Billionaire Quadruplet Alphas

Monday 21st September, 2020 (Continued)

Jessie’s POV

We followed those weird witches into the woods, wondering where they were taking us. I kept glancing at the hands of all the girls and at Nina’s hands just in case someone was holding a wand or a knife or something. I just did not trust them, not even the little girls. Jamie seemed tense too, especially after I had pointed out the fact that we were the only ones who had eaten the breakfast conjured by Mother Nina.

“Where are we going exactly?” I asked, as I helped Jamie step over the twisted roots of gnarled trees.

The canopies of the trees were so large and grew so close together that the forest was dark in the daytime.

“To Georgianna’s cottage,” said Nina in her usual serene manner.

We had been walking for about fifteen minutes when Nina stopped suddenly.

“This is where we leave you,” she announced.

I stared at her and the girls who were still in their perfect lines, following the buddy-system. We were in a clearing in the woods where light streamed through, a bright circle amidst the darkness. I glanced at Jamie.

“Where’s the cottage?” Asked Jamie, seeming a bit annoyed.

“You must find your way to it on your own. It is hidden by magic and just as you uncovered our coven so too must you reveal the cottage,” said Nina.

“Well, are we hot or cold?” I asked. “The woods is huge. The coven house was different. It was blatantly there but dilapidated-looking.”

Nina chuckled. “You have until nightfall to find the cottage! You’re not the first to come looking for Georgianna’s body you know. Others were intrigued by her story for different reasons and some come to visit the mysterious coven itself,” explained Nina.

I was so focused on Nina, I had taken my eyes off of the little girls for just a moment. I glanced back to where they used to be. My b***d ran cold. They were gone!

“Where are the students?” I asked, my tone accusatory.

Something wasn’t right. Nina just smiled.

“Nina! The little girls! Where did they go?!” Demanded Jamie.

Nina was silent.

“Those girls are much too young to have teleported magically, prodigies or not,” said Jamie, narrowing her eyes.

Nina grinned. She had a wild sort of grin. Some of her usual refined manner had begun to fray at the edges.

“See you at dusk,” she said, backing away from us slowly until she was cast in shadow.

Instinctively, I rushed forwards but she had disappeared. I snarled in frustration.

“What the f**k?!” I growled.

“Jessie, relax,” cooed Jamie.

She put her arms around me.

“Something’s not right, Jamie!” I said. “This feels like a trap!”

“We’ll get out of here as soon as we find Georgianna’s body ok?” She said.

She stroked my hair, running her fingers through it, trying to soothe me. I pulled her close to me and nuzzled her. Thank goodness I had had the foresight to request backup!

Dalton’s POV

Our Witch Luna, Jamie, wanted to go save some people from some ghost or something like that, same old story. Subsequently, Our Alpha, Jessie, was extremely worried for Jamie. Classic Jessie. He had asked his Gamma, Zack, and me, his Beta, to stake out at a crumby motel nearby. He wanted us to be within a fifteen minutes of where they were going. I was winning at cards and Zack was pissed. Zack, Jessie and I had been best friends since we were pups and now we were pack leaders, all with mates and pups of our own. I had left my little human mate, Zoe, back in Ambrosia. This was much too dangerous for her. Chloe who was pregnant yet again was back home too. Chloe was undoubtedly the most hilarious pregnant she-wolf. After each pup, she swore that she would never ever get pregnant again only to happily announce her pregnancy at the next pack meeting. Zack was determined to have five pups and to beat me at cards. He was failing at the latter currently. He demanded a rematch.

“I don’t get why Jamie wants to help the sextuplets or whatever,” grumbled Zack. “I should be home working on pup number four. Instead I’m here waiting for Jamie to vanquish another demon. It’s not like they really need the backup.”

“I think they’re quints. And it’s a ghost I think, not a demon,” I said.

“Quints?” Asked Zack. “Wasn’t that a movie?”

“I dunno, but quints like quintuplets,” I said.

“How many is that? Five?” Asked Zack.

“Yeah,” I said, nodding.

