Alpha of the Dead

Chapter 32

(Anders’s P.O.V)

We pull up to the coven house of the High Priestess Winona and are greeted by a beautiful woman. Her hair is a beautiful chestnut brown, her eyes a beautiful shade of grey, and her body is long and lean, graceful. Artis, Preston, and I get out of the SUV as she comes down the stairs.

“Hello, I’m High Priestess Winona it’s a pleasure to meet you agents, and welcome to the Coven of Crystal Rose.” She says.

She reaches her hand out and shakes Artis and then Preston’s hand, when she reaches for mine, I feel like the world clicks into place. She smells fresh, like rain. Then it clicks in my brain…she’s my beloved.

“Mate.” She whispers.

I pull her into my chest and kiss the ever-loving s**t out of her, and she tastes like hot tea on a rainy day. I could spend hours kissing her. Her tongue dances with mine in perfect harmony, I feel her hands making their way from my hips, up my back, and up into my hair. She angles her head to deepen the kiss and lets out a soft moan, making my d**k hard. Suddenly, a throat clears behind her and we are snapped out of our moment.

“Well, that was a lovely greeting.” Artis snickers.

Winona’s face flushes pink, bringing out the freckles that are sprinkled across her nose and cheeks.

“I’m so sorry, Agent Salazar and Agent Thompson.” She says in a shy voice.

“No apologies necessary, High Priestess Winona. I recently found my mate in this investigation as well.” Preston chuckles.

“Well, if you’ll just follow me. The parents of Abigail are in the drawing-room, their names are Clive and Noelle Hanson.” She says, walking into the coven house.

We enter the drawing-room and see the couple sitting side by side on the couch and getting a good look at their faces, they look like they hadn’t slept since their daughter was taken.

“Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Hanson, I’m Agent Salazar and these are Agents Thompson and Smith.” Artis greets the couple, indicating to Preston and me.

“Hello, agents. Thank you for meeting with us.” Noelle says in a hollow voice.

“Yes, thank you,” Clive says, with a strained smile.

“What can you tell us about the day Abigail went missing?” Preston asks, sitting down on one of the chairs across from the Hanson’s.

Clive takes a deep breath and starts recounting the day Abigail disappeared.

“We were outside, and I was making bubbles with my magic that she could step inside and roll them around the yard while inside. She was laughing and having so much fun, the bubbles are her favorite.” He pauses, tears streaming down his face.

His wife gives a shuddering breath, and I knew the kidnapping portion of the story was coming.

“I went inside because I heard my familiar, Jasper, hissing and making a racket. He’s always calm and cool so something was inside the house that shouldn’t have been. So, I went inside and found Jasper, almost dead. Familiars don’t have their own magic; they are just our guides and can speak to us. When I found him, I wasn’t able to heal him, it was beyond my abilities which is rare. I called Noelle and she rushed home, I had gone out to the backyard to bring Abigail inside, but she was gone. I couldn’t sense her magic anywhere.”

Then the man breaks down, a desperate father wanting his little girl back, the sobs reaching into my heart and practically pulling it out of my chest. It was gut-wrenching watching this man sob over his little girl.

“Can you tell us what happened after that?” Artis asks, softly.

“We called our neighbors and High Priestess Winona, we were able to get Jasper healed but when we did, it was like a tongue-tying spell had been cast upon him. That’s very high-level magic, you can’t touch another spell casters familiar. When we went into the backyard it felt…evil. Like the magic there was evil. I hope that makes sense.” Noelle says, taking over for her husband as he sobbed into her lap.

“We couldn’t place this magic; it wasn’t something any of us have ever encountered and looking in our archives we found nothing mentioning this type of magic,” Winona says, holding my hand.

“Thank you, Mr. and Mrs. Hanson, for your cooperation and I’m so sorry to have to ask those questions with everything you are going through. You can go home now; we’re done for the day.” Preston says, giving Mrs. Hanson’s shoulder a slight squeeze.

Once they left, Winona took us into her office, where she sat behind her desk, and we sat on the couch facing it.

“So, what do you know?” She asks.

“Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t share any of our findings in this investigation, but since these aren’t normal circumstances,” I explain.

So, we tell her. We tell her about Scàthach, Tiernan’s information from Arawn, the plan to storm Annwn and rescue the children, our limited timeline in which to kill Scàthach, and the Blood Moon ritual. She’s quiet, and I know that the question that’s rolling around in her head is how we were able to find out this information.

“How did you find out about all of this?”

“Well, I went to the Royal Archives of Eferhile in the Lunar Kingdom, King Bayard had some ancient texts that panned out to be the Blood Moon ritual. They were old and worn so some of the translations were difficult if not impossible to read.” Preston says, skirting around Tiernan’s relationship with Arawn.

“And this portal? How did you convince the Celestials to make one?” She asks.

We all look at one another, we had never been explicitly told not to tell anyone and if we were going to get help from her and her coven, we needed to be transparent.

“Tiernan’s grandfather is Arawn, Arawn came to the Human Realm before taking his seat on the throne of Annwn and found his mate. When he was called back to Annwn, he left his mate to find her a second chance, he didn’t want to take her life in the Human Realm away. He can call Tiernan and his father, Marshall, down to him whenever he needs to speak with them.”

She blanches, eyes wide.

“So, Hallowed Manes Pack, literally has demigods walking around!?” She shrieks, probably recounting every interaction she may have had with Marshall and Tiernan.

“Yes, but it only passes to the first-born son of the line. The other children know who their grandfather is, but they aren’t gifted with Celestial magic or anything like that.” Preston says.

“Holy Mother of the Goddess.” She says, slumping back in her chair.