Chapter 19: Billie

Chapter 19: Billie

Joseph Nym was dead. My sister’s fated mate was dead, and she was the one who ripped out his throat.

The sight and smell stayed with me long after Aislin ushered me back to the pack house, while Oslo gathered with Gavin and the other members of Grandbay that came to his call. Back in my human form, I sat on a couch in the pack house and stared, shocked, trying to process everything. “I wasn’t that close with him,” I told Aislin when she asked. “I only met him a couple times. But still. He was my packmate.”

When Gavin returned, he stood before me on the couch and caressed my temple, gazing down at me with furrowed eyebrows. “Are you alright?”

“I don’t know…”

Gavin gritted his teeth and looked up at the others. “Nobody from Dalesbloom turned up to take Joseph back. We had to call Tania, she’ll be here in an hour.” As I recalled, Tania Merle was the human owner of a funeral home in Dalesbloom who worked with the werewolves. “I’m taking this to mean Dalesbloom has begun cutting off contact with us.”

Now that he mentioned it, I hadn’t received any texts from David, Colt, or Catrina—really, the only people who ever would text me—since I’d left.

“Why would she do that to Joseph?” I murmured.

“She wants a new fated mate,” Gavin said bitterly. “Joseph was never good enough for her. She told me she’d never settle with him. But she should know—she should fucking know that killing him herself means she’ll never have another fated mate.”

The rules of fated mates had always been nebulous to me. David never explained more than that I would receive my fated mate through a Moondream, but… I’d never thought about what happened if one mate died. “So if it wasn’t Catrina that killed him, the fated bond would’ve formed between her and someone else?”

“Yeah.”

“Is that the only way to find a new fated mate?”

Gavin narrowed his eyes at me. “Yes.”

Realizing what my questions implied, I turned red and fidgeted with my hands in my lap. “I was just wondering because David never had a new fated mate.”

“That’s because Rebecca left. Even though they marked each other, they eventually split up; that’s probably why she left Dalesbloom, so that the mate bond didn’t affect their separation,” said Gavin. “I thought you knew all this.”

“Nobody ever talked about Rebecca to me,” I said. “They kept a lot of things from me. I just knew that Rebecca wasn’t in the picture anymore.”

“That’s fucked up,” Aislin chimed in from across the living room. “We all thought Rebecca was your mom because of your last name.”

I did wonder what life would have been like had Rebecca Jesper stayed. Would I have had a kinder childhood? Would she have loved me like a daughter, treated me better than David? Maybe I was why she had left in the first place. But then why would David give me her last name…?

“Wait,” Gavin interjected and turned to Muriel. “What happens when a marked shifter undergoes the Lycan ritual?”

The older woman had been standing beside Aislin, her mid-length silver hair hanging loosely around her face, her gentle lilac eyes wandering between all of us. She folded her arms pensively. “It would be detrimental for both parties,” said Muriel, “interrupting the telepathic bond by emphasizing the physical aspects over the mental. It would usually include discomfort, agitation, pain, all sensations associated with the lycan’s hybrid form. Lack of control as a lycan would counteract the blessing of the marking ritual. Instead of harnessing the full potential of a shifter’s beast, they become… monstrous, feral. Stronger at the cost of their conscience. An unmarked shifter undergoes these changes without reflecting them on a mate, and the process can be reversed with the marking ritual on a fated mate; but a marked shifter becoming Lycan is… irreversible.”

“So David wouldn’t want to perform the Lycan ritual on himself,” said Gavin. “He’s marked by Rebecca. It wouldn’t make sense for him to irreversibly go feral with all the business he has as Dalesbloom’s Alpha.”

“The process would be irreversible for Catrina too, if she’s the one that killed Joseph,” said Aislin. “Why do we think David and Catrina want to go Lycan though?”

“There has to be something the dragons are offering David if he’s helping them instead of chasing them off,” said Gavin.

Through the entire conversation, I had no idea what the Lycan ritual was and felt dizzy just trying to keep up, but the subject of David and the dragons I at least could contribute to. “Colt told me David met with a dragon named Lothair.”

Everyone looked at me.

“Lothair. That’s their leader,” said Muriel.

“Do you know what the meeting was about?” asked Gavin.

“No, Colt didn’t know either,” I said, but now I doubted whether that was true.

“So they’re working together for sure,” said Aislin. “What if David’s only helping Lothair to fuck with us, Gavin?”

Gavin shook his head. “I considered that, but David wouldn’t go through all this just to make a threat. He wouldn’t have let Joseph be killed without something to make up for it.”

“Assuming he knew Catrina was going to gank Joseph,” said Aislin.

“Dalesbloom ignored us on purpose. He didn’t answer my texts or my phone calls. He knew,” said Gavin. “I know how his mind works. He treats everything like a transaction and Joseph’s death ensures that he gains something in return. What does he gain from this?”

Everybody went silent as they processed the circumstances. I didn’t know enough about what had transpired between Gavin and David to do anything except sit silently and wait for the next idea.

“He wants our territory,” said Aislin. “Could he be planning to get rid of us? Is he going to try to kill us?”

“He would benefit from the dragons doing it; even though his pack outnumbers us four times over, I doubt they’d all agree to Dalesbloom murdering their former allies. It would be easier to blame our destruction on the dragons. We have Muriel, which gives them a reason to wipe us out to get a hold of her,” Gavin suggested. “That’s what he gains from working with them. But why let Joseph die…?”

“So maybe it was just a threat,” said Aislin.

“Why did they kidnap you, Muriel?” I asked.

Muriel smiled thinly at me. “It’s my unicorn horn, I’m afraid. It’s the key component in the Lycan ritual that Lothair is trying to perform.”

