Ruined Wolf: A Paranormal Why Choose Romance (Claimed by the Sea Wolves Series Book 2)

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Lucas stared at me, and for a moment, I wondered if I’d pushed him too far.

“That’s... not possible,” Lucas muttered slowly. “There was no one else here that night. I’d have heard them. Besides, everyone loved my dad. The only enemies he had were from the High Rocks Pack, and they couldn’t have known where he’d be.”

I nodded, but my mind was turning over. There was something else niggling at me, and I twisted the harness, trying to pin it down. The harness...

“Lucas, you said when your father fell, you remembered the sound of the torch smashing on the ground,” I said slowly, staring at the straps wound around my hands.

“Yes, it’s really clear in my mind, why?”

“Did you have a torch with you? Did you take one?”

Lucas frowned. “No, I didn’t. I thought there would be enough light coming from the entrance and down through the chimney.”

I looked up at him. “So if you didn’t have a torch and your father’s smashed when he dropped it, then how do you clearly remember what his body looked like on the ground, unless someone else was shining a torch down the chimney?”

Lucas frowned, then his eyes widened. “I can see that image as clearly today as I could just after it happened, and yes, I can see his face, his eyes... The light was coming from above. I think you’re right. If someone had cut the rope intentionally, then they would have shone the light down to make sure he was dead, but who was on the island that night who would have wanted my father dead?”

I shook my head. “It has to be someone who would have benefitted from his death. Unless...” My eyes met Lucas’s, and his face darkened.

“Ethan,” he growled, his voice low and ominous.

“It makes sense,” I agreed, feeling slightly sick at the idea. “He did become alpha after your father died.”

“And before then, he was nothing, had nothing. Now, he’s loaded and powerful. I’m going to fucking kill him,” Lucas growled.

I reached out, laying my hand on his chest. “Calm down, we don’t know any of this for sure, it’s just a theory. We can’t prove it, Lucas.” I was right, but at the same time, I remembered Ethan saying there were more than a few bodies on his way to power, and I shivered at the thought. He was a bastard, but was he sick enough to kill his own brother and then leave his young nephew to die? My wolf affirmed the suspicion, but my gentler human nature didn’t want to believe Ethan was that far gone. If he’d murdered their father, the guys would rip him to shreds, and to be honest, I’d be happy to help after everything that alpha had put me through.

Lucas stood up and paced the cave, running his hands over his head. “Fuck, what the hell am I going to do?”

I frowned, looking up at him. “What do you mean? Lucas, you need to go to the police.”

He shook his head. “No way. If I do that, it’s going to start a war. What’s the point? No one is going to believe me over my uncle, not without proof.”

“Then maybe, once we get out of here, we should find some,” I said.

I took the torch from him and cast it about the cave. The water was still high above the entrance where we’d come in, surrounding the pile of scree. The rubble piled up against one wall of the cave, the peak of it just under the chimney chute, and we’d been sitting on a flatter part with our backs against the wall. My torch passed over the gap where the chimney was, evident only by the way the beam of light disappeared up into it. It was dark outside, and no light filtered down. The beam caught the pale arrows of the rain that managed to fall all the way through the vertical tunnel, and I guessed that the storm was still raging above us. I could hear the wind, but we were so sheltered, it wasn’t loud at all. Pointing the torch down, I saw that the ground directly below the chute was soaked, so I gave it a wide berth. Getting soaked would not help our situation. I slowly swept the torch beam over the ceiling, and then down over each wall in front of us systematically. All I could make out was rough dark rock and the occasional green sheen of moss.

“What are you looking for?” Lucas asked after a few moments. He leaned against the wall and lowered himself back down into a sitting position.

“You’re going to think I’m insane,” I replied, continuing my search.

“Try me.”

I sighed but kept on scanning the walls slowly. “You know how Jaxon came here looking for treasure?”

Lucas shook his head. “Yep, you’re insane.”

“I don’t think there’s treasure here,” I told him quickly.

“Oh good, I was beginning to think you’d hit your head too.”

“I think there is part of a treasure map hidden somewhere on the walls.”

“What?” Lucas stared at me as if I’d grown another head.

Giving up for the moment, I flicked the torch off and moved carefully over to sit by him. He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me into his warmth, and I leaned my head against his shoulder.

“Jaxon was studying the island. He discovered that there was a very real chance that a Spanish explorer somehow travelled all the way from Central America and hid a great load of treasure that he pirated from tribes in Central and South America. The explorer was executed for treason, along with four of his friends, and the gold was never recovered. At least, there’s no mention of it.”

“Go on,” Lucas said, sounding intrigued.

