CM Punk POV
After failing to rescue April, I went back to the den. I knew the only way to save her now was to go to the Realm of Sirens, but going there by myself would be suicide, not to mention that I have no idea how to get there. Despite all of this, I still have an ace in the hole: Renee. Seth has been watching out for her these past two weeks, and I know he's gained her trust. Of course this means that I have to confess to everyone that I ordered Renee's imprisonment. No doubt they'll be mad at me, but I don't have to tell them about the rape. That's not something that they need to know. It'll just create more divisions in the pack, and with Dean and me not seeing eye-to-eye, Paige hating Corey's guts, Sheamus and Dean at each other's throats, Seth wanting to kill Corey and being mad at me, and Eve being hurt over Roman and Bayley being mates, we don't need another reason to hate one another.
By the time I arrive at the den it's already daybreak. I can smell everyone's scent at I walk up the stairs to the porch, but three scents are missing: Eve, Kaitlyn and Jojo, but they could just be upstairs. Their scents wouldn't be strong enough to reach outside if they are upstairs. I'm about to open the door when I hear arguing. What the hell are these guys arguing about now?! I walk inside the living room to see Dean and Sheamus standing face to face with everyone surrounding them, and the both of them look pissed off.
"If you would have been thinking with your head instead of your dick, this could have been prevented," Sheamus yells at Dean.
"For the last time, Sheamus, Eve had no scent! Even if Kaitlyn and I didn't have sex how were we supposed to know when she came in?" Okay what is Dean talking about?
"You would have at least been able to listen out for her!"
"Oh yeah, because that would have made a big difference! She's a wolf! She knows how to sneak into places without make noise!"
"You're just making excuses."
"You're just mad it wasn't you making Kaitlyn scream in bliss last night." Sheamus doesn't bother with a verbal response and punches Dean square in the jaw. Dean recovers quickly and tackles Sheamus to the floor and starts wailing on him. Fucking, we don't have time for this! Before I can say anything, Roman grabs his brother and lifts him off of Sheamus, while Sami and Seth hold back Sheamus.
"This isn't the time for the two of you to be fighting," Sami informs them. "We have a traitorous wolf, a kidnapped hybrid and a kidnapped sorceress on our hands. Can we focus on that, please?!" Traitorous wolf? What the hell?
"Wait, what the hell is going on?!" My voice cuts through the room and everybody turns their attention to me, but no one answers me. "Am I going to get an answer or what?"
"Eve's a traitor," Charlotte finally says. "She ditched guard duty and came back to the den to kidnap Jojo and Kaitlyn. The only reason we know this is because before Eve knocked Dean out, she told him that she was working with Natalya."
"Do we know why she'd do this?"
"She mentioned something about Natalya being able to fix things between her and Roman," Sasha tells me. I can only sigh.
"You just had to mess around with her didn't you, Roman," I ask.
"How was I supposed to know she was psycho," Roman tries to defend himself.
"Don't blame him for something that happened in the past," Bayley chimes in. She would come to her mate's defense. "Besides he apologized for it."
"Whatever, listen we've got more problems than Eve and her treachery."
"What are you talking about, Punk," Layla asks me.
"Natalya has an alliance with the vampires, and they kidnapped April last night." I hear practically everyone let out an exasperated and frustrated sigh. An uncomfortable silence overtakes the room as reality dawns on everyone.
"Now what do we do?" Sami breaks the silence. "We have three kidnap victims and no way of getting to the Realm of Sirens."
"Seth," I call out. Seth directs his attention to me. "Go get Renee." He nods and heads down to the basement.
"Who's Renee," Bayley asks.
"She's the siren who brought you back to life," Roman answers. "She's in the basement?" I nod in confirmation. "How long has she been there?"
"About two weeks now," I answer him honestly.
"You ordered for the person who brought Bayley back to life to be imprisoned," Charlotte screams at me. "What were you thinking?!"
"I was thinking that we needed information on the sirens!"
"That doesn't make it right," Sasha chimes in. "She brought Bayley back to us and we thank her by locking her up?! Have you been torturing her?!" My gaze immediately falls on Corey. I can't tell them about what he did to Renee. I just can't.
"I haven't laid a finger on her." Well, it's not a lie. I haven't done a thing to Renee, personally. Sasha never asked about anyone else doing anything to her. "And Seth has been taking very good care of her."
"Is that supposed to take away from the fact that you imprisoned someone who we are supposed to be grateful to?" Sasha isn't letting this go.
