Hiding from the Beta

Chapter thirteen

Tahlia’s pov

“I think we should stay, at least for a while.” I said to Daphne.

She huffed, “we may not have a choice. We have magic and it will only grow stronger. We will need Doris’ help to keep it in check.”

The sky was now dark and the only light we could see was from the other buildings and the bonfire. I sighed and leaned back into the dark green camping chair. I wrapped the sweatshirt tighter around me. “What are you thinking about over there?” I looked up at the sound of CJ’s voice.

“Oh, um, just the thing Jameson offered.” I told him.

Doris tilted her head and asked, “what did he offer?”

“He offered me a place to stay, he really wanted me to join that pack. But I don’t think I am quite ready for that just yet.” I told her.

“Well it wouldn’t be a bad idea, you would get the protection you need to get through the bond and your new found powers.” She said.

“Those new found powers are already coming in handy.” CJ added with a smirk. “Can you light another one of those pieces of wood?” I chuckled and reached over the arm of the chair and grabbed another log. I held it in my hand and imagined it being on fire. Instantly flames erupted all over it. I tossed it on top of the fire and leaned back again.

Doris took a sip of her beer and leaned back, “you know there are only two family lines that have that power.” She said softly.

“Really? Fire isn’t a common thing?” I asked.

She shook her head, “no, I can start a fire with an incantation. You just touch it and it starts on fire. That is a rare gift, but a dangerous gift for someone just learning how to use it. That will be the first gift we need to master.”

“Which family does the fire gift come from?”

“There are two, the first one is the Riverstone family. Their bloodline goes back centuries, and they could be royalty, but they’re not. The other family has that title. The Purpuralapis family history goes back to medieval times.” She took another swig of her beer. “They were technically the royalty of the witches and warlocks.”

I looked at her confused, “they were?”

“Yeah, roughly twenty years ago the entire family fell off the grid. Before they did they were basically in charge of making sure our most sacred laws were being followed. If they weren’t it was up to them to deal with the trial and carry out the sentence.”

“I never knew there was royalty.” I looked at the fire then back at her after a few minutes, “do wolves have royalty?” I asked, seriously.

She chuckled, “no, not technically anyways. Wolves decided a long time ago that they would separate into packs and each would lead their own.”

“So basically each pack is like their own little country?” CJ asked.

“Basically, I don’t know how else to describe it.” She said, I nodded my head and leaned back when something she said made a gear start to turn in my mind.

“Doris, how long ago did they fall off the grid?”

“Roughly twenty years, why?” She asked.

I shook my head, “no reason.” I told her.

“Do you think that is a coincidence?” I asked Daphne.

She sighed, “I don’t know, it could be. Either one of those families could be our’s biologically.”

“True, I just keep thinking about something my mother said a few years ago. I didn’t understand it then and it made no sense.” I told Daphne.

“You mean the time she had said something about our aunt?” She asked.

“Yeah, but I thought mom was talking about Aunt Pam, our uncle's mate.” I told her.

“We should have known something was up, Aunt Pam hate’s purple. Mom had said that we loved purple just as much as our aunt. Then she got weird, do you think she knows?” She asked.

“I do think so, I think she knows our aunt and she kept us from her.” I said angrily and stood up abruptly.

“Whoa, you okay?” Doris asked.

“Do you have a phone or a computer I could use?” I asked.

“Um, yeah you can use either one, the computer is in the kitchen and there is a landline on the desk in the office.”

“Thanks.” I turned and walked into the darkness towards the office door.

Apollo’s pov

I sighed when my phone suddenly dinged in my pocket. I looked at it confused, I had a new email from someone I didn’t recognize. I opened it and saw a note that said:

Apollo get you and mom on the computer, away from dad. Be on this chatroom in ten minutes. -BS

My heart leapt when I saw the BS, that was her, it was actually her. She started to sign her emails to me like that, she always had to remind me that she was the big sister. “Mom, get in here now!” I shouted.

I heard her feet and clicked into the link for a chatroom. I opened it and sent a message, that said: Here what do you need?

“Apollo, what’s going on?” She asked.

I looked up at her with a big smile, “Tahlia emailed me, she wants us to be in this chatroom.”

Mom was about to say something but the screen lit up, she was video calling us. I clicked the answer button and her face filled the screen. She was very pale and looked like she had already lost weight.

Mom instantly started to cry as I started to grill Tahlia, “what the hell were you thinking?”

She narrowed her eyes at me, normally that would freak me out, but it just made me feel bad. I could see in her eyes that her sparkle was gone. “Don’t yell at me, why didn’t you tell me that, that man wasn’t my father?” She asked, as she turned her attention back to our mother.

Her jaw dropped, “I swore to him that I wouldn’t.” She said, her voice was low.

