I woke up to the faint sound of alarms blaring through my walls, quickly followed by a series of knocking at my door.

I jumped up, ripping over the door, revealing my half-dressed Beta.

"What's going on," I growled.

"Robbery at The Goddess's Jewel's," He panted. "I was awake so I got the mind link the moment the alarms started."

I ran a hand through my hand, "Go tell Farren, five minutes and then we're leaving. Myra and Harmony can stay here, they don't need to be bothered." I ordered before slamming the door shut.

A robbery at the Goddess's Jewels? It made no sense, that place was essentially built like a fortress. Yet as the alarms continued to blare, I knew it was no mistake. I threw on a better pair of pants and a button up shirt that would at least demand some respect. I didn't bother doing anything with my hair as I stormed out of my room and awaited the arrival of my Beta and Gamma in the entrance room.

They took less than a minute to meet me there, the three of us moving out immediately.

We walked quickly, Vance and Farren both slightly behind me as I took the lead. As we approached the jewellery store, it looked like a crime scene, tape pulled up around the edges and lights blaring down at every angle. But at least the alarm had stopped.

As we approached, the entire area paused, watching me with cautious eyes. A man stood out among them all, supposedly they guard in charge.

"What was stolen?" I asked, my voice low as I stared at him. I watched him gulp, a bead of sweat forming on his brow.

"A ruby pendant, a gold ring, amethyst earrings, a sapphire and aquamarine bracelet, a quartz arm band and thelunastiara." He said quickly, completely blurring over the last item.

Though I wasn't an idiot, I knew what he had said.

"What was the last item?"

You could hear a pin drop in the air, "The Luna's Tiara, Alpha Cain."

"So what you're saying is that the Luna's tiara, the very tiara my mate will wear when I find her, the same crown that my family has been wearing since this pack began, the most well guarded item within this facility, along with what sounds like a few thousand dollars worth of jewellery, has been stolen?" I said calmly, venom dripping from every word.

"Yes?"

"Fired."

His face went pale, "Please, Alpha-"

I bared my teeth, staring down at him and reminding him of his place. "Get out of my way, pup. I have a crime scene to investigate."

I shoved him into the side, sending the guard falling to the ground with a shriek. I pushed through and entered the jewellery store.

The first thing I noticed was the large black mark on the tiled floor. While I didn't show it, my heart began to beat just a little faster. The Nightstalker. I thought we were safe here, that just the name of the Bloodlust pack was enough to scare him and their whole organisation away.

Clearly not.

The second thing I noticed was the smell. It smelled like tea, lavender and hibiscus boiled until all you could smell was nature itself winding through the wind. It hit me like a wave, causing me to reach my hand out and grab onto a ledge for support.

It couldn't be...

A guard walked in towards me, and I grabbed his neck and held him up to the wall.

"What do we know about the robbery?" I demanded.

"Not much Alpha Cain, we know it was the Nightstalker, apart from the obvious the way the glass has been cut and how everything was planned out... But sir, we have a suspicion."

I pressed a little harder, "Out with it warrior,"

"I was one of the first in the building after the alarm went off, and Alpha I know we've always thought the Nightstalker was male, but I've never seen a boy with a body like that, nor with braids as long, they were flowing out of their mask. Alpha Cain, sir, if you don't mind me saying it, but I think the Nightstalker is a girl."

My blood went cold as I dropped the guard to the floor.

The sun was just starting to set when I finally managed to reach base. I had only stopped once, after about five or so hours for a quick snack, drink, and to administer my injection. I hadn't been followed, nor had I made any interaction with any rogues along the way. It was almost as if they knew that the Nightstalker was on the prowl.

I was exhausted, every bit of my aching. But I didn't care.

I had done it.

I had robbed the Bloodlust Pack.

I leaned against the wall, pressing in the numbers simply ready to just have a shower and go to bed. But I knew I couldn't do that. As I reentered the hallway, I didn't bother with any distractions, but headed straight to the office. I tried to make my hair look somewhat nice and held the small bag of jewels readily in my hand. I had also transferred the tiara into it, the edges pushing against the side of the bag and making the entire thing look uneven.