“No, there’s six of them. Sextuplets!” Said Zack.

“s*x-tuplets? Why’s it called that. I would call it Six-tuplets!” I said.

“It’s definitely called sextuplets!” Chuckled Zack, rolling his eyes.

Dalton! Zack! Jessie’s alpha voice resounded in our heads over mind-link.

You ok, bro? I asked.

What’s up, bro? You need us? Asked Zack.

Yeah! Jamie and I are lost in the woods but…not a regular kind of lost…a magical kind…she can’t teleport us out and we haven’t found Georgianna’s body or her cottage, said Jessie, his voice fading a little. His mind-link voice was usually powerful and clear, not this faint distant echo.

Where are you? I asked, grabbing my jacket as Zack and I headed out the door.

We’re in the woods behind the address I gave you. The house looks abandoned out front but trust me, that’s where the coven is! It’s a spell to throw people off. Don’t come into the woods. You’ll probably get lost. You’ll need to figure out what the witches are up to! There’s twelve little girls and one Mother. You’ll need to take Fox with you! Be stealthy! Said Jessie, his voice fading in and out like an overseas call with a bad connection. We had to hurry.

I knocked on the door to opposite ours in the dark hallway of the motel. Fox had wanted a separate room. He had been really low in spirits since Evangeline’s death. Sure, she had been awful and she had picked a literal demon over him but he had loved her to the end and killed the same demon to avenge her death. It was a long story. The door creaked inwards and Fox peaked out, his two different coloured eyes regarding me with concern. Heterochromia was a sign of great magical power in wizards and witches. Fox’s hair had grown down to his mid-back. If he could have grown a beard, he would surely have one. He hadn’t had his hair trimmed since Eva’s death. In my opinion, he needed to get laid.

“Are they ok?” He asked.

“They’re lost in some magical woods or something and the coven house looks abandoned but it isn’t. There’s some spell that makes it look that way,” I said.

“A Glamour,” said Fox.

He followed us downstairs to the car. We all got in. Zack was driving. I was in the passenger seat. Fox sat in the backseat. He was already chanting to himself. Although he had been down in the dumps since Eva’s passing, his magic had flourished. He was on his way to becoming the next Grand High Wizard and he seemed not the least bit excited about any of it. Jamie and Fox were probably the two most powerful young practicers of magic around right now. Zack sped down the street, taking corners swiftly and sharply.

“Easy, Zack! I’d like to have dinner with the family tonight!” I said.

Zack grinned. “A tough Beta like you. Scared of a little speeding,” he said.

The tires screeched to a halt at the end of an empty street. No people were in sight but several parked cars lined the road.

“I didn’t wanna park directly in front of the place,” said Zack.

Fox nodded. He took a flask out of his jacket pocket and downed a small amount of liquid. Clearly, it was pungent from the way he contorted his face. I chuckled. He passed the flask to me.

“Whiskey?” I asked, joking.

I knew it had to be a potion of some sort.

Fox smiled. “Not quite,” he murmured.

“Bottom’s up!” I exclaimed.

I drank some of the liquid and passed it to Zack. The liquid burnt all the way down. I rubbed my chest.

“Cheers!” Said Zack raising the flask in a toast to us before drinking it.

“What, pray tell, does this potion do?” I asked innocently.

“Isn’t it a little late to ask that?” Chuckled Zack.

“It conceals us completely,” said Fox with a sly smile.

“An invisibility potion!” Said Zack.

“No!” Said Fox, grinning. “I call it my Complete Concealment Concoction!” Said Fox triumphantly. “We won’t just be invisible. They won’t be able to see us yeah but they also won’t be able to smell or hear us.”

“What about taste and touch?” Zack asked immediately.

“No, those two aren’t covered so be careful not to bump into anyone or move stuff around,” warned Fox.

“Yeah and don’t let anyone lick you either and you should be fine,” I said to Zack in a very serious tone.

Zack rolled his eyes.

