Chapter 199 – Absent Luna of the Lycan King Novel (Ivy & Kyson)

Filed To Story: Absent Luna of the Lycan King Novel (Ivy & Kyson)

“You are home,” Kyson growls as worry bleeds into the bond, but I shake my head. Something was pulling me to go back to where it started, as if it would somehow make sense if I did.

“The answer is at home. I know we are missing something.” I told him.

“There is nothing there for you anymore, Azalea,”

“You’re wrong. My family’s history is there. My history is there.” I tell him, turning on his lap to look at him.

“It’s out of the question. Do you have any idea how much work goes into rebuilding a kingdom? Getting the security and everything sorted? I can’t leave here, Azalea,” he snaps, clearly not wanting to debate this.

“I don’t mean to live there, Kyson. But the answers are there. We are missing something, so much doesn’t make sense. Crux’s involvement doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes, and as Damian and I were discussing earlier, we will go to the council and present our case. At the very least, we need to make sure Tandi’s son is kept with her; and Brock’s pack is dismantled. At least then we can find out what Crux’s involvement with the hunters is. There has to be a reason or Tandi is wrong, and they were newer council members. The council was built to protect the werewolf and Lycan way of life. They are bound to pact they swore too,” Kyson explains.

“When did you take over the council?” | ask.

“After your parents were killed. The council went to the next in line Kingdom, or the next kingdom of reigning power,” but see that is where I was struggling to keep up. If the council is bound to their holder, why would Marrissa kill Claire? She worked for the hunters, or supposedly did.

Yet the feeling through the bond, I could tell Kyson fully believed that it was just a coincidence. He was unbelieving that the woman who raised me was innocent. He needed to blame her, yet after everything, I wasn’t so sure. I just needed something. Some part of the puzzle, some way to awaken my memory of that night. I had dribs and drabs. I saw Marrissa in her hunter’s uniform and the insignia, yet why did I feel it wasn’t her that called the hunters in?

I listened to them debate and argue, but how did this all link to the missing rogue women and children? So many questions were left unanswered or in doubt. Then there was Ester and Trey’s story on top of Tandi’s? Looking around at them while they were discussing what to do next, I met Trey’s eyes. He also was deep in conversation, his gaze flicking back to the box of documents as he rummaged through it.

“How did you know I was alive?” I asked him and everyone fell quiet, turning their attention to me.

“The sire bond. I could still feel it. I was sired to you. It wasn’t until years later when it went dormant that I truly believed you were dead, as everyone else did.” Trey answers and everyone turned their attention back to what they were doing, yet for some reason that sat weirdly with me.

“What if that is the link to dead children and rogue women?” I think to myself, only realizing I spoke the words out loud when everyone stops again. Kyson leans forward, kissing my shoulder as I sat on his lap.

“What are you talking about?” he asks but Trey also seemed to be thinking.

“When did the children start going missing and turning up dead?” I ask.

“After your parent’s murders,” Kyson and Damian answer.

“Have you got a list of the approximate ages of the children?” I ask, and Dustin clears his throat.

“The archives have lists or those found and locations, but not all of them were identified,” Dustin says.

“What about the rogue women? When did they start getting killed?”

“Sporadically. Sometimes entire rogue camps were found dead,” Gannon answers, and I bite my lip.

“What are you thinking?” Kyson asks behind me and I turn on his lap.

“A pattern,” I answer.

“There is no pattern. If it was a serial killer, there would be a pattern, but there is none. No preference for type or ages, nothing. The only link is they were rogue, and spanned half the countryside.” Damian answers.

“That’s because the hunters weren’t killing them for the sake of killing them,” I tell him, and Trey gasps.

“They were hunting you! They knew you were alive!” he says before rushing out the door.

“Where are you-” but Trey was gone before Kyson could demand an answer. Kyson leans back heavily in his chair.

“If that were true, they would have had to have known you existed. Which I suppose Marrissa would have told them, but what if she had a sudden change of heart and couldn’t go through with it?” Damian scoffs with a shake of his head.

Inless she was never a part of it,” I tell him. Kyson growls behind me. Yet how could he not see what I did?

“Just hear me out. What if she didn’t have anything to do with it? If what Ester says is true, then Marrissa was sired to me. She couldn’t have let them kill me. So if she was part of it, why wouldn’t she just hand me over to the hunters or tell the hunters that I am there? Why would she run with me?” I ask, looking at them

“Okay, say it is true. Why do you have memories of her wearing the hunter’s uniform that night? And why would she kill my sister? And who else would have been their inside person?” Kyson snaps.

“What if she didn’t kill Claire? I know you want to believe it was my mother, but why would she wait years. working here and not just help the hunters get inside the castle grounds again?”

“Because she was working her damn way up the ladder, is why!” he snaps.

“Or maybe you don’t want to look at the fact that you had a mole in one of your people! I don’t think she killed Claire, I believe she was framed!” | snapped back.

“And what use would be framing her? If she was innocent, why would she come to my kingdom if not to kill us too?” he said standing up and I caught myself on his desk before slipping off his lap.

“You’re wrong!” he says before storming out of his office. Damian growls and clicks his tongue before going after him. Yet nothing I said would make him see. He needed a villain and my mother, or the woman who raised me was it. He didn’t want to look at fault in his own Kingdom. Ye was too busy seeking it in mine.

“I know I am right. I want to go home. I need to remember.” I breathe.

“Azalea, he won’t let you leave here,” Gannon says.

“Good thing it is not up to him. He can come or not, but either way I am going home,” I tell him.

“For what? You can’t just leave,” Gannon says.

“The Kingdom has been left the way it was, untouched. We need answers, and the only way to get them is to start from scratch,” I tell Gannon.

Gannon clutches his hair. “And if you’re wrong, then what? We have been investigating this since the first kingdom fell. The first Kingdom, Azalea. We would have found proof. We know the hunters are behind it. We know Marrissa was the lead hunter.”

“No, you think you know. And what purpose would she have in keeping me alive?” I tell him, also walking out.

They didn’t want to see any fault in their investigations, but they were ruled by fear and anger. As for me, am an outsider, so my perspective of it is different. If they would just hear me out.

I knew Marrissa and one thing I know for sure was that she loved me as if I was her own. I have no idea why she ran from Trey and the Landeena guard, but I knew she had to have had a reason.

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