Mason really wanted to scream and slam his head into a brick wall right now. He wanted to curse to Mother Nature for making the forest this difficult. True, they found a deer every five minutes, but food wasn't their first priority at the time. 

They were trying to find some way, they were trying really hard, but it seemed luck wasn't in their side at the time. Maybe they used too much of their luck and now they ran out of it, or luck was simply just not in their favour at the time. Too bad.

Mason truly felt like they were just going in circles. He couldn't tell exactly, but he really thought that they had passed that one certain rock a few times before, because the rock had a pretty specific shape. It looked like a snake. 

Mason didn't know a lot about snakes. He just knew that they were long and--okay, why was he thinking about snakes? He was just that bored. He found this pointless, and that might be a bit true.

"Betty, maybe we should go to another direction," Mason said to Betty who looked very concentrated on something right now. Mason found Betty's face when she was focused a bit weird because she looked - well, weird.

To be more detailed, her eyes looked blank, her expression was cold, she walked rather quickly, she usually tapped her chin with her finger. 

Betty rolled her eyes at Mason. 'Well, that's new,' Mason thought. She had never dared to do that in front of her alpha. And Mason was sure that she was--

Instantly, Betty apologized, "I'm so sorry! I'm sorry for showing an act of disrespect, Alpha Mason! Please forgive me!" She was panicking so much even the warriors were a bit weirded out by her. For all they know, Betty didn't do anything wrong.

Mason smiled a bit and put a hand on her shoulder as if to reassure her. "Don't worry about it, Bett," he forgave without a second thought. He sometimes thought that Betty was too worked up about her job of being the third-in-command, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Betty's face visibly relaxed. "So, Alpha Mason, where do you suggest we go?" she asked, looking around. 

Mason looked around also, thinking in his head. "I think we should go... that way," he said, pointing to a random direction. For some reason, the path he chose was the most dark and gloomy of all, but who could defy the alpha?

So, they went without any maps still, just moving forward towards whatever that was before them. 

After a few more minutes of mindless walking, Betty suddenly got an idea. "Alpha Mason, why don't we go separate ways? Me and Tom, Robert and Dylan, and you, well, alone," she asked, her voice getting smaller towards the end.

Mason nodded, agreeing. Robert and Tom were the pack warriors that Betty picked because they seemed experienced, though actually, no one really knew where to go. She was just testing her luck.

Robert was a twenty-eight year old father who was a pack warrior. He had been serving for the pack for around six years. He had always loved exploring the pack's territory, but he never went this far. However, he did know a lot about the forests.

Tom was a twenty-year old warrior. He liked camping and doing outdoor stuffs. He was picked because of his skills. 

And plus, Betty had actually thought Dylan a bit about nature. It seemed he didn't even learn much when his mother wasn't sick.

They went separate ways. He continued walking to the darker part of the forest. For some reason, he felt kind of enchanted to go there. Perhaps a witch was trying to make him go there, but he didn't care. He was such a curious person.

As Mason continued following his heart, he was suddenly met with a large wall that covered his way. He couldn't go forward. Then, he realized it wasn't a wall and it was just his eyes playing tricks on him. How did he realize? He touched the wall and his fingers got sucked inside.

So, Mason threw himself into the wall and he was pulled into another world. Okay, he was over-exaggerating. It wasn't another world, but it was the part of the forest that he had never seen before because it was hidden behind that magical wall that was just an illusion.

Suddenly, Mason could feel his own eyes changing colours when he smelt the most fragrant smell. He knew the cause when his wolf side started chanting, "Mate! Mate! Find mate!" in his head. 

It was a surprise, really.

He quickly followed the smell, trying to find the source of the smell. Then he saw from afar, a girl that looked seventeen or so, was laying on the grass. She looked so happy, but Mason was worried she might get a sunburn because of how sunny it was over there.

Mason approached her slowly, trying to make the littlest to no sound possible. He didn't want to wake the girl. As he got closer, he noticed something. It was another scent that came from the girl. 

"She's a witch," Mason whispered, his eyes widening and the colour changed back to the normal ones. 

The witch who was in fact a very light sleeper quickly wake up. When she saw Mason and realized he was her mate, she was a bit dazed. Then, his words entered her brain and she noticed he was a werewolf. Quickly, Jewel stood up and walked backwards as if to run away from Mason.

Truth to be told, she didn't want to run, but what else could she do? She knew about Mason and his reputation. Was she really supposed to stay there all day long while Mason kill her or something?

Definitely not.

"Wait!" Mason called out, accidentally using a bit of his alpha voice. Jewel, being a rogue witch, couldn't help but follow his order. She was stuck in her running position until Mason let her go, and Mason hadn't let her go.

Mason approached her slowly as if she was a glass that would break if he got closer to her. "So you're my mate," he spoke.

At first, he was a little dazed by his own words. His own soulmate was a witch. The person that he was supposed to be closest to was the same kind as those who killed his father. How meaner could the Moon Goddess be, pairing him up with a person that was his biggest enemy?

