Chapter 32

Lucas’ POV

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"Hey Jack, have you seen Leo? I want to talk to him before we start again."

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"Nope, he walked over that way, he probably got pulled into more questioning. Everyone here tonight seems to want to talk to him." He laughs and I look in the direction he pointed and see my little guy at a table with a pouty face. I thank Jack and do a quick check on Teddy.

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“Hey buddy, something wrong?”

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“Daddy, Leo took my toy,” he says and I just chuckle.

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“I’m sure he is just teasing you. What did he take?” I ask, thinking I can quickly fix the situation if I give him something to replace it.

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“My lion,” he says and I’m not sure what toy that is.

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“Lion? What toy is that?”

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“The lion you had in your coat pocket. I was playing with it and Leo saw it and started acting weird and he took it.” Teddy says having no idea about the reality of that little plastic figure.

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“Did you see where he went?” I ask, worry quickly rising within me.

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“He left, is he gonna give it back?” Teddy asks innocently and I pat him on the head and assure him that we will get him a different toy, and then I race out the door and finally find Leo standing on the edge of the perimeter staring into the woods.

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“Leo? Hey, I - I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to see that.” I say, and I’m not sure what he's thinking or feeling, but I know seeing that small toy triggered something.

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"You went there. Why didn’t you tell me? Why would you even go there?” He asks quietly.

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“Your night terrors, we needed to understand where they were coming from. We needed to understand if there was something that could trigger you, something that your uncle could use against you.” I say honestly, but I know now that going there dug deeply into his privacy.

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“So you saw it then. It was still there? The house? The basement?”

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“I did,” I say sadly.

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“They would lock me in there for hours, sometimes overnight,” He says with no emotion at all. “I would have to pull my knees right to my chest to fit. No light. Unable to move. It was so hard to breathe...”

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I can’t imagine the torment, but as he continues it just gets worse.

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“I tried to run away once, but things got so much worse. Every night after that, when I would go to bed, they would tie me down so tight that I would wake up with rope burns around my neck and wrists from trying to get free.”

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“Leo, you were just a child. Those people were monsters,” Leo turns to me and cuts me off before I can say another word.

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“One day I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just couldn’t.” He looks at me and his eyes look vacant. “I didn’t mean it. I didn’t. But when he came he was going to put me back in that box and I - I just, I-”

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I see him start to shake and I try and approach him, but he takes a step away from me and shakes his head back and forth.

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“I killed them, don’t you get it? I killed them like it was nothing. I took their lives...” His eyes well up and the realization of what he has been through is consuming him. I try to comfort him but he’s unreachable.

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“I didn’t even have to touch them. I thought about it in my mind and it happened. I imagined smashing them against the cold brick walls of the basement until there was nothing left to smash, once I started I couldn't stop it. I remember it all now. I was chained to the floor when it happened. Days went by before someone found them, and me.”

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“Leo, that’s not your fault. Please, listen to me,” I plead with him.

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“I could have killed you that night in the training grounds when I threw you against the wall. If it happened before it could happen again! What if I would have hurt you that day?” He pauses for a brief moment and then starts to fumble with the sash.

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“Leo, we will show you how to control it. I promise. And with Gideon beside you now it won’t be like it was. Please, Leo.” I beg him.

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“I'm the one that got Frank killed, and Angie, and I could have killed you that day too. I can’t be here. I can't put anyone else in danger. I’m sorry. I can’t be what you want me to be.” He looks at me and his eyes reveal how lost he is. “I’m sorry Lucas. Tell Elise I love her, I love her so much, but she deserves someone so much better, and I just can't bare the thought of her getting hurt because of me.” He manages to get the sash loose and drops it to the ground and then takes off the pin with our family crest and drops it.

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“Leo, wait!!” I call out to him as he turns and runs away from me. “Leo, come back! It wasn’t your fault!!! Gideon! You can’t let him go!!!” I run after him as I mind-link Roman.

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I chase him into the woods, shifting as I go so that my wolf can keep up with him, but he is incredibly fast even without shifting. I lose him for a moment through the trees but get a glimpse of him again and I continue the chase. When I finally catch him he is standing completely still staring into a blackness that has appeared in the middle of the trees. I see shadowy thin arms extend out of the dark and reach out and around him. Dozens of tendrils wrap themselves around his legs and arms and torso. Leo starts to scream as another wraps around his mouth, silencing him. I try to pull him away but one of the long arms wraps around my waist and doesn’t let me get near him.

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I see Leo fight against it, but it just pulls him closer and closer to the void and suddenly he is yanked into it and the tendrils disappear like mist and the void is completely gone.

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“Leo! Leo where are you?!” I scream into the woods but he’s vanished.

