Warrior Jeffery

James' POV

I push my hands through my now birds nest hair through the thousandth time. A part of me wishes I had went with Cody to school to get a distraction, but I remind myself that being Alpha isn't something I can shrug on and off anymore when it fits my needs, the whole pack is relying on me to keep them safe.

It's that thought and the future pledge I want to make with a clear conscious that still has me focused and alert after checking on the Academy and the look out towers being built on White Fang Beach.

That is, until I remember who's waiting for me at the pack house.

I had gotten a text from Zee a half hour ago claiming she came as soon as she heard we were looking for her.

'I don't think I can handle mom.' Sloan admits, and I understand, since he wasn't around much, the most he saw was mom taking care of him after being hurt or after crying and always being willing to go secret shopping. He didn't have to face reality like I did. My father might have kept me frozen in fear, but I was never scared of my mom, the only thing I feel is anger and resignation as I finally reach the pack house.

When I enter the large cabin, I'm not surprised to find the common spaces empty, wolves either at school, Warrior Academy or doing all they can to patrol the pack, safe gaurd the Elders and children and be as prepared as possible for the unknown.

It doesn't feel like enough.

It's never going to feel like enough.

My sigh is heavy and my mind preoccupied by a million things, so I only barely notice my mother when I enter the kitchen as she comes to hug me tightly, placing a kiss to my cheek.

I force myself to focus, sitting down at the island, wishing there was at least Zee around, it being ages since it was just the two of us without fear of thundering footsteps and accusing screams. I feel my chest squeeze, and Sloan shrink away, but I hold firm meeting my moms uncertain eyes as she goes to speak, small talk always having been her forte.

"James, honey, you look amazing! And look at that beautiful Mark! I take it things with Cody ended up exactly as you said. I'm looking forward to getting the Ceremony Invitation." She tells me, hinting about not receiving one already.

"We'll see, whenever the date is set. It's been postponed." I tell her and her reaction is exactly what I expect.

"Postponed? Now why on earth would you do that?" Her tone is surprised and just a hint of condescending, grating my nerves in a way a mother only can.

"Because, Mother, if you hadn't noticed, there's been an alarming increase of not just petty crime, but of murders and violent rapes as well. Homes of Officials including Cody's, Zee's and Alex were raided, threats were made and demands for keys that we know nothing of have been made. Not just to us, but to Winter Moon as well. Having a pack wide event, taking half of Winter Moon's Warriors for guards per tradition would leave all of us vulnerable with our pants caught around our ankles. It would be a fucking massacre. As the Alpha I'm supposed to put the needs of my pack above the needs of my own." I tell her, annoyed that after over twenty years of being Luna she doesn't even understand that much.

Her mouth pinches as she frowns, but before she can continue, I tell her one other thing that has been bothering me ever since I got the information this morning.

"You know what else stops me from doing so? The assailant is an Enchanted and they're working with someone on the inside. Otherwise they wouldn't know where we all lived. Funny thing though, the only house that wasn't rummaged and gone through for this key that was claimed to be here, was our home. And while there was definitely violence there was no targeted attacked until after my father was banished from the pack. So you want to tell me where he is?" I ask her calmly, not breaking eye contact though she's quick to look away, her jaw ticking in annoyance before she turns back towards me.

"You father was a lot of things, James, but he was a good man. He would never do anything to hurt his pack or his people no matter how angry he is. It's not like you to be so disrespectful towards your father." She snaps at me, disproval clear in his gaze.

I have to take a breath before I answer, the simmering anger growing into a fire that grows hotter by the moment. But I force myself to stay calm, knowing this is not the time to lose my shit.

"You mean the same way he would never hurt his child? Or his Mate?" I emphasize, pointedly staring at the scar that covers her left eye that no one ever dares to speak of. "That man is cruel petty and dangerous and I need you to tell me where he is so I can make sure he isn't hurting anyone else." I urge her, but she doesn't budge.

"This was an accident. How dare you shake your mother for trying to be there for her husband and keep our family together. Your father disciplined you because you were a difficult child who refused to listen, and I did my best between you both. How terrible of a mother I must be. I haven't seen your father since that dreaded day you took everything from me. The pack doesn't recognize me as Luna and shunned me before I finally left. I come here because I heard you were searching for me. I thought it was to apologize but clearly you're the one that's cruel and petty." She spits at me, and I lose the last bit of patience I have.

"I wasn't a difficult child, Leslie." I tell her cooly, glaring at her as I raise from my seat, all lingering compassion gone. "I was a child who needed someone who loved who I was instead of forcing me to become something else you deemed worthy of love. You caring about your Mate and being there for your child isn't what makes you a bad mom. Not even not Rejecting your Mate after witnessing him beat up your small, young, defensiveness son makes you a bad mom. What makes you a bad mom is the way you used to sit there and use your Omega abilities to heal every single one of my bruises and scars, taking them away as if they never happened without even a question of how they happened. You told me that sometimes it took work to become a strong wolf and that I should be grateful that he cared enough to teach me. You manipulated me into accepting my fate and abandoning Sloan. You hid the evidence of his abuse so I couldn't tell anyone. You watched as he beat me and still you said and did nothing! The only thing you managed to teach me is how to be comfortable with being lonely. I don't need you. This pack doesn't need you, and I don't want you anywhere near that monster, doing his bidding, cleaning up his goddamn messes. Get out. Don't go to the Roguelands. Get out of Autumn Falls. Get out of Vollmond. And you better pray something distracts me from calling Vilin for violating Banishment. Don't show your face in this pack again." I command her, walking towards her until she's forced to get up, herded towards the grand hall where I block the exit leaving only the door at the end of the hall.

