The cackling witch was getting her way once again.
Alexander was off, but it was in the wrong direction.
Ayla was getting further from him as each of his paws landed one after another.
The witch had done her job and distracted him, and now he was after her.
He had shaken the spell loose because of how much he loved Ayla, and Mrs. Bitch Witch didn't like that.
Instead of letting him spoil their fun, she decided to have a little game of cat and mouse to keep him busy while his friends got themselves deeper and deeper into the woods in separate directions.
Just as he was letting the little witch get the best of him, he decided that it was a better idea to shift and follow the shadows on foot rather than paws.
With his wolf still not himself, it was safer.
That's when he heard it.
"Bring him this way, Rowena!" he heard a siren-like voice whisper out.
So, the one he didn't like the most had a name, but the one who called out had a voice like an angel.
"Oh, Maeve, you can't have all the fun. He's mine. Bring him my way, he is cute!"
Another voice came whispering out of the woods, but it was nowhere near as hypnotizing as the so-called Maeve he had heard prior.
He was no fool, though; he knew what they were doing.
"So, you ladies want to play a game, do you? Just how many are you this time? Last time there were two. I've already counted three. How many more do I have the pleasure of meeting?"
"Zinnia, he's a charmer. Do you think he always talks so sweetly?"
Alexander recognized the angelic voice as Maeve, but she had moved further and more to his right.
He was trying to map them as he moved, and they spoke.
"Maybe we should ask Rowena and Raven. They were the ones who spoke with him earlier, weren't they?" Zinnia added.
"Good point, ladies," a new voice came in close to his left, and then moved away as it continued, "What do you say, girls, was he as sweet when he was face to face with you?"
"We wouldn't know. It was like he was mute. He didn't speak a word to us, Acacia. What handsome voice he has, though, doesn't he?" Rowena answered.
"Careful now, Rowena. I might just have to tell your smelly friend you have a new plaything if you continue," Raven uttered as she started to cackle.
He was narrowing in on where they were as they lost themselves in conversation.
"That's enough, ladies. You're playing right into his hand, or did you not notice that he was just steps away from you?" A new voice crawled over him, which gave him chills and made the hair on the back of his neck stand up.
In unison, several witches answered, "Yes, Mother Gaia."
Silence.
Alexander froze, unsure where any of them went or what to do.
They had a plan, but now he wasn't sure if he was part of it, if he was being distracted by them, or if they were being distracted by him.
What he did know was that he needed to find his team and get them back together and fixed.
But everyone was going the wrong way.
Who was he supposed to go after first to help him?
How could he pick the person whom he could break the spell on?
Then it hit him.
Raphael.
How was he going to find him, though?
He would have to change back and trust himself and his wolf.
For Ayla, for Julius, and for the team, he could do it.
Just like that, he was in his wolf form, and to his surprise, he could smell Raphael's scent.
"Raphael, I need you. Snap out of it and let me come to you. It's a spell."
At that point, he was running toward the direction of his best bet with caution.
Surprisingly, he seemed to have more control over his wildness, and he didn't fully understand anything, but he wasn't questioning it.
Raphael was normally a teddy bear, but he was a beast, too.
Alexander had no clue which version of his teammate he was about to encounter.
As he closed the gap, he heard the growl.
A wolf was warning him to keep away.
"Is that you?" he said to Raphael through their minds.
"Why are you following me. We aren't even friends. I just met you."
"It's a spell. Think about it. SPELL. WITCHES."
"GGGGRRRRRR"
Raphael started shaking his head, trying to process what he was hearing.
Alexander was nervous to go any closer, but at least he could see Raphael at that point.
"I won't come any closer, but shift. Shift with me. Please".
Raphael was hesitant because his wolf didn't feel safe leaving him in his other form.
Why would he leave him completely defenseless?
"Just do it, before it's too late to save Phoenix."
Raphael's ears perked up.
Whatever it was that happened when he mentioned his best friend, it triggered something.
He shifted, and Alexander followed him and did the same.
Quickly, he ran through his run-in with the witches and what he thought was happening, and it made sense to Raphael, and he was shaking it off himself.
Just as it had happened earlier, his wolf was feeling stronger and more like his normal self, the longer he was in human form.
For some reason, being in human form helped shake the rest of the spell off.
That was something the witches didn't foresee.
They worked together to come up with a plan to save everyone else.
Unfortunately, that wasn't the easiest, and they didn't have the biggest amount of time to do it.
Ultimately, they decided to go after the new, freshly uncursed wolves first, because Phoenix was better at taking care of himself than the girls were.
When it came to dealing with other wolves and witches, they were new at it and alone.
Again, lone wolves rarely survive.
Raphael went after the orphans, and Alexander went after Ayla to try again.
Or that was the plan at least.
The hope was that Stella and Rhae would end up sticking together or at least close to each other.
Trees were thinner in the area they were running through, but it was still wooded, so the task at hand wasn't easy.
