Hiding from the Beta

Chapter Twelve

Tahlia’s pov

I sat down in a chair at a short counter and leaned over it. Doris handed me a cookie, “I think you should eat two or three. We have a fair amount of work to be done.”

I nodded and looked down at the white and black design on the quartz counter as I started to munch on the cookie. Doris pulled out her cell phone and headed out of the kitchen. I sighed as the cookie’s power spread through my body. The pain started to numb and relief flooded through me as I caught a small snore from my wolf, “Daphne?” I linked.

She grunted in response, I had hoped she would be up to talking to me. I could hear Doris in the other room talking. I put the last bite of the cookie in my mouth and reached towards the plate for another one, only something weird happened. The cookie literally jumped into my hand.

I stared at my hand in shock, how was that even possible? I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, I dropped the cookie back onto the plate and stood up quickly. “Okay Daph, if you’re there I really need you to wake up.” I rubbed my hand on my shirt and took a step back.

“What? Why are you so freaked out?” Her voice was weak and rough but she was there.

“I am so glad to hear your voice.” I told her, happiness coursed through my body at the sound of her voice.

“Yeah, okay, what is going on?” She asked rather annoyedly.

“I reached for a cookie and it literally jumped into my hand.” I told her.

“Likely excuse, the treats always jump into your hands, then I am the one who has to burn off all the extra calories.” She growled.

“What the hell Daph? I am serious, I reached for the cookie and it jumped into my hand.” I told her, I was now annoyed by her tone.

“Prove it.” She said.

“I don’t know if I can do it again.” I told her.

“Then it didn’t happen.” I felt her start to recede to the back of my mind again.

“Wait, I will try.” She huffed and I walked back over to the counter. I sat back down and leaned forward thinking about nothing but the cookie and how I wanted it so badly. The cookie didn’t move a single inch.

“See, I told ya.” Daphne scoffed.

“Wait, I swear it happened!” I growled at her. She sighed in annoyance but didn’t retreat into my mind.

I leaned back and took a deep breath, I leaned forward and reached my hand out. I felt an odd sensation in my arm when my hand was just above the plate. I looked on in shock as the cookie jumped into my hand again. “Okay, I believe you.” She said, softly.

“I told you.” I said in annoyance.

“How did you do that?” I turned to see Doris staring at me in shock.

I dropped the cookie and sat straight up in the chair. “I don’t know, it was an accident.” I told her, I started to wring my hands together.

“Do it again.” She said as she looked at me skeptically.

“I can try.” I leaned forward and did exactly what I did the second time. Instantly the cookie was in my hand.

“Oh dear lord, I never thought I would live to see the day where I met a hybrid.” She said excitedly.

“A hybrid?” I asked.

She nodded her head, “there isn’t a doubt that you’re a wolf, but I am ninety-nine percent certain that you’re also a witch.”

I looked down at the cookies, “I don’t understand.”

Doris walked over to me and sat down in the other chair. “Hun, hybrids don’t know that they are a hybrid until they find their mate. In wolves the power of the mate bond forces the witch or warlock side out of hibernation.” Her eyes lit up as she spoke.

I looked at her with my mouth hung open. “I- I, um-“

She gently touched my arm, “it’s okay hun. I will help you. I know I am not the greatest of witches, but I could definitely help you at least learn how to control them.”

I looked down at the counter and nodded my head, “Yeah, okay.”

She wrapped her arms around me and squeezed me gently. “Come on darlin’ we have some work to do.”

I sighed and stood up, I followed her outside to where we would start the cleanup from the storm. “Where should I start?” I asked.

“You start over there, just start with the small branches. You can pile them up by the wood pile. Don’t worry about the big ones, we have a group of guys that come through and cut up the big ones after each storm.”

“Okay, I can do that.” I started walking around kicking the big balls of hail out of the way as I grabbed the sticks from the ground.

I had just finished my fourth arm full of sticks when CJ came pulling up, “Thought I would let you know that Timothy is going to be okay.” He said as he came closer to me.

“That’s great news.”

“He has a mild concussion and will be released from the pack hospital tomorrow morning. The doctor doesn't work with too many humans so he just wants to keep him for observation.”

“Doris will be thrilled to hear that.” I told him.

“Thrilled to hear what?” Her voice rang through the air.

“Timothy is doing good, he will be released tomorrow.” He said.

“Oh good! Are you going to go pick him up?” She asked.

“Yeah, figured it would be best that way.”

“Awesome, if you want you can drop him off here. He can stay here while he is recovering. I know he is going to need help changin’ the bandages on that wound.” Doris said as she bent down and picked up a piece of hail.

