Lucas carried Zoe up through the dungeon into the medical wing of the pack house. He had gotten her to hold the shirt over her face in order to keep pressure on the wounds so that he could make it there faster. She finally stopped screaming, instead only letting out the occasional whimper when he jostled her too much.

"I'm sorry. I'm really trying to be careful,

" he murmured.

Once Beth saw Lucas coming with Zoe in his arms, she ushered him toward a room before following him in.

"What on earth happened?

" she gasped when the shirt was removed to reveal the bite wounds on Zoe's face.

"An elder happened,

" he growled, still not believing what he had witnessed.

"Okay, wait here. I will go get the supplies to clean and stitch it,

" Beth said before turning to leave.

"You will need to numb it,

" he called after her.

"Pardon?

" she asked, a startled look on her face.

"She is not lycan. You will need to numb it,

" he repeated.

What was going on with these strange cases today? Beth hurried off to find the tools for stitching up the girl's gruesome wounds and then checked to see where they had numbing agents. She hadn't used anything like that in as long as she could remember. All lycans, even pups, had a very high tolerance for pain. It was only the alyko who needed things like numbing agents for wounds.

When she returned to the room and got the girl cleaned up, she began stitching her facial wounds.

"If these don't heal quickly, it would be better if she had surgery. I am no plastic surgeon, honey. I can't guarantee how these will look when they heal.

"

Lucas clasped his hands together in front of his face, wincing every time Zoe flinched from the needle piercing her skin and weaving the ragged ends back together like a flayed stuffed animal.

"Did you give her enough to numb it?

" he squirmed uncomfortably in his chair.

Beth gave him a sidelong glance before answering.

"Yes. Do you hear any sound coming from her?

"

She was right. Zoe wasn't screaming or crying, but a continuous stream of tears was dripping from from her eyes, and she had to keep blinking to make them fall. He wished she would just pass out or something so she wouldn't have to experience this.

"Are you mates?

" Beth asked softly as she continued focusing on her task.

"What? Just because I care that she almost got her face ripped off? Does she have to be my mate for that?

" he snapped.

How could anyone think that she was his mate? He just felt responsible for what happened to her—like a big brother who should have protected a weaker sibling or something. Plus, she literally had no one else. The one person she was supposed to have just mauled her.

Beth chuckled softly.

"Is this funny?

" he screwed his face up in question.

"No, of course not. I just always find it endearing.

"

"What do you find endearing?

"

"Our strongest males coming in here so sensitive and concerned for their females, whether they are friends or siblings or whatnot. And they are always so angry,

" she mimicked a growl as she said the final word.

"Angry that they are not in control, that something has been taken out of their hands, that they are helpless in some way.

"

Her description deflated the anger that was burning in his chest. She was right. He exhaled heavily and rested his head in hands, taking a break from watching her work.

How had Zoe survived a 74 foot fall without a scratch on her but then succumbed to Andreas' bite? None of this made any sense. Were there only certain types of injuries that could truly harm her and a lycan bite just happened to be one of them?

———————

"He sure didn't want Zoe talking, did he?

" Sam remarked as they descended into the dungeon with Andreas being shoved ahead of them.

Graeme reached a cell and walked in with the elder before tossing him roughly in a corner. Sam stood outside the door and watched quietly.

"Look what I found today, Andreas,

" Graeme removed the ring from his pocket.

"I broke the drawer off the hinges that held this ring just like I dislocated the jaw from your face.

" Graeme squatted over the elder who was crumpled onto his back.

Graeme's eyes looked black and empty in the darkness of the cell. He was recalling all of the pain he had been through that this male was responsible for, and if he wasn't wrong, Andreas had been planning more of it—so much more.

"That bottle was for my mate, wasn't it?

" Graeme's snarl was low and clear in its threat as he bent even closer to Andreas' face and the eyes that pricked with surprise and fear.

"That bottle you had with you when you masked your scent, hiding from us like a **ing coward… that bottle was for my unborn child… wasn't it?

"

He allowed the question to remain ringing in the air like a death knell.

That is the only explanation for why Andreas had absconded off into the darkness of Maggie's cottage after raiding Zoe's lab. He was planning to go after August in order to remove the evidence that she was, in fact, the pack's true Luna.

"You have given me great ideas for how to deal with you, Andreas,

" Graeme stood, clicking his tongue in thought.

"We could have you mauled to death like my parents were—surely that is a painful way to go, wouldn't you say?

" He glared down at the elder.

"But the one good thing about my parents' deaths is that they passed on from this world beloved and revered by their people.

"

"No, I think what is most fitting for someone like you who so desperately desires to be exalted is to be stripped bare in front of the whole pack—naked to all of the ways that you have hurt them,

" Graeme snarled.

"Have your offenses listed one by one for all to hear. And then we can have you dragged away with a mob of angry pack members cheering at the idea of watching you burn,

" Graeme squatted in front of the elder again, his expression fierce.

"But this time they will get to actually witness it.. Purification by fire.

"