Chapter 72 Creating more Lycans

Chapter 72 Creating more Lycans
Dravik’s pov
My fist hammers against Brandon’s front door. 
"Woah, woah, woah!" my Gamma says as he throws the door open, quickly stepping outside onto the porch and closing it behind him. "Are you trying to wake my babies?" He freezes, his sleepy annoyance instantly evaporating the moment he catches my expression. "What’s wrong?"
"Xavier," I growl.
He winces, rubbing a hand down his face as his shoulders sag. "Shit. He told you. Look, I just needed someone to vent to, and I know you’ve been extremely—" 
"That’s not the issue," I cut him off, raising a hand. "Whatever weird arrangement you two have going on is your own business. I just found out something important about the Lycans. They can create more of their kind."
He rubs the sleep from his bloodshot eyes. “Oooookay. I mean, I assume they can. They have sex, Dravik."
"Brandon.” He’s missing the point entirely. "They can create fully formed Lycans through biting humans." 
"Holy shit," he breathes out, his jaw dropping as his green eyes widen."What the—are you serious? I mean, this information comes from Xavier. Can we really trust a single word he says?"
"He has no reason to lie about this. He said the process was strictly forbidden, likely to keep their numbers small enough to avoid drawing attention.
I go over what Xavier had told me including that they can only be able to track Auren if she’s close by.
"Damn," Brandon mutters, leaning his back against the door. "Do you think they’re looking for recruits in the city?" 
"It’s highly possible. The city doesn’t just have wolves—there are thousands of humans living there knowing nothing of our kind."
"Shit! Dravik, this is bad. This is very bad," he says, crossing his arms over his chest as his brows knit together. "Why would Marcus take you as a prisoner in the first place if they were trying so hard to stay in hiding? And what about that ridiculous peace contract they offered us? Didn’t Marcus even offer his own daughter, Seris, to you in marriage? Wouldn’t a public alliance like that have exposed their entire species anyway?"
"I believe they captured me by total accident," I clarify, exploring the puzzle pieces of Marcus's desperation. "And once they realized they had accidentally exposed themselves to an Alpha, and since they can’t just kill me, they tried to scramble for damage control. The whole deal with his daughter and that treaty was most likely a plan to infiltrate our pack. Marcus knows damn well I planned to absolve his pack the second he stepped out of line. I didn’t tell you this before, but while I was locked in there, they sent Auren in to try and get information out of me regarding our defenses. I believe they were searching for a weakness to tear me down from the inside out."
"Well, they wouldn’t be the first," Brandon mutters. "Plenty of people have tried and failed over the years. Okay, okay—let’s say Marcus successfully turns a bunch of human civilians into feral Lycans. We will still easily have the numbers. And we unquestionably have the best skilled fighters in the territory, thanks to your brothers.” He pauses. "How’s Auren reacting to all of this news?"
"She’s unaware. She was fast asleep when I left." 
Before he can reply, a faint shuffling noise comes from inside his house, and he quickly turns to crack the door open, peeking inside to check if any of his young daughters had woken up. We stand in silence for a few minutes, waiting to see if either of his girls will appear at the top of the stairs, but they didn’t. Satisfied, he shuts the door again, and the two of us step off the porch, walking away from the house toward the garden.
"I never said this, but thanks for getting Auren safely out of that city.”
He cocks an eyebrow at me. "You never need to thank me for that, Dravik. I’m your Gamma, it’s my duty.”
"You never seemed interested in protecting Lyra like that.”
He merely shrugs his shoulders. "You never marked Lyra."
We sit together for hours on the stone bench in his quiet garden, trying to come up with a plan. Eventually, sunlight begins to bleed over the horizon, and the loud, cheerful voices of his twin daughters echo from the house, and they run out chanting "Daddy!" They start to drag him back toward the house while loudly demanding breakfast. Brandon scoops both giggling girls up into his arms, turning his head back toward me before. 
“She needs to be on board for our next plan. It won’t work without her.”
I give him a nod of agreement. Auren is going to need a hell of a lot of confidence for what’s coming next, and I’m going to help her build it whether she likes it or not.
