CHAPTER TWO HUNDRED & SIXTY TWO
Nolan’s POV
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Seeing the black marks felt like someone had poured cold water on me. They brought back memories I had buried because it made me think of my father’s death. But this wasn’t the mad rogue disease. This was something else.
“Have you seen them before?” Talia asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Do you know what they are?” Solon demanded when I didn’t immediately respond.
“No,” I replied. “But Gideon once told me about a man who died from something that sounded like this. Marks on the skin. Loss of wolf strength. He described it the same way.”
“Gideon? Who the hell is Gideon?” Solon questioned. Leslie smacked him on his back, causing him to flinch.
“Calm down,” she hissed.
“He was my father’s servant,” I answered. “He has been at Silverfang for some years now.”
Rudolf’s expression shifted from confusion to awareness. “Oh, the rogue you asked me to release from the dungeon before you left Silverfang.”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
Rudolf opened his mouth, but Solon was already moving.
“I will have him brought here,” Solon said before Rudolf could give the order.
It took an hour. I spent most of it thinking about what Gideon had told me. It had been a passing remark that I had not pressed him for more. I regretted not asking for more information.
‘None of this is your fault,’ my wolf said.
‘Easy to say that now because we don’t know what Gideon knows,’ I argued.
‘Whether you asked then or now would not have changed this outcome,’ my wolf retorted.
Talia sat with Rudolf while we waited and I gave them their privacy by moving away to stand near the window. She held his hand and they talked quietly. If I had been told a year ago that I would be friendly with the Alpha King and mate with his daughter, I would have laughed in that person’s face.
Solon popped his head into the room and said, “He’s here.”
I left the room and saw Gideon standing down the hall. The moment he saw me, his eyes softened. Gideon approached me and then bowed low.
“That’s not needed, Gideon,” I said.
“Alpha Nolan, it is. It is good to see you,” Gideon greeted as he straightened.”
“Are you well?” I asked, noticing how he still seemed pale but there was life in his eyes, not like when I met him in the dungeon. He had his will to live back.
“Better than I was,” he answered. “You kept your word. I did not know if you would be able to.”
“I told you I would,” I said.
“Honorable, just like your father. He would be proud,” Gideon answered.
I couldn’t help but smile at the compliment. “Thank you.”
“What did you call me here for? Is everything okay?” Gideon asked.
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“We need to ask you some questions. What you see in this room, you can not speak about this to anyone else,” I replied
“Of course, Alpha,” Gideon said and then I ushered him into the room. Gideon paused when he saw the Alpha King
“Come and sit,” I told him.
He sat in the chair near the door. I pulled one across from him and leaned forward with my elbows on my knees.
“You told me once about a friend who died,” I said. “He had marks on his skin. Dark marks that spread. You said he lost his connection with his wolf.”
Gideon’s face changed at that. The grief that came onto it was of someone who was remembering a painful memory that had been long buried.
“Yes,” he said quietly.
“Tell me everything you remember about it.”
“After the old Alpha was killed, after everything that followed, there was complete chaos. Many of us fled. We did not know where it was safe.” He looked at his hands. “Some of the servants were taken in by a man from Shadowclaw. He told them it was a refuge. That they would be protected and housed until things settled.”
My wolf snarled within me. ‘I know what you’re thinking. Let us hear him out,’ I told him as I pushed down his anger. I felt the flare of anger from Solon as he gave me a knowing look.
Leslie cursed under her breath. “Of course, it wasn’t a refuge,” she said and Gideon shook his head.
“My friend escaped from there after two weeks and found me. He told me they were being used. Tested on, he said, though he could not tell me exactly what was being done to them,” Gideon continued.
“But they had already injected him with something,” I said.
“Yes. He looked fine at first. A little pale, but he seemed alright. Then a few weeks later the marks appeared on his arms first. Then, they began to spread toward his shoulders. He said it felt like something was pulling him and his wolf apart and he could not stop it no matter what he did,” Gideon stated.
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“He died,” Gideon replied. I offered him a tissue, and he wiped tears from his face. “He died within three months of the marks first appearing. There was nothing anyone could do. No healer knew what it was or what caused it.”
“Michael,” Solon growled. “He did this.”
Rudolf didn’t look surprised.
“We looked at Shadowclaw after Alpha Ryker died. There were serious questions about Michael’s involvement in what led to that attack, but we found no evidence that we could act on,” he explained. That explained the tension I felt between Rudolt and Michael. Rudolf suspected him and just couldn’t prove it.
“Of course there wasn’t. Michael was in his prime at the time. He had everything at his disposal to ensure there was no evidence,” Solon said in disgust.
Rudolf did not disagree. “I want you to look at something,” he said as pushed back his sleeve and held out his arm for Gideon to see. “Are the marks the same as the ones that were on your friend?”
Upon seeing the marks, the color drained from Gideon’s face. He stared without speaking.
“Gideon,” I said and he jumped as if I pulled him out of his thoughts.
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