Cain's face twisted in confusion. "What the hell are you taking about, Thane?"

"Onyx," I can hear him through the phone, and Cain puts him on speaker, though its unnecessary. "She's missing. You're the only one with motivation to take her."

"Don't be stupid, Thane," Cain growls. "I didn't take your fucking mate."

Thane is silent for a minute. Surely, he knew how ridiculous the accusation was. Regardless of what happened that night, Cain wouldn't take someone's mate always from him, especially not Thane's, no matter how angry he was. I would, but that isn't Cain's style.

"Put Ares on," He demands, and Cain looks at me questioningly.

"What the hell do you want, traitor?" I snarl.

"What did you do to her?" He asks, his voice dangerously calm.

"I didn't touch your stupid little mate. I have enough dumbass rogues to kill as it is," I roll my eyes, and Thane growls.

"This isn't a fucking joke, Ares!" He yells, and I can hear something crashing on his end, like he threw or hit something.

"No, but it sure is hilarious," I laugh, and Cain gives me a warning look. "Maybe she just left you, dear Thane. I hear women have issues with backstabbers, maybe she realized she wants a wolf and not a snake for a mate."

Thane inhales deeply, trying to calm himself, probably knowing that I'm trying to piss him off. "Cain," Thane appeals calmly. "It wasn't too long ago that I looked for and returned your mate to you, without any questions asked."

"That was before you made decisions that could have led to my mate's death," Cain says, just as calm, but his words are dripping in venom. "My mate who went through hell, alone, just to help you. We don't owe you anything. I'd say good luck finding your mate, but I wouldn't mean it."

Thane tries to respond, but Cain hangs up, and turns his phone off. He picks me up, placing me back into bed, but still holding me in his arms. "Who do you think took her?" I ask.

Cain pauses before answering. "I'm not sure. Thane told me before that she had been kidnapped, but was returned soon after. It's probably the same person."

"Why would someone kidnap her just to immediately return her?" I asked in confusion, and Cain shrugs.

"I'm not sure, pup. They may return her again, so I'm not too concerned with the matter. It's Thane's mate, and therefore Thane's problem," Cain says his tone clipped.

We lay in silence, but he's not asleep yet. "You knew how bad the Transformation was for me?" I ask, and he nods slowly. "You still let me stay in Blue Moon?"

Cain exhales. "Of course I knew, Ares. I could feel your terror through the bond, and I'm sure you had even blocked most of it from me, but it was a lot."

"Why?" I whisper in confusion. "Why not have dragged me back to Blood Lake?"

Cain pauses. "A few reasons. For one, my trust in Thane was misplaced. He had a rough Transformation, I thought he would have been able to help you better than I could have. But most of all... I wanted you to make your own decision. You're an Alpha now, you don't need me telling you what to do. You're responsible for an entire pack now, I trust that you will do what you think is best. In case if it's something completely idiotic," Cain adds, and I snort. "Then I won't hesitate to lock you up again."

I laugh and relax against him. Despite his flaws, he was perfect for me. He understood that I need autonomy, but also knows that I'm far too reckless to be allowed to follow all of my urges, and need to be stopped.

And the Moon Goddess knows that he's the only one strong enough to stop me.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

"One rogue, and I'll be back," I bargain.

Cain's eyes narrow at me. "I said no."

"And I say yes," I counter, and he rolls his eyes. "I'm going to go crazy if you keep me locked up inside the house any longer. I might kill Axel just to feel something."

"I heard that," Axel calls out from the couch.

"You were supposed to," I call out from the kitchen, and I hear him laugh in response.

"Oh come on, Cain," I plead. "I'll only be gone for an hour. Two, tops. And then when I come back, I'll be good as new! We can even go to bed early and I can do that thing you like..."

My voice trails off and I give him a mischievous look. He growls as his eyes turn black. "Fine. Two hours. If you're not back by then, I'm locking you in the house until next winter."

I throw my arms around his neck, and he inhales deeply. "You won't regret this," I promise, and he glares slightly.

"I better not," He mutters. "I'll see you soon," He says, his eyes dark as he pulls away and runs his eyes down my body.

