After enjoying my own company for several hours, I go back to my office and meet everyone else there. I greet Madam Iris, Orion, and Jareth, along with everyone else. Madam Iris explains to my parents and beta that Theresa and I will need to accompany them alone for the ritual. After they have completed the cleansing ritual for the two of us, they will do a protection spell over the territory to keep all black magic out and nullify any black magic present on our members once they enter our pack borders. There is no way of knowing how many of our pack members have been compromised and or to sitting dormant waiting for an opportunity to cause chaos. My beta will get with the other ranked members and let them know what is going on while we are doing the ritual. If any members are under the influence of dark magic, they will become disoriented once the magic is broken. They may not even remember where they are or how they go there. The ranked members will separate those members and let them know what is going on so that we can contain this and control the flow of information. My parents will assist the ranked members in keeping everything contained.
I lead everyone out of the pack house and to the spot in the woods. Once we get there, Madam Iris lets us know that the three of them will form a circle around the two of us to eliminate the residual effects of the dark magic and removed all traces of the magic, but before they do that, Jareth asks Theresa for permission to enter her self-conscious mind to trace the magic back to the one who cast the spell. Theresa agrees and Jareth take her hand and asks her to just relax. Madam Iris and Orion stand on the side of Jareth and place their hands on his shoulder as if giving him additional magical support. Jareth closes his eyes and begins to chant in a language I do not understand. After a few minutes, the chanting stop and the three share a look.
“It is done.” Jareth says.
Madam Iris then asks me to join Theresa in the center of the 3 person circle. After I stepped next to Theresa, the three joined hands and began a different chant. This time, it took more than a couple of minutes. After what seemed like an hour, but I’m sure it was less than that, the chanting stopped. Madam Iris looked and both of us and declared that we were free of all magical influence.
For the next part of cleansing and protecting the territory, the three of them will need to spread out after spending about 30 minutes in meditation to replenish their active powers. Madam Iris asked that I send three of my warriors to escort them to a different point in the territory. The three warriors will be able to link each other so that the three magics can coordinate the start and finish of the spell to cover the entire territory. They usually have four with them when they do the protection spell, but the goddess has granted them grace to do it with three. Since the area we are in is in the territory's north and has already been blessed and protected, they will cover the South, East and West points of the territory.
I link my three strongest and fastest warriors to come to our location. The warriors will stand guard will the three meditate, then they will carry them to the directional points showed. I suggested the warriors run in wolf form carrying the three magics so that they can cover more territory, but the magics told me they can travel at a high-speed using their own energy, but suggested that the warriors lead in wolf form so they all can travel quickly together.
Theresa and I leave the valley and head back towards the packhouse.
“Alpha, I am so sorry for my part in this. I would have never knowingly done anything like this.” Theresa says once we are away from the valley.
“Look Theresa, I know in theory that this was not your fault and I truly don’t blame you, but for now, I need you to keep your distance from me. This is too new and my anger is still very strong. I will make sure that the rest of the pack knows that this was not your fault, but there can be no further interaction between the two of us. I am going to do everything in my power to win my mate’s love and trust back, and I don’t want her to have a daily reminder of you and I together.” I say.
“Are you banishing me from the pack, Alpha?” Theresa asks.
“No. I’m just asking you not to come around me or the main pack house for now. Since you live in your family home and none of your close friends live in the pack house, there really is no reason for you to hang around the packhouse.”
“I understand Alpha. I sincerely wish you the best and hope things work out with you and your mate. I truly love you and want you to be happy. Remember, we were friends before we tried to be anything else. I hope one day in the distant future, we will all be friends. I’m praying that the moon goddess also blesses me with my true mate.”
“I’m sorry. I could never love you like you wanted, Theresa, but like I told you that from the beginning. My heart has always been with my mate and now I have a second chance mate. She mended my broken heart and gave me a chance to love again. There is no room in my heart for anyone else. I am sorry that you wasted so much time with me. I too hope the goddess will bless you with a mate of your own soon.”
“Thank you Alpha.” Theresa says and walks toward her family’s home.
“She took that better than I thought.” Onyx says.
“She really did. But I was always honest with her. She knew I didn’t love her and never would. As she said, we were friends first and probably should have remained just friends. I have always known I would only love my mate.”
Both Onyx and I were quiet after that. I walked to my office and checked in with my parents and my beta. So far, everything has been quiet. I let them know it will be a little later before they cleanse the whole territory and put the layer of protection around us. I suggested we all get some rest. The warriors with the magics will link me at the appropriate time.
I went to my room to get some sleep. Truth is, I have not been eating or sleeping lately. I’m going to try to get a little rest, so that I will be ready for my mate when she decides to talk to me again. I hope she is doing better than I am. I don’t want to think of her losing sleep or not eating because of me.
I must have fallen asleep, because I am awakened by a link from all three of my warriors. The magics are in place and ready to start. The sun is actually out now, and the pack is waking up. I link my ranked warriors and let them know the magics are starting the pack cleansing and protection spell now. They are all now going to strategic locations around the pack so that they can catch any disturbance and deal with any members that might be disoriented after being under the influence of magic. None of the ones impacted remembered how or when they encountered the dark magic.
Most of the morning was spent with my rank members, assisting families with dealing with the fallout. It looks like mostly young unmated members, but male and females were under the influence of the dark magic. I ended up having to call a pack meeting to update everyone on what was happening and letting the pack know the pack is now under protection from all dark magic. If they happen to run into anything outside of the pack, it will be neutralized once they come back to pack lands. I have not officially put the pack on lockdown, but I strongly advised them to stay close to the pack and/or travel as parts of a group. I asked them all to report any suspicious activity they see to one of the ranked members.
Once the three got back to the main pack house, they contacted the king and gave him the update. It seems like my pack was targeted or was used as the test pack to see if they could infiltrate a pack. At least one third of my pack had been under the influence of the dark magic. Fortunately, I was the only ranked member they could get close to, and that was only because they used another pack member to get close to me. Maybe that was why they pulled so many of my members; so that they could get to more of the ranked members.
The king is setting up a meeting with all the alphas involved with the Protector team and the council. This is bigger than we thought. We need to make sure other packs have not already been hit. We also need to develop a way to counteract the magic for those packs that are isolated and do not have a corporation with good magic workers. The meeting will be after lunch. The king is allowing me to be a part of this meeting now that I have been cleared. The king will notify the others that I have been cleared and bring them up to date on everything that has happened.