Page 4 of Doyle

The exact same thing happened, a century ago. It couldn’t be, I thought and yet…wasn’t a part of me was waiting for something like this to occur?

Venom's group, the Grizzly Reapers MC, was the dominant shifter group in our area—and the only shifter group Zane trusted and called his allies.

The war against the black magic users a century ago had greatly reduced our kind's numbers.

Other supernatural groups had also begun hunting some of us down after the war.

The strong ate the weak. That was simply the way of the world, so we kept a low profile, but with the re-emergence of the Payne Coven, we simply could not stand idly by.

I could feel the room tense as Zane’s words sank in. The air grew heavy with a mixture of dread and anger.

Memories of the past resurfaced, unbidden and unwanted. A century ago, Liliana’s coven had orchestrated a similar series of abductions.

They preyed on the young and the vulnerable, turning them into familiars and using them as living batteries to fuel their foul magic. The very thought made my blood boil and my heart ache.

Ivan glanced at me, and my heart dropped, hating the sympathy in Ivan's eyes. The two of us had been antagonistic toward each other over the years.

While we disagreed on a good number of things, we came together when the pack was threatened, but I hated the look in his eyes now.

When I lost William, Ivan felt sorry for me. He still felt sorry for me, and that annoyed me to some extent.

“How many have disappeared?” I asked, trying to remain calm.

“Three, that we know of,” Zane replied, his expression grim. “All from small, isolated packs. The disappearances have been scattered across a wide area, which is why it took us some time to connect the dots.”

“It’s starting all over again,” I said. “We can’t let them get away with this.”

“This is unacceptable,” Draven agreed.

“But we need to be smart. We need a plan,” Zane reminded us.

“We can’t let history repeat itself,” Ivan said.

“I know,” Zane said, his voice steady.

There was a reason he was the lead alpha after all.

Zane continued, “That’s why we need to act fast but carefully. Venom’s bears have been gathering information, trying to trace the pattern of these abductions. They’re willing to help us, but we need to be prepared for what we’re up against.”

“Do we have any leads?” Draven asked, leaning forward, his eyes intense.

“We found animal sacrifices, bones, the usual signs of black magic activity at the areas where the kids were taken,” Ivan said. “But we haven’t managed to track down any of the witches or their followers.”

“Whoever is leading them, knows how to cover their tracks,” Zane said. “We need to be careful. We can’t afford to rush in blindly. We’ve lost too much of our kind already.”

I nodded, forcing myself to stay calm. “What’s the plan then?” I asked.

“For now, we keep a low profile,” Zane said. “We’ll coordinate with Venom’s bears, and continue to collect information. When we’re ready, we’ll strike.”

“And if they take another shifter in the meantime?” I asked, my voice shaking with barely contained rage.

“We’ll do everything we can to prevent that,” Zane said. “But we can’t let our emotions dictate our actions. We need to be strategic.”

Everyone agreed with that. Inside, I was a mess of emotions, and my gut feeling told me that whoever was in charge of this ghastly operation…it was someone I knew from the past.

Could it be Liliana Payne? We had set fire to every conceivable hiding place the Payne Coven had a century ago, but my instinctstold me Liliana somehow managed to slip away. I’d never seen her remains.

Calm down, I reminded myself. For now, the best course of action was to wait.

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