Sold to the Alpha With Silver Eyes - Chapter 59: Chapter 59

*Dev*
Leoni continues to glance my way, waiting for me to speak the entire time we track and follow the trail that we can only hope yields better results than I found on my own. Her silence grows heavy and I swear I can hear her thoughts, so I stop, place my hands on my hips, shaking my head.
“Just say it already.” I groan and she looks at me like I’m crazy. Any more of this silence and weighted stare of hers and I may go crazy.
“Say what?” She asks as innocently and I close my eyes, muttering curse words under my breath. My hands fly up into the air, giving into the growing anger I feel, and then I shove past her.
“Okay, okay. I’m just curious what is next, you know? Like, where will you go and what will you do now that you are a rogue?” She asks.
“That is what you are worried about right now?” I scoff, spinning to look at her. “What will I eat every day and where will I spend my nights?”
“Obviously, I am concerned about Eden too, Dev. But I am trying to keep my emotions out of my tracking so we can locate her with logical minds. Emotional minds miss things, important things.” She reminds me as I inhale heavily before groaning out my breath and turning away from her again.
“Not all of us have that talent, Leoni. Not when it comes to Eden.” I drag my hand over my face and I can feel her judgement boring into my back. “I know you are cursing me for how I treated her in the pack, okay? But there were things I was trying to protect her from–”
“If you would have trusted me, spoken to me, maybe we could have avoided that whole fall out.” Leoni’s voice is dripping with anger, and I scoff.
She thinks she is angry? How the hell would she have felt if she had to treat Hastings the way I had to treat Eden? Force the person you love to loathe you because you are stuck trying to save a pack that eventually you will give up, anyway?
“Yeah, well, I wasn’t exactly in my best state of mind,” I mutter, thinking about the singular wolfsbane flower I found in my flower vase in my bathroom.
In smaller doses, wolfsbane won’t kill you, but it will drive your lycan crazy, slowly making you lose your sanity. How long had it been in there and who the fuck was poisoning not only me but Jasmine will probably never be answered at this rate? But mine had been there long enough to make me act in ways I don’t think I ever would otherwise.
“We are all still mourning Hastings.” Leoni whispers and I come to a stop, guilt trickling in. I should have trusted her more, not just because of who she was to my best friend but because she is also one of my best friends, always has been. Heavens, when did I become such an unbearable asswipe?
“It isn’t about Hastings’ Leoni. Someone was poisoning me and Jasmine and heavens knows who else. Not only that, but Nate is not who we thought he was all along and for the first time in my life, I feel inclined to trust the one blood relative I always thought of as a joke.”
“Oh,” Her eyes grow wide as she listens.
“And all I can think about is Eden. The look on her face when I hurt her and what she must be going through with whatever soon to be dead fucker who took her.”
“Do you think she will forgive you?” Leoni asks after a second of silence and walking again. She looks over at me and my head drops.
“No.” I say truthfully. “I killed her family, rejected her, gave into loving her and then when she was finally healing, I sliced her back open emotionally. Toxic doesn’t even come close to what I am to her.”
I hate saying it out loud. Every single word is a nail to the coffin of my heart. But I would be an idiot to not remind myself daily that I am not some hero to her, like I originally thought. I am the asshole villain in her story. Her pain started with me and even now, continues because of me.
Here I thought by letting her go I could move on, live and lead to make up for how terrible I was, well…am. But even when it came down to that sacrifice, I couldn’t do it. I am sick, living a life that will slowly kill me and she is the only medicine. Once I know she is safe, I will die happily as a rogue.
Leoni wisely says nothing more, though the look on her face tells me she is digesting everything and that this conversation is far from over. As I slip over a large downed log, grunting in pain as I land on my mostly healed broken leg. I lift my head, freezing in shock when I see someone standing along the trail.
“Well, I must say, we expected you much later.” A blonde twig of a shifter says, grinning at me.
“Oh?” I ask. Rising to my full height, Leoni hears the voice, and she stays hidden on the other side. “Wasn’t aware anyone was waiting. I would have come even sooner.”
“Did you bring it?” He asks, and I frown, patting down the front of my pockets and then back pockets before I shrug.
“Can’t say I remembered to bring it with me.”
My words obviously piss him off as he sneers and saunters over to me. Once he moves closer, his steps slow, and his muscles grow rigid, confusion dotting his brow.
