11. Secrets Unearthed
Secrets Unearthed
Malcolm
“ H e hit you again?”
He glared at his sister as she stood in the doorway, her eyes downcast and her body trembling as he glared from her to the male who sat at the head of the table. As usual, Damon was holding court with those who enjoyed hurting others like him. “Leave it, Malcolm. I made him angry.”
“What?” Malcolm couldn’t stand the insidious scent of fear coming off his sister. She was Damon’s mate, yet he treated her lower than shit. The Mating mark having been forced on her, the bite mark on his sister’s neck rarely faded because the bastard continued renewing it. “That bastard just enjoys hitting those weaker than him.” He hissed, taking a step forward only for his sister to block his path.
“Stop it,” she whispered harshly. “If this is how you’ll act, go home.”
He trembled, trying to fight the blind rage that ran through him. If only his damn father—he looked at the man who was his progenitor, and as usual, bottles surrounded him at the long table. His eyes were glazed, and he stared at nothing.
“Damn them,” he snapped before abruptly turning away, “Damn you all.” He shouted.
He was powerless. The rules of their people were absolute. His sister had been kidnapped, raped, and marked all because his father had given him permission. What about her? What about what she wanted?
“I knew I would find you here.”
Malcolm didn’t turn away from the view before him. He’d been so absorbed in the waves of his emotions that he’d inadvertently come to the hillside overlooking the complex. It also occurred to him that he’d left Eliza behind. He cursed. He knew she wasn’t in danger, especially since she was on his people's land, but he felt pathetic for letting his emotions get the better of him.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” he demanded, not looking at his uncle, who sat beside him. “I wouldn’t have resented you.”
It felt like something pivotal had changed while he lived away from his old home. Only that pivotal change had happened involving him. “I thought you never wanted to become the Alpha?”
“I didn’t. I never wanted it, and then I married a human, which made it even more something I didn’t want to do.”
“So why did you do it?” he asked, half-turning to face Robert.
“You are the one who said this life of being confined and hiding wasn’t worth shit. And now you’ve become their Alpha? Ridiculous.” Malcolm couldn’t hide the resentment in his voice. “And what is this about a-sgeithe in two weeks?” He shook his head. “I know what you’re after.”
Robert’s expression remained unchanged when he faced him. “I did what I had to do. I didn’t like it, damn I hated it, but you know what? Fixing everything and getting rid of the roaches who were bent on keeping our people in the dark age, had a purpose.”
Malcolm scoffed. “And what purpose was that?” He wanted to stop sounding so bitter, but why couldn’t his uncle have returned before he’d chosen to kill Damon? Why couldn’t he have come and knocked sense into his brother, Malcolm’s father, first?
He hated how childish he sounded.
Malcolm was beyond the age of clinging to his uncle's pant leg, but where had his savior been then? The things he’d done since he’d killed Damon had not only tarnished his soul but his reason. The more blood he spilled, the more he lost touch with his humanity, to the point he wasn’t sure he could change into a wolf, the specific need to kill something or anything.
“I know…I sound bitter,” he sighed.
Robert didn’t speak for a minute; when he did, his voice was somber. “Do you know why your mother left?”
He looked at his uncle and frowned in confusion. “What?”
“Your mother,” his uncle said calmly. “Did you ever learn why she left?”
“Wasn’t it because of dad’s drinking?” Malcolm asked.
Robert chuckled. “No, she left because she’d been in love with someone else.” He sighed. “Your father did what Damon did to your sister; he forced his mark on her during the blue moon.”
Malcolm tensed as Robert continued speaking. “Mating, the desire to mate, runs in our blood. The desire to pair off with our chosen guides us in most of what we do, but Alpha’s have the terrible ability to force a mating on the omegas or, more so, their females, and sadly, too many use it to their advantage. Gaining a sick satisfaction at attaining one-sided devotions from the females.”
“So—that’s why he didn’t stop Damon back then.” Malcolm sneered, “It would have made him a hypocrite.”
“True. Luckily, your mother was able to break her emotional attachment to him and leave to be with the man she truly loved,” Robert said.
“Right, leaving us behind,” Malcolm said with scorn.
“Not by choice; she wrote me often to send her news of you and your sister.” Robert explained, he grimaced, “Your father and I fell out, when he discovered what I was doing.”
“So what? The moral of the story is our family is a lot more fucked up than I originally thought,” Malcolm retorted scathingly.
He should never have come back.
He hated how nothing his uncle said surprised him anymore.
Robert nodded, “Well, the moral is that this Clan, our pack, had deep-seated issues, and if you hadn’t left after you killed the Alpha, you would have been the next to suffer for it.”
Malcolm stiffened, gritting his teeth together so tightly they creaked.
“Your father knew that Damon’s sycophants would hunt you down and murder you. They would make your life miserable, and not counting what they would do to your sister.” He side-eyed him. “The minute your father called the council, he betrayed the very people he’d been serving. I think it was the first of the two things he ever did right. Killing Damon then may have been the right thing to do, but you’d have been surrounded by enemies who’d want you killed if you’d stayed.”
