His Pain & His Passion

Chapter Five

Present Day

Rafael’s POV

Thinking back to the events that led me here never ended well. Shaking my head to rid my self from the path my memories wanted to take me down I took long hurried steps towards the interrogation room.

Today I thought I would get information on Shane. I could finally avenge my sister and maybe just maybe my parents could come home.

‘Have any of them said anything’I asked the guard at the door

‘No alpha not one word yet’ he replied bowing slightly as I walked by him and walked into the room. The room if you could call it that was a sizable room with a table and four chairs two on each side. They sat side my side looking scared. Immediately I entered their putrid scent hit me and I thought to myself rouges.

How did wolves- rogues- but wolves nonetheless end up working for a vampire Raze wondered in my head. I didn’t bother replying I just let my alpha aura slip out and suddenly everyone was bowing and showing their necks as a sign of submission. I walked over the chair facing them on the other side of the table and I sat down.

“Tell me where he is?” I growled “I am not interested in what you all do I just need to find the vampire king”

“We don’t know where he is” one them whimpered eyes downcast and a sheen of sweat visible on his forehead. “We are too low on the totem pole to know where he is. We’ll tell you everything we know, just pull back your aura it’s suffocating us”

“When I said I don’t care I really meant it I do not care about whether you live of die here today. If you can’t help me find Shane.” I said

The one who spoke before piped up again; “we don’t know where he is but we can tell you where his followers are meeting. All I ask is you grant us immunity and welcome us to your pack”

Raze growled “we do not bargain with child kidnappers. You must have known what he was doing with all the young girls he takes. You are not innocents tell me what you know and then I will decide”

I could see them thinking trying to decide if they could bargain with me for more than I had given them. I had had enough of their hemming and hawing I wanted Shane and I needed him now. I let my alpha aura slip out in full and I heard them both whining

“Please stop they both moaned We will tell you what we know. We don’t know much. He doesn’t trust the wolves who run with him but we know there is a meeting two weeks from now at Sherwood Forest we can’t tell you exactly where that’s all we know. Their words came out in short bursts as they tried to escape from my aura.

I try not to use my alpha aura a lot because I know how painful it can be and I always want people to come to me of their own free will but this time I feel no guilt using it. This is the first tangible lead we have had in 2 years. It meant I would have to come back immediately after the ball. That did not matter to me as far as I had Shane. My revenge would be complete, Lea would rest and my parents could come home.

I felt Lea’s death the most because Shane was my friend. I trusted him. I brought him home. I allowed him free entry into our pack and so many families paid for it. My parents never said it but I always felt like they blamed me for bringing him into our lives. This was the only way I knew how to make things right. Shane’s head separated from his body would not bring Lea back but it would at least give us closure.

I turned to leave the interrogation rooms and spoke to the men on duty

“Keep them in the dungeons. Shackled! Make sure they are fed once a day no visitors until I return”

I walked off thinking to myself soon Shane, very soon. The ball was just something to go to, to occupy the time until I could lay this ambush. I used to attend them hoping to meet my fated mate but I had given hope a couple of years ago. Maybe I was just not meant to be fated to anyone. Maybe this was the moon goddess’ punishment for me trusting Shane. It would serve me right if she was one of the young girls he had killed.

I shook my head to try as if to rid myself from the dark turn my thoughts had taken. All I needed now was peace. Peace from this rage that consumed me every waking moment of everyday. I was starting to worry that even ending Shane’s life would not calm this rage down.

Rafael clenched his fists, steadying himself as he walked through the corridors, his boots echoing off the stone walls. The intensity of his mission was consuming him, and the memories—the way Shane had betrayed him, deceived his pack, stolen his sister’s life—fueled a rage that felt bottomless.

Two years. Two years since he’d last had a lead, two years since the trail had gone cold. Every dead end had worn at his resolve, each false lead chipping away at the patience he no longer had. But now, this hint, as small as it was, finally gave him direction. Sherwood Forest. The meeting in two weeks.

Raze, his wolf, was pacing in his mind, just as agitated. We’re close, Raze growled. He’ll pay for what he’s done.

He will, Rafael replied in his mind, though he couldn’t shake the feeling that the vengeance he so desperately sought would never be enough. Shane had once been like family, a bond that only made the betrayal more vicious. Now, Rafael’s entire life had funneled down to this moment—there was nothing else. The rage had become his constant companion, smoldering even through his sleepless nights and filling every waking hour.

As he walked down the hall, he allowed himself a moment to think about the ball, though the thought was empty. It was something he attended out of duty more than anything else. When he was younger, there had been a flicker of hope that maybe he’d meet his fated mate there, but after everything that had happened, he had given up on that dream. The universe seemed to be punishing him, he thought bitterly. Perhaps it was his fault for trusting Shane so blindly, for failing his sister, for letting that evil into their lives.

And yet, in the depths of his anger, he longed for peace—something beyond revenge, something that could settle his spirit. But peace felt impossible, a mere fantasy. Shane’s death would be a single chapter closed, and after that, he knew only an emptiness awaited.

He arrived at his quarters and sank into the heavy silence. The pack mansion, once filled with his family’s laughter, felt hollow now. He let out a slow breath, centering himself. His entire world had narrowed to the hunt for Shane, and he had no illusions left about finding happiness or redemption.

This mission was his sentence—a promise to his sister and a punishment he would carry.