By next morning the other packs had been informed of the blood-root. All the alphas are currently gathered at our pack house in Theo's office.

''So this pretty looking flower is the key to destroying the witches? What are we supposed to do make garlands and put them around their necks,'' Benjamin asks skeptically while holding the flower up. Charles chuckles at his comment but shuts up when Theo shoots him a glare.

'Yupp, that's what Sebastian said,'' I reply and Ashton raises his brows at me inquisitively.

''Sebastian said huh, you mean the same Sebastian who was jealous of Theo, the same Sebastian who was ready to kill his brother for the alpha position.''

''Ahemmm ...cousin brother,'' Sean corrects but shuts up immediately when Ashton shoots him a glare.

What's up with these guys shooting glares at each other. There are many other ways to shut people up. I should know.

''Okay you guys, first of all; all that is in the past and second Sebastian has changed,'' I remark and Charles squints his eyes, ''has he though?''

(How i picture Charles saying 'has he though')

''Come on you guys, he is on our side; he may not show it but he does care and he is helping us.''

''Okay everyone, enough about Sebastian; we have the blood-root flower with us but we need to think of how to use it against them,'' Theo says from his seat.

''Well brother lucky for you all, I did some research of my own last night and voila!!'' Aiden shouts in glee while walking in and placing the laptop on the desk.

''Well boy, cut the dramatics and show it to us then!'' Benjamin grunts, ''relax old man; let me set it up with the projector.''

Aiden takes his sweet time setting the laptop up and by the time he is done Benjamin looks ready to squeeze the life out of him.

''Okay so, we all know the effects of wolfs bane on us. Blood-root does the same to witches,'' he starts.

''Come on, Aiden get to the point; we don't have all day,'' Ethan complains.

''Okay okay, calm your horses down dude, I'm getting to it. So we can use the flowers in different ways: We can use it in its natural state, we can dry the flowers and crush them into powder which in turn can be used in many ways. We can also extract the liquid from it, dip our claws and slash the witches faces, my personal favorite if you ask me,'' he concludes.

''Wow Aiden, that's some good work,'' I congratulate him and he flashes me a smile.

''Very well then, why don't we all head back to our packs and make use of the flowers and also keep an eye out for anything unusual,'' Theo announces and everyone gets up to leave.

''Nice work brother,'' he commends Aiden and pats his back.

I stand by the window looking down at everyone leaving, when a pair of arms wrap around my waist.

''They're all risking their lives for us Theo, what happens when one of them loses their life in the war? It will be on our conscience. How will we live with that? I don't think I can.''

''Love, you need to understand this, everyone who was present here know what they have gotten themselves into. We cannot be accountable for any one's life. It's not like we have forced them to join us. If we start blaming ourselves for every death that has occurred in the pack, there is no way we will move forward in life; the guilt will weigh us down. Being an alpha is not about authority and power only; it's also about having the courage to face your problems head on and moving forward with your pack no matter how much it hurts to leave some people and their memories behind. Can you do that for me Athena?''

I turn to look at him and he holds my head between his hands, ''I love you Theo,'' I whisper. ''And I you,'' he replies and kisses me softly.

''Uhhh if you guys are done, we can start working on the blood-roots,'' an annoying voice that can only belong to Charles calls.

''How long have you been standing there?'' I ask cocking an eyebrow at him.

''Long enough to see your almost-to-rival titanic scene.'' and I roll my eyes at him, ''come on let's go,'' we all follow him out.

''Since Aiden did the research he promoted himself to head of the blood-root making squad,'' Charles explains to us as we all walk to Lila's house.

''Bloodroot making squad, seriously??''

''Yeah, nice name isn't it; I came up with it,'' he says proudly thumping his chest.

''Yeah right.''

''Hey you guys, it's good that you've come, let's just head into my lab, we can work there,'' Aiden says and I can sense the excitement off of him.

''Whoa there hold up, you have a lab? Does mom even know about this?''

''Chill brother, what mom doesn't know won't hurt her,'' Aiden replies in a carefree attitude and I purse my lips, ''The boy's got a point Theo, come on; let's see his 'lab'.