"Sasha, I promise you can chastise me all you want as soon as we get April, Kaitlyn and Jojo back. Right now let's focus on the bigger problem at hand." She gives me a look that tells me that she will indeed chastise me later before taking a step back and crossing her arms over her chest. At least we can put this issue aside for now.
Seth POV
"Renee do you think you can handle being in front of them all," I ask as I prepare Renee for an audience in front of my pack.
"These weren't exactly the circumstances that I was hoping to meet your pack, but yes. I can handle it."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm not mad at them or anything. I mean, yeah, Punk imprisoned me, but I get it. Sirens have done some awful things to you guys and I would have been suspicious of me too, but it's not like anyone hurt me. I mean Corey tried to, but you stopped him before he could, and he hasn't tried anything since." If only she remembered the half of it. At the same time, I still think it's for the best that she doesn't remember. For her own sake rather than for anybody else's sake.
"Alright then," I take her by the hand and lead her upstairs. "Don't be intimidated by them okay?" I open the door and lead her into the living room. "Answer any and all questions honestly."
"Seth, don't worry. I told you I was going to help you guys, and I will." Renee gives me a smile before I introduce her to everyone.
"Hey guys!" Everyone turns their heads to me, not saying a word. "This is Renee, the siren who revived Bayley." I see Bayley smile out of the corner of my eye and walk up to Renee. Bayley hugs Renee tightly, lifting her off the floor before putting her back down.
"Thank you so much Renee!"
"Not a problem Bayley. It was the least I could do," Renee replies to Bayley.
"Listen, Renee," Dean speaks up. "I don't want to put a damper on the mood or anything, because, believe me, we're all really grateful that you brought Bayley back to us, but how do we know that we can trust you?"
"Dean," I begin to chastise him.
"No, Seth, it's okay," Renee assures me while patting my shoulder and walking forward, letting go of my hand. "Natalya abandoned me as soon as I was captured. She called me a traitor and was going to kill me, but decided against it because she thought that being a prisoner here would be a punishment worse than death."
"Then what about Bayley," Dean continues his questioning. "How do we know that bringing her back wasn't a set up?"
"I knew nothing about Natalya's plan to kill Bayley. That's the reason Natalya disowned me in the first place. She was livid that I revived her. I brought Bayley back because it was the right thing to do, and for no other reason." Dean doesn't respond and only nods in understanding.
"Good," Punk says. "If we're done with those kinds of questions we can get to more important matters." He turns to Renee and continues speaking. "Renee, Natalya has an alliance with vampires and turned one of own members against us so that she could kidnap Kaitlyn, a three year old girl named Jojo and a human named April. What do you make of it?"
"It doesn't surprise me that Natalya made an alliance with vampires. Sirens and vampires share a common enemy in wolves so it would make sense that they would work together to exterminate wolves."
"And what about our pack member?"
"Assuming that Natalya knew about my 'treachery' before she got to your pack member, I believe your pack member was used to do the job I couldn't complete."
"Here's what I don't understand," Sami starts. "I get why Natalya needs Kaitlyn, but why take Jojo and April?"
"Natalya doesn't do anything just for the heck of it. There's always a reason, good or bad, there's always a reason. I wouldn't be able to tell you for sure, why Natalya took the two of them without knowing a little more about them."
"Well Jojo is a sorceress," Sami answers. "I don't know anything more about April other than she's human."
"She's pregnant," Punk says. All eyes fall on him. Is he serious? AJ's pregnant? When did that happen?! Haven't they been using protection at all?! "With my child." I sigh in frustration. Punk's never been so careless. What was he thinking?!
"Okay." Renee breathes deeply before speaking. "Jojo is going to be killed."
"She would actually kill a child," Charlotte yells in shock.
"If Jojo is actually a sorceress? Absolutely, but there's only one way to kill a sorceress, and it needs to be done during the full moon. That's when sirens are at their strongest, so it's the only time the spell that can kill a sorceress can be performed." Charlotte turns away in disgust. I don't blame her either. Anyone who has the gull to harm a child is… revolting.
"What about April," Punk asks eagerly.
"Natalya isn't after her specifically," Renee explains. "If my guess is correct, Natalya is after the child. There's this ancient spell that can create a super soldier of sorts. It combines the very best of four species while robbing the soldier of all free will."
"Has this spell been done before," I inquire.
"It's only been used once since its inception, but the resulting creation was unstable."
"So what's going to happen to my child," Punk questions Renee. He raises his voice and his face starts getting red. I can't tell if he's mad or worried or frustrated, or some type of combination of a whole bunch of different emotions. I can't fault him. If it were my child I'd probably be the same way.
