Chapter 26

“Where is Jenna?” Josh bounded down the stairs after checking on her to find her gone and the window wide open.
“Donna!” he yelled when he got no answer and raced into the living room where she was sat watching some kind of fashion show.
“Donna, Jenna as gone,” her head whipped around, and the TV switched off.
“What?” she demanded her eyes a blaze with worry.
“She is not here. The window was open though,”
“Jenna climbed out of a second-floor window. She would never,”
“Donna you’re forgetting right now she is not just Jenna,” sighing Donna got up and grabbed her coat.
“We better find her before the banished do otherwise we are all dead. Oh, and Josh call me Cassidy it is time I stopped pretending,” he smiled at her as they exited the house and climbed, she climbed into her car.
“You are coming?” she asked rolling the window down.
“I will shift and…”
“Good idea you sniff her out,” before Josh had the time to correct her, she was driving over the overgrown grass and soon was out of sight.
Josh shifted and picked up her trail that headed into town.

***
Jess left her bike hidden within the trees and made her way through the forest on foot. Inside she was seething. How dare her father show up after all these centuries and tell her what to do? Who did he think he was?
She rid her mind of thoughts of her father who was nothing but a stranger to her. She had work to do. She crept through the trees and scanned her surroundings. She had to admit the further she went into the forest the more beautiful it became. Cora De’Mar had done a respectable job creating the town.
She came upon a steep hill when she reached the top, she laid flat on her stomach. Below a dozen of shifters had gathered. All guarding the cave in which she needed to enter.
Jess wanted the queen dead. She had no intension of waking her up. Yet the shifters would not see it that way.
Cora De’Mar had something that Jess needed. Something that the Druids had sworn to protect, and she would stop at nothing to retrieve that item and make her grandpa and clan proud.
If she had to kill all the shifters, then so be it. Jess would do what was needed. However today was not that day. She needed a plan, one that she considered foul proof. There wasn’t room for mistakes.

***
“Why are we hiding in the forest?” Paige whined as she sat uncomfortable on a fallen tree stump.
“We need to stay off the radar. Our house was on fire and the authorities will want to speak to us,” Kobe answered her looking out into the wilderness.
“So, we tell them we were out. What difference does it make?”
“Paige, what is the main rule of a shifter?” her mother asked her.
“To stay off the grid,”
“Talking to the cops will only put us in the system. Paige we must stay hidden,” she sighed and stretched out her legs.
In the distance they heard the rustle and crunch of leaves followed by the snapping of twigs. Paige and her family all jumped to attention, standing in a fighting stance.
The man who came out of the shadows shocked them all. The very same man they had spent years searching for on one of their missions.
However, every lead had led to a dead end for centuries he had become a ghost to the legend of Dem’Say Woods. Yet there he was in the flesh.

***
Jenna’s phone blared in the deadly quite street. She dug it from her back jean pocket and glanced at the screen. Mum. Answering the call her stomach dropped and her heart ached. She knew what her mother was about to say. “Jenna, you need to come home,” she heard the tear-tinged words and the sadness in her mother’s voice which only confirmed what she had first thought.
“Dad is dead,” Jenna said in a flat voice,” her mum was silent apart from a slight sniffle.
“Jenna?”
“He lied. Created monsters, why?” she knew it wasn’t the time, yet she couldn’t stop the words leaving her mouth.
“He was doing what he believed was right,”
“You knew? Did you think it was right?”
“Jenna come home. We can talk there,”
“I am sorry, but I have things I must take care of,” Jenna hung up the phone and turned away from the house she has been staring at. Tears stung her eyes as her heart ached. She felt the pain from her father’s passing, and she wanted to mourn the man he had been. However, the things that he had done made the sadness disperse and anger appear. The trust she had always held for her parents crumbled away. She was left feeling more alone than ever. Who could she trust? Her family who had lied to her. Her friends who turned out to be something else entirely.
She didn’t know who she was. Yet she didn’t have the time to figure it out. Before she would be lost forever, she had to fix the mess that her father created. The monsters she had to track them down. First, she would need help, hacking into G.G. M’S system. She needed Claire.
Dialing Claire’s number, she waited for her to pick up. For once the line was not busy.
“Hello,” Claire answered with the same sorrow in her voice.
“Claire, I need your help,” Jenna blurted the words in a rush before the fear that was spreading over her body stopped her from speaking.
“Jenna, dad he is gone and…”
“I know Claire. I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important,”
“What do you need?” she asked her voice taking on strength.
“Meet me at the library as soon as you can I will explain there.” Jenna hung up and headed back downtown to the library.

***

Jax after months of torture and misery felt at home with the comfort of nature. The protectiveness he felt towards Marcel unnerved him. It wasn’t natural. When he was close to Marcel, he a peace he had never felt before spread across his body giving him a sense of calm.
As he patrolled the perimeter, he picked up a scent. However, the scent was different. One he had never smelt before. It wasn’t human yet it wasn’t a shifter nor a witch. Jax inched closer breathing the scent in deeply. When the strange smell became stronger, he raced up the steep hill.
There was nothing. A piece of fabric fluttered in the wind and Jax put a paw on the blue material to stop it from blowing away.
He lowered his head and took in a big whiff. The fabric belonged to the scent he had picked up.
He listened carefully, blocking out the sounds of the guards. Still, he couldn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.
Those that had gathered weren’t guarding the queen. Rather they were planning on how they would wake her. The ones that wanted the queen to stay sleeping were taken care of.