"Do you see anything?" Chris asks as he looks around himself before he eyes Gio who jumps down from the tree.

"No, the area seems to be clear"

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

"Yes, I confirmed it with both Devilin and Erika, this was the place Thomas was seen last" Gio replies as both of them make their way deeper into the woods.

"Strange, this place is very quiet, I was hoping for some traps"

"No, the only traps in here us fighting any mandrake but according to Devilin they will not come forth and fight us as he has ordered them not to"

"Still, what if there was someone to hurt them"

"Then they will attack for sure, but we will have to keep walking as well stay alert so we are not ambushed" Gio states as both of them keeps walking towards the area before they come to a stop in front of the house where Thomas was staying.

"I guess this is it" Chris speaks as he looks around the area to see if he can find something unusual.

"I will check the front, you go see the back," Gio asks as he walks towards the front door while Chris makes his way towards the back of the house.

*******

Gio carefully steps on the steps of the door, tapping his foot around to see if there were any traps or hidden key to the house but when he does not find anything unusual he goes to open the door.

However, before he could touch the door it opens on its own and a mandrake walks out welcoming him inside.

Gio hesitates a bit not trusting the mandrake even if Devilin gave him the words, as because of these mandrakes once his mate was suffering so he just stands in the doorway until the mandrake speaks.

"Safe inside"

"How can I trust your words?"

"We no harm master's friends"

"Are there others inside?" Gio asks next as he slowly makes his way inside of the house.

"We wait for master's next order"

"What about Thomas, do you know where he is?"

"He left, he no trust us, tried kill us"

"How did you survive?"

"We more," the mandrake states, as he takes Gio to the room where more mandrakes were staying.

Some of them were in very bad condition as if they were burnt and some were on the verge of dying with few of their limbs missing.

"Is there more of you or this is it?" Gio questions as he looks around the room.

"This is it"

"Can they make it out of here?" Gio asks pointing at the injured mandrakes.

"We no leave them," one of the mandrakes growls.

"Okay. Can one of you take me to the room Thomas used also tell me anything that will help us track him?"

"This way"

*******

Chris looks around the area finding it quite strange; he feels something off about the whole place even if he cannot pinpoint it.

He closes his eyes trying to awaken his powers as to get the extra help as he once again scans the area and at what he finds makes him frown.

With his senses more active and his eyes sharper, he finds something surrounding the house that could not bee seen through the naked eyes.

Slowly he walks towards the tree, goes to touch the thread like things sparkling but thinks better of it and sees where it ends or starts from only to find the same thread like thing surrounding the whole place.

Without thinking much on it, he touches it only to find he cannot grasp it. Therefore, he bites on his wrist before he drops a drop of his blood on the thread to find it sucking his blood and growing strong.

"What is this?" he asks to no one confused having no idea what its purpose was but knowing well it could be dangerous.

Walking back to the front of the house, he goes to seek Gio so he can notify Gio about what he found.

*******

Gio walks inside of the room Thomas had left vacant while he was staying in the house; the mandrake leaves him alone as he inspects the room.

Gio looks carefully around the room finding nothing out of place, he moves towards the drawers and pulls them each out to find nothing but some of Thomas's clothes, he goes to shut it up but thinks better of it and pulls it out once again.

He collects a few of Thomas's clothes and sniffs a bit remembering the scent, which he knows, will come in handy, he takes a few of his clothes out before shutting the drawer.

Next, he walks towards the closet and opens the door to find stacks of box inside, finding it strange he pulls out the boxes one by one and opens the lead.

Gio throws a few boxes away as there was nothing important but Thomas's shoes in a few boxes, he pulls out all of the boxes before he walks deeper in the closet and halts when he finds something else.

With a frown, Gio looks around to find dresses and a few stuffs of a girl. Scanning around for a bit, Gio finds a pink box that had a name written on it.

"Bastard" Gio growls as he checks what were inside of the box to a find few items that belonged to a girl, Raine.

