Crossing Paths With The White Wolf
Chapter 78

Gonzalo

POV

"Hey there Speedy Gonzalo, you look like s**t. Where are you off to in such a hurry?" Adrien called after me as I headed towards the fridge.

"I'm going to kill Theo" I mumbled at the nickname as I grabbed two bags of blood from the fridge. Dario is laughing in the back of my head. He thinks it's quite a clever nickname.

"2 bags. What happened?" Adrien's teasing mood turned to worry.

"She's fine. She's..." I sighed, I wasn't going to lie to him. He deserved to know. I sat down on the kitchen counter and motioned for him to sit. When I was done telling him what happened, I had to convince him to not run up to see her. She doesn't want to make a big fuss over it and insists that she's fine. Adrien finally relented and I got back up to head up to the suite.

"Gonzalo." Adrien stopped me. "What I'm going to ask is in no way meant to pry into your privacy or overstep a boundary. Has she fed from you yet?"

"You mean outside of the day she marked me?" He nodded. "No. Why?"

"Feeding from your Beloved, and in this case also your destined mate... It makes us stronger, in very much the same way being fully mated to their destined mates makes wolves stronger. Whatever is happening to her. She is going to need to be at her strongest when it comes to a head," he answered.

"Have you..?" I asked, not needing to finish the question.

He nods, "Not often..."

"And it makes you feel stronger?" He nods again.

"Thanks, Adrien. Truly." I told him as I passed him. I then warred with Dario on how to best approach the subject with Kassie. We are not sure why she wouldn't try to drink from me if it made her stronger. Dario is sulking that maybe we don't taste right. He wants to be the one to ask her and I don't think that line of conversation will keep us out of the dog house.

"Hey, are you OK?" Kassie asked as I entered our room.

"Huh? Yes. I'm good." I said as I handed her the blood bags. I go sit on the couch while she pours the bag into her tumbler. I watch as she slowly sips and moans and I never thought I'd be jealous of a tumbler. She comes over and sits next to me as I flip through the channels.

"What time are we heading over to Meryl?" she asks as she cuddles up to me. I put my arm around her and brought her close, inhaling her wonderful scent. The truth was, I was falling asleep. I hadn't slept much after I woke up to her bleeding all over the bed. I was scared it would happen again. I was trying to trust that the moon goddess hadn't given me back the love of my life as my mate just to take her away from me through something she did herself, but seeing her covered in blood and not waking up was my worst nightmare. For a few agonizing moments, I thought I was losing her for good this time.

"Lalo?" she nudges me and I wake up.

"Seven," I said, startled.

Her worried look softened, "Why don't you sleep for a bit and I'll come and get you when it's time?"

"No, we have a meeting with Helios before then," I said and shook my head to shoo away the sleep.

"I'll go ask him the time and I'll come to get you. Did you get any sleep at all?" she asked as she dragged me over to the bed and tucked me in.

I thought we were going to talk to her about why she won't feed from us? - Dario rumbled.

Shut it. We've got time. - I told him just before I passed out.

I had another lucid dream and I was honestly sick of them. I couldn't figure out what I needed to replace out from it. The entire thing just filled me with rage and a sense of helplessness. I walked up to Kassie as she was struggling against her restraints. I bend down to caress her even though I know I couldn't actually touch her. It won't do any good. But I'm just so tired of reliving her pain. I don't even jump when Selene shows up again. I just kept staring at the pain filling my mate. I look up as Selene kisses her forehead, tears in my eyes, not wanting to see her arch her back in pain. I looked at Selene's face as I heard Kassie's heart-wrenching scream. I wanted to scream at Selene. I wanted to know why she did this to Kassie. I felt so much rage until she looked up, tears in her eyes and it was like we made eye contact. I didn't hear her voice, but one loud and confident thought popped into my head as we looked at each other. You're the key to the lock.

I woke up before I could make sense of the words. I looked around the room expecting to see Selene next to me.

We're the key. The key to what? Where is the lock? - Dario asked.

Her seizures? I don't know. Was it even real? -I wondered

It felt real, but who knows? - Dario grumbled.

I grabbed my phone and headed out to replace Kassie. I saw her walking towards the kitchen, talking with Nat about something when I got to the second-floor landing. Let's use our speed. - Dario wagged his tail.

I eyed the stairs and figured it'd be a fun experiment. It was all going well until I got to the bend in the stairs. I didn't calculate how soon I needed to turn my body and I went crashing through the wooden banister and slid the rest of the way to my mate.