“You know something that I need to know, I am angry with you and that is all I want..”

“What do you need to know?” She asked with a heavy sigh.

“I need to know who my father was and who my aunt is. You made a comment a while back about me liking purple just like my aunt, but aunt Pam hates purple.” She said.

I turned to look at my mother, I could see the tears and sweat mingling on her face. “I don’t know if I should tell you.” She said soflty.

“Well I need to know, I am starting to show power. I know that my father must have been half warlock otherwise this wouldn’t be happening. So please just tell me what the f**k is happening.” I looked at Tahlia, tears were now streaming down her face.

My mother sighed, “your father was born to a female wolf and a male warlock. The family of the warlocks’ name was Purpuralapis. He was a King; the wolf was a fling he had after his wife had passed on. The King never rejected him but allowed him to stay here with his biological mother. He preferred the way of the wolves over the way of the magical.”

I looked at Tahlia, shocked by this news. “She is part witch? She is royal?”

Tahlia looked as shocked as I was, “I don’t know what to do?” She said.

Mom quickly jumped on that, “you stay where you are. You don’t leave there, you keep yourself hidden. You protect yourself, do not let that man anywhere near you.”

“The alpha of Night shadows offered me a house just outside of the territory.”

Mom nodded her head, “you take it. You hide and keep hidden, once we find him then you will be able to come home.”

“I love you guys.”

“We love you too.” My mom answered back.

“Tahlia, wait, I don’t want to ask but we may need you to testify against Father.” I told her.

She sighed, “just find him, then we can talk about that.” The screen went black and I turned to my mother.

“What do we do now?” I asked.

“We hunt down your father. Dig through his stuff, see if we can figure out where he is going. I have to call someone.” She turned and stormed from the office.

I leaned back in the chair and sat up surprised by the ding on the computer. I looked at my screen and saw nothing new. I clicked into my email and there wasn’t anything. It dinged again and I looked to my left, his computer was linked to his phone. I opened it quickly and pulled up the email.

Cloud backup, sent from mobile device.

-Anthony, once you finish going over that map you need to meet up with Drew. He will help you locate your daughter.

Sent from phone contact - Vincent Jameson

Cloud backup, sent from mobile device.

-Will do, thank you for your assistance. I have found something. Let me know when you get back from your meeting and we can go over it together.

Sent from phone

“Why does that name sound so familiar?” My wolf asked.

I ignored him, “Ray, do you know of anyone named Vincent Jameson?” I asked.

After a minute he responded, “yeah, he is currently the alpha of the rogues.” He responded.

“He’s- you’re joking- that can’t be-“ I said.

“What’s going on?” He asked.

“I think it would just be easier if I showed you.” I stood up and grabbed the laptop.

“Meet me in my dad’s office.”

I didn't respond but made my way down the stairs, I stopped near the door to the kitchen. My mom was talking to someone on the phone. “Yes, the night shadows pack. You can go and try to talk to her. I am sure she is freaking out right now.” There was a pause, “I think she is going to want your help. Okay, talk to you later. Bye.”

I pushed the door open and walked in, “who was that?”

She jumped and held the phone to her chest as she took a few deep breaths. “I didn’t hear you, why are you being sneaky?”

“Why are you telling random people the location of my sister?”

Her eyes grew wide, “I-“

“I am serious mom, I want the truth. Who was that?” I asked.

“It was her aunt. I told her that she needed to go find her, you don’t realize how important she really is to the magical community now that she is showing that she has powers.” She said.

“What do you mean?”

She sighed, “I mean, that she is one of the four royals still alive. She and her two aunts and her one uncle will rule the magical kingdom.”

“Why would she?” I asked, confused.

“The magic side has a set of rulers, the King and Queen didn’t want their children to rule alone, they felt it was too much for one. They were also worried that one person could a***e their power. They came up with a checks and balance system by having four people rule together. Their four children would rule. Then the eldest of each family and so on. Well with her father gone she would be the next in line to rule.” She walked over to the counter and poured herself some hot water in a cup. She pulled out a canister of tea leave and scooped some inta mesh ball.

She walked over to the kitchen table and sat down. I sat down next to her, “so we need to find dad, as soon as we possibly can.”

She nodded her head, “yes, we cannot let him get to her. The royal line had gone under the radar the same day her father was killed. It’s important to keep her out of his reach.”

“Well then, I need to get this to Ray.” I told her, “I need to find out who Vincent Jameson is.”

Her eyes grew wide and she choked on her tea, “what?”

“I need to take dad’s laptop to Ray.” I said, once again confused by her reaction.

“No, the name you said.” She said through a coughing fit.

“Vincent Jameson?”