"Sick fucker" he curses as he sees stacks of pictures inside of the box that belonged to Raine.

Shutting the box he pulls out the dresses to see if he can find something else and he does at the far corner of the closet he finds a jewelry box and opening it to his surprise he finds a few more things inside of it.

He finds a glowing crystal the same one he saw with Devilin, he puts it inside of the box and closes it as he hears Chris calling him out.

*******

"What is it?" Gio asks walking out of the closet with the boxes in his hands.

"I found something, I think you should see it," Chris announces before they both walk out of the house.

First Gio does not see anything unusual until Chris asks him to use his vampire's power he sees the glowing thread.

"What the hell is this?" he asks in awe.

"No idea but it seems it is fond of our blood" Chris informs which worries Gio a bit.

"I guess this is the trap you were looking for huh?" Gio states teasingly.

"This place was way too easy to get in so" Chris shrugs his shoulder before asking if he found anything inside.

"Except the fact that bastard is sick I found this" Gio sighs before pulling out the crystal from the box and just as he does that the thread starts to glow red along with the crystal.

Gio curses as his hand burns and the crystal flies out of his hand shining brighter. Both of them look around not understanding what was happening.

They both turn around when he hear hisses from inside of the house and suddenly the door bursts open as the mandrakes rush out hissing their way threateningly.

"Oh fuck" both of them says at once before they jump away from the mandrakes as they attack.

*******

With his power, Gio throw a few of the mandrakes in the air away from him as they spit not just venom but attack them as well. He hisses as his body touches the red thread line and it burns his skin.

"What the fuck is happening?" Gio shouts having no idea why mandrakes were suddenly attacking them as well as the fact that those threads were dangerous.

"The crystal, it must be something to do with the crystal," Chris answers, as he was not faring well as well.

With a roar, he smashes two of the mandrakes together before jumping to aid Gio. Both of them fight side by side tearing the mandrakes apart from them while trying to be careful not to touch any of the thread but it was difficult seeing the thread patterns were too narrow for them to avoid them.

Few of the mandrakes howl in pain before dropping dead down on the floor as Chris uses his power destroying their brain cells.

"Be careful," Gio warns as Chris has not perfected his powers yet and he could easily loose control not just hurting the mandrakes but Gio and he, himself.

"Sorry" Chris apologizes before he tears one of the mandrakes, which was suddenly atop Chris.

"Will this ever end?" Chris asks seeing more and more of these mandrakes walking out and on to them.

"Stand back" Gio warns before he let go of his power and throws all of the mandrakes in the air before throwing them as far away as he can.

"Are you okay?" Chris asks seeing Gio fall down on his knees tiredly as well seeing the burns on Gio's back and arms.

"I will live" Gio states breathing heavily before he looks around them.

"We will have to think of something if we want to get out of here alive" Gio speaks as they could hear the hisses of the angry mandrakes.

"Damn, we cannot even kill them all" Chris groans before he eyes the shining crystal.

"If we can get to that..." Chris points out looking at the sky.

"If touching the thread did this I wonder what touching the crystal will do," Gio grumbles before getting up from the ground.

"I see you were careful of the thread" Gio points out seeing Chris, not, as badly hurt as he did.

"Umm no I just healed fast" he points out not feeling any burn.

"Strange" Gio mumbles before something crosses his mind.

"Wait, when Dev touched the crystal he did not get burned like I did, he has been carrying it for far too long...

And these threads, you said it drank your blood right?" Gio asks looking at Chris who nods unsure.

"You are Jane's mate"

"Umm yes, I do not think there is any doubt in that" Chris replies as he rubs the back of his head shyly.

"Did you two shared blood when you two mated"

"Hey, I do not think you have the right to know it" Chris shouts, as it was too personal.

"Just answer me Chris, did you?" Gio asks once again in a hurry.

"Yes, but why?" Chris asks still not understanding what he was up to.

"Fuck, that means you have some of Devilin's family blood running inside of you that means the crystal will accept you better than me...