If anything, the witches chose a great place to ultimately battle the newly separated wolves as they traveled.
Raphael was making his way quickly through the sparse shrubs, wildflowers, and trees that seemed to be less than what they had run through once they had left the clearing.
It was almost as if the land wanted to clear itself at one point, but changed its mind.
Thankfully, Stella and Rhae did have a slight scent to them that the former Major of the Silver Moon pack was able to pick up on.
They weren't together as Alexander and Raphael had hoped, but they weren't far from each other.
Raphael made a plan as he ran toward Rhae.
If he could get through to her, she could get through to her best friend, hopefully.
He wasted no time making his way straight to her, and instead of taking the approach that Alexander took when he locked eyes with the deranged wolf, he made a different choice.
Knowing what he knew and how he remembered his wolf feeling, he knew he had two options.
Either he could take his chances trying to get through to her wolf, talking to her, or he could skip that step.
Within seconds, he slammed into her and pinned her to the ground.
'GGRRRR'
She instantly started snapping at him, trying to latch her fangs onto his neck.
"Stop. You need to listen to me. NOW. You are under a spell."
After that, she still wasn't listening; she only got more aggressive and more furious that she was pinned down.
Her wolf didn't even take the time to register who was holding him on the ground.
"STOP. NOW. You aren't being yourself. Your wolf is scared. Think about it. It's Raphael."
He thought he was making his way through to her when she looked at him and hesitated to snap at him, and he pulled back for a second, and then she threw all her strength into throwing him off of her and lunging at him with her fangs once again.
She was a vicious wolf when her human side was subdued.
The last thing he wanted to do was hurt her.
"RHAE," she heard as her attention was pulled away from him for a split second, which was long enough for him to pin her again.
Stella was calling to her, but from where?
"Snap out of it. You're going to hurt him. We need him to find our way."
Now Raphael could hear her too.
She was hoping to hear from someone who could help them, and she heard him trying to help Rhae.
He was helping Stella while talking to Rhae.
That meant she was closer than he thought she was.
"Stella, let her see you. That might help her more than just hearing you. The witches are playing with us. This coven is the worst of them, and they enjoy torturing us for their amusement. We can't let them see us fall."
Stella's anger came through, "They are watching us?"
"Now is not the time. We need to get everyone together and get the hell out of here. NOW! Ayla and Phoenix are still out there somewhere and need help."
Suddenly, she was fully grounded.
"What do we need to do?"
He filled her in, and the goal was to get the group to shift.
It was their best defense for Rhae.
She had a strong wolf.
Although it wasn't easy, with Stella in her presence, they finally got her to shift, and the small group of three were back to their normal.
"The witches aren't going to be happy. They will be after us fiercely now. Either they will make it harder for Phoenix, or they will make us pay in another way. Be prepared, but we need to find him quickly."
Like that, they were off to find the last man of the group.
To their surprise, as they started following the diminished scent of Phoenix, they noticed it didn't smell like his wolf, not completely.
"Something is wrong. His wolf doesn't smell right."
Stella looked concerned, "What do you mean?"
Raphael knew the girls were new to all things in tracking and trailing, so he had to explain it.
"When I was looking for you girls, I could follow your wolves' scents, because the glands let off a certain type of smell. Your human form lets off a similar one, but it's a little different. His scent is giving off a mix of both back and forth. It's like he is changing back and forth for some reason."
Just then, the group of three heard a snap off to their left and froze.
Listening for a clue as to who or what was there sent fear up their spines.
It wasn't enough time for their wolves to settle down from the spikes of adrenaline that the spell had just caused, so they were still on high alert.
"Behind me, NOW!" Raphael whispered.
"Oh, so protective of the little orphans, aren't we?"
"Show yourself. Stop being a coward and hiding in the shadows, witch."
"Relax. You shouldn't be so judgmental, Raphael. You have no place to do so. You know that. Secrets, secrets, secrets. How long has it been since you heard from your father? Hmmm. Now you protect those you once hunted. TSK, TSK, TSK. The orphans were never supposed to be found."
Raphael didn't seem comfortable with her words or implications.
"You're just stirring up chaos like your coven always does. Stop. No one deserves to live in a world where they don't know who their parents are. Witches can't be trusted. Leave us."
"HAHAHA...that's hilarious. Oh, poor handsome boy. One day, you won't be able to hide from everything. You will have to come to us. We have the answers you're looking for. You won't be able to find them all. Until then."
That's when they heard it, "Sylvie, leave them alone. You shouldn't be here."
"This is my forest. I will be here until the day I die. No wolf or witch will tell me otherwise, thank you very much," she said as she winked at Raphael, then shimmered behind a tree and was gone as fast as she appeared.
Just as she was gone, Phoenix came walking through the trees, looking just as smug as a man who had been lying on a beach with a margarita.
In Raphael's experience, that meant his best friend had done something.
Something that was going to make him want to smack him.