Since SACarter FINALLY updated my favorite story of hers, I'm updating this one at her request (although why I only get one chapter and she gets a video and a chapter is beyond me. I'm just a great friend I guess- YOU OWE ME SACARTER AND YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT). Okay, rant over. Enjoy :)

Chapter Quote:
"The relationship of a girl and her favorite novel can be complex indeed."
~Shay Doran
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Chapter 27

Elsa

Dom wouldn't stop staring at me and it was creeping me out. I felt someone's hand slip through mine. It was Josilyn. I smiled at her, silently thanking her for picking up on my discomfort. It wasn't that I thought Dom's stare was sinister, it felt more like he knew something I didn't. That irked me to no end. I liked knowing things.

"Why are you here Dominic Stone?" Braeden demanded.

"Please, call me Dom. And so all of you know, I'm here to fight for your cause. I know about who you are and what they are," he replied. Hunter let out a growl. "No offense meant Cujo. But seriously, I know about the Searchers, I know about the Hunters, and I know about Guardians. Wolves aren't the only kinds. There's bears, panthers, and those fire wolves but aren't they just fire wolves? Not people?"

"How do you know about the Lyulfs?" Ren snarled.

"I did my history homework."

"How did you find out about us?" Arya asked, staring him down. My mom was my height, five foot eight, and easily a head shorter than most of the guys here, including Dom who was well over a head taller than her. However, her attitude made her seem like she was the same height as Dom, on equal footing. If those two got in a fight, I'd be betting on my mom.

"A Guardian, a wolf, saved me. They never explained anything to me so I started doing research on my own. Had a hell of a time finding information about you. But the stuff I did find, a lot of it talked about the Nightshade, Bane, and Lightwood pack. Ren Laroche, you were the leader of the Bane pack, or should I say alpha? Arya Laroche, formerly Arya Lightwood, as your maiden name proves, you were alpha of the Lightwood pack. Then Calla Tor was alpha of the Nightshade pack. She married Shay Doran, Arya saved your life Ren, and now you two run the biggest pack in the country, possibly the world. Very impressive."

"The information you found was only kept by Keepers, Searchers, and Hunters. Which one of them did you gather your information from?"

"I knew the girl who had saved me. I looked into her last name, found out about Ren, where he used to live, and travelled to Vail. There was this huge mansion. I learned it used to belong to that creepy evil guy, Bosque Mar."

"That place is owned by Searchers. We have people there constantly. How did you get in without being seen?" Braeden queried.

"I was learned early on in life how to sneak around and not be caught. Your comrades certainly were a challenge but nothing I couldn't handle."

"I know you," Spencer suddenly spoke up. Everyone, including me, turned around to look at him. His gaze remained on Dom. "You're the one who saved Ren that night he was attacked at the South Compound."

"Technically, I think you're the one who saved him considering you're the one who actually got him out of there," Dom remarked. "I was just covering your back. Besides, doesn't hurt to get on your girlfriend's dad's good side."

"She's not my girlfriend," Spencer said quickly while I simultaneously said, "I'm not his girlfriend."

"Right, and I have blonde hair," Dom replied. I glowered at him.

"How did you know where I was that night?" My dad inquired, taking a step towards Dom.

"I've been following your family. I found out the Hunters were after you and I wanted to keep you and your family safe until I could figure out where the Searchers were so I could join their fight."

"You couldn't keep an eye on all of us at the same time," my mom pointed out.

"No, I couldn't, so I learned about your pack from afar. It wasn't hard to tell who was who and who was what ranking. I followed you Laroches the most. You seemed to be the ones who got into the most trouble, particularly Ren and... is it Elsa? You're Josilyn's beta."

"You got my name right, but you have my position wrong," I answered tersely. For some reason, I felt Dom was hiding something from us. I couldn't figure out what, and until I did, I was not going to trust him whatsoever.

"You sure act like a beta."

"My position was revoked. I'm an omega now."

"So people give you orders? Everyone in the pack can right?"

