Sold AS The alpha King's Breeder

Chapter 145 : Smoke and Mirrors

My heart clenched so violently in my chest that it woke me up. I stared at the tent around me, taking a moment to reorient myself.

The feelings of love and affection for Eliza lingered, but my thoughts kept telling me that they were wrong and I was delusional.

What was I supposed to believe?

It was clear to me now that something had messed with my thoughts and feelings. I told Xander and Theo that I might never love her again. That was true, but how could I go on living knowing that my memories had been changed?

I needed to get my real memories back. The rest could sort itself out.

Sighing, I sat up and yawned. We had a lot to do today. Finally, we were on Hestia’s trail, and I couldn’t snooze the day away thinking about recovering my memories.

I joined Xander and George at the center of the camp. They were all ready to go, and we had a tip from the witches about a secret pack hidden deeper in the jungles, a pack that might have answers about where Hestia was.

“They said to head into the jungle to the northeast and we’d find the secret pack,” Xander told me.

“What is so special about them?” I shouldered my pack and we headed into the thick, dense trees.

“Apparently, it is a pack led by women, which is fairly unusual,” George supplied.

We waded through the jungle and trekked until mid-afternoon. It was sunny, hot, and humid. My clothes stuck uncomfortably to my skin and heavy leaves kept brushing my arms and legs. The air was filled with sounds of birds and large, buzzing insects.

“There’s something up ahead. It looks like a small village,” Xander called back from the front.

The jungle paths were so narrow we had to walk in single file.

We hurried our pace to the village. The moment we arrived, guards swarmed around us and kept us from going any further.

Xander cleared his throat and stepped up. “Hello. We mean no harm. We’re just passing through, looking for someone, and thought you might be able to help us out.”

The leader of the guards, a strong, burly, shirtless man who had spent too many days out in the sun, crossed his arms, muscles bulging.

“We haven’t seen anything, and we wouldn’t tell you if we did.”

“Hugo, that’s enough.” A woman’s voice floated into the circle.

The large man immediately relaxed and bowed his head. He stepped aside, clearing a path into the circle.

I’d never seen a man like that respond to a female so submissively. George’s intel was right; this pack had a female Alpha.

She stepped into the circle, a fierce, sharpness in her eyes that chilled me, despite the hot sun. She stared at each of us, one at a time, taking us in. Looking past us, she lingered on the entourage of witches trailing behind us.

Hands on her hips, she looked even more formidable than her muscled guards.

“Tell me what you’re after, and perhaps I can help.”

Her eyes landed on me. Xander and George looked to me as well.

“We’re looking for a witch from the Dark Realm. She may be hiding out here, or around here.”

The female Alpha threw her head back and laughed. When she looked at me again, she had a cold hatred in her eyes.

This was a woman I didn’t want to cross….

“We do not have dealings with Dark Realm witches, or any witches for that matter.”

“Are you sure? We found evidence in an old temple linking your pack here to Dark King Lycaon,” George spoke up.

The female Alpha scoffed. “Perhaps, hundreds of years ago. Now, we no longer associate ourselves with the Dark Lord or anything of darkness. Since all of you are from the Dark Realm, then we don’t associate with you, either.”

She turned up her chin and gave us a dismissive wave.

“Well, this was a waste of time,” I grumbled.

Xander shook his head. “Please, we’re not here to cause trouble. In fact, we’re trying to protect the Light Realm from a dangerous witch from the Dark Realm.”

“You have plenty of Dark Realm witches. Why do you need more?” She arched an eyebrow at the witches behind us.

“They are here to help, too. They do not like what this one witch has done and how she’s sullied their name. We just want to get who we’re looking for and leave. We’ll leave you in peace and we’ll return to the Dark Realm.” Xander was really working his diplomatic power.

I guess there was a reason he was king.

“Hmm… well, if it gets you out of our midst, then I suppose there is no harm in you searching our territory. I can’t promise you’ll find anything. As I said, we don’t associate with darkness.”

Xander bowed his head. “Thank you. We won’t disrupt your day-to-day activities.”

“See that you don’t!” the Alpha barked.

“I do have one more question before we head off on our search. Is there anything you’ve noticed happening in the jungle recently, anything dark and mysterious?”

The ice in the Alpha’s eyes melted for a moment, and I caught a glimpse of uncertainty in them.

“My scouts have reported some disturbing activities of late…”

“Disturbing, how?” I asked. My heart thudded faster. Hestia was the queen of disturbing.

“People have gone missing, some from our pack, some from surrounding territories. When we’ve recovered bodies, which doesn’t happen for everyone, they seem… different. They’re empty husks, like all their insides were sucked out.”

My jaw clenched. I’d seen that same thing before.

“Hestia,” I growled as the memory came back to me sharp and sudden.

A dried up husk was all she left behind when she sucked the life energy out of someone.

“You’re sure?” Xander turned to me.

I nodded. “I’ve seen her do it.”

“That’s… disturbing.” Xander’s eyes darkened.

“As I said,” the Alpha added.

“We should follow any trail your scouts have discovered. It could lead us straight to her.” I turned my attention back to the female Alpha.

She nodded.

Growls erupted from the nearby bushes and suddenly, rogues leaped from the leaves, crashing down on us.

“What is this!?” the female Alpha cried. “You set us up!”

“This isn’t us!” Xander snapped. “These are Hestia’s wolves. The timing is too convenient.”

“Fight them back! Kill them all!” the Alpha cried to her pack.

Rogues closed in around us. There were hundreds of them, coming from all directions. I tossed my pack on the ground and launched toward the nearest rogue. When I grabbed him, he vanished in a puff of smoke.

I glanced around and noticed several others disappeared when they were struck.

“Some of them are just illusions!” I shouted. “Find the real rogues, track them!”

The fighting continued.

I punched my way through three more fake rogues.

It was some kind of trick or spell Hestia used to turn a few wolves into an army. It could keep us busy for a long time, trying to separate the fakes from the real ones.

I pounced on a rogue sprinting right toward me. He didn’t turn into smoke. I held onto his back and wrapped an arm around his neck, squeezing tight.

The rogue whimpered and stumbled, falling hard on the ground. I rolled off of him.

He jumped up, wheezed, and limped off into the bushes.

“Xander, George, I’m going after one that’s retreating,” I shouted into the chaos.

“We’re coming.” Xander punched through a fake and the two of them raced to me.

The pack could handle the rest. Most of them were just dust and shadows.

“He was limping pretty badly. We should follow at a distance, not overtake him. If he thinks he’s being followed, he might lead us in another direction,” I whispered.

I motioned to the ground and we all lowered ourselves.

“Did you hear that?” Xander asked, head whipping in another direction.

“The guy ran this way,” I pointed.

“I swear I heard something over here. I’ll go check it out. You follow your guy. This could be another lead.”

“We should stay together….”

“No, I got this. I’ll catch up if it turns out to be nothing.”

Before I could argue further, Xander disappeared into the jungle. I groaned; I really didn’t want to be alone with George. He’d made his feelings about me very clear.

I looked to George and he shrugged.