A Time for Change

by Marquaylla Lorette

  James whipped his head around when he smelled several of the same shifter scents who were in his parent’s home that night. James roared and shifted into his huge lion form causing his burgundy eyes to glow and his pupils to elongate.

  From the sound of his growl, Chelsea and Ace knew who the shifters in front of them were. They quickly shifted and made their way to either side of their mate, standing as a united front.

  James and his mates waited until the shifters charged at them before reacting. Ace was the first to attack. He leaped into the air and landed behind their opponents, confusing them. They didn’t know whether they should keep their eyes focused on the shifters in front of them or the one behind them. Ace attacked them from behind while James and Chelsea attacked them from the front.

  Blood splattered onto the sidewalk as Ace, Chelsea, and James ripped their heads and hinds apart and split some of their bodies in two.

  When they shifted back, Chelsea noticed James had a tear in his shoulder. She reached into her purse and took out one of the potions she had left over from Ace’s injuries and poured it onto James’s injury. Chelsea watched as the potion sizzled as it healed. When James’s injury was healed, they left to pick up the rest of their school supplies, but not before calling the Alpha to send someone to clean up the corpses and blood.

  ***

  When Chelsea, Ace, and James made it back to the house, Trevor and Charity were in the kitchen. Out of the corner of her eye, Chelsea could see that Trevor was rubbing his hands up and down his face while, sighing, and Charity was rubbing his back.

  “What is wrong, Trevor?” Chelsea asked.

  Trevor turned to her and the look in his eyes told her everything. “Nothing, Chelsea.”

  “Trevor!” Chelsea said loud enough to get him to look at her. She knew he was trying to hide something from her, but she just didn’t know what or why for that matter.

  “He promised he wouldn’t tell you guys, but I think everyone should know. Your Uncle Jasper was kidnapped today and I think it was by the same people who killed my parents. We have to find him fast before they do anything to him,” Charity answered for Trevor.

  “Who made you promise not to tell me, Trevor?” Chelsea asked as she crossed her arms over her chest and tapped her foot against the floor.

  “They just didn’t want me to tell you because of why he was kidnapped. Someone left a note saying he would be returned if you guys didn’t open the school tomorrow or he would be killed if you do,” Trevor said.

  “I need the letter so I can determine who is behind this. We need to find Jasper before we open the school tomorrow,” Ace said.

  Trevor ran to the Beta/Head Enforcer house where the letter was and grabbed it without telling anyone there what he was doing. He didn’t have time and didn’t feel like answering any questions. Trevor handed Ace the letter as soon as he walked through the kitchen door.

  Ace took the paper and rubbed his hands against it as he closed his eyes and concentrated. He was going to use the same power he had used previously to figure out what really happened to Eli’s and Jadelyn’s mothers. Ace took a deep breath and concentrated on the letter. A vivid image popped into his head, he could see someone approaching Jasper from behind. Ace’s spirit flew closer to the shifter who was now dragging Jasper to his car. When Jasper’s attacker looked up, Ace looked on in shock. It was Misty’s mate and he looked confused, as if he had no idea what he was doing or why. As Ace drew closer to him, he could smell some type of strange spell on him. He also had a purple aura around him and Ace knew from studying with Aishe that it was a mind control spell.

  Ace took a deep breath as he opened his eyes before speaking. “I need something stronger to help me figure out who it is. Misty’s mate was the one who took Jasper, but someone is controlling him, he has no idea what he is doing. I need something to help my mind push through the barriers and figure out who is controlling him,” Ace said.

  Everyone in the kitchen began throwing out ideas on what they thought would help Ace’s power break through the barriers of the controlling spell.

  “Shush, so I can think and figure this out,” Ace said. He thought about it for a few moments until he finally went back to his training with Aishe.

  Ace asked Eli if he could get some crystals from his grandmother so he could see everything about the leader with his vision powers after the first attempt wasn’t what he wanted.

  “We have some crystals already, Ace, from the last time you asked Aishe,” Chelsea said. Chelsea ran up to their room and grabbed the container of crystals Aishe had given to them. She handed the crystals to Ace who was now sitting in the middle of the living room floor.

  Ace took the crystals from Chelsea and placed the letter in front of him. He then placed the crystals around him in a circle and placed the letter in front of himself. He took four more crystals and put them on each of the four corners of the letter.

  Ace closed his eyes and concentrated on the letter in front of him. Pictures surrounding the letter flashed before his eyes until he finally captured the one he was looking for.

  Misty’s mate, Tate, was walking in the park when two warlocks approached him.

  “Hey, Tate, why don’t you come over here and lets discuss something for a minute,” one of the warlocks called out to Tate.

  “What do you have to talk to me about?” Tate asked.

  “Your mate, Misty,” the other warlock said.

  “Look, I had nothing to do with what was going on. I was poisoned just like everybody else,” Tate said.

  “Don’t you want to get back at those responsible for your mate’s demise?” the other warlock said.

  “She did that to herself,” Tate answered. He didn’t like what Misty had done and felt she had to be held accountable for her own actions.

  “Aren’t you man enough to want to get back at those who harmed your mate?” one of the shifters yelled.

