Chapter 68
Kassia
POV
Those words gave me pause. While she may treat me like crap, she did save me and she was my sister. It took me a few seconds to consider my options. I didn't think my sister had done this, but did I owe her my happiness? I felt Gonzalo squeeze my hand and looked down to see the worried look on his face and I made up my mind.
"Then you need to search quickly and find a way to absolve her. You and I both know my sister isn't capable of murder. She finds it beneath her," I told him.
Armand's eyes flashed red "You will come home or I will go down there personally to get you."
"You would be declaring war on the moon goddess and my pack if you try to take my Beta's fated mate." Helios stood.
"Mate? Vampires don't have fated mates." Armand said quickly, taken back by his words as he looked at Gonzalo again with curiosity and anger now.
"That's where you're wrong. Both Adrien and Kassie have found their fated mates within my pack. They have both accepted the other and are therefore under my protection." Helios said seriously. Gonzalo finally stood behind me, an arm around me. Armand looked disgusted. "First a human, now a mutt. Do you not have a low?"
"Go find your Beloved, Armand. We have no business together." I told him, I could feel my hand shaking now. I needed to get out. I gripped Gonzalo's arm around my waist to stop it from shaking.
"YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO BE MY BE-" The TV cut off and I turned surprised to see Luna Natalia with the remote.
"I think that's enough bullshit out of that one." She said before she handed me a napkin. I brought it to my nose and wiped. Gonzalo grabbed it from me afterward and cleaned my ear.
"Do you want to talk about this now or after a few hours?" Alpha Helios asked.
"Now," Adrien answered for me. "Sorry, but we need to discuss at least some of it." He said, showing me his phone. It was a text message from an unknown number.
Text: Tell Kassie she'll be watched if she returns home. Her phone will be hacked. Yours will be too. Switch phones. Don't trust anyone. Tell Kassie I didn't do it and I'm sorry.
My eyes widened. "Why would s-" Gonzalo put a hand over my mouth. He took my phone and turned it off and took out the sim. Adrien did the same. "Why would she text Adrien and not me. All she texted me was 'Don't come home" "She may think you were already hacked."
"There was a voicemail too. Is there a way to listen to it without turning on the phone?"
"I'll link Markus to see if Evergreen can help us out." Luna Natalia said and her eyes clouded over.
"You can link across packs?" I asked.
"Nat can. It's a white wolf gift." Theo answered.
Her eyes cleared and she smiled at Helios, "He's on his way. I've volunteered us for babysitting duties while he works. Valerie is on shift."
"Can I be excused for a few minutes?" I asked the group.
"Do you need me to come with you?" Gonzalo asked. I could see concern and sympathy in his voice.
I shook my head. I needed to get my s**t together. I left the phone on the table and went up to my room. I was crying in my room when I heard a soft knock. "I'll be down in a minute," I said. The door opened and I felt sparks along my arms before Gonzalo pulled me onto his lap.
"She's treated me like crap and he hasn't acknowledged me in 200 years. So why does it hurt?" I asked him between sobs.
"Because you are not them. It's OK to love who they were to you, Kassie." He kissed my head and held me.
After a few minutes of letting all of my feelings flow quietly, I got back up and cleaned my face. "We should go see if Evergreen can find anything." "We can take some time Kassie. Helios and Adrien can tell us if they find anything." Gonzalo answered.
I shook my head. "I do better if I can keep busy. Let's go find out what's happening." I tell him as I extend my hand. He looks like he wants to argue but thinks better of it and we went back downstairs. We found Evergreen working in a quiet room. Theo, Sebastian, Adrien, and Elias were sitting to the side. They put their fingers up to their mouths to warn us of making noise. There was only one available seat in the corner, so Gonzalo pulled me onto his lap. Making me blush but loving the way he was making lazy circles on my waist while we waited. Five minutes later, I was beginning to think that it might have been better to wait in my room like Gonzalo suggested as I was going crazy in the quiet when Evergreen made a quick chuckling sound and folders popped up on his screen. He clicked a button on his phone and said, "Gotcha motherfucker. You're good but not that good."
"Did you get in?" Theo asked and Evergreen jumped.
"s**t sorry, I forgot you were there." He said as he went red. "Yes, I got in."
