"Baby, do you really think that we'll find Leland?"

"Ethan, maybe he knows? Maybe he knows why they are interested in the tree? Maybe that's why he burned it down," I said.

"She has a point wolf," Bernard added from behind us.

Ethan rolled his eyes then walked closer to me, pinching the cheek of my ass, covered in cotton shorts, that was still sore from the previous night and making me yelp before I snapped at him. He just chuckled at me and winked deviously before he started to climb up the rocks that led to the tree.

"He is something, your mate," Bernard mused.

I grumbled while I quickly climbed up the rocks. The moss was slick with dew; I stumbled a little, luckily Bernard caught my elbow and helped me up.

Ethan was staring at the swaying tree when I walked up to him. He turned and looked over at me. "Are you sure?"

I nodded then looked back at Bernard. "Watching again?"

He sat down and leaned against a tree. "Yes."

"Lucas! We need Leland!" I yelled out. Ethan shook his head and looked at me. I shrugged. "It worked last time."

The tree was swaying and the blood humming to me like a lullaby. I found myself gravitating towards it, almost entranced by it. The energy coming off of it was addicting, like the soft caress of a lover.

Ethan's hand found my shoulder, pulling me back to his chest. He wrapped an arm around my waist and linked our hands together. "Ready?"

"Ya, let's do it," I breathed out.

Ethan lifted our hands up and took a deep breath. "You better have Leland Lucas."

We touched the tree, and we were pulled.

We fell hard through the free air that almost had me screaming. Screaming as the sound of whispers rushed past my ears. They were calling me in difference directions, calling for me to come with them.

"Charlotte," something whispered out. "It's time to see."

"Open your eyes, Charlotte," another whispered.

I felt my hand instinctually reaching out. Ethan grabbed it and pulled it to him. "Sunshine–"

He was cut off as we landed hard on a solid floor, well, more like I landed on my already sore ass. I yelped out in pain then tried to push myself up when arms helped me up and pulled me to something solid.

"Man sis, that was a hard fall," Lucas breathed out, hugging me to him.

Blinking my eyes open, I saw Lucas smiling down at me. "Hey," I breathed out before I hugged him back. Looking around, I saw Ethan standing up while he rubbed his tailbone in Chris' office. "Where's Leland?"

Lucas pulled away from me and rubbed his hair. "Hopefully coming?"

"Hopefully?" Ethan asked.

Lucas rolled his eyes. "Leland is kind of important ok? It's not like I can just bring whoever I want here when you two decided to touch the tree."

"Do you remember Luca ever talking about a tree back home? A tree that wasn't the one with the initials on it?"

Lucas eyed me before he walked to a chair and sat down in it. "Luca was dead before I was born. What are you talking about?"

Ethan pulled up two chairs from in front of Chris' desk for us. I sat in one across from Lucas and straightened my sweatshirt out. "Levi found this journal, this bundle of papers, one of them talked about another tree that was at Tikanni. It was apparently the original oathing tree."

"What?" Lucas said with a raised brow. "No way. Our oathing tree has been around for like longer than the dirt that it's planted in."

"Well, apparently not. Apparently, before Luca was born, they burned the tree down then made a new one–the one with the initials on it."

Lucas sat back and chewed on his bottom lip, his hand scratching at his navy t-shirt. His silver eyes looked back up at me, almost like something was clicking in his brain. "I did always think it was odd–"

"What?" Ethan asked.

"Well, all the other packs have a blood oath. I mean, we have one but it's not on a 'thing' it's in the valley that overlooks the pack. You guys have your tree, Lusa has the rock, I think the rest are like that but Paraq–they let their blood go into the river," Lucas said. "But besides Paraq, I mean the whole thing when you become an alpha is swearing in blood to the moon to serve your pack on one of the original markers."

"Original markers?" I asked.

"They say then the first wolves dispersed, that they went to the land that called to them until they found the piece that they felt was right," Ethan explained. "They say that after that, they each went to a landmark, or marker, and swore to the moon in blood to protect the land."

"The original oaths," Lucas added.