I looked up at my startled mate and Luna. "I've fallen so hard for you, muñeca?" I grinned up at her. Dario fell on his back laughing at my cheesy line, but Kassie broke into giggles, which made my embarrassment worth it. I stood up and looked at the broken wood. "I'll order the replacement, Luna." "Oh please. Just watching that was worth whatever it costs to replace it. I hope we have that on video," she wheezed, tears rolling down her face already. "and oh goddess, that cheesy line. 'fallen so hard for you."

"Yeah alright, it wasn't that funny," I said as I dusted myself off, but I couldn't help grinning at the two of them laughing loudly at me even as I felt my face heat up.

"What's funny?" came Theo's question from the hall to the conference rooms. Behind him were Helios and Adrien.

Helios eyed the broken staircase and what I'm sure was a level 4 blush on my face and his lips twitched.

"Let's just get the meeting started," he said, turning around and pushing everyone back towards the conference rooms.

'Testing your new powers, I see? Ask Iggy to fix it. He's a carpenter. I'm sure you can figure out some sort of payment' He mind linked.

'Thanks. For not telling the others,' I answered.

'Don't thank me. I'm sure one of the girls will tell the full story soon. I'm just getting you out of the hall where the entire packhouse will hear about it.' He chuckled.

Maybe we should have practiced in private - Dario said as his tail ducked between his legs.

It's just family. We'll take the ribbing and keep making fun of Seb's tattoos again. - I reminded him as I followed everyone to the meeting, making him sneeze with humor at the plan.

We didn't get very far in our meeting and decided it was useless to try to plan anything when we weren't sure of how much information Meryl might know. We decided to reconvene after "persuading him to talk." One thing was clear to everyone as we walked towards the holding cells. Meryl might not live past tonight.

We walked in to replace him sitting in a corner of the cell. He scuttled further from us like a dung beetle when he saw us. "Oh Meryl, aren't you happy to see us?" Kassie taunted.

"You're all going to be dead. My bosses will never let me go. Do you think that chip was there in case you took me? It was so I couldn't leave them. I'm too valuable." He spit out. "And yet, it's been more than a week since we took you, and still..." Theo mocked.

"Nary a peep" Kassie smiled, her fangs extended.

Theo and Sebastian went inside the cell and grabbed a reluctant Meryl and dropped him on the chair. Helios walked into the cell as Markus and Danny walked into the building. "Alright, Meryl. The plan is simple. You have been holding out on us. You see Theo there? He knows when you're not answering us honestly. That hurts my feelings. I thought we were becoming friends," Helios explained with a wounded look on his face, "Since I'm a nice guy, we're going to try one more time. If you're holding back or answering dishonestly, my time with you will be over, and then Kassie will take over until.... well, until she damn well pleases, to be honest." He suddenly loses the mocking look on his face and he becomes angry, "See, we know what you did to her. So, whatever she wants to do to you, if you hurt my feelings again, I will let her do it. Do we have an understanding?"

Meryl looked over at us and nodded at Helios. Natalia wasn't here. She knew what was going to happen and she didn't want to heal him. She said he deserved to feel everything and wanted nothing to do with him. If he died, he died. She'd gone off with mama Isabel to spend some time with Celeste.

"Who recruited you?" Markus asked.

"Gavin Doyle. The CEO of Siorai Pharmaceuticals. Before his son Shane took over," Meryl replied.

"What was the objective of your research for him?"

"To figure out how to extend life. To achieve immortality if possible"

"Why did you need to experiment on Kassie for your research? She is already immortal," Helios asked.

"I needed to test a theory."

Helios' eyes glazed over and when they cleared, he sighed. "You hurt my feelings again, Meryl. I'm going to go cry now. Have fun with Kassie." He said, standing up.

"NO. Wait. I'm not lying!" Meryl stood up but was restrained by Sebastian.

"But you are holding back. So how about we give you some incentive to talk?" Helios replied as he opened the door for Kassie. Kassie walked in confidently, while I followed behind. I'm here as her support. She had requested it during the meeting. I know she might need me to pull her back. We still need information from this bastard.

"Hello, Meryl. Let's try that again shall we?" She asked as Theo brought in a cart with tools she specifically requested and a few added surprises for us after she's done with him.

"Tell me, why did you like playing with me so much?" She picked up a pair of pliers from the cart. It seems she'll be starting with the classics.