The Black Alder Series (Books 1-3)

Adonis Pov

After Bella fell asleep, I cleaned up and left the room, closing the door silently so she wouldn’t be disturbed. I made my way to our office, where Ash and Ares sat looking up at me, amused.

“I hope you didn’t break our mate,” Ash said, with a cheeky grin on his face.

“I just used my bag of tricks. It took a lot out of her. She fell asleep quickly,” I told them, and they nodded.

“She is going to lose her mind when it’s all of us together giving her the same session at once,” Ares says, smirking. I shook my head. Bella was not ready for all three of us.

“So, what’s going on?” I asked, sitting at the table.

“Ethan called us with an update. They are spying on the vamps and King Damon’s wolves. As of right now, there are 7, 000 of them. He thinks they will be attacking us soon. I have already called for backup with our allies. Alpha Tork, Shane, and Reed will be here in the next few days. They will be approaching from the south, so it won’t arouse suspicion from 7000. Ash explains

“Grand called one of her vampire friends named Shawn to infiltrate the camp and give our dads updates, so we will know when they are on the way. Ares says.

“I’ll have the bunker cleaned out for the women and children of the pack. We still need to figure out who the mole is here.” If someone was watching Bella, I don’t like not knowing who it is. Most likely, they are finding a way to communicate information to the vamps and Damon. We need to flush them out,” I told them.

“And how do you suppose we do that?” Ares asks.

“Canary Trap,” I tell them. “We spread a few plans to random members and watched who they told. All false plans, of course, and we follow each person, watching who they tell until they tell another person. We follow the next person’s trail until the last person is told to make a call. They will probably have heard many fake plans by then and will tell the King all of them. Then we will know who it is,” I explained.

“We need to make sure Bella is safe as well,” Ash points out, and I nod.

“I’ll have Grandpa’s magic room proofed for her so she can enter it. No one can enter the room other than the witches. We will put Sam in there too. I’ll brief mom, Kyle, and Clair as well so they can follow trails,” Ares tells us, and we nod.

“Let’s get some sleep. Operation Canary Trap will soon commence,” Ash says, rubbing his hands in an evil-like fashion. I rolled my eyes. He watches too much TV. We make our way to our room, grabbing some blankets and pillows before going to the room Bella is in, where we see she is spread peacefully all over the bed. I kiss her head, and they do the same before spreading my cover on the floor and lying down. Tomorrow we will find out who is betraying our pack, and I will make them suffer immensely.

Ares Pov

When we woke up, we got dressed, and our mind-linked mom, Kyle, and Cassie briefed them on the plan. Our princess was still sound asleep. Adonis must have tired her out. We all set our plans, taking random members of the pack and telling them different fake plans. We planted hidden cameras throughout the packhouse so, by the end of the night, we would know how to catch them. We set up Mom to watch the cameras until the person reveals themselves by placing a call.

I was following some members through pack grounds when I saw Briana coming my way.

“Hey, baby,” she said, linking her arm around me, and I pushed her away. I don’t have time for this.

“Go away, Briana,” I tell her, and she pouts.

“Don’t be like that. I miss you.” She pouts, doing her best to give me a puppy-dog expression.

“I don’t miss you. What do you want?” I spat at her, and she crossed her arms, the smile on her face forceful.

“I want you to be mine. We had something special. I want to be by your side as your mate,” she says.

“I have a mate; I don’t need you,” I told her coldly.

“You haven’t even made that bitch your Luna. Let me be. She stopped talking as I had her on the ground, kneeling with my hand around her throat. Strike had pushed forward and fused with me.

“Let us make this as clear as we can. We don’t want you. Leave our site, and if you ever speak badly about our mate again, I will serve your parents your fucking heads on a platter,” we growled at her, releasing our hold on her. She struggles to get up and glares at me, rubbing her throat.

“You’re a prick. You deserve nothing but pain. I’ll be glad when karma comes back to you,” she says, and then runs off in tears. I ignore her. I needed to find the people I was following anyway. I see Camilla in the trees watching me with a smirk on her face, trying not to laugh. We had briefed her as well, and she was jumping from tree to tree, following her lead.

I found mine and continued to tail them. I will find the mole by the end of the day.

