He felt Tamara’s hand on his knee and took strength that she was there with him. He couldn't imagine what must have been going through her head about Orson, though.
“My lands are very well protected, and my coven can easily act in my stead. The sheer number should be enough to keep the culprit away. I am more worried about all of us being in one place,” she admitted, knowing that they could easily be sitting ducks. She had great confidence in her powers, but somehow, they had failed her when it came to seeing what was going on behind her back, all this time.
“I assure you, we can handle whatever is coming, but I doubt anything would happen so soon. Whoever has done this is regrouping somewhere,” Roman commented, sitting on the edge of his seat like he always did. He was still hard pressed to believe that Orson had anything to do with this at all. He was probably just being his usual unreliable self. He at least hoped so, for the sake of Isaiah. He didn't know how his brother would take it if their own brother had some part in this grand scheme.
“Alright, then the first thing I would like to cover is what happened with Annalise. I expect the truth. We have to be open if we are to trust one another,” Hyacinthe said, sliding up against the back of the couch, uncomfortable in her black velvet dress.
Annalise trained her eyes on the floor. It was the conversation she was dreading because she could feel the confusion and disappointment coming from her aunt. It was like a double whammy since she had let down a family member and her leader. “I was upset and contemplating taking off after our last exchange,” Annalise admitted with a sigh, feeling all eyes on her. Every person in that room was probably interested in the full story, but she hated being in the spotlight like that.
“But that's not what you did,” Hyacinthe stated, eager to move things along. That was a big difference between herself and Annalise. Annalise went by her emotions and senses when it came to decisions. Hyacinthe was more logical in the way she ran the coven. She had to be if they were to survive some of things that had threatened them over the years. Many of those, not a single member had ever got wind of because she had handled it before it became an issue.
“No, instead, I wondered a little far and ended up being attacked by a werewolf.” Annalise could sense that Hyacinthe wanted to cut to the chase. She was not looking for all the tiny details. “I was found by some members of the pack and brought here to this cabin by these people that you see in front of you. I was tended to and allowed to sleep here for the night, so I could feel better for questioning before they decided what their next move was.”
Isaiah cleared his throat, thinking that it was best if he picked up the story from there. If Annalise began getting too deep into it, intimate details that did not need to be brought up again might leak out and cause more trouble than they could afford. “I think I can take it from here,” he announced, feeling odd with the coven leader in the room. Now that he knew Hyacinthe was not the true leader, he thought it would make him see her differently. Only, she was still just as intimidating as before. She exuded power. “She didn't seem to remember much of anything, and she had lost her powers. There was no reason to suspect her of anything at that point, and I felt responsible. It is our rule that if a human gets bitten, we are to take them in to help them with the change and then they can decide to stay or leave the pack. I thought the same offer should extend to Annalise. So, I let her stay. I knew she needed to be hidden from the pack members, as well as from the coven, until we could figure out what had truly happened. I thought if we came to you with a solid explanation, then we could avoid a fight,” Isaiah admitted, seeing the foolishness in it now. How much trouble could have been saved if he had gone straight to Hyacinthe the minute Annalise was able to walk?
“I see,” Hyacinthe responded in what Isaiah felt was a judgmental tone. Her reserve was maddening. He could never tell what she was thinking. It reminded him a bit of his brother, Roman, who had been mostly quiet during this whole thing. Isaiah was afraid that he was like a bomb waiting to go off with all his emotions, especially with the suggestion that Orson might be involved. Isaiah was hurt by the idea and had found it hard to believe, though he wasn’t exactly shocked.
Isaiah’s vision of his youngest brother wasn't ruined by the idea he had gotten wrapped up in something bad. Orson had that potential his whole life. However, Roman had always tried to see the best in Orson. He would not be expecting something like this at all.
“There is something else you should know,” Annalise piped up, setting everyone on edge. Nobody knew what she might bring up. “I left the pack before you saw me; the night before you saw me, actually,” she directed at Hyacinthe. “I went back to the pack because I saw something; two people meeting in the woods and talking about turning the coven members. Isaiah did not believe me, which is why I came back to the coven. I thought it was our only hope, for me to be there to stop it all, cause a distraction or something.” Annalise put her head down, knowing she was revealing a little too much about Isaiah. She was riding the line of causing another drama-filled evening between him and Tamara. But she had to let Hyacinthe know everything.
“So, who were these two people, Annalise? Were they members of the pack or the coven?” Hyacinthe asked, coaxing the answer out. By the way she looked, though, Annalise suspected that she knew that answer already. Hyacinthe may not know the names, but her divination skills were enough to realize that there was one of each. She was just trying to get Annalise to say it out loud and make the others believe it. She could sense the doubt among the pack still, that any of their own were involved.
“It was Roan and Orson. Orson is,” Annalise was immediately interrupted.
“I know who Orson Young is,” Hyacinthe snapped in a strange way. Apparently, he had rubbed her the wrong way at some point as well. Orson was good at that, but Annalise couldn’t say that him rubbing her the wrong way had ever made her suspect that he would do anything so subversive. “So, it seems that both the coven and the pack have been penetrated from within.”
