XIII

Alejandro leads us through the house and down to a lower level I've never been to or even seen before. We enter the infirmary to see Diego, Tito, Santiago, and Mateo all crowded around a single bed.

We join them, and I get a good look at the bed's occupant. The girl appears to be my age, and It's clear as day that she's a werewolf. She has strikingly bright red, long hair that's still damp from the rain and clings to her pale skin. She lays on her side in the bed, curled up in a fetal position, and I notice her clothes have been replaced with a hospital gown of sorts.

"She started doing this about ten minutes ago," Mateo states. "So, per your request, I sent someone to go get you."

I nod and mumble a low 'thank you' in response. The girl continues to stir and begins to mutter some unintelligible words.

"When will Verity be here?" Lucía inquires.

"She shouldn't be much longer. I mean, she can just portal here," Santiago answers.

"Who's Verity?" I ask.

Everyone looks to Mateo, waiting either for him to answer or to give them permission to answer.

Goddess, I hope that doesn't mean what I think it does.

"She's a witch," Mateo informs.

My eyes go wide and my jaw drops. "A witch? They actually exist?"

"You didn't think we were the only supernatural creatures out there did you?" Alejandro asks with a wink.

"Yeah, I guess I kinda did," I admit. "But what do you need a witch for?"

"You'll see," is all I get.

After about five minutes of waiting in silence, the sound of footsteps approaching the same door we'd come through earlier fills the air. It opens, and in walks possibly the most beautiful woman I've ever seen. She has shoulder length dark brown, incredibly curly hair and gorgeous dark skin. She's dressed in a beautiful, long, and flowing sundress that trails in the air behind her as she swiftly approaches.

The books—that, before this moment, I thought were just fairytales—weren't wrong when they said witches were majestic creatures. She has some sort of elegance and authority to her that demands attention and practically makes me want to bow before her.

"Sorry I'm running behind, y'all. My magic must be off today or something, 'cause I meant to portal directly to the infirmary, but I ended up on the front steps," she apologizes with a chuckle.

"Está bien, Verity. Thank you for coming on such short notice," Mateo says.

Verity gives him a smile before turning her attention to the girl laying in the bed. "So what do we have here?"

"A she-wolf," Santiago begins. We came across her when we were out on the hunt earlier tonight."

Verity tilts her head as she studies the girl. "I see... she seems troubled. How exactly did she become unconscious?"

"A blow to the head," Diego shrugs.

"Hmm." Verity eyes Diego with condemnation and places a hand on the girl's forehead. She closes her eyes, taking a deep breath, and, a moment later, the girl's eyes fly open as she shoots up in the bed.

She breathes heavily as Verity puts a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. "It's okay. You're safe," she soothes.

"Who are you people?" The girl asks nervously, eyes darting between all of us.

"Well, I'm Verity. This is Lucía, Mateo, Tito, Diego, Alejandro, Santiago, and..." she pauses when she gets to me.

"Savannah," I finish for her.

She nods and then points to Mateo. "Mateo here is the Alpha."

The girl eyes Mateo apprehensively. "Where am I?"

"You're on my territory," Mateo states assertively, crossing his arms over his chest. "And I'd like to make this quick, so can you tell me what you were doing this far up the mountain?"

"Umm, I-I was... I was looking for someone," she stutters, bowing her head at Mateo's intimidating glare.

My stomach drops at her statement.

Shit. Please, Moon Goddess, no.

Mateo glances over quickly at me before proceeding with his questioning. "Who exactly were you looking for?"

"Umm, to be honest, I'm not even one-hundred percent sure who she is," the girl murmurs.

"Can you elaborate?" Santiago probes.

"There's been news of a missing girl circulating throughout packs across the country. Alpha Sebastian St. Ives is offering a $500,000 reward for anyone who can locate her and/or bring her back to him."

At this point, my heart is racing so fast I'm sure it's going to beat out of my chest. I begin to pace the room, my gaze glued to the floor.

Shit, fuck, dicks.

This is not good. My father essentially put a bounty on me, a very generous one at that. Everyone, everywhere is going to be looking for me, and, of course, knowing this is where I went, my father is going to tell everyone to start here.