"They can. Most don't. I'm grateful for that."

"You have a lot of pent up rage, don't you? And not just at your family. My guess is that's because of Anna?"

"How do you know about her?" I asked furiously.

Dom gave me a sad smile. "I read about it in an article online. I'm very sorry for your loss. I can't imagine what it's like to lose a sibling, let alone a twin."

"Enough. You will meet my father and he will determine whether you are to be trusted. Come with me," Braeden ordered. Dominic nodded to me and my parents and followed her. We all watched him go.

"That guy gives me a bad feeling. Anyone else feel like he was hiding something?" Dmitri asked casually.

"Keep a close eye on him. Do not trust him and do not tell him anything about yourselves. Until we know more about him, stay quiet and alert," my mom warned. They left with most of the pack trailing behind them. Josilyn started to go with them but I pulled her back.

"Can I talk to you?" I whispered so Hunter wouldn't hear me. I know he wanted to handle this by himself but I wanted to help my brother and since Josie was my best friend, I knew how to get her to listen to me.

"Of course. Is everything okay?"

"I'm fine. I wanted to know how you were doing. Hunter told me about the argument between you two."

"Oh, that... yeah, I'm okay." Josilyn said, starting to walk away. I followed her.

"I'm not dumb, Josie. I know I've been distant but I can still sense when you're upset about something. Tell me your side of the story. How about we walk on the beach while we do it?"

Reluctantly my friend agreed. We took a stroll down the beach, staying away from the water because we didn't feel like getting our feet wet and since the sun was starting to set, the sand was cooling off and it felt good on our feet. I saw the rest of our pack wading onto the beach with some food. Either they'd snuck it out of the kitchen because they couldn't wait for dinner or they were having dinner on the beach. Even Caleb, Lily, and Spencer came out. They walked a good way from my pack. In fact they walked extremely close to me and Josilyn but they didn't see us. I could see the anxiety on Caleb's face that he might be recognized by my pack but I doubt they would recognize him. It'd been eight or nine years since they'd last seen him. I barely recognized Caleb when I saw him and he was my brother. He had nothing to worry about.

"I don't know what to do Elsa," Josilyn sighed, sitting on a rock and burying her head in her hands. "Hunter deserves someone so much better than me."

"That's the problem. I'm pretty sure no one else in the world is as good as you. Josilyn, you are sweet, kind, and caring, and it takes a special person to be able to get through to my brother like you do. I'm not sure how he can deserve better when you are the best person to be with him. And I'm not saying that to make you feel better. I'm saying it because it's true. Hunter doesn't care whether or not he has kids, he just wants to be with you."

"How do you know he doesn't want kids? Maybe he does and he's just lying." Josilyn sniffed, wiping a tear off her face. I placed my arm around her to comfort her.

"Because when he told me, I was listening to his heartbeat and it was steady as a beating drum."

"Did you just slip in a Disney metaphor?" she laughed weakly.

"Yes, and for the record it was a Disney simile," I joked. "But I'm serious, Hunter meant it when he said he just wanted to be with you, whether that meant children or no children. When you're ready, talk to him, but only when you're ready," I told her.

"Thank you Elsa. I needed to hear that," Josilyn said, leaning her head onto my shoulder. "I wish you were still my beta."

"I do too. I'm going to work on regaining my parents trust so maybe I'll be your beta again. And you know, once you become supreme alpha and all, maybe you can reinstate me then."

"I hope so. Now, how are you doing? You seem to be doing better after your punishment."

"It could be worse. I'm still on house arrest unless I'm with one of you guys but the entire Academy is my house right now so I go exploring at night. It's really cool. I love the library they have here. There's so much history in there. There's even stuff about our families."

"Really?"

"Yeah. There's one story of my dad when he went to this underground cave in Mexico to get Eydis for the Elemental Cross. There were four pieces: Haldis which was in Vail, Eydis which was in Mexico, Tordis which I think was in Switzerland or something, and Pyralis which was literally in a volcano surrounded by the fire wolves, or the Lyulfs."