My eyes widened as the puzzle pieces clicked together. “Oh.” Wouldn’t that mean they’d have to kill Muriel?

“Catrina talked about having connections in dragon clans,” said Gavin. “It’s still possible to mark another shifter without them being your fated mate, if Catrina were to become Lycan.”

“She could be planning to take a dragon mate,” said Aislin.

“I don’t know if marking someone other than your fated mate would mitigate the Lycan curse,” said Muriel. “It might not work.”

“Which begs the question, why let Catrina kill Joseph? It’s not like David to kill his own packmates just to make a point. Even Joseph Nym.” Gavin sighed.

It troubled me that David would allow Joseph to die at all. I never imagined my adoptive father would do something like that. Catrina, I supposed I could see her being that violent toward Joseph, since she was violent and cruel in the first place, but David had always at least… possessed a caring side. David knew he’d be making a sacrifice in letting Catrina kill Joseph. That wasn’t something he could hide from Dalesbloom—the entire pack would smell Joseph’s blood if they crossed Catrina’s path. So… how did he justify it? How could the pack allow it?

Was David hiding it from the pack and planning to pin the murder on Grandbay? Had Catrina done it out of spite and anger? Why then would nobody interfere or answer Gavin, unless someone told them not to? David knew she was planning to, and he let her; but why doom Catrina to never having a fated mate? Something wasn’t adding up.

The front door opened, serving Oslo, Gretel, and Niko’s voices as they informed Gavin that they had recovered Joseph’s body from the woods for Tania.

It still shocked me that Joseph was dead. The immense weight of the mystery surrounding his murder sapped the life out of me. “I need to lie down,” I said quietly, excusing myself from the living room as it filled up.

Nobody followed me, and for that, I was grateful. I needed the solitude to come to terms with what was happening. In the bedroom I slept in before, I sat on the bed and let my thoughts race, then withdrew my phone from my bag. I had no texts, but still had data, which meant David hadn’t canceled my plan yet. Was he planning on reaching out to me at some point? Why else would he keep my phone active?

‘Colt, what happened with Catrina and Joseph?’ I texted my brother. ‘Please. It’s urgent. I need to know.’

Throughout the duration of our text history, Colt always replied to me as soon as possible. Within minutes, if he wasn’t busy. But the longer I waited for his reply while looking at the lack of messages since I’d left, the more I got the feeling that, for the first time, he wasn’t going to answer me.

I laid down and closed my eyes. Exhaustion from my early start whisked me into sleep. I didn’t know how much time had passed before I woke again; the room was dark due to the closed curtains, a dull glow beyond them suggesting late evening. A light knock on the door preceded Gavin’s voice, “Billie? Can I come in?”

“Sure.”

He entered the room with a look of softness for me. “Are you doing any better?”

“I, um…” My mind was still a scattered mess. “I don’t even know what to think right now.”

“Yeah. Me neither.” Gavin sat on the bed. “This is… way more than I’ve ever had to handle before.”

“But you’re an Alpha.”

He laughed dryly. “Grandbay and Dalesbloom have always been allies. I’ve never had to deal with David conspiring to kill my entire pack.”

“But you faced threats against Grandbay before, haven’t you?”

Gavin hesitated, staring elsewhere in the room. “Not really. David… David always… helped me take care of Grandbay. He took me under his wing after my parents died.”

“I guess we have that in common,” I said quietly.

“And now we’re both on his shit list,” said Gavin.

I guessed taking refuge with Grandbay made me David’s enemy too. It hurt a lot worse than I expected. He had raised me; even if he’d locked me up in Hexen Manor, I still loved him like a father. He was the only father I’d ever known.

Afflicted by my sudden sadness, Gavin sought my eyes—feeling everything I felt—and extended his arm to me. I leaned into his chest, finding comfort in the smell of his shirt and the warmth he surrounded me with. His uncertainties weren’t lost on me. His confidence about the situation was as turbulent as my emotions, and I realized that Gavin wasn’t at all the harsh, oppressive Alpha I thought he was. He was sheltered by David too. He was trying his best after losing the crutch of David’s guidance, and now that the threat of destruction was imminent, he had to find a way to protect us from him. All while wearing a brave façade, and… dealing with having me around, having to accept that his fated mate wasn’t staying with him. Sexual encounters aside, I imagined how lonely Gavin must have felt then, having to shoulder this burden alone.

I tipped my head up, my nose brushing against his chin. His chest swelled before his face angled down and his breath tickled my lips, his lips hovering. My compassion for him urged me to show him that I cared and let him know he wasn’t alone. I didn’t know if I could be a thing of permanence to him, but… at least right now, I was here for him.

“Gavin,” I murmured. He didn’t respond or move away, so I kissed him.

His lungs stuttered like he was surprised. Feeling sheepish, I broke contact, but he growled and stole my lips again, locking me into a longer, firmer kiss, until he opened his mouth to breathe into me, “Will you sleep in my room tonight?”

If that would ease some of the stress from him, I would. I’d do whatever I could to help him. “Yeah, I will.”

“Mm.” Gavin pulled me closer, aligning my body against his while his arm wrapped around my waist, and his hand sat on my hip, holding me like I belonged to him. “I want to keep you safe from David,” he said softly.

Butterflies erupted in my chest, skewing my thoughts. “He wouldn’t hurt me.”

But Gavin didn’t say anything else. His breath stalled as if he might have wanted to say something but couldn’t muster it. Instead, he leaned in and embraced my lips, holding onto me, protecting me from some unseen force vying to take me away in the stillness of the room.