"I think your child is more likely to survive the spell because it's already a hybrid of the two races involved in the spell. Plus being a hybrid means that the child has stronger genes and can survive most spells."
"Okay," Sheamus speaks up. "We now know Natalya's plans. Now how do we stop them?"
"You need to get to the Realm of Sirens before the next full moon. Once you get there you have one of two options: one, rescue them and get out before you're caught, or, two, form a coup and overthrow Natalya by taking her and her high ranking officers out."
"How can we take them out if we don't even know how fight them one on one," Dean inquires. "Last time one of us went up against the sirens, Jojo's family was killed and so was Bayley."
"There was a way our ancestors were able to fight the sirens centuries ago," Sasha reminds Dean, placing a hand on his arm. She turns to Renee and continues talking. "Do you know how they were able to do it?"
"Those centuries ago, wolves had a siren ally who weakened the high ranking sirens."
"Wait, what?" That didn't mean to come out of my mouth, I swear. It's just so unbelievable!
"Yeah, you guys know her as Mickie James."
"Wait," I speak up again. "Mickie James was a wolf."
"No she was born a siren. After the wolf revolt failed she used a spell to turn herself into a werewolf and lock away her siren powers." Whoa, I never knew that. Mickie James was a major figure in wolf history, similar to the Spartacus of Roman history. Mickie James was the one who led the wolves' rebellion when we were enslaved by the sirens. I wonder why her history as a siren wasn't recorded in our history books though. "Either way, it's not really an option for you guys. With my powers sealed away and Natalya disowning me, I can't perform the spell needed. You guys are going to need to sneak in."
"How do we do that," Punk asks.
"If I still had my powers I would be able to transport you there, but I don't so that's out," Renee claims. "However, I do know of an ancient door way that sirens used to use to get to our realm, before Demeter, the Greek goddess of the Earth, gave us the power of black magic. It's how your ancestors were able to invade the Realm of Sirens in first place."
"Where's the door," I inquire.
"It's in Athens, Greece. I can take you there."
"You definitely will be taking us there," Punk rudely points out. "Seth, how long until the next full moon?"
"Five nights," I answer.
"Alright then we're going to Athens."
"How do you suppose we do that, Punk," Sheamus questions. "Flights to Athens cost about $1500 a pop, and for all of us to go together we'd need to get on the same flight, which is damn near impossible for a party of twelve."
"I'm expecting our international pack members tomorrow," Punk informs us. "Del Rio will be among them and he has a private plane, so transportation won't be an issue. What will be an issue is the matter of the humans. I don't know how long we're going to be away, but I can guarantee that it'll be more than a night or two. We need make sure the vampires don't run amok while we're gone."
"What do you suggest we do then," Dean asks Punk.
"Dean, you, Paige and Charlotte are going to the Witch compound tonight. Enlist their help."
"Ugh," Paige responds. "Why at the witch compound? Can't we ask the other witches to help us out?"
"The witches at the compound are the most powerful witches we know. I'd rather put the humans' safety in their hands than in the hands of a lesser witch."
"But they creep me the hell out," Paige exclaims.
"Well, then suck it up, because you're going," Punk raises his voice to Paige while walking across the room to get in her face. They stare each other down for a minute before Paige sighs and has a seat on the chair behind her. Punk takes a step back from Paige before lifting his head and addressing the rest of us. "Anyone else have something to fucking say?!" Punk is beyond pissed right now. I'm sure it's because he's worried about AJ and his child, but still it's no reason to take it out on any of us. Nevertheless, I keep my thoughts to myself, and so does everybody else because complete and total silence fills the room. There's no need to get Punk more riled up than he already is. "Good. Don't bother me unless it's to say that our international members have arrived." With that Punk leaves us all in the living room, stunned while he heads upstairs to his room.
I'm brought out of my silence when I feel Renee tugging at my hand. "Is he always so mean?"
"Well, he has a temper, but he's usually not like this." I don't even know what else to say to her, but I know I sure as hell don't want to be in the den right now. "Come on, Renee, I'll take you home. We'll come back tonight. Hopefully the atmosphere in this place will have changed by then."
Anyone care to guess who the witches are? (in spooky voice)It's still a mystery! lol
Thank you everyone who reviewed last chapter! I love love love reading how you guys feel about my writing!
Next chapter should be up in a couple of days. We'll meet the witches and the international pack members. Hopefully everything will go smoothly for the wolves... ha! yeah right, nothing ever goes smoothly for these guys!
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-J.