We approached the dilapidated house. Fox lifted the Glamour. The house transformed before our very eyes like extreme home makeover, magic edition. I gave Fox a thumbs-up. The door swung open to reveal a dark haired woman with cat-like eyes dressed in black velvet. This must be the Coven Mother Jessie had been talking about. She looked alarmed as she stepped out onto the porch, peering around suspiciously. We grabbed Fox’s arms and then Zack and I zoomed into the house swiftly and silently at werewolf speed and stealth. Phew. The creepy little girls were nowhere in sight. There were supposed to be twelve of them. The Coven Mother came back into the house. We were all crouching on the stairs.

“How come you don’t have to look like this?” Croaked a voice from the next room.

The Coven Mother frowned in the direction from which the voice had come.

“You know why,” she said succinctly. She turned on her heel and marched in the opposite direction. I edged closer to the room where the voice had come from. I peaked inside. I stifled a gasp but then I remembered that the spell was a complete concealment. Fox was a genius honestly.

There were twelve withered old women sitting at a dining table. They all seemed very tired. Some were falling asleep on themselves. Their features varied but they all wore black velvet dresses that resembled school uniforms.

“Are these the…little girls? The students?” I asked softly.

Fox nodded. “A very powerful Glamour must have made them seem young to Jessie and Jamie. They expended a lot of energy trying to fool Mother Jamie,” noted Fox.

“But why?” Zack asked. “And how come their Coven Mother is younger than them.”

“I have only guesses as to why but I can tell you their Coven Mother is not younger than them. She is probably just more adept at keeping the Glamour in place,” said Fox. “Unless she actually is younger.”

“Is it sunset yet?” Whined one of the old witches.

“No, you old fool,” croaked another.

“I’m hungry and I’m tired!” Rasped another.

“We’ll feast soon,” said one of them, swaying a little in her chair and doing a celebratory dance.

“Cannibals?” Asked Zack under his breath.

It was difficult not to whisper although we knew we didn’t have to.

“I don’t think so but close,” said Fox.

“Huh,” I said.

“They probably feed on energy not the people themselves,” said Fox.

“Youth!” Exclaimed Zack. “They feed on youth!”

Zack had walked down the hallway and was now standing in front of a collection of newspaper clippings that had been pinned to a notice board. They had their crimes hidden in plain sight. Anyone passing by would assume genuinely that those clippings were notices but they were article clippings about missing people, all young.

“Why do they need to do this?” I asked. “Aren’t witches immortal?”

“Not these ones,” Zack mumbled, pointing to one article that differed from the others. This one was not about missing persons. It featured a photograph of twelve girls, all screaming , their faces contorted. The heading read: The Twelve Crones of Thistle-woods. I read further. The caption said: Twelve witches react in horror when sentenced to death by senescence for crimes against their coven. The thirteenth witch involved is still at large. The thirteenth witch, photographed alone, was the Coven Mother! I scanned the article itself.

The witching council was unanimous in its ruling to sentence all twelve Thistle-woods witches to death by senescence. The girls were found guilty of over fifty accounts of magical disfigurement, having magically stolen the beauty of various witches, human girls and she-wolves, all of whom wish to remain anonymous. The victims are to have their appearances restored by members of the witching council. The thirteenth witch involved in the crimes fled the scene before she could be apprehended. The twelve were caught in a hotel room on the outskirts of Thistle-woods. A kidnapped human girl was found alive and well in the bathroom. She has been safely returned to her family. The twelve will be magically confined to a house of the council’s choosing where they will await death. A spell was cast on the twelve to age them by a century each. Thus, the end of their days is near. This photograph was taken just before the ageing spell was cast.

“Wait? What? That’s their big punishment! Just ageing and then passing away like humans do!” I said, outraged.

“Well, they were young immortals and were turned into mortal old women,” said Fox.

I thought of my human Zoe. I had made her immortal with my bite but her human family continued to age.

“That’s not a punishment! That’s not enough!” I said.

I could feel my eyes turning black. I should rip those witches’ throats out.

“They’re still stealing youth and beauty even while under house arrest!” I said.