I wink at him, before calling out to Axel, "Let's go, Axe!"

Axel meets me at the front door, and we head out, leaving Cain in the Pack House.

I wrap my fur cloak tighter around me as the harsh winter air cuts through my skin like a knife. Blood Lake winters were brutal, and we were right in the middle of it. I caught myself longing for the temperate climate of Blue Moon, before pushing the thought out of my head.

"We can go back if you're cold," Axel suggests. "I know you're still not used to the harsh winters here."

Shrugging, I tell him, "I don't mind. It feels good. My wolf likes it," I admit.

Axel nods. "I know what you mean. It's because you're mated to Cain, destined to live in Blood Lake. Your wolf recognizes it as your home."

Stunned by his wisdom, I nod slightly as we plunge deeper into the woods. We had awhile to go before we would come across any rogues, most too scared to come anywhere near Cain's territory.

"Are you excited for the Mating Gathering?" I ask Axel curiously. He hasn't found his mate yet, and every year gave him a better chance.

Axel looked to the side, avoiding eye contact. "Not really. I just get my hopes up every year, only to be disappointed when I return without a mate."

"Sorry," I mutter. I'd say some bullshit about how he'd meet her when the time is right, but that sounded like bullshit, even to me.

"It's okay," Axel shrugs, but his face has traces of sadness on it. "The Moon Goddess works in mysterious ways, I trust that she will bring her into my life when the time is right. For a while... I was thankful I hadn't met her yet. When Wilson was still missing... It wouldn't have been safe for me to have a mate. You saw how that turned out for Gwen."

I nod, and he continues. "But now that it's safe... It's all I can think about," He said quietly. "Finding her, bringing her back to Blood Lake, starting a family..."

I wince slightly at his words, and he quickly corrects himself. "Fuck, sorry, Ares. I shouldn't have said that."

"It's fine," I reassure him with a sad smile, and reach out to squeeze his hand. "I want those things for you too, Axe."

He's about to say something when I hear snow crunching in the distance. "Thank God," I exhale. "Things were getting a little to Hallmark-y for a minute there."

I summon Thane's dagger- my dagger- and follow the sounds of the rogue. We come across a male, his body so littered in scars, I'm nearly taken away by how much he reminds me of the old version of myself.

Unfortunately for him, I hate myself.

He doesn't even attempt to run away as I grab him my the collar of his jacket. "What, you're not going to beg for your life? Tell me you have kids? Promise to cure world hunger?"

The rogue merely shakes his head, and doesn't flinch as I shove the knife into his neck, his body slackening as I drain the life from his body.

"What the hell is up with all of these suicidal wolves?" I groan in annoyance as I shove his body to the ground. "It's making hunting exceptionally boring."

Axel shrugs. "People get depressed in the winter."

After wiping the blood from the knife on my cloak, I inspect the cleaned blade. On both sides of the blade, the letter H was engraved. It wasn't like that before.

"Who's H?" Axel asks curiously, looking at the blade over my shoulder.

"I have no idea."

A few announcements:
1. I will now be following an updating schedule. I am doing this so that now, you won't have to wonder or ask when the next update will be, because you'll already know. Hopefully this prevents any confusion!

2. Uploading schedule is as follows: Mondays and Thursdays. One chapter Monday, one chapter Thursday. I don't have one day dedicated to ONYX or Lethal because the stores may run at slightly different timelines, so I may have to update Lethal twice in a row for example, just so that they're happening within the same time frame and one story isn't ahead of the other/ spoiling what happens in the other story.

3. THE NEXT FOUR CHAPTERS OF LETHAL ARE ON MY PATREON!!! Yep, you heard that correctly: FOUR chapters after this are already updated on my Patreon, so be sure to subscribe if you want to read ahead.

4. THE NEXT FOUR CHAPTERS OF ONYX ARE ALSO ON MY PATREON. Yep: if you add me on Patreon, you will have EIGHT full chapters total in advance of ONYX and Lethal to spice up your coronacation.
www. patreon.com/vviticus

Happy reading!
XX
VVITICUS