Chapter 79

My body goes numb all of a sudden. All the comfort and sense of peace is instantly gone. ‘Are you sure, Vi?’
‘I would never ever joke about something like this,’ she replies coldly. ‘I’m close. Driving at this speed, I’ll reach the pack within minutes. Give me ten minutes, max. The motherfucking rogue is in the trunk of the car.’
‘Fuck. Are you serious?’ I blink several times, and then I take a deep breath. ‘Vi, drive carefully,’ I command her.
‘Okay, okay. Goddess, I thought you’d be more excited.’
‘I still can’t believe what you’re saying!’
‘Well, believe me, Ian! I told you the last lead would be worth investigating.’
‘I’ll get everything ready here for your arrival.’
‘Okay, Ian,’ I hear her voice excitedly before she cuts the mindlink.
“Ethan? Are you okay?” Little Dove asks from beside me. I didn’t even notice that she had released the hug.
“Um, yeah. I am.” I clear my throat. “It’s late. I think you should go to sleep.”
Her worried eyebrows furrow, shifting into a look of confusion. “Okay... Are you sure?”
“Yeah. I’ll walk you to your room.” 
“Uh... Okay then,” she says in a small, sad voice. 
“Hey, Little Dove,” I say, holding her small hand. “I’ve just had a busy day, okay? I just need to rest.”
“I can help you relax,” she opens a sexy smile. 
Fuck. Me. How I wish she could help me relax right now. But I’m running out of time. “Tempting. Maybe tomorrow.” 
She takes a deep breath, the smile fading from her angelic face. Once I’ve got her to her room, I immediately head for the packhouse front entrance. ‘Vi, no one’s around. You can park here. It’ll be quicker to take the rogue to the packhouse dungeons.’ 
I hear the tires screech from how fast my sister is driving far away, and less than a minute later, she slams her car into the park right in front of me. I don’t even wait for her to get out of the car. I go straight to the trunk, and in sync, she opens it, and it automatically goes up. 
“Are you sure there’s no one around?” Vi asks, getting out of the car.
“Yeah,” I say with a grin, looking at the unconscious fucker in just his boxes with his hands and feet well bound. “You did a great job.”
“I know, right?” she says excitedly. Fuck, I have forgotten what she sounds like when she’s genuinely excited about something.
I hoist the fucker onto my shoulders like a sack of potatoes and begin walking towards the packhouse. He’s not a small male. 
Vi follows right behind me. “You won’t believe how I found him.”
“Sounds like a great story since he’s only in his underwear,” I say, walking quickly down the hallway, then into the living room. “I can already picture how.”
Vi runs ahead of me and opens one of the dungeon’s secret passages for me. “Gentlemen first,” she says with a large smile and a ridiculous bow.
I enter first with the unconscious fucker on my shoulders, grinning from ear to ear as well, then I hear my sister close the door behind her, sealing our prisoner’s fate.
As she passes me again to open the next secret door, I say to her, waggling my eyebrows, “Let’s see how loud this fucker can scream.”