''Uhh excuse me Athena, but its man not boy, '' Aiden says and comes dangerously close to me.

''Getting too close for my liking aren't you? One more step and I'll kick you where the sun don't shine, man'' I poke his chest using my fore finger and push him back.

''Wild!! I like it!'' he says in a sultry tone and this time Theo smacks his head from behind causing him to shut up.

''Are you out of your damn mind!!!'' Theo shouts as we walk into a room which oddly has a faint scent of Nadia in it. ''You converted Nadia's room into a lab?!''

Charles and I walk around the room looking at all the slabs of glass and microscopes, magnifying glasses and other science stuff.

''Whoa bro, I didn't know you were into science,'' Charles exclaims and Aiden shrugs his shoulders, ''guess no one ever asked. Everyone just assumed me to be Theo's weird younger brother.''

In that moment I felt like hugging Aiden. Poor guy; he's been judged all his life for being the weird one and that's what I did. ''If we're done with the pity party let's get to work,'' Theo announces.

Theo, Charles and I decide to leave after a while and Aiden promises to deliver the poison to us tonight.

''Well you guys, Axel and I are going for the perimeter check tonight, So I will see you two tomorrow, '' Charles says and starts to leave then halts, '' Ohh and one more thing; behave.''

''Get out of here you idiot!'' I attempt to kick him but he jumps out of my way.

''Come love, let's get in; it's almost dinner time.''

Charles' POV

''Hey honey, I'm home!!'' I shout and Mila walks out of our bedroom dressed in a mini dress.

''Hey you, I missed you'' she says and pulls me closer.

''So any progress on the blood-root?''

''Yeah actually, Aiden has suddenly become this genius scientist who has found multiple uses of the flower, so we wait for him to deliver his concoctions to us.''

''Who thought a flower that pretty and delicate could be lethal and dangerous too,'' Mila muses.

''Kind of like you my love, pretty but lethal,'' I say with a smirk. ''Smooth Morgan, very smooth.''

There is soft knock on the door and Mila rushes to open it, ''Dinner is here Charles,'' I hear her yell.

''ohhh I smell shawarma,'' I sniff the air and take a seat, ''and fries too! Damn it's a party today!''

''Don't end up over-eating, remember you have to go for the check with Crimson's beta, ughhh I keep on forgetting his name...Alex is it?''

''It's Axel,'' I correct her. ''Right, Axel.''

I change into my running shorts and kiss goodbye to Mila, ''don't wait up hun, I'll be late.''

I meet Axel at the border. ''Oh hey man, where have you been I've been waiting for quite a while,'' he says.

''Yeah I kind of dozed off after a heavy dinner,'' I confess and he chuckles.

''Wolf form?'' he asks, ''yeah, we'll cover more area that way,'' and we proceed to transform.

We run across the Crimson borders; tracking and sniffing trying to catch any scent, but come up with nothing.

''Want to expand the area?'' Axel voices over the link.

''Yeah, not a bad idea; how about we stretch it up to the caves?''

''Cool, let's get it over with then.''

We continue tracking until we reach the caves. In wolf form our senses are more heightened so we can actually sense the powers of the dead witches. My wolf shivers as a chill runs down its spine, making the fur on his neck rise.

''Do you feel it too Axel?''

''Yeah man, it's creepy what these dead witches can do,'' he replies.

We scout the whole area and are about to go back when I feel a presence. We are not alone.

''Charles, there is someone else over here,'' Axel's warning voice fills my head.

''I know, I sense it too,'' I reply as my wolf's ears perk up in caution.

We hear a low growl behind us and immediately turn to face the intruder but there is no one there.

I hear the growl again, this time from my left side, Axel follows it and is ready to pounce on whoever is behind the bushes when we catch a flash of grey dart out and skid to a stop opposite us.

The first thing I notice are the icy blue eyes staring at me. Those very same icy blue eyes that have given most of us sleepless nights.

The wolf is quite huge, almost the size of an alpha. Almost. He snarls and snaps his teeth at us.

Axel and I prepare ourselves to fight. It's two against one so our chances of winning are high. Or so we thought.

