Um, no you aren’t. You can come back to the hotel, yes, but coming with us to the coven? No. We are handling this following standard protocol. You are a civilian, and you will stay out of it.” I say, firmly.

He lets out a low growl, showing he’s pissed.

“I don’t give a damn about protocol. We are obviously NOT dealing with FBI run-of-the-mill criminals here.” He says through clenched teeth.

“Doesn’t matter. We have to handle it as such because we will have to report all of this information back to headquarters.” I state.

“Siobhan, he can come. Don’t make a huge deal out of this, okay?” Artis states.

Fucking traitor.