Robert stared down at the small cabin roofs and the broad stretch of rolling hills in the distance. “At first, I was pleased by your actions. The clan had ignored your sisters’ pain for too long, but the price was too heavy for you to pay for doing what you did.”
“So, he accused me of murder and kicked me off our land to save my life,” He couldn’t believe it; he shook his head. “You know that’s not easy for me to believe.” He stood. “You don’t have to lie to me.”
“I’m not because shortly after he called the council, he called me.” His uncle said, looking up at him from where he sat. “He asked me to come and take over. At first, I was against it, but he explained his plan to clean and clear our land of the elder's infestation and, once you returned, give you a chance at being Alpha once more, a chance he took from you all those years ago.
“I don’t want it,” Malcolm snapped, going to walk away.
“It does not matter what you want,” his uncle growled. “It’s done, and you know better than anyone else what runs in your veins, and that’s the blood of a true Alpha. A true leader. You were not born to take orders from some slick tongue fox in the city. Some part of you knows that to be true.”
Malcolm ignored his uncle’s words and continued walking away, leaving his uncle behind. He’d endured the pain of being ripped from his people and had his reputation shattered, and his uncle wanted him to return and fill in the role of Alpha simply because he demanded it. Was the man insane?
Malcolm didn’t want anything to do with this world of tradition and rules that had allowed his sister to become a victim and him, dishonorable. He had one job, and Alek? That vampire could go fuck himself, too. If that damn blood sucker had a hand in this, he’d rip his head off the minute he saw him.
How could he be the Alpha, after everything he’d been through? No, he wouldn’t do it. Fuck them, and fuck their need for a leader. There were many strong men in this clan, he didn’t need to take the position.
“Malcolm?”
He’d just reached the back gate to the line of cabins when a soft voice called to him. He looked up, and met green eyes that he knew well. The last time he’d seen them, they’d been cloudy with pain and tears. The eyes were a softer green compared to his own eye color, and her hair was brown and braided back. She wore a soft white cashmere sweater over jeans. “Morgan?” he whispered in shock and bitter happiness.
She nodded; he could see the red of her eyes. He looked away from her. “What do you want?”
Biting his bottom lip, he chided himself. He shouldn’t lash out at her; it wasn’t her fault. He’d made the choices he’d made, and he needed to face them.
“I’ve been writing you,” she said softly. “I should never have put you in the place where you had to make such a brutal choice for me.”
He jerked his head up. “What are you talking about? You had nothing to do with my choice to kill him.”
She shook her head. “I couldn’t fight him to save myself. At that time, I was too scared to even breathe, much less go against him, and you knew it,” she said, her voice becoming thick with tears. “I—That night, I was going to end it all. I was going to cut the cord between us, and I failed. I got scared, and he caught me. I?—”
Malcolm moved before he could second guess himself, grabbed her, and pulled her into a hug. “I did what any brother would do to the man who did that to you.” He bit back the thick coat of tears that wanted to fall from his eyes. “You don’t owe me anything for doing what I did. I take full responsibility.”
Morgan pressed her face against his chest, his fingers curling in his shirt. “I’ve missed you, Malcolm.” She drew back. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked up at him.
He offered her a painful smile. “I’ve missed you too.”
Malcolm had missed her just as much as he’d missed his land. Morgan had been his older sister, always there to run and hide with him in the thick forest. She’d prevented him from losing his head many times, so seeing her broken and weak at the hands of Damon had been so hard. She had been vibrant and joyful; the next, she had been broken and lost.
She smiled through her tears at him. “I can’t believe how big you’ve gotten. You’re almost taller than Uncle Robert.”
Just as quickly as he’d felt joy, he lost it when his sister mentioned their uncle. “That may be true.”
Hearing the change to his voice, she looked at him in confusion. “Malcolm?—”
“Don’t, I just can’t right now. If I’d known the report was just to bring me back I wouldn’t have accepted the assignment.”
She looked away from him. “Uncle did what he thought was best,” she said, retiring her eyes to his face, her gaze sympathetic. “And I don’t hate him for it. You’re back and I can’t hate that fact.”
“Then what, were these disappearances fake?” he asked a bit exaberated.
“No,” his sister insisted. “There have been five so far, but that was only on our land. We think the same is happening elsewhere but aren’t sure.”
He nodded. “Fine, then I will do my best to find them, but that’s it. I don’t have any intention of attending the a-sgeithe festival.”
“Malcolm, please,” his sister begged, grabbing his hand. “We need you. The older Robert gets, the more other families have been eyeing our land. Not to mention those within our own pack who wish nothing more than to take us backward. You have to be the next Alpha.”
Malcolm pressed his lips together; he didn’t want any part of this.
“Malcolm?”
Turning his head he spotted Eliza behind his sister; she was walking towards him. She’d changed into a long-sleeved shirt with a high neck. She’d braided her hair and twisted it into a bun; her leggings exposed her shapely legs. “Boy, I’m glad I found you. I didn’t think I could get lost, but I did.” Her voice held humor; as she approached, she stopped short when she spotted his sister. Her eyes went to where her sister gripped his hand. “Ah, I’m sorry am I interrupting something?”
