Forbidden Alchemy (Elemental Book 7)

by Rain Oxford

  I considered that the hunters could be the problem Vincent saw, but they would have gone after the university (which had vampire students) instead of the vampire-free children’s school.

  More likely, it had to do with the dreams. What were those glowing sigils? Who was that boy? I was disappointed that Dorian hadn’t returned with answers yet, but he wasn’t my familiar.

  We finally arrived at the pack grounds, which looked like a nature reserve. The fence around the property was at least ten feet high with barbed wire. The iron gate opened as we pulled up, but the guard made me stop when I tried to follow the others in. “Can I see some identification?” he asked.

  I pulled out my license and handed it to him. “Alpha Mason knows I’m coming.”

  He checked my name and nodded. “You’re Darwin’s wizard friend.” He handed it back. “Sorry to keep you, I just had to check.”

  “I understand.”

  He backed away from my car and I followed the others up a long, winding gravel road. There were several cozy cabins along the way. We reached a huge lake and I saw a massive, two-story house on the other side of it. This was very different than the pretentious mansions of the wizard council or Stephen’s coven. It was huge because it held a lot of people. It had a double-decker porch across the entire front of it. The wooden logs that made the frame were dark brown and accented with deep red bricks and natural stone.

  Maseré’s territory covered much of the United States, but the estate was for his close members and anyone in his pack who needed a place to stay. The main house, where the alpha and his wife lived, was the den. Pack meetings and events that didn’t take place in the forest usually took place in the den.

  I drove around to the front of the house, where the grass was thin from drivers parking on it. This home was designed to be welcoming, not beautiful. As I opened my door, I heard the crashing of waves in the distance. I smelled apple and pecan pie over ocean salt and ice, which somehow made me feel like I was in the south despite the bitter wind.

  The screen door was closed, but the solid door was open invitingly. Three preteens played with a ball in the yard while two women sewed in rocking chairs with a toddler at their feet. Jasko approached the woman on the left, kissed her, picked up the toddler, and then entered the house.

  “I’m Leanne,” the woman said to me. “This is my sister Beth.”

  “I’m Devon.”

  “It’s nice to meet you. Help yourself to some stew, or it’ll be gone before dinner.” She didn’t question what I was doing here. She was openly trusting, which I didn’t see a lot of in the paranormal world.

  “Did you save me some?” Orlando asked of Beth.

  Beth gave him a mock scowl. “I ate your bowl. It was delicious.”

  I followed the sound of the child’s giggles inside. The inside was a little more modern, which I suspected was thanks to Darwin. The door opened to a twenty-four-by-twenty-foot family room with a set of steps on either side that led upstairs. Across from the entrance was a large dining room to the right and kitchen to the left with an open floor plan. Thick wooden beams held up the second floor.

  The floors were hardwood with throw rugs throughout the first floor. The walls were covered in pictures of people together. A large fireplace between the dining room and living room provided warmth and light, but there were also electric lamps that gave a soft ambiance. The living room was full of comfortable chairs and couches for people to visit with each other. The dining room table was covered with dishes ready to be filled and a stewpot. Two dozen people were standing around or working in the kitchen.

  I knew why Darwin missed his family a lot; they were a very close pack.

  A man close to the door saw me and touched my shoulder. “Welcome. I’m Krutch. Are you looking for someone?”

  “Alpha Mason.”

  “Upstairs and to the left. If he’s in his study, just knock. If he’s in his office, to the right, don’t bother him and he’ll come down when he’s free.” It was clear that although I had met some suspicious members of this pack, they were very trusting on their own lands.

  “Thanks.” I went upstairs and spotted him emerging from the door on his left.

  Maseré Mason was my height, a little heavier built than me, and dressed in a suit. He had short, dark brown hair and the same deep blue eyes as his son. Despite the powerful wolf inside him, he came across as an amiable man.

  “Hello, Devon. It’s nice to see you again.”

  “You, too. I wish I could have brought Darwin.”