"So our tree was the marker?"

Ethan nodded. "Besides it serving as a promise to the moon, it was a sign to others that the land was whoever had claimed it."

"Well, I guess we'll have to ask Leland," Lucas sighed out. "Otherwise, how's everything else? How's dad?"

"Oh, Levi's real good," I said with a sly smile as I eyed Ethan. "Gave Ethan that lovely black eye."

Lucas cocked a brow. "Why?"

"Because Charlotte and I got married and Levi was a little pissed."

Lucas was on top of Ethan before he could react, sending a fist straight to where Levi had. "You married my little sister without asking me you son of a bitch?!"

"Lucas!" I yelled out as I ran over to where Ethan had nailed Lucas in the jaw. I grabbed his shirt and yanked him backward, losing my balance along the way. Lucas and I fell like two damn trees onto the floor.

Ethan stood up quickly and glared at Lucas. "Riley did it for the legal benefits! It wasn't even a big deal!"

Lucas snarled but I pulled him back. "Stop it dammit! We have things to do!"

"Ya, like beating your husband's ass," Lucas snickered out.

I eyed Ethan then shrugged. "You're the one that opened your mouth."

"You still should have asked you asshole!"

"You're dead!"

"I don't give a f–"

"Will you shut the hell up boy!" an older male barked out. The silver male with silver eyes marched towards Lucas and eyed him before he looked at me. "Well, hello Charlie girl."

"Where's Leland?" Lucas asked.

The male narrowed his gaze towards Lucas. "Well, my father is a real busy man so he sent me instead."

"You're Luca?" I asked.

He turned and smiled at me. "That's right girl, now tell me how are my boys?"

I bit back a shocked breath and smiled politely. "Lander and Claire are fine, still a goofball. Levi's still a stubborn ass, but he's good."

Luca snickered. "He'll think stubborn ass when he get's his ass up here one day." He paused and turned to look at Ethan. "You look like your dad boy."

"Thanks," Ethan breathed out with wide eyes.

"Grandad, Ethan and Charlie have some questions," Lucas said before he sat back down in the wingback chair.

"Well of course they do, doubt they came here to see your pretty ass. Now get out of my seat boy," Luca replied with a slight bark in his voice towards the end.

Lucas grumbled while he got out of the chair, letting Luca have it instead. Ethan pulled up Chris' big office chair and sat down in it. He patted his lap, which only made Lucas scowl at him.

Lucas pulled me with him instead to sit in one of the guest chairs next to him. Ethan was about to snarl when a sharp growl interrupted them. Luca pinched his brow before he looked at Lucas. "I am two seconds away from taking you outside to beat your ass–" he paused and looked at Ethan, nodding a bit in approval. Ethan gave Lucas a smug grin before Luca cut him off with a low growl. "Don't think I won't beat your ass too when you get up here son. You can't just run off and marry my granddaughter without asking her daddy first."

"Christ," Ethan hissed out while Lucas bit back a smile.

"Now girl, tell me what it is you need?" Luca asked with a kind smile.

He looked so much like Levi. In fact, I was pretty convinced that Levi was going to look just like him when he got older; strong and still standing tall with a body that would rival many young men's.

I sat back in the chair and smiled politely. Luca seemed to like me but I would be lying if I said that he didn't slightly scare the hell out me. "So first, do either of you know a 'Hayden?'"

Luca shook his head. "No, sorry girl."

"Me either," Lucas echoed.

I sighed out disappointedly. "So we found something new, well, Levi did. He found this bundle of papers that was Leland's, it had this picture of the original oathing tree at Tikanni drawn on it and some notes about how they burned it down. Do you know anything at all?"

"Well," Luca sighed out. "That was before I was born. I always knew that the tree wasn't real though."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, one day my brother Laurent and I were running around the land. We ended up close to the oathing tree when we heard my father's sister Hilda, talking with my father's beta, her mate, about it. I remember it was hard to hear, but we heard them carving into the tree. When we looked, we saw them carving initials into it–initials that were not theirs."

"What did you do?"