  Tate noticed the warlocks were getting closer to where he was at as they talked.

  “If she was my true mate and did something, I would have defended her. She tricked me with a potion to make me think she was my mate so you have the wrong person, try again,” Tate said as he turned around and started to walk away.

  All of a sudden Tate couldn’t move anymore; he struggled with everything he had in him to move but couldn’t. He could hear one of the warlocks chanting a spell and he struggled more. He struggled until darkness overtook him.

  Ace came to from the vision, always seeing more with the crystals around him. He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

  “You would never believe what I just saw. Misty had poisoned Tate into thinking he was her mate and he just now figured it out. Also, it was Ursula’s warlock guards who poisoned him. If we find the guards we more than likely will find Jasper,” Ace said.

  “They will probably be at or around the witch’s side of the Isle. My father has a friend named Ben who knows how to sneak onto and off the witch’s side of the Isle without being seen or caught,” Chelsea said.

  “I will go get Baron, Jake, Cornelius, Gabe, and Mence so we can tell them what we found out,” Eli said as he got up off the couch. Eli, Jadelyn, Treasure, and Grace had walked in when Ace was in a trance with his visions.

  A little while later, just as Baron and the others were walking down the stairs, Ben entered the Alpha’s house with a map in his hands. He immediately spread the map across the table, knowing that time was of the essence at this point. If the warlocks thought they were still going to open the school, he knew Jasper was dead. He had to help them fast, they didn’t have time for formalities at this point.

  “You see these red lines here, if you stay on them the cameras or any other monitoring devices will not be able to see you at all,” Ben said as he pointed to the spots on the map.

  “Thanks, Ben. Dad, I need you to gather up three of your Enforcers and send them outside, we will be waiting in the car for them,” Ace said as he gathered up the map from the table.


  James, Eli, Trevor, Greg, and their mates, along with three of the Enforcers, Cornelius, sent with them to help rescue Jasper, made their way to the witch's side of the Isle following Ben’s map. One of the Enforcers was driving while one was directing and the other was watching out for any possible signs of danger.

  Chelsea had already made them and the entire car invisible before they left the Alpha house. They wanted to avoid anyone being able to see them, especially since they didn’t know who they could trust at the moment. They weren’t going to take any chances with anyone outside of their group.

  Chelsea was pissed, she couldn’t believe they were coming after her family now. She would have been more understanding if it were she or one of her mates, since her family had nothing to do with them starting the school. Her she-wolf was pissed as well and wanted to rip something apart. Chelsea’s wolf was acting like a caged animal trying to escape its prison cell.

  Forty-five minutes later, they were pulling up to a secluded area surrounded by trees on the witch’s side of the Isle. The area they were in was located a few yards away from the warlock who helped Ursula kidnap Chelsea and made Tate take Jasper. According to the tracking device they installed on them when they rescued Chelsea, they were in the house Ben had circled on the map.

  It was Ben’s job to know everything about the witches and warlocks. Through Ben, they found out the two warlocks who were helping Ursula at first were brothers and they lived in the same house. Ben had already circled their home on the map he gave them and provided a route through the trees so they wouldn’t be discovered by anyone or anything. It also helped that the brothers lived in the woods instead of on the beach like the others. They followed Ben’s map through the trees until they came upon a cabin in the middle of the woods.

  James, Trevor, and their mates headed to the front door of the house while Eli, Greg, and their mates headed to the back door of the house. They waited until the three Enforcers surrounding the house poured the warlock’s magic suppressant potion around the house, preventing the warlocks from being able to use magic for twenty minutes, as long as they were within twenty feet of where the potion was dropped.

  The front and back doors of the home were kicked in at the same time. Chelsea was the first one through the door. As she entered, she noticed the warlock brothers who kidnapped her staring at the television with such an intensity that neither of them bothered nor attempted to look up, which pissed Chelsea off enough to bring her she-wolf to the front a little. Chelsea was across the room in two steps with her wolf now in charge. She growled as she reached out, grabbed both brothers by the collar, and lifted both of them into the air.

  “Where is my uncle?” Chelsea growled as her light-brown eyes began to glow golden-brown. Chelsea threw one of the brothers across the room into a steal-plated wall, snapping his neck in the process—her she-wolf was in a fit of rage when they took too long to answer her.

  “Now, tell me where my uncle is before you end up like your brother,” she growled out.

  “I have no idea. Tate hasn’t brought him yet. We thought you guys were him,” the last brother stuttered out.

  Chelsea snapped his neck with one hand before turning and stalking out the door without making sure the others were behind her.

  James ran down the stairs behind Chelsea, grabbed her forearm, and turned her around so she was facing him. “Don’t you ever walk into an unknown place alone without letting one of us go in first,” James said.

  He was angry she had put herself in danger by going in first. James had already given them all the rules in the car on their way to the house. He was supposed to go into the house through the front door first and Eli was to do the same thing with the back door. They were going to use their police training to clear the place and get the warlocks under control before any of the other shifters with them entered, but Chelsea threw that plan out the window quickly.