I turn on my heel and walk back toward the house, realizing my planned run to calm Shadow down had completely gone to shit. 
Auren is already up by the time I get back. She’s in the kitchen munching on some toast. She packed her hair up in a ponytail and I can see she had removed her earplugs.
"How’s the ear?" I ask, as I head to the fridge for a can of water.
"Trying to get used to it," she mumbles, reaching into the tray to grab another slice of toast. "You…you got up early.”
"I never slept," I answer, pouring myself a glass of water.
"Ohh.”
"I needed to get more answers out of Xavier and then I went to talk with Brandon." 
She says nothing, taking a bite of her toast. She did that a lot. Keeping her questions and feelings to herself. 
"I found out something about your kind last night," I state, leaning my lower back against the edge of the island. 
She still says nothing.
"It’s believed that Lycans can create more of their kind... simply by biting humans."
The piece of toast slips from her fingers, clattering onto the table as her eyes widen and her lips parts. "Is... is that really true?"
“I don’t know for certain but it seems like a high possibility. It was how they were created in the first place.”
"Why…why would Marcus want to create more of us?" she asks. 
“He needs numbers. At the moment he doesn’t have them. But if he does create them.” I pause, staring at her because I already knew what her reaction was going to be. “They need their true Alpha and not some illegitimate power hungry wannabe. That’s probably why he kept you alive. 
"I’m not an Alpha—" she starts to protest but I cut her off.
"But you are. It’s flowing through your veins. If Marcus turns people against their will, they will naturally hate what they’ve been forced to become, just like you. You could actually lead them, Auren."
"Stop saying that!" she cries out, abruptly standing up from the chair. She wraps her arms tightly around herself, taking a step backward as her chest heaves. "I... I’m not a leader! My own father had me bound. His own daughter! He treated Marcus like his brother, so obviously he wanted him to rule the pack!"
"Our fathers don’t always know what the hell they want," I sigh heavily, pushing off the counter. "Look at me, Auren—I’m a bastard. I was born the illegitimate child of an Alpha and a low-ranking omega servant. My father fell in love with an omega, but when he found his fated mate, he abandoned my mother and marked his mate. The omega was pregnant and my father, finding out what my wolf can do and desperate for an heir when his wife couldn’t get pregnant for a while, took me from my mother.”
"I…I thought..." 
“Yeah, most people think so too, but my siblings and I don’t have the same mother. Our fathers sometimes make poor decisions but if not for them, we won’t be here. You survived twenty years of their abuse, Auren. You’re stronger than you think.”
Her heart is racing now at a terrifying speed as she stares at me.
Just brilliant Shadow growls. Now you have terrified her with all this grand emotional bullshit
She squeezes her eyes shut, shaking her head. "No…we... We are completely different. I’m sorry... I’m so sorry, but I just can’t do this!"
She turns on her heel and bolts out of the kitchen. I stand by the island, making no effort to go after her.
Told you so Shadow mutters. 
I clench my jaw, staring at the empty doorway. Maybe Shadow is right and I have completely blown this.
I don’t see Auren for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon, her scream tears through the house, and I race out of my office through the house. I find her in the kitchen surrounded by broken glass, one hand clutched against her chest as blood drips onto the floor. 
“Auren!” I cross the room in two strides and pull her away from the shards, my eyes immediately moving to the deep cut across her palm. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
She shakes her head as I quickly take her wrist, pulling the glass out of her skin and tossing them aside and then watch as the wound knits together and disappears. There isn't even a faint pink mark left on her skin. I hear her breath hitch and I glance up to see her staring at her own palm with wide-eyes.
"Have you ever healed this quickly before? Even before you were bound again when you were eighteen?" 
She tugs her hand out of my grip, pulling it against her chest as she shakes her head. "It... it usually takes at least a few minutes. Why?"
I let out a heavy sigh, bending down to pick up a glass. Without taking my eyes off her. I draw the glass across my left palm, slicing deep and within seconds, the flesh fuses back together. 
"If a wound like that happened to someone like Brandon, it would take him hours to heal. Collins' wounds took him a day." I reach out and grab her hand again, holding it up in front of her own face. "You’re an Alpha, Auren. A powerful one."