Luca smiled deviously "Spied obviously. Laurent, Laura–my sister, and I weren't about to just let that go. I mean, we had been told our whole lives that the tree was sacred and that only alphas carved into it.

"So one night we heard my dad talking to his sister about it. They were arguing over what to do with the ashes from the tree, apparently strange things had been happening. My aunt wanted to dump them in the river, I guess my grandfather had told my father to do that. My dad didn't want to because he thought it was some kind of bad luck, but my aunt didn't care. She dumped them herself."

"What kinds of things were happening?" Ethan asked.

"Whispering kinds of things," Luca said with eyes that looked almost haunted. "Lots of strange whispers. Shadows of things lurking around–some real weird shit."

"We've heard them too," I said. "Recently."

Luca snapped his eyes to me. "What?"

"Before, like before Ethan challenged Thomas, I heard the whispers and so did Ethan. It's how I found our oathing tree at first, it's why I touched it."

"Hold on, you heard them recently?"

"Ya, they told me weird shit like they did before, 'to come and see,'" I said.

"She had an awful nightmare I almost couldn't wake her from the night she heard them," Ethan added.

"I figured it was you guys again," I said while looking towards Lucas.

"Charlotte, we never did that," Lucas said with wide eyes.

I breathed out a laugh. "What? Come on Lucas–how else did the tree whisper?"

Lucas shook his head slowly. "Charlotte, I swear to you, I never did that–that wasn't us."

"What?" I felt the breath from my lungs leave.

"That tree–" Luca paused and shook his head. "This tree girl, I know it's nice to come here and see us, but girl, this tree is just as dangerous as it is a blessing. This much blood in one place is dangerous. My father was furious at Jeremy Black when he wouldn't destroy the damn rock and Ezra for not burning this thing down, I did remember that much."

"Hold on, who was whispering to her then?" Ethan asked.

"I suggest you don't keep touching this tree to find out son," Luca said.

"Why? What could it do?" Ethan replied.

"In the wrong hands, probably a lot," Luca breathed out.

"Charlotte," something whispered to me.

I turned my head while Ethan leaned closer towards Luca. "So Ezra wouldn't burn the tree down? "

"Charlotte," it whispered again.

"No, he was stubborn set on it too," Luca replied.

"You need to see Charlotte," it sang out to me.

"Do you hear that?" I asked.

Lucas eyed me. "What was that Char?"

"Charlotte come and see with me," it called out again.

"That," I said. "That voice."

Luca cocked his head. "Girl, the only voices here are ours."

"Come with me," I said to me, something tugging at my skin–pulling me.

"Charlotte!" Ethan called out, but it was too late.

I was pulled.

I was ripped away.

Tossed, turned, and thrown around in the air until I landed harshly on the ground. Groaning, my hands gripped the grass that was soft, unlike my fall. I looked up as the cool droplets from the misty fog creeping in grazed my cheeks.

I was in front of the tree. It was night and I was in front of the tree. The tree was swaying in the night while the fog wrapped around us. My heart was pounding and my beast and I were searching for our mate.

"Ethan!" I called out, doing a small circle while I tried to look for him. "Ethan!"

"Charlotte," a female whispered.

I snapped my head around towards the sound of the voice, but I heard nothing. "Hello?"

"You need to see Charlotte," she whispered out.

My feet started backing up, slowly but surely until my back hit the tree. "Ethan? Lucas?" I murmured out.

"I need to show you something," she whispered to me, the outline of her body forming as a shadow in the fog.

I opened my mouth to reply, but when I blinked, I was looking at a man. A man that was talking to a woman in what looked like a kitchen. Their faces were blurred out, and no matter how much I squinted I couldn't make them out.

The man walked quickly to the woman and knelt down to face her. "I have no choice."

She let out a sob and shook her head, dark hair in a braid cascading down her back. "You don't know that."

"If he finds me, he will kill me and everything I've touched– that includes you."

Blinking, I opened my eyes and I was back against the tree with the fog tickling my cheeks. I let out a series of hot pants, my beast pacing wildly in my mind. "Where is Ethan!"

