Caden looked at him shrewdly before he said, “If there is anything you need, sir, please don’t hesitate to ask.”
“Thank you,” he said as he stood in the middle of the room. “Do me one favor, Caden, and please describe the room to me in detail.”
Caden did just that as he talked him through everything in the room until the man was satisfied that he knew the room well enough to navigate it without anyone’s help.
“If you need to use the bathroom unfortunately,” Caden began but the man only laughed.
“I know where that is, Caden, as I have been here for almost two days,” he told him and Caden winced at the news. “I slept comfortably in the living room, but this is much nicer.”
“I apologize for our disrespect, sir,” Caden said giving him a slight bow.
“No, no,” the man said waving his hand. “And Caden please call me by my given name, Cato. Sir makes me realize how old I am although I try to deny it.”
Caden laughed as Cato smiled and said, “That is a nice sound to hear from you. Hopefully we can continue to hear that sound. Go and do what you need to do, Caden although I will tell you now that it will all lead back to the same thing.”
Caden’s laughter slipped from his face as he looked Cato wondering how much did he really know and why he was really there.
“I can’t say anything about the first one yet, but as to the second let’s just say I have always been a fan of fate,” Cato said causing Caden’s eyes to widen in astonishment as what he said made him freeze.
“Sir,” Caden began seeing how the man turned to him and changed it, “Cato, do you mean…”
“Don’t think too hard on it, Caden,” Cato said settling on the bed in a comfortable position. “I just have a weird sense of humor, which I am sure you have learned already.”
Caden nodded his head before he said, “If you will excuse me” getting a smile from Cato before he walked out of the room.
Jed was standing outside the room as Caden walked out and Jed murmured, “Did he leave you scratching your head?”
“Cato is one mysterious council member,” Caden murmured. “Does anyone know anything about him?”
“No, but I can tell you this much,” Jed said as he fell in step with Caden as he walked away from the room. “He knows more about werewolf society than anyone else because his grandfather and father made sure that it was passed down for future generations.”
Caden nodded his head at the information and as they started downstairs, he met Jed’s eyes for a second before he continued down.
“Briac, did you check the area to the north of the pack house,” Caden asked as he walked in to the living room Jed following him his silver eyes slightly narrowed.
“No, I was told it was off limits as it wasn’t part of the pack territory and I needed to get permission in order to search it,” Briac told him as Caden glanced at him with a frown and Timothy spoke up.
“Who told you it was off limits?” Timothy asked him before he continued on without waiting for an answer. “Caden bought the land almost a year ago because he was thinking of building some houses so pack members with families didn’t have to stay in the pack house unless they truly wanted to and this way if they decided to move out they would still be protected by the pack.”
Briac’s eyes narrowed as he scanned the room before telling them shortly, “Leana is the one who told me that it was off limits.”
Caden raised eyebrows at that before he said, “With my permission, Briac, you can search the area but take a few others with you.”
“Yes, Alpha,” Briac said giving Natalee a quick look before he looked at a few others and they walked out to do as their Alpha requested of them.
“Gregory, I could use your help with something later in my office if you don’t mind,” Caden stated, and Gregory glanced over at him with a narrowed look but he nodded his head.
Caden continued talking and asking questions as Timothy and the others gave him what he asked, and afterwards he called the unofficial meeting over.
He was heading for the porch when Jessa accosted him after coming downstairs from her room where she went when they returned.
“Alpha, can I talk to you for a moment?” Jessa asked in a formal tone getting a narrowed look from Caden before indicated she precede him outside.
On the porch, Jessa turned to Caden and said, “I would like to go back to Aunt Cicely’s house if you don’t mind.”
“No,” Caden said without thinking about it. “We have one pack member already missing and I want to find out what happened to her before I let anyone else go missing.”
“But Caden,” Jess argued.
“That is final, Jessa,” Caden told her in a rough voice before leaned over and kissed her forehead. “I’m just looking out for you so please in this respect can you obey my wishes?”
Jessa glared at him before she sighed heavily and nodded her head even though he could tell she didn’t like it.
“Thank you,” Caden told her with a smile as Leana came out of the house.
“So this is where you disappeared to,” Leana said in an irritated tone.
“I am talking with my sister, Leana,” Caden told her in a sharp voice. “Is there a reason that you were looking for me?”
Leana looked at him with wide eyes before she let tears swell in them and she said teary, “Why won’t you give me the same consideration?”
Caden stared at for a full minute before he said, “When you answer one question for me.”
She wiped her hands under her eyes and Jessa noted that her makeup wasn’t smeared at her action, which caused her to shake her head and chuckle getting a shrewd glance from Caden before he returned it to Leana.
“I will answer anything,” Leana promised giving him a small smile.
Caden was silent for a few minutes as he stepped over to her and asked clearly, “Where have you been for the last three years?”
Leana’s face went pale and she stepped back stumbling as she stared up at him, and she stuttered, “What?”
