Chapter 72: Rhys
I left the dungeons with more questions than answers. Ethan hadn’t been clear about what the legends were when I had asked him about them. He had said there were quite a few, and he didn’t know which ones were true necessarily. There were things we were very clearly missing, but I couldn’t seem to pinpoint what they were.
The moon was at its full height as I moved to the Leon’s quarters subconsciously. When I finally reached his door, I hesitated for a moment before knocking.
Heather opened the door after a long couple of minutes with a sleepy look in her eyes and I felt bad that I was pulling Leon away from his family again like I had done so often these past few weeks. But I needed him then, just like I needed him now.
“Alpha, you are aware that it is the middle of the night, and if you had woken our kids, we would have had a major problem, right?”
I smiled. Very few people talked to me like I was a normal person, but Heather never held back her thoughts.
“I’m sorry, Heather, but I need to see-”
“Leon,” She cut me off, rolling her eyes. “Yes, yes, I know,” She waved me to follow her inside so she could wake her husband. “You better be paying him overtime for all this extra work.”
“I’m sorry about all the extra work...” I apologized.
“Well, it’s not like he really wants to be around right now anyway,” She sighed, and I remembered how it was only a few weeks ago that he had found out Caleb had slept with his wife. “But he can’t avoid me or throw himself into work for forever. But enough about our troubles. Clearly you have enough on your mind. Let me go wake him up.”
“Heather, if you need to talk, you know I’m here for you, right?”
“Thanks, but I’m fine,” She said with a small sad smile. “Let me go get my husband.”
I stood in the family room surrounded by the life Leon had created and wondered if I was a part of the problem. Clearly, I was not as in control of my reign and my life as I had always thought.
“Middle of the night calls now, really?” Leon called out bitterly when he walked in and grabbed his coat.
“Yes.” I replied simply, opening the door for us to head out. “It’s important.”
“It never not is,” Leon sighed, leading us to my office. “What’s up?”
“I don’t even know where to start,” I said honestly as I sat down and poured myself a drink and then another for Leon. “But I guess let’s start with the most concerning thing to me... I went to talk to Ethan about what was going on and how Kinsley and Adrian could have found Grace, and he offered quite a bit of information... However, I don’t know what’s the truth. It’s like he’s just giving crumbs.”
“I mean that sort of makes sense... He wants to be seen as useful so we don’t just get rid of him. He’s being smart by keeping us on our toes.” Leon defended the 21-year-old.
I hated that he was right, but that did make some sense. It’s what I would do in that situation, so why would I be surprised when someone else was trying the same tactic?
“But irrelevant,” Leon waved it off. “What did Ethan say to you that caused you to wake me up in the middle of the night?”
“He told me that there is more than one way to create a Lycan. You don’t have to be born to Lycan parents, it can be created... He said he wasn’t sure which legends were true, but that there was one that tended be spoken of the most...”
“Oh my god,” Leon stood up abruptly, “I’ll be right back!”
I stared after him and wondered what that was about, but I didn’t wait too long before he barreled back in with an old, worn book in his hands that he threw down on the desk.
“What’s this?” I asked with a frown.
“A folklore book that I found just a few days ago. You asked me and Sawyer to try and find out what we could, and I realized that just because we don’t know about it today, doesn’t mean it used to be that way, so I found one of the oldest folklore books that I could find in hopes that Lycan were mentioned, and they were. I just haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but I’d bet that it talks about how to create them.”
I tore through the book till I found the section, and began reading all that I could, and Leon moved to over my shoulder so he could read it to...
Lycans can be created by two Lycans breeding, as well as biting a non-Lycan, similar to how a vampire is created.
“The fuck,” Leon muttered as he read what I did. “Are you thinking what I am?”
“That they are creating a Lycan army? Yea, that’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
“What about Grace?” Leon asked.
“What do you mean?” I asked with a frown.
“Do you think they want her so bad because they created her?”
“No...” I said slowly, thinking it over. “No, I don’t think so. I think her Alpha genes are just stronger than Kinsley’s. The witch said the Grace could shift since birth, so that wouldn’t make sense. And why bound her if you made her?”
“Yea, okay. That makes sense.” Leon nodded. “I didn’t get a good look at the bookstore clerk, but maybe they didn’t just kill her in cold blood... Maybe they turned her...”
“Like maybe they were in neutral territory for recruits?” I frowned. This was getting more sinister by the moment.
“It’s an option...” Leon said slowly. “I need some air. Let’s go to the garden, no one should be out there this time of night.”
I agreed, my mind reeling. There was so much that we did not understand, and it was all happening right under our noses. I hated how out of control everything felt.
We walked the gardens till dawn, just trying to piece it all together and come up with our own plan till the sun started to rise. My body was exhausted, but my mind didn’t seem any less settled even after hours of talking to my best friend about it.
“So, what are you going to tell Grace?” Leon asked with a yawn, exhaustion seeping from him in the same way it was me.
“Tell Grace?” I asked, not understand what he meant.
“Yea,” Leon looked at me like I was dumb. “You need to tell her everything you know or suspect so that she can make informed decisions too. Our plan revolves around her help, she deserves to know what she’s getting into, and she may even offer her own ideas and thoughts to make it more secure.”
“You know, if you weren’t my best friend, I’d never allow you to talk to me like that,” I grumbled.
“If I wasn’t your best friend, you’d be in a heap of more trouble than you are now. I suggest you tell your mate everything.”
“Okay, fine.” I sighed. “But she doesn’t accept herself yet. We have a lot of work to do.”
“Then we help her figure it out.” Leon said confidentially as he placed his hand on my shoulder.
I nodded. I would do everything I could to make sure Grace knew she held all the power, so she could finally start to believe in herself.