SLEEPSONG (BoyxBoy)✔️

Chapter 68

"He's a two-faced little bitch with connections all over the world," Richard snorted. "Pippin Oswald has a reputation for setting packs up to destroy themselves. Bash accepted him into ours about a hundred years ago, before we knew what he was like."

"And... what was he like?" Cassidy lowly asked, wrapping her arms around herself.

"Destructive," Richard grumbled, shaking his head. "Back then... it was just me, Bash, Woody, a fourteen-year-old werewolf named Lisa who'd lost her parents in a vampire attack overseas, and Pippin Oswald. The fucker had a bad habit of getting close to people so he could whisper things in their ear, planting deceit and turmoil, but Bash gave him the benefit of the doubt and took him in since Woody and I asked him to. We didn't like that he wasn't welcome anywhere else but doing so was a mistake. A very, very big mistake, one that I still, to this day, regret making."

"What happened?" Kyle asked, looking at him strangely. 

"He targeted Lisa," Richard flatly explained. "She was traumatized and vulnerable. Both of her parents had been killed right in front of her, and she was in the process of being raped when Bash found and saved her, so she had extreme anxiety issues whenever he'd leave us. Pippin capitalized on her fears and her loneliness, whispered in her ear that if she really loved him, then there was nothing stopping her from following him on his trips. But he warned her that doing so on foot would alert Sebastian about what she was doing, and he gave her the keys to his car."

"What?" I asked, shocked. "But she was only fourteen!"

"Exactly," Richard growled, nose twitching with fury. "She was too young and far too trusting. If she'd been older, she'd have realized that following him on foot would have been safer because she knew how to do it. She didn't know how to drive, not really. but the next time Bash left, she tried to follow him in one of our cars. She got into a head-on accident with a semi-truck on the highway and was decapitated."

When he closed his mouth and ground his teeth, irises turning bright yellow, Kyle put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder.

"So, what's the deal with him now?" Diana asked. "How does he tie into why you called us here? Even if the other packs in the area know you're mated with Aerin, I doubt they'd care very much. You're very well known, well trusted, and even idolized. I hardly see the problem."

"Normally this wouldn't be a problem," Sebastian grunted. 

"Then, what's going on?" she demanded, exasperated. "What happened?"

"An old acquaintance of mine, Mephostes, has invited Aerin and myself to attend a very high-class party in Italy," he quietly retorted; he was met with confused stares. "Something about it doesn't sit well with me, though. That's why I wanted to discuss it with all of you."

From there, he went on to explain Lydia's odd arrival and filled them in on the invitation. As he spoke, he waved a hand at the table and the motion drew my eyes downward. The creamy blood-stained envelope that Lydia had chucked at me lay off to one side; it had been sliced open at the top with a single cut, probably one from a sharp blade. 

Beside it was a piece of similarly colored parchment about the size of standard printer paper. 

Kyle picked it up off the table and curiously began to read it aloud.

"'Dear Uncle Bash,'" he said, honey eyes flitting to and fro. "'I know it has been over a century since we've contacted each other, but I could not resist. I was completely overjoyed to hear that you've finally found love again. That is why I'm sending Lydia to you with this letter. It is my distinct pleasure to invite you to a formal soiree in honor of you and your newfound mate.'"