The Alpha's Powerful Daughter

Chapter 7

Justin’s POV:

We have been all over the territory all day, and there hasn’t been any signs of Emily. Rebecca has been trying her hardest to be all up in my business and I honestly have had nothing further from my mind than s*x since the day we got back from Svetlana. I will never forgive myself for what I did when I first knew that Emily was my mate. I just needed a release and that will forever haunt me. When Emily admitted to me that she believed we were mates, I wanted to rip my past self apart for letting any other girl touch me. I wanted to burn my own skin to make it fresh for Emily. All those times that Hunter told me to wait until I met my mate and I told him to shove off. I should have listened.

I am not the only one that has had girls all over me today, though. Hunter can’t seem to get away from Avena and Vicky. Melissa is always one step behind the two of them, but eyes me like I’m candy to her. Rebecca has never been one to hang out with the twins, but she seems to have become best friends with them overnight. The way that they are acting is strange to me, almost as if they know that Emily is going to pop up at any given point and ruin what slim chance they think they have. Nevertheless, they have persistently chased us around while we search for Emily.

“Any luck?” Hunter asks, making me inhale sharply. We had agreed to meet back in the Alpha’s office a little over 30 minutes ago, but no one else was here so I must have zoned out enough to not even notice that he had entered the office.

“No. I couldn’t even pick up on her scent. I let Duke out for a while, too. Just to see if he could pick up on something I couldn’t.” I rub my face with my hands.

“Same.” Hunter shoves his hands into his pockets.

We stood there in silence for a minute. Hunter’s chemosignals are all over the place and I can’t figure out if he is more worried, angry, or upset about this whole situation.

The door opens and I jump to my feet with excitement, thinking it was Emily. Hunter and I both let out a sigh of disappointment as Alpha walks into the office.

“Didn’t realize that I was that disappointing.” Alpha said in response to the sighs we just gave him. He lets out a forced chuckle, and I try to do the same but it feels too wrong. Alpha takes a deep breath and walks over to his desk. “No one got any leads, I’m assuming?”

“Uhh, no sir.” I stand up straight and lock my hands behind my back.

“I see. I got nothing either. I’m trying to keep it on a need to know basis on who knows that she is missing. If anyone asks you, tell them that she went to visit her friends back in Arkansas.” Alpha looks between the two of us.

“Yes, sir.” Hunter stands tall beside me with his hands locked behind his back as well.

“The two of you look exhausted. Take it from me and get some sleep. I know that you don’t want to hear that, but staying up all night is going to do the opposite of helping Emily right now.” Alpha suggests.

I can’t help the guilt that I feel for letting this happen. She just started to talk to us again, and on the same day, she was taken from us. I should never have let her walk to her room last night alone.

“You’re right. I think we should break for now, try to get as much rest as we can. I know I didn’t get much sleep last night and I have not been thinking as clearly as I could all day.” Hunter says with a respectful tone.

“I agree. I got some sleep, but not much. Might as well try to rest.” I admit. I don’t want to sleep until Emily is back, safe and sound. But, Alpha is right. Lack of sleep won’t do anything but hinder our abilities to find her.

Hunter and I nod our heads to Alpha and head for the door. We walk out into the hallway and start to head towards the stairs.

“Hey, is it cool if I sleep in your room?” I ask Hunter as we reach the end of the stairs and turn towards our rooms.

He looks at me strangely for a moment and smiles. “Of course, dude. You’re always welcome to stay in my room.”

“Thanks. I just. I need to throw away that mattress. Too many memories that I want to leave behind me.” I shrug my shoulders.

“Gotcha. Yeah, you can crash on my couch.” Hunter grabs his door and opens it.

“Wait!” A female voice shouts from behind us. Hunter and I turn to look who it was and see Lynn in a dead sprint towards us.

“Lynn?” I ask, completely shocked that she is even up on this floor. Since she joined the pack, she hasn’t once gone past the second floor. Not really sure why.

“I have been looking everywhere for either of you.” She says as she gets closer to us. “Have either of you seen Emily?”

“Well…” I put my hand on the back of my neck.

“No, we haven’t. She is actually missing but… ” Hunter steps forward and starts to explain.

“Uhh.” I cut Hunter off and gave him a look but he just rolled his eyes at me.

“She has a right to know. She is her roommate and Aunt.” He says.

Lynn looks confused between us. “She is missing? Do we know anything?”

“Everything that we have done indicates to us that she is still somewhere within the territory. Other than that, we have no idea where she is.” Hunter explains.

“We spent a lot of today searching the grounds for any sort of clue as to where she is, but we don’t know anymore than we did this morning.” I add.

“Where is Elijah in all of this?” Lynn asks accusingly.

Hunter holds his hand out to calm Lynn down. “He is reading into things that can help us figure out if there is a way to break a cloaking spell. So far, he hasn’t come up with anything. He is actually the person that helped us to find that Emily was still somewhere within the territory.”

“I bet his mother has something to do with this. How can we even trust him? He’s a freaking vampire.” She throws her hands in the air.

“I can assure you, Lynn. I had nothing to do with this and neither did my mother.” Elijah pops up out of absolutely nowhere, startling Lynn.

“How can you be so sure of that?” Lynn aggressively asks Elijah as she folds her arms across her chest and sticks out her hip.

“Well, if you want to get technical, I can’t be sure of it. But, everything that I have done has shown that Emily is still here, we just don’t know where.” Elijah interlocks his fingers in front of his mouth and looks at the ground in front of Lynn. “Tell me, how is my mother? You have had the most recent contact with her, after all.” He smirks while shifting between his feet.

