Chapter 0072

Beta Sebastian winks at me. "He knows exactly what he's doing."

I understood his meaning perfectly. It was a veiled threat. I'd heard plenty of those over the years.

"Everyone meet back here tomorrow at sunset for the pack run!" Alpha Alexander announces.

There are nods and quiet murmurs. They all begin dispersing, fading into the trees.

"We need to go find Theodore." Beta Sebastian mutters, already moving ahead of us.

"Don't do that." I say quietly when it's just me and Alpha Alexander.

"Don't do what?"

"Don't choose me over them. You've worked too hard for this pack. Don't throw it all away because of me."

"You're right. I have worked hard to build this pack. And you, Athena, are part of it now."

He drapes his arm over my shoulders. "Now let's go see what Theodore was talking about."

Alpha Alexander keeps me close as we walk back through the forest. We enter the main pack territory where Genevieve stands waiting with her arms crossed.

"Well, well. What an unpleasant surprise!" She mutters.

"Watch your tone, Genevieve!" Alpha Alexander snarls.

"She doesn't even belong here!" She speaks directly to Alpha Alexander, completely ignoring my presence. Her hands move to her hips. "I don't understand this."

"Then you better figure it out quickly!" He snaps at her and turns me away, guiding me toward Theodore's home.

The door to Theodore's house stands wide open. Beta Sebastian leans against a wall inside while Theodore frantically searches through books, randomly tossing them onto the table.

"Any news?" Alpha Alexander asks.

"Not yet." Beta Sebastian murmurs with a raised eyebrow. He seems to find the whole situation amusing.

Theodore suddenly starts flipping through pages rapidly. He fans books out across the table.

"There's no mention of Lycans." He murmurs, gesturing to the books. "But there are references to a creature matching your description. Half human, half wolf."

"Why do you even have this?" Beta Sebastian asks.

"I was bound, remember? I was trying to figure out how to break the binding. The only information I found about binding involved these creatures."

"Why didn't you say anything?" Alpha Alexander asks.

"Because I'm a Wolf. It never seemed relevant." His deep green eyes focus on me. "I never thought Athena would be anything other than a Wolf." He taps the book pages. "This information is centuries old. All of it is. You couldn't find anything, Alpha Alexander, because they were never called Lycans. They were known as Wolf-human."

"Wolf-human?" I whisper.

"They don't transition into full Wolves. They become something in between." He sighs. "There's very little information about them. It's practically a secret."

"What do we know?" Beta Sebastian questions. "Besides the basics." He glances at me. "Caleb talks quite a bit."

I see Alpha Alexander frown, but as usual, he keeps his thoughts to himself.

"You've been bound multiple times." Theodore continues. "Correct?"

"At least four times that we've pieced together. But what does that matter?" Alpha Alexander asks.

Theodore picks up one book and hands it to Alpha Alexander, already open to the right page. "This here states that the only Wolf-human bound more than once was bound three times."

"Okay."

"The third binding killed them." He looks at me with heavy sorrow in his eyes. "In theory, you should be dead."