Chapter 66 #2
“From them,” he answers, reading my mind like he used to, and the tears swell again. This time, his eyes fill too. “I needed … I needed out, Julian,” he says, shaking his head. “I was never going to be alpha. Not a good one. I knew that, so I got out.”
“And you joined the rogues?”
Whatever sentimentality I’d dug out locks itself away as Oliver’s stare turns hateful in a split second.
“The kind of freedom I get out here with them, you’ll never feel in your entire lifetime,” he snarls past the blood leaking from his mouth.
“You can be more without the ranks, experience more, and everything you do is all up to you.”
“And you’d do anything for it, huh?” I spit as my own anger rises. “You’d do anything, including working with rogues who kidnap and torture children?”
Oliver’s rage sputters out like a snuffed-out candle, and as he pales before my eyes, I uncover another answer to a question I wish I hadn’t.
“You know what they did to Aiden.”
“I didn’t know when they found me,” he starts, but it’s as weak as he is.
“But you know now and you’re still with them,” I snarl with disgust. “They took him when he was seven. They tortured him, all so you could have your precious freedom.”
Oliver looks away, but I read his shame, even as small as it is.
I also read the implied truth—whatever they’d been after with Aiden, they succeeded enough to offer rogues an escape from the madness of a feral mind. It must not be perfect though, otherwise there wouldn’t have been so many feral ones, and I haven’t forgotten how Oliver looked in our fight.
“So, you and Aiden, huh,” he mutters, glancing back at me. “I didn’t see that one coming.”
Oliver chuckles shakily, only to wince as the movement forces blood to spill from one of the holes in his stomach. He presses his hand to it, but the blood pours nevertheless.
“Mates, or is it true love?” he asks with a crooked grin. “I guess it’s gotta be love—even if you’re mates—with the way you hated each other.”
“You used witches to make your death look real,” I state, ignoring him, and he nods.
“The Vorgium are particularly nifty with dark magic,” he says before looking towards the skies that are now empty. “They were.”
“You said Reon found you?” I ask, and his scarred brow lifts. “I know who he is. I know you’re working with him.”
“Always been too smart for your own good,” Oliver tsks with another loose chuckle. “Yeah. He found me—made a point of it, actually. Not every day an alpha wolf wants to leave their pack.”
“And you just gave them everything they wanted,” I sneer, and he nods.
“Why wouldn’t I? They did the same for me,” he replies, tilting his chin just an inch higher. “They cared about me.”
“I cared about you!” I shout, slapping a hand to my chest as I step towards him. “I cared only about you, and then you fucking left me with them—to live with rogues!”
“… Yeah,” he rasps past a wheeze, staring up at me. “And you still turned out better than me.”
I gape at him again, tears flowing, and this wound he’s carved keeps growing larger.
It’s pain on pain, and it won’t stop, no matter how I try to breathe past it. Because this hurts, and I’m angry. Angry at him, with him, and everything he left me to deal with.
“You know our pack is pretty calm. We don’t let ourselves get angry about much, but if there’s one thing we all hate more than anything, it’s betrayal,” I say, as I stoop down and allow one of my sharpened claws to extend.
“I always thought you leaving me was a betrayal,” I whisper, pressing the tip of the claw against his shaking fingers.
“I just believed it wasn’t up to you. But it was. ”
It digs into his skin and slices it open. He flinches, scrambling back, but there’s nowhere for him to run this time.
“Julian!” he cries, but I ignore it.
I hold his gaze as my claw cuts his nail bed open, making him scream so loudly my ears ring.
“The punishment for betrayal,” I say, voice quiet, “is never-ending cuts from each pack member until you stop healing and bleed out.” I redirect the claw to his cheek. “The pack isn’t here, so as alpha, I’ll have to do it myself.”
Oliver screams into the air, but before I can take more from him, strong hands grip my shoulders and drag me back. Wide black eyes meet mine, and Aiden’s there.
The anger vanishes, gone as though it was never there at all, leaving only the hurt and misery behind. I part my lips, but all that comes out are soft breaths and the beginning of a sob I can’t let out.
I clamp my mouth shut, and Aiden nods quickly.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. It’s okay,” he promises as he stares at me. “It’s almost over, just a little longer. A little longer, Jewels.”
“Jewels?” Oliver coughs from behind him. “You used to hate that name. Fuck, this is weird.”
Aiden turns, giving me a fresh view of my fading brother, who still manages to smile even as blood pours from his lips. I can already smell death on him.
“Hello, Oliver,” Aiden says, so softly it’s almost remorseful.
“I take it they’re all dead then,” Oliver mumbles. He sighs when Aiden nods. “That’s a shame.”
Revulsion makes me look away as I grip Aiden’s hand tightly. “Let’s just kill him and go home.”
“It’s not over yet,” Aiden says, and my brows knit together as I watch him advance towards Oliver. “We didn’t get all of you, did we? My old pal Reon’s nowhere to be found—and I checked the bodies this time.”
