40. Rhyson

40

Rhyson

"Is this Gideon?" Jax slid a photo across the table. It was blurry, but there was no mistaking the face of the man who'd saved Maya.

Fury had filled me with Paisley's words and had yet to abate. It was hours later, and Maya and I were in Jax's office with Anna, who'd promised to explain everything.

"You've known that he's a drug dealer, and you didn't do anything about it?" I snarled.

"Gideon is more than just a drug dealer," Anna said, a note of anxiety in her voice. "It's not easy for us to investigate things that happen within the rogue community, and we have been looking for him, but we were looking for someone by a different name. When he was part of Indigo Peak's pack, he went by the name Jefferson."

"Great. Get Indigo Peak's alpha on the line. I have some questions for them."

Anna and Jax exchanged a look. "Indigo Peak has currently closed off communication with us. It's been a month, but this is the information Finn sent us before he felt he had to close the doors, so to speak."

"All right, there's something that you're not telling me, and I want to know what the fuck it is right now." The time for tiptoeing around the alphas here was done. I wanted my information, and I wanted to get off this mountain so I could kill Maya's father. The sooner the better.

Anna took a deep breath. "The previous alpha of Indigo Peak was an older woman by the name of Maeve Frost. She'd been told a prophecy decades ago by a seer who claimed she would take all the magic of the mountain and be the queen. It's a long story, and I won't go into it, but one of the tools in her arsenal was a drug that she'd had created off the mountain and shipped in. That's one of the reasons we know that some wolves have been able to contact others outside the mountain. The drug was made to grow the wolf into a monster and diminish cognitive capacity, making them susceptible to commands. She was, essentially, growing her own monster army."

"What the fuck," Maya muttered. "Are you serious?"

"She was delusional," Anna admitted. "As, unfortunately, were many who served under her. It took us too long to realize what was happening, and we did stop it. She is dead, but several in her inner circle escaped. When we started hearing reports of the drug in the rogue community, we knew it had to be someone in her circle. Someone who'd tampered with the toxin to make it an addictive drug. It still triggered some of the wolves, morphing them, but only a small percentage. The rest were, well, what I suspected Paisley turned into."

"Why is the new alpha operating behind closed doors?" Rhyson asked suspiciously.

"Finn is a powerful wolf, and he's Maeve's son," Anna said carefully. "Unfortunately, he was also very close to Jax and me, and his pack was not responding well to our alliance. He's closed the door to garner their trust."

"And get the pack under control," I finished. "Fine, but I feel like there's more that you're not telling me."

Jax cocked his head. "We've told you all that you need to know. You came here for information on your brother. The rest of this mountain is none of your concern."

My anger grew, but I kept it in check. He wasn't wrong, but I hated that. "What will happen when I kill Gideon? He has a pack. Maybe not a formal one, but there are wolves under his protection. What happens to them?"

"Someone will likely step in to take his place," Anna said simply. "The truth is that his second and third mostly likely work with him, so the cycle could continue. Because they are not taking an alpha role, there's no need for a challenge. It's probably why Gideon is still alive. No one can challenge him for the pack because it isn't a pack. You can kill him, but that doesn't mean you get the other wolves. It's a difficult situation."

"Jenson will go with you and help assess," Jax said. "He'll report back to me, and I'll get involved if I can. Offer sanctuary."

Anna nodded. "I'll be going as well."

"The hell you are," I growled. "You're pregnant."

"So is Maya," she countered, but smiled. "I won't be there to fight. Janelle and Irene will come with us, and we're going to use the witch's den as our home base. I can get you through the surrounding area without triggering a spell trap. I would like to point out that I am perfectly capable of fighting, but I promised Jax to only be the guide."

Maya stiffened. "Janelle and Irene are going? Does that mean they think there will be something at the coven that can help me?"

"She's just not ready to give up yet, and neither am I."

I knew what those words meant, and so did Maya. She practically deflated. I wanted to take her hand and let her know that it was going to be all right, but I remembered how she'd acted earlier. She didn't trust me, and I didn't blame her.

I'd been an idiot and treated her so cruelly. I would never begin to make that up to her until I got off this fucking mountain and proved to her that I was going to try to make it work. We'd co-parent or whatever the term was. I'd earn her trust.

"Anything I should know about dealing with Elonso once Gideon is dead?" I asked.

Jax raised an eyebrow. "Like whether he'll kill you and then parade your body around the mountain as his trophy?"

Maya tensed next to me, but I stayed relaxed. I knew that was a possibility no matter where I went. "That information would be helpful to have, yes."

"I don't know. Elonso has proven to be a good alpha, and he's been helpful in the past. He's also not been helpful if he thinks it doesn't benefit him."

Not super helpful information, but if I've learned one thing, it was that community meant something on the mountain. Sometimes it was an isolated community, sometimes it was a pack, and sometimes, it was the whole mountain.

If I threatened any of that, it was likely I wouldn't make it off the mountain.

Dinner was served in our room, and Maya sat at the window and ate her burger quietly. I watched her, hating where my mind went. When asking about her, I'd been told that she was a pampered princess who barely left her room. Did that mean her father had locked her away? How many times had she sat at a window wishing desperately someone would come save her?

Disgust rolled through me. Why had I been so quick to believe them? The woman I'd held in my arms at the hotel had been no pampered princess. I recognized even then that she'd been broken, and I didn't trust my instincts.

Was I so desperate to die on this mountain getting answers? What the hell kind of king was I?

"If you keep staring at me like that, you're going to burn a hole in the back of my head," Maya said sourly. "I know you're not worried about Gideon, so what's wrong?"

"What makes you think I shouldn't be worried about Gideon? He has a whole drug operation going here. Power makes men dangerous."

She laughed dryly. "Don't I know that. He takes his power the only way he knows how, to make others subservient beneath him. That makes him a coward. You won't have any trouble getting to him or killing him."

"No," I agreed. "I was thinking about you."

"Ah. I'm sorry that I asked. You don't need to worry about me. I'm fine. I've always been fine."

"And if I want you to be better than fine? If I want you to live without fear or worry?"

Standing, she walked over and discarded her empty plate on the table next to me before looking me dead in the eye. "What you're feeling is guilt. You made a mistake, and acted on that mistake over and over again, and now you realize the damage you might have done. You feel guilty because you're not a monster. It's normal. The thing is, Rhyson, I've been scarred so many times that this isn't even going to leave a mark. You've apologized. You can move on now. It's fine."

"It's not fucking fine," I snarled as I wrapped my arm around her waist. "And I'll tell you why."