"There's a lot of history with your dad, isn't there?"

"Yeah. He and Calla Tor were apparently 'destined' for each other, or so they thought. But in actuality, my dad was really meant to be with my mom. But when my dad's mom joined the Searchers, she met a guy there, Monroe. That was dad's dad. But the Keepers found out and had her killed. As punishment, they made it where Calla and my dad were meant to marry and sent my mom and her pack off to Estes Park. It's really complicated and cruel what they did. And then when Calla ran off with Shay to the Searcher's, she rescued her pack and my dad's and they joined with her, leaving him completely alone. He lost his first pack, joined my mom's, lost half of his pack twenty years ago... he almost lost my mom too. I get why he's so protective now. I thought I did before but not to the extent now, if that makes sense."

"You should talk to him, Elsa. Tell him what you just told me. Maybe that will make your relationship better," Josilyn remarked. I fell silent, thinking that maybe she was right.

"Hey, is it just me or-" Josilyn began but began coughing.

"Josie, you okay?" I asked. Her coughing only got worse as she shook her head. "Come on, we should head back."

I helped her up and away from the rock. We'd only taken a few steps when I began coughing.

"What is happening?" Josilyn choked out.

"Run!" I ordered. The two of us took off but we hadn't made it very far before Josilyn collapsed onto the sand. I tried to pick her up but whatever it was making us cough, it was becoming overwhelming for both of us. I fell to the ground, feeling like I was going to cough out my lungs. Looking around to find the culprit of the attack, I saw a white cloud coming towards us. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't friendly. I knew I only had the strength to get myself away from there but I refused to leave Josilyn. I threw my body over hers to make sure that whatever the substance was that was making us cough didn't get to her any more than it already was. Josilyn had to be protected.
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Caleb

The strange sensation was the first thing that happened. It was a feeling of dread, of terror, and helplessness, but it wasn't mine. It was from someone I knew.

The second thing was the strange, thick, white smoke billowing towards Lily and Spencer's backs. Immediately I knew that it was not a normal occurrence in Mexico.

The third thing was I started to cough. It felt like I wouldn't be able to stop. I stood up, staring at the smoke coming towards us.

"Caleb, what is it?" Lily asked.

"Get up. Get up now," I ordered before falling into a coughing fit. My mate and second listened immediately. I turned around to look at my old pack. I had to warn them, whether it meant them figuring out my identity or not. I started pulling Lily and Spencer away. They didn't need me to. We were already starting to run. I shouted at the Laroche pack to run. They looked up in my direction. I shifted into a wolf before I was close enough for them to see.

"The water! Get to the water!" Lily yelled. The Laroche pack scrambled up from their picnic. Some stayed in human form, some shifted. Lily, Spencer, and I splashed into the water, swimming well away from the beach. The smoke stopped at the water so we were in no danger, but we had to continue treading the ocean until the smoke receded which was about ten minutes. Once it was gone, we swam back to shore, dragging from exhaustion.

"Where's Elsa?" Spencer asked. I shook my head and so did Lily.

"Hunter!" Spencer called out. My brother looked over at him, water dripping off his anger-ridden face. "Where's Elsa?!"

"She was with Josilyn!" Hunter called back.

"Where are they?!"

"They went..." he trailed. Panic flooded his face. He started running down the beach, yelling for Elsa and Josilyn. We all followed him down the beach. We came to a sliding stop. Hunter dropped down to his knees and picked something out of the sand.

"What is it?" Ember asked.

"Josilyn... her ring. The one I gave her. She's gone. They're both gone," Hunter said.

"Sebastian went down the beach to get them for dinner. He's not here. They have him too," Laurel cried.

"Elsa, Josilyn, and Sebastian, they're all gone," Ember breathed. "They're all gone."
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Well someone's in trouble. Sorry to SACarter for not knowing you were staying up late waiting for the chapter. The Secret Circle is very addicting and distracting.