The Unmarked Mate

Chapter 8

Malcolm

I sat in my office speaking with my brother James. We were discussing managements of the territory, the usual stuff. James was my heir as I had no children with Catherine so it was crucial for me to explain the running of Lycan king stuff to him. As we were discussing the relationships with the human towns on our territory, we heard a knock on the door.

"Come in!" I yelled and Beta Elliott came in.

"Good morning, King Malcolm, James".

"No need to be so formal when it's just us Elliott. What's happening?"

"Arthur escorted here some scouts of the Southern territory's King who brought a body of a Lycan they found in the woods. It seems she was attacked by rogue werewolves and she killed them. But she was too injured and died. They believe her to be from our territory, so they brought her here out of respect."

"We should join them, thank them and try to find out who she was and what happened" I told Elliott as I stood up. No one was reported missing, but I felt concerned. I left the office following Elliott and told James to come along. We walked to the hospital. Before entering the chamber, we joined Arthur and a man and a woman who looked like they belonged to the Southern Territory.

"Good morning, King Malcolm. I am Josh and this is Aileen", he said pointing at the woman standing next to him. Both of them slightly bowed. "We were alerted on a rogue attack, near the northern border of our territory. We were scouting the area when we found this woman. She was attacked by six rogues at least. They were all found dead. It appears they tried to ambush her and she fought them off. One of them was still holding a large hunting knife in his hand. We discovered her body a bit further in the forest. We believe she is one of yours. We brought the blade back."

"Thank you to the both of you. Perhaps we can go inside to see what the doctor has to say and see who she is." We opened the door of the room the body was brought into. The body was covered up with a sheet. On the table next to the bed, there was a backpack and the hunting knife.

"Hello Doctor. What can you tell me?"

"Hello King Malcolm. As Aileen and Josh told you, she was ambushed by several people. But her injuries should not have killed her. One of them had a knife and stabbed her with it. You two were right to bring back the knife. It had been poisoned: the blade was covered in heavy amount of wolfsbane. Heavy enough to prevent a Lycan from healing, and it had been mixed with cyanide to ensure she would die from it. This wasn't a mere attack by rogues, this was an execution."

When the doctor said his final words, I could read concern on each face in this room. What kind of werewolves would attack a Lycan in such a way? We needed to know the reason for this, and we needed to know fast.

"Can I see her?" Asked James. The doctor nodded. James went to the bedside and lifted the sheet so that we could see her face. He looked at her but did not recognize her. He eyed me to come take a look. I approached and tried and remember. Her face was familiar, but I could not make out who she was. She must have been thirty. Goddess she was so young.

"I know who this is." Everyone turned their eyes to Elliott who just spoke.

"This is Kenna Johnson. She was rejected by her mate when she found him. It was maybe fifteen years ago maybe less. She was seventeen at the time. She felt so much pain and did not want to have to endure meeting him over and over for the rest of her life. She left. She joined the Amazon pack."

"The what?" Aileen asked.

"The Amazon Pack. It's not really their name, but it's what everybody calls them. It's a pack with only she-wolves. They are great fighters. Some of them have mates but don't live with them, some lost their mates. Kenna joined them and has been living with them ever since."

"We need to inform them of her death and try to find out who could have wanted her dead. The backpack, did it belong to her?" I asked.

"Yes. It was with her, we brought it back." Answered Aileen.

"James, what's in there?" James opened it and looked inside.

"Not much, food for a couple of days of travel, a bottle of water, a map, some money and a pack of letters. It seems she was going somewhere. I'll have a look at the letters, maybe it will show who she was corresponding with, and they could have some answers for us.

"Perfect. Josh, Aileen, I cannot thank you enough for the time you took to bring back one of our own. I know Arthur picked you up, I can have a plane brought for you to go back home when you want to. But I would like to extend an invitation for dinner tonight if you accept." They bowed and accepted the invitation.

We left the room; we'd have to contact the Amazon pack for the funeral arrangements and try to find out if she still had families around here to inform them. But Elliott and Arthur would take care of that.

"James, let me know if you discover anything" I requested to James.

"I will. See you later."