***Conlan's POV***

Karr calmed considerably once we had her in the truck and away from the witch's house. We were so close to shifting. Seeing Zara being attacked unnecessarily was horrific and set him into madness. Claws and fangs and viscous barks consumed most of my consciousness. It took everything I had to contain him. To keep him from ripping the wolf, killing her, to shreds. Anger quickly left Karr when he saw the dire state she was in.

"How is she?" James asked, never looking away from the road in front of him. When we entered the truck I sent him a warning growl when he looked over at her. Karr was in primal mode and wanted to protect her in her vulnerable state.

"James. Just get to the pack house." My heart was aching. I'm the one that uttered a command so strong it force shifted all the wolves. This wouldn't have happened if I had just kept my cool.

Looking at her in my arms, bleeding and torn, the warrior in me can't believe that Zara fought so brilliantly against five wolves. 'She doesn't have her wolf to help her. How can she push herself to the limits with the knowledge of not being able to heal like a werewolf?' I shifted her a little so that she could sit up straighter. Zara constricted from the movement and her breathing pace increased from the pain. Careful not to rub her wounds on her back, I laid her head on my shoulder so she could rest more comfortably. She relaxed and it felt like she melted into me. The way she nestled into my body was like she was molded just for me.

'Is she going to live?' Karr whispered.

'She will. I'll make sure of it.' I promised.

'I like her. She would be a good mate.' Karr stated.

'Karr.' I wanted to yell, sigh, and grunt in frustration. 'We have to wait for our mate. She has to be out there. The Moon Goddess paired us with her. I want to take Alpha Bryce's advice to wait for our true mate. If we accept Zara as our mate then our true mate and us will all suffer.'

'Like Finnbar?' Karr asked sadly.

'Yeah. Just like Finnbar.' I repeated with a sigh.

'Where is Finnbar's mate? I could no smell her.' Karr asked. 'We need to find her for him.'

While thinking of an answer an acrid smell of charred remains filled the confines of the truck. It smelled like burnt plastic, and smoke. I looked away from Zara to see an entire town in blackened shambles. Everything was blown apart. Years of experience told me that this was a witch attack. The evidence was in the spherical impacts of each fireball that hit a building. A house on the end of the street was untouched. There was a perfect circle surrounding the beautiful garden of varying flowers and small trees in the front of the house. In the back of the small white cottage I could see a large willow tree next to a small babbling creek perfectly pristine.

"That must be where the white witch lived." James commented wearily. "Magic is so uncanny." He shivered.

"Why hasn't Alpha Patrick destroyed the house yet? The house can not be left that way. What if a human sees it?" I asked in an angry tone. "After we get Zara to the doctor I'll have a word with him, and that wolf that excessively hurt her."

"According to the GPS we're about ten minutes away from the pack address."

A heavy quietness fell. The pack guards at the border entrance hastily lifted the traffic bars blocking the access road. Zara curled in tighter. Her heavy breaths raised more concern as we bumped along the dirt road. I held my arms around her to keep her from bouncing so hard. My cheek rested on the top of her to keep her head from sliding around. During the next eight minutes to the pack house was the most heartbreaking. She whimpered and cried in pain when the truck would hit a pothole.

"Why is this road so terrible?! What is that incompetent Alpha even doing?!" I quietly seethed. "Letting witch attacks happen so close to his border, and not fixing his damn roads?! What else is he not doing?"

An older woman stood out front of the wooden porch steps. She had a sour expression on her face. With a wave of her hand two men came out bearing clothes from inside the dim interior. James rolled down his window and took a pair of basketball shorts and a large jersey shirt. He nodded a thanks to the young man that brought him a change of clothes.

"Come over and open the door for me and stay close. I am not impressed with this pack at all." I said in the mindlink with James.

A dressed James hopped out of the truck and came around to my side. I carefully cradled Zara closer as I exited the back seat. To my surprise she didn't make a sound as she softly breathed into the crook of my shoulder.

"Hello. My name is Luna Edith of The Veiled Moon Pack." The pack's Luna greeted us with a smile that never reached past her lips.

"Good Eve-"

"Show us to the pack doctor. Now." I interrupted James. The Luna and the men flinched a little at the command.

"Ye.. Yes." Edith slightly stuttered. "Follow..meh...me."

'Cowering fool.' I scoffed internally. Karr and myself not impressed with this Luna.

James followed her first up to the dim entrance. She led us inside a wide space and then down some stairs to a well lit white hall. The faint smell of disinfectant and bleach clung stubbornly to the sides of the clean walls. We all proceeded into a room with an open bed bay with light green bed covers. I reluctantly laid Zara down on the first bed on the opposite side of the room.