“You heard me, Leana,” Caden told her sharply. “When you can give me an answer that I can believe then I will treat you with the same consideration that I treat my sister. Until then…don’t waste my time.”
With those words, Caden walked around her and back in the pack house as Leana and Jessa watched with astonished eyes although Jessa’s started to glimmer with humor.
“I wonder what you will come up with, Leana,” Jessa taunted as she walked pass her to go back in the house.
Once inside, Jessa couldn’t wait to find Natalee and Asilynn who were with a few other pack members so she could reveal what Caden had said to Leana.
“Wow,” Asilynn said her eyes thoughtful. “It seems Caden has learned something during his ‘vacation’.”
“Do you think that was his purpose for taking it, Jessa,” a member asked looking over at her.
Jessa stared thoughtfully at the one who asked as she said, “I don’t know, but it is possible. Caden didn’t really explain his reasons for going on a vacation although my brother never does anything without a reason.”
They all looked at her doubtfully but neither said anything about the thoughts running through their heads as Asilynn and Natalee nodded their head in agreement.
“Jessa,” Timothy said coming in through the doorway with a smile, “Cato says thank you.”
“Cato,” Jessa and the others murmured looking at each other.
“Our visitor, sweetheart,” Timothy said giving her a kiss on the cheek. “He finally told Caden his name when he escorted him to the room you got ready for him.”
Jessa frowned at the remainder as she said, “I’m surprised Leana didn’t do it as it is something we always do for visiting guests.”
“She had other things on her mind,” one member murmured with a roll of her eyes.
Timothy looked at her with narrowed eyes as the young member blanched and said quickly, “I’m sure she would’ve go
tten around to it but lately she seems busy as if she is ready to celebrate something.”
“That reminds me,” Asilynn said stepping forward with a questioning look on her face. “What about the marking ceremony?”
“It will be held in a week’s time,” Dave said from the doorway following Leana in the room.
“No offense to you two, but that is for me to decide,” Caden said as he came in through the backyard. “Until Jenna is found and Leana answers my question, there won’t be a marking ceremony.”
Dave stared at him in outrage. “That is going against the council’s orders.”
Caden shrugged his shoulders as he walked over to the doorway passing the man and he stopped briefly to look at him. “Maybe it is, but I have a missing pack member that I may not have particularly liked but she was a part of this pack and she will be treated accordingly. As for my question,” he glanced over at Leana, “she knows what it is and what I want to know.”
He nodded his head to the others before he walked out of the room and Leana stomped her foot as she said angrily, “He can’t do that.”
“Technically, he can,” Timothy said leaning against the counter. “He is the Alpha of this pack and we will follow his lead.”
“I agree with my brother,” Jessa said as she and Timothy walked out of the kitchen.
Asilynn and Natalee didn’t even bother saying a word as they followed behind them and in a matter of minutes the entire kitchen was empty except for two people, Leana and Dave whose look of astonishment began to change.
“What do we do now?” Leana murmured giving Dave a wide-eyed look and he sighed in frustration.
“I guess we let them find Jenna,” was his reply back.
Briac and the wolves he took with him saw the shack in the distance.
Did anyone know about that, he said through the pack link and he received negatives from all of them.
Let’s go check it out, he stated with a slight nod of his big wolf head as they approached the cabin.
They all stopped when they smelled what seemed to be a decaying animal and Briac felt something in him twist slightly.
They approached the cabin slowly before using his nose he pushed the door open and his wolf began to howl at the scent before him.
Caden, he sent through the pack link, we found her.
I will be there soon, was the response back as Briac slowly backed out of the shack as the others went inside to check around before their Alpha arrived.
Chapter 54
“Jessa,” Leana asked walking outside looking around. “Where is Caden? There is something I need to tell him.”
“He went out,” was Jessa’s absent reply as she dialed Cicely’s home number again only for it to ring without anyone answering it.
“Where is he?” She mumbled as she flipped the phone closed and turned around heading back inside the house after observing Caden and Gregory taking off in a hurry. She used the pack link to try to contact Jed with no reply and she sighed in frustration running a hand through her hair. She wondered how Abella was doing because she couldn’t get in contact with Jed to ask him and now no one was answering Cicely’s phone, which had her worried.
“Hey,” Leana said waspishly snapping her fingers in Jessa’s face after following her inside.
Jessa gave her a narrowed look as she asked, “What do you want Leana?”
“I want to know where Caden is,” Leana told her snidely.
“He has gone to attend to something, Leana, and that’s all I know,” Jessa snapped back at her. “When he returns I will tell him that you are looking for him or if you can’t wait, why don’t you use your link to contact him?”
“What link?” Leana asked her eyes bright with anger not realizing what she was revealing with her question.
“What…?” Jessa began only to shake her head before walking away. Jessa understood that Leana was Caden’s mate but after what they learned from Cato, Caden could’ve picked Abella and been happy so why did he choose her when he hadn’t even established a link with her yet something he and Abella established without even realizing it. She heard Leana call her as she headed for her room but she ignored her closing the door on her petulant voice once she reached it.