  “Believe it or not, I can take care of myself. You would have done the same thing and said ‘fuck the rules’ if it was Charity. I did the same thing for my uncle,” Chelsea said, as she snatched her hand away, she didn’t have time for this. She had to save her uncle, fuck the other shit.

  “Word of advice, never tell a shifter to follow the rules when their family is in danger. Their shifter side tends to take over and they cannot control it until they get them back. Remember what happened when you found your parents just a few days ago. If it wasn’t for Aishe, you might have killed them all,” Ace said before going after Chelsea to calm her down.

  James knew Ace was right, but it still didn’t stop him from wanting to protect his mate. He didn’t care if she didn’t talk to him for a while, just as long as he knew she was safe. James knew he was going to always protect her even when she thought she didn’t need it. He wasn’t going to let what happened to his parents happen to either of his mates.

  Chelsea was pissed. She didn’t like being thought of as fragile. She climbed into the car and slammed the door then she closed her eyes and leaned her head back as they made their way to Tate’s house to find her Uncle Jasper. Chelsea wondered how Tate was able to fight the spell he was under as they turned the corner to Tate’s home.

  Chelsea opened her eyes when they finally pulled up to the front of Tate’s house. She was the first one out of the car with Ace and James right behind her. They could see the curtains moving as they walked up the walkway.

  The door opened before they could even knock.

  “All of you hurry up and get in here,” Tate said, as he stood halfway behind the door.

  James stepped ahead of Chelsea when she tried to enter first. She growled at him as she entered Tate’s home directly behind him.

  “I know why you all are here. He is in my bedroom sleeping off whatever they made me give him,” Tate said when the door to his home closed.

  “What happened? Did the spell wear off of you?” Ace asked.

  “No, I have the power of antidote, which means any potion or spell wears off me quickly,” Tate answered.

  “Well how were you still under the spell from Ursula all those years?” Chelsea asked

  “When Aishe gave me a reading after the Alpha Battle, she found out Misty was feeding me the spell each day through my food. So I was under the spell every day but sometimes it wore off. Like that night Jadelyn went to see Liberty and Misty was there with her instead of her being alone. I had followed them when they left my house. Somehow, I knew something wasn’t right and I hid in the shadows in the alley. I froze time around Misty and Liberty until Eli disappeared with you when I saw them with the orbs,” Tate said.

  “Thanks,” Jadelyn and Eli said.

  “Aishe said something to me after my reading that I didn’t understand until now. For some reason I am supposed to stay close to the nine of you when and until the time is right, whatever that means,” Tate said.

  ‘If Aishe thinks he should stay close to us for a while, we are going to need him for something,’ Chelsea spoke into her mates and friends heads.

  ‘Do you guys trust him?’ James asked.

  ‘Yes, if Aishe trusts him, we all trust him. She would never steer us wrong. She must have had a vision and in the vision we will need him or his destiny is somehow intertwined with ours,’ Ace answered and every shifter they were mind speaking with agreed.

  “Tate, I will leave two Enforcers with you while you are packing your clothes and everything else you will need. Meet us at the Alpha’s house in twenty minutes or else I will send backup to your house just in case. Ace and James, carry Jasper out to the car so we can get that stuff out of him,” Chelsea said before making her way to the front door.

  “Bossy little thing, isn’t she?” laughed Ace as he slapped James on his back.

  “I am turned on!” replied James as they walked to the SUV.

  Chelsea drove her uncle straight to Aishe’s house where his mate and Aishe were waiting for them. Aishe was standing in the driveway with Cornelius and Gabe when they pulle
d up. Cornelius and Gabe took Jasper out of the car and carried him into Aishe’s house with Aishe following directly behind them, where he would be cleansed of all the poison still in his system, which would take a couple of hours.

  ‘We have him now, go home and get some rest before school tomorrow, and remember to keep Tate with all of you at all times,’ Aishe said to all of them when they were in the car.

  Chelsea drove off after hearing Aishe say that. By the time they pulled up to the Alpha’s house, Tate and the two Enforcers were there as well. Chelsea, James, and Ace made their way to their bedroom while Jadelyn directed Tate to an empty bedroom on the first floor.

  Chapter Nine

  Chelsea was shocked when her and her mates walked into the kitchen the next morning since breakfast was already on the table. A holograph note was levitating above the table. Chelsea and her mates waited until the others were in the kitchen with them eating before playing the note.

  Rose’s face was floating in the air when Chelsea pressed play.

  “I decided to make a congratulatory breakfast for all of you, just for this morning, so don’t get used to it,” Rose said.

  Everyone quickly chatted over breakfast since they had to be at the school in fifteen minutes. They knew the students wouldn’t be arriving for another half hour. Through the conversation, they found out Tate studied the history of both humans and shifters in college. When they learned this, Chelsea and her mates asked Tate to come work at their school.

  Tate agreed since he didn’t like how the school system was, especially when he was in school. All the different species of shifters went to the same school when they were on the human side. He wanted them to all come together on the Isle and learn to accept the different type of shifter the others were. Tate knew he was going to help them bring everyone together, he just didn’t know how yet.

  “Tate, you can ride with us since everyone else will be on their motorcycles,” Charity said as she climbed into Trevor’s silver sports car.