  He made a dismissive gesture. “Oh, I love my boy dearly, but the school does him good.” He gestured that I enter his office. “And his mother, too. Anya is driving herself nuts with wedding preparations.”

  I entered the office. It was actually a lot like mine. It had two wall-to-wall bookshelves with a window in the far wall. To the left of the door was a couch, and in the middle of the room was a wooden desk with a few chairs around it. Maseré closed the door and we both sat at the desk.

  “I thought they weren’t getting married for a few years.”

  “And a miserable few years they’ll be. Coffee?”

  I really wanted some- I always wanted some— but I didn’t want to get in anyone’s way downstairs. “No thanks.” I also needed to focus on business.

  “Darwin will probably be our only child, so Anya wants to go all out on it. Darwin couldn’t care less about a ceremony, but my wife is fae, and they live for tradition. My son loves Amelia, but make no mistake; this wedding is for his mother.”

  “It sounds like she’s happy, at least.”

  “I would use the word ‘perfectionist’ to describe her right now. Our own ceremony was… disappointing for her. For wolves, it’s not a big deal. I wish I could get her back into her passion.”

  “Paleontology, right?”

  He nodded. “Despite being fae… or maybe because of it, she loves the sciences. She also loves solving mysteries of the past. I miss my old career, but running a pack leaves little time for it. Although I try to encourage Anya to get back into it, it’s moot. Motherhood is her true passion.”

  “Maybe after the wedding…”

  He scoffed. “When she has a new daughter to mother? Not likely.” He sat a little straighter in his chair. “Speaking of pups, we caught Wilson and two of his pack members. Will that help you figure out if they’re responsible for the kidnapping of our pups?”

  “It should. Could the pack have acted without the alpha’s knowledge?”

  “Normally, no, but with this particular pack, there’s no telling.”

  “Okay. Show me to them.”

  * * *

  Fortunately, Maseré wasn’t serious about needing a passport. I really didn’t want to be in another country when I was expecting trouble at the school, and I would have had to use my powers on humans to get over the border.

  Maseré took me downstairs, where we met up with Jasko. We took Jasko’s car and drove across the property as Maseré explained to me that Greg and Buck, the two men with Wilson, were Wilson’s betas. Apparently, it was strange to have two second-in-command wolves, but they were brothers, and Wilson thought giving some power to both Greg and Buck would prevent them from killing him.

  Jasko was Maseré’s beta after the old beta was involved in an attack on Darwin. Although Darwin’s wolf was powerful, Darwin himself had no interest in fulfilling the role. Furthermore, Darwin’s wolf was too dominant to obey Maseré’s and they couldn’t both be in their shifted form together at the same time or they would fight.

  The containment cabin wasn’t cozy at all. It was made of brick with barred windows. Inside was a guard named Reyes at a desk, six metal and concrete cells, and a door that led to what I assumed was an interrogation room. The eight hunters were crammed into two cells. A third cell contained three wolf shifters.

  “Where is Sinclair?” I asked.

  “Marcus’s father and a couple of other dangerous prisoners that are in here for life
are kept in the underground units,” he explained, pointing to a trap door in the floor.

  Humans who knew about us couldn’t be kept in human prisons. The wizard council (at least the old one) would just kill any human or paranormal that threatened to expose us, so Stephen, Maseré, Hunt, and some others took it upon themselves to imprison them.

  I ignored the humans and focused on the shifters. They all had black hair and dark eyes, making them look related. However, I didn’t see much love between Jordan Wilson and his betas. Wilson wasn’t much larger than Darwin. His goons were more like Maseré. Obviously, that wasn’t a huge deciding factor, because Darwin’s wolf was just as much of an alpha as Maseré’s.

  “Is there somewhere I can talk to the alpha in private?” I asked Maseré.

  Greg and Buck growled, but Wilson pressed himself against the far wall as if I was the wolf who was about to attack. “Do you think we’re going to let you interrogate our alpha after you trespassed on our land and kidnapped us?” Greg asked.

