Chapter 62

"Mr Dean, are you awake?" I asked.

"You can call me Grandpa now, Kid," he said, slowly opening his eyes.

I sighed heavily. "You knew this entire time we were related?"

He nodded and chuckled. "Of course. I came to this town to keep you safe."

"You didn't have to drug yourself."

"Well, I did. It was part of hiding myself and keeping myself safe. If they thought I was nothing but a loony old man, I wasn't valuable."

"I'm sorry," I said softly.

"You don't have to be sorry. I made my choices in life."

"It's almost over. We're going to get the Pandora and destroy it."

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head. "Are you sure?"

"Yes, no one can get it, especially Gabriel."

"Take care of yourself, Kid," he said.

I offered him a small smile.

"Zora, a minute," Gunner called.

I froze. What now?

"Where's Dash?" I asked.

He chuckled. "You can speak to me without your boyfriend around."

Leaving Mr Dean in his room, I followed Gunner out into the hall.

"Did you find the microscope?" I asked.

He nodded. "I know a guy."

"Great, so we can check out the tattoo!"

"Yeah, it's great. Look, all this is dangerous, and I don't want you to get hurt."

He stepped forward, but I instinctively stepped back.

"Why don't you take me seriously?" he asked softly.

"Take you seriously about what?"

"You don't take my feelings seriously. I'm the Alpha-"

"You could be the emperor and I still wouldn't give a damn. I have a boyfriend."

"I saw you first," he spat.

I burst out laughing. "Grow up, Gunner. You're having a baby!"

"I know."

"I'm interested in what you're going to tell your girlfriend," I said, crossing my arms.

"Don't be a gossip, Zora. Lilah won't be mad, the baby's innocent."

"Yes, you and Cass are to blame for hurting another woman."

"Oh really? Now you give a damn about Lilah."

"No, I won't lie. You have to do right by Cassidy, though. You owe it to your child, her and Kaleb."

"You want me to marry her? I'm not ready for marriage!"

I scoffed. "Clearly! You're a man-child. You have to grow up fast because that baby isn't waiting for anyone."

"But-"

"Hey, the microscope's set up," Dash said, cutting Gunner off.

Dash stood next to me, staring his Alpha down. Gunner scowled and looked away.

"Ready?" Dash asked me.

I smiled. I loved him. It wasn't the case in the beginning, but he proved how much he had changed and his love for me.

"Yeah, what if the pandora's in some ridiculously far place?" I asked.

"You should be worried about us being able to read the map," Gunner grumbled.

Gunner had a point. The last thing we wanted to do was get my biological Father involved. He wouldn't help us and might try to stop us.

We went downstairs for the moment of truth. Gunner was able to get his hands on a fancy golden microscope and a huge magnifying glass. I gazed at my right arm. It still looked normal. Maybe Max Dean was crazy, and he made all this up?

Dash handed the magnifying glass to my sister. She scanned my arm for the tattoo. She went over it twice before she stopped in frustration.

"If my Father lied-" Zelda started.

"Wait, wait, try her elbow. She has a birthmark there," Dash said.

Heat rushed to my cheeks. I didn't even think about that, but Dash knew right away. Zelda moved the mirror to my elbow, and a blurry image popped up.

"That's a map?" I asked.

We moved my elbow to the microscope, and the full image of a maze appeared. Dash took pictures on his phone for us to decode later. We had one part of the plan down. I had to get the tattoo lasered off now.

"Looks like a pretty straightforward map," Dash said.

"Where is the thing?" I asked.

"Dark Wolf Forest," Dash said. "It's written above the map."

"Dad was so confident no one would find the map that he didn't bother to hide anything," Zelda commented.

"Good for us. Dark Wolf Forest is outside our territory. We need permission to be there, but I won't risk telling another Alpha about the Pandora," Gunner said.

"So what are we going to do? Are we all leaving to get this thing?" Cassidy asked.

"No, you're pregnant and need to rest. Kaleb, I need you to man the Pack while we're gone," Gunner replied.

"You're going to need backup. There's no doubt the serpent's going to catch wind on this," Kaleb said.

"I know, but I can't leave my Pack defenceless. Besides, if we take a small group, they might not suspect anything. I'm not taking a bunch of betas with us. Two Alphas should be enough," Gunner said.

"And a beta female," Zelda added.

Kaleb frowned deeply. "Zelda!"

"I'm not leaving my sister. I'll lose my mind wondering what's going on."

"What about me?" Kaleb threw his arms in the air.

"I still can't believe this happened. The moon goddess has a wicked sense of humour," Cass mumbled.

Yeah, I agreed with her.

"I'll call you every hour. Is that good enough?" Zelda asked, biting her bottom lip.

"Gunner has a point. We'll travel in different cars, on different routes. The Pandora doesn't have to leave the forest, but it has to be destroyed," Dash said.

"Great, we have another plan. We should leave now before we give our enemies the chance to catch on."

***

We travelled after the sky was dark and blanketed with rain clouds. The rain could slow others down, but now us. The Pandora had put enough people on the ground. It was time to end this.

"Dad's been trying to call me for hours now. Do you think he knows?" Zelda asked from the backseat.

"How could he possibly know? Unless he's part physic," Dash replied.

"I don't know, I'm afraid to answer," Zelda said.

"Oh… I told Mr Dean I wanted to destroy it. Do you think he called Max?" I said, slightly panicking.

"Never mind. It doesn't matter. He can't stop us now," Zelda said.

She was right.

"We're ten minutes away from the forest," Dash said.

Thunder roared and lightning lit up the dark sky. It felt like a warning sign, but nothing was stopping us. Droplets hit the windscreen as the car drove off the road and disappeared into the Dark Wolf Forest.

"Gunner's behind us. So far, no one's followed us," Dash said.

"That's good."

Dash parked by a huge oak tree. We all jumped out. The scent of moisture in the air hit me hard. Droplets turned into buckets falling from the sky.

"Okay, this could be bad," Dash yelled above the heavy rain.

"We'll manage! Let's keep moving."

I marched ahead. Zelda was right behind me. It was dark, and everything looked the same. I couldn't tell which trail was which. The map said the Pandora was buried in the centre of the forest. I stepped back and decided to let those with superhuman smelling take over.

Dash kissed my cheek. "Stay close."

As the rain got heavier, it got harder to walk. I feared we might get lost in this forest.

I heard a growl come from behind me and swirled. I ended up slipping and landing on my ass.

"What's wrong?" Zelda asked.

"We're reunited again," a familiar voice said.

Gabriel appeared with a trio behind him.

"Oh shit, how did you find us?" I asked.

"We're fated mates, remember?" Gabriel said with a wicked grin.