The Silence

Chapter 7

Lysander

There was a Pack Gathering coming up, the kind where all the Packs in the world would go to the High Castle where the real Alpha King lived. People sometimes talked like I was the Alpha King, but I wasn't, and I had no desire to be. I just wanted everyone to die, like the only person I'd ever loved with my heart and soul had died.

Now, I had to take everyone along, and this included Quinn Lansing, who was now an official member of the Pack. Adriel hadn't initiated a ceremony, but Quinn was human so it didn't matter either way.

I wondered where my Beta was. He was absent during the training session earlier today, which I had watched. It was rare for me to do anything that involved my Pack, and I could see just how strained Lucas was the entire time. It was satisfying.

I found Quinn in the art room by herself. Who knows how long she'd been there, but it had obviously been a while, according to the massive stack of used canvases.

I'd vowed to kill the human girl, I really had. But I couldn't, not after realizing she was my mate, and feeling the mating pull to her. I didn't want her, but . . . .

"What are you painting?"

I flinched the moment those words left my mouth. They sounded nice, friendly, like I wanted to start a conversation, which was the last thing I wanted to do with anyone. But Quinn just moved aside and let me see the canvas she was currently working on. It was a perfect replica of the Packhouse.

I was about to speak again when a commotion in the Main Hall startled me. Without another glance at Quinn, I headed down to the Main Hall, but instead of entering the room directly, I slipped off to the side where I could watch without being seen.

Adriel had arrived, looking breathless and panicked. "Lucas," he panted. "Please, I need your help. I lost Quinn."

Lucas raised his brows. "You lost her? What does that mean? You can't just lose a whole human being."

"I, um, I took her somewhere, and I left her there for a tiny bit, and when I came back, she was gone. It was just for a bit, and I was distracted, but I searched the whole shop and asked around if anyone had seen her but no one had, and she's gone. I need help!"

Adriel's voice pitched higher as he spoke, and I felt confused. Quinn was fine, and I would have said so, but there was a devilish look in Lucas's eye that made me reconsider.

"Where did you leave her?" he asked.

"The ice cream place, Frosty's or whatever the hell it's called. Lucas, please!"

"Tell me the whole story, and give it to me straight," Lucas ordered.

Adriel fidgeted and finally blurted, "I was gonna go eat out somewhere and I took Quinn with because I had to and she wanted to go to the ice cream place and threw a fit when I said no so I did it and then she went nuts the moment we entered the store and tried shoving me into the back but I didn't listen so she knocked things off the counter and made a huge mess that pissed everybody off and embarrassed me so much I wanted to kill her but then she told the worker to get the girl that was leaving so she could help clean up and they did, and that girl was a werewolf and she's my mate."

Adriel gasped it all out in a single, barely coherent sentence, not bothering to break it all apart. Pausing to catch his breath, he continued in a whimper. "The girl wanted to go somewhere so I took her, and I left her . . . I forgot her . . . " He mumbled. "I came back after a bit---"

"How long?" Lucas's voice was sharp as a knife.

Adriel gulped. "A couple of hours."

Lucas stared at him. "Okay, let me get this straight. Quinn leads you to your mate, the mate you thought you'd never find. As payment, you leave her behind to f**king get kidnapped?!"