“Yes, and who knows how much bigger this is. I mean, do we think either of these two are the masterminds? Is there someone else being the puppeteer?” Isaiah thought out loud, looking around for an answer. He noticed how Annalise averted her eyes when he landed on her, and he could sense what she meant by it. She didn't think there was any more to it.
“My senses tell me that these two men have no need for a mastermind, but we will explore all possibilities. The first task at hand is to find them. We will need to use both magic and your tracking sensibilities to track them down. I don't think anything went as they planned, or they would both still be around,” Hyacinthe told them, standing up as if to dismiss the whole conversation.
“What do you mean by that?” Roman asked, looking like he was coming out of a daze. Isaiah was worried about him. He would need to find a way to check in with him before anything heavy began.
“What I mean is, I suspect the purpose was for them to take over the pack and the coven, which would mean they needed to stick around after we destroyed each other. I don't think that plan worked, considering we are all still here. So, they have fled.”
Roman shook his head. “My brother may have problems, but he is no coward,” Roman said emotionally, prompting Isaiah to hang back with him as Annalise followed Hyacinthe out the door.
At the last moment, Hyacinthe turned around like an afterthought. “Annalise, why don’t you stay here and take care of the pack in case anyone shows up. I may be sending some of the new hybrids over to this side of the forest. I will be back to collect who I want to help me on this manhunt once we have all gotten some rest,” she announced before continuing her way out, leaving all of them hanging in the balance.
Annalise turned around awkwardly, knowing that Tamara was not going to be happy about the order she had gotten. “I can stay somewhere else. I don't have to stay here,” she told them.”
“I think that's for the best,” Tamara said before Isaiah could even respond. He want
ed to tell her she could stay. He owed so much to her right now, but he had to think of Tamara.
“She can come with me,” Roman said as if half of him was in another place. Annalise nodded and went to follow a distressed-looking Roman out the door. Isaiah tried to follow, but he was shooed away. So, Isaiah grabbed her arm instead, on the steps, turning her around.
“Can I talk with you for just a moment?” he asked, needing to say some things before he couldn’t. Annalise glanced up to see that Tamara was behind him with her arms crossed over her chest, straining her neck to see what was going on between the two of them. She had become much more hovering since Annalise had been gone, that was for sure.
“I don't know if that's a good idea,” Annalise told him as kindly as she could manage. She was there on business now. She could not be angering the alpha’s mate anymore. “Your mate and your brother need you right now much more than I do. I will be fine.”
Annalise tried to walk away quickly, but she could hear him following her as his feet stirred up the thin layer of dirt and grass on the cold ground, below the crunching ice. She turned around, exasperated, seeing that Tamara had stayed at the bottom of the steps, still watching them with a longing and distressed look.
“This is not about you needing me,” Isaiah said. “This is about the complete opposite.” He looked broken down, and Annalise set her gaze up and down his body, noticing he had lost weight with the stress of whatever had happened in the time they had been apart. In a way, he was a different man; a weaker, sadder man. He had been broken down in the worst way, torn apart from the inside out.
“Then, what is it about?” she almost whispered, feeling a dangerous level of sympathy welling up inside of her. Her sympathy for Isaiah could easily lead down a road she had already abandoned because there were too many roadblocks. She didn't want to go back now.
“First,” he began, as if it was hard to put into words. “I wanted to ask you about what you did before; somehow becoming a wolf and human at the same time. Sometimes, in anger, we can have a flash of the wolf come out, but usually it almost immediately leads to the change. That was incredible, and I want to know how you mastered that.” Annalise doubted that he cared at all about her magic. He was breaking the ice before whatever it was he really wanted to say. It was going to be something to get them both in trouble. She could tell.
Annalise sighed. “I practiced it the whole time, and my powers are still growing. It’s part of coming of age as a witch. I don't even know if any of the other hybrids could be capable of that. It just came by accident one day,” she explained. “Now, why don't we all go get some rest. It’s been a hell of a long night,” she suggested, wanting to save face.
“Wait,” Isaiah begged, sounding unsure of himself. Annalise dared to look at his face, and she couldn't turn away from him then. There was something there that was still trying to lure her away from safety and into his arms, which were meant to be wrapped around someone else. “I have to say something, regardless of what anyone else thinks. I know what you planned to do back there. I know why you got in front of us. You weren't really in front of us, were you?” he asked, making Annalise read between the lines of what he might truly mean.
Annalise could only manage to shake her head in response. It was hard to express anything she was feeling with him knowing that it wouldn’t matter.
“Why would you do that, Annalise? Why would you stand against your own coven and threaten them in order to save me?” Isaiah asked, trying to drag something out of her she wasn't ready to give. She didn't think she would ever be ready. Damn it, why could he not just let it go? That would be best for all involved; to just forget about it.
“I don't want to do this, Isaiah. We don’t have to do this,” Annalise told him through gritted teeth. It was all she could do to keep her heart tucked inside, behind everything else, like her pride.
