Forbidden

|32|

Laurent

Walking away from the females quarters and the lifeless body of Valerie, I felt the connection between Larry and I spark to life and I cut it off from my mind. If I let him through, he would see what I've done and would surely lose his mind from our combined grief. It hurt to do it, it destroyed me to break her neck but I knew I couldn't trust her and trust was something that was invaluable to me at the moment. Steeling my heart against the turmoil and focusing on what I needed to do, I made my way back to the Alphas house and stormed into my room. Grabbing a burlap sack and stuffing it full of supplies for my trip, I slang it over my shoulder and jogged back outside, the cool night air wrapping around my heated skin.

"Hey boss, you heading out for a while too?" Demi, a hunter for the pack with dark brown eyes and a odd hairstyle of a curly rockers Mohawk, stopped when he saw my filled up sack and asked, his thirst for adventure was unquenchable. I gave him a lopsided half grin and patted him on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I want you to keep an eye on the pack while I'm gone, make sure everyone's taken care of, okay?" I could see the disappointment in his eyes from my not inviting him to join me but this trip I had to take alone, I just hoped by the end of it all, Eden would forgive me.

"Aw right boss, just be safe yeah?" Demi said and I ruffled his hair, earning a glowering look from him. I started to walk out the camp but remembered something.

"Aye Demi!" I shouted and he turned to me with a quizzical expression.

"In the females quarters, in the last room, is a dead Valerie. Bury her for me." I didn't wait for a reply and dashed off, already knowing where to start. Before, when I had taken that trip for a few days before all the memory issues and when Eden was still with me, I had visited a seer. Now, she wasn't of the most reputable one but her vision was meticulous. She pinpointed a area and coordinates for me where the Oracle might reside and when I checked them, they led to a vast jungle a good weeks trip on foot from my packs camp.

While it would be faster to run in wolf form, my human one wouldn't frighten people off and I could get directions. It probably wasn't the best idea to travel to an unknown territory alone but with Larry and Waydi disappearing with Mason, there was no one I trusted to bring with me. So, on I went North in search of the Oracle just as Artemis asked, I only prayed that there was a reason for it all and not just some deity having fun with her pawns.

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Marx

"How you feeling Eden?" I asked and she burrowed further into my fur, mumbling a exhausted "fine". Unable to help my chuckle, I laid my head back down on the ground and tried to make out what was in the room we were held in. It most definitely was a part of a house, for the floor was tiled and freezing and I could smell the wooden walls. My night vision allowed me to barely make out a set of five thick chains attached to reenforced metal rings on the wall.

The way the chains were positioned, two on the bottom, two just a bit above those and one in the exact middle put me on edge, it was far to similar to the holding chains the Elders kept back in Raiven for trespassing rogues. For all the terrible ways everyone treated Eden for what happened with her mother, she was still blissfully naive and oblivious to the dark dealings of the pack. Eden was strong in strength and spiritual sense but mentally? Eden was very weak and easy broken so Mason and I always handled those situations.

I remember back when Eden was still a child, only had been with us for about a year, there was such an incident. A few of the teen shifters had been brainwashed to believe the story of her by their parents and had attempted to attack Eden with the one thing she couldn't handle, Alpha Laiya's death. When Eden came back to the house, monotone and scarred, Mason and I decided to visit the fools.

When we found them, we knocked them out and took them to a basement that Mason knew of in some abandoned home. That was the first time I saw the chains and the first time I watched a shifter die so painfully. Mason locked them in the chains and beat them until they phased. That was the catch, the way a shifter phased pulled at the chains and they retracted, yanking back and slowly broke the bones. I had asked Mason how did he know all this, how he knew that would've happened and all he said to me was, somethings are better left not knowing.

Mason had a tough life before me and I accepted it, I even took on some of his traits, I didn't want my brother to be alone anymore. Of course, my mind spun out of control as we grew older and Mason mellowed out more, both for our own reasons. Mine started out pure until they were twisted by my own ambitions.

"Marx?" Eden's voice suddenly snapped me from my thought process and I opened my eyes once more to glance up.

"What's wrong Eden?" I questioned and her hands tightened.

"I'm scared, what if something happens to us? I can't phase!" Her worried words almost made me bypass what she actually said and I got up on all fours, turning to fully face her.

"What do you mean you can't phase? Why not?" Her body trembled and her not mouth opened and closed.

The lights clicked on and color filtered the room, basking it in a dim glow. I turned about face with a snarl as my gaze collided with Ericks and Seranas.

"Well, that's simple darling. Because I cast a secret little spell on the charm I gave the desperate woman who begged for her little ex boyfriend to pay attention to her again. You see Eden, when Laurent and Valerie had sex by the lake, the necklace let go of a little insurance policy for me and seared your shifter closed for the moment. You see, for me to get what I need from you, you need to be truly mated." Seranas said and I was on an edge I couldn't get off. She walked forward to us and stopped.

"I'm already truly mated Seranas, to Laurent." Eden yelled but the cackle from Seranas had Edens eyes widening in fear.

"You were truly mated to Laurent but I threw a little chink in Artemis plans and switched around a few links. I disconnected yours and Laurent's and tied them to two others. Can you guess whose?" Erick smirked and Seranas laughed harder, leaving me and Eden confused but most of all, scared.