The Shadow Alpha novel Chapter 17

“Are you okay?” Tatiana nodded despite the discomfort on her face.

“Now that everyone is acquainted; we can get this meeting underway.” Without giving anyone time to react I rolled out the map on the table and immediately everyone’s eyes focused on it. “Tatiana, is it safe to assume that the rogue prison in which you were is to the east of us?” she looked up at me and nodded curtly, I marked the east border with an X before continuing.

“Devin, the attack on your territory; where did they enter from?” Devin and Hunter shared a look before he met mine.

“It was an all-round attack.” My eyebrows shot up in shock and gasps were heard around the room.

“How is that possible? How weak was your border control that they were able to access your territory from all sides?” Dad asked, a deep frown marring his face. Devin ran a hand through his beautiful chocolate hair.

“That’s what I’ve been asking myself since the attack occurred, there were twenty wolves spread across the borders at the time and none of them reported any rogues around the borders, it’s like they were invisible till they were standing outside the pack house. I didn’t know of their presence until the attack.” Everyone was deep in thought trying to figure out how they were able to pull it off and the gears in my own head were turning.

According to my own research I had done when trying to formulate a scent mask, the best way to mask a wolf’s scent is by using the blood of an alpha mixed with wolfsbane injected into the bloodstream. This knowledge was not much of a secret since I myself had come across it in a history book that I had found in the Alpha library.

The potion was said to last longer based on how much was injected, but since the mixture contained wolfsbane it also weakened the wolf making it easier to kill them. The reason for it being mixed with alpha blood was because Alphas had a higher tolerance against wolfsbane than a regular wolf thus slightly neutralising the wolfsbane enough to enable them to shift.

“Scent mask.” I voiced aloud and all eyes focused on me with curiosity burning in them. “It’s an age-old potion of Wolfsbane and Alpha Blood that creates a higher tolerance towards the wolfsbane when injected into the bloodstream of a normal wolf. It does still weaken the wolf’s abilities but doesn’t impair it completely since Alphas’ have a higher immunity against wolfsbane.” They nodded in understanding seeming to agree.

“Where did they get alpha blood though?” Hunter’s voice sent a pang to my heart, but I ignored the feeling.

“There are many prisoners of Alpha descent that were kidnapped by the rogues.” I noticed how Tatiana glanced at Dris and Jake when she spoke confirming my suspicions that their mates were in fact used for this very experiment due to them being daughters of an Alpha blood.

“How many rogues were there?” I directed the question at the three Full Moon pack members.

“Approximately sixty wolves. They didn’t attack with the intention to kill though, apart from the few rebellious killing machines the rest were basically out to destroy our pack land, they set things on fire and simply aimed at breaking and destroying anything in their path.” Devin answered with a frown.

When am I going to catch a break?

I could feel everyone watching me as I blatantly stared at Devin which was the only motivation I had to tear my eyes from him and observe Justin who stood to the right of him.

The moment my eyes landed on him I wished I hadn’t looked away from Devin. Dread began to set in as I took in the deep emerald colour that surrounded Justin, under any other circumstances I would have found the colour beautiful, but now it only served to agitate me. Just when I thought it couldn’t get worse my eyes fell on the light specks of red that were darkening by the second as he focused on his surroundings, he hadn’t even realised that I was staring at him.

I glanced over at Hunter and was both satisfied and relieved to find that his aura was pure blue. I focused my eyes on the map where Brad was explaining to Devin what the markings on it means, but my mind was on Justin seated beside Devin. I studied him closely, he seemed to be absorbing every little detail he could find about our plans and discoveries.

I had to take care of him, he couldn’t be trusted. I concentrated hard and I placed a weak wall up blocking him from communicating with anyone and possibly sharing the information he gathered, my wall would hold out long enough for me to figure out how to stop him and him from prodding at it to break it down.

The block was almost like cutting off his mind link, but instead it made it undetectable in his mind for a little while. His unsuspecting stance made it a tiny bit easier to do without him fighting the loss and I figured that the longer I kept him here the more time I had before he noticed his inability to communicate through the link. The invasion made my own head ache slightly but I dismissed the pain. Even with all the training my mind underwent to control my gifts, using them still made me weak and I had a nagging feeling that it always would.