“I have to know,” he growled in desperation. Annalise couldn't help but glance back at Tamara as he said that. She was probably hearing most of what they were saying. What was she going to think? Annalise could not be entirely honest, but she had to give him something, so he would let her go.
“Because you’re a good man, Isaiah. You are a good man and an innocent man who doesn't deserve anything that's been done to him and you certainly didn't deserve to die. Now, go back to your mate,” she ordered him before turning around and following in Roman’s footsteps. She needed to go sleep off that conversation, so she could focus.
Tamara watched as Annalise walked away from Isaiah, leaving him unsatisfied. She was beginning to believe that was the entire danger of Annalise; unfinished business. Not that Tamara would want him to finish it. She would never get him back if he got a taste of the young witch. She could see that. So, she would just have to learn to settle with half of his heart when everything was all said and done. For now, she needed to keep it together no matter what was going on inside.
Her two best friends were facing the ultimate betrayal by their younger brother, a man she once loved and thought she would spend her life with, though, she believed he was capable. She did not have the same doubts that they did. She knew the ugly scars on his heart to tell her he was capable of anything in that pain.
As Isaiah reached where she was standing, she placed her arm around him to lead him up the steps. For the first time, she was going to keep quiet about what she felt. It wouldn’t help anyone if she blew up. They would all just have to sleep on it.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
Annalise was not sure why she had been tasked with leading the team she had helped choose. They would go into the woods to see if they could find out what had happened to Orson and Roan. She felt that perhaps Hyacinthe was testing her, trying to get her to slowly come into her role as the leader of the coven. Then again, it may have been so Hyacinthe was available to defend both the pack and the coven if anything occurred while the others were out searching. There was a possibility they would be crossing over the state border to find them.
If they were smart, they would have headed where the pack and coven would not have as much reach. Unfortunately, it meant that the pack and coven might be vulnerable for a time. Not that there had been an outside threat to either since Annalise’s birth, and that had led to the almost total destruction of an attacking coven. It could happen again. Nothing was out of the realm of possibilities anymore.
Two witches and three pack members made up the team, all for various reasons. Annalise had brought Diane for her moral support. Out of all the witches she left behind at the coven, she had missed Diane the most. Diane was practically her sister. She and Hyacinthe had been her family when she was left orphaned as an infant. It also helped that Diane was a rather powerful witch. Her bloodlines were very old; nothing like Annalise’s, but not near as diluted as some of the other coven members.
As far as the pack, neither of the brothers had come with them. Roman stayed back because he couldn't handle the truth still, that Orson was involved. He would be a liability if and when they found Orson. Isaiah was made to stay back for the safety of the pack. The fight over that was a rough one, but Annalise found it easier to stand up to him than before, now that she had made her intentions clear. There was no more question of her loyalty or strength looming over her head. Therefore, no need to be careful. Instead, Tamara had stepped in, which was the only reason Isaiah had not strong-armed his way into the tracking group, regardless of what he had been told.
Tamara and Lacy had tagged along for the mission, making things that much more awkward for Annalise. Why was she even involved with this anymore? Wasn’t she supposed to be with the coven now? Yet, she couldn’t say she wouldn't have felt strange, never stepping foot over the territory line again. There was some piece of home with the pack she couldn't quite put her finger on yet. Maybe it was just the wolf inside her, calling out to others who were the same.
The third was Hector. Isaiah had insisted that Annalise needed him if things got rough with Orson or Roan. So, t
he alpha gave up his personal guard. The thought of it made Annalise roll her eyes. She was the most powerful witch in North America and easily beyond that. Why did she need a teenage werewolf to protect her? Though, Annalise wondered if it wasn't really Orson that Isaiah wanted her to have protecting from.
As they trekked on with the two guards in their wolf forms, sniffing out their missing pack member, Annalise spared a quick sideways glance at Tamara before looking ahead again. Annalise would have liked to think that someone like Tamara couldn’t hurt her, that she was too strong. However, with the right words, Tamara could easily pierce her heart. It wasn’t something she needed on a mission like this, and she would have rather done it alone, if it meant peace.
The trek was a silent one as the wolves sniffed out any trails they could find. It was often that they lost the scent, but the feeling of magic was still in the air, pulsing around Annalise. She didn't think Diane could feel it, but she could. The speculation was that the two had run off into the wilderness as far as they could. Something told Annalise that at least one of them, Roan, to be specific, did not make it very far. His signature was all over the magic, and she had begun to recognize it from the night she was attacked. He must have been the one to cover up the scent and make her forget everything. He just hadn't been strong enough to make her forget it forever. She still didn't know who the black wolf was, though.
Annalise didn’t know how long it was exactly before the first reaction came from Hector. They were nearing at least one of them. Annalise felt sure that it must be Roan. The wolves took off in a run, Tamara finally morphing into wolf form. Why she had insisted on remaining human for the trek, Annalise wasn’t sure. Annalise had only wanted it for the concentration.
Chosen Alpha Page 17