Lynn glares at him and I could tell she was about to explode on him. “I’ll have you know that your mother kidn*pped me when I was just a baby, keeping me from knowing who my parents were until I found out myself.”

“And I am sure that you never did anything for the council while you were a part of it.” Elijah stands and waits for Lynn to respond, but she just stands there with her fists in a ball. She lets out a long exhale and her face becomes more sorrowful. “That’s what I thought.”

“It’s not like you have a clean record either, the one who killed all the people that claimed to be True Alpha’s so your mother couldn’t have them.” Lynn hisses.

“I did, yes. I am not proud of it, but I did them a favor.”

“By killing them?!?” Lynn practically screams at him.

“Guys!” Hunter butts in. “Can we not do this in the hallway?”

Everyone takes a deep breath before nodding in agreement. Lynn still glares at Elijah but doesn’t say another word.

“We need to try and figure out things to find Emily. Elijah, did you find anything out we can use to undo the cloaking spell?” I step forward and ask.

“Unfortunately, no. There is nothing in any of the grimoires that I have about undoing such a complex cloaking spell.” Elijah says without making eye contact with anyone.

“But, you did find out more about the spell that was used to cloak her?”

“I did, yes.” He looks up at me. I lean forward, urging him to continue. “So, when someone is cloaked, they are typically cloaked as a specific thing. So, Emily has been cloaked as a True Alpha.”

“What is the significance of that?” Hunter sounds a little annoyed by the fact that Elijah is being cryptic about the spell.

“Well, if we use anything that belongs to Emily, we will not be able to locate her. Since she is cloaked as a True Alpha. If she were to become something other than just a True Alpha, or even lose her status as an Alpha, we would be able to track her if they use this specific spell.” Elijah seemed too pleased with himself for his discovery.

“And? How in the hell does that help us now?” Lynn looks Elijah up and down, clearly not amused.

“Oh, it doesn’t at the moment. In fact, I am not even sure that this knowledge will ever come in handy. But, I am sure that it will come in handy at some point with someone. Not entirely sure who that someone will be. But, good information to have, nonetheless.” Elijah claps and rubs his hands together.

“Well, I would like to know the next steps in getting my niece back. I just got her, I am not about to lose her just like that.” Lynn looks between Hunter and I with pleading eyes.

“Like I said, Lynn, we need to try and get rest while we attempt to find her. It doesn’t help anyone for us to try and figure this stuff out without being rested.” I say, fully aware that I will not be able to rest without knowing Emily is safe.

There was a long pause while we all kind of silently agreed. We all started to go our respective ways, and Hunter started to open his door.

“No. Eff that! I can’t even think about resting with Emily being taken. Last time she was missing, I went absolutely nuts trying to find her. I will do whatever it takes this time.” Hunter bursts out all of a sudden, turning around to face the rest of us.

“Hunter, think about this.” Elijah steps forward with his hand up.

“No, I listened to Alpha last time when she left to go who-knows-where. She was taken this time. And we don’t know who it was. There is no way that I will be able to rest, knowing that she is out there possibly alone. I can’t sit here and let time go by without at least trying to figure out a plan.” Hunter’s vein on his forehead starts to pop out.

“Hunter.” I say calmly and stand in front of him. “Listen to me.”

He turns his attention to me, and I can’t help but see the fists that have formed at his sides. “I know that you want her to be safe. Trust me. I want her to be safe too. But what good does it do to have the two of us absolutely exhausted when we go into whatever we have to go into to get her back.”

I watch as it dawns on him that we might have to fight whoever took her to get her back. The anger and frustration are slowly replaced with the worry from earlier. “I just… can’t sit back and let something happen to her.”

“No one thinks you are sitting back, Hunter. You are putting too much on yourself. We need to rest before jumping into trying to save Emily. Let’s get showered and go to bed. We will start thinking of a plan in the morning.” I turn to Elijah and Lynn to give them a thumbs up. They nod and head the opposite direction.

Hunter takes out his phone and starts texting someone as we walk further into his room. He throws his phone onto his bed and slumps onto it.

“Who’d you text?” I ask while I head to the closet to get stuff out for me to sleep on the couch.

“Dr. Putnam. I asked him to bring the strong stuff so we could actually get rest. Lord knows we won’t get any without medication.” He rubs his face while remaining on his bed.

“You know, he is going to be your step-dad real soon. You should start calling him Daniel.” I say, jokingly.

“Dan. He goes by Dan.” He sits up and laughs. I just shake my head and continue to put together my couch-bed.

“Do you think she’s okay?” Hunter asks softly.

“Hey, she’s a True Alpha. There isn’t a wolf or vampire alive that could seriously hurt our girl.”

Emily’s POV:

I have no idea how long I have been here, but it has to have been at least a day. It was really hot a while ago, but I have noticed that the walls have started to get cooler as time goes on. I have been sitting on the ground for so long that my butt is numb, trying to focus all of my energy on the floor to see if I can’t pick up on any vibrations from anything. I thought for a while that this might be Elijah with a training exercise, but he would have at least fed me. Whoever has me in this little room, they don’t care that much.

I haven’t felt anything at all since I have been here. No vibrations, no noises, no sign of anyone being out there for me. I have no idea where I am, no idea how to get out of here, and no idea how to tell anyone where I am. It’s kind of depressing. The only sign that I have that someone wants me in here is the fact that the vent beside the light is still emitting wolfsbane into the air.

Maybe there is a way out of here. If I figure out how to get to the vent, there has to be a way to at least get the word out that I am down here. I mean, what's the worst that could happen?