"I'll take care of her Alpha." An old gentleman said behind my back as I looked at Zara lying peacefully on the bed. Her loose shoulder braid laid on the top of her bloodied hoodie, softly rising and falling.

"I'll stay with her until Alpha Patrick returns." I turned to look at him. "She's been attacked by a wolf and has deep wounds on her back and legs. Maybe some punctures from a bite to a shoulder." He nodded his balding liver spotted head in understanding. "Please," I started to beg.

"Don't worry about your mate. I always knew Zara's mate would be an Alpha. Just like her grandpa." He prattled with a warm smile. "He was the best Alpha-"

"That's enough dawdling Fredrick. Can't you see the girl needs some medical help." Edith scolded him, obviously not pleased about him praising the old Alpha of the pack. "And he's a Beta, not an Alpha."

The old man, Fredrick, rolled his eyes and muttered, "and so is your mate," as he turned away to gather some things from his desk. He grabbed a notebook, pen, and a pair of large scissors. Edith flushed red with fury and left stomping through the way she came and glared at the doctor on the way out.

"Hey son, can you help me remove her jumper?" He looked at me with expectation. "Or would you rather I have him help me?" The doctor pointed to James and gave a small knowing grin.

"No. I'll do it." I grumbled and took the scissors from him.

"We have to take off the jumper so I can see the extent of her injuries. And you'll need to hold her up so I can look at her back and other injuries."

I cut straight up at the side seam of her thick hoodie all the way up to her armpit to the cuff. Then I did the same to the other side so that we didn't have to slide her arms out of the sleeves. Blood had seeped out of the puncture wounds from the wolf bite and stained her shirt. The doctor cleaned the drying blood away from her shoulder to reveal that she was partially healed. Pink and red holes marred her skin were the wolf bit.

"That's odd." Fredrick commented. We exchanged a look and then he continued with his explanation when I wasn't getting his meaning. "She hasn't healed completely yet."

"How could she heal that fast at all without her wolf helping her?" I responded with my own puzzling question.

"What do you mean? Of course she has a wolf." He looked surprised that I would say such a thing. "I've seen her wolf myself." Fredrick stopped for a moment and focused on Zara. It looked like he was trying to feel for her wolf. My suspicions were confirmed when he gave a deep frown and shook his head in disbelief.

"Where is she?" He whispered. "Oh my girl. What happened?"

"Do you want me to turn her over so you can see the other wounds?" I asked him, trying to draw him out of his lonely thoughts.

The lines on his face deepened when he nodded at me with a faraway look. "Yeah, let's see them." He quietly responded.

"Conlan." James almost gasped as I had turned her over so that she rested on my chest so the doctor could look at her backside and removed the remaining pieces of her hoodie. His tone surprised me and I looked up at him and then slowly to where his eyes led. Zara's shirt was torn to shreds. Long red streaks covered her back. All of that was terrible to look at and puzzling on how fast she had healed, but what got me was the black blotch. Grotesque and unsightly were not enough to describe the horror of this ink of evil. Ugly veins of darkly blotched skin grew thicker and darker to the spot where a mate mark would be.

"She..survived a forced-" James was saying looking at the hideous mark. My snarls drowned out the rest of his sentence. All of our suspicions have been confirmed.

Karr went into a murderous frenzy. He wanted blood. James noticed my change first.

"KARR! CONLAN! THINK OF ZARA! SHE NEEDS YOU!" James bellowed.

I roared out my displeasure with enough force to shake the objects in the room. Zara winced. Her eyes creased harder shut in pain. As I looked at her with loss her nose bleed started again. Not knowing what to do I laid her back down on the bed. Regretfully, I lost my cool again and hurt her once more. 'She's making me crazy, and she's not even my mate.'

After a few moments ticked by, Fredrick was the first to dare to move. He cleared his throat. My gaze slowly found him. Karr's golden eyes shone brightly as they reflected in the glass cabinets. I found the old man over at his desk. He had pulled out a white envelope from a locked drawer.

"This was left for you." Doctor Fredrick said with a sad look in his eyes. "Willow gave this to me almost two weeks ago." His eyes glossed with unshed tears. "She was such a dear friend, my oldest friend..." He handed me the envelope.

My name was written neatly on top.

"Who's Willow?" I asked. A feeling of apprehension washed over me.

"Willow was the white witch you took from the dark witches." He stated solemnly.

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Hello Readers,

Yay! Chapter 12! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Some juicy information, right? :D Please let me know how you like the story so far.  I'd love to hear from you! I would also like to shout out to my loyal followers! (you know who you are :D I write for you guys, for myself too, but mostly for you guys lol)

<3Lynne