CHAPTER 14

I went to my room, showered then changed into this . I then went to my office where I found Auriana already seated and waiting for me.

"So what did you want to discuss with me?" She asked.

"Today, when I was still in California in the Shadow pack, 3 rogues were brought in for questioning after they attacked some shadow wolves who were on patrol at the border. Apparently they are operating under someone's leadership and it seems their leader knows me on a somewhat personal level."

"What do you mean?"

"He sent me a message through one of the rogues who attacked. Auriana, I need to know. Did dad have any sibling or family relation who was overlooked for the position of ruler?" Auriana sighed deeply and nodded.

"Yes, your father had a twin brother, Richard. He had a questionable character that was greatly disapproved of. He and your father, despite being twins, weren't very close. In some way, they became estranged. Due to his questionable behavior and character, your grandfather refused to name him as crown prince and gave the title to your father even though your father was the younger of the two. This caused their already fragile relationship to weaken even more because your uncle felt he had been cheated out of his birthright by your father. But does it matter? Richard is dead. He died a year after your father was crowned King. He hanged himself one night when everyone was asleep. Your mother was the one who found his body. Apart from him, there was no one else, no other relative."

"Auriana, I don't think Richard is dead."

"What? What do you mean? He has to be. We all saw his body before it was lowered into the ground to be buried. He can't be alive."

"I don't know how it's possible. But something you said coincided with the message that the leader of the rogues asked to be delivered to me. You said Richard felt he had been cheated out of his birthright. The leader of the rogues said a similar thing."

"But that doesn't mean it's him. Can you tell me exactly what the message was?"

"Yeah, I actually recorded it on my phone. Here let me play it for you." I watched as a tear fell from Auriana's eye as she listened to the recording.

"Oh my God. It might be him. The day your father was declared as crown prince, he said similar words to your father. He said that one day, he would rip out the hearts of your father and grandparents in retribution for cheating him out of his birthright. This was before your father met your mother. But I don't understand. We saw him dead, no pulse and no warm body temperature just cold. He wasn't breathing."

"Auriana, calm down. The way you talk about him, it's like you were very close to him."

"I was close to him. He was my mate. I had gone home to visit my mother that week he died. I was involved in an accident days before he died. An accident that sent me into a coma for two months. For a while, I was thought to be dead because my heart was barely beating. The driver of the truck that knocked me off the road said he didn't remember crashing into my car that day. The last thing he remembered was seeing a man he didn't know sitting beside him in the truck before he blacked out but he did not remember how the man looked like. He only remembered seeing a fleur-de-lis necklace around his neck which was confusing because the fleur-de-lis is..."

"The royal family's symbol."

"Exactly."

"Auriana, I'm so sorry you went through that. I didn't know." She smiled and nodded at me. Just then I felt a searing pain at my back and side. I cried out in pain and gripped the table.

"Kiara? Kiara, what's wrong?" Auriana asked, worried and she got up and came to my side.

"I don't know. I just suddenly felt pain in my back and my side. Like something is burning it." I cried out again when the pain increased.

"This isn't your pain, Kiara. You're feeling someone else's pain. It could be either of your sisters."

"No, it's Nick's. I can tell." Just then, my phone started to ring. I answered it and put it on loud speaker.

Kara: "Kiara."

Me: "Kara, what happened? Was there any attack?"

Kara: "Sort of. It was a bomb attack."

Me: "What? Where?"

Kara: "The training yard. Alana had gathered everyone for the evening training session. Thankfully no one died but a lot of wolves got hurt..., including Nick."

Me: "No. How bad is it?"

Kara: "Very bad. The bombs had wolfsbane in it and he was close to one of the place where the bombs were placed so..."

Me: "So he received the full brunt of it." I closed my eyes to push back the tears threatening to fall.

Kara: "Elissa and Carissa are doing what they can with the doctors to get the wolfsbane out of his system so he can heal faster but Kiara, he needs you. Alec and Rae are with him now but only you can help him heal faster."

Me: "I know and I'll be there quickly. But Kara, I think it's time we exposed Gia and Garrett. I have a feeling they were behind this attack. Were they in the yard when this happened?"

Kara: "No, they weren't. They arrived like 20 minutes after it happened. But Kiara, how will we get them to tell the truth? If we confront them and they don't say anything they will know what we've been up to concerning them."

Me: "No, they will talk and they will tell the truth. There's a veritas serum chip in them that I had placed there by Carissa two months ago, the day I asked them to see me when Gia showed disrespect. But it is inactive. It can only be activated by a code sentence."

