TRIGGER WARNING: Mention of suicide.
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Lucas rushed amongst the hallways, searching for Dinah amongst the designated rooms for the Blood River Pack as his nose followed a certain scent he wished he didn't have to follow.
As he ran, Beta heard the sound of wailing in one of the biggest chambers and it filled his stomach with regret and pain.
He realized that must have been the Luna finally awakening and it truly was bad timing that he would eventually meet with her during unfortunate circumstances.
Yesterday, Isolde had already left the Blood River Pack with a few of her most trusted lycans and went away without another word.
Since Leland didn't give him any instructions on that matter, Lucas didn't stop Isolde from leaving. It truly seemed like the Alpha had wanted his mother to leave and never return.
Perhaps the Alpha still wished to stop himself from hurting the woman who gave birth to him? Over the years, Lucas had witnessed the dynamics between the mother and son and he understood the difficult position Leland was in when it came to his mother.
"Beta! You have got to see this!"
The voice of one of the guards he ordered to look for Dinah suddenly rang from behind him. Lucas turned around and raised an eyebrow at the man.
"Did you find her?"
The guard nodded. His face looked horrified and he couldn't really speak clearly to explain what was going on. He only begged the Beta to follow him. For a warrior to show that kind of expression, Lucas could guess that the man had seen something so terrible.
What happened to Dinah? Was she dead?
"Show me the way." Lucas walked with the guard toward the exit to their right. It was a big open field before the tall wall that separated the manor from the outside.
"She was found in the woods over there," said the guard hastily. "I told my friend not to do anything until I report to you."
Lucas didn't say anything. He could guess what had happened to Dinah at this point. After they made sure that there were no humans around them, both Lucas and the lycan transformed into their wolf forms to get to the woods faster.
Right in the middle of the thick woods, near a water source, they saw Dinah hanging from one of the tree branches, a cord fastened and wound tightly against her neck. It seemed she had prepared the trap for herself to die in.
The female lycan was already long gone when Lucas had arrived.
One of the few ways to get through a Lycan's regenerative abilities was to simply suffocate themselves to death. Judging from the condition of her body, Lucas assumed Dinah took her own life immediately after Sophie went into a coma, four days ago. She probably thought the Luna wouldn't make it.
Since the rope was not too long, Dinah's body was hanging low from the branch and bigger animals had started eating the lower part. It was a ghastly sight even for Lucas, a warrior who had encountered many terrible things on the battlefield.
He transformed into his human form and looked at the body with a winced forehead. He knew Desmond, Dinah's brother. The man would be devastated to know his sister was a traitor and had killed herself.
"There's a letter in her pocket," the guard spoke quietly, moving Lucas from his daze. His friend who was standing by in the area while he went to send his report to Lucas had done his search before the Beta arrived. And he told the guard about the letter they found on Dinah.
"Where?" Lucas turned to him.
The guard tilted his head to his friend. The younger man bowed respectfully to Lucas and took out a letter from his pocket.
"I found this in her pocket, Beta."
Lucas accepted the letter and put it in his pocket. He would give it to Leland to read after he returned.
After he took another glance at the dead woman, Lucas ordered the two men to get Dinah down from the tree and bury her.
"But she is a traitor, Beta," said the guard in protest. "Why should we give her a proper burial?
"Idiots! If humans found her, they will investigate her and find out that she is a lycan. This will arise suspicion." Lucas scoffed. "Stop questioning my order!"
"Oh, I am sorry, Beta." Both men quickly bowed down in embarrassment. They didn't think that far.
Once he saw they prepared to bury Dinah, Lucas shifted into his wolf form and went back to the manor.
***
Leland had been just about to put Sophia carefully on the bed to let her get some proper rest when he came upon the shocking news.
One of the remaining lycans who weren't affected by Brin's speech about attacking the coronation came stumbling into the room to report to him. Despite being more on the slow and impulsive side, he happened to be fiercely loyal.
"Alpha, the pack needs you!" Duncan shouted and then received a withering glare from Leland himself. He quieted down immediately and pointed out at the window with a panicked look on his face. "They are running away!"
Leland already heard the sound of trouble in the air and could sense it, but he only focused on Sophie alone and knew when the situation had already gotten out of hand and there was nothing for him to do.
When the Alpha finally pulled the curtains aside, he quickly saw the sight of his Beta, Lucas trying to mitigate the damage and do crowd control.
It was like seeing a lone man trying to fight against and stop an incoming storm.
"Stand down!" Lucas shouted and enforced his authority into his voice, a number of the lycans who were flooding out of the manor halted in their tracks. "The Blood River Pack remains here!"
A lot of the lycans looked terribly guilty for trying to escape and attend the coronation when it was clearly against the better judgement of both Lucas and Leland. They stopped and dropped to their knees.
However, a great number of the lycans were already leaving and fleeing up into the hills, a majority of them were already in their lycan forms, transformed and ready to launch an invasion towards the coronation event.
At the forefront of the runaway and vagabond warrior lycans was no other person than Brin the lycan elder himself.
"To the capital!" Brin shouted wildly and encouraged the warriors to keep running.
He successfully managed to incite a great portion of the warriors to turn their backs and follow his lead to conquer Livstad and then the rest of Riga. The promise of a future where lycans reigned supreme was filled in their minds.
"That fool," Leland muttered underneath his breath and found a headache coming at him at the sight of the Blood River Pack divided and separating from the manor. The royal villa castle was nearby and undoubtedly would end up seeing them.
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From Missrealitybites:
OMG, I wrongly inserted some paragraphs from the previous chapter. I already fixed it thanks to Kendra D who immediately notified me.
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