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“What happened?” Roman is breathless as he stands beside me.

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“I - I don’t know, he was just here and then a - like a black hole appeared and, and these long branch-like arms came out and pulled him in and he just... vanished.” I look at Roman who is scanning the woods. “I lost him, Roman. Fuck, I lost him.” I say, the gravity of the situation sinking in. “I failed him.”

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“We’ll get him back. We will. I swear to you we will.”

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Leo’s POV

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I claw wildly against the tendrils that wrap tightly around my body, pulling at my arms, thighs, and waist. Wrapping around my head and even into my mouth to muffle my frantic cries for help as I’m dragged through complete darkness. I’m pulled through what feels like a wall of cobwebs, silk strands brush against my face and I throw my arms up to brush them off when suddenly I’m dropped to the ground and the tendrils disappear.

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I open my eyes as wide as I can and see nothing. I can’t even see my hand that’s an inch from my face. I stand up and reach out into the darkness and there’s nothing there. Carefully I take several steps and a terrible thought enters my mind, what if I walk off a cliff? or a ledge?

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The thoughts cause me to drop to the ground and I feel the surface, which is strange. It’s wet and it feels like mud. I inch forward, reaching out and beside me, feeling and finding nothing there. It causes the panic within me to rise and I start to tremble, my heart thundering in my chest.

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Gideon? Gideon please talk to me! What happened? Where are we?

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But he doesn’t answer. For the first time in a very long time, I don’t feel him in my mind. With fear still building I sit still, pulling my knees to my chest, and squeezing my eyes shut tight.

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All these years I knew I had done something terrible and I had blocked it out for so long. I know that those people nearly killed me, and how horrific they treated me, but that doesn’t excuse what I did. I killed them both. I killed them with just a thought. What kind of person am I to be able to do that? To allow my anger to extinguish life so easily and then not even remember it?

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I get lost in these dark thoughts until I hear a voice out in the distance. I can hear it call out my name. I look out into the darkness but I don’t see anyone or anything. I just hear this voice begin to echo around me, a woman’s voice.

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“They’re coming for you, Leo. You can’t escape them. They are going to deliver you to him. You need to be strong and remember who you are.”

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“Deliver me to who? Who’s coming?” I yell back at the voice, “Deliver me to who?!” I reach my hand out and unexpectedly I hit something. I reach out on all sides of me and I can feel metal. When I attempt to stand I hit my head on an invisible ceiling and I notice that the walls are getting tighter, forcing me to crouch myself down.

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Just like the metal box.

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No, NO NO!

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I start to yell out as the walls creep in tighter and tighter, it’s as if the metal is forming and tightening around my body. My mind is transported back to when I was little and I start trembling. The sick feeling of being trapped consumes me and I’m transformed into that helpless pathetic kid again. I start to get nauseous and lightheaded and the air gets thick and sweet. I hear different voices now, angry voices that hiss all around me.

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You’re a poison to people around you.......You killed Frank.....No one will ever want you the way you are..........Why do you make us do this to you...You’re not normal.......You’re a burden.......your parents got rid of you because you’re evil .....you never do anything right.....You killed Angie...You're mother's next.

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The words swirl in and out of my ears, and a low moaning sound keeps pulsating between them. Faintly I can hear the other voice again telling me to calm myself, telling me to ignore them, telling me it isn’t real, but the terror that is building inside me is too much. I make one last attempt to yell out and break free before I drop from reality and fall away from my conscious mind.

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Roman’s POV

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“I want every single pack leader that’s here assembled and in the board room immediately,” I shout at Lucas as we run back to the pack house. “I want Odette brought as well.”

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Before I can reach the doors, Elise comes running at me and is frantic.

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“Where is he? Where’s Leo?” she shouts as she fights back tears. “I can’t feel him, Dad! What happened?”

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“We don’t know. Get to the board room with your mother and Alpha Jonathan, I’ll meet you there in ten minutes.” She runs off as fast as she can and I head to my office. I quickly put our emergency protocols into place and mind-link instructions to the entire pack that every pack member is to return home.

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Each of my council members has a burner phone that they keep on them at all times. If that phone rings they know, without needing to answer it, that they must dial into our board room immediately. We have a special line set up, and after it is used it is immediately disconnected and all burner phones are destroyed.

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I rush back down to the board room and one by one the screens light up and those who were here for the ceremony start joining us in the room. Lucas follows behind me and he’s frantic.

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“Roman, I never should have brought something back from there... I’m sor--”

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“Lucas, we don’t have time for that right now. Get your head on straight and refocus. Whatever that was, it was going to take him the minute he was out of our sight. You had nothing to do with it.”

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I stand in front of the room and quiet everyone down and I look at the screen to make sure everyone is there and notice one person missing.

