Chapter 23

Gunner POV

Alida Romanov. I kept repeating her name over and over in my head. It had been over 36 hours since my mate vanished into thin air. I didn't know if she was even alive, I couldn't feel anything, not even the bond. Alpha Nik did say that a Lycan bond is different than our normal wolf bond. I should've known something was up with her when she shifted. She's not even 18 yet and her wolf was huge, bigger than Maddox or Axle, Ben's wolf. I've never seen a wolf so big before, but goddess was she beautiful. Solid white from head to toe with those sparkling emerald eyes that seems to glow.

"Gunner. GUNNER! Snap out of it! She's trying to come through the bond!" Maddox howling in my head.

"I don't feel anything!" I sat straight up in bed, searching for any feeling of anything at that point inside myself.

"I can feel her. Maybe it's her wolf?" Maddox said questionably.

"Ok, let's umm, let's just meditate. Focus?" I had no idea what I was doing. I've never had a mate before much less one be abducted in front of me, but I knew someone who did and could help.

"DAD! Come here now!" I yelled from my bed. I heard his heavy footsteps come running up the stairs and down the hall to my room.

"What's wrong son?"

"Maddox thinks he can feel her, but we're not sure what do to. Can you help us?" I asked.

"Yes. Absolutely son. First you both need to concentrate. Clear your mind of everything but her." Dad said as he slowly walked over to my desk and sat down. "Next, focus on her scent. You did get her scent, right?"

"I couldn't forget it if I wanted to. Mom's apple pies." I saw dad's face faulter a little bit, but he regained control and looked back at me.

"Ok, good. Now focus. Picture her in your mind and focus on her scent. Focus on the sound of her voice. By doing this, you are opening the door in your mind to let her and/or her wolf in. I recommend that you keep your eyes closed and all other thoughts shut out. We know that they are working with witches, and they could have some type of spell on her to keep an eye on you. She might not know about the witches. So don't bring it up unless she does first." Dad spewing all this out while I was trying to focus on her, I don't know if I caught half of what he said. I was just hoping that Maddox was paying attention.

After what seemed like forever, I finally felt something. It was still weak, but I could feel something there. Someone was trying to enter my mind.

"Should we open the door?" Maddox asked.

"Every other door shut and locked, and bullet proofed?" I answered his question with another.

"As far as I know, unless you're not telling me about something." Just like Maddox, never took anything seriously.

"Let them in." I just needed to hear her voice. The last time we saw each other, she thought I hated her. I couldn't live with myself if that was to be her last memory of us. Listen to me, us. I shook my head at myself. Just a couple months ago I didn't even want a mate, and now here I am dropping everything and wallowing in self-pity because I was afraid, I would lose her before we ever had a chance for there to be an us.

I felt the door opening slowly in my head, and the more it opened, the more I felt the bond snapping into place. I could feel that tether pulling on my heart.

"Gunner? Hello?"

"Cheyenne? Is that you? Where are you?"

"I don't know how much time I have. I'm in a cave somewhere with trickling water. They're working with witches so I can't trust what I see. I've already found an illusion just in this room alone. I can smell salt water, so look by the mountain's ends by salt water that would have trickling water running through it." She was talking 100 miles per hour. I could tell she was scared.

"I know about the witches baby. I will find you. Just stay strong. Please. Also, Alpha Nik questioned your parents. Your real name is Alida Romanov, so if you hear it being mentioned, they're talking about you." I tried to give her a little pep talk and sound strong. I hoped that it was working.

"Good to know. I don't know how much longer I can keep this link, or bond, or whatever it is opened. Can I somehow like mindlink you mental images? Is that possible?"

"Yes but it takes more energy. You sure you're up for it?" I was so scared for her. I didn't want to lose her.

"All I can do is try right?" I could practically see her shrugging her shoulders. I started seeing flashes behind my eyes.

It was almost like I was actually there with her. She was scanning the room she was in and I could see a dresser, a fireplace, nightstands, and the bed. The fireplace had to be the illusion that she was talking about. There's no way to get a fireplace in a cave. Was there?

"Great job baby. We have everybody looking for you. Alpha Brock is also bringing in one of his wizard friends to help locate you also, and possibly help aid us in this fight. Please be patient and strong. Do what you must to survive. I will be there before you know it." I didn't even care how soft and corny I sounded at that moment.

"Someone's coming, I got to go. Tell my parents and siblings that I love them." Before I could say anything back, I felt the door slam shut and she was gone.

"Dad I need pencil and paper now." I rushed over to my desk to where he was sitting. "Do we have any maps here in the house?"

"Yeah we do. You got her twenty?" He asked wide eyed. He was always reverting to his military terminology during high stress situations.

"Go get the maps and I'll let you know."

"I'll get Nik and Ben…"

"No not until we check the maps." I cut him off and he just nodded his head and went down to his study. I could hear drawers being opened and closed and books being moved around. That man was never organized. I got to work sketching out what the room looked like that Cheyenne, I mean Alida, Cheyenne, oh for the love of all things holy, what am I supposed to call her now?

Maddox feeling my inner fight decided to chime in, "Let her decide. For now, just call her mate. But do me a favor asshole…"

"You ask for a favor then call me asshole?"

"Just get her wolf's name next time. Please?" I could feel he was just as torn up about this as I was, but we were both to stubborn to let it show. I'm glad the Moon Goddess paired me with a wolf that was just like me personally.

