The Blessed Reborn Lycan

Chapter Three

Ned POV

The stench of blood clung to the interrogation room like a second skin. I start pacing slowly, boots echoing against the cold concrete floor. The rogue, shackled to a silver-laced chair, slumped forward, his breathing shallow and erratic. A faint whimper escaped him each time he moved, whether from pain or fear, I didn’t care.

The dungeon was underground away from the packhouse, wouldn’t want the pups to hear what happens down here.

I stop in front of the rogue, arms crossed. “You’ve got one chance. Talk.”

The rogue spat blood to the side, flashing a grin that didn’t quite reach his dull eyes. “Wasn’t personal.”

I know he’s lying. “Someone paid you. Who?”

Silence.

I lean in, voice a low growl. “You entered my territory. You tried to murder a pup under my protection, my flesh and blood. Tell me who sent you before I rip the truth out of your mind.”

My reflection glowed in his eyes, bright yellow. Torv was rising.

A flicker of fear then, he quickly spills “She said it’d be easy. That the girl didn’t have her wolf. Just a regular kid. b***h lied to us, that was no ordinary girl!!”

“She?” Ned’s voice dropped to a dangerous whisper.

The rogue chuckled, then winced. “Didn’t give a name. Just said she used to be close to the pup’s father. Real close. Said he’d come back to her once the girl was out of the picture.”

My stomach turned, stepping back, eyes blazing. “Describe her.”

“Dark hair. Pretty. Cold eyes though… like ice, even when she smiled.”

I froze. I knew exactly who the rogue meant.

Neris.

I clenched my fists at my sides, breathing deeply to keep my wolf in check. Edgar had claimed Neris was innocent years ago. Claimed she was just lonely, rejected and forgotten. And because of that pity, she’d been spared. But now…

“What else do you know? Tell me everything and i’ll make it quick, despite my wolf wanting to come out and play.” I smile and show him my canines and he spills it all.

“I don't know anything except that the b***h who came to us said we could have fun killing the next line of leaders of the pack but the girl HAD to die first. The rest of the group were cut off from us somehow so we were just gonna kill the girl and leave when that brat howled.”

I rushed forward and ripped out his throat, the thought of him also harming my son enraging Torv.

Ned turned on his heel without another word, storming out of the room. His beta fell into step beside him with a wet rag.

“Alpha?”

“Find Neris,” I ordered. “Now.”

Garrett nods sharply. “We’ll find her, Alpha.”

But Ned already knew it was pointless. Neris was clever, too clever to stay put once she caught wind of the interrogation. Like smoke, she would vanish before they even had a chance.

The guards split up, searching the usual hideouts and places Neris had been spotted before. Hours passed with nothing but silence and cold wind.

When they regrouped at the dungeons, Ned’s expression was grim. “She’s gone. Slipped through our fingers yet again.”

The door to the dungeons groaned shut behind me, sealing in the pain, blood, and truth I hadn’t wanted to find. I stepped into the night air, letting it sting my face.

The sky was cloaked in thick clouds, the moon a pale smudge behind the gloom. Fitting. She had turned her back on us years ago, and maybe we deserved it.

I tilted my head up anyway, whispering into the wind, “If you’re still watching… give me the strength to do what’s next.”

Without wasting more time, I headed straight for Amy’s home. I looked inside and see Amy on the couch, seemingly trying to focus on the half-stitched seam in her hand. Her needle had paused mid-loop at least five times now. She glanced toward the stairs, Asha’s room, something heavy pressed at her chest.

I sigh, the weight of the news too much to even push open the door. I finally do, and Amy stands up to approach me, tired but hopeful.

“You got what you needed? We know who the traitor is?”

I sigh, this won’t be easy. “Come, I need to tell you everything,” I say quietly, voice steady but heavy.

Amy’s eyes searched my face. “About what?”

I took a deep breath and began. “The rogue we captured… He was sent by Neris.”

Amy’s face tightened. “Neris? What does Neris have against?...No. Tell me she did not do this for Edgar. He said it was over with her the night Asha was born, that he initiated with Neris first and she was innocent.”

I sigh, here it goes... “Edgar took the blame to protect her. Said she was lonely and lost after her mate rejected her. But this? This was calculated, she’s twisted now. She hired rogues to get rid of Asha, hoping to pull Edgar back to her.”

Amy’s hands trembled. “So she’s still a part of this pack…and yet still not satisfied. She took my mate and almost killed my child!! Again!!”

She roars and I try to calm her down to not wake Asha.

“She’s dangerous, it means her loyalty no longer resides with the good of the pack.”

I nodded, agreeing with her. “We have to be ready. Because she’s not done yet.”

Amy looks at me with fear. “What do you mean brother? Do you know more?”