The rooms falls into silence, and, when I look up, everyone is staring at me.

The girl catches on quickly as she observes everyone watching me. "Wait a minute. You're who he's looking for, aren't you?" She exclaims. "Holy shit! I'm better than I thought. I knew the thing inside me that was telling me to come up here wasn't wrong!"

Her words piss me off, and I march up to the bed, leaning over her. "How many others are up here looking for me?" I demand.

She stares up at me in fear. "No one."

At my look of disbelief, she continues. "No, really. As far as I know, it's just me. Everyone's probably either too afraid to come up here and look, or they believe that you're already dead. I heard others are taking to searching in areas around Arkansas."

Relief washes over me, and I step away from the bed.

"I also heard that there are some who are trying to convince your father that his search is a lost cause," she adds.

With that news, a huge weight lifts off my shoulders. I don't know what I'd do if I put the entire Estrella pack at risk of discovery.

"But then there's you who came all the way up here regardless of what anyone else thought," Santiago comments.

The mystery girl sighs. "You're right. I didn't one-hundred percent believe in the legend. At least, not the part about the land being cursed. I thought, if I came up here, I'd at least be able to find something... anything."

"So, what are we going to do?" Lucía voices what's on my mind.

Everyone turns to Mateo. "First, Verity's going to wipe this girl's memory, and then we'll send her back down the mountain. The only thing she'll 'remember' is that her little quest up here got her nowhere."

"Wait, what?!" Mystery girl shouts, but Mateo ignores her.

"Then, Verity, I need you to strengthen the spell. The more people who believe that this land is cursed, the less who will try to follow in this girl's footsteps. I can't trust that she's the only one who has attempted or will attempt to look for Savannah this far up the mountain."

Wait, spell?

"Finally, I'm going allocate wolves to each border tonight to keep a special eye out for any others not part of Las Estrellas. With any luck, no one else has the same idea as her, and this will all blow over soon."

"Sounds like a plan," Verity agrees, and I nod my head at Mateo's plan of action.

However, his words leave me wondering two things: one, what spell was he referring to? And, two, if it was possible, why didn't Mateo just have my memory wiped and send me back down the mountain?

*****

It's safe to say that mystery girl really, really doesn't want to have her memory wiped.

I say this because, at the moment, we're all chasing her around the infirmary trying to restrain her. And by all, I mean everyone except Mateo, Santiago, and Verity. They stand back idly, laughing at us trying to get the girl back on the bed.

"You know, you guys could help," Lucía says, angry and about fed up. She'd just taken a nice slap to the face from the flailing arms of the girl who's struggling to get out of Diego's hold around her torso.

"Nah, it seems like you guys have it under control," Verity giggles, giving her a thumbs up.

After about five more minutes, the girl—who's surprisingly strong for not having any Alpha blood, I might add—finally wears herself out. Diego, Tito, Alejandro, and I each have one of her limbs pinned to the bed.

"Please, don't wipe my memory," mystery girl breathes. "I won't tell anyone, I promise. Just let me take something of Savannah's so I can at least say I found something, and, maybe, Sebastian Saint Ives will give me some kind of reward. Please, I really need the money."

"Care to explain?" Lucía asks, her annoyance seeping through her tone.

The girl eyes scan the room before she responds. "My pack back in Utah was— still is a mess. It was small, maybe fifty wolves total. Both my parents died almost a year ago, and, ever since, I've been treated terribly. I'd rather not go into detail, but a month ago, I split. I ran and didn't look back. I've been surviving ever since, but my resources are depleting, and no other pack will take me in. I need the reward money. If not all of it, then at least some, anything, at this point."

"¡Mierda!" Lucía swears, looking over at Mateo. 

Mateo's expression is stone-like as he stares back at his sister. The girl's situation is definitely not something that can be easily overlooked, even for Mateo.

Silence consumes the room as everyone waits in anticipation for what Mateo will say.

He sighs deeply, shaking his head. "If you insist on not having your memory wiped, then you have to stay here. You'll have access to food, clothing, and whatever else you'd need, but, if you do not wish to stay here, or if you resist at all, I won't hesitate to send you down that mountain, minus the past twelve hours of your life."