I continued to pick up sticks when I saw a wolf out of the corner of my eye. I turned and looked back at it. It was a grey wolf with black ears. It looked like it was watching me. I narrowed my eyes at it when suddenly a hand was in front of my face.

“Earth to Tahlia.” CJ said, I looked at him then back to the spot where the wolf was. But the wolf was gone, “are you okay?” CJ asked.

I shook my head, “there was a grey wolf with black ears.” I pointed where I saw the wolf.

“Oh, that was probably the alpha’s daughter. Don’t worry, she just likes running around and seeing new people.”

I nodded my head and went back to picking up the sticks. Maybe we could do a bonfire tonight and burn through a bunch of these, if they dry by then. I thought to myself.

Suddenly the stick was on fire in my hand. I threw it down on the ground and CJ quickly stomped it out. “What the hell?” He asked.

Doris looked at me in shock, “okay, we really need to work on getting control over your powers.” She said.

I nodded my head, “that would be a good idea, before I burn down the entire town.”

Alpha Cullen’s pov

I looked out over the pack from my balcony. The storm took out a fair amount of trees, I can see two roofs that have been damaged from here, otherwise everything looked to be pretty good.

“Storm wasn’t too bad this time.” Jean said as she crossed the threshold to the balcony from our room. “Kris said that he would bring a complete list of all the damages in the morning.”

“Thank you for handling that.” I told her. “I’m sorry that I have been a little distracted the last couple days.”

She sighed and leaned into my arm, “it’s okay, I know this time of year is difficult for you. The anniversary of your brother’s exile is coming up.”

I took a sip of the whiskey that was in my hand. “You know why he is exiled?” I asked.

She nodded her head, “I do, he killed your first mate and unborn pup.”

I nodded my head, “he killed them after I was forced to kill his mate.”

She turned and looked at me surprised. “Why did you-“

I cut her off, “kill his mate?” She nodded her head, “she wasn’t the innocent woman he thought she was. I caught her sneaking information to rogues. Not just any information either.”

She looked at me confused, “what then?”

I sighed, I hated reliving these memories. I never told her about this, but I felt that it was about time. “She had passed information about my father’s death. The message I had intercepted was one that I have held onto since that night.”

I pulled out my wallet and dug through it for an old delicate piece of paper. I unfolded it carefully and read it aloud to her. “The alpha and luna of the night shadow pack are dead, the poison worked perfectly. You can bring your army in tomorrow at sunrise.”

Jean looked up at me shocked, “she killed your parents?”

I nodded my head, “I tried to reason with Vincent but he refused to believe it. I laid out the evidence and then the team of pack elders made the decision. I carried out her sentence.” I told her.

“Why have you held this so close to your heart for so long?” Her voice cracked as she spoke.

“I don’t know, I feel guilty for everything that happened. Vincent lost control and rounded up a bunch of rogues. He brought them in and killed fifteen pack members including the luna.” I leaned my head against hers as we looked out over the pack grounds together.

“It’s so peaceful right now, you’d never know that something bad ever happened here.” She said.

I sighed and took in her scent of vanilla and coffee. “I know, maybe we should take a few days and use the old cabin, just disconnect for a bit.” I suggested.

She smiled and looked up at me, “I think that would be a brilliant idea. Maybe we should wait though, until after the anniversary.”

I nodded in agreement when a link came through from Kris, “alpha, there is a phone call on your office phone.”

“Thank you Kris, I will be right there.”

I looked down at my mate and kissed her on the forehead, “sorry my love, I need to go take a phone call.”

She nodded and I quickly walked from the room to my office. I sat down in my chair and picked it up, “Alpha Jameson.” I said firmly.

“Hello, this is Beta Anthony Starwaski. My daughter has runaway, her last known whereabouts were Bemidji Minnesota. I was wondering if you had run into any unknown wolves.” A pit formed in my stomach, if I said the wrong thing he would know she was here.

“I am sorry to hear that, I have not seen any female wolves that I am not familiar with. I have seen a few male rogues, but beyond that I am sorry I can’t be of more help to you.”

“Would you be able to keep a lookout for her?” He asked, “I am quite worried about where she has run off too. She is nineteen and you know what kind of a world we live in. I would hate for her to run into a hunter or some rogues.”

“Oh yes I do understand entirely. I would feel the same way if it were my own daughter that had run off. If you want to send us a picture I can pass it around to my warriors and see if any of them had spotted her.”

“That would be wonderful, what is your fax number?” He asked.

After exchanging contact information I hung up the phone. I instantly picked it back up and called Nathaniel, “alpha Nathaniel.” His deep voice rang through.

“Hello, it’s Jameson, can you hold on one second? I am going to try and patch in Raylan.” I told him.

“Yeah, no problem.” He said, sounding more energized.

