Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Reuben

an

Fiddling with unopened cigarette packet in my hand, a habit I no longer

indulged in but still found comfort in the familiarity of, I stared at Bix. His eyes were slightly red as he sat across from me in silence for a long moment having just finished our three hour long meeting.

“Thank you for not burning down the Opal Moon Pack and for not harming Ella,”

he murmured.

“Bix, you’re not confusing me with some big-hearted man who cares about innocent people that would’ve been caught in the destruction of the Opal Moon Pack, are you?” I lazily leaned back in my chair.

“How can I misunderstand when I am aware of every aspect of your personality? After Alpha Adam conspired against Willow, you were ready to destroy every living. thing that resided within his pack, there was no reason for you to change your decision. That much I am aware of. Only a kind-hearted woman like Willow could misunderstand your intentions, and I’m sure she did after you chose not to burn that pack to the ground. However, I do want to know why you changed your mind,” Bix questioned.

“I didn’t destroy the Opal Moon Pack because of Oran,” I revealed, and Bix’s expression changed to one of surprise.

“What do you mean?”

“Do you really think that Oran would have let you talk to me about pardoning Alpha Adam and not burning his pack?” I unwrapped the packet of cigarettes neatly, closely observing his changing expression. Our eyes locked for a moment, then he looked away, understanding that while arguing with him, Oran had already mind-linked me about the situation and that’s why I had changed my decision.

“Idiot, he always wants to act like a hero. Who asked him to do that?” Bix grumbled.

The corner of my lips twitched slightly at the sight of him trying his best to frown but failing. “True, Oran is an idiot but only when he wants to be,” I remarked, instantly catching Bix’s attention.

He looked away from me again, pretending to be casual as if he didn’t understand anything. “Then what about Ella? Why did you let her go?” he murmured.

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Chapter 74

“Because of you,” I casually replied.

Bix co cked his brows in confusion, “Me?”

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“To repay a favor that I have owed you for years,” I explained. “I finally found the right moment to repay you by letting Ella go.”

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“Reuben… why the hell are you talking about that day?” Bix clenched his fists. “Why the hell do you want to repay me for something that I’ve been detesting myself for years over?”

I closed my eyes and leaned back against the chair, trying to calm my mind in silence. We were all messed up in our own ways. With my wolf hearing, I could hear Wyatt and Lori playing on the playground outside, and Willow humming downstairs. I just wanted to get back to her, but I had a lot of work to catch up on that had piled up during my

absence.

Opening my eyes, I sat up straight to focus on finishing the work as soon as possible, so I could go down to Willow. “What about the mysterious attacks? Have any more taken place while I was gone?”

“No, the attacks have stopped once again, and Wade Moon was never attacked even though we suspected they would be the next target,” Bix said, rubbing a hand over his face to shake off our earlier conversation. “But I don’t think Wade Moon is doing well,” he added.

“What about Wade Moon?” My ears perked up at the mention of them. The last time, Willow’s panic over Wade Moon during Thanksgiving had been triggering for me. She loved them as if they were her blood relatives. It annoyed me, but the thought of seeing Willow cry over their destruction was unbearable.

“Well, there was news that the second-ranking packs were meeting about the mysterious attacks. Alpha Benjamin attended the meeting but withdrew before its conclusion. He’s no longer participating in any meetings related to the attacks. While the other second-ranking packs are forming armies to confront the attacker if they show themselves, Wade Moon Pack is remaining passive, even after losing. all the packs along their borders,” Bix informed me, a fact that also bothered me.

That was indeed a strange behavior from Wade Moon. I tapped my finger on the desk as Alpha Benjamin’s face crossed my mind, once again I felt like I had seen that old Alpha somewhere before. Some blurry images flashed through my mind, but they were fleeting.,”

Lost in thought, I was brought back to the present when Bix continued speaking. “In your absence, we’ve completed our investigation into the mysterious incidents

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and fires that have been occurring,” he stated, taking the cigarette packet from my hand and lighting a cigarette for himself. “Since you’ve given up on them, I can’t let them go to waste,” he murmured.

Taking a deep breath, I immediately looked at the conclusions that Oran and Bix had come up with.

“So you’re saying that the three packs surrounding Wade Moon Pack caught fire at the same time?” I raised my eyebrows at Bix after reading.

He nodded, spreading the reports neatly for me to examine. “Not only did they catch fire at the same time, but the pack members also simultaneously disappeared. When the other packs raided the area to catch the culprit, they never found a single pack member or dead body,” he explained. Pausing, he placed a photo of the chared rogue bodies in front of me.

“If what you are saying is true then the attacker had to have been in all three packs at the same time to wipe them out, which is impossible unless he is a ghost,” I remarked.

“That f ucker does indeed seem ghost because it really happened,” Bix breathed out, “But when that fire occurred at the abandoned packhouse outside of Miami, the dead bodies of those rogues were found for the first time. That’s not the usual style of this mystery attacker. It only means that…”

“It means that no one is dying in these fires,” Oran entered my office with a handful of documents. I raised my eyes at him.