My frown deepens and I glance at Oliver with sharper eyes. He’s not so smiley anymore, and even though it should be doing the opposite, his heart races.
“Some escaped,” I say, stepping forward too. “Where are they?”
Oliver’s lips stay sealed.
I catch a twitch in his split finger before his remaining claws extend, but Aiden darts forward first, catching his wrist before he can tear out his own throat.
“Oh, no no no,” Aiden sings, peering at him with his own twisted smile. “You’ll meet our maker, but not so soon,” he promises, almost cooing. “One way or another, you’re going to tell us where he is, Oliver. I’ve got a decade of pure hatred backing me up here.”
“We will find them,” I echo, glaring down at him. “It’s only a matter of time.” Still. Nothing. “You said you didn’t know what they did to Aiden. But you know now, and they have to pay. He was fucking seven, Oliver.”
Oliver looks away, a trace of shame twinging behind his eyes. Subtle—but there.
I lean closer, moving into his line of sight, making myself the only thing he can see.
“Where are they, Oli?” I say, forcing myself to speak the name even as it breaks on my tongue. It breaks him, too.
“Only Reon,” he grits out. Aiden’s lips part, but I hold up a hand. “Only kill Reon. The others with him just wanted to live.”
I nod quickly. “We won’t hurt the others.”
It’s a promise I make, but don’t mean. Oliver doesn’t see that, though. He should.
“Reon was supposed to be here too,” he says carefully. The words come slowly, like he hates to speak them out loud. “But he said he got a bad feeling, so he took the last of us with him last night.”
“Of course he did,” Aiden grumbles under his breath.
“They headed further north. They wouldn’t have gotten far,” Oliver finishes around another wheeze.
“Great,” Aiden mocks, letting go of Oliver’s wrist so it falls limp. “Now we can kill him.”
He straightens at my side, ready to get this over with so that he can hunt down his own villain, but my eyes remain fixed on Oliver’s. He doesn’t avoid my gaze. In fact, he stares right into it.
“What else?”
Oliver frowns, but I’m not so easily swayed.
“When we were younger and you were hiding something, you’d always tap your fingers three times to calm yourself,” I say as I slide my hand over his. It stops twitching, relaxing under me while fresh tears fill his eyes. “You’re tapping your fingers, Oliver.”
“I’m sorry,” he sputters, then sobs. “I—I’m so sorry!” He looks between Aiden and I, his emotions suddenly wild with anxiety. “I didn’t think it’d turn into this. I didn’t even know he was still doing it. I tried to stop him—I planned to if I made it out of this!”
“What have you done?” I growl as I leer over him.
“Reon’s tricks and serums don’t work anymore, not like they used to,” Oliver sobs as he stares at me with tearful eyes. “He still wants a pack so badly, and we had one—we had a good one right here, but he still wanted more.”
Oliver’s gaze lingers on Aiden, and my heart stills. “He said eleven years had gone to waste, so he—he’d have to start all over again.”
Aiden and I’s bond whites out from both ends. From his, I feel the molten rage that’s about to burst free to meet my horror.
“Start all over again,” I repeat before my voice breaks. “As in—”
“Another kid?” Aiden spits through his teeth. “Another fucking kid?!” His claws descend. “He’s doing it again?!”
Oliver’s sobs crest higher, forcing the daunting truth to settle in.
“I’m sor—” My claws slice across his neck, cutting off his apologies before they can reach Goddess.
Blood pours from his laceration in five lines while shocked amber eyes stare back at me.
Oliver stares back at me. My brother, not the rogue. And he knows this is wrong, but he also knows he’s the cause of this.
The light leaves his eyes too soon, but there’s no time for regret. No room for my own shock to fester. Then, he’s gone.
“Julian,” Aiden whispers over my shoulder.
He’s scared, but I don’t know why. It’s not the first time I’ve lost my brother. It’s just the first time it’s real.
“We have to go,” I say as I rise and turn to face him. His dark eyes are wide and unblinking.
“We’re not going anywhere until you take a moment,” he replies, hands sliding over my face like they had this morning. Somehow, things had been better then, even when I’d been so scared.
“They have another child,” I say, trying to step away. “We need to go, Aiden.”
“We won’t be doing that child any favours if we charge in there fuelled by nothing but rage,” he says, tightening his grip on my arm to steady me. “You just … killed your brother, Julian.”
His words steal my next breath. The ground falls away. The only reason I don’t go with it is because he’s there, bracing me.
“He wasn’t my brother,” I force out, as I suck in air that won’t fill me.
“But he was,” Aiden whispers, bringing tears back to my eyes. “Julian-”
“Later,” I beg. I shove the emotions down into the pit below, shaking my head. “Leave it alone. I can’t do this here. We need to finish this first.”
I can sense how much Aiden resents that, but he knows it’s true, because when I open my eyes, his aren’t quite so imploring. He nods, understanding, and when I head back to the rest of our group, leaving my brother’s lifeless body behind us, he doesn’t try to stop me.