Chapter 126 126

Chapter 126 126
Damien's POV

I decided to go alone. Amelia wanted to come. I could see it on her face the moment Lucas delivered the message. She had that look she gets where she's already decided she's doing something and she's just waiting to see if anyone is going to try to stop her.

I stopped her this time around. It wasn't going to be good for her to arrive there until I know what exactly is going on. She's in a state where she's fragile and it's already bad enough that I brought her to see her father getting attacked.

I told her to stay with her father and promised I would tell her everything after. She didn't like it but she accepted it, which told me she was more tired than she was letting on.

The prisoner was being held in one of the lower rooms of the pack house. Two of my warriors were outside the door. When I walked in they stepped back without me having to say anything.

The man inside looked up when I entered.

He wasn't what I expected. I don't know exactly what I was expecting... someone harder maybe, someone who looked like they belonged to an organization that hunted lycans for a living. But he just looked like a regular person. Middle aged and tired.

I pulled up the chair across from him and sat down.

"You wanted to talk," I said. "Talk."

He looked at me for a moment like he was sizing me up. I let him. I had nothing to prove to him and I wasn't in a hurry. Well. I was in a hurry. But I wasn't going to show him that.

"I want protection," he said. "If I tell you everything I know, I want out. A new location, new identity, guarantee of safety. Because the moment he finds out I talked, I'm dead."

"Who is he?" I asked him.

"Do we have a deal?"

I looked at him. "Tell me something worth dealing for first."

He thought about that. Then he nodded slowly.

"His name is Richard," he said. "Richard Colby."

I kept my face completely still.

Colby. Brian's family name

"You just told me his name. There are plenty of people with that name. What am I supposed to do with this information?"

"He's the brother to the Alpha of Red Moon pack, Alpha Brian's uncle," he said.

The man nodded. "He's been running the Dark Hunters for over twenty years. Most of the people inside it don't even know who they're actually working for. They think it's a decentralized operation. It's not. Everything runs through Richard."

I sat with that for a second.

Twenty years. This wasn't something Richard built recently. This was already there, already running, already organized long before either of us announced anything. He had been building it for decades and waiting.

"What was he waiting for?" I demanded.

The man shifted in his seat. "He wasn't waiting exactly. He was searching. He's been searching for a long time." He paused. "Do you know what happened to the Lycan royal bloodline?"

I didn't say anything. I waited for him to tell me everything.

"Richard poisoned them," he said. "All of them. About twelve years ago. He used a compound that moved through the body slowly, mimicked natural illness perfectly. Nobody questioned it at the time. People thought it was a sickness moving through the court. By the time anyone might have suspected something, they were all gone. You know... In the war between lycans and demon rogues."

I felt something go very cold in my chest.

I'm not surprised exactly. Gamma Ronald had already told me it went back to the old court. But hearing it said out loud this plainly was different. Someone sat down and made a decision to wipe out an entire bloodline. Planned it carefully. Executed it over time so nobody noticed. That was not a crime of anger or impulse. That was something else entirely.

"Why?" I asked.

"Power." He said it like it was obvious. "The Lycan royal family was the highest authority in the entire werewolf world. Control that bloodline, control everything under it. Richard wanted that. He thought if he eliminated them he could step into the vacuum and take it. So he turned people to demon rogues." He shook his head slightly. "It didn't work out the way he planned. The structure collapsed without the royal family holding it together instead of bending to him. Packs scattered. Nobody accepted his authority. He ended up with nothing. He has been trying for a long time and nothing worked for him."

"So he spent twenty years building the Dark Hunters instead," I said.

"He needed leverage. He needed power that didn't depend on a title or a bloodline accepting him. So he started harvesting it." The man looked uncomfortable now. "That's what the Dark Hunters actually do. It's not just hunting. It's extraction. He believed lycan abilities could be transferred if the process was right. He's been experimenting for years."

I didn't let my expression change but I was furious. I was absolutely furious sitting in that chair listening to this man explain what Richard had been doing in calm straightforward terms like it was just information.

"He killed them all," I said.

"Almost all." The man met my eyes. "That's the thing. That's why he's still running. He didn't get all of them. There was a child. A young child, the queen's daughter. Someone got her out before Richard could find her. He's known for years that she survived but he could never locate her. She just disappeared."

I went still.

"He's been looking ever since," the man continued. "He never stopped. And then a few months ago your announcement went out. You and your Luna. Publicly confirmed lycans. And Richard — " He stopped. "Richard doesn't know who she is. He doesn't know her history or where she came from. He just knows the power signatures match what he's been tracking. He thinks she's just a rare lycan who surfaced. He wants her for the same reason he wants everything else."

I was not moving. I was sitting completely still and my mind was going very fast. The royal family had a daughter. Gamma Ronald taking in a child that wasn't his. Sealing her wolf. Raising her in a pack that had nothing to do with the royal court, in a city, as the daughter of a Gamma. Hiding her completely in plain sight.

I already had the beginning of a thought forming and I did not want to finish it yet.

"What is his next move?" I asked again. My voice came out completely flat.

"He's going to use your retaliation war as cover," the man said. "While you're stretched across multiple packs and your attention is split, he's going to move on your Luna. He has people already positioned. The plan is already running. That's why I'm talking to you now, because I was told to be part of it and I'm not doing that. I'm not going after a pregnant woman. That's where I stop."

I noted that. I believed him. It didn't make me feel generous toward him but I noted it.

"How long do I have?"

"Days. Maybe less."

I stood up.

"You'll get your protection," I told him. "After I verify everything you just told me checks out."

He nodded. He looked relieved in a way that told me he had been scared to have this conversation and had done it anyway. I didn't thank him for that but I noted it too.

I was almost at the door.

"Wait," he said.

I stopped.

"You asked about the royal bloodline." He was looking at me with an expression I couldn't immediately place. "The daughter that survived. The queen's child." He paused. "You don't know, do you?"

I turned around slowly. He was looking at me strangely. Like I was missing something obvious, he was surprised I hadn't already put it together.

"She would be about your Luna's age," he said. "The princess. She'd be exactly about your Luna's age."

The room was very quiet. I looked at him for a long moment. Then I walked out. I stood in the corridor outside with the door closed behind me and I didn't move for a while.

I was thinking about Amelia's father taking in a child that wasn't his. I was thinking about a sealed wolf and a hidden bloodline, and a man who risked his life and got himself stabbed, and still came to fight on my side without being asked.

I couldn't believe that because of someone selfishness, we lost our family and everyone that mattered to us. Just because someone couldn't stop themselves from hurting other people just to get what they had. I hated that he was still alive and I couldn't get him yet. He killed so many people with no remorse and he still wants to wipe out the entire clan?

Then I went to find Lucas. I had a lot to do and very little time to do it and I needed to get Amelia somewhere I could control the perimeter around before Richard made his move.

I also needed to figure out how to tell her. That part I had no idea how to do yet.