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"Welcome back to present" Gio smiles at Devilin, who groans clutching his head

"Where are we?" he asks looking around the unfamiliar room

"Still at the summer's pack, the witches couldn't do anything the spell was too strong even if it was decades old so" Gio informs helping his friend to get up

"My head, it feels like it will explode" he groans once again

Gio nods before passing him the bottle of water to freshen up. Devilin gulps it not realizing he was so thirsty until now.

"How long was I gone?" he asks finally

"Half an hour at the most, good thing you were back unharmed. Your father was ready to strangle me through the phone" he informs him before they both get up from the couch Devilin was lying on

"Didn't know he cared that much" Devilin grumbles shaking his head to get rid of the headache

"You will have the headache for few days along with some weird dreams or stuff, time travel has got its perks as well as side effects....

And no, he didn't care much about you, he was just worried that he won't have anyone to continue his blood line as you are his only son and you if dare die on him he will pull your soul out of the pits of hell and bring you back...

So, you can give him a little red haired grand kid before he will personally drop you off in the hell" Gio informs him using Dante's exact words with a grin

"Him and his obsession with red hair" Devilin grumbles making his way out of the cursed building

"So, any good news from your time travel" Gio asks excitedly as he follows his friend

"Yes, but not in here. We should probably get out and gather everyone, I'm not in the mood to explain everything to everyone one by one" Devilin demands

"Want me to open the portals?" Gio asks as he watches his friend's posture as he stands stiff staring off in distance

"No, hate traveling in that shit" Devilin curses clutching his forehead

*******

"Where are we going exactly?" Advin asks watching his father drive them off

"To Rom's" Adrian replies looking straight ahead

"Wait isn't uncle Rom living in the HP?" Advin asks as to why they are going there as only authorized personnel or only the ones who are working there can visit that place

"Yes" Adrian replies in a monotone voice

"Dad" Advin asks as now all of them which includes his mother, sister and mate were watching him expectantly

"Fine, stop digging a hole in my head, they have found something important that will help us solve Jasmine's packs disappearance and we can't just randomly talk about these things in any of our rooms at home and the HP is the perfect place" he finally informs them

"And it really wouldn't be suspicious if all of a sudden the council gathers in the HP, right" Advin scoffs sarcastically

"Not when we are there to drop the twin off first" Adrian grins

"Whatever" Advin drawls bored

"That's what I thought" Adrian grumbles as he keeps driving

*******

"Dad" the twins whine as they hug in their father's arms sadly not wanting to leave

"Boys" Adrian sighs hugging them tight to him before letting them go

"We wish we could stay more with you" Sirus pouts not wanting to leave

"Me too but remember it was your decision to join this place, that will not be possible if you stay with me" Adrian states as he ruffles their hair and they nod with determination

"So, see you next time" the boys asks and Adrian promises them before they rush to their mother's side and hug her

"Hey Ariel, will you come visit us too?" the boys asks their elder sister who nods silently before kissing their cheek one by one

"Hey Adie you are going to be okay right?" Sirus asks as he hugs his brother

"Don't worry about me, I can still kick your asses wolf or no wolf" he jokes patting their shoulder

"Ya right as if. Try not to be sick and leave us" Siran sighs sadly, as he tries to cheer up before the twin looks at Jasmine with a teasing smile

"I knew there was something fishy going on between both of you as she always gave you our cookies when you were done with your practice" Sirus shouts pointing at a blushing Jasmine who hides her face in Advin's chest in embarrassment

"You mean the cookies and juice weren't from Ma?" Advin asks looking from his brother to his mother who shakes their heads no

"Awe damn babe" Advin groans hugging her tightly to him as he gives her a smooch on her cheek

"Yuck" the twin gags before they run off to their father side

"Will you stay for lunch dad?" the boys asks expectantly looking towards Adrian who nods

The twin eyes shine in delight before they run for their classes waving back excitedly at Adrian.

"If I didn't know better it would seem you are the mother hen in our relationship" Scar voices as she wraps her arms around him

"Just for them, I don't want them to grow up" Ad sighs heavily as he watches his gems running towards their class in excitement pushing each other on the way

"They will always be daddy's boys no matter what; it seems I don't even exist for them" Scar smiles as she watches them as well

"Hey, you know that's not the case. They just are closer to me than to you, as Advin is closer to you than to me. I'm not showing any jealousy" Adrian shrugs his shoulders as he brushes his lips on her temple.

Advin clears his throat to get his parents attention as they get lost in each other's eyes.

"Let's go" he informs them

*******

"Old man" Rom shouts as soon as his friend enters his home

Both the big men hug each other in greeting before Rom turns to look at the kids who are not kids anymore.