“The thirteenth girl must have found them and gotten rid of the sentinel. All situations like this where people are under magical house arrest involve a sentinel, usually a gargoyle who watches them from his perch until the punishment is over,” explained Fox. “This house probably was abandoned so the council decided to use it for house arrest. I bet you anything, they faked their deaths to fool the gargoyle!”

“Well, why didn’t the council show up to check and bury them when the gargoyle reported that?!” Asked Zack.

“This kind of spell robs you of an after-life of any kind and of any kind of coming back! The witches will burst into dust when they die and that’s it. No bodies. No ghosts. Nothing,” said Fox.

Ok, now we were getting somewhere. That was pretty final. I guessed that was a punishment then.

“Let’s kill them, rescue Jessie and Jamie and go for tacos,” I said.

“Chill out, Dalton,” said Zack. “Jamie will want them brought to justice when she hears all this even if their punishment will be death anyway. She’ll want a proper investigation and hearing. You know how she is. Let’s find Jessie and Jamie first.”

I grumbled.

“Can we still get tacos though?” I asked.

Zack grinned. He nodded.

Star’s POV

Harper and I walked hand in hand down a majestic sweeping staircase. Each step sparkled brilliantly even in the soft indoor lighting cast by the crystal chandeliers overhead. Harper stopped dead in his tracks when we were on the landing.

“What is it?” I asked, following his gaze.

I gasped. He was staring at a huge painting of a young woman who looked exactly the way I looked right now. Her pointy ears, glowing golden skin, high-cheekbones and glossy ringlets were exactly like mine but she had amber eyes instead of brown ones like mine. Honestly, the portrait could be of me with contacts. We were so strikingly similar.

“This is Mom,” I said to Dad who had come to stand behind us.

It wasn’t a question. I knew it was my mother.

He nodded. He had tears in his eyes. I hugged him and he hugged me back. He pulled a reluctant Harper into the family hug. Eventually Harper settled down and hugged us. Asriel came to joint the hug.

“Eww, don’t touch me. Social distancing!” Yelled Rein.

“What’s social distancing?!” Asked Harper.

“Oh, wrong multiverse, Rein,” said Erin.

I had no idea what the earrings were on about but I laughed anyway.

“All right, that’s enough,” said Dad in his gruff voice. “Go talk to your Great Grandmother, that old b***h,” mumbled Dad.

Harper snorted with laughter.

“Is she mean?” I asked.

“She’s a Fae Queen and she’s…imperious, as a Fae Queen has to be, I guess,” muttered Dad. “She didn’t like me for your Mom but she was willing to accept me to make Hesper happy. She never wanted Hesper with her wolf cousin. She would think that was barbaric and uncivilised. So we have that on our side,” said Dad, sounding as though he were trying to convince himself.

The Fae who had summoned us cleared his throat. We followed him through a set of unbelievably huge double doors that almost reached the high-ceiling of the castle. It took several Fae to open them on either side. We were ushered forwards. I clutched Harper’s arm. A long red velvet carpet led through the centre of the room straight to a short flight of stairs. The Queen sat in her throne upon the platform. On either side of the carport, royals and nobles of Fae birth both stood and sat. There were a few werewolves among them, clearly pack leaders though not Alphas. Harper walked in quite confidently as though he owned the place and everyone had been waiting all their lives for him to show up which was true technically if you thought about it. I marvelled at the clothes of the court. There were stunning. I had never seen fabrics so vibrant. The colours become more and more vivid as we got closer to the throne. The royals seated near to the Queen were practically dripping in jewels and finery. Every piece of fabric on their form sparkled or glimmered. The Fae clearly loved sparkly things. I felt like I was inside kaleidoscope made of jewels. The colours swam before my eyes. It took a while to adjust to the a room so ornate with people so lavishly dressed.

“Why aren’t they dressed for court?” Said a woman’s voice.

Her voice was clear and powerful but distinctly feminine. It rang out over the colossal room. A hush fell over the crowd. I looked at my father who rolled his eyes in plain view of the queen. I raised my eyes to the queen.