"He's fine," she replied, her voice less of a whisper and her outline becoming clearer.

"What do you want?"

"You need to dig," a man's voice said from my left.

I looked over to see an outline of a man, tall and sturdy, covered in the safety of the fog. "What?"

He pointed to the ground below his feet. "You need to dig Charlotte."

"Dig," the woman said to me, walking closer while the man took a step closer as well.

"Who are you?"

"The ones that whispered to you," she answered.

She reached out to touch me, but something grabbed me from out of my right. Something grabbed me and I screamed. I screamed as I was pulled again; thrashing and clawing out until I landed on a solid surface again.

I looked up and saw the Tikanni pack house. I was in the tall grass on top of the ledge that Liam had first taken me to. It was dusk and the breeze was combing through my hair.

"Are you ok?"

My hand moved quickly the lash out at the voice, but a hand caught my wrist. A hand that was attached to a female with long blonde hair and silver eyes. "Charlotte!" she rushed out as my breath hitched. She slowly released my hand and held her two hands up. "It's ok, I won't hurt you. It's me, it's Lydia."

"Lydia?" I breathed out, as I tried to catch my breath.

She nodded quickly and gave me a mock salute. "The one and only."

I fell back in the grass and rubbed my face. "What the hell is happening?"

I heard the grass rustle next to me. Turning my head, I looked to see Lydia pushing back grass to look at me. "I don't know," she sighed out. "I'm sorry."

"Who was that? How did you know that I was in trouble?"

She let out a tense breath. "I have no idea, but that was creepy as fuck–"

I let out a breath laugh, cutting her off and nodded. "Ya, damn. That was insane."

She smiled then laid her head in her palm. "To the second part of your question, well, I can't tell you. I was going to come earlier but I was running late and I'm not as good at this as Lucas. There are rules and I'm sorry, I can't break them."

"Ok," I replied. "Well, do you know where Ethan is?"

"He's alright," she said with a smile. "Probably worried as hell, but he's fine. Waiting for you."

I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, looking back at her with a slight bitter smile. "It feels like it's all falling apart Lydia."

She scooted over and pulled me into a hug. A hug that took me by surprise until I found myself hugging her back. "You know, I always wanted a sister. Lucas was such a demon to live with growing up."

"Ha!" I barked out. "I can imagine."

I pulled away and looked back at the grass while she smiled at me with her big round silver eyes. "I know it's hard right now, but you have to stay strong. You're doing good, you just have to keep fighting. I'm sorry I haven't been around as much, I wanted to be."

I shrugged. "It's not like you're kind of dead."

Lydia held my gaze for long moment before we both busted out laughing. I rubbed my face some more then let out a tired breath. "So has anyone seen that woman or man before? Does anyone know her?"

"I haven't," Lydia said before she looked at me apologetically. " But I know mom and Lucas have seen her. It really creeped out mom."

"What?"

Lydia nodded. "Mom said she saw this shadow one day saying strange things to her. She and Lucas have both seen more shadows lurking around where they are. It's really weird–gives me the creeps."

"She told me to dig," I said. "Why would they say that?"

Lydia shrugged. "Dunno, but maybe you should see what happens. Did she tell you where?"

"In front of the tree."

"Well," she said while flickering her eyes back up to me. "What can it hurt?"

"Eve said she saw my mother. Have you?"

"No," Lydia replied. "I don't know how mom found her, or maybe she found mom? She's a human after all–" I was about to cut in when Lydia paused, her gaze staring past me before she looked back at me with a sad smile. "I have to go, and you probably do too before Ethan shits himself."

I bit back a laugh then nodded. "Alright."

She hugged me to her again, nuzzling my cheek with hers before she pulled away. "Take care of my dad, ok?"

"Ok," I replied, "Thank you, Lydia."

"Like I said," she stated with a smile. "I always wanted a sister."

Pulled. I was falling a little more gently through the air until I blinked again. I blinked again and saw my hand in front of me, resting on the tree.

The air felt like it was rushing back into my lungs. I stumbled back as the sounds of whispers started to circle me again.

