Chapter 210: chapter 211

Kyson POV

I was beginning to get a headache from all this drama. But watching Azalea, she wasn’t fearful or hesitant

Shout asking questions. No, she demanded them with my help. I was shocked when I was able to touch her

aura.

I expected it to recoil and force me out. If it did, I wouldn’t be able to touch it, let alone manipulate it. She was a Landeena, and I may have some resistance to her being that I am her mate, but overall she could make me beg at her feet once she was capable of controlling it.

Yet I was ecstatic because it meant her bond felt safe with me, that she trusted me entirely. It also meant she must have forgiven me. Our bond was solid, and now it had let me in. I could feel her as if she were an extra limb.

“Take Tandi to Abbie,” I tell Damian, and he nods before I watch him wander out with her. She is no longer needed here. Yet as I turned my gaze back to Larkin, he watched her go as if he wanted to follow.

He remained seated and rubbed a hand down his face, looking as tired as I felt.

“The missing rogue children? The ones that turned up dead?” Azalea asks while her sadness is bleeding into me through the bond for them.

“I swear I had nothing to do with it or the Council that I know of. Whatever Crux was up to with the secret meetings. I was kept out of it. I had no idea,” Larkin says.

“What do you think of Crux?” Azalea asks. Larkin grits his teeth, resisting her command, and I force it over him harder, his eyes bulging from his head.

“Answer me!” Azalea demands.

“I can’t stand him! He is power hungry, and I don’t like how he handles the rogue women. I don’t like his side dealings. We are supposed to uphold the law, not dabble in the shady parts of it,” he growls, and my brows raise.

“So you know he is trafficking rogues?”

“Yes, that isn’t illegal under the Lycan laws. You said the packs decided. That doesn’t mean I like what he does with them.”

“That law will be changing,” Azalea growls, her anger blistering hot as she glares at me. It was my fault. I never should have given them a choice, yet I didn’t think the Council would abuse it. I nod, telling her agree.

“Do you believe Crux is helping the hunters?” Azalea asks him.

“No! He is a council member,” Larkin answers quickly.

“Is that the only reason you believe that? Because he is a council member?” Azalea asks him.

“Well, yes. He would be breaking the law we promised to protect.”

“Is there a chance you could be wrong?” she asks, changing the question slightly.

“Well, yeah, a chance. But he wouldn’t. I don’t have to like him, but he is a good council member,” Larkin says.

“He knows nothing,” I breathe out, annoyed. Whatever was going on with Crux and the hunters. Larkin wasn’t a part of it. That much is clear. That didn’t rule out Crux, though.

“So I can see my son?” Larkin asks.

“I’m leaving that decision to my Beta,” I tell him. Tandi was his mate, although I don’t think he is a threat to her or her son. Larkin nods his head and sighs before folding his arms across his chest and staring up at the ceiling. “This is ridiculous,” he mutters to himself.

“The council keeps track of the missing rogue children, right?” Azalea asks, and Larkin nods, turning his attention to her again.

“We have those files here,” I tell Azalea.

“And there were no patterns in any of the deaths?” she continues. Larkin shrugs.

“None we could find. Only that it was mostly females, but the ages ranged, and sometimes entire families,” Larkin says. Azalea, I could tell, was thinking hard about something, something that was really bothering her, and I knew she was eager to speak to Cedric about whatever it was she dreamed.

“Can you get a diary or something of Crux’s track records?”

“Of course, we have to log everything, even the kilometers on the cars. They have GPS built into them.

They track our every move,” Larkin says.

“Wait, so Crux knows you’re here?” I ask him.

“If he looked into it, well, yes, he could track me here. My brother set it up. He didn’t trust the newer council members Crux was recruiting. They handle the smaller packs, about five or six of them.”

“Can you get Crux’s records?”

“If you have a computer. I can log in and do it now, but it will only go back since technology advanced, not back to your parent’s deaths, my Queen. Tech wasn’t that advanced back then.” he says.

“I don’t need it to go back that far. I want to cross-reference it with the missing rogue children,”

“What about my parent’s records? Did the Council keep tabs on them?”

“No, we couldn’t get close to the Kingdom, only Crux. Your father had a soft spot for him. He felt bad that his father wanted nothing to do with him,” Larkin says with a shrug.