🐺 🐺 🐺

With a hum, I press the blade into his thigh and drag it down his leg, splitting the skin open to reveal sinew and flesh. “Are you sure you don’t want to talk?” I ask as calmly as possible, but inside, I’m seething with rage. “As you must have felt from the other cuts, this blade is special.” I grin. “You’ll regenerate. Calm down. Don’t worry, I’ll always have more canvas to work with, but it’ll take a hell of a lot longer than usual.”
With his neck, arms, and legs chained to the chair bolted to the concrete floor, he screams in pain. For a moment, I think he doesn’t hear me, but then I hear his nasal voice due to his still broken nose as he says, “I told you, I don’t know who you’re talking about.” 
His nose will regenerate, but I can always break it again. My grin widens. “I know you know. And you’re going to tell me.” 
I repeat the same cut on his other leg. Thank Goddess, or Vi, he was already naked, which made my job easier and messier. Vi stands by my side. The rogue has been conscious for over an hour now, and so far, he hasn’t revealed anything. While he’s not the biggest rogue I’ve ever met, he’s pretty tough, I’ll give him that. 
‘Fuck. I thought he would have told you by now,’ Vi mindlinks me as I see blood bubbles from the new deep gash in the rogue’s thigh. 
‘Don’t worry, he’ll open up. Figuratively and literally.’
Vi walks to him and puts pressure on the wounds in his thigh with tourniquets while I debate my options. The rogue makes a low, growling noise. “You bitch, when I get out of here, I’m going to fucking kill you!” he says furiously to my sister.
She gives him a smirk. “Oh, no. Now I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep tonight.” Vi pouts before walking away from him.
“Let me out! I don’t know who you’re looking for,” he begs. “I don’t know who you’re talking about. Fuck! My legs hurt so fucking bad. Help! Someone help me!” His screams are loud but in vain.
“You can scream all you want. No one will find you here,” I assure him before I stab him in the forearm.
More screams echo through the dungeon room. He screams so much that he loses consciousness, his head falling back in defeat. Vi slaps him in the face to revive him. “Wake up, motherfucker! We still have a lot to talk about,” she says impatiently to him.
When he opens his eyes again, I immediately stick my hand in the gash I just made on his arm. And as predicted, he screams. Loudly.
The rogue stinks, but the smell of his blood stinks even more. “I told you, I don’t know anyone. Let me go,” he begs.
“I don’t believe you.” And I don’t even need to see his corrupted aura to know he’s lying. I twirl my fingers inside the gash on his arm until he loses consciousness again.
Vi offers me a washcloth to clean my hand, and I pull my hand out of the gash.
‘Ethan, I don’t think he’ll tell us.’ She speaks through the mindlink, even though the rogue is unconscious. She knows the rules of the dungeon. You can never be too careful.
‘He’s lying, Vi. But he’ll tell me, even if I have to rip off all his limbs to do it,’ I reply as I wait for him to wake up.
‘While I was hunting him, another name came up,’ Vi replies. ‘I don’t know if this other guy is his brother or cousin, but from what I’ve researched, he’s a coward. He’ll be the easiest to tell us where we can find the witch.’ 
‘Why didn’t you bring him then?’ I ask, turning to glare at her.
She takes a deep breath. ‘I couldn’t find him. Since this fucker was in town, I thought it best to focus on him.’ She looks at him with contempt.
‘You did good,’ I praise. ‘I should be there with you.’
Her eyes meet mine again. ‘I’ll keep looking for him. But I need time.’
‘Okay. If this fucker won’t talk, this other rogue is our only option. Whatever you need, just say the word.’
The rogue’s head starts moving again, and his breathing becomes more hurried. He’s waking up again.
‘Maybe this cousin or brother or whatever will make him open his mouth,’ I add.
“It doesn’t matter. Whatever you do, I’m not breaking for you, motherfucker,” the rogue says even before he opens his eyes. When he does, he looks straight at me. Tears well in his eyes in pain and hate. “If I tell you, I’ll be a dead wolf anyway because if you don’t kill me, I’m sure they will. I’m not going to tell you shit. I hope you don’t find that old bitch. Fuck, look what you did to my legs,” he says, looking down at the open gash oozing blood. “When I get out of here, I’m going to kill all of you!”
I say coldly, “Tell me where she is.”
“No!” he yells. “I’m not going to tell shit!”
“I believe you,” I say darkly with a smirk. “Let’s see if, after a week in solitary confinement, you change your mind.”