He could hear the tone of jealousy in her voice and felt a bit of pleasure at it. It was nice to know she had some feelings towards him other than simple friendship. “This is my sister, Morgan.”
His sister let go of his hand and turned to face Eliza. He could tell from her tension that she was surprised by Eliza and by the way she glanced at him in question. He knew she wondered about Eliza’s significance to him. “This is my partner, who was sent with me to investigate the disappearances.”
“But she smells of—” His sister tilted her head, shooting him a look. He gave a short shake of the head. “Lovely,” his sister finished. She smiled, walking towards Eliza. “As my brother said, I’m Morgan, his older sister.”
Malcolm couldn’t help noticing the awkward way Eliza reacted to Morgan’s attention. She looked at him as if asking for his help, but instead, he smiled and shoved his hand into his pockets. If there was one thing he was thankful for, it was seeing his family again. Even his annoying uncle.
Lanias
Standing on the side, she bit her lip as she watched Eiru perform her tracking. Trying to control the anxiety running through her. It had already cost her time when she’d waited for Eiru’s reply instead of appearing in the woman’s house. Something Oye had spoken out against, very loudly.
So, she’d settled for sending a text message. How human.
Eiru frowned down at the glowing map in front of her. Black dots moved over it like a GPS system; she glanced at Lanias, confused. “It appears Eliza left via plane. She’s now in the human world,” she returned her eyes to the map, and lifting her right hand, she waved it over the map; it morphed from a flat view of the veil and the city beyond to a round globe of the world. The black dot lifted in the air and landed on one of the fifty states. “Yeah, she took a plane to…Tennessee?”
“Tennessee?” Sabina said in surprise, from where she had sat on the sofa in the corner of Lanias’ office. “Why would she go there? I’ve never even heard her speak about the place.”
“Yeah, that’s odd,” Oye said, spinning a short blade between her fingers. “Can you tell if she was alone or not?’
Eiru nodded. “Give me a second. “The globe faded before brightening, and an amber dot appeared next to the black one. She frowned. “Yes, she was with a...” She squinted, leaning closer. “A werewolf?”
“A werewolf?” Lanias repeated slowly, her eyes squinting. Before they then brightened with realization. “A damned werewolf?”
She whipped her angry gaze to Oye. “What werewolf do we know that recently left the city?”
Oye stared at her in confusion before she glanced at Sabina, who released a soft gasp.
“Malcolm.”
Lanias released a curse and turned away, disappearing within the arms of her tendrils.
Working on his laptop, Tiller sat in his office at the Jackals Headquarters, an office he demanded from Raijin, who’d had the gall to tell him that one office was enough for him at the council building. Tiller had little interest in working with the very people he wanted to take down and destroy.
He tapped away, reaching out for his coffee, only to flinch hard when a Witch landed atop his desk. He sighed, watching as his dark roast coffee poured over the side of it.
“I hope you have a good reason for intruding,” he said as he leaned back, gathering his hands together in his lap to prevent him from attacking the shrew.
“Where is she?” Lanias demanded, her tone clearly hostile.
Tiller's ears twitched as his golden eyes remained forward. “Where is ‘who’?” he asked. “I cannot answer your question if you don’t tell me who you’re looking for.”
“I am not playing with you, Fox.” Madame lifted her hand up, the black tendril she was known for whipping towards him. His body phased before he landed lightly behind her. His hands inside his pockets.
“I find it rude for someone to accuse me of something without informing me of what they think I did.” He clicked his tongue, watching her turn around to face him. “I would gladly answer you after you explain to me why you invaded my office and why you saw fit to attack me.”
One minute, Lanias was atop his desk. The next, she stood in front of him. Her black eyes coldly glittering, and her black-colored lips reared back in a sneer. “Your dog has one of my witches, a witch I’ve been looking for since she disappeared a few months ago.”
Tiller quirked a brow at her words. “And your evidence of this?”
She crossed her arms. “One of my witches is gifted in tracking magic, she tracked her leaving from our realm for the human one, accompanied by a werewolf.”
“And how can you be sure it’s my puppy?” Tiller demanded, copying her pose, his white tail moved back and forth lazily behind him. “It could be any werewolf; God knows Veil City is full of them.”
She narrowed her eyes on him. “Don’t be stupid. You and I both know I have someone watching you. You’re the only one who sent a werewolf out of the country recently, more specifically, you sent him to Tennessee.”
Tiller gritted his teeth, releasing a mental curse. He turned and released a whistle. A black golem dropped from the ceiling, “Get me those damn Jackals; I wouldn’t be in the dark unless those fuckers worked together.” The golem went to leave, “And—” It paused. “I don’t care how dick deep they are, tell them they will either come now. Or I’ll put them back in the place I found them.” The golem nodded before completely exiting the room. He turned back to Lanias, “Now tell me everything you know about this witch.”