Chapter 94 Same Enemy
His father had killed his mother in the end. She'd turned rapid and attacked, and his father had been forced to put her down like a rabid animal. They'd called the relationship cursed because his father had claimed his brother's widow as mate. The council had demanded rejection rituals and executions.
But despite everything done, despite the rituals performed, his mother had still died. Still transformed. And then war had broken out seemingly from nowhere. Fire had consumed parts of the kingdom. His father had died fighting, turned rapid himself.
At fifteen years old, Adrian had been thrust onto the throne because he'd inherited the Alpha power directly from the bloodline. Chosen by forces older than memory.
Since then, he'd searched for answers about what had really happened. This repeated incident with Lila felt like old wounds being torn open. The same method. The same pattern. The same accusations of cursed bonds.
It meant the same enemy. Someone who'd orchestrated his parents' deaths was now orchestrating his and Lila's destruction.
Now that the overwhelming bond-driven desire for Lila had been cleared away, Adrian had spent days hunting for truth with a clear mind. But Lila held no memory of everything she'd discovered before the ritual. All the evidence she'd found, all the connections she'd made, were locked in a mind that couldn't access them anymore.
The battle had become exponentially harder.
A knock interrupted his thoughts. "Enter."
Marcus stepped in, his expression grave. "Your Majesty. You need to see something. Now."
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They rode to the northern border in silence. Marcus had refused to explain over the risk of being overheard, insisting Adrian see for himself.
The border was marked by ancient stone pillars that had stood for centuries. Marcus led Adrian past them into a small clearing just outside the official kingdom boundary.
"There." Marcus pointed.
Adrian dismounted and approached slowly. The scene before him made his blood run cold.
Fresh blood marked the stones. Not a small amount. Significant splatter that spoke of violent death. On the ground lay the torn remains of an antelope, its body ripped apart with vicious precision.
But it was the method of killing that made Adrian's stomach turn. The tears in the flesh were too deliberate. Too specific. He'd seen this pattern before, in the bodies of plague victims who'd turned rapid and attacked each other.
"A rapid wolf did this," Adrian said quietly. "Recently. Within the last day or two."
"That's what I thought." Marcus crouched beside the carcass, pointing to specific marks. "Look at the pattern. This wasn't hunting for food. This was practice. Training. Like the wolf was learning to kill more efficiently."
Adrian's jaw tightened. "The plague is supposedly over. Freya said the curse was lifted when we performed the rejection. But if a rapid wolf is still out here, still active..."
"Then it was never a curse to begin with." Marcus finished the thought grimly. "Your Majesty, I think we've been looking at this wrong from the start. What if the plague wasn't divine punishment at all? What if it was created deliberately?"
"A weapon." Adrian's voice was barely a whisper. "Someone created the rapid wolves as a weapon. Used them to destabilize the kingdom. Made it look like a curse so we'd focus on rituals and rejections instead of hunting for the real source."
"And if they created it once, they can do it again." Marcus stood, his expression dark. "Whoever did this has the capability to make more rapid wolves. To unleash them whenever they want. They could be breeding them right now, building an army."
Adrian looked at the torn antelope, at the bloodstains on ancient stones, and felt pieces clicking into place. The plague that killed his mother. The plague that struck when he claimed Lila. Both blamed on cursed bonds. Both resolved through brutal rituals that tore families apart.
But what if those bonds had never been the problem? What if they'd just been convenient excuses to hide the real threat?
Someone had killed his parents and gotten away with it by calling it divine punishment. Now that same someone was trying to kill him and Lila the exact same way.
"We need samples." Adrian's voice turned hard with determination. "I want everything from this site analyzed. The blood, the tissue, anything that might tell us how this transformation works."
"I already collected specimens." Marcus pulled a sealed container from his pack. "I'll take them to the healers for analysis. Quietly. We can't let anyone know what we're investigating."
"No." Adrian took the container. "Not the healers. They'll report to Freya. We need someone outside the normal chain of command. Someone we can trust absolutely."
"Who did you have in mind?"
Adrian thought of Keal. The Delta who lived half-wild in the forests. Who'd saved Lila twice now for reasons Adrian didn't fully understand. Who clearly suspected something was wrong.
"I'll handle it personally." Adrian secured the container in his own pack. "For now, keep this quiet. Act as if everything is normal. Let our enemies think we still believe in curses and divine punishment."
"And Lila?" Marcus asked carefully. "She's the supposed cause of the curse. If we're right and it's all fabricated, that means she's innocent of everything she's been accused of."
"I know." Adrian's expression was complex. "Which makes what was done to her even worse. But we can't reveal that yet. Not until we understand the full scope of what we're facing."
They rode back to the palace in heavy silence, both lost in dark thoughts about conspiracies and weapons and enemies who'd been operating unchallenged for twenty years.