"Advin, how have you been my boy? Holidays treating you right" he cheers before patting on the shoulder

"Kind of, still I miss the whole kick ass thing" Advin winks playfully towards him

"I can kick your ass if it's itching to get one" Rom comments with a laughter

"Ah, Ariel welcome" Rom smiles while the girl smiles back lightly before she goes to take a seat next to her mother

"So, is it true that you finally got the right mate?" Rom comments once again as he greets Jasmine making her blush as he wiggles his brows at her

"Yes, yes" Advin waves his hands in dismissal of his teasing, as he knows that both Rom and Jasmine are close enough to not get introduced

"Hello" Anna walks in the room carrying a tray filled with drinks and cookies as she greets them all

"Ana, how are you?" Scar jumps up helping her friend as before hugging each other

"I'm doing well, so did you drop the twins?" she asks going to sit next to Rom

"Yes we did, so are they any trouble?" Scar asks worried if they did anything as tricky in here as they did in their pack

"Oh, no, no they are very good kids. When I first heard, you wanted to put them in here with those special kids I thought you must have lost your mind...

Nevertheless, they have been doing much better than I expected, I must say for a normal wolf they can handle themselves against others, there are times they kind of struggle but I'm sure they will get over it" Rom assures both of them

"That's why I'm not worried about them; I know you will guide them well" Adrian smiles at ease

"So, where are others?" Advin asks once they all settle down comfortably

"Right here" Gio's voice makes them all turn towards the doorway

He walks in calmly with an annoyed Devilin behind him. Ariel gets up from her seat as soon as she sees Devilin worried for his health.

"You okay?" she asks concerned

"Not really, you?" Devilin asks back as she makes him to sit down before going to massage his forehead

"I'll be fine" she smiles lightly

"Thanks" Devilin groans relaxed

Both of them so engrossed in each other so much so that they do not see the knowing eyes of the people around them who are watching them intently with amusement.

"Awe taking on the mate's duties I see" Dante's voice cracks through the surrounding

"Fuck off dad" Jane pushes her father away as they crash into each other because of his abrupt halt

"You look like shit" Jane comments staring at her brother

"Thanks for pointing it out couldn't have felt it at all without you stating the obvious" Devilin replies bitterly and growls as Jane pulls his hair hard

"Settle down kids" Jean warning make them shut down

*******

After everyone is present in the room and having greeted everyone for the day to each other all of there eyes turns towards Devilin who explains, what happened in the summer's pack and what he found out? He holds Ariel closer to him as he explains about Thomas when he feels her stiffen.

"Did you guys know Jasmine's mother was into witchcraft?" Devilin asks once he finishes telling the tale

"It's no surprise that she knew how to do that, it was common for some of the women even if wolf to learn that stuff...

It was her powers that let us know what happened that night and now all that's left is to hunt down the bastard" Rom fumes clenching and unclenching his fists in rage

"Did you bring your teddy?" Gio asks Jasmine hopeful and she nods before pulling it out of her bag

Everyone in the room gasps as Devilin jumps to take it the toy before anyone could and breaks the teddy's neck at once.

Advin growls at him in annoyance while Jasmine watches him kill her teddy stumped, as it was the only thing left as the memory of her mother.

"What the fuck is that?" Jane asks as she watches the object her brother took out from inside the teddy

"Something Thomas wants desperately" Devilin states as he can clearly remember how he was frantically searching for this thing

"Jasmine did you know about this all along?" Adrian asks looking at the girl who clutches the teddy close to her heart with tears brimming in the corner of her eyes

"She didn't, her mother hid it inside the bear the night before she was killed. Thomas after killing everyone was desperately searching for it but did not get it...

I think this is what he is searching for all these years and he wants Jasmine for this" Devilin answers as he holds the object in his hands tightly

"We got the footage of the mall Jasmine went to the night those mandrakes attacked, we cleared all the videos of the incident so no humans can find out what happened...

They are nothing like the ones we saw years ago in your pack" Ethan announces looking at Adrian

Devilin walks up to Jasmine pulling the teddy from her hands and mumbles a sorry as he fixes the thing and offers it back to her with a smile.

"Thank you" Jasmine smiles delighted that it was the same as before while Devilin nods

"They aren't the same mandrakes Oliver had controlled; these one were made by Aria and are really unstable. They get their powers by drinking the blood of others and their body shape is not the same as the ones we know...

They look much more like humans than animals" Devilin informs the group unhappy about that fact

"Okay, well now that we know what happened that night and who did it, we have to plan accordingly...

Rom, can you print out all the pictures of the new mandrakes...

I want to announce this shit publicly among our world, let's see how long he can hide then" Dante states coldly

"That's a bad idea; he will be more alert if everyone knows about it. We need to inform only the ones we can trust and it seems he can disguise himself...

If he succeeded to hiding himself as Jasmine's father for so long I won't be surprised if he is walking beside us without our knowledge and remember he attacked my pack without a hitch even if I had a tight security system in the place" Adrian voices shaking his head no in disagreement of Dante's idea

"But keeping the information to ourselves will create even more problems for us, we all have hidden this stuff for far too long, if the truth came out we will not only loose their faith but also a change in council may occur" Rom warns about the threat lying around them

"You are correct but doing that will also expose Scar and Oliver's truth; we can't just jeopardize something it took years to protect" Adrian counters the idea

"We all are standing by your side Adrian, we will never let anything happen to your family, but if we don't inform everyone about the underlying threat it will go against us and then I don't think we will be able to handle the fall out" Ethan voices this time seeing as it was going no where

"Each of us has lost something at the hands of Thomas and if we don't act fast with what to do next and get as many alliances among our own people as we can it will back fire...