“Hey, I’m not finished talking to you,” Leana yelled after her as pack members came out of the rooms to see what the yelling was about. She glanced around at them angrily before she shouted, “What are you looking at?”
They shook their heads at her demeaning tone and went about their business hoping their Alpha knew what he was doing, and some wondering what was going through their Alpha’s mind at such a time.
Caden and Gregory arrived in the area of the shack fifteen minutes after Briac called him noticing how isolated the area was.
It would be easy to hide here although it is a little rural for Jenna, Gregory told Caden as they ran toward the shack in their wolf form.
Privately Caden had to agree but he didn’t voice his thoughts aloud as they neared the shack where Briac stood on the porch waiting for them.
“You are not going to like what you see,” he informed them in a hollow voice as they shifted in their human form.
Caden’s face took on a grim look as he said, “That’s not exactly what I wanted to hear” as he walked inside.
Gregory followed him in after he patted Briac on the arm and Briac took a deep breath before he went in behind them.
Once inside, Gregory and Caden were still as the werewolves around them continued searching the shack and Gregory asked quietly, “Is this how you found her?”
Briac nodded his head as he said, “I may not have cared for her anymore but I didn’t want this to happen to her.”
Caden frowned as he knelt down next to Jenna’s body laid out on a pile of leaves dressed nicely with very limited makeup as if she had been going to see someone and yet Caden frowned when he realized she wasn’t wearing any perfume.
He glanced over at Briac who shook his head and said, “It wasn’t me. I have been with Natalee since I chose her as my mate.”
Caden nodded his head as he stated, “I know because she isn’t wearing any perfume. If Jenna was going out or visiting a man, she would make sure to put perfume on as she believed it was a way to allure men in her direction.”
Briac’s eyes widened as remembrance as he said slowly, “That’s true, but,” he stopped to sniff the air catching what Caden had already noticed, “you are right, there is no perfume in the air.”
“Unless she had been here long enough for it to abate,” one of the other members said before hesitating. “What is it with the bed of leaves?”
“For Jenna, it could’ve been a way to make sure she looked beautiful for whoever found her,” Gregory said gravely. “But I think it was used to hide the smell of the body as it began to decay. It’s not an efficient method, but it will work for a short time not arousing any suspicion for a few weeks.”
Caden glanced up at him and Gregory nodded his head both coming to the same conclusion, and Caden stood up slowly as he pack linked Dr. Olsen.
I need you to come to the north end of pack territory about twenty miles in the woods, Caden informed him. We found Jenna.
There was silence for a few minutes when Caden suggested, Contact Jessa at the pack house to keep an eye on the clinic.
“Dr. Olsen is on his way,” Caden told the others as they looked at him his black eyes hardened with anger as his wolf snarled inside of him.
“Will Dr. Olsen be able to identify what killed her?” One member said his tone filled with sorrow.
“Dr. Olsen is our pack doctor,” Gregory said his voice filled with confidence and reassurance, and the others nodded their head as Briac and Caden stared at Jenna wondering what happened to this young woman.
Dr. Olsen sighed before he used his cell phone and called the pack house instead of using the pack link, which could’ve been easier and yet he decided against it although when he heard the voice on the other end he wished
had used it.
“Leana, can I speak to Jessa please?” He asked when Leana answered the phone only to scowl at her response.
“She went out and I don’t know where,” Leana told him as she glanced at the door with a cunning look in her eyes.
“I need her to come over and watch the clinic for a little while for me,” he said.
“I will tell her to go over as soon as she returns,” Leana told him the cunning look turning in to a full blown smirk that Dr. Olsen couldn’t see.
“Thank you,” he said grudgingly before he hung up the phone shaking his head as he went up the stairs to check on Abella one last time before he left to meet Caden and the others.
Ten minutes later, he drove his car to the area Caden had indicated but he could only go so far before he had to trudge through the woods when he finally spotted pack members standing outside a small decrepit shack and he frowned as he neared them.
“What happened?” He asked as he approached and they only nodded their head to indicate inside.
He walked inside about to say something when he noticed Jenna on the floor and he glanced up at the others in surprise before looking back down at her noting the pale skin.
“Can you tell us what killed her, Dr. Olsen?” Caden asked his tone harsh as he stared down at one of his pack members.
Dr. Olsen nodded his head as he walked over and knelt down next to Jenna on the floor.
“Poor child,” he murmured shaking his head as he went to work learning what killed one of their she-wolves. “Pale skin, there looks to be like a bluish twinge to her lips and fingernails, which could indicate poison but I don’t know many poisons that can effect a werewolf other than silver.”
When he glanced up, he noted the hard looks on the faces of members around him and he said quietly but confidently, “At this point in time without doing a full autopsy which I really don’t like doing, I have to say she was poisoned, but…” his voice trailed off.
“I know you don’t like to do them,” Caden said slowly his black eyes revealing his anger at what he was being told.
The Witch Prophecy Page 53