The grey wolf rises to his full height and I'm astonished at how huge he is. It's going to take a lot more than just two betas to take this guy out but we're not going down without a fight.

Axel snarls at him and attacks first, the grey wolf easily dodges him and kicks Axel using his hind legs, the poor guy falls a few meters away whining.

This is the same guy who stalked Athena, the same guy who instigated Caleb to kidnap Nadia, the same guy who is working with witches to take Theo and his pack down. Those thoughts anger me and I channel it to gather the strength to fight this son of a bitch.

I growl at him and we circle each other, Axel has long since recovered and he is up on his feet too. He also starts circling the grey wolf and now he is in the middle of the two of us, trapped.

He snarls at us; saliva dripping off his razor sharp canines and I snarl back. He is the first one to attack this time and pounces right at me while I pounce at him. We meet midair and start biting and scratching each other. He has an advantage which is his size so he easily pulls me down with him and we hit the ground in a loud thud with him over me. He scratches me on the side and I release a howl of pain.

Suddenly his weight leaves me and I get up to see that Axel has jumped over his back and takes a bite at his shoulder; they are now both wrestling on the ground. Painful growls and howls echo through the night.

I gather my strength again and bellow towards the fighting pair, I once again pounce on him but he sees this coming and quickly changes his position with Axel causing me to land on him. I hear a bone snap and Axel's wolf groans.

Oh hell no, you're not getting away! I run towards the grey wolf once again, he seems a bit weak; looks like Axel and I managed to slow him down. That was the moment I needed and jumped behind him taking his left hind leg in my mouth and biting it hard.

He feels it and releases a loud howl of pain but still manages to kick me back using his right leg, I literally fly and land a few meters away from Axel who is lying in pain almost losing consciousness.

Bearing the brunt of all that pain the grey wolf still manages to get away limping. I turn my attention to Axel whose eyes are slowly closing. I quickly transform and put on a pair of spare shorts we had carried on our backs.

''Axel man, you need to stay awake, come on!!'' I yell and he whimpers. ''Axel come on man, you need to trigger the healing! Come on, don't close your eyes!

An idea suddenly pops in my head, Theo's dad always told us this when we were young, 'Pain makes you heal son' he used to say.

''I'm sorry man,'' I apologize and punch him in the stomach a few times, he howls and his eyes flash bright green; the color of the beta. ''Yes that's it come on; you can do it,'' I say as I see him regain consciousness and turn back to his human form. Once he is done, he snaps his wrist back in place and I have to cringe from the cracking sound.

''Whoaa was that.... was that him?'' He asks as he tries to regain his breath.

''Yup, it was him alright but he got away.''

''Damn it! How comes he didn't have a scent? He asks and I stay silent in thought until it hits me.

''That bastard had a talisman around his neck!!'' I curse, "but don't worry we got him good, I bit him hard on his left leg so he is limping plus you also took a chunk out of his shoulder.''

I'm guessing now that the big boss is in the picture he is coming for them sooner rather than later,'' Axel muses and I nod.

''We need to tell Theo and Athena now, come on let's go.''

By the time we reach the pack it's pitch dark and everyone is asleep. ''Guess you will have to tell them tomorrow morning,'' Axel states.

''Yeah, they go for their runs at 05:00 a.m. I need to tell them before it's too late.

Axel and I part ways and I head straight to my room. Once I'm done showering I slide into my bed and Mila instinctively wraps her hand around my waist, I place a soft kiss on her forehead and close my eyes but those icy blue ones haunt me. He is here. The fight is coming.

I couldn't sleep a wink the whole night, as the clock strikes 05:00 I slowly unwrap Mila's hand from my waist and wash my face before I rush across to Theo's house.

I'm halfway there when I catch someone walking towards one of the houses or rather limping.

I blink my eyes to get a clear vision of the person and walk behind one of the trees. The person seems to be weak as he clutches his right hand and limps up the steps.

''Oh you've got to be kidding me!!'' my eyes widen in realization and I hastily make my way to Theo and Athena's.

***

So Charles knows who the blue eyed beast is! or does he? ;)

Happy reading :)

thoughts on the comment section below.

-Jessica.S