Elea took off running in the direction of the lake, testing out her larger body. This is incredible. The Moon Goddess allowed them to mark in wolf form. It's almost unheard of, for wolves to have their own mate markings. I wonder what it means, that she allowed their marks to stay.

We felt more powerful, faster, more agile. We ran through the trees, jumping over logs and ducking under low hanging branches. She skidded to a stop at the edge of the lake near the falls, and dipped her head to get a drink. Osiris and Cameron trotted up beside us to do the same. I took back control, Cameron did the same.

I could feel the breeze shift, blowing through our fur. I froze when smelled a foreign scent. I glanced to Cameron, noticing he smelled it, too.

Witch. I heard him say through our link. I'm going to follow it, stay close behind me. It smells faint, two or three days old.

I felt Elea roll her eyes in the back of my mind. Our mate. So protective. We can handle ourselves.

I huffed. Not against a witch, Elea.

The trail led us to the back entrance of the cave, where the scent was stronger. Cameron glanced back at me before shifting to human form, and I followed his lead. We stood outside the cave to discuss the situation.

"I haven't been here in about 6 months. I spent some time out here, running electric, because I was hoping to bring my mate, bring you, here on a date. I hung lights, set up a table and chairs, brought a firepit out, there's even a bed." He explained, rubbing the back of his neck, as if he was embarrassed to tell me this. "I want to go in and look around. I know I can't talk you out of going back, and I'd rather you stay close to me instead of out here."

"That's really sweet, Cam. Once we get all this figured out, we'll come back out and have that date. Once we replace everything that smells." I said, wrinkling my nose. "Let's go check it out."

Cameron grabbed my hand and we walked through the doorway. The lights were off, so Cam flicked them on and I was shocked at what I saw. The table he told me about was pushed up against the rock wall, and was covered in all kinds of spices, herbs, and jars of different colored liquids. There was a large bowl in the center of it all, but it was empty.

The bed had clearly been slept in, the covered bunched up near the bottom. Next to the bed sat the two chairs. They were stacked with clothes, some folded and some hanging on the backs. Cameron walked over to the table and started to reach for one of the jars.

This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

"No, Cam, don't touch anything!" I hurried to tell him. I watched as he jerked his arm back, inches from having grabbed the jar. "I've read that some witches enchant their things to harm people that touch them. We don't know anything about this witch or what she's capable of doing, so I don't want to take chances."

"I didn't know that. I'll keep my hands to myself then." He paused, thinking, "I'm concerned on so many levels. What does she want, why is she here? How did she get past the border undetected? We need to tell my dad."

"Mind link him and tell him to meet us by the entrance to the trail. Tell him to bring a bag, preferably a plastic one." I said, stepping back through the opening. I looked around outside for a minute until I found what I was looking for. Stepping back inside, I used the stick I grabbed to pick up a small shirt from the back of the chair. "We'll take this back with us. That way, we'll have her scent in case she comes back and notices we've been here. I don't want her to pack up and wipe any trace of her presence without evidence that she was here."

"That's a good idea, baby." He said, coming over to kiss the top of my head. "My dad said he's on his way. He asked a few questions, but I told him we'd explain when we got there. We should probably throw our clothes back on before meeting him, though." I startled a bit.

Until that moment, I had forgotten we were naked. "Yea, I'd prefer to not be naked in front of your dad."

We made quick work of getting back to the cabin to get our clothes. Cameron didn't want to leave the shirt outside and I didn't want to take it inside, so he held the stick while I went in and grabbed our clothes. We each got dressed, passing the stick between us so we didn't have to set it down, and starting make our way back towards the pack house.

The Alpha was waiting for us when we got there, and he immediately started asking questions, but Cameron held us his hand to stop him.

"Slow down, dad. Let us explain and I'm sure we'll answer your questions. Talia, do you want to tell him?" I looked at Daniel and launched into the story.

"We were running in our wolf forms, and when we stopped to get a drink near the falls, we both caught the scent of a witch. We followed it to the cave Cameron used to hang out in, and we found that a witch has taken up residence using the furniture Cam recently put there. She has a bunch of stuff that looks like ingredients for spells. I told him not to touch anything, and I grabbed a stick to carry this shirt back, with her scent on it. That's why we had you bring the bag."

"That's... very unsettling. How long ago did you put the furniture there?" He asked, turning to Cameron.

"About six months ago. It hasn't been that long, but I haven't gone back since I moved it all in, so she could've showed up any time after that." He answered. "We need to figure out who she is. We have no idea what kind of magic she is practicing, what she wants, how she got inside our border unnoticed." I shivered at Cameron's sexy Alpha tone. What can I say, I'm a newly mated woman. I can't help it that I find his authoritative voice attractive.

"Alright, you two. I think we should head to Evelyn's. She will hopefully be able to help us. Let's get that shirt into the bag, and we'll go. She's always been a night owl, so she should still be up." We worked at putting the shirt in the bag, careful not to touch it, and closed it up.

Then, we started the walk to the other side of the territory, to the house of the only witch in the pack.