"Got in where?" I asked.
"He's trying to find more information on what's happening, so he's been trying to pick the back gate open to the vampiric council files."
"I also got into your voicemail. Would you like to hear that first?" He asked. I nodded and after a few clicks, we heard my sister's voice.
Karissa: "Kassie. Don't come home. It's a trap. I didn't kill father. I'm sorry. Don't trust-"
Unknown male voice: "My Queen. We have to go."
Karissa: "Don't come back, Kassie. I hope you're safe there. I'm sorry."
**Loud Pounding on door**
Unknown: "This way My -"
Call End
"Can you play it again?" I asked Evergreen. "Again," I said after it was over a second time, going closer to the speaker.
"What are you hearing Kassie," Theo asked.
"I know that voice, but I can't pinpoint it."
"Do you want me to play it again?" Evergreen asked.
"No, it'll come to me later. What else did you find?"
"Uhh. I found the crime photos." He said as he pulled up a folder. "I'm also trying to hack into the security at the Estate, but I can see there is someone in the system right now and I don't want to alert them that I'm in there. I've copied the cloud files for now and all the council server is being copied as well. I can't keep a live feed without my virus."
"What do you need for that?" I asked.
"I need someone to click on a link with the virus." He said.
"Can they backtrack to me?" I asked, having an idea.
"No. My virus is undetectable." He assured.
"I am still sending reports on the missions. Can we embed that into the next one?"
"Yes, as long as whoever reads them is on the server, we should be able to get a feed."
"OK. I guess I have a report to write." I said. I made a fist as I steeled myself for what was coming next. "Can I see the crime photos, please? Are there any documents with information on why they are blaming my sister?"
"Kassie.." Gonzalo hesitated.
"I have to. I know my sister. I will be able to tell if she was telling the truth or not. I'll be OK." I told him. He sighed and nodded at Evergreen.
The screens came up and the first jarring picture was blown up on the screen. I took in a sharp breath as I looked at my father sitting at his desk, head tilted back sideways, eyes blank staring at nothing in horror. This once proud man, now only an empty shell. His usually crisp burgundy shirt was torn open and a gaping hole where his heart should be. I could see the binds on his arms tying him to the chair. His heart was on his desk, with a knife plunged through the middle.
I snorted, despite the horror I could feel in my bones at the grisly scene. "They think my sister did this? She may look tough in public, but the woman cries at Sarah MacLauchlan commercials. She couldn't have done this. She doesn't have the stomach for it." "She had no problem ordering my death?" Gonzalo said, anger rolling off him.
"No, that was him," I said to him as I pointed at my father's corpse. "Karissa didn't care for you, but she didn't order your death. My father chose the guards. They were instructed to kill you by my father. It's one of the reasons I tried to kill him." I took a deep breath, before I nodded to Evergreen. He flipped pictures. It was a close-up of the heart and some documents on top of it. I recognized the dagger. I had a similar one in my bag. Our father had given us each a pair as we were growing up, saying a princess must know how to defend herself against those who coveted our position. Karissa never liked it. She was abysmal even in basic training. Sabina had saved mine from being thrown away when I was arrested.
"Is that your name on the paper?" Gonzalo asked. I squinted past the blood and saw what he was talking about.
"Evergreen are there any photos of the documents?" I asked.
He sorted the files by thumbnails and shook his head. "I copied this over just a bit ago. It's possible they haven't uploaded everything. I can try again later."
I sighed, "Armand mentioned something about the labs. Whoever is behind this is not my sister, but it might be another player outside of your rogue leader and councilman. It could very well be that the vampires also have a traitor in their high ranks." We all stood in the quiet room as we digested this information. "Could it be Armand? He seemed pretty fixed on keeping his title?" Adrien asked.
"I don't think he has the brains to plan something this intricate. Plus, getting Karissa out of the throne, puts him out of his too. Seems like a pretty stupid move to make," I countered. Adrien looked like he wanted to say something but looked towards Gonzalo quickly before he looked away.
"What Adrien. You're thinking something" I said.
"I...Armand has a thing for you. Maybe his whole plan banked on playing hero and making you his Queen."
"Again with this? The man treated me like s**t for 200 years. He took every chance he could to humiliate me." I shook my head.
