"You bastard, just what do you think—"
As Finn and Levi took a step forward, Killian raised his hand and stopped the two men from attacking Noah. Though he would have loved punching the man in the face himself, Killian wasn’t foolish enough to make a mistake so naive. He then turned to stare at Noah, whose face was contorted with fury, and remarked casually, "Your anger, while understandable, is not correct. Are you going to continue with this foolish goal of rounding up all the lycans and killing them because a single lycan brought you grief?"
"You are all the same!" Noah roared. While looking at Killian, he was looking at a face that he despised and loathed. His anger was bursting within his heart like soft poison, causing his heart to throb with pain.
Killian arched his brow. He calmly detached the hand that was holding the collar of his jacket and mused, "I don’t know whether all the lycans are the same or not. When even the fingerprints of both hands are different for each." With his expression blank, he continued, "And killing without evidence for crimes or for crimes that can’t even be considered as crimes, is nothing but a massacre. What you did today was no different from killing a pair of innocents."
"Which makes you no different from the man who took everything away from you. He took your world away, and you ruined someone else’s. I hope you always keep that right here," he added with a pat to Noah’s chest where his heart lay.
Killian then walked away without waiting for Noah to say anything. Finn followed him, and so did Levi, but not before bumping into the shoulders of the man.
"It was a close call," remarked Finn as he stepped out of the conference room with Killian. "If Levi hadn’t been paying attention to Norman’s trails, then we could have been pushed in a corner."
Ever since the poisoning of Selene, they had been keeping an eye on the elders to find out the culprit of that incident. However, till now they had yet to find the puppeteer who had bribed the lycan and almost killed Selene.
Though they didn’t find the culprit, their actions still came to fruition somehow.
Levi grunted. He was not a man of many words unless his pack or alpha was threatened.
"Continue to monitor them," said Killian while walking down the corridor. He was about to say something next, but he was interrupted because of the ringtone of his phone. Without breaking his stride, he took his phone and answered, "Yeah?"
"Come to the territory, quickly," said Laxus.
Hearing the urgency in the tone of his enforcer, Killian paused. His beast shot to alertness as he questioned, "What’s the matter?"
"You need to come here, I cannot explain it on the call."
"I am coming," Killian told Laxus. He then turned to look at Finn as he returned the phone to his pocket. "Go and tell Seth that there is an emergency in the pack. I will come to see him some other time."
Finn noticed the severity of the situation and nodded at once. He turned around on his feet and headed toward Seth’s office while Killian and Levi headed to the parking lot and drove out of the spot where they had parked the car.
Minutes later, they arrived at the territory and strode to the main lodge, where most of the pack stood, including Inez. His eyes flickered to hers, and he sent her a reassuring smile when the woman looked at him with concern. He then turned to look at Laxus and questioned, "What’s the problem?"
"An hour ago, a car pulled up outside the road leading to the lodge where Selene lives," replied Laxus. "It hasn’t come close to the territory, but it’s easy to notice the path that it was taking earlier; it stopped midway and hasn’t moved since then. I took a close look at the vehicle, and there was a man inside the car. He seems to be unconscious and foaming from his mouth. But according to Matt, there are signs of hoodwinking here."
When Killian turned to look at Matt, the man simply shrugged and stated, "That car was not present when I was surveying the territory; it just seemed to appear as if someone had used a portal to bring that car to that spot. And if the man was unconscious, how could he drive the car? The idea of him suddenly falling unconscious comes off as weird to me."
"You are certain that he is not dead?" Killian asked Matt.
It was Ryder who answered, "No, we took a good look at him and he is still breathing. It’s feeble, but it’s there."
Selene hugged the soft toy in her arms, something she did when she was nervous. "Though it doesn’t seem right to me to leave an injured guy outside like that, something about this entire thing doesn’t sit well with me."
Henley, who stood at the corner, with his arms crossed, hummed. "Yeah, it looks like a trap to me. I don’t care what anyone says."
"Or maybe it’s a distraction," mused Killian, his instincts stabbing at him. "Something to divert our attention while something comes at us from another direction."
Laxus’s eyes widened as he let out an ugly curse.
Things seemed to have gotten even more complicated.
"Is it because they failed to get our entire pack in trouble?" Edira questioned.
"No one can be clear about this. However, the fact that something happened when we were attacked by the council means that there is someone who very much wants to drag us down."
Killian was right, Inez told herself as she poured herself a glass of water.
"What now?" someone pushed the tricky question to the front, causing everyone to pause.
"I suggest we call the medics and let them take him away," said Inez. "I don’t think that there is any need—"