Kara: "Wow, that's genius. So what's the code?"

Me: "Veritas sciri."

Kara: "Let the truth be known. That's good. Korra and I will handle them, you just get here and be with Nick."

Me: "Thank you, sis."

Kara: "No problem. After all, this is our pack. I gotta go, bye."

I ended the call and stood up.

"A veritas chip. Very ingenious."

"Yeah, thanks." I paced up and down to keep from breaking down.

"Kiara, he's going to be ok. But as your sister said he needs you."

"Yeah, um... could you, uh..."

"Yeah, sure. You know how it works right. Think of the place you wanna go or the person you wanna see."

"I can't just pop in by his side so just behind the pack house is okay."

"Okay, then picture the place in your mind."

A minute later, I found myself behind the pack house. I ran inside and asked where Alec and Rae were. They pointed in the direction of the pack clinic. I ran there and found Alec and Rae waiting outside. They immediately took me to the room Nick was in saying Ellie and Rissa asked for me. My heart almost broke when I saw him lying on the bed, chest down with burns and wounds all over his side and back. I went immediately towards Rissa and Ellie.

"Rissa, Ellie, talk to me. What do you need, what does he need?" I asked, my voice cracking a bit.

"Your strength. Right now, Rissa is taking care of the shrapnel that's still in his body while I take care of the wolfsbane. I need your strength to amplify my power in order to get all the wolfsbane neutralized. I already gave him the mixture to start the neutralizing process, all that's left is my magic." Elissa explained.

"Ok, ok but wait, won't that put him in more pain than he's going through right now? I-I can't, I can't watch him g-go through th-that pain. I can't put him through any more pain." I said frantically. Elissa grasped my arms and shook me a bit causing me to look at her.

"Hey! Hey! He's under a sleep spell. He won't feel the pain. Now calm down and help me heal him before the wolfsbane gets to his heart." She said sternly. I nodded and gave her my hand.

"Take all the strength you need and don't stop till it's over." She nodded and started chanting. Little by little I felt all the burning pain going through Nick's body subside then fade. A minute later, Ellie stopped chanting. I felt weak causing me to sway and lean forward by the bed.

"It's done. All the wolfsbane and shrapnel is out of his body and system. His healing can now work faster without any interference. The sleep spell will wear off by morning." Ellie said, a little out of breath from exhaustion.

"Oh, thank goodness." I heard Alec and Rae say from behind me.

"Yeah. Now we need to go to sleep to restore the energy spent today. We've exerted ourselves today." Rissa said.

"Yeah, um... Alec, Rae, could you please help them to their rooms at our house?" I asked as I took a seat in the chair by the bed.

"Yeah, sure." Rae responded. They all left me in the room. Seconds later, Alec returned and sat down in the only other chair in the room, facing me.

"Hey." I said with a smile.

"Hey." He responded.

"Why are you back? You were supposed to help Rae escort them."

"Rissa sent me back to check on you. Apparently she's a little stronger than Ellie at the moment to walk on her own without support. So are you okay?"

"Yeah, it's nothing a few hours of sleep and a good meal won't fix."

"What about on the inside? Is everything okay in there too?" I sighed and ran a shaky hand through my hair.

"I don't know."

"You're not. It's the first time I've ever seen you lose your cool. It's the first time I've seen you almost breakdown." I scoffed and let out a bitter chuckle.

"Yeah. I guess even the ice queen bitch has points where she can breakdown. I almost lost two people I care about in just one day because of the rogues and it's all my fault. Don't ask me what I mean. I'll tell you tomorrow. I can literally feel the exhaustion and 'my want to sleep' pounding against my mind door wanting to be let in. Can you help me to my room at the house? I don't think I can walk on my own."

"Yeah." He got up and picked me bridal style, carrying me to the house and into my room before laying me down and covering me with my blankets.

"Thanks, Alec."

"Anytime, Kiki." I smiled at the nickname he used to call me by. He stroked my hair before leaving the room.

2 hours later, I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on my door. I got up to open it and found Korra and Kara on the other side. I stepped aside for them to enter before closing the door and joining them on my bed.

"Hey, you okay?" Korra asked.

"Yeah. So did you do what I asked?" I asked.

"Yeah and you're gonna wish I didn't do so." Kara said.

"I'll be the judge of that. Now tell me what they said." I said in a hard tone.