"That's only because you refused him. You never saw the way he looked at you. He had a thing for you. Trust me. I saw it and I'm not even allowed in the Estate." He said.
"It's still a stupid plan. I would have never accepted him no matter the situation." I answered as I stroked a thumb on the hand that was holding mine to soothe the jealousy I could feel coming from Gonzalo.
"He doesn't know that." Adrien shrugged. I looked around at the rest.
Gonzalo shrugged, though I could feel the anger leaving him in waves. "It's one of many theories. I don't think we can discount it."
"So what do you want to do?" Gonzalo asked me after a minute. I looked around and realized everyone was waiting on me to say something.
"Nothing. We have our own problems. Let them deal with this internally. I meant what I said. They haven't been my family in 200 years. If we can find something to help my sister from here, good. If we can't, then we can't. I won't put the pack in danger for something that doesn't involve any of us." I looked at Gonzalo's phone. "It's time for training. I'm going to go change. We need new phones. Can you help us with that?" I asked Gonzalo. He nodded and gave me a small smile. "Evergreen, if you find anything else, please let me know. I'll have someone reach out when I have that report ready."
I started to walk out when I heard Sebastian say, "I'm not sparring with her after that. I'll end up with something broken. Maybe Helios wants his rematch." I chuckled as I walked out. He wasn't wrong.
After training, Evergreen pulled us into the conference room. Helios had an icepack on his shoulder and I had one on my rib. Oddly enough, I felt better, though I felt a little guilty over dislocating his shoulder. "What did you find?" Helios asked.
"They uploaded the documents from the picture. I thought you might want to see," he said as he pulled up several pictures of documents on the screen. They appeared to be email correspondences. My eyes filled with tears at the information found on them. In my heart, I couldn't believe the words were true. Gonzalo's arm went around my waist. I read them multiple times before I realized they were talking behind me.
"Kassie." Adrien's voice came from my side. "I know what you're thinking but..."
"What?" I prompted
"I don't think this was the Queen," He said. Everyone was quiet as I tried to figure out his words.
"What do you mean? How can you know."
"...it's going to sound silly, but..." He looked uncomfortable.
"What?"
"Queen Karissa hates her title. She doesn't sign her emails with Queen. It's always Karissa or Q. Karissa. She never ends her emails with her official title. She signs official documents and she lets people call her Queen but she has never used her full title if she can avoid it."
I zeroed in on the signatures. "I, I don't know. I never paid attention to her email signatures."
"Evergreen, can you figure that out?" Helios asked.
"I would need samples of her emails. I'll try to hack into the Queen's email. It would help if I had that virus in the system. I can piggyback off it and work with less risk. They do have a certain degree of security." Evergreen answered.
"We should move up the raid in Glasgow. The more information we have the better. Gonzalo, once the scouts check-in, we'll start planning the trip. If we're abroad, we can act faster, closer to the source of the problem." Helios directed toward Gonzalo, Theo, and Sebastian.Content provided by NôvelDrama.Org.
"Alpha. I don't want you all in this. I appreciate the help with Evergreen, but this is as close as I want any of us to this problem." I insisted.
"Kassie, if you end up having to go back to Italy to help your sister, I want us in a place where we can provide backup. We're not leaving you and Gonzalo to deal with this alone again. If we have more answers to your seizures, the better prepared we can be for whatever comes our way." I took a shuddering breath at his words and I only trusted myself to nod gratefully.
Gonzalo and I walked back to the house we stayed at to pick up our things. I looked around at the beautiful setup. "Seems a shame that this place got no action," I said with a smirk.
Gonzalo laughed and pulled me to him. "Is that a challenge, muñeca?"
I smiled. "A request."
He picked me up and I dropped my bag, wrapping my legs around his waist. He walked us over to the makeshift bed while I devoured his lips. I couldn't get enough of him. Every touch of his hands and mouth felt new and like home at the same time. I was addicted to him. He was my Lalo. He made me feel whole. I'd struggled over the last week not to rush things, wanting him to know the new broken me. But the hell with it. He and Dario accepted me as I was and who I was, wanted him. For 200 years I had felt dead inside. He came back into it and turned my entire body into a live raw wire.
