Chapter 83

(**Sebastion**)

On the way back home, I decide that now is a good time to ask Alexei about his other son. Oleg is the only person I can think of that would have told Vicktor about Pavel and Gustav. He was in captivity by another Collector. It is possible that his path crossed with Vicktor’s during those five years everyone thought he was dead.

I don’t like the idea of accusing him. However, who else could have known about the drama in their family...... unless....

There is one other Belova sibling that I have to consider as well.

Ekatarina.

The team Monroe helped me hire has already extracted her from the Russian prison camp she was in. I got the call about her this morning, but I haven’t told her family about it yet. I want it to be a surprise, but I may tell them today. There should be some good news with all the bad.

I doubt Kat had anything to do with Treadstone. I didn’t see this coming from Pavel, so I can’t rule out any of the Belova siblings. Except Natalia. She has lived in this area for years now. She was the first to agree to join my pack.

Unless she is Treadstone’s spy.

No, stop it, I tell myself. This train of thought is bad. I will keep my thoughts about the Belova siblings to myself until there are signs that point to their guilt. For now, Pavel is the only guilty one.

“After what Pavel did, are you suspicious of Oleg, too? I don’t blame you if you are. I can try to talk to him about it. Tell him what his brother did.”

Since Alexei brought it up, I will follow through with my earlier plan. I don’t want to believe this of him after everything he lived through, but now that Vicktor is right on my doorstep, I need to know if I have another threat inside our walls.

“Let’s talk to him together before I head back to the house.”

Alexei stops in his tracks. I turn to look at him as he looks at me in surprise. “Do you really think he had something to do with Treadstone and Pavel?”

“How else would Treadstone’s man know about the drama between him and Irina? Someone in your family must have told him. Either that or Treadstone had a spy inside your pack before it was attacked five years ago.”

“Do you suspect me as well?”

Do I? No. It shocked him when he learned about Irina’s capture. It felt genuine. He is her father. If Treadstone’s man had approached him instead of Pavel, I strongly believe that man would have died, and Alexei would have found his daughter sooner.

“No. Truth be told; I don’t really feel like Oleg is in on this with Pavel. I just don’t know who else would have known about your family’s internal drama.”

There is one other possibility, but I hate to even think about it. Alexei and Pavel made it out of the pack. It is a possibility that he could have too. I have an idea, but I will speak to Pavel about it later tonight after everyone else has gone to bed.

Alexei nods his head, then we walk to his house. When we walk inside, we are both surprised to see Irina, Natalia, and Oleg in the living room. Oleg is on the sofa rocking Irina back and forth as she sobs into his shoulder. Natalia is sitting on the floor with her arm on his leg.

What surprises me is the angry look in Oleg’s eyes as he meets my gaze. Since the day Monroe brought Oleg to Redwood, he has been timid and skittish. The fire in his eyes is new. I can understand why it is directed at me. He is her brother, and I hurt her by sending her newborns away.

I did what I did to keep them safe. I am getting angry that my decision is making me the bad guy. We have much worse coming our way, but fine, I will be the bad guy. I will take his anger while I know my children are safe.

“Alexei, I will leave you to comfort your family. I am needed elsewhere.”

Irina’s head pops up off Oleg’s shoulder when she hears my voice. There is confusion in her sad eyes as she looks at me. I cut the link between us, then turn around and leave the house.

*Our mate is sad.*

No shit.

*I want to kill her brother.*

Which one?

*Both of them.*

That will hurt her more and it will solve nothing.

*It will make me feel better. I need to make something bleed.*

How about we go for a run? You can kill a deer or something.

*No but let me have some fun when you talk to Pavel later.*

Deal.

I head straight to the mansion to shower. Thirty minutes later, I am dressed and heading back to the pack house. I mind link Flint to have him meet me there and to tell no one else about it. He is my most trusted member of the pack outside of my family.

If the thought I had while walking home proves to be true, then I may not be able to control myself.

“What is this about, Sebastion? Did you think of something else to ask him?” Flint asks when he meets me outside the door to the dungeon.

“As I was walking back to my house to shower, my mind was going crazy with questions. Pavel claims he was approached by one of Treadstone’s men, yet there was no reason to believe that anyone made it out alive. How did Treadstone know Pavel and Alexei survived?”

“I had that same thought. Do you think he had a spy in the pack back then?”

“Or it was one of her other siblings that made it out of the tunnels. However, I don’t think it was any of them. I had a fleeting thought that it was Oleg, but I really don’t think it was.”

“Who else could have known? Even the council said there were no other survivors.”

Wait a damn minute. My dad had photos in his office of the aerial view that were captured days after the incident. I can use them to ask Pavel what I need to know. “I will be right back. There is something in my father’s office to help me.”

Flint nods his head, then I run back to the mansion. All this back-and-forth today is making me tired. Training for most of the day was exhausting, but the internal drama is worse that the physical exertion. I find what I am looking for in my father’s desk then run pack to the pack house with the file in my hand.

“What is that?” Flint asks.

“Aerial photos that the council took after they realized the pack was attacked. They are gruesome, but there is something I want to show Pavel to see if he has the reaction I am looking for. I have a bad feeling about all of this shit, and I think I know who is behind it.”

“Who?”

“I will tell you after we talk to him. I am just going on a hunch. One that I really don’t want to be true.”

Flint nods his head, then unlocks the cellar door. We head down into the dungeon for the second time today. I really hope I am wrong. With Treadstone bearing down on us, I want answers now.