“When Jaxon died, I found his journal. He’d often spend time writing in it, but when I asked about it, he’d just tell me it was a little history project, nothing important, and that was it. I flipped through it and found all this information about this explorer and his life, but also weird messages and symbols copied down from somewhere. Tucked in the back was a printout of an auction lot in Panama City, where this explorer was from. It was a fragment of an old map of an unknown island. I think Jaxon left Desolation to go to Panama City and find this artifact, but for some reason, he either never got there, or he couldn’t purchase the map. I never found it anyway. When I was working at the tourist centre, I realised the map showed part of Desolation, and there was a symbol on there that marked a location—Standing Bear Rock. Asher and I went there, and I found the second engraving of the map. The third was at that clearing where we... at the claiming...”

“And you think the fourth part of the map is here, in this cave?” Lucas asked, his voice steady but revealing nothing about what he might be thinking.

“Yes, I’m fairly certain it is.”

“So that’s why we came out here that day? To try to find the rest of the map? And that’s why you risked your freedom by coming back?”

I sighed. “Lucas, when Jaxon died, I had nothing left except his journal and his child inside me. My pack refused to give me sanctuary and hunted me across their lands. All I wanted was a fresh start somewhere safe, someplace where I could raise my child. Even a small amount of treasure would give me the chance to do that comfortably.”

There was silence for a few moments.

“You’d have to find a way to fence the treasure,” Lucas mused suddenly.

“I suppose.”

“And you couldn’t go to a normal pawnshop or gold dealer, because the treasure wouldn’t belong to you, and that would be obvious.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Well, if treasure is found around here, the law would state that it belongs to the provincial crown. And, naturally, treasure of that age would also be defined as an archaeological discovery, which would make it even more valuable, and the site itself in which it was discovered would be valuable too, in a cultural sense. It would probably be protected by law, like some of the ancient tribal areas on the island. Random Spanish treasure turning up? They’d track you down to find out where you got it, and I doubt they’d let you keep the money either. I’m afraid your plan was rather risky, my little omega.”

I stared off into the darkness, my mouth hanging open. Disappointment bloomed inside me, and I had the strongest urge to punch something.

“So it was all for nothing?” I asked bitterly. “Everything I did when I was here to try and track the damn treasure down, it was for nothing.”

“I’m sorry, Nova. You might have managed it, but I would guess you’d have been arrested for theft.”

“Shit,” I grumbled, leaning my head back against the rock wall.

“What made you think you’d be able to even find the treasure, let alone fence it?” Lucas queried.

I sighed. “Jaxon had everything worked out. He even managed to dig up some details about the place where the treasure is actually hidden. I just needed a location. He knew everything. I thought he was going to come back and find the treasure then use the money to get the two of us a new life together. We weren’t exactly well off in the city.”

“But Jaxon would have known about these rules,” Lucas replied, sounding confused. “He wouldn’t have dreamed of selling off something that important to the history of the island to the highest bidder. At least, the Jaxon I knew wouldn’t. Maybe I really didn’t know him at all.”

“No, I think you’re right,” I murmured quietly. “The more I found out about him and his life here, and the more I realised Ethan was up to something dodgy, the surer I became that he left for a reason, and it wasn’t just running out on you.”

“You think he left to find that map?” Lucas asked. “But then why stay away? Why not come home?”

“I don’t know.” I fell quiet, not knowing what to say. We sat for a while, listening to the lapping of the water and the slight echo in the cave.

“You guys didn’t believe me about those printouts, but I wasn’t lying, Lucas. Do you believe me now?” I asked, my voice seeming loud in the empty darkness.

“I guess, I mean, it doesn’t sound right. I definitely think we should look into it, especially if Ethan was the one who...” His voice faded out, and I leaned against him in a gesture of comfort. He pulled me closer.

“The thing is, one of the emails was an offer from the logging company.”

“Yes, but Ethan didn’t take them up on the offer. We’d have known about it by now.”

“Would you?” I countered, a frisson of excitement running through me. “Lucas, that logging company was the same company Jaxon worked for in the city until he became too sick to work.”

“Jaxon worked for a logging company? That’s ridiculous... unless...”

“Unless he was working there to investigate them,” I finished for him.

“That would make more sense to me, knowing Jaxon,” Lucas mused.

“Look, I’m not saying I know exactly what’s going on, but something doesn’t add up here, and I think Jaxon was onto something. I think he left to protect you, and to find out what Ethan was up to.” Something else occurred to me. “If he thought Ethan was dangerous, and that he’d hurt his own nephews, then maybe Jaxon even suspected something about your father’s death?”

“If this is true, then I really was a shitty brother,” Lucas muttered.

“How could you think that? You didn’t know any of this.”

“No, I didn’t, but I wasn’t exactly the type of brother he could confide in. I was reckless and angry and violent. I wasn’t trustworthy enough for Jaxon to talk to about something this tricky. I should have been there, should have supported him instead of being so fucking self-absorbed.”