“How can you say that?” I asked, puzzled by Oran’s assertion.

He took a seat beside Bix. “I sent samples of the ash and soil from all the packs that were attacked and burned,” Oran spread out the papers in front of me for examination. “The reports are in, they indicate that there was no trace of blood or human remains in the soil of those packs,” he explained. I scrutinized the reports from each pack, confirming that indeed, there was no evidence of blood or human remains in the ash.

“What are you thinking, Reuben?” Bix and Oran looked at me expectantly as I calmly went through all the reports.

Placing the papers back on the table, I looked at Oran. “What about the footage from the camera I had installed in the woods outside Miami? Did you retrieve it?”

“I did. It’s been waiting for you on your desk the whole time,” Oran gestured towards the pen drive resting on my desk.

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“It must have captured the attacker’s face!” Bix eagerly exclaimed, walking around my desk to stand beside me as Oran plugged the pen drive into my laptop. “I can’t wait to see who it is.”

Oran stood on my other side as the three of us fixed our attention on the video playing on the screen. My face appeared as I installed the camera then shifted into my wolf form, dashing away into the woods to chase after Willow. Then the view showed dead wolves lying around. Nothing else happened for the next couple of seconds, making Bix impatient. “Fast forward it,” he urged.

Oran nodded, but just as his finger was about to press the button, I grabbed his wrist. “Wait…”

He watched as my eyes sharpened on the screen, then shifted his gaze back to the screen, only to furrow his brow in confusion. “What the hell is happening?”

All of their eyes roamed over the screen, where the trees seemed to have stopped moving and the air had ceased blowing, as if the screen had frozen. Suddenly, a strong wind started to blow as someone’s shadow was cast over the ground.

“It’s a man!” Bix growled at the shadow. My eyes sharpened as I tried to make out the shadow in my mind. It began to move, soon the person’s face could be seen as he stepped into the camera’s range.

A pair of shining shoes briefly appeared on the screen. For some reason Dex started to stir in my mind, then the shoes abruptly stopped. They turned slightly towards the camera, almost as if the person were staring directly at it or even laughing, before taking another step forward into the camera’s range. Just as his face was about to be revealed, the footage abruptly blacked out.

“What the hell!” Bix growled, attempting to replay the video multiple times, but it remained corrupted.

Oran shook his head in shock. “Why does it feel like he knew about the camera, and he’s the one who destroyed it? Without touching it?”

“But he intentionally destroyed only the part where his face could be seen,” Bix stated. “And if you ask me, I honestly think he did it intentionally.”

Both of them exchanged a look after expressing their thoughts, then turned to look at me as I continued to stare at the screen, my fists clenched tightly.

“Reuben, what’s wrong?” Oran asked, concern evident in his voice.

“I found it,” I murmured, my nails digging into my palm.

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“Found what?”

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“The other piece of her torn handkerchief,” I glanced back at the screen with Dex in my eyes. I saw it even for a second. Tied around his hand!

Getting up from my seat, I walked downstairs to where Willow was dozing at the dining table, waiting for me to have dinner. I entered the room and scooped her up in my arms, carrying her to my bedroom.

Placing her gently on the bed, I stared down at her beautiful face and brushed the hair back from her face.

Slowly, all the rogues attacking in Alpha meeting, the mysterious attacks, and the rogues kidnapping Willow started to link together in my mind before it all connected with…. Willow.

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My gaze shifted to my mark on her neck. I climbed on the bed hovering over her small figure, tracing a finger over the mark, earning a soft seductive moan in response. If I wasn’t mistaken, these mysterious attacks were happening because of Willow.

Or maybe for… Willow.

My mind went blank when I realized that man was after Willow. He wanted Willow. He wanted something of mine.

The mere thought of Willow being stolen from me, awoke the sleeping beast that had been chained by Willow’s love for the past ten years inside me

My claws suddenly came out, sinking into the mattress beside Willow, tearing it slowly as I felt Dex taking me over as if I would shift at any moment.

“Reuben…” Suddenly Willow’s voice entered my ears, pulling me instantly out of the darkness that I had begun to fall into.

Her whisper echoed in the depths of mind, heart, and soul as Ceri made a connection with Dex soothing me. My claws returned to normal and eyes returned normal as Willow propped herself up slightly on her elbows.

“You are back,” she smiled, raising a hand to softly touch my cheek.

I blinked at her loving smile and beautiful eyes that stole my heart once again and rubbed my cheek against her palm. “Yes, I am back,” I slowly laid down beside her.

“I was waiting for you to have dinner,” she turned to face me, “I almost thought you would not return and I would have to keep waiting,” she pouted, which made

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Chapter 74

me chuckle. After so many years, I got to see her pouting, it was absolutely adorable.

“Sorry for making you wait,” I caressed her cheek and drew closer to her lips for a kiss, “But there will never be a day that I don’t return to you, Willow. Reuben has nowhere else to go other than his Willow. so I may be late but I will always return.”

She closed her eyes and smiled between our] “Then always keep your promise because Willow will always keep waiting for her Reuben…”

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