"Charlotte!" Landing in someone's arms, all I could do was look around while my brain felt like it was on a never ending merry-go-round. "Charlotte!" he called out to me again, but the whispers were getting louder–more demanding.

"Dig," they said.

"Dig," they said again.

"See," they ordered.

"You need to see–"

"Charlotte!" Ethan was shaking my shoulders with wide eyes, his beast closer to the surface while he looked me over. "Baby?"

"Ethan?" I reached up and touched his cheek as Bernard knelt down beside me.

"Little wolf, what happened?" Bernard asked, his voice trying to stay calm but his tense jaw told me otherwise.

"There was this fog and the whispers, they were there," I breathed out.

"Baby," Ethan said, his fingers turning my chin to look at him. "Baby you need to show me. Show me now."

I nodded then let the images pour through the bond. Ethan pulled me to his chest, his eyes staring out at a place in the grass while I let him see what I had seen–the fog, the whispers, and Lydia. Ethan shook while he tried to suppress a growl, but it still came out of his lips–anger derived from fear.

"What is it?" Bernard rushed out. "Ethan, what is it?"

"She saw these people, there was no outline, they were the ones that whispered?"

I nodded slowly, my skin shaking slightly at the thought of them. "They told me to dig–" I paused when my eyes looked to the spot the man had been standing. I scrambled up then stumbled over to it, letting my fur take over as the need to dig became overwhelming.

"Charlotte!?" Ethan ran to me while my paws went to work.

I had no idea if it was the exact spot, but there was something that told me to keep digging–to keep going. Ethan and Bernard were sitting next to the hole I was about a foot into, watching me intensely while I clawed and clawed and clawed at the ground.

I kept clawing until I hit something solid, something that sounded like metal when my claws raked against it. Bernard reached down while I backed away, shifting to my skin while Bernard looked over the box. Ethan pulled off the sweatshirt he had on then pulled it over me.

"What is it?" I called out to Bernard.

He moved his hand over the box, almost glued shut with rust, and popped the top of the box open. "No idea, but it was buried at the base of your tree, so I assume it's important."

"Are you alright?" Ethan breathed out to me.

I sighed then nodded. "I'll be fine."

"Charlotte–"

"Well I'll be damned," Bernard breathed out.

"What? What is it?"

My eyes widened as Bernard unwrapped a leather bound book, hand carved with vines all over it. He shook his head while his hand moved over it. "This is supposed to be missing..."

"Is it one of the texts?" Ethan asked.

Bernard nodded. "It is. It's been missing for the last fifty years."

"What's in it?"

He shook his head. "I don't know, it's locked. It needs blood," he said.

"Well let's open it–"

"No little wolf," Bernard said quickly. He let out a hot breath and looked at me warily. "Not here. Caleb needs to look at it first."

"But maybe–"

"Some books are not meant to be opened little wolf," Bernard bit out. "Not all knowledge is meant to be known."

"Luca didn't know why they burned the tree down," Ethan said, capturing Bernard's attention. "He said Ezra and the Black's refused to as well."

"You shouldn't be able to talk to the dead that way, I would suggest that you discontinue it," Bernard said.

Something twisted inside of me at the thought of never seeing Lucas or Lydia again. Ethan pulled me a little closer before he let out a shaky breath. "He's right sunshine. It's not safe. We shouldn't be toying with it so much."

"That's not this is Ethan, we're–"

"Baby," Ethan cut in. He looked at me for a long moment, his wolf still pacing while he kept a close eye on me. "He's right, we're not meant to talk to the dead like that."

I shook my head while Bernard looked over at us. "I want to get this back to Caleb. We should go before it gets dark."

Ethan nodded then stood up, pulling me up with him. "Alright, let's go them."

We started to walk away from the tree, back towards the mossy rocks that were still slick as we climbed down them. The hair was raising on the back of my neck, even though Ethan was gently rubbing my back. I sighed and tried to make sense of everything–of what had just happened.

