Chapter 51
DAKOTA’S POV
At the mention of her name, there was silence in the room. Everything began to fall into place. Everything made sense. All except one. Why would Odin mass-produce the potion? And why would he want to kill the witch that helped him produce it?
Evelyn. I wonder where she was. And where the child was. I had a sibling somewhere.
“Mom?”
“Hmm.”
“Evelyn. Where is she? Did she have the baby?”
My mother nodded. She took a deep breath.
“She did. She belonged to your grandfather’s pack.”
“Chief Hanu?”
“Yes. I don’t know if she moved away or anything. He kept me out of the loop.”
“So, Dad challenged him for her?”
“Yes. Odin threatened to let the cat out of the bag.”
I sighed and leaned back against the headboard, withdrawing my hand from my mother’s back.
“What about the witch? Do you know where Odin kept her?”
“Well…at the time, Jacob said that she was been held in the prisons. The one in the forest.”
“Oh.” I nodded, the wheels in my head turning. I needed to speak to Akela. We had to act fast. I didn’t know how I was going to do it, but I knew what I wanted to do.
There was a knock at the door, and before I could respond, it opened, and Akela popped his head back in. I smiled at him.
“So, um…are you guys done here?”
Me and my mother looked at each other, and she waved him into the room. He entered and closed the door behind him. My mother held out her hand to him, and he took it. She took my hand that was laying on the bed and joined our hands together.
“Take care of my daughter, Akela.”
“Mom, I can take care of myself.”
“Yes, you can. But your mate would take care of you better.”
The shock that registered on my face must have been very visible because she threw back her head and laughed.
“You thought I wouldn’t figure out that he was your mate?”
I immediately felt a pang of guilt for not telling her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”
She shook her head.
“You don’t have to be. I understand.” She smiled at me. Her eyes drifted to my neck, where my necklace sat against my chest.
“That’s a beautiful necklace.”
“Yes. Dad gave it to me.”
“Yes. His mother gave it to him. It will tell you who your mate truly is. It will sparkle.”
“It did. Though I noticed that it doesn’t sparkle anymore. Maybe it’s broken.”
“It’s not. It shines during the first few weeks of finding your mate and then it stops. It will help bring you two closer; you won’t even realize it.”
“Oh.” Makes sense. It worked anyway. She looked at Akela.
“Where is yours?”
“What?”
“Your necklace. Where is it?”
“I don’t have one.”
“No, you do. Ask your parents about it. Jacob told me that he gave one to your father.”
“Why would he do that?”
“Well, your father told me one time that he suspected that he might have met your mate.”
“How?”
“That was how I knew that he was your mate. I, as your parent, can sense that I have met your other half when I am in a closed space with them. I’m not sure I can explain it, but I just know.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
She shrugged.
“I wanted you to be the one to tell me.”
I lowered my gaze in guilt. I wished I hadn’t been so tense and hurt.
“I’m sorry, Mom.”
She shook her head and smiled at me.
“No. I should be the one apologizing. I should never have left you alone at such a trying time. That was when we needed to stick together.”
I nodded.
“I pray that you two have peace and happiness. The best thing your father could have done for you was give you that necklace.”
“Why do you say so?”
“It has a lot of things that it could do. Legend has it that it was a gift given to the first tribe of werewolves, and it was passed down from generation to generation. I don’t know a lot about it, but I know that you can only access its full potential when you have the two parts.”
“Okay.”
The door opened a crack, and Doctor Paige stuck her head in.
“Hello, everyone.”
We waved at her.
“Vanessa, it’s time for you to return to your ward.”
“Okay. Give me a second.”
Doctor Paige nodded and excused herself.
“We must see before you leave.”
“Of course. But where will you live now? Your house was set ablaze.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it. Your father did one thing right. He has several properties here in Russia. I’ll just go to the next one. Luckily, it’s close. So, I won’t need to be leaving this wonderful pack.”
I nodded and smiled. She stood up and walked out of the room.
Akela took her spot on the bed.
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah. I’m sorry I asked you to leave. I just really needed to speak to my mother alone.”
“It’s okay. Really.”
“Akela.”
“What?”
I took a deep breath. He wasn’t going to like what I was going to say, but it needed to be done.
“I’m going to challenge Odin.”
He froze. He became very stiff, and then he growled. His wolf was making an appearance, and by his body language, I could tell that he didn’t like the idea.
“Akela.”
He snapped his head to mine, and his eyes had already changed color.
“Akela. Please.”
He shook his head furiously, and then he sighed. When he looked back at me, his eyes had returned to their original color.
“Why would you want to do that?”
“My mother told me something quite disturbing.”
“And what is that?”
“Odin had the assistance of a witch to win the challenge.”
“We already knew that.”
“Yes, but we didn’t know that he had the witch mass produce the potion.”
“What?”
“That, and in addition to the fact that rogues were the ones who tried to kill my mother, and Odin somehow knew about it without Orion telling him. Doesn’t that tell you something?”
“What if he is trying to give the potion to the rogues?”
“So that they can be able to fight werewolves.”
“Why would he do that?”
We both paused and began to think. We didn’t know why he would want to do that.
“We need to find that witch. She is the only one that can shed more light on this.”
I nodded.
“My mother said my dad told her Odin was holding her in the prisons in the forest.”
“The ones you were kept in?”
“Yup.”
“I didn’t see her there though.”
“I didn’t either, but I am certain that she is there.”
“Why?”
“When I came to get you, I heard a voice. I could have sworn that someone was in the cell there.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah.”
“I guess we have our work cut out for us.”
“Yeah.”
“You need to train.”