The Shadow Twin

Chapter 23 - Much needed truth

----Kayden POV----

My hand missed the punch bag, which then hit me square in the chest and face. Kneeling on the ground I roared loudly and expressed the conflicted pain that where rushing though me. Watching Leigh walk out the door with those bastards was haunting me and so was my last words to her. Sending her off like that was the hardest thing I had ever done and seeing how the light had sparkled dimly in the ring on her left ring finger, a ring she apparently never had taken of, might have been worse. I never really thought or noticed the wedding ring on her finger until then. Despite what I had done to her, she still wore it. And despite the fact that she was badly hurt, I still send her away. I was the asshole in this scenario as well. My wolf was restless, and he was occasionally fighting me to let him out, so he could go after Leigh. His turmoil was intense, almost as strong as when I saw Leigh in that bed after the attack. I needed to let of some steam, which was why I was here, but I couldn’t even focus on hitting the damn punching bag. Coming back to the castle after being gone for so long, it had been my intension to mend the bond or whatever between Leigh and I. As well as the bond to my siblings, but the second I smelt those bastards on her, I completely lost it. Sure, the bond to my siblings was mended then and there, more or less, Rylee and I was still not completely okay yet, but the bond to Leigh was destroyed for good. Just remembering that scent on her, the scent of other men, no less was close to pushing me over the edge and lose control again. I rose to my feet and started undoing the bandages on my hands. What made all this worse was the fact that she had stopped me from attacking one of them and she only really said something after they showed up. I’m sure had she been giving a chance she would have explained everything to us, like she said she would, but we just never got to that point. Just then the moment when Leigh walked towards those bastards flashed through my mind and seeing it all over again was the last straw. Losing my mind once more I punched the bag, hard enough for it to fly of it hinges. It hit the floor whit a thud and I just stood there breathing hard and loud, as the stuff from within the bag seeped out. All this undid me in a way to impossible to describe, cause my pain seemed to be entangled with my wolfs in a whole new way. It was something that I had never experienced before and it felt sort of weird, despite the fact that I was used to feeling what he did. All the feelings were sort of colliding with each other, and they were all contradicting. Like wanting to hurt Leigh, just as much as she had hurt me, while also not wanting to cause her any more harm. To keep her close, while also keeping her far away. Like and dislike. I just couldn’t figure it out anymore and I felt like I was losing my mind.

“I did try to warn you.” Sheila’s voice broke through my dark thoughts. I haven’t even heard her enter the room. Yeah, sure she had told me that Leigh was a slut early on, but that wasn’t really much of a warning. Remembering that she called her a slut back then, hadn’t affect me that much then, but now it was cutting deeper than a f*****g knife. What was affecting me more, were her voice right now. It was so goddamn annoying, and I was debating if I should block her out or not.

“Do you remember that I told you, that my father was looking into her background?” She looked at me curious and when I didn’t say anything she just continued.

“He managed to dig up some dirt…” She gave me that curious look again, almost like she was hoping to get a specific reaction out of me, but I clearly wasn’t giving her what she wanted. Not that I knew what signals I was giving right know or what my face showed.

“It turns out she was having an affair of sorts with one of those Darkmoon Walkers that show up here.” I saw red yet again at her words and would have punched the bag, if it was still hanging in front of me.

“Is this information something we can trust? Is the source reliable?” I growled low, not really wanting to believe that Leigh would do something like that. Something my wolf agreed with me on. The mere thought of her with some other man was disgusting and it hurt like hell. Something else my wolf and I agreed on.

“Of course. You know my father is the best when it comes to these kinds of things. Whoever he hired would not lie to him and I always verify the information given to him.” She answered, while glaring at me, like she couldn’t believe I was questioning her. She said something more after that. I could see her mouth moving, but I couldn’t hear her. I wanted to kill those bastards, no I needed to kill them, Leigh included. Next time I saw them, something I would make sure happened one way or the other, I would have Leigh watch as I mercilessly kill those four men and then take her head as I promised I would.

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Leigh had been gone almost two months now and her scent was now completely gone from every room in the castle. Even the room she had after moving out of mine, no longer held her scent. A room I had torn through more than once, in hopes to find something about the affair Seifer, Sheila’s father had uncovered, but I found nothing. I had also made some of my own people dig deeper into all of this. Sure, the Darkmoon Walkers had fallen of the face of the earth when the Pack became part of the Council but given that the Council didn’t care for erasing their tracks, there had to be something. Glancing around Leigh’s old room, I then opened her closet and held the fabric of the blue dress she wore at the welcoming party up to my nose. Her scent was weak, but still present enough for me to find it and let the memories of her entrance in the dress filled my head. I then groaned slightly in distress over the fading image of her in the dress. With this image gone, I no longer had something to help soothe my wolf and in the end myself. This was a whole new level of torture and I as constantly restless and on edge, her faint scent and the faded imaged for her no longer helping to put me at ease. I still didn’t understand my feelings for her and didn’t even realize, that I and not just my wolf actually had feelings for her until she was gone. Banishing her was the dumbest thing ever, but despite it begin emotion driven, the banishing was logically for the best even if I now emotionally didn’t agree. She was plotting with the enemy and having her here would put everybody at risk. Something I kept repeating to myself over and over again, but it didn’t help much, because both my Wolf and I wanted her here. I let go of the dress just as somebody forcefully opened the door to the room.

