DYLAN ||

5 DAYS

That's how long it's been since that horrifying message was quite literally left on my fucking doorstep.

The body of the wolf had shifted back to its human form, but because there was no way to identify him, I was still no closer to solving what the fuck even happened.

When I was in a panic-stricken state, stuck outside, rooted to the same spot that day, Raiden grabbed my hand and led me back into the packhouse, then put me to bed in my room.

The next morning, my mind wasn't so jumbled and I started making the tough decisions any Alpha should to protect his pack. Well, if I'm being completely honest, Raiden and Roman told me what to do because Gabe and Hunter weren't helpful at all. They were just as shaken up as I was.

The brothers I have come to love, told me that my first course of action should be a mandatory curfew, so I set one for 8pm, announcing through the pack link, that anyone caught out past the instructed time, would be punished.

The next thing they told me to do was to go through all of my pack files, taking attendance in a sense. I had to call a pack meeting and announce that everyone was to basically answer to their name when called, which resulted in everyone being present including all of the new pack transfers.

I wasn't surprised by that though because I didn't feel any of my pack tethers snap, I didn't feel despair, I didn't feel heartache or pain. Nothing happened that day besides feeling sick to my stomach, which would have happened if someone crossed my borders that weren't pack.

The last thing I was told to do was to make sure my borders were gated off. This was Raiden's idea alone. The memory of our second day together reared it's ugly head when he mentioned gates.

I agreed to his suggestion and ordered the strongest pack members to get the job done. They were to gate off the entirety of our territory, which wasn't small, so I knew it would take a few days or maybe a week to complete.

• • •

After everything had been achieved and motions set forth, I focused my attention onto the message, clearly sent for me.

YOUR ALPHA TOOK EVERYTHING FROM ME, NOW IM GOING TO RETURN THE FAVOR

I was trying so hard to rack my brain on who I could have possibly taken everything from. I didn't have many enemies, if any. We were a peaceful pack, we didn't even participate in the fights against the rogues or the covens when King Kano called for all his packs to assist.

I made some bogus excuse of not having enough warriors to send out to help in the battles because we were fighting our own with the rogues in our area, which wasn't a complete lie. We were fighting our own rogue issues, but we had more than enough warriors to send to the King and be here to help the pack.

This was the first time since meeting Raiden, that I didn't think him killing rogues, caused issues for my pack.

This time was completely different, this time was meant for me.

That thought had all of my wheels turning.

Getting up from my desk, I walked over to my pack report files. After grabbing every single report from the past 2 months, I walk back to my desk and start going over them once again.

Raiden said he killed the rogues because they attacked him first, which sounds completely believable. Rogues are vicious, blood thirsty assholes and my mate clearly wouldn't harm a fly unless he felt vulnerable in some way.

Back then, dad said there was a leopard roaming around our borders for a month, but that he had only been spotted 3 times, which didn't make sense to me now because Raiden said he only allowed Onyx to spend time in his form for 2 weeks out of the month and the day we met, he said he had only been in Onyx form for about a week up to that point.

He also said he only went to the waterfall in the mornings and then they moved along.

Looking at the times the reports came in, my warriors spotted a leopard at 12:27pm, 3:15pm and 7:27pm on 3 seperate days all within the same month, but days apart.

That means Raiden couldn't have been the leopard that was spotted, if it even was a Leopard that my warriors seen.

The only information of the appearance of the Leopard that was spotted was that he was black in color, was spotted once on the ground and twice in the trees around our borders, but shit they could have seen a solitary bear shifter or something and the only indication in the reports that it could have been a Leopard that killed the rogues was because the bodies were found in trees.

Which again, a bear could have totally done!

Raiden told me Leopards are shy, reclusive creatures. They spend majority of their day sleeping in the trees and they usually hunt at night because it's easier and the fact that they're primarily nocturnal.

Which further added to my confusion and skepticism that the reports in front of me had anything to do with my mate.

Especially the lack of rogue sightings during the times that were listed with Onyx appearances. There were no rogue reports within those time frames or locations that Raiden was spotted, yet the rogues were attacking my pack during that time..... and before.

Oh fuck...

I snatched the rogue sighting reports off my desk and held them closer to my face, as if I couldn't believe the information reported.

These rogue reports from the last 2 months say that our attacks started April 11th, but the first rogue kill that was spotted in a tree within our borders was April 27th.

Then the first sighting of Raiden was May 9th, none of which makes sense because Raiden said he had only been in Onyx form for a week before we met and that was May 18th.

So if my math is correct, that means he and Onyx entered my borders on May 11th, which would have been a whole month AFTER the first rogue attack, 14 days AFTER the rogue kills were spotted in multiple trees on my territory and 2 days AFTER the first sighting of a Leopard was reported.

Oh Goddess......

It wasn't him...

It was never him....

I mistreated my mate for nothing...

I locked him up for nothing....

Oh fuck me....

Throwing the reports onto my desk, I get up from my chair and run out of my office in search of my mate.

GUILT. PANIC. FEAR. REJECTION.

The emotions that were the strongest in my heart right now as I ran through the packhouse in search of his beautiful face, his beautiful demeanor, his beautiful soul.

GUILT. PANIC. FEAR. REJECTION.

How could I jump to conclusions so quickly?!

GUILT. PANIC. FEAR. REJECTION.

I was beyond guilty for this, I never looked over the reports thoroughly before jumping into action.

I assumed everything was correct and whoever the fuck filed these reports and mentioned something to my parents, who in turn never went over the bullshit reports, would be dealt with!

After I deal with myself...

GUILT. PANIC. FEAR. REJECTION.

He's always known he was innocent and I never believed him, not truly, not until now.

We we're all so caught up on that devastating day that the rogues took Bennett from us, we were blinded by grief.

PANIC.

If I was the Alpha my brother would have been, I would have went over the reports before I moved forward with a plan, which by the way was stupid as fuck because my mate never did anything!

He was innocent and I punished him for something he never did!

REJECTION.

He's going to reject me for this, I'm going to lose the one person in my life that's truly loves me unconditionally, all because I was a fucking idiot and decided to jump to conclusions!

GUILT.

GUILT.

Running into the kitchen, I found him standing by the sink, thawing one the rabbits he killed yesterday.

"Babe." I whispered, my heart rate had now skyrocketed to a dangerous level. I was lightheaded, I was nauseous, I was panicking.

HE WAS INNOCENT.

I was wrong....

Raiden turned around and smiled when he seen me. That smile, that heartwarming that's now become the beat to my heart.

I was wrong....

HE WAS INNOCENT.

HE IS INNOCENT.

"Hey pups." My beautiful, sweet, awesome mate greets me before noticing my panic-stricken expression. "What's wrong?"

GUILT. FEAR. PANIC. REJECTION.

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