VIGGO
"Umph!" I grunt as my ribs sting from the punishing blow my warrior lands just before my own fist connects with his massive lycan jaw. His teeth snap shut, his eyes roll in his head and he crumbles in a heap of fur and muscle at my feet.
"Next!" I growl as two other warriors drag their fallen comrade from the dust, glancing at me wearily.
"I think that's enough for the morning Alpha, I'd like some guards left for patrol tonight." My gamma Costas says drily as he saunters across the training ground to the relief of the remaining warriors who drag their various states of wounded selves back to the Castra.
"I wasn't done," I growl at Costas who stands in front of me with arms on his hips, his bare ebony skin glistening in the morning light.
"You weren't, they were. I've told you before, don't take your pissy moods out on my wolves." He glances at me sideways before adding drily, "With respect, Alpha."
I snarl at Costas as we walk up the knoll to stand under the shade of an old red oak. We look down on the now-empty dirt field below.
"If they can't handle me and my pissy moods then how the fuck are they going to handle Tariq."
"You're the Alpha King. Tariq is just a wolf. Our Zeta's are the best we've ever had, don't doubt them. They take your shit daily and you know there are very few that could and still live to talk about it."
I nod grudgingly, knowing Costas is right. Glancing up at the morning sky I take a deep breath of resignation. It's the same damn sky I see every day, with the same emptiness gaping inside of me.
Not even the pain of having a dozen lycans railing against me compares to what consumes me eternally.
Costas's sympathetic sigh only irritates me more. No words are needed between us, Costas understands me more than any other wolf alive.
He looks like he's about to say something I'm going to hate when his eyes glaze over into mind link.
"What is it?" I ask as he slips back, his brows furrowing and he reaches into his back pocket bringing out his phone and frowning at the screen.
"That was Sofia. Alpha Sebastian called your office because you've blocked his link. They've picked up a lead and sent it though."
Costas does not need to speak his disapproval of the block I've placed between me and my missing mate's parents. I know how he feels, but it's been a necessity of self-preservation.
Despite my efforts, Kyros surges inside me with familiar excitement surging in my blood. I temper him down, gritting my teeth until my jaw aches.
Shaking my head I walk away from Costas leaving the training grounds for the Castra.
"We've been here a thousand times before, Costas. Quilla is dead. Sebastian and Neo need to accept that. I have."
"Alpha. Stop. Look at this." Costas's firm hand on my shoulder tugs me back and he thrusts his phone in my face.
I push it away.
"Enough Costas. I told you. I'm done. It's been sixteen years, I'm not going on another wild goose chase. I've got too many problems to fix here now."
"For fucks sake Viggo, will you please look at the fucking video."
I halt at the angry plea in Costas's voice, his uncharacteristic use of my first name getting him the attention he wants. Turning back to face him he stands with his arm outstretched his phone in his palm.
"Please."
It fucking kills me. I know the hope Costas and the pack hold for Quilla's return. We've been without a Luna for too long. Tariq is not the only threat to our pack. The bigger one is my mateless condition.
With great reluctance, I take the phone and stare at the image of a human female reporter frozen in place.
It takes me several seconds to work the nerve up before I hit the play button and the reporter's nasal tone fills the morning air between Costas and I as we watch the video.
"The search for missing five-year-old Grace Newman has ended on a happy note. Found alive and well after her ordeal on the Black Oak mountains, young Grace was reunited with her parents with a thrilling tale to tell about her rescuer, what some are calling, a possible werewolf sighting." The newsreel switches to a young blonde child wrapped in foil talking excitedly.
"Her name was Kyra, she saved me and took me to her cave and then she turned into a wolf and fought the bear!"
The newsreel switches again to overhead drone footage of a bear and a large brown wolf fighting.
My heart races as I discern without a doubt the wolf is a were. At least twice the size of a normal wolf but still small for a werewolf, it is both the wolf's size and coloring that catches my attention barely hearing the reporter as I continue to watch.
"Experts are claiming little Grace may have stumbled upon a new species of giant wolf and attributes her fantastical claim to exposure and mild hypothermia."
I pause the video and replay, watching closely again as the wolf leaps on the bear's back before it is crashed against a tree by the furious bear. Kyros surges with anxiety at what we see. Bears are the few predators that can kill a werewolf.
"Is she even alive?" I ask.
Costas shrugs, "The footage captures the wolf running off, no doubt she has injuries, she took a bullet according to reports, but in all likelihood, she survived it. That is what Sebastian and Neo have gone to assess."
"Alpha," I look up to see the excited gleam in Costas's eyes.
"It's a lone she-wolf and her coloring, she's the spitting image of-"
"Neo." I complete his thought with Kyros pushing his excitement forward inside me. He breaks my skin, black fur prickling through my pores. Kyros has run many a time with Neo on similar hunts for Quilla Kane. The similarity between the she-wolf on the screen and Neo's wolf Lyka is undeniable. But still-
"There are many brown weres in the world, Costas," I say steeling myself as I hand Costas back his phone. He glares at my hand.
"And how many of them are called the female version of your lycan? Her name is Kyra. That is no coincidence."
Kyros growls in my head, fur bristles my skin and I crack my neck as he presses a shift. The hope I have kept under snuffer threatens to reignite and take me on another wild goose chase with my lycan happily leading the way.
"This will be the last time Costas. You have no idea what it does to me to do this again and fail." I sigh and glance again at the phone in my hand, the image frozen on the brown-furred she-wolf.
Costas rests a hand on my shoulder.
"I know what it does to you, Alpha. I have been by your side from the beginning. I would not ask this of you if I didn't think this was real."
I sigh with the weight of Kyro's decision. One I cannot deny.
"Where are Sebastian and Neo now?" I ask and Costas takes the phone from me with a smile.
"On their way to Black Oak Mountain." He follows as I lead us back to the Castra, my pace fast as Kyros moves inside me with a mounting excitement I cannot contain.
My mind races, calculating the distance to the mountains claimed as bear territory. We will have to drive all through the night to get there by morning but there is no other choice, I feel Kyros's insistence inside me. He will not wait.
"Get the Zeta's and the vehicles ready, we leave in an hour. I want us there by tomorrow morning and if this turns out to be another ghost hunt, you will be the one to deal with Kyros."
"It won't come to that Viggo. Thank you." Costas nods unable to hold back his smile as he jogs off.
My guts twist as my mind flickers through my knowledge of the packs in the Black Oak mountain area. There is only one. Arden Valley pack, a minor pack about fifty miles away from the bear territory. Between them and the bear-claimed mountain is a forest of human-claimed lands all acknowledged as neutral grounds.
What the fuck is a lone she-wolf doing in bear territory?
It's been almost four years since I last went hunting down a lead for my missing mate. The pain of always returning to Lycanos empty-handed, broken-hearted with an enraged lycan burning inside me, too much to continue to bear.
This new lead has Kyros burning excited energy inside me like I have not felt in as many years. He is a lycan with a stubborn determination. He will not relinquish his bond, one that was set before I had any true concept of what a mate bond was.
I am still paying the price for disregarding Kyros before, a mistake I have no intention of repeating.
Standing on the steps of the Castra I look up at the massive stone castle that has felt more like a mausoleum than a home for so long.
I cannot deny Kyros. Quilla Kane has been his from the day we scented her, and nothing, not even me, will stop him from finding her.
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