"The rogues have a leader. His name is Richard, no last name known. According to both of them, they're his kids along with one of the 3 rogues that were captured. They said their mission in this pack was gather information on the pack defenses, new strategies and whatever happens here in the pack. Apparently they've been doing this for the past 3 years." Korra said.

"But why this pack? They could have focused on any other pack. Why the Shadow Pack?"

"We asked that too. And they said it was because mom was from this pack. I don't know what that has to do with anything. It's like this is a personal vendetta against mom." Kara informed.

"It is, well, not her particularly. It's a vendetta against the whole current royal family." I said.

"What? How do you know that?" Korra asked in confusion.

"The leader of the rogues is our father's twin brother Richard Silver. He wants revenge for being pushed aside for the crown. When they were young, he had a questionable character so the time came for the crown prince to chosen dad's father decided to pick dad instead of him because of his character even though he was the older twin. Since then he swore to get revenge so he could take the crown as ruler for himself. He's the one who killed mom and dad and he says we're next. But that's not his only revenge. As you said, this is also a personal vendetta against mom. She once told me that when she was 16, by some unfortunate coincidence she had two potential mates, twins, our dad and his brother. So she had to choose between them. It's a rare thing for brothers, twins, to have the same potential mate. I guess mom's was unlucky to be the one who experienced this rare occurrence. Anyway, she chose dad to be her one true mate. Of course this angered our uncle, because he did not love the rejection. Even though he was given a mate of his own, Auriana, he still yearned yet hated mom for rejection him for dad. He felt he was always overlooked for his younger golden brother. First the crown, then mom choosing dad over him. It killed whatever good there was left in him. So he vowed to make everyone pay, including mom's pack who, in his eyes, stood by and watched mom choose dad over him. A year after dad was crowned king and mom, his queen, he faked his own death. He hung himself in his room one night when everyone was asleep. Mom was the one who found his body the next morning. They couldn't find a pulse when they checked so he was presumed dead. But the thing is they were too quick to pronounce him dead."

"What do you mean?" Kara asked.

"There's a way to slow down a werewolf's heart rate to a point where he/she might be presumed dead if care isn't taken and if you're not patient. When this process is done, the heart rate drops to a beat per like 30 minutes which is enough to keep a normal werewolf alive but of course the body temperature still drops to dead cold. I think that's how Richard did it. Because if everyone believed he was dead, they wouldn't suspect him or even think of him being the mastermind behind anything."

"Wow, how do you know all this stuff?" Kara asked.

"Mom, dad, Eliara and Auriana. I always asked questions and of course they didn't see the harm in telling me everything since Richard was thought to be dead. Although Auriana only just told me today when I asked a question based on a message that had been sent to me today through those 3 rogues."

"Why didn't you tell us any of this earlier? The message and what mom, dad, Eliara and Auriana told you." Korra asked. I looked at her and Kara.

"Are you serious right now? How was I supposed to know any of all this, minus the message and what Auriana said was connected to all that's happening? I just told you everyone thought Richard was dead so how could I have thought any of those stories were connected to what's happening now. And as for the message and what Auriana told me, when was I supposed to tell? When we were trying to save Eliara, or when I was helping Elissa and Carissa save Nick's life? Don't you get it? There was no time. Have I attempted to hide anything this important from you before?"

"No. We're sorry. It's just, we're feeling so guilty for everything that's happened and we're laying it on you. We're so sorry. I can't believe that everything that happened to everyone in this pack today and the past 3 years is because of our family." Kara said.

"Yeah, well join the club. Where are Garret and Gia right now?"

"In the cells, being interrogated. The whole pack knows about their involvement with rogue attacks now." Kara answered.

"Good. (A knock sounded on the door then.) Come in, Rae." Raelynn entered with shock on her face.

"How did you know it was me?" she asked.

"We could smell you behind the door." Kara answered for me.

"Incredible." Rae said in awe.

"So why are you here?" I asked.

"Nick's up. The sleeping spell wore off early. He was asking for you." She answered.

"Oh ok. Is he still in the clinic?" I asked.

"No, he's in his room. He was discharged after he woke up." Rae said.

"Yeah, um... I don't think I can...uh..."

"Kiara, it's okay. Go see him. We'll continue this later." Kara said, cutting me off. She and Korra then smiled at me making me smile as well.

"Ok. Rae, can you walk me there?" I asked as I got off the bed.

"Yeah, sure of course." We left the house and headed for the pack house.