Chapter 67

Harper’s POV

They really have disappeared. Vanished without a trace for two days.

Mason and Brandon are no help because they won’t tell me where Lucas is. I don’t believe he would leave without telling them something, but I’ve asked several times, and the only response I get is, “He’s investigating a possible threat against the pack.”

They wouldn’t tell me what threat or if he’s even in the territory, which is incredibly annoying and worrying. I can’t help but wonder if something happened to Lucas. My mind immediately goes to the possibility that there was an attack, but I haven’t had any warriors come in for healing.

More than once, over the last two days, I’ve found myself sending up a short prayer of protection for Lucas to the Goddess.

Brandon also won’t tell me if he knows where Logan is. They’re brothers, Brandon is the pack’s Gamma, and Logan is a warrior. There’s no way Logan disappears without Brandon knowing about it. Or at least, I hope not.

I push a branch aside, scanning the forest in front of me with no luck.

My worry for Logan is less about having or not having feelings for him and more about wanting to know what he knows about Sierra and my mate mark. If he knew all along that Lucas marked me that night, then why did he keep it to himself? And that’s part of my reason for needing to talk to him. I don’t know how long he’s known.

Did Logan find out recently, or did he know the whole time?

Over the past two days, I’ve realized that my bond with Logan has faded so much that it’s almost gone. I noticed before that it was weaker, but I didn’t think much about it until I overheard the conversation between Sierra and Logan.

If Lucas really was the man who marked me, then is that mark making my real mate bond with Logan disappear? Or is it something else?

There are too many unanswered questions, and if I don’t get answers soon, I might go crazy. I’ve barely slept for the past two nights, and I’m exhausted.

Again, I step over a fallen tree, wishing I could find either man so I can have some answers.

“Find anything?” Nora asks. I jump, startled and hold in the scream that jumps into my throat.

“Don’t sneak up on me!”

“Sorry. Sorry. I forget that you don’t have the same senses anymore,” she mutters sheepishly. “I think we should go back and see if they’ve returned. I don’t need to have to explain why you got lost or hurt in the forest when my brother and Alpha Lucas do finally return.”

Like me, Nora was shocked when I told her Lucas was the one who marked me. She offered to help me find him and Logan, but our search isn’t going well.

“You’re probably right,” I say, taking one last look out into the forest. If they’re out here, I’ll probably never find them anyways.

As we make our way back to the pack house, I think about my bond with Logan. It hasn’t felt the same lately. At first, I felt instantly connected to him, but it didn’t take long for the bond to feel strained. I thought it was because we were getting to know each other, but now, I have other thoughts.

Our bond has been slowly weakening, which is probably how or why I got distracted and started feeling something for Lucas. If that’s the case, I really need to get Lucas to remove the mark so that I don’t lose my real mate.

In the past, losing a true mate has caused much stronger wolves than me to break, and I know that I’ll splinter like a piece of cheap wood.

Then again, what I feel for Lucas seems so right. When I’m with him, I feel happier, lighter, and seen. It could be my imagination, or a side effect of the mark, but I won’t know until I find them and ask.

“Hey, Mason is coming this way,” Nora says, pointing off to the right. I follow the gesture, and sure enough, Mason is coming right for us. Or, right for me.

“Harper.”

“Are they back?” I ask, jogging to close the distance between us. Hope flares to life in my chest, and I grab his arm. “Did Lucas and Logan come back?”

“You’re wanted in the Alpha’s office,” he says, his tone sharp and official and so unlike him. Then, his hand clamps around my bicep. “I’m to escort you.”

The cold attitude throws me off my balance, allowing him to drag me back toward the pack house. I try to ask what’s going on but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he leads me up to Lucas’s office and pushes me inside when we reach the door.

The first thing I see upon entering is Logan. He’s kneeling on the floor in front of Lucas, and I gasp. His face is bruised and his lip is bloody. Shackles are clamped around his wrists, pinning them at his lower back.

“What happened to Logan? What’s going on?” I ask, turning my attention to Lucas. Cold blue eyes meet mind, and I stumble back. This isn’t the man I was talking to at the celebration the other night.

This is Alpha Lucas.

His glare is glacial, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Logan, here, has been secretly helping people forge fake mate bonds,” Lucas announces stiffly, pointing at Logan. “He’s been profiting off of selling potions that he got from rogue witches and warlocks.”

He’d told Sierra something different.

I turn to Logan, disgusted and still shocked, “Is this true?”

“That’s not all,” Lucas says, pulling my attention back to him before Logan can answer. “He’s been working with underground traffickers to trade and sell wolf souls. He’s been doing this the entire year you have been gone and possibly longer.”

Wolf souls.

I shake my head. Logan wouldn’t do something so evil… though, he doesn’t speak against what Lucas is saying. When I turn to Logan, he merely drops his head forward, not looking at me or anyone else.

My heart skips a beat, and my stomach drops. Is it true? Is that why he isn’t saying anything?

“I-I don’t know what to say,” I mumble, staring at the man I thought was a good, kind man.

“You should confess your wrongdoings now, before my anger rises any higher,” Lucas says. Footsteps sound, and I turn, coming face to face with Lucas. He captures my chin in his fingers, forcing me to look up at him as he glares down at me. He’s never looked at me with such hate in his eyes.

My tongue becomes heavy as lead, and my head spins as I try to figure out what’s going on. Why would Logan do this, and why is Lucas looking at me like he wants to throw me into a pit of lava.

“I don’t understand why you’re—”

Lucas’s grasp on my chin tightens, and I suck in a sharp breath.

“We have evidence to prove that you’ve been helping Logan, as his partner.”