I knocked at the office door and entered when I heard Madame Beaudeline.

Just like last time, I placed myself in the centre of the room.

Madame Beaudeline raised an eyebrow, "Back so soon?"

I nodded, "It was easier than expected Madame, the hardest part was the long travel times."

"So I would assume that it was a success?" She taunted.

I stepped forward, drawing the bag undone before tipping out its entirety onto their joint desk. I watched as their eyes lit up as the gems sparkled under the harsh light of the chandelier. Madame Beaudeline digged her bony fingers through the pile before pulling out the Ruby Pendant. She twisted it over in her fingers, taking in its beauty.

"Well, you certainly have an eye for pretty jewellery, Nightstalker, that I cannot deny."

I watched as Master Skotus greedily began pulling apart the pile before finding the ring, sliding it eagerly onto his finger. Mistress Hemlock was more dainty, simply holding her hand over the pile and the earrings floated upwards and into her hands. I watched as she fastened them to her ears, the stone the exact same colour as her eyes.

Madame Beaudeline gestured to what was left, "Gifts for your friends? Perhaps even a token for yourself?"

I nodded, stepping forward and putting it all back in the bag. "You did say I could pick out anything that caught my fancy Madame."

Her smile curled evily, "Yes, yes I did. If you may pull out your injection needles, we'll have those replaced and ready in your duffel bag for tomorrow. Since you're back so early, I highly doubt that you need a rest."

Mistress Hemlock leaned forward. "I need some items, a list will be placed in the duffel bag just to make it easier. Some of these items can only be sourced from Bloodlust. These items are stocked in the basement of their Alpha, Beta and Gamma's house. Their Gamma female is a witch, and I will admit, I'm jealous of her collection."

I tried not to look too bewildered, "You want me to... sneak into their basement?"

"That's exactly what we want you to do." Madame Beaudeline confirmed. "Since your last task was so easy, this shouldn't be too much worse. You have the same time period, three days though we certainly won't complain if it's finished earlier. Now hurry along, if you leave now, you'll make it just in time for dinner."

I let my entire body dip into a bow, "Thank you leaders," I murmured before silently walking out the door.

I had to hold back the temptation to punch a wall once I had gotten out.

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Just as the leaders had said, I was just in time for dinner. Well, perhaps a little late. Everyone was already seated when I walked in, the room turning to silence as I stomped through, the only noise being the smack of my boots against the floor.

No one said anything as I piled my plate up with food and sat down with Cora and Ti, who, thoroughly used to my antics, continued to eat as if I had never walked in.

"You did that quick," Ti commented, "Is that a new record?"

"Wouldn't know, I stopped keeping track years ago," I sighed, "Cora how did your mission go?"

A devious smile came over Cora's face, "Oh Cas if you could have seen just how much money fell out when I took my bra off, I'd have enough to get the three of us out of here and on a plane to Europe."

Ti rolled her eyes, "Trust me, it was a lot of money. Unfortunately a guard snatched it up before we could hide it."

"Well, hopefully the lovely little pieces I brought back could help compensate," I teased, "I'll give them to you in the room, goddess knows what the Vamps would do if they saw even the littlest bit of shimmer,"

"I love you for it Cas, but we don't really care about the jewellery right now, tell us about the mission! How did it go? I mean, obviously a success but we want all the details!" Cora spluttered excitedly.

I poked at my food, shoving a chunk of lamb into my mouth, "Crossed over the border easily, climbed up a tree and broke through the glass ceilings. Honestly, the whole place was begging to be robbed. Guards patrolled the area but none inside so there really wasn't a point. Dropped myself down, disabled the cameras and grabbed the jewellery. But anyway, here's where it gets fun, you remember how I said I might get myself a tiara?" They nodded, "Well, I figured that all the guards would be doing border patrol, so I needed an emergency to draw them in. I was given an electrical plan of the building right, and they were all connected to this box in the middle of the room, in that box was the most stunning tiara I have ever seen. So I dropped my mark, broke the box, grabbed the crown, set off the alarms and was out of the building before the guards could even get through the doors."