“You want to hear this.” Ryder said as he looked at me and without a word, I followed him out the room. And further down the hallway and up the stairs. He then opened the door to our fathers’ office and my eyes landed on the young man sitting on a chair, that stood on a sheet of plastic. Rylee had his claws dug into his shoulder and the rest of my family was looking at the young man with their brows frowned.

“Repeat what you told me earlier.” Rylee growled it while also putting more pressure on the man’s shoulder. The man let out some breathless mumbling.

“Louder and coherent.” Rylee commanded and put even more pressure on the man’s shoulder.

“I was hired by Seifer Caligari to dig into Crown Princess Leigh’s background.” He muttered and Rylee loosen his grip a bit. My brother was ruthless when it came to family and I knew that he was hurting badly, because of everything that happened with Leigh. Because his Wolf had accepted her as family, that much he had shared with me. What I didn’t knew was that he had taking it upon himself to verifying everything we learned. And where did he even find this guy, let alone how? My people found nothing.

“And?” Rylee said and gave the man a stern look.

“I wasn’t able to really find anything conclusive. She was left on the doorstep at the Mebobet castle, with a ton of money and lived with them until coming here. Nobody really knows anything about her, except that she likes reading in the forest or by the water. She never really spoke in her time in the Mebobet castle and Leigh might not even be her birthname.” He said looking extremely pale, but if it was due to blood loss or the fact, he had provided false information to Seifer and then been discovered in doing so, I couldn’t tell.

“What about the connection to the Darkmoon Walkers? The whole affair she had with one of them?” My father questioned and the man looked down. Rylee increased the pressure on his shoulder and the man gasped in pain.

“I didn’t find any connection. Whatever’s going on between the Crown Princess and the Darkmoon Walkers there is no evidence. Not even my contact in the Council have ever heard the former Darkmoon Walkers pack members or anybody else for that matter talk about her. Not until the rumors about her marriage to the Crown Prince got out and even then, the talk was superficial. Nobody knows her.” Rylee decreased the pressure again and looked around the room.

“The Darkmoon Walkers former Alfa’s sons recognized her. Why?” I asked, things slowly coming together and forming a dark picture. The man shook his head.

“I don’t know. I never found anything that connects them and I’m the best at digging up people’s past. But the Crown Princess don’t really have one and it made the Caligari’s mad.” The man then passed out as Rylee removed his claws from his shoulder. We all kind of just stood there, shock eminent in the air. This couldn’t be happening, but it was. Our mother then gasped and grabbed our father’s hand.

“There was no affair. She didn’t betray us, and we just banished her instead of hearing her out.” Her voice was trembling, and disbelief was visible in her features. Our father tightened his grip on her hand, trying to calm her down. Something else was eating at me though. The unknown man had said that the lack of information on Leigh made the Caligari’s mad, as in more than one and since there was only two of those alive, it meant that Sheila knew and then lied about the whole affair business. She f*****g lied to me. I growled deeply and walked to the door.

“Where are you going. We are not done here.” Rylee said in a dark tone, but I didn’t care about that right now.

“To get the information I lack.” Just saying it out loud made me shed. I was beyond furious, and I was going to focus it on the right person for once.

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Sheila came to the door, seconds before I reached it, almost like she knew I was on the way. Her seductive smile despaired when she saw the deadly glare, I sent her. I pushed past her and through the door and she lost her balance as I made my way inside.

“You f*****g lied to me.” I growled low as she closed the door with shaking hands.

“Lied about what?” She said, trying really hard not to look at me.

“Leigh and the affair. It never happened.” My voice was cold, and I tried hard not to lose control, given it wouldn’t help the situation.

“I just told you the information my father had gathered.” Her voice trembled as she lied to me again.

“Stop f*****g lying to me.” I roared, my fist connecting with one of the walls, creating a hole.

“Rylee found the guy your father hired, and he told us everything.” For the first time I looked at her with hatred in my eyes and the hate was just as much mine, as it was my wolfs.

“There had to be a connection between them. Why else would they suddenly show up and demand to see her?” She reasoned, but I was in no state to be reasonable right now.

“You still f*****g lied to me!” I shouted, close to losing the battle with my wolf.

“I know! But I felt like I was losing you. I had to do something.” She whispered; tears slightly visible in her eyes, but it did nothing to calm my anger.

“I don’t want to hear it.” I made a dismissive gesture and then walked to the door.

“Where are you going?” She asked close to breaking down in tears.

“Away from here… And don’t expect to hear form me or see me for some time.” I said, trying to bring myself down to earth again.

“You can’t.” She gasped, while the tears started to run down her cheeks.

“I have to.” I said, my voice close to a whisper. And then I walked away, because I really had to. I didn’t want to say something I would regret later, like when I banished Leigh. Every step I took away from her, felt like I was breaking in half, but it only affected my human side. My wolf didn’t respond to it at all. He was just weirdly quiet and gave me space to deal with this myself. Knowing everything I knew now my gut twisted in agony. I kicked Leigh out for no real reason. Sure, members from the former Darkmoon Walkers showed up, wanting to see her, but I didn’t find out why before I send her packing. And I believed that she had an affair with one of them, despite my wolf and my gut telling me it wasn’t the truth. I had let my emotions get the better of me and now she truly was with the former Darkmoon Walkers and it was my fault. I knew I needed to find her, to explain myself and to see if she was safe. I also knew that finding her would be hard, but I knew where to start and hopefully she would be there.