Page 38 of Into the Grasslands

“Helped who?”

Janelle’s eyes rolled back in her head, and she dropped like a sack of potatoes.

“Noooo!” My cousin, Vik, screamed and came running to her side. “No. No. No. You have to be okay.”

“Vik, what the hell is going on?”

“She’s my mate.”

That took me aback. “How long have you known that?” I asked the question without thinking but didn’t give him time to answer. That wasn’t important. “She said someone attacked her and took… I think she tried to tell me someone took Nika and Miriam helped them.”

“Miriam?” Viktor asked, seemingly puzzled until something clicked. “Catalina’s mother?” When I nodded he growled. “That crazy old bat has spread rumors that you were already mated to her daughter before her death. Some of the pack thinks it is true, and they think that in her death, you were gifted the chanceto rule without a mate. There’s no other reason why you have staved off the madness without help for so long.”

I rolled my eyes. “Maybe because I’m stronger than most.” That was true enough, but I knew that the madness had already begun to creep in, since my wolf couldn’t be fully trusted. “We need someone to find her and get her into the cells immediately.”

“I can’t leave Janella,” Vik stated.

“Seems to me you didn’t choose to mate her when you realized she was yours, so she isn’t your priority right now.”

“What did you just say to me?” Vik stood with his mate in his arms. His chest heaved with anger over my last comment. I didn’t have time for the confrontation about Janella then, though. I needed to find out where Nika was, what happened to her, and the only people who knew the answers seemed to be Janella – who was unconscious – and Miriam, who I needed to find.

“Get her to the infirmary. We will discuss what’s going on with you later.”

Viktor didn’t waste time to argue with me and instead hauled his woman up into his arms and ran with her to the infirmary. I mind linked with Warren.

Thorin:Janella has been injured and before she passed out, she pointed the finger to Miriam and mentioned that someone else had been kidnapped. I think she meant that it was Nika. I need people on the lookout for Nika and Miriam. If you find either of them, Nika is to be brought to me immediately. Miriam is to be placed into the cells until we can sort out what happened.

Warren:I will get everyone on it. You should know, Miriam’s husband was on border duty this morning.

Son of a bitch!

Thorin:Find them!

I yelled the order across the mind link. This was not happening. How had my mate been threatened and no one told me? Janella couldn’t have been the only one who knew that it happened. I left the pond, that had been decorated for the mating ceremony and went in search of Catalina’s family. So help me, if I found out they had been involved in Nika being kidnapped or harmed in any way, they would join Catalina in the afterlife.

It tookfive fucking hours to track down Miriam. She and her family had hidden in the caves to the north of the pack’s territory. As soon as word got out that Warren was looking for them and Nika, they went into hiding. Others, friends of theirs, had come forward in the wake of the events to tell me about Miriam’s behavior and the threats she had made against Nika. They did so in the hopes that they would receive leniency because they knew as soon as I got ahold of Miriam and her family, they would spill everything.

They were just as weak-willed as their daughter had been. While I might have been blinded by youth and heartsore over not finding my fated mate, it had been glaringly obvious that Catalina could not have ruled by my side. The reasons continued to pile up. She simply didn’t measure up to what Nika was capable of. Thank fuck for that too. Nika was strong. I needed her to survive this ordeal. If she didn’t, it wouldn’t matter that we hadn’t officially mated, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would follow behind her into the afterlife.

I made my way down to the cells. We had to keep the space available because there was no such thing as a pack without problematic members or enemies who got caught on our lands.The minute I came down the steps and into sight, Miriam started to wail and demand I set her free.

“Shut up!” I yelled into the cavernous space. “You will only speak to answer questions asked.” Her head bobbed in acknowledgment. “Did you threaten my mate?”

“You have no mate!” Miriam spat. Her withered old face appeared to have aged a century in the past two years. It was something I should have taken note of sooner.

“Did you threaten Nika Mayweather?”

“No,” she laughed. “I made her a promise. Told her about how my daughter was killed off by hunters before she could be mated to you.” Her eyes narrowed. “You were too dumb to realize that it wasn’t an accident and them weren’t no hunters who took my daughter’s life.”

“I was taken to the scene,” I explained in a gentler tone to Miriam. “Catalina was indeed killed by hunters.”

“I don’t believe it. There are some in the pack who didn’t think she was good enough to be mated to you.”

“She was not good enough to be a Luna,” I agreed. “That much was true, even though I refused to see it back then. She was too weak. You know it, the pack knew it, even I knew it deep down but I was willing to give up the Alpha position, so my father could train another successor if that was what it took. Why do you think she was murdered?”

Miriam sniffled at that. “Your father had her killed. He suffered his fate for that crime.”

“That is not true!” I shouted. “Explain yourself.”

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