I rub my face now, I am exhausted and all this is too much. “If Neris is capable inside the pack of doing something like this, being out there she could do so much worse. I wouldn’t put it past her that she was the reason for the battle that broke out 2 years ago too, where Asha's power first surfaced.”

Amy goes still. Damn it, I was going to tell her in the morning, this is all too much for her to be told at once.

“First surfaced? What do you mean first surfaced Ned? What else aren't you telling me??”

I see the tears start to form, I lead her to the couch, she must try to breath for what I need to tell her now.

“When George was out there alone in the field with Asha, 2 things happened. First, because of the panic, adrenaline, and pure need to protect Asha, George’s wolf, Bjorn surfaced. He did not shift, but he managed to let out an alpha howl.”

Amy is now overjoyed and smiling, but it quickly fades.

“That's amazing brother, I am glad he got his wolf early. They will be a great team, but you said something else happened?”

“Yes, when George’s wolf came forward, he sensed something about Asha, and saw her eyes flash purple.”

Amy gasps and covers her mouth, taking a deep breath she says “What did he sense Ned?”

I take her hand to try and soothe her, “Bjorn said he felt her wolf, a powerful wolf inside her when her eyes flashed, then nothing. But a wolf that powerful, at that age? My blood ran cold when he said that it was not that she went dormant, but that she was just no longer there. He said she was the reason we could not sense or smell them in the forest, she blocked them to keep the other rogues from finding them first.”

Amy shoots up and starts to pace now. “Her dream...”

Now I’m confused. “What dream are you talking about Amy?” She sits back down and turns to me with a small smile, but its not without pain.

“She used to tell me about this dream she had, She says she hasn’t had it in months. It started on that night 2 years ago. She told me of a beautiful blue lake, with white crystals surrounding the edges, flowers of every color in a field surrounding the lake...It sounds exactly like our lake here but so much more, ethereal.” Her smile drops now, and I feel a cold shiver down my spine.

“She also tells me of someone with her in the dream, the woman in white. And there's someone else, something else in there with her. Something with purple eyes.”

I try to put the pieces together, but nothing make sense. “What is that supposed to mean? Is Asha just dreaming of herself? Or is something else inside her? Who is the woman in white?”

Amy scrunches her face deep in thought. “She told me the woman in white also had long white hair, like snow that sparkled. I think, Ned I think she dreamt of the moon goddess!”

My eyes go wide. I am thick, so very very thick, how can I not remember that?? I shoot up off the couch now, laughing.

Amy looking more confused than before I tell her “Growing up, training to be alpha, I had to read every story, every prophecy we know, and there was always a mention of a woman in white. She came down from the moon to bless her children in need of her guidance every full moon. She has not graced this plane with her form in centuries after the Great Lycan War between the Lycans, wolves, and witches.

All the bloodshed and betrayal to her bloodline, the first of the lycanthropes, made her weep and step back into the moon where she stays hidden. Ever since that war, clouds would cover the moon each night it was full, dulling the connection to the moon not just to the wolves, but the witches who need moonlight for their magic, to feed into their souls.

Nobody knows how it affected the Lycans, it is only known that there are only 5 remaining, and they are the leaders of this realm. Perhaps the last.” I look to Amy and expect her to be in shock as I was, but she’s smiling?

“Amy? Why are you smiling?” She looks to me with what looks like hope in her eyes.

“That night Ned, the moon showed itself while we fought. I thought I was dying and that's why I saw the full moon, for the second time, I saw the complete moon shine down on us. I think she was there, watching.” I interrupt her and say “Woah woah woah, a second time?”

“I think, I believe she was there the night Asha was born, I was bleeding so much after giving birth, and I almost died when I felt Asha go still and she had no breath. Then I felt it, the moonlight, I thought I was dreaming as I was dying… that she came to take Asha’s soul herself, and the moon goddess came to claim my pup. Suddenly Asha breathed in and started to cry. I blacked out and completely forgot about what happened that night after what happened in the clinic.”

I can see her visibly flinch at that, it was not an easy night, for any of us, we all felt that pain through the link.

“What do I do Ned? Should I tell Asha? What if her power manifests early like George and she has no idea what's happening to her. We still don't even know. Purple eyes? I have never heard of a wolf with purple eyes. Witches eyes are light green. Wolf leadership is yellow, the rest of the pack just shines their human eye color, rogues are red, Lycans are blue, and the king has a deep orange eye color, and the goddess is silver. So what could purple mean?”

She’s in my face now bawling and I have no answers for my baby sister, no way to soothe her worries. I get angry, because this was what mates were for, to help us in times of need. Mine taken by murder for power, hers taken by betrayal. Perhaps for the same reason I wonder, and maybe if by the same person. Maybe the goddess was right to leave us... Little did I know, there was a little pup, listening in on everything, changing her life forever, as we debated what to do with her.