  Maseré growled and Greg took a step back. “Ignore their bravado. They’re trying to gain their alpha’s trust so that they can stab him in the back easier.”

  “We’d never betray our alpha!” Buck demanded. I didn’t have to be a vampire to smell the lie a mile away.

  Maseré opened the door. “You two stay back. Wilson, get out.”

  Wilson looked at the floor, not challenging Maseré, but shook his head. Maseré growled. “Don’t make me drag you out in front of your own men.”

  Wilson slowly emerged from the cell. It reminded me of someone being forced out of his safe place at gunpoint. Maseré locked the door and Reyes grabbed Wilson by the arm. They led Wilson into a small, dark, interrogation room.

  There was a metal table with a metal loop for restraining someone and two matching chairs. They buckled him to the table, and he sat in the chair with no fight.

  “We’ll leave you to it, but try not to kill him,” Maseré said. “It’s really not fair to the pack, because they all want to hunt him down.”

  I didn’t say anything as he left. My intuition wasn’t warning me of any deception by Wilson, and I couldn’t imagine someone like him kidnapping babies. Then again, I couldn’t imagine him as an alpha.

  “Did you really kill your nephew to get your position?” I asked.

  He shook his head. He wouldn’t even meet my eyes.

  “Why does Apha Mason think you did?”

  “That’s what we want people to believe.”

  “Have you killed anyone?”

  He shook his head again, his eyes full of shame.

  “Why not?”

  “I didn’t have to. My pack wants change… at least, most of us do. Constant fighting and changing alphas is how our pack became weak, unstable, and the laughing stock of Canada.”

  “How were you appointed?”

  “Not by my own members, I assure you. There weren’t enough left of us to survive, so we decided to join with a better pack. Of course, it’s not that easy. We begged other packs to take us in, but only one agreed. Alpha Sytro is the leader of the strongest pack in Canada. He agreed to take us in if we proved that we could stop fighting and making fools of ourselves.”

  “So they chose a submissive wolf as an alpha?”

  “Tammy chose me. Wolf packs can only be joined by marriage, so Alpha Sytro’s daughter got to choose who she wanted to marry. Tammy is as much an alpha as her father, but she likes submissive men. She chose me because I wouldn’t fight her for control.”

  “Did you agree to the marriage?”

  He nodded. “I’ve only talked to her once, but she’s beautiful and intelligent. I think I’d really enjoy being married to her.”

  “Then why aren’t you part of the pack yet?”

  “We’re still trying to prove ourselves. I have to be alpha for a full month with no fighting, no leaving our territory, no…” he trailed off.

  “Are you going to get into trouble because Alpha Mason arrested you?”

  He nodded.

  I groaned. “You didn’t take Alpha Mason’s pups, did you?”

  He raised his eyes to my chest. “Of course not! I would never authorize someone to take another wolf’s pups! Pups are precious.”

  “What about someone else in your pack? Someone who would want to stop the alliance?”

  He shook his head. “We can’t survive without Alpha Sytro’s pack. For one thing, we only have three females left. One is barren, one is twelve, and the other is gay. We need Alpha Sytro, and every one of us knows it.”

  “What about members of Sytro’s pack? Could one of them have set you up to stop the union?”

  He hesitated, thinking. “I don’t know. Tammy’s brother hates us, but he wouldn’t betray his father.”

  “Are you sure? Would that even be considered a betrayal?”

  Wilson nodded. “The reason he hates us is that we’ve never been known for our loyalty.”

  “Okay, I can see your point. Someone stole those pups and put them on your land, though. I believe that you didn’t do it, but I have to find out who did.”

  He nodded. “I’ll cooperate. Just tell me what you want to know.”

  “Did Alpha Mason tell you what I can do?”

  “He told me that you were a wizard and investigator.”

