by Bryce Evans
Kayden felt the medallion fall to his chest. He reached down and noticed that there were two faces, one of a man and the other of a panther. Immediately, he knew who the man was. His great-great grandfather’s picture was the man on the medallion. On the back of the medallion was a marking he had never seen before.
“How did that just appear?” Zoey asked pointing at Kayden’s neck.
“Once The Order is activated, each piece will appear to the one who is chosen to be a member. The five Alphas have been chosen, as well as me. I hold the Sword of Garrik.” Bast held up the sword he had used earlier. It was made of pure gold with the same markings that were on the back of Kayden’s medallion.
London gasped as the Tree of Life started glowing. Kayden could see the magic as it came out of the gem and swirled around her like a tornado. Ryder reached over and held on to her as the wind died down and the gem’s light faded.
“What the hell was that?” Ryder asked London.
“I don’t know. It has never done that before,” London answered.
“The Tree of Life is a gift, London. You hold a piece of The Order as well,” Bast explained. “Now there are a few more out there. Unfortunately, we don’t know who possesses them or where they are located. First is the Cloak of Edengraf, which was made by the Greek Goddess, Hecate. It is woven together and made of pure gold. I have no clue who possesses this piece. Next is the Bow of Artemis. The Greek Goddess herself gave the bow to help in the quest to destroy the dragon. It’s made of silver and very powerful. Then the last gift is the Armor of Kevalth. A dragonslayer forged this armor for a member of The Order to wear. This armor will protect whomever wears it from the fire of the dragon’s breath. It too is made out of silver and something else, but nobody knows what. Those are all the gifts, and we only know where seven pieces are. The rest are hidden, but it is up to us to find the other members and bring them all together. I cannot tell you this will be easy, nor that we will not lose loved ones. Before this is over, we will all have lost, including me. Trust will be a problem, too. You saw the Guardian come out and take the spy from the darkness. I don’t know who it was, but not even your enforcers can catch all of them. It is imperative that we stick together and stay close to one another. Claudia and Jamal grow stronger every day, and I can feel her in Valceria.”
The room became deathly quiet letting the information settle. “How do we find the others?” Brody asked.
“They will find us. They will be drawn to us as two magnets are drawn together, but prepare yourself for Jamal and his evil ways. As a human, he will be god-like in his strength and beauty. People will be drawn to him without even knowing they are gravitating toward him. Be aware, he does not care about you or Earth. All he knows is destruction and evil.”
“Well, that’s just a load of good fun coming,” Nolan replied. He wasn’t trying to be funny, but for some reason the gloom and doom of what Bast was saying had finally hit home. Lives would be lost, he said. What would they say to their people without telling them everything? How could he protect them? He knew these were all questions that his friends needed answers to as well.
“How do we do this? Protect our people and each other without telling them what is really going on?” Kayden asked the questions they all wanted to know.
“I don’t know, Kayden. I don’t have an answer for you,” Bast answered solemnly.
“The answer is, together. Only then can it work. Bring your people together before the dragon spreads them apart,” Carina spoke in a voice they had never heard. Her eyes were white as snow as she spoke. She was gripping the table so hard her knuckles were turning white. Then she started coughing. Before Titan could help his sister, Bast was picked her up and placed her in his lap.
“Get her some water,” Bast commanded a servant. He was rubbing Carina’s back as her coughing calmed down. After she drank the water, she finally looked up as everyone stared at her.
“Are you okay, Carina?” Kayden asked.
Carina nodded.
“Do you remember what you just said, Carina?” Me-Len asked.
Carina didn’t speak but just nodded. “Do you know what that means?”
“No,” Carina answered. She didn’t like talking; Kayden could tell.
“I would call everyone together and tell them,” Me-Len offered. “Then I would dig underground tunnels for safety for when the dragon comes out at night. Before we do this, we need to find the traitors, or putting them in the tunnels with us will be a death sentence for us all,” Me-Len added.
“Then before we tell them, we find the ones who are betraying us,” Brody answered.
Kayden and the others knew Brody was right, but how?
“How do we find them?” Kayden asked.
“Just like we did in the old days. With a lie,” Jackson the Sentinel smirked.
Chapter 33
Bast took the same route back through the waterfall. Enforcers were walking around guarding the area. Kayden knew that if they guarded the area too much, people would get curious and wonder what they were hiding. They had a traitor to catch, and they needed to put the plan into action.
They decided as a group to take one person from each coven and tell them the lie about where one of the members would be and see who if anyone showed up. It would spread them out thin to pull this off, but they needed to do it. Most likely it would take a couple of days to figure it out. They would need to contact each and every coven member.
They started with Ryder’s Coven members, since Meryl and Me-Len were part of the plan, they were eliminated. Judith Lamont was asked to come to Ryder’s house alone later that night. They had planned for London to be putting up some cameras around the city and asked for Judith to come with her just in case a healer was needed. Judith didn’t seem to think anything was wrong with it and met with London. The coven members who were part of The Order had cast a protection spell on London in case Judith was the traitor.
