Oden grumbled, “This wolf and human pair are pathetic.” I agreed because Trevor was a sobbing mess. I conjured a knife and stabbed him in the back deeper than I needed to. He screamed in pain. I could faintly hear him, but the sound of Melanie’s cries as he’d branded her were replaying in my mind. I carved the words Bully and Abuser into his back.
I slammed him back down on the table. Trevor begged, “Just kill me!” I laughed, “Kill you? No, no, no, that’s no fun. You have at least seven years of torture to catch up on. Let’s be honest, it will probably be longer. Because I’m a vengeful person, and I despise the Ring.”
“I vowed after hearing my mother’s story that I would stop women and men from suffering like she did. Not only did I fail quite epically, but you made sure the person I failed was my mate. Don’t worry though, one day in the VERY distant future, I WILL kill you.”
“You will be blood eagled in this realm with your pal Francis over there. I’ll find Mark too, along with your father. Whom, by the way, has made no attempt on our pack to recover you. I can’t imagine how that must feel. My dad would wage war until I was handed back over to him if someone managed to capture me.”
Trevor snorted, “Of course my dad isn’t coming for me. You have Uncle Ezra. Without him no one else in the Ring would listen to dad to come get me.” I asked, “What is Ajax the Warlock’s real name?” Trevor frowned, “It’s Ajax, isn’t it?”
Francis snorted, “Of course not, you moron!” Trevor shrugged, “I don’t give a shit what his name is. I had to punch him a few times myself. Francis, you know I hated the guy.” Francis snorted, “You’re so self-absorbed and obsessed with Melanie.”
I snarled. Francis continued, “Seriously, Trevor it’s crazy your lack of awareness to the world around you. Jason McAlister’s wolf’s name is Ajax. That’s why that Warlock went by Ajax. To hurt her when she heard his name all the damn time.”
I asked, “What’s his real name?” Francis smirked saying, “I could be persuaded to tell you. In exchange, I’d like a pillow and a few other things.” I laughed, “Cousins, he needs persuading.” Hastein commented, “We will get on that right away, little cousin.”
Francis had no idea what he was in for. I asked Trevor, “Why did you punch the fake Ajax?” Trevor snorted, “For wanting what was supposed to be mine. He was too handsy with Melanie when he had Stephanie to please him.”
I roared, “SHE IS MINE!” Trevor rolled his eyes, “Yeah, well Melanie was supposed to be mine first.” I grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. I snarled, “She has been destined for me from the moment she was born. Melanie has been and always will be MINE. You tried to steal her. That’s does NOT mean she was supposed to be yours.” I let him go.
Trevor wheezed, “From the second we heard she was born, I was told she was to be mine.” EJ said, “You do not take care of the things that are yours then.” Trevor shrugged, “Melanie is an enemy of our family. No matter how hot she is, she had to pay.”
Jason snarled, “Because none of you were man enough to come for us. So, you hurt our baby sister. You’re pathetic.” Trevor smirked at them, “And you feel powerless and weak because of it. Your pathetic sister is broken and you couldn’t save her.”
I snarled, “Melanie is far from powerless though or broken. The way I hear it, she took you on multiple times and won.” Francis snorted, “You cannot be serious, Trevor. Melanie never lost a single fight against anyone. She’s definitely not powerless, and you didn’t break her. Even you know that because you tried.”
Francis lamented, “Mark was the smart one. He kept telling you to let Melanie go. You refused to let Ezra try to have her, but you should’ve. Not even Ezra would’ve won a fight against her either. That girl has been all about Alpha Alexander since we met her. She was never going to give him up, and every plan you had to kill him failed.”
Several people’s anger slammed into me. EJ growled, “WHAT?! HIS WHAT?! TO DO WHAT TO MY BROTHER?!” My dad broke Trevor’s leg and snarled, “You tried to kill my son?” Trevor was shaking.