  It was nice to meet someone who didn’t know me as John’s son. “You know that wizards sometimes specialize in specific abilities?” He nodded. “I specialize in mind-reading.”

  He didn’t panic, which reinforced my belief that he was innocent. “Does it hurt?”

  “Not at all.” Unless I wanted it to. “Replay everything you remember about your meeting with Sytro.” If he got off track, my magic could nudge him back on, and if there were any false or fuzzy parts, I would be able to detect that. When he closed his eyes, I delved in.

  * * *

  Jordan Wilson had no self-esteem and was more similar to a chicken than a wolf. He had a spine only in the anatomy sense. This was his own view of himself. His wolf was submissive and didn’t know the meaning of stubborn, but he was also protective of his pack. He wanted to be a supportive mate to a strong female.

  Jordan was the last of his bloodline and never knew his parents. He was told that his mother slept around in the pack and didn’t know who his father was. Only a few days after Jordan was born, she slept with the alpha male, so the alpha female killed her. Jordan had many doubts that this was true, but he was also grateful he wasn’t killed as an infant.

  I saw the wolves gathered in the woods under the full moon. It was unfamiliar land to Jordan and the scent of outsiders surrounding him put him on edge. All ten of his remaining pack was there, and he knew not a damn one would lift a finger to protect him from the stronger pack.

  Sytro’s pack members were strong and beautiful compared to his own, and he felt like the ugliest of the rejects. The alpha’s fur was white on his belly and legs and darkened to black on his back. He was missing his left eye. To his left was a smaller, white, arctic wolf.

  Although the alpha demanded the attention of Jordan’s pack, Jordan’s eyes were drawn to the smaller wolf. He could smell the strength and power in her. She could easily take over as alpha. He could also tell that she was related to the alpha, so he knew she wasn’t his mate.

  The alpha growled and Jordan understood that it was a demand. He shifted immediately into his person form. The females were the next to shift, but the other males were stubborn. He wanted to beg them to submit; they were seeking help from Sytro’s pack.

  When Sytro snarled viciously, the remaining members of Jordan’s pack relented and shifted. Greg and Buck were the strongest members left of their pack, but neither had taken control after their father was killed by a bear shifter.

  Once all of Jordan’s packmates were in their person forms, Sytro and his pack shifted. The arctic wolf turned into a beautiful woman with long, dark blond hair and light blue eyes. Shifters were raised to disregard nudity, but she was th
e first woman of another pack that he had seen, and he really liked what he saw.

  “Why should we allow you to join us?” Sytro asked.

  I ignored the alpha because my intuition drew my attention to a woman in the corner of Jordan’s eye. I couldn’t make her out, but something about her was extremely familiar. She was completely dressed, yet no one paid her any attention. I spread my power out, only to find that her mind was blocked. It was even stronger than Hunt’s or Vincent’s defense.

  Who the hell are you? The strangest part of all was that although she was familiar, her mind wasn’t, meaning while I had met her in person, I never tried to read her mind.

  When Tammy left her father’s side to pick a husband, I scanned the minds of Jordan’s pack members. They all wanted her, but they wanted to dominate her. When she met their gazes, they returned the challenge, trying to silently tell her they were strong enough to “put her in her place” as Greg thought.

  Tammy stopped in front of Jordan and he marveled at her feet. He mentally listed the things he would love to do for her, like cook, clean, and take care of the kids. I thought he was over-the-top submissive, but when I invaded Tammy’s mind, I saw that he was perfect for her.

  She was a warrior who didn’t know how to relax or put her own needs first. She wanted children and a mate to fight for, but she didn’t have the time or desire to take care of children. She was constantly challenged by males in her own pack and wanted someone who would shut up and do what he was told because he loved and trusted her. If he was too clingy, she would tell him so and trust that he wouldn’t leave her entirely.

  “I want this one,” she said, grabbing Jordan gently by the neck. Jordan’s heart thundered. I was somewhat swept up in his excitement and distanced myself from his mind as much as I could without getting out of his memory.