Chapter 48
Ryker's POV:
"What do you know about Janette's kidnap?" Jayson drilled, watching my every move in my own office. My stubborn friend had been going at it for minutes, repeating the exact question.
"I already told you, Jayson. Nothing you should concern yourself with." I dismissed him again, pointing at the door for him to make an exit and leave me alone.
"Fucking stop this shit now. Ryker! You might be the Alpha and her sister, but I am her mate, and I deserve to know. I am not leaving this goddamned office until you give me what I want." He scratched his head repeatedly, pacing around my office space. He has never lost his cool. He always knew how to control himself, and yet emotions were clouding his thinking capacity.
"What makes you think I know something?" I put my pen down on the wooden desk with a click. Raising my eyebrow at my friend, I leaned on my office chair.
"That night you left Tamara on her own once you found out about the disappearance of your sister. There is no way you came back with nothing. Ryker, please, no matter how irrelevant you might think it is, I need a clue." He sat on the edge of the chair opposite my desk, tapping his left foot on the floor impatiently.
"Okay, I will tell you what I know. However, you must know that I have people expanding on my discovery and the truth behind it."
"Just tell me."
"Uncle Pete was seeing carrying a sisal baby basket right around the time my sister went missing." I figured it was the best thing to do as his friend.
"I'm going to kill that son of a bitch." He knocked the chair down as he furiously stood.
"It could have been just a baby basket and nothing more. That is why I am telli—"
"You know as much as I do that it is not nothing. Your bastard uncle hates kids and he would never be caught dead carrying one unless he was doing it for the wrong reasons," he stated in almost a snarl, cutting me off mid-sentence.
Then he was out of my office, anger rolling out of his form in waves. I let him go because Uncle Pete wasn't within the pack grounds. In fact, there hadn't been any sign of him for days. He would calm down eventually after figuring out for himself that the old man was not around.
Once I was done going through some files, I decided to finally go check on Monica. We weren't any closer to uncovering what Addanc wanted with Mimi's skull. But like my mate had said, whatever the plan was, it would affect us immensely. He was an evil wizard fueled and driven by nothing but revenge. He was capable of anything, especially because he used dark magic. I worried for my mate and the safety of our child. Yes, she was even more powerful now that her mother's power flowed in her veins, but going up against an evil wizard?
She had been spending time with Janette and going through her mother's journal. The chalice her mother left for her remained at her side at all times. She kept on saying that she had a feeling it would come in handy.
My walk to the dungeons was filled with thoughts and occasional hi's and hellos from my pack members. The weather was calm, perhaps before a storm. So many things had happened, but none could amount to Janette turning out to be my sister-the same sister I had gone searching for the night I left Tamara alone. Indeed our Moon Goddess wasn't asleep at all.
"Alpha." The warriors at the dungeons bowed, their beasts acknowledging my presence.
"Any luck?" I got inside, heading straight for the staircase.
"None; she refuses to talk and eat. All she does is rock and rock while staring at space," one of my men answered, following behind as we made our way down to the dark and damp underground cells.
"Oh, her mouth will decide whether she lives or dies today." With that, I unlocked her cell and stepped inside alone, leaving the warrior by the door.
"Monica." She reminded me of my death sentence to her. She was supposed to be a bygone by now, yet here she was acting dumb and quite rebellious. She was a vile person going after my mate for affection that I never once felt for her. What if we had sex once or twice? I was a man with needs, and I hadn't had a mate.
She briefly lifted her eyes to look at me, then resumed rocking against the wall. She looked so thin, frail, and dirty. Addanc and his men must have been so hard on her.
"You let those men torture Theo, why?" She snapped her head upwards in shock. Mm-hmm, she had no idea I knew about her participation. I wasn't one to beat around the bush, and I knew hitting her where she thought was impossible was my only shot for getting the answers I so needed.
"How...how..." She weakly tried to force the question past her dry throat. Her heartbeat just proved that she was the one, and of course, her thumb.
"I am the Alpha for a reason, Monica. So, was it you who ordered his kidnap?"
"His father put me up to it," she nonchalantly answered with a gruff.
"What?"
"That day you had Addanc subdued, Pete sorted out a way to cause a distraction to help his master escape." So we had been right all along.
"So, he broke you out of this very same place to do dirty jobs for him? Aren't you a nice little puppet?" I mocked, the hatred and anger I had for her threatening to burst.
