Veritas

Chapter 51

Rei couldn't help a small smile, since she was unsurprised by her son's reaction. She reached over to pull him into a tight hug.

"I love you so much, honey. I could never let anything bad happen to you...And meeting your father for any reason other than joining his family would be pointless, and just dangerous. I have done my best not to follow news of him; but...I have reason to believe he's still in good standing with the Royal family. Let's just leave things in the past where they belong, alright?" She pleaded, letting go of the hug and cupping her son's face with her hands to kiss his forehead.

Ryan let out a sigh, annoyed he couldn't confront his father. Regardless, he nodded in agreement with Rei and gave her a smile. "Love you too, mom."

Before any further discussion on the matter could happen, there was a knock on the door. Rei and Ryan looked at each other, then shrugged before Ryan called out "come in!"

Reinhold walked through the door, nodding his head in greeting as he said "I thought I'd check in to see how you're both settling."

Ryan inspected the man before him more thoroughly than he had before, once again astounded by how similar he and his uncle were in appearance. He wondered if the man ever missed his sister, or thought about her. Additionally, he wondered why he joined the Royal pack despite his hatred. As he considered it, a thought came to him and his eyes widened. Could Reinhold be the one helping the vampires from the inside?!

Not wanting to throw his mother off in front of the Captain, Ryan kept the thought to himself and focused back in on the conversation. Rei and Reinhold were exchanging pleasantries; although, it was clear to Ryan that it was a strain for Rei who had her eyes averted the whole time.

"Excuse me, Captain, my father was just about to take a shower. Would you mind showing me to the training grounds? I'd love to get some of this energy out from worrying about my brother" he said, trying to give Rei an easy out so Reinhold wouldn't take note of her tear-stained face.

"Ah, of course, I'd be happy to. We could even train together, if you'd like!" Reinhold offered, motioning to the door he entered through.

"Sounds good to me!" Ryan returned with a grin, looking forward to getting some revenge on his uncle for the pain he'd put his mom through.

"Be good, and be careful" his mother said through mind-link sternly, suspecting what he was up to.

Ryan walked over to the door and waved over his shoulder. "Have a good shower, dad. Be back in a bit!"

The uncle and nephew settled into friendly chatter as they made their way to the indoor training grounds, with Reinhold pointing out places of interest as they walked. After what Ryan felt was a reasonable time, he decided to try getting his uncle to talk.

"This must have been quite the place to grow up. I was born and raised a lone wolf with my family; so, this is all just overwhelming to me" he started, knowing full well that Reinhold hadn't been born there.

"Ah...Yes, I imagine it would be" Reinhold admitted with a nod. "I only became a pack member in adulthood, though."

"Oh, what made you move here? Did you find your mate?" Ryan asked innocently.

Letting out a heavy sigh, his uncle shook his head. "No, I'm afraid I've yet to meet my mate. And with the King's decree banning all unmated she-wolves from the pack, I doubt I'll meet her at this rate" he said, chuckling sardonically.

"Then what made you come here? And why stay?" Ryan asked curiously, growing more suspicious as the conversation continued.

Reinhold opened the door to the training area, and motioned for Ryan to enter before him. "That's not a tale I tell just anyone" he said with a wry smile. "Maybe someday, though. We're family after all, right?" He added with a laugh.

"What?" Ryan asked, trying to keep the panic from his voice. How did he know?!

"Ah, it's just a joke, sorry" Reinhold said, shaking his head. "Don't tell your dad, he'd probably be pissed that I did it without permission...But I pulled some strings, and had them test your brother's DNA to see if we had some distant relation. Turns out, we just have eerily similar looks. Funny world, isn't it?" He said with another wry smile, leading Ryan to the sparring mats. "I was sure there would be something there...I'm always looking for family."

Ryan raised his eyebrows in surprise at what the man had just shared, shocked on different levels for different reasons. How fortunate that he didn't realize that Aislinn wasn't a blood relative! And how underhanded to test her DNA without consent! Also, what was that last bit about looking for family?

Before he could ask, though, Reinhold turned to face Ryan. "So, shall we spar? And what form?"

After a lengthy sparring session, in both forms, and with weapons, it was glaringly obvious that Ryan wasn't about to beat his uncle. No surprise there, given that Reinhold was Captain of the King's guard; but, it frustrated him no less. On top of that, he wasn't able to glean any meaningful or useful information from the man, so he returned to his mother a bit dejected.

A few days passed without any other interesting events. Ryan and Rei took caution while exploring the palace, eavesdropping here and there to no avail. The presence of guards was too heavy for them to venture into the sacred room at the heart of the palace, and so they took to other means of investigation, like the palace's library. They learned some new bits of information; but nothing of substance. It didn't help that as time passed, they were each growing more concerned and distracted by Aislinn's status.

On the fifth day of Aislinn's recovery, the two were headed to her room for a visit. Rei had begun to worry that it was taking too long for Aislinn to return to good health, despite the best care werewolf kind could offer her. Every time she had tried to visit, Aislinn was either sleeping or too tired to stay awake for long. Due to this, Rei and Ryan had decided that if Aislinn was still unwell, they'd ask to pull her from the medical centre. They were growing suspicious of foul play.

"Hey mom...I've been meaning to bring this up" Ryan said hesitantly as he walked beside his mother with his hands in his pockets, on their way to visit Aislinn.

"What might that be?" Rei asked, not looking at him to avoid making it obvious that they were having a discussion.

"Have you ever considered that your brother is a suspect in all of this?" He demanded bluntly, causing his mother to stumble. He caught her by the arm and righted her, catching a shocked look on her face.

"You alright?" He asked once he felt she was steady, and released her arm.

"Yeah, fine" she acknowledged aloud, then returned to mind-link. "I can't imagine that being the case. Why would you suspect him?" She asked, having never even considered it.

"You said yourself that he hated the Royal family, and it's odd that he's here. He is one of the few who'd have the means to access sensitive information and places within the palace...And he has power over others, so it'd be easy for him to turn people to his side, right?" Ryan said, explaining his reasoning gently, since he could tell his mother loved Reinhold dearly.

She subtly shook her head in response, saying "it's impossible. He had a grudge, and possibly still does...But he'd never endanger the Royal family, because that would endanger all of us. He couldn't do that to our entire race, he's just not like that."

As if on cue, the mother and son rounded the corner to Aislinn's room only to see Reinhold running out of it. As he opened the door to escape, the sounds of flat-lining machines could be heard coming from inside. Instantly, Rei and Ryan broke into a run.

"Help Aislinn, I'll follow him" Ryan said, with no room for debate. He took off after Reinhold, who was headed in the opposite direction down the hall.