“Did Crux know of my existence?” Azalea asks Larkin.

“No one did, not even Crux,” Cedric answers. “You never left the castle or stepped out of the castle walls.

Only a select few knew of you until after their deaths,” Cedric adds.

“So there is no chance Crux knew of my existence?” Azalea asks. My brows furrow at her question.

“Not unless someone inside told him,” Cedric answers. “Why?” Cedric asks her.

“It’s probably nothing,” she says, though I could tell it bothered her badly.

“Speak,” I whisper, nudging her.

“What if the children are dead because of me? Most of the women that have been killed recently are around my age. What if the children were just caught up in it, saw too much?”

“Larkin sometimes said, entire families. What if the recent missing children weren’t the targets but their mothers or sisters? They only had an approximate age, right?” Azalea asks.

“But the hunters never knew of your existence. Everyone thought you were dead.” Cedric says.

“But what if they knew I was alive when I was a kid? My mother, I mean Marrissa, was on the run. She was hiding from something it is obvious to me now with how we never stayed in one place long, and that leads me back to my dream,”

“Your dream?” Cedric answers.

“Yes, my mother told Marrissa to run with me, to give me to my mate,” Azalea says, looking at me.

“But I didn’t know you were my mate back then. I didn’t even know you existed,” I tell her.

“Doesn’t mean Queen Tatiana didn’t know. Your mother sometimes saw things and got strange senses.

Your father tried to say she dabbled in the dark arts and banned her from using some of her particular gifts,” Cedric explains, and Trey nods behind him.

“Yeah, gifts that would catch him out cheating, not that she couldn’t feel his infidelity, the prick,” Trey growls. I smile sadly, knowing that it must have been terrible to watch his mate in agony because her husband was unfaithful.

“So my mother could see the future?” Azalea asks Cedric.

“Not exactly, more like intuition. Sometimes when she touches someone or first met them. She didn’t have full visions,” Trey said. I hum thoughtfully, thinking back to all the times I had met Tatiana and how she was always so welcoming. Was that why?

“Although that would explain when King Garret always tried to sabotage the trials, why your mother made me sabotage him,” Cedric says.

“My mother sabotaged him?” Azalea asks.

“Yeah, he would try to cheat, poison the water to make those competing sick. A couple of times, she had me switch the bottle over his own or empty the vials and refill them with herbs. Another was when he tried to use his powers to command everyone to fail; Tatty asked me to slip him wolfsbane and water hemlock so he couldn’t, so I did.” He chuckles. “At first, I believed it was her revenge for his infidelity.

Everyone knew the king was unfaithful, and it shamed your mother. None of us were blind to it,” Cedric says softly.

“Anyway, I thought your father hated King Kyson at first, but it turns out he was trying to win your hand back,” Cedric answers. I glance at Trey, who looks away.

“And just for the record, Cedric. When you caught Marrissa on the ground floor that night, Marrissa didn’t betray my mother. My mother told her to run with me, that the hunters would discover me if she ran with me. She told Marrissa to run. She was never a traitor” Azalea tells him, and Cedric bows his head.

“When I saw her in the hunter uniform-”

“You were wrong, but your Kingdom was under attack. I understand,” Azalea says.

“But who let the hunters in if Marissa didn’t let them in?” Cedric asks.

LY.

“Someone else on the inside,” Azalea answers.

“But the King’s sister, same thing on their anniversary. I’m sorry, my Queen, but you have to admit Marrissa looks guilty. Two castles she was working in, both attacked by hunters,” Cedric says.

“But Crux also had access to both kingdoms. I know it wasn’t my mothe

sto both kingdoms. I know it wasn’t my mother, the dream I had. Marrissa and my mother almost seemed like friends. She trusted Marrissa with me. I know what I saw, and Marrissa tried to get my mother to run with me,” Cedric’s brows furrow while Trey rubs his temples. Larkin just sat quietly, listening to everything, though he seemed deep in thought as well.

“I can get Crux travel records. I will also question those that the brothel too, see what I can find out,”

Larkin says.

“You would go against Crux?” Azalea asks him.

“If he is helping the hunters, then yes. But everything you have said is now making me question everything. You’re right. It doesn’t make sense. Too much doesn’t add up, and Tandi verified the insignia patches. I’ll check it out,” he says, and I nod to him.