Lessons in Love

Chapter 67: The Traitor

POV: Delta Rick Wallis

Ben sent the information Henry left us to the council. We had Sam join us to draft an official statement to the pack informing them of the new information.

“I need to know something,” Ben said, stifling a growl. “When he attacked Riley …” Ben started to growl and stopped talking to clear his throat.

“He didn’t say anything to me.” Sam said, understanding where Ben was going. “I tried to warn him off through the mind-link, but he didn’t respond, and he didn’t stop. He did look … sad, maybe?” Sam said, scrunching his face as he searched for the right words. “I know it’s not going to make you feel better about it, but he could have done a lot worse, and he took a second before he pounced. Whether he was trying not to do serious damage or was just nervous to hurt her, I don’t know, but he looked upset that he was doing it.”

Ben nodded. “We made the decision to bring him into the fold.” He said with a sigh. “How did my father know we’d do that?” He said. I looked down at the floor uncomfortably. Ben had made the decision because I had suggested it.

“Well, not really.” Sam shrugged. “Riley and I made the decision after we talked to Hannah.”

My head snapped up. “Wolfsbane.” I said, looking between them. “Hannah runs the greenhouse. She would be able to get it a lot easier than anyone else.”

Ben’s eyes went round. “He wanted Hannah to run the program at the schools that first day he visited. He even pretended to be pissed off when we said we’d hired Henry on her recommendation. He totally played us.”

“We should go talk to Hannah.” Sam said calmly, getting to his feet. The three of us headed out of Ben’s office. We went into the greenhouse and heard a vicious growl coming from the back. The three of us went running.

Riley had Hannah pinned on the floor, an arm painfully behind her back. Her face was low, next to Hannah’s. “I told you,” Riley growled with intent as we came into the space. “Don’t. f*****g. Test me.” Ben’s back straightened, and I could tell he didn’t know what to do. He looked surprised and a bit angry.

“Riles,” I said calmly. “What’s going on?”

Hannah lifted her head. “Help me!” She screamed at us. “She’s crazy! She’s trying to kill me.”

“Nice try,” Riley growled violently and pulled Hannah’s arm back. Hannah cried out in pain.

“Riles,” I said, moving closer to her. “Talk to me.”

Riley made eye contact with me and then looked back at Hannah. “Tell them the truth?” She growled. “Tell them now!” She yelled close to Hannah’s face. Hannah’s reply was simply to growl and thrash in the Riley’s hold.

“She tried to kill you.” Riley said, looking at me. “She helped Henry spy on us, and she tried to kill you.” Riley growled viciously, pulling harder on Hannah’s arm.

“Stop!!” Hannah shrieked.

“Riles,” I put my hand on Riley’s shoulder. “Maybe we should let her up so she can explain.” I said gently.

“Not a chance.” Riley held firm.

I looked over at Ben and Sam. Sam seemed content to stand there and watch it play out. Ben was so rageful, I thought his aura was going to explode and knock us all into next week. “We came here to question her.” I said calmly. “Why don’t you let us do that?” I gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze.

Riley met my eyes. “No need,” she said. “I recorded everything. My phone is on the compost bin.” Sam moved immediately and found her phone. He gave me a nod. “The wolfsbane is inside the compost.” She added.

“We’ll take it from here.” I said to her.

Riley loosened her grip. With a shove, she let go of Hannah and stood up. Hannah stood up, rubbing her arm. “You crazy, b***h!” She screamed. Both Riley and Ben growled at her. She whipped around and tried her to attack Riley. Before any of us could move, Riley blocked Hannah’s fist, shoved her back, and roundhouse kicked her into a shelf full of clay pots. Hannah hit the floor with a dozen or so of the clay pots smashing around her.

“Let her up,” Riley growled at me. “Great idea.” Riley swung around and left the greenhouse with an angry growl.

“We’ll take her to the dungeon.” Sam said to Ben. Ben nodded and followed Riley out the door.

Sam picked Hannah up in a fireman’s carry and we headed off. She started to come around as we were closing the door on the cell. She sat up rubbing her head and saw us on the other side of the bars. Hannah growled at us.

“Why?” I asked simply.

“Why?!” She replied incredulously. “You honestly think you deserve to live?” I swallowed at her comment. “Danny and Conner idolized you. They would come home from training patrols and tell me how brave and fierce you were.” She sneered at me as she talked about her brother and her nephew. Danny, her brother died in an early battle of the war as part of a six-wolf patrol that Ben and I ran. Conner was one of the nine casualties in the gym.

“Then you idiots start a war with the Rogues and they both die. Conner was missing his eye, and Danny ...” she growled harshly. “It took Ben nearly a month to find his body. He was unrecognizable by the time we buried him. You had the audacity yesterday to stand there a play the victim when it was my family, this pack, who are the real victims.” She yelled at me.

“I pray every night you see their faces. That you remember what they looked like when they died. I hope you never forget it because we can’t. I hope it twists you in unending pain because that’s what you gave us.” She screamed at us.

I nodded once and left the cell block.

“Hey, don’t listen to her. You and I know you did everything you could.” Sam said.

“Yeah,” I nodded, avoiding eye contact. “I have to go pick up Emma. You got this?”

“I can handle her.” He smiled at me. I moved out of the dungeons and walked down past the training grounds. The high school stood empty in front of me. I went in the back door and into a small mud room behind the gym. I gripped the handle of the door tightly but didn’t have the guts to open it. Conner had been a trainee. All the boys in the gym had been. I had no right to put them in that fight. They’d all fought before then and against Rogues, but it still wasn’t fair. Conner had taken a heavy paw to the face; his eye had been ripped out right before his throat had been.

I punched the door, and when it gave me no relief, I punched it again and again until my knuckles started to bleed. Hannah couldn’t be the only one who felt like that. She couldn’t be the only one who blamed me. I had hoped the vote was about us being the right choice, but what if we were just a better choice than George? A devil they knew better.

Tears stung my eyes as I thought about the m******e in the gym. I thought of Smokey begging me to forgive myself for it. I found it hard to breathe suddenly as the familiar pangs of a panic attack started to take root. I ran back to the packhouse and up to my suite. I was sweating and panting when I reached my bedroom and closed the door. I slid to the floor and let it take me. The whole time, I whispered the same thing over and over. “I’m sorry, Smokey. I can’t.”