With that thought, Amber transformed her right hand into claws then made a small slit on her palm. She then pressed her palm at the door and made sure that the blood would be smudged thoroughly on the surface of the door then she stepped backward to wait for any reaction from it but after a few minutes nothing happened.
"Blood! I can smell blood…" a voice suddenly rang in the empty space. Amber looked around but she saw no one and yet the voice continued to speak. "It's not the blood that we wanted to. It's not human blood. It's not it. How disappointing."
"They must be intruders…those wolves must have sent them here…" a different answered the other voice but Amber can't still figure out where these voices were coming from. "But how were they able to enter this place?" the voice asked in wonder.
"Hmmm, this is a dilemma, what will we do to them? What should we do? Kill them? Since they are not the ones we are waiting for." The first voice asked a series of question with an innocent voice that was not suited with its statements.
"That's reasonable, we can do that since the master told us to kill anyone who would dare to steal from him. We should do it." The other voice did not hesitate to agree.
After those words were uttered, the atmosphere around the castle changed. It became gloomy and she could feel the rise of bloodlust from the changing surrounding. "Wait!" She exclaimed even though she was not sure if those voices were able to hear her. "I'm not here to steal!"
"Not to steal? Then what would the likes of you do in here, stroll?" the first voice responded followed by a snort.
"No, I don't know but something pulled me to come here and I was able to get here in one piece." She reasoned out because as far as she knew, there were no other people who were able to enter this far inside the Lurea Woods.
"She has a point. She was the only one who was able to reach this place alive." The second voice responded with an emphasis on the word 'alive' along the way.
Amber sighed. The voices then started whispering but she could not hear them. It sounded like rumbles of thunder to her even with her excellent hearing. She waited for those voices to speak once again but nothing happened even after a few minutes. The rumbles stopped and a breeze passed through them then the rumbles started again.
"That necklace you are wearing, where did you get it?" one of the voices asked again after its deliberation with the other voice.
Through the wind they sent to assess the woman, they felt a surge of energy that was familiar to them. It was something that they had not felt for a long time because the owner of that energy had passed away together with their master. The woman might be the descendant of that man if that necklace was hers.
Amber caressed the necklace on her neck, "This was a gift from my father. He told me that this necklace had been with our family for a long time now." Her voice unconsciously softened at the memory of her tenth birthday when she received the necklace. She had treasured it ever since then and even now because it was a memory that she did not want to forget. "Do you have a problem with it?"
"Since you have that necklace, we will let you leave this place alive. But if you come here again don't expect us to be merciful." The voice's tone changed and became deeper. Even the dark atmosphere around the place turned even bleaker.
Amber was about to speak once again but a strong gust of wind blew towards her accompanied by a lot of leaves which covered her vision and when she opened them once again, she was back outside of the Lurea Woods.
"Those voices, were they mages?" her voice returned to its normal coldness as she asked her wolf about those voices they heard from the vampire's castle.
'I'm not sure. I could not feel their strength. It was either they are stronger than me, an alpha wolf or they are concealing their power through the use of a magic item.' Eirian answered with her focus still on the black woods. 'It seems that your ancestor and the vampire king were friends with mages. It seems that we need to investigate more about this matter in the future.'
Amber silently agreed. She looked at the woods one last time before she turned back to leave. Through the darkness of the night, she returned to the pack house in her wolf form. She could see several people gathered in front of the pack house while looking at her direction.
Once she reached the front porch, she tilted her head to the side. She could feel the worry radiating from them. 'What's the matter? Why are there so many people here?' she asked through the mind link.
The crowd remained silent for a while and it was Zael who answered her, "Alpha, you did not notice?"
She looked around then shook her head, 'What? Did something happen?'
"You were gone for a week and we thought that the enemy got to you. The whole pack was in chaos because of your sudden disappearance and there were several attacks aiming at our pack and the other packs so we were forced to divide our forces into two, one to defend our territory and to infiltrate the enemy to look for you." Zael was a little bit hesitant to explain this to her because right now everything was in chaos.
'What?' she could not hide the surprise in her voice after hearing the report from Zael. She was only gone for hours so how could she be gone for an entire week? 'That's impossible!'
"Why don't you change back first Alpha, we can talk about this inside and I need to inform our warriors that you are back. I will also recall the warriors we sent to infiltrate the enemy forces." Zael and the others moved to the side to give way for her.
Her mind was still in a mess after she had walked inside her room and changed to her human form. 'I can't believe this.' She muttered to herself while changing her clothes. 'Was I really gone for a week?'
She walked down through the stairs towards the living room where she felt that the others were when she smelt a very familiar scent. Amber unconsciously hastened her steps as the scent got stronger the nearer, she got to the living room.
The scent of her mate assaulted her once she stepped inside the room. It made her face red and her heart excited. Zael saw their alpha's expression and could not help but rub his eyes because he thought that he saw her sparkling with flowers around her.
"Ahem," he faked a cough to get Amber's attention. The alpha could not believe herself and hastily controlled her facial expression.
"Sorry for waiting," she tactfully entered with poise like nothing happened and ignored Zael's knowing look.
"Amber!" Xander stood up from where he was sitting to greet the woman. He was glad that she was able to return safely.
When he heard that Amber disappeared, he became worried to the point that he could not focus on his work. In the end, he decided to let Carl take over the gallery project and visit Ceurian. Zael welcomed him since the alpha did not tell them to stop him when he decided to visit.
Amber smiled at the approaching man, "Xander," she uttered his name in a soft voice. "Why are you here?"
He stood in front of her as he subtly checked if she was okay. He sighed internally because she was safe and was not injured. "Because I was worried when I heard that you suddenly disappeared. I'm glad that you are okay."
"Now that you know that I am fine. You can go and rest for now because I have something to talk about with Zael and the others." She was feeling happy because her mate was worried for her. The fluttering in her heart could not stop so as the smile on her face but then she saw Xander's face turning serious. She looked around because even the atmosphere changed after she spoke.
"That…Ugh…We might have said something to him…" Zael avoided Amber's gaze while scratching his head. He felt the alpha's gaze killing him but he refused to look at her. Beads of sweat started to roll down his back as the alpha's gaze intensified until he could not take it anymore. "Alright! Alright! We did tell him many things regarding the attacks from rogues and the vampires."
Amber sighed at the confession, she had to accept it though. Now that he already knew about it, there's no reason for her to hide it anymore. "Alright, let's just talk about it now. Since Xander already knew about the situation, then I'll let you stay with us." She brushed it off because she knew that there was nothing, she could do about it now.
They were all seated in the living room and Amber gestured for Zael to explain everything that had happened while she was gone. "Now, talk."