Mason's face hardened at the thought. "So, you're my mate, and you're a witch that had been staying in my territory. A trespasser, then?" he spoke, mostly to himself.

Jewel quickly shook her head. "I am not trespassing, I swear! This territory is for rogues, not your pack's," she tried to explain. She probably failed, anyways, because it seemed as if Mason didn't hear any of the words that came out of her mouth.

"You must be the one that kidnapped my parents, aren't you? Where are they?!" Mason accused, pointing his finger at the innocent witch in front of him.

Jewel's eyes widen. "I didn't do anything! I know the ones who kidnapped your parents, though," she said, trying to make a deal with him.

When Ruby said that something good might happen today, she didn't expect it to be her meeting her mate. And if she met her mate, she would've expected herself to be overjoyed, not extremely afraid.

Jewel never wanted this. She never wanted her mate to be a werewolf. She never wanted her mate to be a werewolf that hated the witches' existence. She never wanted her mate to be the alpha.

And she was afraid. Jewel was afraid. What if her dreams and wishes never came true? She'd always hoped for a kind mate, preferably a warlock. She wanted them to have a family together, and be happy.

Now, her mate was an unaccepting werewolf that might hate her, and he also had the power to kill her just by a snap of his fingers. Her wishes would never come true. Her mate might as well reject her right now and she would die.

"Who are they?" Mason asked. There were no curiosity anything in voice, it was just seriousness. Jewel didn't want to be used by Mason, but he was the alpha, after all. Jewel had no say in what he did. She was just a rogue witch.

"They are members of the coven that I used to be in. They teamed up with some warlocks and vampires, but I strongly believe that they are the ones who are holding your parents hostage," Jewel replied, trying not to stutter.

Mason nodded thoughtfully. "Come on." He snapped his fingers, making Jewel able to move again after being stuck in that running position for so long. "You might be a big help. Follow me." 

He lead her outside of her territory and Jewel just knew that she was going on a new adventure, and a bigger one at it.

---

Meanwhile, it was a normal day in Mason's pack. The girls were doing stuff just like usual. However, they were still a bit sad that they got no praises by Dony. Dony wasn't even taking care of them. He was in his room with his wife doing God-knows-what.

Suddenly, a gunshot could be heard from afar. Unfortunately, it wasn't a normal gunshot. It was the kind of gunshot that witches do. It usually meant that a fight was about to start, and of course, with Mason being away, the witches would start a fight. Such a coward move.

It was easy to put the puzzle together. Lauren and Lily wasn't sure why the witches were doing this, but they already knew their next step. They were going to kidnap them.

"Hide," Lauren whispered after a few moments. Witches were fast, after all. She could already hear the chaos that erupted outside once they heard the gunshot. More gunshots were heard. People were screaming, children were crying, but no one was as afraid as the two girls that just knew they were the witches' target. They were too scared to actually made a reaction.

Stupidly, Lily hide behind a door. When a witch came accross her, she was quickly taken away. Lily was hurting. She was crying and screaming when she was being pulled by the buff guy.

While Lala hid in the bathroom. She put all the razors next to her, and from the little illusion spells she learned at school, she managed to make herself seemed bleeding. When the buff guy came to check on her, he was surprised to see her already dead, but didn't check her heart or whatever.

Lauren really thought she was going to die, but that invansion was pretty okay because no one killed anybody. She thought she was going to get taken away, too, like Lily, but fortunately for her, she wasn't. Lauren thought witches were witches and they could sense the magical aura around them. Lala was proven wrong, though.

Lauren clapped to herself when the next gunshot was heard, indicating the invansion was done or something, and the witches were leaving. She was glad her idea of faking dying work. She really wanted to pat her own shoulder at the back because no one congratulated.

When the guy checked the bathroom, Lala swore the tension was almost unbearable, but she couldn't move. If she moved, the guy would be suspicious and check her heartbeat to make sure that she was actually dead, and if that happened, she would literally be dead.

At this moment, Lauren was just biting her nail and she walked around. She wasn't sure what happened outside because she hadn't got out of the bathroom over the last twenty minutes. Her legs were also tired because of trying to maintain that illusion spell for a long time.

'But, now what?' Lily asked herself. She didn't know what to do now. She wasn't sure that it was safe yet to go outside. What if that gunshot was just the witches trying to lure her outside, or do something to prove she was alive?

If she looked from the window, there was a chance someone would saw her and tell the witches. She couldn't risk that.

So, Lauren spent the last three hours just walking around her room, thinking. Perhaps she made a wrong move. Maybe she should've got inside that truck, and then tell from inside the prison to the ones in the pack of where they were being held. But then again, how would she be able to contact the members?

Surely, she couldn't mindlink because her parents couldn't mindlink Mason either. Perhaps the witches made them unable to mindlink. She didn't think those witches would let her send out letters, either. 

Lauren could only imagine how harsh was the witches' tortures. They acted as if we were the disease, and at the moment they were angry at the Moon Goddess.

Now, what should Lala do?

If only her parents weren't gone,

If only Betty's parents weren't gone,

But that was impossible.

"If only," Lauren whispered to herself.