🐺 🐺 🐺

‘The council is about to start, Ethan,’ my father mindlinks me the next morning.
‘I’m on my way,’ I answer.
I just want to give Alicent a kiss before I go.
“I’m exhausted, but I’m going back to Summerville today,” Vi tells me, sitting on the couch next to me. She’s wearing a long black turtleneck that’s loose on her body, which is odd because the weather is too warm for any coats.
Little Dove walks down the stairs with a bright smile, looking our way. When she comes closer to me, I pull her onto my lap. “Morning,” she murmurs before I take her lips slowly, swallowing the sweet little humming noise she makes, feeling her arms wrapping around my neck. Her nails drag into the back of my neck and a shiver races down my spine. 
When I let her go, she gives me an even brighter smile with a blush on her face before turning to Vi and hugging my sister. “I’m so glad you’re back!”
“But I have to go to Summerville again today,” Vi replies as the tiny human lets her go.
Little Dove walks towards the closed window and opens it with some difficulty because the latch is too high for her. “Do you guys smell that?” she says, turning her head back with a frown at us.
“What smell?” Vi asks, confused.
“I don’t know,” she replies. “It smells rotten, you know? But it doesn’t seem like spoiled food or something... I just don’t know what it is. Wow. It’s so strong around here,” she says, near where the secret passage to the dungeons is. “Are you sure you guys can’t smell that?”
Seemingly in sync, Vi and I shake our heads, both of us lying, of course.
Little Dove walks towards the other window to open it, too. “It can be my nose. Maybe I have sinusitis.”
‘How can *she* smell a rogue? And it’s so faint,’ Vi mindlinks me without looking into my eyes.
‘I don’t know,’ I reply. ‘Her blood must be special. No wonder her son turned into an Alpha,’ I suggest.
‘Still... Not that many humans visit our pack or the packhouse, but I’ve never seen one react this way to the stench of rogues.’
“... My nose is hurting a little,” Little Dove continues babbling. “I guess I tried too hard to figure out where the stench was coming from. But with the windows open, I guess it’ll get better, the air circulating, you know?”
‘Az told me she said some of the residents in the building she lived in stank. He said he only realized after he was turned into a werewolf that the stench she complained so much about was from rogues. I don’t know, Vi. It’s not common for a human to be turned. Much less to become an Alpha out of nowhere.’ Vi continues to watch Alicent as if she can find answers in her small frame. When she doesn’t respond, I continue, ‘Are you sure you want to go back to Summerville? I can go instead.’
‘I’d better go. I’m going to spend more time explaining how to find the other rogue to you than I would find him myself,’ she mindlinks me as she answers some questions Little Dove has asked her at the same time.
‘If this is because of Jordan—’
‘Don’t.’ She interrupts me. ‘Don’t even start, Ian.’
I let out a long sigh. ‘Fuck, Vi. I—’ 
She looks up at me, pleading with her eyes. ‘Ian, stop! Please.’ 

🐺 🐺 🐺
***Alicent***  

I take the cookies out of the oven as soon as the timer goes off. Maggie took the kids for a walk in the woods next to the backyard, and when they get home, I’m sure they will like the sweet surprise.
The smell of chocolate chip cookies fills the kitchen, even with the windows open. I bend down to pick up a chocolate chip on the floor that I missed when I was cleaning. When I get up, I see Ethan’s parents walking into the kitchen. I’ve been avoiding them since Vi returned to Summerville four days ago because, well, they didn’t seem to like our friendship either.
Diamonds glint from Emma’s ears, neck, and fingers. As always, they’re very well dressed.
I throw the mess in the trash and then wash my hands, my back to them.
“Do you happen to know when you might no longer need to stay in my house, Alicent?” I hear Emma ask.
I dry my hands and turn to them. “Ethan and Vi told me I can stay as long as I want,” I say without stuttering. But my heartbeat starts to race. I thought they’d get to like me in time. No such thing has happened. On the contrary, since they arrived, it seems that every time I’m near Ethan, they get upset with me even more. Yet, until now, they haven’t said anything like that, they are always very polite with their words.
Ethan’s father sighs. “You’re not getting married anymore. There’s no reason for you to live in the same house.”
“But we’re still together,” I argue. “As you’ve seen.” It hurts to know that they suggested Ethan call off the wedding. I look away from them, removing the cookies from the pan and placing them on a rack to dry. Gosh, I want to crawl into a hole right now and hide there. When I look back at them, they’re glaring at me with disdain, and so I find myself saying, “I’m not forcing Ethan to be with me. It takes two people to be together.”
“This thing between you two is never going to work, honey,” Emma says, looking at me with pity. Lord, I want to rip that look out of her face. “Ethan is after someone he loves, and he’s doing *everything* he can to find her.”