I guess the big bad Alpha is a sucker for sob stories.

Mystery girl whips her head from side to side. "No, please, I'll stay. I won't cause any trouble."

"Not anymore than you already have," Lucía mutters, and I laugh under my breath.

"Then I guess it's settled," Mateo concludes, turning and heading towards the exit. The door shuts behind him and silence washes over the room once again.

A moment later, Verity speaks up. "Well, it seems my services are no longer needed here. I'll do what Mateo asked, and you guys let me know if you need anything else." She snaps her fingers, and a portal appears to her right. She steps through it and is gone in an instant.

The brothers and I finally release our holds on the girl. She folds her legs and wraps her arms around them, holding them against her chest as she eyes us warily.

"You guys can go," Lucía says to the brothers. "Savannah and I will handle her."

Alejandro, Diego, and Tito take their leave, but Santiago hesitates.

"We'll be fine, Santiago, I promise," Lucía assures him. He takes one last look at the girl before turning and following his brothers out the door. When the door shuts behind them, Lucía turns to the girl.

"So, what's your name?"

"It's Parker," she answers curtly.

"Well, Parker, Verity already said all of our names earlier, but, in case you forgot, I'm Lucía and this is Savannah."

She nods. "I'm sorry for accidentally hitting you earlier."

"It's whatever," Lucía shrugs. She cuts her eyes over at me. "At least yours was accidental."

The corner of my lips tilt up at the reminder of how we met.

"Do you know where she's supposed to be staying?" I ask Lucía.

"Same hall you. There's plenty of open rooms."

"Okay, cool. How bout we take her there and get her settled?" I suggest enthusiastically.

*****

Once Lucía and I finish getting Parker settled, the two of us head back to my room across the hall.

During the time we spent helping Parker adjust, Lucía explained to her—with as little detail as possible—how Las Estrellas were still here and what I was doing here as well. She took it well, or she seemed to, at least.

I feel really bad for her, if I'm being honest. Sure, we're both technically runaways, but my reason for abandoning my pack seems so trivial compared to hers.

I sigh and belly flop onto my bed, and Lucía sprawls herself out over the sofa. It's incredibly late, or early depending on how you look at it, and I'm exhausted. However, I didn't forget about what Lucía was telling me before we were interrupted in her room earlier.

"Lucía?"

"Yeah?"

"What were you going to say earlier? Before Alejandro knocked on your door."

She sits up on the couch and looks at me.

"Savannah, look-"

"No, no 'Savannah, look.' Just be straight up with me, please."

She runs a hand through her dark locks. "Honestly, I can't tell you why Mateo does what he does. That's something you need to talk to him about. But, I can make my own inferences."

"And?"

She sighs, contemplating if she should even continue. "There are only a handful of other times when people—humans and werewolves alike—have gotten close enough to our borders for us to have to intervene. Humans, we've been able to just scare away, but werewolves tend to be a little more... determined. That being said, there have been a few instances where Mateo's had to... um, he's had to uh..."

"He's had to what, Lucía?" I urge.

She closes her eyes and tilts her head down. "He's had to eliminate the threat."

"Eliminate the threat? You mean kill them."

She nods.

Somehow, I'm not surprised, and, shockingly, her words don't freak me out. Mateo may seem easygoing and playful on occasion, but I've seen the other side of him. He's the type of man who will do what needs to be done if the situation calls for it.

"Does that freak you out?" She asks, a look of concern on her face.

"No, Lucía, it doesn't. I'm not going to dig any deeper or ask any more questions about it, but I doubt Mateo would do such a thing unless it was under extreme circumstances."

She smiles, but it doesn't reach her eyes. "You're right, Savannah. Mateo will do whatever it takes to protect this pack, but he's not a bad man. His protectiveness is actually one of the things I admire about him," she discloses.

I nod. "That makes two of us."

She grins, her whole face lighting up this time. "Well, I'll let you get some sleep. See you tomorrow."

"Goodnight," I say, as she gets up off the couch and exits the room. When the door closes behind her, I don't hear the sound of a lock clicking into place, and I smile as my eyelids become heavy and I fall into a deep sleep.