Chapter 31.-2
I contemplated his issue. I also wasn’t about to force two women to go somewhere they didn’t want to be just so I could confirm that Morven killed my brother. “Fine. I will make my way to Elonso’s pack and see if there’s anything else I can do for the information. Thank you for assistance.”
Troy raised his eyebrows. “Just like that?”
“My justice has been years in the making. I’m not going to stop now.”
“And what if you discover that Morven didn’t kill him?”
your
Clam
I didn’t even want to entertain that thought. “If he didn’t kill him, then he was involved. My brother wasn’t killed by happenstance. He was targeted. There was a reason for it. If they didn’t want his pack, then I need to figure out what else the killer wanted. Morven has information, and I hope that means Elonso has it as well. His curiosity is piqued. He’ll look up what he can now, and if he thinks he can use that information to his advantage, he’ll contact me.”
Troy’s gaze sharpened. “Tell me, wolf, what does the king tell you wolves about the exiled
mountain? What does the rest of the world think of us?”
“What makes you think the king talks of you at all?”
“Because you came prepared for a completely different world. You were expecting us all to be feral rogues. I can tell by the way you study us. Someone has been weaving tales of us.”
I graced him with half a smile. “You call yourself the exiled mountain. We call you the forbidden mountain. Too wild and unhinged to inhabit. Shadowed Moon Forest is the place of children’s nightmares, and those nightmares are powerful enough that, to my knowledge, no adult has tried
to tame it.”
As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I straightened, and so did Troy. We narrowed our eyes at each other. “Something just occurred to you,” I accused. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that we had an event a couple of months ago. A big one, and the orchestrator of that event had been planning it for a long time,” he said carefully. “Had off-mountain contacts. Now, it’s not that hard to do given today’s technology, but they had shipments brought it, and that is much harder to pull off. We never figured out how they made that happen. What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that maybe Shadowed Moon Mountain wasn’t as isolated as I thought. Maybe someone tried to conquer it, and Marrow found out.”
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Chapter 31-2
“Or was involved?”
Clam
Grimly, I shook my head. “My brother wasn’t like that. He wasn’t power-hungry, but he was protective. If his pack was threatened, he would retaliate. I thought someone else was trying to take the pack, but I couldn’t find evidence of it. Maybe the evidence is here, with Morven.”
Troy started to pace. “Morven had two obsessions. One was to be an alpha, which he achieved, and the other was Kiana. If he was involved in anything, it was because of those two things. No way he’d try to take an outside pack.”
“Kiana?” Well wasn’t that interesting. “Your mate, Kiana?”
“There is a reason Morven isn’t well-liked.”
Someone pounded on the door, and Troy turned. “Enter.”
Willa, his third-in-command who I’d met earlier, walked in and threw me a saucy smile. “A rogue monster was taken down outside the territory. Kiana and Jenson led the attack, but they ended up having to kill it. It’s on its way to the infirmary, if you want to see what’s going on.”
Troy frowned and pulled out his phone. “Why wasn’t I told?”
“Kiana said she’d handle it.”
“For fuck’s sake, she’s practically six months pregnant. When are you idiots going to stop letting hér get involved?”
Willa studied her nails and shrugged. “Sorry, boss. She outranks everyone but you, so if you aren’t there to say no, there’s nothing anyone can do. Besides, she has to let off some steam or she’s kind of mean. She made Jenson cry last week because he couldn’t find the right kind of chips.”
“You gave him the chips,” Troy growled, and Willa just grinned innocently.
I interrupted. “I’m sorry, what do you mean a monster rogue? I encountered a creature several days ago, an enormous monster that was once a wolf. An organized group of rogues helped take it
down.”
“That’s it. Our healer had a cure, but the drug keeps changing, and the cure doesn’t work anymore. We’re trying to develop another one and figure out how to distribute it. Stay here,” Troy said grimly.
“Oh, he’s not going to want to do that,” Willa said casually. “Nyx was with Kiana when they went hunting. I hear they had a really good time.””
Immediately, I stood. “What the fuck? She is also pregnant. She can’t be going out hunting with a bunch of fucking strangers.”
“You boys will have to take it up with them, but you should work on your arguments now seeing as
DO
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