Chapter 115
-Ignatius-
I had been rifling through Bielke archives for hours and still hadn’t turned up anything that matched up
with the recent vampire attacks. Dorothy had been insistent that the records of Elliot and Morgana’s
attack was somewhere in the archives, but nothing I had seen so far came close to the damage the
vampires had caused:
Ellot had never been particrly good with his paperwork. And even though the hall secretary had
done her best to organize the piles of reports, the entire collection was still a nightmare to sift through
One thing that I had noticed, however, were twelve Bielke deaths that werepletly unounted for.
They were there in the records, around the time when Elliot and Morgana would have been together,
but there was no mention of how they died, or why.
Back then, the Bielke saw a lot of deaths. We took on new members almost as quickly as we lost them.
They were cannon fodder before the real Bielke soldiers stepped in to fight, It was no surprise that
twelve shifters had died at the same time with no mention of what battle they had fought in.
I squinted at the report in my hand, scanning the descriptions for any mention of a battle. A single line
caught my eye, words that had been scratched out roughly in ck ink.
Whoever Ellot and Morgana had attacked, he hadn’t wanted anyone to know about it. If he had tried to
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get rid of the journal, he would have discarded any records of the attack as well.
I threw down the papers in defeat and slumped back in my chair, throwing an arm over my eyes with an
exasperated groan.
It was hopeless. Elliot had done his best to cover his tracks, and the atrocities he hadmitted under
the sway of Morgana seemed to be buried forever. Or burned, knowing my father.
All of my pent up anger had dissipated after Dorothy and 1 argued in this very room. Now, all I felt was
a beaut fatigue, and it was all I could do to keep from falling into a state ofplete despair. I was tired
of fighting, for my fathers mistakes.
I closed my eyes and probed my mate’s mind. Dorothy was back at home, fast asleep after two full
days of se answers and turning up nothing.
It had taken a lot of convincing to get her to go home and rest. Only after I summoned to to
personally escort h did she finally relent to a few hours of shut-eye
I wanted to give up then and there, I wanted to lock up my father’s study and never set foot in the room
again. But Dorot would be awake soon, and she’d be determined to keep searching. I owed it to my
mate to keep going.
I hauled myself upright and rubbed my eyes, racking my brain for any new ideas. All I had to go on was
twelve mysterious deaths, and a scratched out sentence. Twelve dead shifters..
I stood abruptly, nearly tipping over my chair, and hurried over to a dusty cab in theer.
The bottom drawer was filled with letters, all addressed to my father. The Bielke received a lot of letters
back then, calls for aid, suggested allyship, and inquiries into lost loved ones. There were a lot of those.
I memorized the names of the twelve shifters, and then got to searching.
After almost an hour of sifting through page after page of unanswered mail, I found what I was looking
for. Someone named Aiden Siliven had wanted to know what had happened to his son Thonus.
Thomas Siliven was one of the recorded twelve whose death was never borated on.
ording to Aiden’s letter, Thomas had been a ferocious Bielke soldier. One of the best. Thest time
Aiden had heard from Thomas was August 28th, the year of Elliot’s encounter with Morgan…
Thomas had informed his father that he was setting out with a group of specialized fighters, on a
discrete mission under the orders of Elliot
11:06 Fri, Jan 26 G.
Thomas had given no other information, aside from the odd fan that the twelve soldiers were to be
joining forces with another intimidating group. “They’re not shifters, Thomas had said. “There’s
something off about them.”
Ichewed my bottom lip, taking in every word with growing unease. He must have meant vampires.
These were the soldiers Elliot had appointed to take out this special pack.
The letter ended with Aiden Siliven begging Elliot to exin how his son had died. All he had received
in response was a letter of condolence and nothing more. Not even a b*dy to bury
Auden’s letter told me what I had already begun to suspect Eliot had done everything he could to cover
up the evidence. Including killing twelve of his own before they could talk. But the letter also shed some
light on another useful piece of information. The exact date of the attack, 27 August 1990.
I stiffened suddenly, a cold fist closing around my heart. Why did that date mean something? Why had I
heard it before!
“No” Thunched over myself, crumpling the letter in my hands. F***. Please, no,”
The answer was so obvious I was astounded that we hadn’t realized sooner. But how could we have? It
was too unbearable to even consider.
I had always known my father to be ruthless and power hungry. But even I could not have foreseen
this. I could never have imagined just how far he’d go on his quest for power.
It felt like a punch in the gut, a blow that left me gasping for air, my mind reeling.
The dates matched up exactly to Dorothy’s arrival at the Khall pack all those years ago. On the 27th of
August, that same year. Rita had carried her young ne to Khall territory, begging them to take care of
the child. The exact day that Dorothy’s park had been wiped out.
The room was spinning. I was falling like the ground had given way beneath me. The room nted
sideways as I sank to my knees, pressing my knuckles to my head in utter disbelief. I wanted to
scream, a loud, long wail.
“F*** I pounded my fist into the ground, guilt crashing down on my shoulders like a tidal wave. “F***.
F***.
It was Elliot, my father, who had allowed it to happen, who made it possible in the first ce. Elliot had
sentenc Selveinne pack to their deaths, and nearly took Dorothy out with them.
I was supposed to be her protector. I was supposed to be her loving mate, not kin to the monster that
wiped out the her family.
My knuckles were bloody, and dashes of crimson streaked across the floor. I felt empty, shell-shocked.
I felt unworthy of he love.
I looked up sharply when someone entered, baring my fangs at the sudden intrusion. to stood in the
doorway, raising his palms in surrender when he noticed my furious re.
“Rx, Friend, not foe.”
I exhaled slowly and sat down on the ground, crossing my legs and examining my bruising knuckles,
“What do you want, to? You’re supposed to be back at the cottage protecting my mate.”
to let out a disgruntled sigh, folding his arms, “Dorothy sent me toe get you. Angie and Fae are
back with news”
His expression softened when he noticed the streaks of blood on the floor, and he took a cautious step
toward me, “Hey, you alright? What happened in here?”
The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, delivered with clinical iness. “Elliot killed
the Selveinne pack. My father is the reason Dorothy’s people were murdered”
to blinked and started to say something, I ignored him, sinking deeper into my own dark thoughts. It
would seem that the fated connection between Dorothy and me ran deeper than either of us had
thought.
11:06 Fri, Jan 26 G
Her fate was tied to the fate of every pack. Her
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stence alone was the reason we had a fighting chance against the vampires
I couldn’t understand how it all fit together, but I knew it in my soul.
to’sment snapped me out of my musing, “We have to tell Dorothy.”
“No!” I scrambled to my feet, gripping his arm. “Not now. Not yet
“You have to!” to said incredulously. “She wouldn’t hold this against you. We both know Dorothy, she
would understand.”
“Right now, you and I are the only people who know what happened to the Seilvanne pack. We need to
keep it that way until these attacks blow over”
I pulled him closer, fully aware of how desperate I looked in that moment, “Please, to. Don’t say a
word of this to Dorothy. I’ll tell her myself when the time is right.”
to looked unconvinced, but he shook his head with a deep sigh, “Alright, fine. I won’t tell her. But
you can’t hide this from her forever, Ignatius.”
On the drive back to the cottage. to tried to turn the conversation to lighter topics. But I was barely
listening. The only thing on my mind was my mate, and how I had failed her,
I would not fail again.