Chapter 7 : Breadcrumbs

Damian’s POV

    We have been trying to follow this lead for the last 3 days, but I am thinking it is another deadend. It doesn't help that my sleep has been restless, when sleep does come I keep dreaming about the witch. Goddess, she is gorgeous! I need to get her out of my head, cold showers every morning and my hand do not satiate this burning need for a girl I barely know. This is not supposed to happen, unless she is my mate. Do witches even have the same sense and bond as shifters do with their mates? Will I sense it at the Harvest Moon Festival if she is? So many Questions that I don’t have answers to and I am not about to ask the few people who may know. I sip my cup of coffee and look over to the burnt out building...just one more question in an endless sea of questions. We have examined this pile of ash and debris over and over again, returning whenever we are stuck, and that lead brought me back here, but why?  It feels like we are just going in circles again, but Spooky calls me over to a pile noticing a glint of something metal as the early morning sun reaches over the horizon. We sift through the pile and find a soot covered bracelet, much too small for an adult, it must belong to a small child. There is an engraved nameplate that can’t be made out, but the small attached charms are easily visible as a crescent moon,with a soot covered gem and a tiny wolf. I tell him to carefly bag it up so that someone in the lab can properly clean it and investigate further. We decide to give the surrounding area a thorough search, not really expecting to find anything.

     I am just about ready to call it quits when Riff gives a loud whistle. She is less than a foot from where Spooky had found the bracelet, and had a metal box in her hand “Damian, This was under some debris right here! How were these things missed all these years? “ 

     “Honestly, they should have been found by either humans or shifters years ago. Bag it up. We’ll see what we can discern” I say. I stretch my back and neck out as I stand to my full height. I add “after the humans went through all of this I came here with my father looking for clues, I was just a boy, around 8 years old, about 6 years ago I was sent here to go through it again, I was stunned then that it still hadn’t been plowed over and rebuilt, now here we are again. I know we have sent out other wolves to look it over, but there is so much debris. It was a huge hotel.”

     “It’s reduced to nearly nothing now…cinders and ruin” Riff sighs, then a smirk plays on her lips “that would be great song lyrics, maybe I could write about a tragedy, or something.” Riff’s punk band was an odd mix, a half decent drummer, an ok guitarist and an inexperienced one, but they could all sing fairly well.

     As we ate our lunch we placed the bags on the table, trying to make our guesses about the contents without disturbing them much. “Dude, do you think this belonged to the Alpha Heir?” Riff asks while poking the bag containing the bracelet.

     “Maybe. The only way to know for sure is to clean it up and see what we uncover,” I shrug.

     “Hey, do you think your little witch is the Alpha Heir? Her parents died in a hotel fire, didn’t they? She is also around the right age” Spooky ponders.

     I really want to deny her being mine but I bite my tongue and roll my eyes. “Who, Selyna?” I pretend like I have no idea who he means.

     “Yes, your little witch, Selyna! What? Do you have another little witch hidden away somewhere?” Spooky teases. 

     “Yeah, that’s what my dad told me. Selyna was raised by humans, didn’t even know she had powers until they manifested on her 13th birthday.” I grumble. It’s the first time I have said her name out loud, and now I have done it twice in a matter of minutes. I love the way it sounds.

     “ So do you think she’s the heir?” he asks again.

     “Nah! The Alpha has to be a shifter and she is a witch. Hybrids are either /or, not both.” I reply, flatly. “Some wolves have special abilities due to a witch ancestor, but I have never met a true hybrid. It's unheard of for a full witch to also be a shifter and she has the power of a full witch. Besides, we would both sense and smell her wolf if she had one” It isn’t like the thought hasn’t crossed my mind, especially after that weird dream Saturday night, but I refuse to tell them that. I was only 8 when they disappeared so memories of Dimitri and Marlene are a bit muddled, and memories of their daughter seem non-existent. We would have lived in the packhouse together. The Alpha’s on the third floor and Beta’s on the second, but I don’t even remember her name, it’s like the more I try to remember the more my mind fogs. In the dream I was too far to see details and the couple seemed much too frail to be the witch queen and strongest Alpha known to our kind, besides it was a dream. 