“Oh, that’s not good. I don’t know if there is any relation there, but the alpha of the Night shadows pack is Cullen Jameson.”

My eyes grew wide and I bolted from the kitchen. I ran all the way to the pack house, I burst through the door and ran right up to the alpha’s office. I knocked on the door and didn’t wait for an answer. “Whoa, slow down.”

I looked at Ray and Raylan, “I think we have a problem.”

Jada’s pov

I hung up the phone, Lois finally knew where Tahlia was. “Who was that Jada?” I looked up at my sister Ash and she was eyeing me suspiciously.

I sighed, “that was Lois.”

She leaned forward in her chair, “Lois, the mother of Tahlia?” She asked.

“One in the same, she finally has an idea of where Tahlia is.”

She stood up abruptly, “let’s go, we need to go and get her right now.”

I put my hands up to slow her down, “stop, right now it’s nearly two in the morning. We don’t need to rush off.” I told her as I looked at the clock on the wall of our Paris condo.

“Oh, you’re right. Sorry, I just got so excited. Where do you think Mykel is?” She asked as she leaned back in her seat.

“Probably off with his girlfriend.” I grimaced.

I looked at Ash to see she had a grimace on her face as well. “I hope he leaves that damn woman. She is evil.”

She wasn’t wrong, Angelica was the sweetest person to Mykel, but when it was just us girls she was the worst. He was away for a few weeks looking into a situation that arose up north and she was horrible. She had us waiting on her hand and foot, we even had two of our cleaning ladies quit. They told us they would only come back if she wasn’t there. “I know, I am hoping he will come to his senses.”

“I have been needing to talk to you about something.”

I sighed and looked at her, “spill it Ash.”

She bit her lip, Ash was never one to be nervous about anything. “I met someone a few months ago.”

I raised my eyebrows at her, “why am I just now hearing about this?”

“Because, um, he isn’t a warlock.” I narrowed my eyes, “he is a human.”

“You know the laws. You can’t be with him, it could get really dangerous telling him about our kind.” I told her.

She huffed, “Yeah, I know, but I can’t help who my heart loves.” Her eyes suddenly grew large and she slapped her hand over her mouth.

“Love? How long have you known this guy?”

“Just a few months, but he is sweet and funny, he is a teacher at the local high school.” She said with a dreamy look on her face.

“Really? Ash, you’re playing a very thin line. Of all our sacred laws there is one race that is not to know about our kind. H, U, M, A, N, S. HUMANS.”

She huffed, “I know, geez why do you always have to be such a buzzkill?”

I sighed, “I don’t like having to always be the responsible sister, but what am I supposed to do? Right now I am-“

“Yeah I know, Dad left you in charge. You’re the one who has to ensure we follow all the rules that our parents laid out for us.” Ash flung her long white hair that was braided over her shoulder and leaned back with her arms crossed.

“Look, I understand you’re upset, but we need to make sure we keep things running as smoothly as possible. I know it’s not any fun, but until we get Tahlia and she is trained and we can start running as four sections again then we can calm down a bit.”

She nodded her head and stood up, “fine, but I don’t like it. I really like him.” She stormed out of the room and out of sight. I leaned forward and placed my head in my hands.

“Rough morning?” I jumped up when I heard Mykel’s voice.

“Geez, what are you doing here?” I asked him.

“Umm, I live here too.” He said, confused by my aggressive tone.

“Whatever, just leave me the hell alone.” I started to rub my temples.

“You’ve been doing that a lot again. Do we need to have your head checked again?” He asked, now with a serious tone.

I shook my head, “no, it’s not back, I am just under a lot of stress. I have you with your girlfriend, now Ash is seeing a human. To top it all off our niece is out there alone starting to show her powers.” I spat at him.

“What can I do?” He asked.

“Well, for starters you could break it off with your damn girlfriend. She is terrible.” I told him.

He sighed, “Jada can we not do this now, please?”

“Otherwise you think of an idea on how to convince a teenager we have never met that we are her aunts and uncle and that she needs to come with us. She isn’t going to be trustfull since that i***t that killed our brother killed her mate.”

His jaw dropped, “I was only gone a couple days, what the hell happened?”

“Apparently her father had set up an agreement with a different alpha to sell her for a debt he owed.”

His face started to turn red, “I will kill him.” He said.

“Just go do what you need to do, I am going to have some more tea and brood until it is closer to seven in the morning, their time.”

“Okay, I still think we should have Myra take a look at your head, just to be safe.”

I sighed, “I doubt I have another brain tumor.” I told him.

He shrugged his shoulders, “better to be safe than sorry.” I sighed as he walked out of the room.

I grabbed my amethyst and pulled it close to my forehead, instantly the pain dulled. Now I just needed to figure out how to convince her to come with me.