Pavel stands up off the cot in his cell as we enter the room. “Fuck off.”

“I have a few more questions for you. There are also a few pictures I want to show you.”

“There is nothing you can show me that will make me hate you any less.”

I walk over to grab the stool that is in the aisle between the cells. After sitting down on it, I tilt my head to the side to study his angry face. “Why is it exactly that you hate me? Is it my money? My successful pack? I know it isn’t because I am your sister’s mate.... unless you are in love with her too.”

Pavel growls at me and lunges at the bars. That reaction makes me think he is. That is nasty. He is in love with his own sister and her mate, too. What kind of sick, twisted shit is this? I shake that from my head to clear those thoughts away.

“I have a question for you.”

“Fuck you.”

“No, thank you. I am more than satisfied with your sister.”

This time, when he reaches between the bars, his arm transforms into a claw and his eyes turn black. Oh, that really pissed him off. I am out of his reach, so his arm is just flailing around in the air in his futile attempt to attack me.

“Were you this inept when Treadstone’s men attacked your pack? Is that why you couldn’t save your lover?”

Pavel roars loudly as he continues to try to attack me. His roar echoes off the stone walls of the dungeon. I watch as he struggles for control of his wolf. This is interesting to see.

“When you got out of that tunnel and found your lover dead, did you wish it were Irina instead?”

“Yes. I hated her since she announced to our family that Gustav was her mate. I belonged to me. Me, not her. How dare she take what was mine.”

“How long were you in that tunnel playing dead?”

Pavel stops trying to attack me through the bars. His arm goes back to his human form, then he just stared at me. “Why the fuck are you asking me these questions? None of that fucking matters now.”

“Because Vicktor’s man knew about your family drama when he shouldn’t have. How did he know you had a thing for your sister’s mate? Who told him?”

He frowns as he thinks about my words. His anger fades the longer he thinks about it. Then suddenly the anger is back and his eyes flash black.

“You think Treadstone also captured one of my siblings?”

“Who else other than your family members knew about the nasty drama between the three of you? Who else would have known that you were alive so that Treadstone could use you the way he has?”

He backs away from the bars, then sits down on the cot. “None of my siblings would do that to me or Irina. Oleg didn’t know what was going on between me and Gustav, or if he did, he never let on that he knew.”

“Kat?”

“No, she idolized Irina. I don’t see her doing anything to harm her.”

I flip open the file folder in my hand, then scan the photos for what I am looking for. After a few moments of scanning, I discover what I suspect is the graves they dug to bury their dead. One stands out and confirms my suspicions.

Someone else survived the carnage of that day.

“When you came out of the tunnels and buried your dead, did you check for pulses, listen for heartbeats?”

“What the fuck are you suggesting? Do you honestly think we buried someone alive?”

With a heavy sigh, I flip the photo over so he can see it. My finger under the location of the graves so he can see what I noticed. Then I point to the empty grave.

“Who did you bury right there?”

Pavel stands up off the cot to reach out for the picture. The way his face pales as he gets closer, I know he is following my train of thought. His reaction also lets me know that my gut feeling is right.

“No! No!” He wails then throws the picture at me.

“Pavel, tell me whose grave that is. Tell me who dug their way out of that grave.”

“He was dead. No, it isn’t possible. Someone must have come back to dig him up.”

I know werewolves can survive many wounds that would kill a human. There have been cases when a werewolf is severely injured, they can go into a state of hibernation. We don’t call it that, but it is like hibernation.

It can give our wolves time to heal our bodies. It is an exceedingly rare occurrence, and there have only been three documented cases of it in werewolf history. This will be the first in nearly fifty years.

“Who would have the motive to dig him up? Who would know which grave was his? Oleg, Kat, and Natalia were long gone, and they had every reason to believe you had died. Irina was with Treadstone.”

Pavel drops to his knees and lets out a heart wrenching scream. I almost feel sorry for him, but then I remember he hates me and his sister. He tried to attack me for his master. For those things, I want to kill him. However, my love for Irina will keep me from doing that.

When all this is over, Pavel leaves my pack.

“Sebastion, are you talking about who I think you are?” Flint asks.

I almost forgot he was here. Pavel has had my full attention since he confirmed whose grave that was. I look over at where Flint is leaning against the bars of the cell behind me. He is staring at Pavel as the man weeps.

“Yes, but I want Pavel to say his name.”

*This with hurt our mate more than her brother’s betrayal will.* Ares whispers in my mind.

That thought makes me frown. Will this news hurt Irina? I want to believe that I have made my mark on her heart. With the birth of our twins, we became stronger. I have had our link closed this entire time so that she wouldn’t pick up my thoughts or feelings while I confronted Pavel. I am glad I did.

*She already hates me because I took our babies away. This isn’t something I want to tell her unless I know for a fact that it is true.*

*Irina misses her babies. She knows you did it to protect them from Treadstone. This, however, is something we need to tell her.* Ares recedes to the back of my mind after he is done talking.

“Pavel, I know you are upset, but I need you to say his name.”

“FUCK YOU!!!! This is impossible. He is dead.”

“Say his name, Pavel. Tell me who was in that grave.”

He leans his head back until he is looking up at the ceiling, then lets out a scream of anguish that pulls at my heart. That is pure love right there. Even if it was wrong for him to feel that way for someone who didn’t belong to him.

“Say his name and I will leave you alone.”

“Gustav,” he sobs out brokenly.