Dean looked at Silas. The omega had gone deathly white.
“Silvanus’s plan was to impregnate a girl from a different pack. If the pup turned out to be an alpha, he’d acknowledge it as his heir. If not, no one would ever know. Aaron only pieced it all together by eavesdropping on Silvanus and Thom whilst he was guarding you.”
Jasper drew in a deep breath. The room was very still and silent. As if even the furniture and walls were listening in rapt attention.
“He turned out to be an omega, so Silvanus never acknowledged him, but he thought the pup might be able to absorb your magic. He thought he could take your magic and give it to the pup.”
Dean’s mind balked at what he thought Jasper might be trying to say. The beta’s eyes flicked between him and Silas. Clearly, Silas was giving him the same blank stare.
“Silas, you have a son.”
The room went completely black. Not one single speck of light anywhere. Dean couldn’t tell if his eyes were open or closed. He couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. Jasper shrieked, the door rattled and Dean felt the whoosh of air as it opened, but there was still no light. Nothing but darkness. Jasper’s footsteps thundered away.
Dean kicked the door shut, whirled to find his mate. His arms unerringly found Silas, seemingly rooted to the spot where Dean had last seen him. Dean flung his arms around his mate and held him tight.
“Angel. Just breathe. I’m here. Everything is going to be okay.”
Silas shuddered in his arms and then sobbed. A sound of such grief and pain that it broke Dean’s heart. He squeezed his mate tighter, as if he could absorb all his hurt. It wasn’t fair. Silas had been so misused in the past, this violation was too much. It was unbearable. Dean cursed the world. His mate was strong, but could he bear this, add it to his already heavy burdens? And why should he have to? Why was the world so fucking cruel?
For a brief moment, Dean wished he had got Jasper to tell only him, and then he could have spared Silas this pain. But he rapidly dismissed that. Keeping it from Silas would have been another wrong.
Silas cried in his arms. Great shoulder heaving sobs that racked his slender body. Dean helplessly stroked his hair. There was nothing to say. Nothing that could make this all right. It was just awful.
Slowly, light crept back into the room, and the darkness faded. Silas had regained control of his magic. Dean couldn’t hear any shouts of alarm from the pack, so he assumed the mini abyss Silas had created had been confined to the office.
Eventually, Silas’s sobs eased off.
“We have to find him,” he said quietly.
“Of course,” answered Dean. Kissing the top of Silas’s head. He was surprised that his mate felt the need to voice it out loud. It was obvious. It was inevitable. As much as grass was green, and sky was up, and water was wet.
They were going to find Silas’s son.
Chapter twelve
Oneweeklater,Deanwas sitting on a sofa in one of the communal rooms. Isaiah was sitting next to him, laptop on his knees, showing Dean ideas for fixing up the playroom. Dean tried to concentrate, tried to focus on budgets and long-term benefits for the pack, but his mind was elsewhere. It was impossible to think about anything else when Silas’s pup was out there somewhere.
One week had passed since the shocking news and progress had been excruciatingly slow. Silas had made Thom attempt the tracking spell that the mage had used to find him. One drop of Silvanus’s blood had led Thom to Silas. It made sense that one drop of Silas’s blood would likewise lead to his son. But it hadn’t worked. Whether Thom was obstructing it on purpose, Dean didn’t know. The mage was an old man and Dean couldn’t bring himself to torturing him to be sure. Surprisingly, neither could Silas. Dean had been comforted to find there were limits to his mate’s ruthlessness.
So Thom had been banished in shame. But mostly unharmed. They may have stopped short of torture, but they had been keen to find answers. Answers that Thom either didn’t have or was not giving up. It was frustrating.
Silas had tried the tracking spell himself and it still hadn’t worked. Eifion had also been unsuccessful, claiming it was due to a lack of knowledge of blood magic. There was no one else they trusted enough to ask. Silas didn’t want news of his son getting out. He had far too many enemies, and it would put the pup at risk.
The best Eifion and Silas could come up with is that someone had put a specific ward on the pup. It was a frustrating dead end.
Meanwhile, Aaron was still locked in the basement. Dean was convinced the beta knew more than he was letting on, and Dean was hoping further information would enable them to find the pup by non-magical means.
So far, all they had discovered was that the pup was called Ash, and he was twelve or thirteen years old. Nobody was sure of his exact age, as they didn’t know when his birthday was. They knew he had been born into the Brightwater pack. But he wasn’t there anymore. They knew he was an omega, and that the attempted magic transference hadn’t worked. The pup hadn’t even gained a drop of magic, let alone all of Silas’s power, as had been the plan. That was the sum of all their knowledge. No other information to go on.
He was an omega. Dean’s thoughts circled back to that point. He tried to calm himself down. There was no way it was going to take three years to find him. And if whoever had him was halfway decent, they’d wait until he was eighteen until giving him to an alpha, anyway. Which meant they had five whole years to find him, not three.
They had five whole years to work with Dean told himself. As long as whichever of Silvanus’s dodgy contacts had him was halfway decent. Which seemed unlikely. The thought twisted Dean’s stomach over. Some packs still went with the old tradition that sixteen years was old enough, as long as they had shifted at least once. But even that horror still gave them three whole years. Unless the pup was with some very unsavory types. Dean winced and tried not to panic. They needed to find Ash before he was given to someone he didn’t want to be given to.
Silas, understandably, wasn’t taking the news that he had a son very well. It was a lot to take in. It had made the world seem even darker and crueler than before and it had come far too soon on the heels of Silas being thrown into a heat and losing control of his magic. The necromancer was still terrified he’d lose control again and guilt-ridden that he had hurt Dean, despite Dean’s assertions otherwise.
The dust had barely settled from that whole traumatic set of events, and now Silas had been hit with this. It was awful.
Suddenly, Baltazar strode into the room, startling Dean from his thoughts.
