The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 91

Pellethia held the scroll and read aloud, "Only the creatures willing to go through any lengths to protect those who need protection most shall inherit the Forest of Oderem."

At the end of it was a signature that vampires had only ever seen in museums - the signature of Count Dracula.

Greg's eyes went back to the ceiling before the pessimistic part of him spoke, "I wonder how the inhabitants planted it there."

A shade of suspicion entered Pellethia's eyes of wonder as she turned to Greg and asked, "You really think those who hid here put this there, Your Grace?"

His eyes were still stuck on the ceiling when he replied, "I don't know. I'm not well-versed in...forest magic."

Christian questioned, "Wouldn't they have to forge Dracula's signature before even putting it up there? And have you seen the count's signature, Greg? The strokes are illegible AND complicated."

"Doesn't mean it can't be done. For all we know, that whole thing is forged." Greg murmured as his eyes continued to scrutinize the ceiling for signs that it had been manually tampered with before a small chunk of dirt fell straight into his eyes.

He cursed aloud and Christian tried very, very hard not to laugh. Before Lucianne could follow her instinct to go help Greg, Xandar held her back by her waist and got Ivory to lead the duke to the river to wash his eyes.

When Ivory got his boss out, Xandar faced his wife and came up with the best excuse he could think of, "You're needed here, babe. Let Ivory do it."

Lucianne took a deep breath to stop herself from starting a petty argument with her husband, and Christian swallowed the chuckles as he said, "Well, I guess that confirms that the scroll is genuine. It's nice to have a location that does this sort of true or false thing, especially when does it on Greg. We should have something like this back in our territory, cuz."

Instead of agreeing, Xandar chose to say, "I'm beginning to see why the forest fell for you, Christian. You're quite the flirt.”

Xandar was elated with the growing humor in Lucianne when he said that. Christian, on the other hand, didn't replace it funny anymore when he narrowed his eyes at his cousin and heard the light chuckles from his cousin-in-law.

When Greg returned, he was still murmuring profanities under his breath. He reached the discussion circle, lowered his ego and grudgingly asked, "Since that thing is...not forged, does this mean you're the heir, Your Majesty? Do you have control over this ceiling dirt?" Pellethia was trying not to laugh for courtesy's sake, and attempted to respond as neutrally as she could, "The scroll doesn't say whether I am the heir, Your Grace, but I currently have no control over any dirt in this place."

Greg bit the inner walls of his mouth to stop a stream of sarcastic comments he had for the forest before he eventually gestured to the grill partition pushed back by a wall of rocks, and suggested, "Let's check that, shall we?" Octavia then asked, "Should I get a few fortis fellows to break it?"

Lucianne replied, "We should have the whole partition checked to see if it's connected to any traps first, Octavia. I'm linking Toby, Tate and Phelton."

###

When everyone was granted the green light to commence investigation after they entered through the metal opening, Toby, like everyone else, picked a random corridor to investigate as they left the royals to study the main area.

As Toby went down that corridor, his wolf started getting intrigued by the pleasant scents of gardenias and apples. He and six others came to the end of the corridor with ten rooms, and he didn't even pause like the rest before he entered the second room from the left. There were dry leaves at the corner piled up to shape a bed, which seemed to be only large enough to accommodate one adult creature. This was strange to Toby because the general species scents confirmed that there was at least one vampire and one wolf who frequently occupie the room. He wondered if vampires preferred sleeping on the dirt floor. He knew for a fact that he didn't like that less comfortable option as a wolf.

At the opposite corner stood a wooden table and chair made from poor carpentry. Strands of long, dark hair on the floor and the scent confirmed that whoever lived there was a female. It was getting more perplexing when the same strand carried both the vampire AND wolf scent. Even mates, whose scents were mixed, wouldn't be able to attain such a balance in their odor. Their own individual scent will always dominate over their mate's after marking and being marked. Why was this scent now different?

Toby then moved his attention to the table, where he found rocks of various shapes, no doubt for various uses. The long-shaped rocks with sharp tips could be a carving tool, and the oval-shaped ones could be used as paperweights.

There was only one book, and he opened it without thought. In between flipping the pages, a dried-up, slender leaf fell out. He picked it up from the floor, and noticed there was writing on it. He held it against the little light he got from the dim place, and muttered the word under his breath, "Ella."

The name made his wolf howl in excitement. His human part was so shocked that he just stood there in the middle of the room staring at the leaf in disbelief. It wasn't until Lucianne mind-linked him, Tate and Phelton did Toby blink. He left the book on the table but placed the leaf gently in the inner pocket of his jacket before meeting Lucianne and the others at the grill partition.

Lucianne immediately saw the difference in her best friend's demeanor, and asked in concern, "Are you okay, Toby?"

Toby tried to act natural, figuring this wasn't the best time to say something like 'I think I smelled my mate in the room I was looking through'. He thought as fast as he could and said, "Yeah, yeah. So uh..." he noticed the grill pushed back by rocks and said, "We have to dig through that, right?"

Lucianne wasn't convinced that he was alright and made a mental note to speak to him later before she replied, "Well, we have to see if it's safe to break the grill first."

"Let's have a look," he uttered simply and barged forward with Xandar, Christian, Phelton and Tate.

Lucianne was still looking at Toby in concern, and Greg noticed this. The duke also picked up the sudden change after the minister's return from the brief search, so he turned away for a moment to link Alissa, 'Keep an eye on the defense minister. He's hiding something' 'As you wish, Your Grace'