Chapter 451
97 – Elara
This border magic is unlike anything Marietta and Brianna have shown me. I can feel it tingle on my wolf’s fur, but it has a metallic taste too.
“It’s like someone put a bunch of coins in water and let them sit for a year.” Jax gripes in my head.
“That is oddly specific. How do you know what coins in water taste like after a year?” Ben asks him, and I have to hold in my laugh. I know exactly what dare Jax is talking about. Copyright © 2025 Miss L Writes and Ember Mantel Productions
We are running the northern edge of the magical barrier. I want to know what is in here and yet, I want nothing to do with anything Walt has had a hand in. I’m torn between leaving this thing alone since it appears to be impenetrable by everyone and therefore useless and letting Walter rot in a cell, or beating the sh*t out of Walter until he tells me how to stop this mess. I don’t think either is going to get me the results I want though. I want my pack back in order, my order.
“Has anyone else tried to touch the barrier?” I ask.
“No one is that stupid.” Jax laughs.
“Just because you and the witches were able to get that kid down yesterday, doesn’t mean the rest of us will get the same courtesy.” Dev quips.
“WAIT!” Ben shouts through the link. We all skid to a stop, Jax’s wolf stumbling over a tree root in the process. “It’s weaker here, the magic’s pull or force or whatever it is that I can feel.”
I move closer to the hum of magic and follow it as it starts to turn back south. “This must be the tip of the border.” I say edging closer.
“Don’t you even think about it!” Ben growls, “You saw what it did to that kid.”
“I also saw my own two hands go through the barrier to get him down. At this point I’m the only one we know of that can touch the thing.”
“You are NOT the only one.”
“The only one here.” I shift before Ben can argue and reach my hand out to feel the magic. Just as my hand passes through, I feel arms lock around my waist, but he doesn’t pull me back.
“Dammit, Elara! You are not the only one at risk here.” Ben growls in my ear.
“But if I won’t take the risk, I can’t ask anyone else to do it either.” I look over my shoulder and his brown eyes which are normally stoic and guarded, show fear. I hold his gaze for a moment, then another. Finally he takes a deep breath and exhales an irritated sound.
“F*ck! Fine, you’re right.” He presses his forehead into my shoulder. “But let me do this with you. Okay?”
Everything in me wants to keep him safe and tell him to stay here, but I know if the situations were reversed I’d be pissed if he left me behind.
“The two of you aren’t going anywhere without backup.” Dev announces next to us.
“We don’t know if anyone else can cross through the magic. It is probably what killed that kid.”
“I agree, but I don’t think he tried to cross through. I think Brianna and Marietta were right. That kid powered or reenergized the barrier. There’s no way it’s been active this whole time and we’ve never found it. If my guess is right and this barrier is connected to the land on my pack I should be able to pass through… theoretically.”
“Theoretically?! That’s what you’re going on?” Jax throws a shirt at me. “You still don’t know what this thing is hiding or how powerful it is.”
“No. And we are never going to figure it out if we keep running scared from it. We have been taught and have seen magic work safely in our pack for months now. We have also seen it wreak havoc. What we have not seen or heard is magic working in any other packs outside Black Claw and Red Fang. want to know what is is here, arab my finger “‘m here,” Lab my finger towards the weak spot I feel in the barrier, “I want to know how it’s tied to me and my pack, and I want to
know now!”
I don’t hesitate, I’m tired of second guessing and wondering. I grab Ben’s hand and step through. The pressure suffocates me for a second and I blink.
What I see is anticlimactic. The forest is exactly the same on this side, with the exception of the burn from the spell, and I can see Jax and Dev on the other side like we only stepped past a tree.
“What the f*ck? Is that it?” Ben asks, looking me up and down like he expects me to be missing a limb.
“I’m fine. Let’s see if we can get these two idiots in here.” I move towards my friends, but I don’t touch the barrier. “Can the two of you hear us?” I say, louder than my normal speaking voice and I immediately. feel like an idiot. I feel a squeeze or my left hand and I realized haven’t let go of Ben’s hand. I get nothing from my friends. They are looking around trying to figure out how the barrier swallowed us.
“Well, normal talking isn’t working. Can the two of you mindlink?”
“Yes! Where the hell are you two? We’re looking at the barrier, but see nothing.”
“We see you.” Ben interjects. “It’s like a one-way mirror.”
“Do the two of you trust me?” I ask as I stick my hand out through the gap Ben and I came through.
“Oh f*ck! You have got to be kidding me.”
“You are part of my pack. So, theoretically, you should be able to walk through yourself. But…just in case….I’d like to pull you through.” try to sound as sure as possible. I don’t want my best friends to end up like the kid we found, but this has to be right. It’s the only reason I can think that Walter would want me to be a part of this whole debacle. I am tied to this somehow, through my dad. Through my bloodline. Copyright 2025 Miss L Writes and Ember Mantel Productions
“If I don’t survive this trip, I will come back and haunt you!” Jax yells at me.
“Deal!”
“I mean it! You will never have sex again. I will show up right before your going to climax. You will be edged out for the rest of your life.” Jax yells out loud like we can’t all hear him through the mind link.
I laugh as Ben shoots his arm out next to mine. “Get your asses in here and help us figure out this f*cking problem.”