21. War on the Horizon

Chapter 21

War on the Horizon

THORIN

I woke with my hand wrapped around my cock. The damn thing was hard as stone and refused to be pacified by my own fist any longer. The dreams had grown hotter and harder to handle. My need for Nika bordered on desperate. Truth be told, I passed desperation for my mate a couple weeks back. The damn courtship was taking too long. Thankfully, we were on the final day of preparation.

In one more day, my mate would become mine officially. I would be able to seal our commitment to each other, the pack, and then take her to our ceremonial bed where we both needed to be. I hadn't missed her longing looks or the scent of arousal she couldn't quite wash away each morning. My mate had been plagued by the dreams too. She was just as ready to mate me as I was.

"Thorin!" I glanced up when the panic in Janella's voice carried over the gathered crowd. Most of the Alphas and Lunas had already gathered in my territory for the ceremony. "Thorin!" Janella yelled again as she came to a stop in front of me.

"What is it?" She rubbed the back of her head and came away with blood on her hand.

"How did you get hurt?" I asked as I turned her around to inspect the damage.

"Hit over the head. They took her. She's gone." Janella seemed to have a hard time getting her words out. They were slightly slurred as she spoke in fragments. Her knees wobbled as well, and I was afraid she would give out before she was able to tell me anything concrete.

"What are you talking about?"

"That woman who kept threatening Nika. She was there."

"Who? What woman? What do you mean someone threatened my mate?"

"Nika didn't want to tell you. Cause problems before… ceremony." She struggled to get the full sentences out, but she shook her head slightly as if to clear the cobwebs and then winced before she tried again. "Some… pack treated her awfully. Miriam behind it. She's the one. She helped him."

"Helped who?"

Janelle's eyes rolled back in her head, and she dropped like a sack of potatoes.

"Noooo!" My cousin, Vik, screamed and came running to her side. "No. No. No. You have to be okay."

"Vik, what the hell is going on?"

"She's my mate."

That took me aback. "How long have you known that?" I asked the question without thinking but didn't give him time to answer. That wasn't important. "She said someone attacked her and took… I think she tried to tell me someone took Nika and Miriam helped them."

"Miriam?" Viktor asked, seemingly puzzled until something clicked. "Catalina's mother?" When I nodded he growled. "That crazy old bat has spread rumors that you were already mated to her daughter before her death. Some of the pack thinks it is true, and they think that in her death, you were gifted the chance to rule without a mate. There's no other reason why you have staved off the madness without help for so long."

I rolled my eyes. "Maybe because I'm stronger than most." That was true enough, but I knew that the madness had already begun to creep in, since my wolf couldn't be fully trusted. "We need someone to find her and get her into the cells immediately."

"I can't leave Janella," Vik stated.

"Seems to me you didn't choose to mate her when you realized she was yours, so she isn't your priority right now."

"What did you just say to me?" Vik stood with his mate in his arms. His chest heaved with anger over my last comment. I didn't have time for the confrontation about Janella then, though. I needed to find out where Nika was, what happened to her, and the only people who knew the answers seemed to be Janella – who was unconscious – and Miriam, who I needed to find.

"Get her to the infirmary. We will discuss what's going on with you later."

Viktor didn't waste time to argue with me and instead hauled his woman up into his arms and ran with her to the infirmary. I mind linked with Warren.

Thorin: Janella has been injured and before she passed out, she pointed the finger to Miriam and mentioned that someone else had been kidnapped. I think she meant that it was Nika. I need people on the lookout for Nika and Miriam. If you find either of them, Nika is to be brought to me immediately. Miriam is to be placed into the cells until we can sort out what happened.

Warren: I will get everyone on it. You should know, Miriam's husband was on border duty this morning.

Son of a bitch!

Thorin: Find them!

I yelled the order across the mind link. This was not happening. How had my mate been threatened and no one told me? Janella couldn't have been the only one who knew that it happened. I left the pond, that had been decorated for the mating ceremony and went in search of Catalina's family. So help me, if I found out they had been involved in Nika being kidnapped or harmed in any way, they would join Catalina in the afterlife.

It took five fucking hours to track down Miriam. She and her family had hidden in the caves to the north of the pack's territory. As soon as word got out that Warren was looking for them and Nika, they went into hiding. Others, friends of theirs, had come forward in the wake of the events to tell me about Miriam's behavior and the threats she had made against Nika. They did so in the hopes that they would receive leniency because they knew as soon as I got ahold of Miriam and her family, they would spill everything.

They were just as weak-willed as their daughter had been. While I might have been blinded by youth and heartsore over not finding my fated mate, it had been glaringly obvious that Catalina could not have ruled by my side. The reasons continued to pile up. She simply didn't measure up to what Nika was capable of. Thank fuck for that too. Nika was strong. I needed her to survive this ordeal. If she didn't, it wouldn't matter that we hadn't officially mated, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that I would follow behind her into the afterlife.

I made my way down to the cells. We had to keep the space available because there was no such thing as a pack without problematic members or enemies who got caught on our lands. The minute I came down the steps and into sight, Miriam started to wail and demand I set her free.

"Shut up!" I yelled into the cavernous space. "You will only speak to answer questions asked." Her head bobbed in acknowledgment. "Did you threaten my mate?"

"You have no mate!" Miriam spat. Her withered old face appeared to have aged a century in the past two years. It was something I should have taken note of sooner.

"Did you threaten Nika Mayweather?"

"No," she laughed. "I made her a promise. Told her about how my daughter was killed off by hunters before she could be mated to you." Her eyes narrowed. "You were too dumb to realize that it wasn't an accident and them weren't no hunters who took my daughter's life."

"I was taken to the scene," I explained in a gentler tone to Miriam. "Catalina was indeed killed by hunters."

"I don't believe it. There are some in the pack who didn't think she was good enough to be mated to you."

"She was not good enough to be a Luna," I agreed. "That much was true, even though I refused to see it back then. She was too weak. You know it, the pack knew it, even I knew it deep down but I was willing to give up the Alpha position, so my father could train another successor if that was what it took. Why do you think she was murdered?"

Miriam sniffled at that. "Your father had her killed. He suffered his fate for that crime."

"That is not true!" I shouted. "Explain yourself."

"Your father sent her out there that day. She wouldn't have been there on her own otherwise."

I had always wondered about that, but it didn't mean my father set Catalina up. "She's gone, Miriam. No matter what happened, she's gone."

"He's gone too," she stated on a laugh.

I nodded and sent a message to Warren that we needed to look into my father's death again. Catalina's as well, so we could figure out who was involved and carry out justice. That wasn't my focus for the moment, though. We were already five hours past when Janella came to tell us about Nika's disappearance and who knows how long before she managed to get to me, since she had a head injury that came close to killing her.

"What did you do to Nika?"

"I did nothing to that bitch."

"Who did you help?"

"I've helped lots of people." Miriam thought she was slick. Technically, she answered my questions truthfully. I would have to be a bit more specific.

"Who kidnapped Nika?"

Her eyes narrowed and she clamped her mouth shut.

"Who kidnapped Nika?" I pushed my Alpha power at Miriam that time.

"Alpha Thornwin."

"Aiden?" I questioned and she nodded her head enthusiastically. "How did Aiden gain access to Nika?"

"Your stupid bitch didn't heed my warnings. She thought she was better than us. Thought I didn't have the power to follow through. If you don't have enough power, you go out and grab it with both hands and make others do the work for you. That's what your father taught us when he killed our daughter."

"Aiden has my mate?"

"You have no mate! She's his now!" Miriam answered smugly.