Ti let out a breath, "Fantastic,"

I scraped off my plate, "It felt amazing, carrying that off."

Cora furrowed her brow, "So what's next? What are they making you do now?"

My face fell. "Back into Bloodlust, Mistress Hemlock needs some ingredients and items, all of which can be found in the Alpha's basement."

"Wait, they're not-"

"So my next mission is sneaking into their basement, taking the items, and somehow get out alive." I finished.

We all stopped, my words mulling over. It did seem like I was asking for death by taking up this mission. And like the leaders were begging to be exposed.

"I'll cast a protection spell tonight, don't even worry about it Cas, you'll be fine. What's a basement to a jewellery store?" Ti giggled nervously.

"Exactly, I've got three days, I leave tomorrow so if all goes well I should be back by tomorrow evening maybe."

"Don't worry Cas, it'll go off with a hitch, and just think about how achieved you'll feel when it's over." Cora assured me calmly, letting her voice wash over me.

Though somehow, I still didn't feel much better.

--------------------------------

Just like before, I had left the moment the needle had left my arm. I grabbed the duffel bag from storage with my name on it, along with picking out a slightly longer dagger. The Leaders didn't say anything about casualties this time.

I certainly didn't want to take any chances.

This time, I didn't shift straight away, but rather ran slightly into the woods before pulling out all the materials. I looked over Mistress Hemlock's list, along with a few details about the building. Well, at least I know what it looks like. There was essentially nothing that told me about entrances, electrical systems, nothing.

Eh, I had done perfect missions on less.

I then shifted and started to run, pushing any form of doubt to the back of my mind.

I arrived at Bloodlust the same as before, the sky had turned black and all I could see of myself was the glint of my nails.

I then got to work.

I drank the potion in one quick gulp, shoved my bag into a bush and crossed over the boundary. I was at a different spot though, the Alpha's house and the Jewellery store were nowhere near each other, so there would have been no point coming in the same way. I knew the basic layout of packs, of course coming from one myself originally. As expected, the Alpha's house was just on the edge, far enough to receive some privacy, but close enough to the proper beginning of the pack where you could hear if anything went wrong.

There were no warriors patrolling the house, most likely because the residents of the home were the most powerful in the whole pack.

Slowly, with my whole body pressed against the ground, I made my way around the entire perimeter of the house. Thankfully, it was easy to figure out the location of the basement, mainly since no matter what, a basement was always going to be underneath the house, not a room within the house that could be anywhere.

Though at this point, I was really hoping that every occupant in the house was asleep. I took the liberty of peering through a window. Inside was a major staircase that swept up into the next level of the house. Though the angle was hard, I could see that the stairs also went down. And I would be willing to bet that it led to the basement.

I pulled out my hand, carefully running it around the edge of the window pane, cutting out a perfect square. I wasn't a large woman, in fact I was definitely more on the opposite side of the spectrum so climbing through the window was easy. I then carefully placed the pane back in the frame. It wasn't completely secure, so when I make my escape, punching through it and getting out should be easy.

I pressed myself against the wall, disappearing into the blackness as I slowly moved towards the opening of the staircase.

"-So what do you think happened?"

"I'm not sure Harmony, but he walked into the Goddess's Jewels alone and he was there for about a minute. When I walked in I thought he was crying on the floor-"

"Vance please, I didn't ask for what happened, I've been told about a million times. What I want to know is what you think happened."

"Well, the Luna's Tiara was stolen, you know that's a delicate area for him-"

"Vance, please."

I heard the male sigh, "Look, the only time I've ever seen something like that was when someone sensed their mate, but they weren't there, almost as if they had just left."

"And you think Xander's mate is this Nightstalker?"

My heart froze, "Well, it certainly makes sense."