Kayden watched Ryder, who was constantly scouting the area. He was a nervous wreck. He had seen what Claudia Blackwood had done to his sister and knew how dangerous the woman was. No one would go alone anywhere until Claudia and Jamal were defeated.
Judith handed London the cameras as she replaced them in an area that was controlled by The Order.
“Nothing.” Ryder took a deep breath. Kayden could see the anger in his friend’s eyes.
“Then we keep going,” Kayden calmly said. “We keep this up until we catch the person who betrayed us all. Then we deal with them swiftly. Jackson is still here if we decide to put them in prison, but I think we should get as much information, as we can, out of them first.” Kayden allowed his comment sink in. The price for betraying one’s pack or pride was death. He didn’t want to do it, but Zoey was almost killed two times. Whoever it was didn’t have any remorse for that and would continue to try to help Claudia.
“I’m sure the others will feel the same,” Ryder agreed.
No one showed up, so they felt Judith was clear.
They continued the process with Maggie Lamont going next. This time Judd stood with them as Maggie helped London put up the same cameras. They watched as Maggie turned around looking for something then quicker than they thought possible, London was grabbed from the ladder. Maggie told London to get on her back, and Maggie jumped up and onto the roof of the building they were next to. Out of the woods came two men in capes whose eyes were unnatural. They were vampires. Maggie pulled a stake out from under her jacket and faced off with the two vampires. She was quick when she staked the first vampire in the heart. He fell to the ground then turned into ashes.
Ryder, Judd, and Kayden tried to get to the roof, but it was like a force field was blocking their attempt. Nobody could help as they watched Maggie fight the vampire. This one was stronger than the other as they tumbled to the ground. Both had a stake out and tried to kill each other. The vampire was going for the kill shot when London grabbed him by the hair of the head; her hands were glowing as the vampire disi
ntegrated right in front of their eyes.
Kayden and the others watched in awe as the vampire vaporized in her hands. They could see that the force field immediately went down when Judd jumped up to the roof. He got to Maggie first; she was sitting on the ground staring up at London who was trying to calm down. She was staring at her hands. Her lips were trembling as Ryder ran to her.
“Did you see that? I just blew him up.” London’s voice was high with tension. “With my hands, Ryder. With my hands.” Ryder only nodded and brought her body to him. “Maggie is safe,” London’s voice was low as she whispered into Ryder’s shirt.
Kayden watched as Judd bent down to check on Maggie who was still staring at London. He could hear Judd talking to Maggie, but she wasn’t answering.
“Are you okay, Maggie?” Judd asked, his voice was shaky as he reached out to touch her. “Maggie, look at me.” She jumped back from him looking at him with anger in her eyes.
“You set me up. All of you set me up. How are you here so fast?” Kayden could see the hurt in her eyes. “After everything I did for you?” Maggie questioned suspiciously. Without another word, she jumped from the building and ran away. Judd ran after her.
Finally, struggling for calm, London said, “It wasn’t her, Ryder. Maggie protected me from the vampires. No way she would heal Zoey and protect me if it was her. There has to be another way for them to know what is going on. I just don’t think it was Maggie or Judith.”
Ryder looked off in the distance. “I believe you are right. We’ve got to find out who it is before it’s too late,” Ryder muttered.
****
Kayden rode back to his house with London and Ryder. “Something isn’t right. I still believe someone is telling Claudia Blackwood information, but there has to be another way.”
“Yeah, maybe,” London said finally.
The moment they walked in the house, they could smell the soup cooking. Apparently, everyone was meeting back at his house, and Rose had already started cooking again. The woman was great. How would they survive when she started cooking at her own home now? Kayden muttered to himself, “I can’t cook, and I’ve never seen Zoey cook, so we are shit out of luck if she can’t.”
“I heard that, and for your information wise ass, I can cook, maybe not as well as Rose here, but I can cook. Plus, Rose is showing me, and we have permanent chairs at their house for dinner. We can always switch out.” Zoey stuck out her tongue toward her mate.
Kayden grabbed his mate and carried her into the hallway. The kiss started out slow then grew passionate. He had been away from her for too long already today. Too much had gone on, and all he wanted to do was take his mate to bed and make love with her, then crash until tomorrow and wish all of this had never happened.
“Hey, hey, let me breathe, baby. What’s wrong? I can feel how tense you are. London is okay, and plus, she can take care of herself,” Zoey added.
“I need my mate now. It’s been too long. Now, Zoey,” Kayden said urgently. His voice dropped leaving her more breathless.
“We will be back in a few,” Zoey yelled out to everyone in the kitchen. Laughter was the only answer they got back, and with that, Kayden picked his mate up and carried her to their bedroom. He was already stripping her of her clothes before they entered the bedroom, leaving a hallway full. Kayden locked the door and gently laid his mate on the bed.
“You are so beautiful. You take my breath away.” Kayden rubbed his nose against her nose then nuzzled her face. This woman was so special to him. He couldn’t believe just how lucky he was to have a woman like her.
“I need you,” Kayden whispered tenderly, as he slipped his finger inside her. Feeling the wetness, he slowly stroked his finger inside and out. She shivered and squeezed her legs together as her first orgasm rushed forward.