I quickly dialed Raylan’s number and he picked up on the second ring, “Alpha McCoy.”

“Raylan, it’s Cullen Jameson.” He growled, “look I am calling as a curtesy, I have Tahlia. Now I am patching you through with Heep.”

“What’s going on?” Raylan asked.

“I just got off the phone with Anthony Starwaski.”

“Where the hell is he? Do you have his location?” Raylan asked.

“No, I don’t have a location but he asked me to keep an eye out for Tahlia.” I told them.

“Really?” Nathaniel said.

“Yes, he wanted me to let him know if I or my pack saw her at all. He is going to fax me over a picture of her so that we can keep an eye out.” I told them.

I heard a loud growl, “I never should have made him my Beta.”

“It’s not your fault.” Nathaniel said, “you didn’t know this was going to happen.”

“It’s not just that, we are in over our heads here. I have to recalculate everything for my pack. I found physical proof that he sold top secret pack information to our enemies.” Raylan said angrily.

“What?” I asked.

“An hour ago we found his laptop and he had a separate account with over two million dollars in it.”

Suddenly there was the sound of someone choking after inhaling water instead of drinking it. After a minute Nathaniel said, “you mean to tell me he traded his step daughter for five hundred thousand dollars when he could have easily paid the casino the money he lost?”

“Wow, this guy is a real piece of work.” I said as I leaned back in my chair and rubbed my hand over my face.

“I think we just need to continue to look for him and keep her hidden from him.” Raylan said.

“I agree, but how are we supposed to keep her hidden when she doesn’t want to be on pack territory?” I asked.

“I don’t know, I am sure we will figure out something.” Nathaniel said. “Look I have to go, my Beta is about to leave, he is going to try and track down Anthony.”

“Okay, thanks for your help Nathaniel, we appreciate it more than you will ever know.” Raylan said.

Nathaniel hung up, “Raylan, I know we have never seen eye to eye, but I will do what I can to protect her.”

He sighed, “thank you, she is a wonderful wolf. There is one thing that you do need to know though. Her biological father was half warlock.”

“Wait, does that mean?” I asked.

“Yes, since she had found her mate her powers will indeed awaken. I thought you should be warned that you may find yourself face to face with a very angry hybrid.” He said.

“She is really weak, her wolf when I first met her was nearly non-existent.” I told him.

He sighed, “I appreciate you taking her in. Maybe after this we could become allies after all.”

I thought about that for a moment, “maybe, first we need to get through the next few days. She thinks she is going to leave within that time.” I told him.

“No, you can’t let her leave, if she leaves she will be vulnerable.” He said, obviously worried.

“I know, I will see what I can do to keep her here. You should know though that as of right now she wants nothing more than to die and be with her mate.”

“I didn’t expect anything less. Her and Andy were inseparable from the time that they were teenagers.”

“She told me what happened to him.” I told him.

“She did? We have speculation of what happened.” He said.

“I hope that speculation is that Anthony killed him.”

“It is, he used a witches blade. Have you heard of the Amethyst witch?” He asked.

“Hmm, the name does sound familiar.”

“Well, he stole that blade from her, killed Andy. The worst part is that the blade belonged to Tahlia’s biological aunt.”

“Really?”

“Yes, she is furious. I will inform her mother that she is safe and not to worry. Keep me in the loop, if you have to tell her I told her to keep her butt there.” He said.

“Thank you Raylan. We will talk soon.” I hung up the phone and leaned back into my chair. Anthony was just like my brother, a disaster waiting to happen.

I stood up and walked from my office and ran into Camila, “whoa, slow down there hun.” I said with a smile.

She huffed and held a stitch in her side as if she had ran as fast as she could. “She’s not just a wolf.” She said in between breaths.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She has magic, I could feel it. Also when I walked away she started a soaking wet tree brand on fire.”

“Really?” Well it was official, her witch side is coming out.

“Why don’t you look surprised?” She asked.

“Well, um-“ I started to say.

She glared at me, “you knew. Really? Why do you always keep the cool information to yourself?” She asked.

I chuckled, “well I can’t share information with you when I don’t know until just a few minutes ago.”

“Really dad?” She said in an annoyed tone.

“Go get cleaned up, I am sure it will be time to eat soon.” I looked at my watch and saw that it was nearly lunch time.

“Yeah, yeah, I know.”

“Hey now, don’t give me that attitude. If you’re sick of being here, why don’t you go and try to find your mate.”

She turned and smirked at me, “you know dad, that ain’t a half bad idea.”

I sighed as she walked into her bedroom. “Really? You just gave her permission to go hunting for her mate.” My wolf growled.

“She is in her early twenties, she should have her mate already. Now enough whining, we have a lunch date with a very beautiful woman.”