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     “Dude, you are a mess! You look exhausted and I know you haven’t been sleeping well at night.” Spooky sighs in my direction. It’s Thursday morning and we are packing up to head home. I had more dreams last night, this time I got the furthest I have yet before being awoken with a pillow to the head. Shit, I must have been moaning in my sleep! I was kissing her and cupping her breasts, she had straddled me and was lifting my shirt…running her hand up my abs towards my pecs, her fingers had just about reached my nipple rings , right as the pillow smacked me and I awoke. I always get woken up before it gets to the really good parts. Jerking off in the shower this morning was just not enough. My body craves her touch. I don’t understand how I can be so drawn to a girl that can’t possibly be my mate.

     “I’m fine, just need to sleep in my own bed” I grumble with a sneer. Am I being even more surly than usual? I can’t wait to get home and to my own room, my plush king sized bed and ultra soft egyptian cotton sheets are calling my name…maybe a soak in the bathtub will ease some tension, relax my muscles, then I can get some real sleep. I know Spooky is excited to hit the road. Heather finally gave him the green light on having pups and I am sure that he can’t wait to get started.

     “I know what you need, but you would have to listen to your body and follow your heart.” Spooky cautiously advised. He knows I am on edge and my temper could flare easily, but I know he is right. I may not admit out loud or even really admit it to myself, but seeing her, being with her, touching her…is the only way my body will truly relax.

     The ride home was relatively quiet. I was driving, so kept my attention on the road leaving the others to whatever petty conversations they were attending to. “Are you sure you are okay, man? “ Spooky mindlinked about 2 hours in to the drive.

     “Yeah, man, we are almost home, I just really need to get into my own space where I can relax” I link back.

     “You know that I give you shit a lot, but I am still your best friend. You can tell me when crap is bothering you and shit like that. I suggest you talk to the witch, fuck her even…it’ll get her out of your system or prove my theory right” he mindlinks back.

     I cock an eyebrow, tilting my head to look at my friend. “ What theory is that? Please enlighten me?” 

     “She’s your mate…” he seems like he wanted to say more but I cut the link. I need to pay attention to the road as we were pulling off the highway and I really didn’t want to argue.

     His theory shook me, it’s not like it was anything new, but coming on the heels of him also thinking she might be the Alpha Heir, it has me sifting through all my thoughts and feelings as we completed the drive.

     Pulling up to the packhouse I had hoped to go right up to my room, toss my bags down and crash on my bed, but life has other plans. 

     First, Kristalle marches up to me, pouting. I roll my eyes at her approach, bracing myself for whatever torment the girl has planned, but she stops short and says “You know my 16th birthday is next week. I am not a child.!” her pout turns to a frown as she stomps her foot and storms off in the other direction. That was weird.

     I feel a hand on my shoulder. “I had to talk to her, this has gone on for far too long. That girl is obsessive! Come to my office as soon as you are unpacked” my father’s deep voice intones. 

     Great! There goes any chance of sleep! I gotta get these Items to the lab in the basement, anyway. I better get to it. I grab my duffle and the evidence tote and bid my friends farewell. Then I head into the packhouse. I drop my duffle in my room, eyeing my bed wistfully, then I turn out the door and down to the basement. Karl is there with Beta Chris and they are going over a new security program that they plan on installing in our territory. The problem with having such a large territory is often the security of such a large area. We run patrolls, but the sheer size of the territory makes it tough to have all borders as tight and secure as I’d like, not to mention that we live amongst humans, witches and vamps. “Hey, Chris, hey Karl! I got something for you” I greet them and place the evidence tote on a work table. “We found these at the burnt out Hotel. I gotta ask something though” I turn to Chris, as Beta he might know more than anyone other than my father. I continue “So why is that place still like that? Humans would normally clear it after investigating and re-build, they don’t like leaving shit like that. “

    “Your father didn’t tell you!?” Chris is surprised that I don’t know the answer but continues “ as soon as the human investigation was complete your father bought the land and had witches put a barrier up that keeps any non supernatural out. He wanted to preserve anything that may have been hidden and was hoping to find a spirit witch to try to pick up any trace, they are the only ones who can track the spirit energy of any being just by tapping into their energy and following the thread of their being, but Marlene is the only one anyone has ever met.”

     “Nah, no one ever told me. “ I shrug. “I don’t know that either of those items will lead us anywhere but they are the first breadcrumbs we have had in nearly 14 years of searching.”

    Now to face my father and whatever he wants.