We need to think about the future that is unknown and what would or could happen if the truth about the mandrakes is out from someone other than us it will definitely be hard for us to handle the chaos and bear the consequences" Rom explains trying to make his friend see the bigger picture and damage it will do

"Okay, let's do this then" Adrian sighs after a long moment holding Scar's hand for strength, as he does not know what future really holds

"Thank you" Rom smiles before calling Enzo and telling him about the progress

*******

Dante, Romano, Adrian, Ethan, Samuel, Reese and Nicole all of the council members sit gathered in the conference hall where they wait for the line to connect to the other Alpha's from the other pack's as well as the head of the vampire's covens to explain the situation and about those mandrakes.

One by one, the line is connected and the curious voices of many Alpha's and Vampires comes through it at the surprise conference held by the council.

"For what do we owe this conference from the council" the voice of Alpha James from the Midnight pack greets them

"Hello everyone, before you all explode on us at once you all may have just got an email as soon as we were all connected through this video conference. Please see that first" Dante commands as he waits for their reaction

"What sort of absurdity is this?" the voice of Mason the vampire leader of a coven shouts as soon as he sees the pictures as well as the video sent followed by the rage and shouts from all the other vampire leaders as well the Alpha's

"What you saw is the pictures of a creature by the name of Mandrake; the first picture is of someone that was created by the blood of a dragon master...

Those mandrakes they do not harm humans but our kind both were or Vampire, the mandrakes you saw on the video are different from the first as they drink and can harm either human or us...

We have known about the existence of the first kind of mandrakes for about quarter of a decade ago but they are extinct from the world along with the death of their creator...

We came to face the second type of mandrakes a few weeks ago, it wasn't in our knowledge that they roam freely among us" Dante explains as he watches each and every one of their faces without showing any of his emotions

"Then what knowledge do you have being the council? We do not just have you for show and why did it take you more than a quarter century to inform us about this?" the outraged men shouts asking the question towards the council

"Silence" Dante demands as the noise starts to built up

Everyone stops the chatter at once and silently stare back at him. Dante gets up from his seat and paces around before stopping in the middle.

"We admit it's our mistake we didn't inform you all about this. We didn't warned you about there existence because there was nothing to say as they were already extinct with the death of their creator but now that the new mandrakes were found we realize that was a grave mistake we made for underestimating their kind...

As you all know, that one of our former council members is no longer with us and he is out of his post and we elected Ethan for the post, the reason has not been publicly shared with you all but I think it high time you all know about this...

Thomas is behind all of these new mandrakes as well as the face he is the one who swept off the entire summer's pack off the face of the earth. We have been searching for him for decades because of the conspiracy he was involved in that endangered our kind as well he killed many from Adrian's pack as a revenge for the grudge he holds for Adrian exposing him...

Therefore, I want every one of you to help us find Thomas as well as keep your eyes out for these mandrakes. Any illegal activity or no matter how stupid or weird it seems I want you to inform the council as soon as you can" Dante commands as he stops talking and waits for the response of the people watching him

"Who was the one that created these things?" Alpha James asks curiously making Dante smile at the guy

"His name was Oliver and he was the last dragon master we know of" he simply addresses

"A dragon master, is this a joke?" James laughs but stops once he finds that no one found this amusing

"It is the truth, if a half angel can rule on all of you then what's so hard to believe that dragons do exist?" Dante asks raising his brow at the Alpha in challenge

"You don't rule us Dante; you are just the representative among us" the Alpha growls at him in annoyance

"Chill James, we all know how much of my bitch you are" Dante winks trying to rile the Alpha even more but James just laughs

"Your mate not enough for you huh Dante" the Alpha winks back roaring at the expressions he can see of others

"Will you both stop irritating us and focus on the matter?" Ryan scolds them, as everyone knows that those two love picking on each other

"So, back on topic, yes a dragon master. He was the one that created those things but once he died, they all disappeared as well...

The man before he died gave the guardian ship of his powers to Adrian and his wife, all these years we waited for any of his children to show any sign of that power but it seems no one holds that...

However, someone else created the other mandrakes we saw; it was Adrian's past mate Aria...

It seems a twisted fate but Aria's granddaughter is Adrian's wife. So, any more questions" he asks wanting the meeting to be over with already

Ad Rom and Ethan point out that this information if it remains hidden may just create a war among them but Dante knows that the people he is talking with right now will not dare go against him.

However, it was necessary to do this because even he was tired of withholding all of this information and in doing that, he could not fully investigate Thomas without raising any suspicion but now they have more back up.

"What more can we ask as it seems you all have already made the decision for us. We will give as much of the necessary aid as you will need...

Since we are all present here, I would also like to ask something. What's going on with those special kids any chances our kids can join those training we all keep hearing about?" the vampire named Mason asks hopefully

"We never thought you would be interested in sending your kids into our care? Wow I'm touched by your trust" Dante grins as he dramatically puts his hands on his chest

"I wouldn't mind if my son will get extra strong" one by one, the Alpha's and the Vampire's show their interest in sending their kids into the hands of the council for further training