If we get that I think the mandrakes will stop attacking us, now hurry while I stop the mandrakes" Gio shouts as he pushes Chris a bit away when one mandrake comes flying their way.

"Are you sure?" Chris asks seeing the number of mandrakes running their way.

"Just hurry the fuck up Chris, go" Gio shouts as he kicks the mandrakes and punches the next.

*******

Chris runs towards the highest tree before he starts to climb; he concentrates on the crystal before he goes to jump off it but halts when he calculates the distance and knows he could not reach it so he looks down and shouts at Gio.

"I cannot reach it," Chris shouts at Gio.

"Well hold on a second" Gio shouts right back.

"What?" Chris shouts not knowing what Gio meant.

"Giving you a hand, man" Gio shouts before throwing few mandrakes in the sky.

Chris grins as he jumps and steps on the flying mandrakes one by one using them as a ladder before he reaches the crystal and grabs it in his hand.

Chris hisses a bit, as he gets a hold of the Crystal, which burns him a little, but the pain was bearable and falls down.

Just as he goes to hit the ground, Gio flies to catch him in time.

"Got you, my Princess" Gio teases as he lets Chris down.

"Fuck off" Chris laughs before they put the crystal back in the box and turn around to face the mandrakes that were thankfully, back to normal.

"Sorry" one of them states realizing what they did.

"It's okay you were being controlled, guess now we know how Thomas had hands on them while they did not have any master" Gio comments before he asks the mandrakes to line up.

"Okay, now you will be going home where no one can ever use you and meet your ancestors," Gio shouts before he asks Chris to open the portal.

They see Drag on the other side of the portal waiting as he nods their way before the mandrakes walks inside of the portal one by one to their new home.

"Okay Drag our work here is done, now they are all yours, thanks for trusting us with the portal" Gio thanks him before nodding once again and Chris shuts the portal.

"Are you not going to thank me?" Chris asks smugly to Gio who frowns.

"Why?"

"Because if it were not for me being the prince, Drag would have never agreed to give us the authority to open one of his portals"

"In that case, I will be sure to thank Crystal for being the best queen we will ever have," Gio cheekily answer making Chris groan.

"You did good Chris as your first task" Gio pats the boy's shoulder happily making him grin.

"Now we should be off to our mates," he sighs before asking Chris to open the portal, which will take them back home.

"Sure, but I wonder where Thomas is? I wish we could have found something that would lead us to where he is"

"We will get him, soon, we will" Gio smiles as they both step inside of the portal.

*******

"Warren?" Scar calls out his name as she sees him walking down the hallway.

Warren stops and turns around with a smile before he walks towards her way and greets her.

"Yes my Alpha, what is it?" he asks with a grin on his face making her laugh.

"Did you see to it that everyone went home safely?" she asks requesting him to walk along with her.

"Yes, don't worry I made sure they left the pack grounds and to their home safely. Don't want to get my ass kicked if anyone of them is hurt, their mates can be quiet scary at times" he winks her way teasingly as they make their way towards the kitchen.

"Here, I had made this especially for you" Scar smiles as she hands him a box of cookies she made.

"Wow, does Adrian know I am the best man in your life who gets extra stacks of cookies from you?" he playfully asks before pulling out one of the cookies and munching on it.

"Don't worry this will remain a secret between us" she winks going along with his act.

"Oh you break my heart for asking me of such thing" Warren feigns hurt before they both laugh at it.

"So, how is Raine, hopefully she is taking everything well" he asks next as Scar goes to tend to her flowers like all the other times.

"Oh she is doing fine; we all are leaving her to her own device so she won't feel suffocated with out instant nagging and wanting to be with her...

Adrian says she should be the one seeking us so she can get more comfortable with us having around...

That is why we are giving her space," Scar informs as they both make their way towards the garden.

"You know there are people who can do this for you" Warren comments watching her pick the tools to tend to the flowers.