“I don’t think he would have seen it that way,” I said gently. “He didn’t even tell Maverick. He also didn’t tell me where he was from or that he even had a family, and I was his mate.”

“Did you love him?” Lucas asked. “Like, really love him? Or was it another mate mark, like with Maverick and me?”

“I loved Jaxon with everything I had. I still do,” I answered softly. “After he died, I felt like my heart had been torn out of my chest, and to be honest, if I hadn’t just found out I was carrying his baby, I think I would have been quite happy to step off that cliff and not come up again, but I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t take away the last part of him on earth. This baby was all I had left of the man who showed me that love, real love, existed, and that I could have some of it for myself, if only for a short time. It’s part of him and part of me, and I would have done anything to protect it. Even lie, steal, and hurt people I love.”

“It’s funny,” Lucas began, reaching for me in the dark, his fingers brushing down the side of my face. “He told you nothing about us, nothing about where he was from, and yet you still managed to come home to us. You still managed to find where you belonged. I never believed in fate, even when Maverick got that stupid mark, but I think I’m starting to now. I think you were meant to find us, Nova, meant to be here with us. All of us. Maverick will see that too, as will Asher. They’ll come around, we just need to give them time.”

“How can I give them time if Ethan finds me?” I asked.

I’d spent this time with Lucas, down here in the dark, believing everything he said, and trusting we could be together, but the situation hadn’t changed. When we were rescued, Ethan would find out where I was, and it would only be a matter of time before he had me sent back to my father. A feeling of despair surged through me.

“Lucas, we’re kidding ourselves. As soon as Ethan finds me, he’ll send me back to High Rocks Pack, and my father will have me killed—if he doesn’t do it himself. You can’t protect me against an entire pack.”

“I’ll find a way,” Lucas promised, brushing his lips over mine. “You can hide out at my villa, and I’ll figure out what Ethan’s up to. I’ll force Maverick to see it, make him step up, and take over as alpha. We will be together, Nova. I promise.”

I leaned my forehead against his. “Don’t make promises you can’t keep, Lucas.”

“Come here, you’re shivering again,” he said, gently pulling me into his lap and holding me close. He wasn’t any warmer than I was, but it was still a comfort. He took the torch from me and switched it back on, sweeping it back over the walls. I closed my eyes. Any determination I had for finding the treasure was now gone. Everything I had worked for since I’d been here and the risks I’d taken were all pointless. I just felt drained and so very tired. Even if we got out of the cave, I would still be hunted. I didn’t say anything to Lucas, but I wasn’t sure if I could fight anymore. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to.

My mind spiralled down into darker and darker thoughts as I shivered against his body, and I felt the damp of the cave creeping into my skin. I couldn’t die here though, I knew that. That would really fuck Lucas up, and I needed him to have hope.

“Hey, I think I found something.”

“You did?” I didn’t move. I was just too tired.

“Yeah, just above us, look.”

I turned my head, looking up at where Lucas was shining the torch beam. I squinted, trying to see better, and I gradually made out etchings in the rock near the wall on the ceiling of the cave.

“It looks like pictographs, and a weird line that kind of curves...”

“It’s the outline of a quarter of the island. The different parts all match up, and there are symbols on each end so you can work out how they go together,” I murmured, laying my head back down on his chest.

“So that’s it? That’s what you came down here to find?”

“Yes. It should reveal the location of the actual treasure. The final piece of the puzzle.”

Lucas switched off the torch. “You don’t seem very excited. Was it all about the money?”

I shrugged. “In a way. Sometimes, it made me feel less alone, like I was working with Jaxon and carrying on his quest. Now, I realise we never would have been able to keep the treasure anyway, even part of it, and I’m still alone and have nothing.”

“You have me,” Lucas replied. “And I’m not exactly begging for pennies here.”

“That’s not—”

“And you have a job and a place where you belong now. If you don’t want to live with me, we can find you a place, one you could afford with your salary. Naturally, as Jaxon’s family, we would want to help financially, but only as much as you feel comfortable with.”

“Ethan’s going to kill me as soon as we get out of here,” I told him. “You’re just dreaming, Lucas.”

“Says the girl who came to an island with a map looking for buried treasure. Anything is possible, Nova. Please don’t lose hope. Not now.”

I sighed and closed my eyes. My body and mind were done. I was just so tired, and that revelation about the treasure had hit me hard. I should have known. Jaxon knew, so why had he gone after it anyway? I didn’t know, I couldn’t understand it or him, and I felt more and more like the man I knew was just a shadow.

Lucas didn’t say anything more. Perhaps he’d realised that there was nothing he could say right now. I had my own darkness to deal with. He held me close, stroking his hand over my hair, and I tried to clear my mind, ignoring the swirl of thoughts that battered at me over and over until, finally, I fell into a restless slumber.