I tugged at his shirt as he laid me down. "Two seconds." He pulled out the phone and the projectors came back on. We were in a field of purple-blue flowers in the middle of the day. I looked around at the scene he had created with awe. "What are they?" I barely got out before I moaned as he returned to his ministrations of my neck.
"Bluebonnets. When we lived in Texas, I used to go to this field in the summer that was full of them. They reminded me of you. Delicate and beautiful yet wild." He said as he pulled my shirt over my head. My eyes watered and I flipped him over onto his back. I rubbed my palm over the bulge in his pants and felt empowered at the groan that escaped his lips as he dropped his head back onto the pillow. I had always been shy about s*x before, but now I was free. Free of the fear that he would find out who I was and leave me. Free of my fear of my feelings for him. Free of judgment. I wanted him and knowing the extent of his love for me now, I wasn't afraid to show him everything I was and the fire only he could stoke in me. I unbuckled his belt and pulled his boxer briefs down. I put my lips on his swollen head and waited until his eyes connected with mine before I pulled him into my mouth. His eyes darkened before his eyes dropped to the back of his eyes and his hand made its way into my hair as I took more of him into my mouth. "f**k baby, that's it, just a little bit deeper," He moaned as his grip on my head got a little tighter. I relaxed my throat and took him deeper until my lips hit the base of his shaft. I bobbed up on his d**k until his fist held my head still and he began to pump his hips upward. He began to tense and his moans increased, making the moisture between my legs soak through my panties.
"Goddess Kassie, I can smell your arousal. It's so f*****g hot." He whispered as he pulled me off his d**k and he flipped us over to where I was on all fours. I thought he would f**k me now, but instead, he surprised me by pushing my front onto the pillows and licking my core from behind. My gasp turned quickly into a moan as I felt his tongue tease my entrance. He licked up and down my folds, sucking my folds into his mouth. The moans coming from him pushed my own louder as I pushed back into his mouth. "You taste like the sweetest of candy." He said before he took my clit into his mouth and bit lightly, making my hips buck back. "You liked that baby?" He asked as he licked the juices that were flowing from my core. All I could do was whimper a yes. I felt his tongue dart in and out of my center before he grabbed both of my thighs and sucked my clit back into his mouth, making me scream his name as he devoured my clit. He licked my folds, my clit. His tongue darted into the space between the hood and then bit down on the raw bundle of nerves. My body was convulsing and humming. The pressure was building. The raging inferno inside me felt like it was consuming me. Leaving me nothing more than a mess of heated flesh and whimpers. I felt his fingers find my core and I came apart with a mind-altering o****m I was sure would cause me to pass out.
"I'll never get enough of you." He moaned before he thrust in as I came down from the stars, pushing me near the edge again with a few strokes of his c**k on my walls. His balls hit my clit with every thrust and every jolt brought me closer to that edge. "Don't be gentle, Lalo," I begged. "Give me everything my love." He moaned loudly at my words and his hand fisted in my hair as he pulled it back while his grip on my sweaty hips tightened. It would leave marks and the thought of bearing the proof of his love on my body combined with his increasingly forceful thrusts had my mind and body in a sinful combination of pain and pleasure that sent me flying down the precipice. I screamed as my o****m ripped through my body, leaving me in a state of euphoria. My body collapsed under me as Gonzalo let go of my hair and continue to thrust hard into my body before he reached his own release.
He dropped down next to me and pulled me to his side. He kissed the top of my damp hair and asked me if he hurt me. I shook my head and kissed his shoulder. We stayed there for a while longer. His phone beeped and he groaned. "We should start heading back." He said as he picked me up and took me to the basement bathroom which had a small shower.
"Do we have another meeting?" I asked as I quickly showered.
"No, Elias helped me set up after I promised him he could show Adrien the PEI stream this morning." He grinned sheepishly.
We changed and I looked around as Gonzalo started picking up all the bedding. He dumped it in a bag and brought out a new bedding set and pillows from a closet. I helped him start arranging the new set when he suddenly started chuckling. "I never thought I'd be helping someone else get laid." He told me as we inspected our work. "Come on, they should be here in about an hour. Our scouts should be checking in around 5 am. We don't want to miss their call."