“What’s your name?” He asks, tilting his chin up trying to create the illusion of more height. Granted, he is already a tall fellow for a wolf, but no one tops a lycan of my stature, not in genetics.
“You know my name, hence expecting me.” I scoff, trying to play it off that I am the person he is planning to meet still. It may slow me down a little but, perhaps he knows where Eden went, or saw her pass by. Or better yet, maybe the asshole he is waiting for has Eden.
He licks his lips, looking around, confused.
“Come on man, I know you aren’t Amos now that I see you up close. So what did you do with him, and where is my stuff?” He grows agitated, his hands twitching at his side as he tries to remain brave, but it is dwindling.
“Amos won’t be making it for a while, but tell me what you plan to trade and I might find what he had with my partner behind you.” I smirk and he whips around to find a vibrant smile from Leoni, who waves at him cheekily.
“Fuck.” he drags his dirty hand over his face.
“Is he dead?” He asks, “Because if you killed him, there will be hell to pay. He is protected by the king himself.”
I throw my hands up, annoyed. Seems like every fucker is protected by the king himself except his own blood.
“No, he isn’t dead.” I say blandly, and he sighs in relief.
“Oh, thank fuck.” The guy chuckles. “I was about to be annoyed as hell if I had to find a new contact.”
“For what, exactly?” I ask, arching a brow, and he narrows his eyes.
“Who wants to know?” He asks, moving toward me.
“Just a bored rogue,” I tell him and he nods like he understands.
“Not much for us rogues to do out here, huh?” He jokes with a sly smirk, then he looks back at Leoni. “But you don’t need what I am dealing with. You have your own piece of fine ass. What would you need another for?”
“Ahhh, here I thought it was something else.” I nod in understanding. “Though she isn’t really my type. I like long straight brown hair, facial scars…”
He seems to understand exactly who I am referring to as he tries to hide his shock and clears his throat, looking away. Then he steps to the side, making space for me to pass him as Leoni moves closer.
“You trade shit for people?” Leoni asks.
“We all have reasons for doing what we do. Don’t judge me, miss high and mighty,” he growls, stalking toward her. “I am looking for someone, and I will stop at nothing to get the information on them.”
I watch with growing interest as Leoni steps closer to him, sniffing the air. And then her knees bend and her face morphs from amused to homicidal. Then she pounces on his back, slamming his face into the dirt.
“What the hell?” I ask her and she looks up at me.
“It’s him. She is all over him, Dev. He was with Eden recently.” She growls.
“Oh, I hope you like to talk about giving information as much as you like to receive it. Or your day just became a shit ton more painful.” I grind out, moving over to him.
“Eden, right? The girl with the scars? Yeah, okay, I know where she is.” He prattles off without any coaxing.
“Well, that’s convenient.” Leoni says. “Why don’t you just take us to her as well?”
“We wouldn’t survive.” He cries out in pain as Leoni presses her weight into his twisted arm. “Fuck! Dude! I’m not kidding. She is at the Rebel base. The fucking heart of it. There is no sneaking in there and getting to her.”
And just like that, my heart drops and I feel my Lycan raging. How the hell am I supposed to get her when she is in there and who the hell wanted her dropped off at this base? Is she safe there living freely, or is she someone’s prisoner?
“Why the hell would you bring her there?” I ask, squatting down to look at him closer. “Who the fuck wants her?”
Leoni meets my gaze, her mind where mine is. Does someone know what she means to me and want to use her to make demands?
“Why the hell do you care? Want to take her back to the fucking hell hole she was living in, Alpha?” He smirks up at me, full recognition in his eyes now. “I mean, I already freed her from your house and she was ready to go. Bag was packed and everything. All she needed was a way out, which was me.”
“Just kill him.” I say bluntly as I stand. Leoni giggles and his face pales.
“Wait, wait…her family asked me to get her and bring her back, okay? It was her fucking family.”
“Her family is dead.” I tell him, unamused, and he chuckles.
“It is really cute how little you actually know about anything happening in this world. So oblivious for a future king.”
“I am the one who called the order to execute her family.” I grind out, hating admitting it to the likes of him.
“And did you watch them burn, or just listen to their distant cries?” He asks, that smug look back on his face before I motion for Leoni to get up off of him. “Tell you what, I can take you to where I dropped her off, but only if you help me find my brother afterwards in your warrior camp.”
“Who is your brother?” Leoni asks, and he wipes his shirt off.
“Christopher, but he goes by Topher.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” I whisper, looking at Leoni is utter confusion.