Chapter 303 303
Fabrice POV
I left the Alpha home for training feeling no better than I had before.
If anything, the weight in my chest had grown heavier.
I didn’t like keeping things from Aurélie whatever little it was that I knew. And it truly wasn’t much. But I’d learned the hard way that secrecy, even when well-intentioned, had a way of turning deadly. In the past, withholding information had placed her, the children, and even Damien in danger.
I couldn’t stomach doing that again.
Training came and went, my body moving on instinct while my thoughts spiralled. A persistent voice in my head kept urging me back to her. This felt too important to ignore.
Damien believed Gaston’s body had been cremated. But from what Lucas had implied, that wasn’t the truth. The body had been left to rot in the caves the same caves Lucas later ordered Bloodnight warriors to seal and fill in.
No matter how well I got on with Lucas, I had to remember where my loyalty lay.
Aurélie was my Alpha. Not Damien.
And it was my duty to report to her.
The disaster with the rogue situation had already taught me that lesson once. I’d failed her then kept information from her when she needed it most. She’d been unprepared because I’d been silent.
That wasn’t a mistake I intended to repeat.
My role wasn’t to decide what mattered and what didn’t. It was to give her everything I knew. The choices that followed were hers alone.
“Come in,” she called when I knocked on her office door.
“Fabrice, what are you doing knocking?” she added with a small smile as I entered.
Seeing her like this eased something tight in my chest. The pregnancy vitamins were clearly working her colour was better, her energy steadier. She carried a soft, unmistakable glow now, the baby no longer draining her as harshly as before.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her brow furrowing as I closed the door and began pacing.
“I need to tell you something,” I said, my voice low. “And I don’t know if it’s the right thing to do. I don’t even know exactly what I’m telling you but I need you not to act on it. Not to say anything.”
“Fabrice,” she said gently but firmly, “sit down. You’re making me nervous.”
My wolf obeyed before I did, sinking into the chair as commanded by his Alpha.
“Something happened at the Black Mist pack,” I began. “After you and Damien left the caves and headed out in the cars.”
Her expression sharpened instantly. “What happened?”
“I need you not to tell Damien,” I said, closing my eyes briefly. “He doesn’t know. Lucas is keeping it from him.”
The guilt hit immediately betraying Lucas felt wrong but not telling her felt worse.
She studied me in silence for a moment, then gave a small nod, urging me to continue.
“The cave,” I said. “I didn’t go back in. But Lucas and some of the warriors did.”
“To retrieve Gaston’s body,” she said quietly. “To cremate it?”
“That’s the thing,” I replied. “They came back but without the body. Lucas ordered the cave boarded up. Filled in. Sealed so no one could re-enter.”
Her eyes narrowed. “So his body is still in there? Why didn’t Lucas follow Damien’s orders?”
“As a Beta, refusing an Alpha’s command is nearly impossible,” I said slowly. “And Lucas wouldn’t have ignored it without reason. Which means something happened. Something happened to the body.”
Her confusion mirrored my own.
“You’re losing me,” she admitted, pressing her hands to her temples and rubbing slowly.
“If the body wasn’t removed,” she said after a moment, looking back up at me, “then it’s still in the cave. Decomposing.”
“That was my conclusion too,” I said. “But then I started getting reports from the hospital. Warriors who entered the cave panic attacks. Some of them stealing medication. Self-medicating.”
Her eyes widened. “Stealing drugs?”
“I confronted Lucas about it,” I said. “He told me to drop it. Said Damien had been through enough already that you and he needed peace.”
She exhaled slowly, then nodded.
“He’s right,” she said. “Don’t mention this again.”
I stiffened, but she wasn’t finished.
“The warriors having panic attacks I want you to make sure they’re getting proper treatment. And the ones stealing and self-medicating, I want names.”
She met my gaze steadily.
“I don’t condone theft,” she continued, “but these are our friends. They’re hurting, and they need help. We’ll decide on the next steps together.”
The weight didn’t disappear but for the first time that day, it settled into something manageable.