Arabella Pov

I woke up with my stomach growling and incredibly sore. I got out of bed and went to my room to take a soothing bath and get dressed. After I had finished getting dressed, I glanced at the time. It was past 4 p. m. Man, I must have been extremely tired. I went to the kitchen, where I saw a few pack members, including Sam and Cassie, sitting down and eating. I made myself some cereal, and we started talking about random stuff.

“Have you seen my friends?” I asked them, and they shook their heads. I leave them in the kitchen to go find them. I spent about 30 minutes looking for them, but they were nowhere to be found. I decided to get some training with Camilla, but she was nowhere to be found either. I ended up going back to the packhouse and past a hall where I saw Cassie on the phone. It sounded like she was talking to the triplet’s dad, which was strange, but I didn’t give it much thought. I decided to go back to the training grounds and practice my powers. I’m sure my triplets will show up soon.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

After a few hours, I saw my friends walking around, followed by Kyle, Sam, Camilla, and Clair. I use my air element to create a breeze that guides me to them quickly. They noticed me and stopped walking to greet me. Once I hit the ground, my friends embraced me.

“I’ve been looking for you guys. Where were you?” I asked them as they walked into the packhouse.

“We had some matters to attend to. Nothing for you to worry about, Bella,” Ash says, kissing my head. They all walked to a room off the corner of the packhouse. Ares pulled out a knife, tapped his finger, drawing a bead of blood, and touched the handle of the door. It opened to a room filled with what looked like surveillance equipment. Their mom was there.

“Hi, Mrs. Black,” I greeted. I hadn’t met her yet. She smiled and got up. She pulled me into a hug.

“Ah, Mrs. Black is for Elena. Please call me Kayla.” She speaks. I smiled and nodded.

“Found anything, mother,” Ares asks as he sits down on a chair, pulling me into his lap, which makes me giggle in embarrassment. Ash and Adonis sit on opposite sides of us.

“Your mother is in here,” I told him, trying to get up, but he wouldn’t let me off.

“She doesn’t care, princess,” he says, nuzzling his face in my neck.

Kayla looks at us with a smile and a twinkle in her eye before talking.

“Nothing caught on the cameras. What about you all?” Kayla says, and everyone shakes their heads. I’m confused.

“What was going on today?” I asked.

“We wanted to see if we had a mole in our pack. Ever since you said you felt someone was watching you, we figured a spy could be here in our pack, so we sent false leads about you through different people,” Adonis explains. I nod.

“I was certain it would have worked,” Ash said, frustrated. I rubbed his hand.

“We will find another way. I will call your fathers to let them know,” Kayla said.

“They already know,” I tell them, and everyone looks at me.

“How?” Kayla asked.

“I heard my friend Cassie on the phone with them. She was updating them on some stuff. She called them My King. I just assumed she had told them.”. I told them, and I leaned back into Ares’s arms, but I could feel he had gone stiff. Everyone in the room was looking at me.

“What?” I ask.

“What time was that, when you passed her, and where?” Kayla asked. I furrow my eyebrows, a bit confused.

“Uh, about 6 p. m. maybe, and it was in the south wing. I passed her in a hallway. I only heard a bit of her conversation because of the echo in the hallway. “I was looking around for you guys,” I told them, gesturing to my friends, who looked at me, then at the computer system. Kayla was in front of the system, typing in time and weaving through time frames, until we found Cassie in the hall on the phone. Kayla zoomed in and increased the audio. I didn’t know why they were doing this. There was no way Cassie was a spy. She loves me. The room was quiet as we all listened.

“My King,” she says and listens.

“Yes, my king, there are many rumors of plans going around.”.

“I’m not sure which is true, my king.” She pauses again, listening.

“My king, I will find out. I won’t fail you, my king.”

I can see myself walking past the hall as she says it.

“As you wish, my king,” she says and hangs up the call with a smile on her face before walking out.

Kayla calls someone, and he rings. She puts it on the speaker phone.

“Hello, Mi Amor,” a man says.

“Ethan, do you or Aiden have an omega reporting to you from the packhouse?” Kayla asks.

“No, why?” he says.

“We have found a mole, and now I must go deal with it. I will call you later, love,” Kayla says and hangs up.