I can almost see her blood boiling in anger.

"You're an ungrateful sorry excuse for a man, James. Your father would be ashamed." She sneers before turning around and I let her go, her words sliding off of me like nothing.

I watch as she leaves and immediately send out the Banishment order to all the gaurds, Commanders and Captains.

With a killer headache, I decide to give myself a break, suddenly feeling the urge to hear Cody's voice or have Jessie make me laugh. I pat my pockets, in search of my phone, and realize I don't have it. I try to retrace my day and realize that I left it in Zee's office after receiving the report.

Unsure of where she is, I decide to upstairs to her office to grab it, wanting to check in on my lovers day anyway.

I head up the stairs and down the hallway until I get to her door. And before I enter, the sinking feeling in my stomach tells me all I need to know. The door is still locked, but I know it doesn't matter, even as I take my keys out to unlock the door. And just like I thought, Zee's office is in ruins. Her books are torn apart, centuries of wolf history and story telling destroyed, in piles of trash around the room. Her chairs are gutted, the pictures that were hanging on the floor torn from their frames.

And on her desk full full of documents and files I find my phone sitting among it all.

I grab the device and open it, going to shoot a message to Cody, suddenly glad he's not here. Only to see a text that was sent forty or so minutes ago already there asking Cody to return to the pack. My heart drops to my stomach. I call his phone but it doesn't ring at all, going straight to voicemail three times in a row, either dead or off. Anxiety flared through me, panic following as they threaten to swallow me whole.

My hands are shaking slightly as I use our mental link to try to reach him, but instead I'm met with a fuzzy but solid grey wall, cutting me off from even feeling if he's there, unconscious or even alive.

'Oh, Celeste. You don't think...?' Sloan can't even finish the thought, a sob caught in his throat as I dial Artemis' number, praying she'll recognize this as an emergency if I'm calling now.

And thankfully she does, the Princess only taking two rings to pick up the phone, the sound of a door closing a noise being cut off tells me she stepped into the hallway as she answers. "Hey, James, what's going on?"

"Artemis, I just found Zee's office destroyed and a message sent from my phone for Cody to come back here. I need to know if he's there or if anyone has seen him. I'm going to gather my team and see if it's possible he came back without replying." I tell her my thoughts going haywire, unable to think straight, but Artemis pulls me in.

"Okay, I will get Jasper, Taylor and the Hybrids to help me look and ask around. If I know Cody, I don't think he would just leave without telling anyone or texting you back. Just try to breathe. We'll keep you posted." Artemis assures me before she's gone.

I take a deep shuddering breath trying to do what she said, Sloan lending his emotional support, though I can tell he's just as shaken as I am.

Using my mind link, I quickly connect myself, Alex, Zee, Charlotte, Warrior Jeffery and my three Commanders together, informing them of the situation and having them do a full sweep of the pack before meeting me in the front of the Pack House.

For the next fifteen minutes I hear over twenty wolves combing the woods of the Autumn Falls pack, I myself going back and forth through out favorite patch of woods, only catching scents from training a few days ago. Soon people are meeting in front of the Pack House and I head there myself, hoping that someone has something, but when I arrive, Alex is ready to deliver the less than great news.

He shakes his head, "None of us could find any whiff of Cody beyond the trail from this morning when he went to school, wherever he is, he didn't come back." He tells me just as my phone starts to ring in my pocket. Alex dismisses the volunteers but my team doesn't move an inch as they wait to see what's going on on the other end of the line, and I put the call on speaker to cut down repeating myself.

"Did you find him?" I ask, expecting Artemis' voice but it's actually Jaspers the answers, the Faerie Princess im the background talking to someone's who's voice I don't recognize.

"We didn't find him, but we found a witness. And his phone. Apparently a Witch with purple eyes, olive skinned, dark hair. We haven't gotten a name yet, but a Vampire was about to use the gym for practice when he saw the Witch girl fighting with someone, but the thing is, he says the girl was actually manipulating shadows, and has wrapped the guy inside before pulling him through the portal. We think Cody was teleported somewhere. The Witch is an Enchanted." He tells me, but my mind is still processing one piece of information that makes me feel sick to my stomach.

The Witch- the Enchanted he described sounds exactly like Makayla, the girl that gave us the Dagaz Runes. The same Witch that Timari and Johnathan encountered. The same one that has been killing wolves, violating our homes and obsessing over a key we know nothing about.

It's been her the entire time.

The sickening realization almost makes me want to throw up, and the rest of my team doesn't take the news any better, even if they don't know it's the same person we trusted to use magic on us.

She could have killed us then.

The realization of the danger we were in and Cody being there again has me snapping out of it. "Artemis, grab the Vamp, and gather all of our Allies. The twins, the Faeries and Winter Moon. Everyone who we've met with, I need them all to meet me in the cabin. We're going to the Elder's Sanctuary, but if we can't get them to give us control of the Warriors, I might need everyone's help. Zee see if I missed anything in your office. Commanders, get ready for battle. Charlotte, Jeffery, your coming with me to talk to the Elders. We meet at the White Cabin in the hour. Bring your weapons." I tell them all before hanging up the phone and heading straight towards the center of the Village.

Don't worry, Cody. I'm coming for you. No matter what it takes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shit is going down! Do you guys think the elders will listen? Where do you think Makayla took Cody? Ahhh I'm so excited to finally be at this point. It sets up the scene for the rest of the series.

Thoughts?

Comments?

QOTD: Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune?