in Leland's opinion, if this Nicholas guy truly loved Sophie, then he would have returned to her side. Yet he had been missing for so long that Sophie became so distraught.
Leland started to piece things together little by little. He gathered the facts that were available to him. If Sophie was sleep-talking and muttering in her sleep about Nicholas putting himself in danger... What did that mean?
What danger was Sophie referring to?
Was it that incident two weeks ago when Leland destroyed a tree?
Leland's expression became cold as he closed his eyes and remembered the incident clearly in his mind. He tried to put himself in the shoes of Sophie's husband and imagine what the man would have done.
Nicholas must have recognized that a lycan, Leland, was around their house in Blackwood and decided to hunt and track him down?
The Alpha gritted his teeth.
Leland's blood still boiled when he remembered how Sophie and Nicholas were extremely loving towards each other and then spent the next moments afterward having sex.
The memory was painful and Leland hated it as it reminded him of how late he was. If he had been better, if he had actually reunited with Sophie instead of focusing on becoming the Alpha, perhaps it was him who might have been Sophie's husband now.
"Concentrate, Leland." the Alpha chose to put his fantasies away and recollected vital pieces of information. If Leland was the 'danger' that Sophie was speaking of in her sleep that Nicholas needed to avoid, then there was no danger at all.
No one would lay a single finger on Sophie if Leland had a choice in the matter at all.
So where was this Nicholas?
The rogue lycan should have realized that Leland was already gone by the time that he came to look for the Alpha. So why didn't he return to Sophie's side after so long? And why was she trying to comfort Nicholas into believing that he wasn't a monster?
A natural born lycan wouldn't even consider their condition as any kind of curse or look at themselves as if he was a monster.
"Ah, he's not a true lycan." Leland quickly realized that Nicholas was one of those who became a lycan without any choice.
Suddenly, Sophie started to mutter some more. "Don't… the wolfsbane…" She started to toss in her sleep as if she was trying to fight something or escaping something. "No, Nick. Please."
Everything started to make sense for Leland.
"That bastard is trying to cure himself from lycanthrophy." Leland muttered to himself. The Alpha was aware of how much danger it posed to the lycans when one ingested a great amount of wolfsbane.
A good amount was enough to even render them to a state of paralysis. Most importantly, it even killed lycans because it hampered their great rejuvenation ability.
For someone like Nicholas who was not a genuine lycan, he must have done it in the hopes that he could cure himself and yet…
Leland turned to look at Sophie.
If Nicholas did not find the lycan, then he probably went out deeper into the Blackwood Forest to search for wolfsbane. How the man became a lycan in the first place, Leland didn't know but there was only one thing that he was sure of.
Sophie Hansley loved Nicholas so much, that even if it killed him on the inside… Leland was going to search for that bastard who left his wife for too long. The Alpha was going to make this man regret that he made Sophie suffer though.
But first, Leland wanted to make sure that Sophie would be alright when she woke up.
He checked the pot of soup by the fire and put it on the floor. It was ready. If she needed to eat, she could just warm it up. Her clothes were still damp but at least they were clean.
Hopefully, by the time she really woke up, it would be dry enough for her to wear.
Once he made sure everything was okay and prepared for once Sophie woke up, he bid her a temporary goodbye and then took off to the Blackwood Forest.
The Alpha stood inside of the forest and deeply sighed. A multitude of scents and sounds were detected by Leland and yet he concentrated and started to distinguish between each of them.
What among them matched Sophie's husband? Leland found a small lingering trail and chased after it because it matched completely.
The scent of Nicholas was so repulsive like a wet dog that even though two weeks had already passed since the man was gone, Leland was able to track him down.
Leland's superior senses gave him an advantage and before the Alpha knew it, he soon arrived in a clearing of beautiful flowers everywhere. The sight of the wolfsbane was visible to his eyes and yet…
This was where the scent of Nicholas ended.
Even though Leland tried to search for any more clues as to the whereabouts of Sophie's husband. The Alpha couldn't find anything anymore and only looked around his surroundings with annoyance.
He finally came across to where Nicholas made the concoction of wolfsbane. There was a small upturned pot that clattered among the flowers and the sight of old firewood used to burn it was still around and was charred.
There were even some items idly rolling around the clearing of flowers, items that were used to stir the wolfsbane.
Leland was careful and avoided the place where the color purple of wolfsbane was now mixed in with the ground. Even though it was obvious that the effects were already long gone, just the sight of it made him cautious. Uneasy even.
The Alpha felt the scars in his back somehow heat up at the sight of them and the memory of such plants being poured on his back replayed in his mind. The harsh training that Leland underwent just to become Alpha…
Yet... Nicholas simply drank it all.
.
.
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Do you think Leland will find Nicholas?
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