“You are so wet, baby.” Kayden continued to kiss and lick her as she trembled in his arms. Picking her up, Kayden flipped her over putting her on her hands and knees. Slowly, he entered her halfway allowing her to adjust to his size. He was trying to go slow, but just looking at his mate from behind made him want to thrust forward.
“I love you,” he breathed out.
“I love you too, baby,” Zoey groaned. The sounds she made was making him crazy.
“Go faster,” Zoey stressed. He was trying to go slower, but she pushed back against him squeezing.
“You’re driving me crazy, Zoey.” Kayden gave her what she wanted and thrust in faster until she came apart again squeezing until he pushed one last time. “Zoey, Zoey,” Kayden groaned out.
“I love you so much,” Kayden murmured, licking and sucking on her mating mark.
“We need to get back in there with the others,” Zoey suggested.
“I know, but I want to stay in here forever with you.” Zoey smiled back at him. She did it for him.
He groaned then pulled her off the bed.
Chapter 34
Zoey and Kayden sat down at the table as everyone ate. Rose brought them both over a bowl of soup while the conversation continued.
“I just can’t figure out how they are finding out stuff. We made two individual phone calls, and we didn’t tell anyone else where we were going,” Meryl commented.
“Shit, shit.” London shook her head. “Ryder, let me see your cell phone please.” It dawned on everyone why she was asking something so simple, and they had never even looked.
Ryder handed London his cell phone. They watched as she took the back off the phone and peered inside. London leaned forward and shook her head.
“What is it?” Brody asked.
London held up her finger to her mouth and shushed everyone. London made the motion of writing something. Rose jumped up, ran over to the counter, picked up the message book and pen, and then handed it to London. ‘Someone needs to keep talking like nothing is wrong. We have bugs in the phones and most likely in the house. Act like nothing is wrong.’ Nolan started talking about the new band down at the Rusty Nail Pub.
“Did you guys hear who is coming to the Rusty Nail this weekend?” Nolan started talking. He was telling everyone about the new band that was coming in this weekend to try to keep the conversation going.
London continued writing. ‘We need a sweeper, for bugs, and new cell phones. We need to keep these phones so no one suspects anything is wrong and continue to make calls on them so we can draw them out.’
For the first time, they all felt some relief. Finally, they were getting somewhere, and they at least had an advantage now.
“I think we need to get a good night’s sleep, and then we can meet back in the morning. I will call and tell everyone where we need to meet,” Brody answered dryly. They could see how pissed Brody was; when he stood up, his chair slammed to the ground.
“Hey, you old grizzly bear, be careful with my chair,” Zoey teased. She hugged Brody hoping it would calm the shifter down and it did. He closed his eyes and took in deep breaths.
“Sorry about that, short stuff,” Brody replied.
Thorn and some other enforcers walked Rose and the kids back to their cabin as the others left to go home. Kayden whispered in Thorn’s ear that he needed more patrols around the cabin. Carina was part of The Order; she needed to be protected at all times. Bast had guards posted as well. They were so good that nobody could see them most of the time.
After Thorn dropped the kids off, he rushed back to Zoey’s office, got the sweeper, and purchased new phones for everyone. He met with the other Betas, and they formed a plan. They would sweep all the houses and vehicles daily for bugs. It wouldn’t be easy, but it would have to be done if they wanted to keep conversations private.
Thorn whispered in Kayden’s ear that a bug was found in Kayden’s truck and in Zoey’s car. Plus, a tracker was also found on London’s vehicle.
They started in the living room and worked their way back to the bedrooms and located a listening device in each room. Zoey could see the blaze in her mate’s eyes. She knew he blamed himself for
her getting hurt, but now his guilt was going to eat him up at how relaxed they had come with the pride’s safety and his mate’s. She tried to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, but Kayden just nodded and kept his feelings deep inside . Her mate was a proud man, but she would need to tell him that the anger belonged on Claudia Blackwood and not him.
“I won’t allow you to feel this way, Kayden. Not now and not ever. You hear me?” Kayden pulled Zoey down in his lap and inhaled deeply against her hair.
“She is to blame here, Claudia Blackwood, and Jamal. The moment we start giving her any type of victory, then she wins. Not this time my love. Nope, not going to happen.” She could see Kayden beating himself up. “Did you want me to get stabbed?” Kayden glared at her like she was crazy. “Exactly. No, she did this with her evil magic. Did you want me to get run over? No, no, and no. So how can you sit here and justify that you are to blame? I love you, Kayden Lynn, but I won’t allow this. Your pride is going to get you socked in the face by your mate.” Zoey pulled his face toward her.
“Look at me. We…” Zoey grabbed his hands.
“We are in this together. We are a team. Yes, we may screw up sometimes, but this isn’t one of those times, and...” Kayden smiled at Zoey. “This team is going to win, and when I need picking up, then you will be there to pick my ass up, put it back into shape, because my love, this pity party you are having isn’t going to continue. There is a new Alpha in town, and she says to get over yourself, and let’s fix the problems and live life to the fullest.” Her brows furrowed waiting for Kayden to say something.