"Will do buddy. Now can you replay those images she showed us?" I asked.

Maddox had put all the images side by side in my head and I got to sketching the room she was in. Just as I was about to finish up, my dad walked back in my room holding a bunch of different maps.

"I grabbed what I could find son." He said as he laid them out on my bed.

"I need to see ones that show mountains. Specifically by salt water." I said as we both started moving irrelevant maps out of the way. We narrowed it down to two maps. One showed one half of the Earth and the other showed the other half.

"Well on the bright side, we narrowed down how many maps we have to look at." Maddox chiming in now.

"Why don't you try to actually help? Not the time for smartassism." I snapped back. I heard Maddox huff in response. Telling him to not be a smartass is like telling a politician not to lie. "Sorry Maddox. I just want to find her and bring her home now."

"And you don't think I don't want that also? I don't know if I should be offended or just straight up pissed." Maddox said.

"Ok, did you happen to notice anything while she was connecting with us?"

"I couldn't really get in her head. It seemed like it was more of just a one-way deal in that aspect. I am going to keep feeling for her though."

"Sounds good. Let me know if you get anything." I said while still looking over the maps. I felt Maddox retreat to the back of my mind so my thoughts wouldn't interfere with his.

Dad and I continued to look over the maps, but I was at a loss. We were able to rule out a few of the mountains by process of elimination. About that time, dad's eyes glazed over, and I knew he was in the middle of a mindlink. After a few minutes, they returned back to normal, and he looked at me.

"Alpha Brock's wizard is here. They're going to meet us at the border where Cheyenne vanished." He said as he started rolling up the maps.

He didn't have to say anything after that. I was out the door before him and heading to the car when he was coming out the door. Not a word was spoken between us on the ride there. Not until we got to the creek where we met up with Alpha Nik and Ben.

Alpha Nik just nodded at both of us and told us to follow him. He must have told the border patrol to stay away from the area so no rumors were spread. It didn't take us long to get to the spot where I last laid eyes on my mate.

"Alpha Brock." Alpha Nik called out and then shook his hand. The two of them talked for a minute when I noticed another man and it looked like he was sniffing the wood line.

"Excuse me sir, but who is that and what is he doing?" I asked.

"Ah, that is Charlie. He's my wizard. He's sniffing out the magic that was use here the other day. Speaking of which have you guys come up with anything. Her mother is torn up, Ty went on a rampage, and the father has more or less shut himself off from the world." Alpha Brock informed us.

"Can you bring her family to the packhouse after this is over? That is if it's ok with you Alpha Nik." I asked. Both Alpha's looked at each other and both nodded.

"I sure can." Alpha Brock said.

"Her mother might be able to narrow down where my mate might be. All the family might actually know more than they even realize." I said.

"Narrow down?" Alpha Brock and Alpha Nik both said in unison looking at me.

"I will explain later. Right now, let's focus on Harry Potter over there." I said.

"Don't let him hear you say that." Alpha Brock chuckled as he started walking, leading us towards Charlie.

"Charlie. This is Alpha Nik, his son Ben, Beta Derek, and his son Gunner. The girl that went missing is from my pack, as I explained, but is also Gunner's mate." Alpha Brock went through the introductions and each of us shook his hand as Alpha Brock said our names. "Were you able to get anything here?"

"Because of the time that's lapsed, I wasn't able to get as much info, which is no fault of your own." He quickly added that last bit. "I was able to pick up on some very old magic. Magic that I haven't seen or even heard of in decades."

"Decades? Just how old are you? You don't look old enough to be claiming decades." There goes Ben's big mouth. Just as I was about to elbow him in the side, Charlie and Alpha Brock looked at each other and started laughing.

"Ben was it? I am actually old enough to claim a century plus some decades." Charlie said with a devilish smirk on his face. I had to hold back the laughter that wanted to erupt from my chest at someone actually talking back to Ben like that.

"Anyways, just how old are we talking Charlie?" Alpha Brock asked.

"It's a very old dark magic. They were able to also incorporate wolfsbane without actually having to use the actual thing. I will have to do some research on who might still be around that would know how to use this type of magic in today's age."

"You, by chance, wouldn't happen to know where this dark magic came from? Like maybe the origin of it?" I asked. Now everyone was looking at me with confused looks.

"Why would you ask such a thing boy?" Charlie's eyebrows furrowing more.

"If you can, please come to the meeting at our packhouse. This way I only have to explain things once to everybody. That is, again, if it's ok with you Alpha Nik." I kept getting ahead of myself and I was waiting on Alpha Nik to command my silence.

"That is actually a good idea. Are you a good lie detector?" Alpha Nik looked at Charlie.

"I can usually sense when someone is lying or not telling the whole truth." Charlie nodded.

"Wow. I honestly wasn't expecting that, but good to know. Ok, Charlie how much time do you need to gather your information?" Alpha Nik asked.

"Should only take me a couple hours?" Charlie said.

"That's perfect. That will give us time to get back to the packhouse and organize and give Alpha Brock time to gather the girl's family and get over to the house as well." Alpha Nik said.

"Ok sounds like a plan. I will be seeing you all in a couple hours then." Charlie gave a slight nod in the Alphas' direction and just like my mate, he was gone.