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“Carmen, where is your sister?” I bark and she quickly responds.

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“She’s been feeling sick this evening, she’s currently in the bathroom throwing up.”

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“I don’t care. She is needed, tell Izzy to grab a bucket and get her ass here immediately.” I hear a few people snicker, probably not liking my tone of voice, but I don’t give a shit. Izzy has the ability to find lost things and cast her to other locations; she can puke while she listens.

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“Alright everyone, we have a very large problem. Alpha Leo has been taken.”

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The room erupts with gasps and shouts and I can feel my daughter’s terror as she tries to keep her composure.

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“I don’t need to tell you the importance of that boy. He is the future king of the south, he is the only chance we have to remove Eric from his rein of destruction, and he is part of our family. If Eric kills him, he will truly be the Alpha, and gain all of the power that comes with it. We must find them, and quickly. Lucas, please explain what you saw.”

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“I don’t know what it was. We were in the forest when a black, empty hole appeared out of nowhere right in front of Leo. Long black tendrils emerged from it and wrapped around his body and dragged him into the void. Just as quickly as it appeared it was gone and so was Leo.”

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I hear Elise cry out and it pains me, but I can’t comfort her now. I’m grateful for Jack and Tai who are beside her to try and calm her.

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“What or who could have done this kind of magic?” Odette asks and turns to the screens.

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Yuki looks puzzled.

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“Elise, do you sense him? Or his wolf?” she asks, and when Elise shakes her head Yuki sighs and squeezes her eyes shut tight before she opens them and continues.

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“I know this magic, I mean I've heard of it. I know what kind of bridge this is, but it hasn’t been seen in centuries. It actually pulls a person in, and transports them to a place in the victim’s mind, to the darkest place in their mind.”

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“But I saw him get dragged away. I didn’t imagine that.” Lucas says firmly, but Yuki waves his comments off.

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“The portal you describe is one used by dark witches, and to my knowledge, there weren’t any of us left that could do it. Physically he has been taken to another place. What you saw was a bridge, but I don’t know to where. The dark part of this magic is that Leo will have no idea where he is because the bridge manipulates his thoughts, it twists them around and convinces him that he is in the place that he fears the most. Mentally, he will relive a version of his most horrific memories, and the people around him will be seen as a part of those memories.

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“Can you find him? Can you reach him?” Elise asks desperately.

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“I don’t have that power, but Izzy might. Izzy, can you try and find him?”

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“Please, Izzy, please try,” Elise begs her.

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We all watch as Izzy closes her eyes. Within a few moments, her hands start to shake and then she sits bolt upright, her eyes behind her head and only the whites staring back at us.

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“They’re coming for you, Leo. You can’t escape them. They are going to deliver you to him. You need to be strong and remember who you are and where you are.” She yells into the air. “Don’t listen, Leo. Don’t listen to them! It’s not real! Hold on, just hold on!”

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The episode ends only minutes after it starts, and when Izzy snaps out of her trance she instantly plunges sideways and off camera. I’m fairly certain she is vomiting.

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“What was it? What did you see? Is he okay? Izzy, is he okay!!?” Elise is in tears and the rest of us grow impatient. I nearly shout at the girl to come back and tell us what she saw, but she beats me to it. She dabs her forehead with a washcloth and has a serious and solemn look on her face.

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“He’s in some kind of cell, dirt all around. Yuki is right, whatever evil has cast this spell has gotten into his mind. He is being poisoned with voices from his past and his consciousness is trapped in memories. Horrific memories.”

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Izzy looks at me and there are tears in her eyes.

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“What happened to him? I could feel what he was feeling.” She says and Lucas slams his fist on the table before he storms out of the room.

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“What? What happened?” Elise is clutching her mother and the rest of the council is silent waiting for an answer.

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“What else did you see? What did you hear? We need to find him.” I say with my alpha voice.

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“I don’t - nothing - just dirt all around him. A dirt cell...”

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“Not good enough!” I yell and start to pace. “Who is capable of this?”

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Izzy then shouts out. “A fog horn, I heard a fog horn in the distance. I - I think he must be near the water. And there were odd flowers. Pink. Underground, growing in the dirt.”

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“Did they look like this?” Odette pulls up a photo on her phone and shows it to Izzy.

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“Yes, yes just like that.” She says.

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“He is in Australia, somewhere on the coast. These are underground orchids and only grow there. Highly endangered.” Odette says. “Pull up the maritime maps, find where there is heavy fog, and we can narrow down where he is.”

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It doesn’t take long for us to pinpoint where the heavy fog is and I mind link Lucas.

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“My friend, we’ve found him. He’s in Canberra. We need to leave.”