Francis answered, “Several times. That Resistance group got in the way. They are good.” Trevor growled, “No, they aren’t! They are the enemy, and they suck.” Francis snorted, “They sniffed out over twenty attempts to kill Alpha Alexander. Those people sent as assassins and Bounty Hunters died well before they got anywhere NEAR Black Mountain’s territory.”
He paused admitting, “Actually they died quite brutally. One was actually sent in pieces, over the course of six months. Our pack doctor said the subject was likely alive until the heart arrived.” I couldn’t help but smile because Melanie had to be behind that. Oden purred, “Mate loves us and protected us fiercely.” Yes, she did.
Francis snorted, “Not to mention the hits on Cassie that kept getting found out. Then her mate, even Alpha Eric, and a few attempts to kidnap your mom….” Francis stalled when all of us with wolves growled in anger.
A lethal, angry voice floated to us, “You’re going to want to explain that quickly. Or you will spend quality time with me.” I greeted, “Uncle Bjourn.” My uncle nodded to me. Francis sighed, “I don’t know specifics on a lot of that. I like to gather secrets and….”
Trevor snorted, interrupting, “He eavesdrops.” Francis said, “Yes, I do. With secrets comes power. Like I tried to tell you many times.” Trevor scoffed, “You never got anything interesting on Melanie.” Francis sighed, “Yes, I did.” I growled at him.
Francis admitted, “Plus, we all knew her secrets. The file we had on her was insane. I told Alpha Edward the way to get to her was through her friends. He of course did not care because his precious daughter was one of her friends. Then the Witch came along, and he found her useful. Even though, it didn’t take a genius to see Paige never did what he asked of her. She hated him.”
Trevor snorted, “Yes, I figured that one out.” Dalton snarled. Uncle Bjourn said, “Prisoner by the name of Francis, tell me all you know about the words you spoke about the attempted kidnapping of my sister, my niece, and plots to kill my nephew and my brother in law. Along with the Commander of our Armies, who is also my nephew.”
Francis sighed, “Well, Robert eventually got a picture of Cayden last year. We realized it was the guy Melanie, and her friends, hung out with. We had someone waiting around for him, but nothing came of it. We hadn’t heard from the guy we had waiting for a few weeks.” They waited a few weeks to contactsomeone sent to kill Cayden? Oden scoffed, “Morons.” Yeah, that was a clear sign that the person was dead.
Francis told us, “We went out to find him, and boy did we. We found him hanging on a cross, upside down tortured to death in his home with a Resistance circle on his stomach. The message was clear, leave Cayden alone. The picture we had of him was deleted from literally everywhere. It was weird.”
“The adults figured it was suicide anyway since the circle group could lead Black Mountain to us. I don’t know details on Princess Haley’s attempted abduction. Normally, our pack was not used for things like that.”
“We just happened to host the group that was going to try. They never reached your territory, and I didn’t hear more than they were killed in a not very nice way. Same with the men sent to kill former Alpha Eric, but the most brutal kills were the people sent to kill Alpha Alexander. We couldn’t figure out why.”
Of course they couldn’t, even though the answer was so obvious it was painful. I stared at him. I snorted, “You really do not know, do you?” Francis frowned, “No, we investigated that Claire girl who liked you. We flipped her because she was so obsessed with you. She even accidentally gave us information for our hired guns a few times.”
“I knew she wasn’t a part of the circle group, and clearly the circle group didn’t figure out Claire gave us information, or she’d have died long ago. That was all kept off books though. Which was my idea. So, it makes sense the circle group never knew.”
I snorted, “Claire is dead now.” Francis shrugged, “She’d have been dead for about four years if the circle group found out about her.” EJ linked me, “They have no idea it’s Melanie even though it’s staring them in the face.”
I told them both, “You knew people were coming for my parents, and my family, and did nothing to stop it. Hell is a kind word for what you will endure here. What did they want withCass?” Francis snorted, “At first that Hackura chick sold her out, it was too good to pass up once she checked out as legit.”