"Don't underestimate them like they have underestimated you." She completely ignored my dissipating shock and my growing fury. She was a traitor, and soon she would face the punishment she deserved for siding with the enemy. "They are coming for you, your mate, and the rest of us. Look at me, Ryker; I am nothing without my wolf. They have taken everything from me just to get what they want." True to her words, I hadn't sensed her beast at all. It was as if he was in deep slumber, despite being still a part of her. Then her wounds confirmed it all; she wasn't healing.
"No, they haven't taken everything from you, seeing that you are still breathing. I, on the other hand...will see to it that you don't live. Then, and only then, will you have lost everything." I enjoyed her fear as she took in my words with visible shaking on her weak form.
"My greed and desire to have you led me into the hell that I have been in. They promised that we would be together if I helped them. Then that changed and I realized they had something more important than you, Ryker. They used it against me and left me with no choice. Now I don't even know how to retrieve it. Without it, I am done for, Ryker." She sniffed, not bothering to wipe her tears.
"So you can kill me, Ryker. I do not have anything to live for now. I was robbed of the only thing that could have brought me joy. Death will be a gift to my weakened soul. Release me from this suffering my heart has been subjected to. Please." She spread her hands and tilted her neck, willingly and patiently waiting for me to go for the kill.
Monica wasn't one to let her weakness show on the outside. Yet here she was crying over something I had no idea about. What could have been more important than her obsession toward me? Begging me to take her life? What exactly was she talking about?
"Before you deliver your punishment, Alpha, please, I want to apologize to the Luna for everything my friend and I have put her through. Would you please call..."
"That won't be necessary, Monica." Tamara stepped inside, approaching the weak woman with pity in her kind eyes.
"The apology can wait because first I am going to heal you. Then you are going to help me defeat those monsters." I could not believe my ears. She must have been out of her mind for even saying that. Heal the very same woman who betrayed the pack and Theo despite his flaws? We had a rule, and she was not immune to it.
"No! Let me remind you of this rule, in case you have forgotten. A traitor shall die by his own tongue; his own sense of taste will be his demise," I interjected, hating the idea of my pregnant mate using her energy to heal someone who had been nothing but evil toward her.
"No?" She turned to look at me, shaking her head.
"Tamara, you know you shouldn't. It is not only dangerous but also a traitorous action against this pack."
"First of all, it is safe more than you think, and secondly, the pack can do whatever they want for all I care. Everything I am doing is for their own safety, Ryker. They ought to thank me for not fleeing like a coward the moment Mimi tabled it out to us. I am saving their lives now, starting with this poor woman who is a victim and not the traitor as you think." Damn my wolf for finding Tamara sexy as she stood up to me.
Planning your weekend reading? Ensure you're on 05s.org for uninterrupted enjoyment. The next chapter is just a click away, exclusively available on our site. Happy reading! "The Alpha is right, Luna. It is quite dangerous to use your energy right now to heal me. Your child needs to be safe in there."
"What did you just say?" How the hell had she known about this? Had Mrs. Kagwe briefed her about it?
"Theo told Addanc the moment he found out you were pregnant. They know and they won't stop until they bleed it out of your womb, Luna."
I would rather die than let anything happen to that child. If the wizard thought he would prevail, then he had another thing coming.
"So, save that energy for when they launch the attack. You will need it to save this pack. Your mate and the Alpha have decided my fate. I choose to go in peace." Tamara remained quiet and unmoving with her hands pressed to her belly. This is what she had been afraid of, the wizard finding out about her pregnancy. The look in her eyes though-raw determination. She was ready for him and so was I. There would be a blood bath, and it would be that of my enemies. "Tamara, we will protect that blessing with everything we got. Not even dark magic will get to her." I pushed my thoughts to her, all while pulling her into my arms. I listened to the heartbeat of the growing life inside of her, so soft and almost undetectable.
"I am not scared of him, Ryker. I am dumbfounded because of something else. In fact, Addanc and his dark powers do not scare me right now."
"What is it?"
"Remember Theo telling us that he found his mate but couldn't see her? That he had been blindfolded when he got inside the room where she was? Well, Monica said that she had something important taken away from her. More important than what she felt for you... This woman has been on my neck, Ryker, accusing me of bewitching my way into your heart. Now, all of a sudden, she is talking to me kindly and showing care to my unborn child," she answered through our link, pausing after a few words.
"Think about it, Ryker. The Monica you knew, would she have given up so easily on breaking us apart?"
"No," I simply answered.
"Only a mate's love would surpass such an obsession, Ryker."
"Theo and Monica are mates."