My Lycan Mate of Suicide Forest

Graeme met his Beta in the dungeon.

Sam called him there so he could verify if his own nose was correct or if he was overthinking this. He had followed Andreas' scent down here, but then the scent trail vanished.

"Is it because he came down here looking for Zoe and then he went back up through the pack house? Or was this more recent?" Sam asked the question aloud that he had been pondering silently.

If Andreas knew how to hide his scent, then the faint scent that would be left behind like that which Sam had identified on Marius at the treehouse would have already dispersed. It wasn't an identifier scent in terms of helping pinpoint who exactly it belonged to, and it didn't hang around long. Both of those characteristics made it unlikely that any lycan would typically pick up on it at all, which was why Marius had been so surprised that Sam had caught on to it.

"What do you think?" Graeme asked, watching as Sam's mind worked. "He is an elder. His fighting days may be over, but we can be sure he has picked up a few tricks in his years."

Sam nodded. "I believe he masked his scent to leave without anyone being able to track him."

"Where the fuck else would he go?" Graeme snarled. "He practically lives here."

"Somewhere to hide," Sam guessed.

"He's not getting past the guards, is he?" Graeme asked.

"No, even if his scent is gone, he is slow and there are so many guards covering the perimeter right now, they wouldn't miss him."

"He still has a house. I guess one of us will check there."

"What if we can't find him? Without a scent, he could be anywhere."

"If he is still in hiding by tomorrow, we will have everyone looking for him by the end of the day, especially after they hear of his crimes."

"I'll check his house," Sam sighed.

"Okay. I'll be talking with Pearce while you do that. Perhaps he knows, unless they are together."

"I only scent Andreas," Sam shook his head. "I don't think they are together."

"I'm bringing him to a cell once I do talk with him. But I'll let you know if I find out anything helpful."

"Should I check on our females?" Sam asked, growing more concerned now the longer Andreas was missing.

Graeme nodded.

"Wait, what's the deal with Violet?"

Graeme blew out a breath. "It's crazy Sam, but I think she was attacked by someone else from Eliade."

"What? Why do you think that? How could that be?"

"She isn't healing from her wounds. Something bit her and appears to have tried marking her. She said that his eyes looked like August's and that he told her he was taking her wolf."

His Beta stared at him in disbelief. This sounded like Marius all over again. But this time the taking of the wolf through the bite was intentional.

"Could she be lying?" Sam asked. It would be a great ploy for sympathy and to implicate August in some kind of vile, evil race. Not unlike the false alyko tales. "Maybe the elders set this up…"

"No. Her fear and the wounds… everything is genuine. She didn't want me to touch her. She didn't want to tell me any of it. And she claims she deserves what happened," he recalled.

"So is this an entirely new threat we have to worry about?"

"I don't know. But let's prioritize our bad guys for now. Let's focus on finding Andreas first, then we'll worry about the unknown vampire. The last priority is solving this Violet mystery, but it will need to be done."

"So there is the possibility of another August out there who instead hurts others?" the thought kept spinning in Sam's mind, as if its wheels were stuck in the mud.

"Not only that, one who is aligned with another pack. Those were lycan scratches on her. And she was attacked when she crossed into another pack's territory."

"That's what Finn said. Why the fuck would she knowingly do that?" Sam scowled. "What pack was it?"

"I didn't get that far yet. But we'll find out."

———————————

Andreas lit a torch in Magnolia's cottage. How disgustingly fitting that he would end up back here trying to battle an alyko once more. Only this one was pregnant with the pack's heir. This one had apparently gotten the Moon Goddess' blessing.

Well fuck the Goddess. This could not happen. It would throw the pack in chaos and it would not only end Andreas' position in the pack but also his life.

He didn't fear death, of course. He had always been ready to die. Most unmated lycans were not afraid of their own deaths. It was the mated ones that had that kind of trouble. Because then your death meant your mate's own death or at least intense and in many cases insurmountable anguish. One's own death meant hurting most severely the person you held closest to yourself.

Not that Andreas understood that. He refused to be tied to anyone in that way, so he closed himself off to any possibility of a mate connection. He severed the pull between the Moon Goddess and himself. He didn't want to feel her gentle guidance or the perfect vibrational attunement that came from being aligned with her and with any other universal powers that be.

Andreas wanted to be free to pursue his own interests, unhindered by anyone else. Even the Moon Goddess herself.

These were his thoughts as he dropped the white pills into the mortar and pestle and began grinding them into a fine powder. It would be getting dark soon he realized, glancing toward the windows. It would be much easier to move around at night without being seen. Without his scent, he would be like a ghost of the woods.

He chuckled at the irony of it. It was the eve of Samhain when folklore spoke of the thinning between worlds. The thinning of the veil. Initially, disguises were worn to avoid being identified and captured by faeries who would spirit away humans and lycans alike, taking them to a realm said to be suspended in time until the next Samhain.

But tonight he was going to be the mysterious figure lurking through the woods, and no disguise would fool him from finding his target.

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