Hobi milled around the kitchen table, sifting through
old newspapers and occasionally sitting down to
search up information.
"You can stop this madness any time." I said as I
sipped my coffee. I didn't usually drink coffee
but the nights hadn't been treated me all that well
anymore. I would wake up yearning for Jungkook to be beside me and I wouldn't be able to fall asleep until my body was so exhausted it couldn't stay awake any longer. Needless to say, caffeine had been my savior. At the very least it kept me from brutally lashing out at my pack members.
"He's not even my mate and yet I'm doing all the
work, you should be grateful to have such a loyal
beta." Hobi chided. "This isn't madness at all, by the
way, I'm going off of facts, not hunches."
“Whatever you say.” I muttered, taking another slurp
.
"I'm just surprised that Jay hasn't raced out here
to drag me back to his beloved warrior's house so
he could force us to have little pups for his pack." I
hissed.
"You're still upset about that?" Hobi asked.
"Of course I'm upset about it. How could he do such
a thing to another alpha?" I growled, "It shows me
nothing but disrespect. I lost my mate and instead of
simply letting me go to my mate's parent's home he
shoved me in a house with a man who recently lost
his mate in hopes that we would breed together like
mutts. It's disgusting that he would take advantage of
me while I was vulnerable."
Hobi offered me a reassuring squeeze of
the shoulder as he moved to grab yet another
newspaper.
"Bam was even so sweet to me. Like, I know he
was supposed to be but it seemed so genuine, like it
was just who he was. Frankly, that's the only reason I stayed at his house. He just made me feel really welcome and at home when I needed someone the most, you know?"
"Maybe he wasn't faking it, Lisa." Hobi suggested.
He had abandoned his post at the newspapers and
begun to fry me eggs. I absently told myself that I
had the best beta in the world.
"What do you mean?"
"Maybe he's just nice, and maybe he was just as
vulnerable as you were, losing a mate is hard on
anyone, even a warrior. Then he had this woman who just lost her mate in his house. It doesn't mean he's a horrible person." Hobi whispered.
I sighed, "I suppose not, but I can still be mad at
Jay."
Hobi gave me a little lopsided smile, "You can be as
mad as you would like about that asshole. He had no
right to do any of those things."
I stayed with Hobi for a few more minutes and I
ate the eggs and hash browns he cooked for me
rather happily. He was looking out for me more than I was looking out for myself. It felt good to know I had someone in my corner. After I downed the food he forced me to drink a cup of orange juice but he didn't protest when I told him I was going for a run. I guess he knew he couldn't stop me anyway.
My run was light and easy. I wanted to race around
like a rabid wolf so that I would be so exhausted I
couldn't stand and I would actually sleep but I had to remind myself I had a pack to run. Mate or not,
people needed to know their leader was sane so I
loped along the outskirts of my pack lands and tried
to keep my wolf in check. I expected her to try and
race away like the human part of me did, but she was just trying to get back to the house.
Eventually I gave up on trying to fight her and
allowed her to run back home. I simply assumed she
was craving Hobi's comfort. He wasn't Jungkook but
he had been with me through many obstacles and
he knew how to keep me calm. So I shifted outside,
slithered indoors and pulled a baggy hoody out of the closet.
"Lisa, I know you don't want to listen to me, but please, I honestly think I have something."
"Hobi." I groaned.
"Lisa, please, just listen for a few minutes and if
you don't believe me after that I'll drop it."
I gave a little grunt in disapproval, but eventually
nodded my head. "You have five minutes, Hobi."
"Okay, come look at these." Hobi ordered, pointing to
some newspapers.
They were roughly twenty years old and the headline announced the fact that the young prince had been stolen out of the castle. I had only been alive for a few months when this had happened so it had very little effect on me so I never paid much attention to the case but I could understand how it caused a ripple of fear throughout the werewolf community at the time.
"I've seen these." I said.