"Charlotte," a male's voice called out to me. I stopped walking and quickly turned around towards the tree that was swaying in the breeze, my wolf flickering her ears forward while she came slightly closer. "Charlotte," he called again.

Ethan looked at me then back at the tree. "Come on sunshine, let's go home."

"Charlotte," a female called out.

The hair on the back of Ethan's neck raised. I looked over at him with wide eyes. "You heard it?"

He nodded. "That time I did."

"We need to go," Bernard said before he turned his gaze to me. "If I were you, I would not follow those whispers anymore."

I shivered while Ethan continued to pull me, the whispers fading in the background. Ethan looked back at the tree then at me with reluctant eyes. "He's right sunshine."

Shaking my head, I couldn't help but disagree–because I wanted to follow them. I felt like I had to follow them. There was an itch over my skin to follow them.

But they also felt dangerous. It was a danger that I couldn't get out of my mind while we ran home. Bernard was going to swing by later with Caleb so we could talk about the book, which I was thankful for because I needed to sort out the thoughts swirling in my brain.

"Charlotte," Ethan said while I walked quickly into the house. I felt itchy still, the need to wash the wetness from the fog I felt in the tree growing stronger and stronger. "Baby," Ethan stopped me and turned me around by my shoulders so I could look at him. "Baby say something."

"Why did they whisper to us, Ethan? It wasn't Lucas–it wasn't them."

He let out a long breath and shrugged. "Are we sure, though? I mean, it maybe wasn't direct family–"

"Ethan we both know that's not true, I feel it in my gut," I replied back quickly. "I saw them, I heard them. They knew my name."

"Come on sunshine," he breathed out to me, tugging me with him while he led me up the stairs.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"Surprise sunshine," Ethan replied.

I sighed and smiled to myself as I followed him to our bedroom where he proceeded to 'surprise me.' Eventually, I ended up laying directly on his chest, his legs on either side of mine. He was drawing little lines on one of my arms that was hanging off of his chest.

"You just stood there," he softly said.

"What are you talking about?"

"When they took you, I was pulled too. I was back a the tree but you were just there. I was going to pull you away but Bernard told me not to, he wanted to see what would happen. I didn't care, obviously, I tried to move you but it was like you were glued in your spot–like stone."

"Who do you think they were? Do you think there's more?"

Ethan shrugged. "I don't know baby, maybe?"

"Why didn't they take you too?"

He shook his head with a shrug. "Did they hurt you?"

"No," I quickly replied. "You saw, they led us to the book. Why lead us to something like that?"

Ethan let our a tense breath. "Promise me you won't follow them. I think Bernard is right. As much as it kills me, we don't need to touch the tree anymore."

"What?!" I snapped my gaze to his. "Ethan come on, we can't be sure that–"

"Then why did they hide from you, Char? If they meant no harm, then why not show themselves instead of that weird ass fog shit? I mean babe, that was creepy as hell."

"I have a feeling Ethan–it itches," I slowly said, looking up to him while he clenched his eyes shut.

He shook his head and looked back down at me. "What do you want me to do? It's not safe, they pulled you away. I couldn't do anything but wait until they let you go." He sighed and pushed some hair back. "Charlotte, we don't know if everyone we see in that tree is good–is on our side."

"But what about the memory I saw? The man and the woman. What do you think they were talking about?"

Ethan chewed on the inside of his lip before he looked back at me. "Could be anyone to be honest. It wasn't entirely specific."

"They talked about someone killing them–killing him. 'He'll kill anything I touched.'" I wiggled my head back and forth. "The only people we know of who would be in that position, would be the ones who started the cursed blood."

Ethan paused and pushed some hair out of my face. "It could be a lot of people baby."

I groaned. My head felt like it was too full–to tired of thinking. "This is all bullshit," I grumbled against Ethan's chest.

He chuckled lightly and nodded. "It is definitely bullshit." He dipped down and kissed me, his lips lingering for a moment before he pulled away with a ghost smile on his lips. "Promise me you won't follow them?"

"Ethan..."

"Promise me that you will not follow them without me?"

"Ok," I sighed. "I promise."