Her ears were sharply pointed and her features were angular. She had silvery pale skin with rosy cheeks. Her face was beautiful but cold. Her eyes were a light grey and her hair was white. It fell to her waist in sheets. She wore a silvery white gown with gold embellishments. The skirt of the gown fanned out covering the seat of the high-backed golden throne. Her neck was covered in layers of beads and jewels. Her crown was made of white gold and studded with diamonds. It looked uncomfortably heavy. Heavy was the head that wore the crown indeed!

“Bow,” whispered Asriel from behind us.

Harper bowed and I curtsied. It just felt more appropriate than a bow in my case. All I knew about royalty was from movies and books. The Winter Fae Queen was staring at us. We straitened and stared at her. We glanced at each other.

“Who are you?” She asked.

I heard my Dad sigh exasperatedly. I looked back at him. Asriel shot him a warning glance.

“I am Harper, the son of Heath and Hesper who was your very own grand-daughter, Your Majesty,” said Harper smoothly.

The court members and pack leaders gasped. They began to murmur. The chattering grew. I was too terrified to introduce myself.

“And,” said Harper extremely loudly signalling for everyone to be quite. They fell silent, following his unspoken order with ease. “This is my twin sister, Hannah,” said Harper.

The room burst into a flurry of movement and noise. Some were actually crying. Others shook their heads in disbelief. The pack leaders in particular were regarding Harper curiously.

Should I tell Great-granny she’s sitting in my chair? Said Harper in my mind.

I wasn’t able to stifle my laughter. The Queen’s eyes went straight to me. I stopped laughing immediately.

“SILENCE!” Barked the Queen.

Everyone was silent at once.

“How do I know this is not merely a Glamour placed on the girl to make her look like Hesper. It would be an easy scheme,” commented the Queen.

Harper shrugged.

“My granddaughter was gave birth to only one child, a stillborn male,” said the Queen.

“How do you know that?” Asked Harper.

The court members gasped. One of the ladies-in-waiting who sat near to the Queen swayed on the spot.

“Your Majesty,” added Harper as an after-thought.

The Queen smirked. “Princess Hesper said so herself,” said the Queen.

“She wanted to protect us so she concealed us both. Pretending she has a single stillbirth instead of live twins. I was given to guardians before our mother returned to this castle and she bundled Hannah up, passing her off as the afterbirth so the doctor could spirit her away,” Harper explained, summing everything up quite easily.

The nobles and royals seemed to believe this. Many were smiling at Harper especially the ladies present. The Queen was silent though there was a faint smile playing about her lips.

“Are you not going to introduce yourself to us, Your Majesty?” Asked Harper.

The room erupted again. People seemed to like his brazen attitude but were also scandalised by it.

“Clearly you know who I am,” said the Queen.

“In theory. Are you not happy to see your Great Grandchildren, Your Majesty?” Prompted Harper.

“If you are who you say you are then prove it,” said the Queen.

How were we supposed to do that?

Harper and I glanced at each other.

“Task us with something then,” said Harper.

“If you are in fact Hesper’s children, you should be able to mount her dragon,” said the Queen.

There was another collective gasp.

“Very well, I-,” began Harper.

“Not you!” Said the Queen.

I trembled on the spot. I focused on taking one breath at at time.

“Why not me?” Demanded Harper angrily.

“Well, you certainly think your royalty, don’t you,” said the Queen, shocked at his outburst. I knew Harper was trying to protect me. He shot me a worried glance.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“I have another task for you to prove you are a worthy Alpha and Fae Prince, don’t worry,” said the Queen to Harper. “But your twin sister will perform this one. The Fae are matriarchal unlike patriarchal werewolves. If she is to be a Fae Queen, she must command respect from all beings. Which being better to start with than a dragon?”

The royals, nobles and pack leaders were all nodding in agreement, finding the chosen assessment fair.

“Prepare Haven the Hellish and take him to the arena. Let the people know their Prince and Princess are here,” sneered the Queen. “Their Princess Hannah shall tame the Ice Dragon before their very eyes.”