"And what do we know about this Nightstalker? It's a name that's thrown around but never explained,"

Vance paused, "The Nightstalker is a thief, or an assassin, I suppose it depends on their mood. The only thing we know about them is they are part of an organisation of Vamps, dragons, all our enemies essentially, and they're damn good at their job. That's why they've never been caught. Hell, we didn't even have an inkling of their gender, but the guards are swearing that they think the Nightstalker is a girl."

His words made my chest puff up in pride.

"Are we sure it was the Nightstalker?"

"Their signature is a massive black stain on the floor. They still haven't been able to wash it off the jewellers tiles."

I heard the girl let out a sigh, "And the issue is that if Xander's mate is this mysterious girl, then they're never going to meet."

"Yeah, basically. I don't know how long it will last, but I'm guessing he'll be in this phase of his mood for a while-"

I stopped listening after that. Obviously they were distracted, I should take advantage of that. Besides, they had no idea what they were going on about. I didn't have a mate, and it certainly wasn't whoever this Xander-

I paused, they wouldn't be talking about Alpha Xander of the Bloodlust pack? No, no, no, no. First on the crime scene so probably some important warrior with past experience-

Not Alpha Xander.

I carefully stepped down the stairs, hiding myself in the corner of the walls connecting with each other as I fiddled with the door.

Locked.

I slid in my claw, fiddling around with it until I heard a click. I took one glance upstairs, still hearing the chatter of Vance and the girl. I took a step forward, closing the door behind me without so much of a click.

I rolled my eyes forward, of course the hallway was booby-trapped.

It wasn't anything crazy, but the pressure plates were extremely obvious. I could see a hand scanner on the wall, most likely for people other than the Witch who had set this all up. I placed my hands on the wall before hoisting myself up, jumping into a split as I secured my feet on the wall before I started to move.

When I was first being trained, only a few years after I had arrived, this was one of the first things I was taught, courtesy of Master Skotus. It was like I was walking on air. As soon as I reached the door, I let myself drop down to the floor.

I peered through the crack in the door. Standing in the centre of the room was a warrior who was wearing a hard expression on his face. I placed a hand on the handle of my dagger, twisting it through my fingers, ready to pounce.

I pushed the door open,

"What are you-"

I jumped forward, pulling him to the ground and practically locking him in a knot as I held him to the ground. In a split second, the guard had reached forward and made an attempt at my face. He was successful, leaving a long, thin cut along my cheek. I ignored it as the blood dripped down my face under my mask. The dagger came down, landing itself in the guards shoulder at an angle, perhaps hitting something important if I was lucky.

Then a thought occurred to me. Mind link.

I needed to get out of here.

Just as I had thought, the door the guard was standing in front of led me to the Witches brewery and spell room. I had essentially a mental list of everything in my head, wasting no time in shoving it all in the bag I had brought. There were a lot of herbs, flowers, though a few solid items too.

I ran a finger over everything, ensuring I had everything. Then, I dropped the black ball onto the floor, erupting everywhere.

I couldn't risk going back the way I had come, so I took a risk and went left. The warrior wasn't only guarding a door, but a whole series of underground hallways.

I ran, ran as fast as I could down what felt like an immortal hallway. There was always the chance that the warrior hadn't mind linked anyone, but I didn't want to take the chance.

I reached a dead end, panic sprung through me until I realised that I, instead, had reached a ladder. I started climbing, keeping my hands secured around the bars of wood. I punched my fist upwards, pushing open the trap door that was above me. I took a small glance, not noticing anyone, so I took my opportunity, then opening the door completely, pulling myself out and digging my feet into the ground. I looked around, taking in my surroundings and running.

In the corner of my eye, I could see the house, with every light on and, if I could hear properly, someone was yelling.

Thankfully, I knew where I was, making this whole thing easier.

I could barely see anything, the only focus being getting over that boundary. It felt exactly like last time, coming off at the perfect place, crossing the line, picking up the bag, shoving the second bag in there, and shifting.

It only dawned on me after about half an hour out of the Bloodlust pack.

I had done it.

Again.

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