Primalcraft: Sins of Bygone days (book 2)

Chapter 26

Jaxon looked at Mark Rowe with a complicated look on his face. His father only looked grim while Joanne tried to make herself as small as possible while tending to Mark's wounds.

"What did you say?" Owen asked.

"I said, I don't remember...killing the child. I hardly remember anything after the... incident," Mark muttered with his eyes turned down. It was hard to see his eyes as his face was so swollen that they were covered from view. The worse wounds had been healed by Jaxon's mother but the rest took a long time to heal as the wounds from an Alpha could take longer to fade.

"Are you kidding me?" Jaxon growled. "You ripped the child to pieces."

"I swear. I don't remember a thing!" Mark whimpered and tears streamed down his face. Jaxon's felt uncomfortable. This was not how he had imagined the guy who murdered a child. He looked over at his father who stroked his chin while perusing Mark.

"He is telling the truth."

"How do you know?"

"His heartbeat is steady."

Jaxon's eyes went wide. His... heartbeat? Owen noticed his expression and smirked.

"I may be ancient but with age comes experience. If you listen closely you can hear people's heartbeat and with practice you can learn to identify if they are lying or not."

Well, that's useful but... Has he always had that ability? Jaxon thought back to all the times he had lied to his father... Damnit!

"Then what happened to him. Didn't he do it?" Jaxon muttered while avoiding his father's gaze.

"Of course he did," A voice sounded behind them and a scent of ash hit Jaxon's nostrils. Ahriman leaned against the wall and watch Mark who stared at him with an open mouth. Joanne looked like she was about to faint but seem to collect herself from the fright while staring at the door in the opposite direction of Ahriman. Jaxon could see her question clear as day. How did he come into the room without them noticing?

Ahriman just ignored her and talked to Owen. "I was the one that sent him to the Head Druid."

"What? Why?" asked Jaxon.

"I assume you had a sensible reason," said Owen.

Ahriman kicked the bed and Joanne squeaked while Mark winced. "Why don't you tell them what you had planned to do before you went to the Head Druid."

Mark muttered something inaudible.

"Louder, brat."

"I was trying to find Blake Oakley."

Jaxon grew rigid as he heard the name. "Why?"

Mark refused to look at them and did not answer.

"He wanted to give Blake to Ronan. Either to kill or torture to remove the curse," Ahriman replied in Marks stead who was glaring at the boy.

"So you send him to the Head Druid instead?" Owen asked.

"They wanted to heal Ronan. The Head Druid could do that. I did not know that he was with his son," Ahriman grimaced," and I had no idea that the Head Druid would refuse. The man was so dull that I had not even considered looking into his past. I didn't know that he hated shifters and would never help them."

"Is that why he refused to take our side?" Jaxon asked.

"Most likely, I didn't think it was strange that the Head Druid wanted to distance himself from us so that he could protect his Druid coven. It wasn't until later when I was puzzled as to why a Druid would refuse to heal that I looked into it and found out about his hateful demeanor."