"I know that, but when I searched for headlines about massive attacks on packs by rogues during this time period there was nothing. The only attacks that are even close to the right time period are immensely spread out. There was one three years before the prince went missing and another attack, small, attack almost four years after the prince was gone so Jay's story doesn't line up."
"We already know he's an asshole." I muttered, “This is nothing new."
"It's not," Hobi agreed, "but his parents admitted that
he was adopted which also helps. Jungkook had to come from somewhere, but there's no record of where. They didn't even get a birth certificate for him so that means it was illegally done, which isn't their fault."
Hobi darted over to the laptop sitting on the table,
pulling me with him, "Now since he didn't come from
a rogue attack and we know that Jay lied about it
that does broaden to possibilities."
I tried not to roll my eyes as he pulled up various tabs before finally pointing to one.
"Look at this, Lisa. The royals have a list of guests
that come through the castle and Jay signed in
just two days before the prince went missing. even
more odd, he never checks out"
"Hobi." I moaned, "You can't be serious about all this.
Jungkook isn't the prince."
"He certainly wasn't an omega." Hobi retorted,
"Jungkook's parents told you that other wolves had a hard time controlling him, even the alpha probably."
"Fine, I'll humor you, why would Jay take the prince?"
Hobi gave me a sly smile, "Why would Jay want
you to mate one of his warriors?"
"Because he's a horrible person."
"Because he's power hungry." Hobi corrected. "He
wanted to absorb the pack, but he saw you almost kill your own father, he knew he didn't have a chance inva fight against you."
"That has nothing to do with Jungkook."
"But it does. Jungkook was shoved into an omega's
house when everyone knew he should've been
placed higher. If Jay was actually doing what
was right for him and the best for his pack he
would've had Jungkook as a warrior, but that would've only strengthened Jungkook and he needed to keep him supressed instead. He could do that by having the whole pack beat on him as they did. So Jungkook was not an issue for several years, he would just wither away as Jay wanted.
"But then you came along and you not only accepted
him, you gave him the opportunity to have power. Now, if Jay wanted to supress him before then he
wouldn't be happy about this and he's always wanted
your pack so he formulated a plan, which was to mate you with Bam. That would get rid of both you, and Jungkook in one clean swipe."
"This doesn't make sense." I whined, holding my head. I felt like my brain was in over drive and it might explode soon.
"Jay took Jungkook."
"But why steal the prince?" I demanded.
"Power, there's no new heir to the throne and
Jay would have the largest pack if he managed
to absorb yours. With no one to take over the royal
lineage the power would be given to him."
"Why not just kill Jungkook then?"
"killing royals is incredibly hard and I think killing a
child would be damn near impossible for anyone who isn't a complete monster." Hobi explained.
"What do you mean killing a royal is hard?"
"It's almost impossible to kill a royal. They are
structured with much more supernatural power
and an incredibly fast healing process. I'm not even
certain if it's possible for a wolf to kill a royal." Hobi rambled.
"But Jungkook took forever to heal." I argued, “When he first came here he was almost dead and it took him months to get better."
Hobi nodded vigorously, "He had been malnourished
for years, beaten within an inch of his life, of course it took him a long time to heal. His body couldn't handle healing quickly because it didn't have the nutrients needed, but he had been so malnourished for so long he couldn't handle being fed either. I spoke to Mina and she admitted to me that she had never seen a wolf so close to death and she was astonished he made it. They probably kept him as close to death as they could to keep him under control."
"None of this matters right now, Jungkook's gone." I
protested, not wanting to believe it.
"It matters Lisa. I am almost positive that Jay
has him somewhere."
"But why?"
"Because his first two plans failed and he got
desperate. Jungkook went for a run and Jay was
probably just waiting to snatch him up. It wouldn't be
hard if all Jungkook has known is being overpowered by Jay. He would give in right away, we both know that. And then you just fell into plan, Lisa, you went running onto his pack lands, desperate for your lost mate and Jay just led you to Bam."
"Oh God." I panted, clutching the edge of the table.
"Hobi, what do we do now?"
"We go to the royals and pray that they listen to us."