"Yes, but I love doing this, it gives me a sense of peace and with you and Adrian around you two never let me do anything...

And anyway, did we all not decided that no one has a say in kitchen area and garden as it is my domain?" she comments looking his way sternly while he just puts his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, okay I am out of here just be careful you never know what is hidden behind these bushes" he chuckles before he let her alone with her task.

*******

Adrian goes through different files trying to manage his business and pack's finances, he yawns a bit before stretching, as he feels tired.

"I think it's time I soon retire," he mumbles to himself as he looks around his desk to find more files he needs to sort out.

Times as this he wishes he were not so stubborn and give his Alpha title to his son already who he knows is waiting patiently for it but then again seeing how much of a trouble it can be at times he does not want his son to go through it.

Still every time he thinks of giving Advin his place, he stops, as he does not want his son to feel burdened as he was recently mated and with Blue, he wants Advin to focus on his family.

Once he takes over the place of the Alpha, he will have to cut the quality time he spends with his mate and child. Moreover, no one knows it better than Adrian does as once he was conflicted with his duties towards his pack and his mate.

May be just few more years and he will hand everything to his son and retire, so Advin can enjoy some more quality time with his mate who had patiently waited for him to acknowledge her and Jasmine deserves to be spoiled a bit more.

He smiles as he thinks of his own mate whom he has not seen for quiet sometime, may be he should go search her and have some quality time. He chuckles at the thought of having his mate close to him when he feels a dull ache in his heart.

He frowns, rubbing on his chest, as it was something he has never felt before, the ache starts to grow and suddenly it is hard for him to breathe as if someone just stabbed him directly in his heart.

"Scar" he chokes as he stumbles out of his chair and office in search of his mate, as he knows the feeling he was feeling was related to Scar.

He tries to test their bond and call her but he gets no reply, a chill runs down his whole body as he falls down on his knees breathing heavily.

He stares at his hands in disbelief as his wolf tries to get out growling uncontrollably as all he echoes is their mate's name letting him know something terrible has happened to Scar.

*******

"Adrian" Warren's shout makes him look up at his beta who rushes to his side.

"Scar" Adrian whispers, as he cannot seem to get up and seek his mate.

"What is it?" Warren asks a bit worried helping him get up.

"I cannot feel our bond, something is wrong," Adrian breathes as they both start to walk.

"Scar was in the garden the last time I saw her" Warren replies a bit worried as they make their way towards the garden.

"Alert the guards" Adrian orders as he pushes Warren away and with all of his strength, he goes to see his mate.

He stumbles around the garden calling Scar's name, the sight he sees in front of him pulls the ground from under his feet, and he falls down.

He cannot seem to get up and move towards his mate so he crawls to her side not believing what he sees, slowly he touches her hand before holds it and with everything within him, he pulls his mate's cold body in his arms and howls for the lost.

"No, no, you cannot...please no...don't leave me Scar, oh baby, please" Adrian sobs like a child as he wraps her in his arms while the blood oozing from her head soaks his clothes yet he does not let her go.

"Adrian" Warren's voice makes him look up with Scar still in his arms.

"Call the doctor, alert the guards whoever did this..."

"I am sorry Adrian," Warren whispers as he stares at Scar's body, which has no life in it.

"We need..."

"I am sorry, Adrian, she was a good soul" Warren speaks before he pulls out a dagger and stabs Adrian in his chest.

"Warr..."

"Goodbye my friend" Warren grins as he twists the dagger and let Adrian's body fall down on the ground along with his mate.

"Why?" Adrian whispers as tries to get up but cannot move his body.

"Don't try my friend, the poison in the dagger will kill you slowly, first it will paralyze your senses before taking over your body...

Don't worry I made her death a less painful one, just a hit on her head and she was out cold before I injected her with the poison as I said she was a good soul, so are you but not I...

Goodbye Adrian, it will be too late till anyone comes looking for you" Warren whispers as he wipes the blood from the dagger on his pant legs before leaving him alone waiting for death.