I didn't argue too much when Ryder insisted we go back to the royals. The tears that had fallen down my cheeks just a few short hours ago must have leaked all of the venom right out of me. Even Ryder seemed a little surprised when I just sighed and put on my boots. It didn't mean that I was particularly pleasant though. I kept my knees turned away from him and allowed my head to rest against the cool window for the drive there. The rain hadn't let up just yet and I didn't know if seeing the sky cry made me feel better or worse.

I still couldn't stomach the sight of the cabin though. And Ajax knew it too.

As I climbed out of the car and caught the dreaded building out of the corner of my eye, I saw him smirk a little bit. My fear was blood in the water to him. I suppose it was only fair. After everything I had done, all of the lives I had stolen, wasn't I due for a little bit of suffering?

"Hello you two," the king greeted, moving towards Ryder as if they were the best of friends.

"Ajax," Ryder said carefully, cocking his head in a slight bow.

For a brief moment, it felt like Ajax transformed into two people before my very eyes. The one he wanted people to see. And the one he truly was. On the outside, I see his persona, imagining a man with a gluttonous belly that jiggled with laughter, milky eyes that didn't notice much. A king that was so friendly and so casual, that he was negligent. Someone how favored fine wines over thriving economies.

But that wasn't the other side of Ajax. The other man was one of high attention and even higher expectations. His gaze missed nothing, his ears letting no sound pass unheard. A serpent beneath a sugary surface.

"I was beginning to wonder if you two would ever come back," the delightful king said, slapping Ryder on the back. A little too hard to be friendly. "I think most males would be too concerned with their mate to think about their king's wishes."

Ryder was unaffected by the jovial act. Either he had quite the talent for reading people or he had worked with Ajax for long enough to understand his tricks. "Our relationship is a little too complicated to result in a spontaneous getaway or even a few hours of distraction," he grumbled.

Ajax didn't press, didn't have to. He only raised his chin.

"Things got a little emotional," Ryder added.

"Everyone's emotions are running high." And the feelings of the woman who mercilessly slaughtered werewolves were not of particular concern to the king.

"I don't feel like this is a conversation we should have outside."

So, we moved back inside the home where Clementine played and Keiko had bandaged me up in an effort to keep infections at bay. Ajax prepared coffee for all of us. Ryder melted into the couch in the living room, looking like he just wished the world would swallow him up. I sat rigidly, my back perfectly straight and my lips pressed together tightly, like my mouth would get me in more trouble than my hands already had.

"Should we wait for Keiko?" Ryder asked when Ajax finally sat down with us.

"She's out with Clem for the day. So, I think now is the perfect time to tell me why you are a day late and why there are only two of you when I was expecting three." Brewing on his features was the ice and chill of a king who ruled too young.

It was then that I realized that Ryder had taken a risk. A very real one, for me. Through not capturing and detaining Milo, he not only allowed a known werewolf hunter to roam free, he had also blatantly disobeyed clear orders given to him by his king. Though I had been selfish and dizzy with concern for my parents and heartache for Cassey, I hadn't considered what it would be like for Ryder to have to announce his doings to Ajax.

"I met with Milo, we both did, like we discussed," Ryder began.

"And yet, I only see two."

"Georgia was able to gain his trust very easily. He obviously holds her in high regard because he decided that I could be trusted as well, just through association. But, I think he was afraid. And shocked too, after seeing her alive when they all clearly thought she was long dead by now. I think he would have been a decent source of information, but he is no longer working as a werewolf hunter. While the rest of the group has chosen to leave, he has stayed."

"Any information is better than none, Ryder. I made an exception for your mate under your request and Hades' advisement. I cannot keep doing that. I asked you to bring in this man and you have not. What am I supposed to make of that, exactly?"

"Milo said something that I thought you should know. He mentioned something, an illness I think, called wolf-drain."

"Wolf-drain?" Ajax repeated, setting his mug aside. "What on Earth is that?"

My mind honed in here. Was it possible the wolves didn't know what happened to humans? It seemed so backwards. But backwards didn't mean impossible.

"I'm not entirely sure, not too much was said about it. Milo only said that someone had gotten it because they had stayed too close to a werewolf for too long, as if it were a proximity thing."

"And this wolf-drain is affecting humans?"

"Yes."

For the first time since we arrived, Ajax turned his attention towards me. I certainly knew that he had been aware of me the whole time, but having his eyes on me, watching his size me up, it made my stomach heave a little. "Is this why you hunted werewolves? Because you believed that we were giving the humans this sickness?"

I nodded mutely. How could he have summed up so much suffering into so few words?

"Have you seen this disease yourself?"

Another nod.

"What does it entail exactly?"

I swallowed hard, an image of my parents flashing through my mind. "It is hard to explain. You can't see it. It's in the mind. It causes people to become...vacant." Because there really was no other word for how my parents stared ahead, unblinking and unthinking.

Ajax rattled off a few questions. How long did it take for symptoms to show? How long did symptoms last? Could medication cause any improvements? What ages were affected the most? How did we know that werewolves caused this particular disease? I answered everything as best as I could, though often I couldn't find an answer. When Ajax asked the last question and I was unable to answer, I saw his eyes flare with something between disappointment and disgust. I knew what he wasn't saying. How could I blindly kill members of a species just going off a hunch? Right now, I had no answer that would satisfy him.

"So, we left this Milo character out in the world because he told us a tidbit about this wolf-drain which we have no concrete ideas on? Sounds marvelous," Ajax rumbled.

"I didn't want to pursue him because I didn't think he would have the answers we wanted," Ryder said carefully. "And if something went wrong, we would scare the others into deeper hiding. Milo trusts Georgia. We can use him to solve this wolf-drain thing."

"And how do you intend to do that? Georgia already said that doctors can't figure it out and neither you nor I have a medical degree."

"Human doctors can't explain it," Ryder corrected. "Just like modern sciences can't explain how we even come to exist. So, I think we need to find ourselves a wolf-drain victim and have a long hard look at them."

My gut clenched. Because he knew. He knew where I had gone. he knew who I went to see. My heart began to race instantly.

"And who do you have in mind? It's not like we can just start asking people if they suffer from this."

No. Ryder couldn't do this to me. After everything I had done for my parents, this couldn't be how it all ended. I wouldn't let it.

"Milo mentioned a girl. Cassey. Apparently, she's just begun to show signs."

I deflated, but my relief was short lived.

Ajax steepled his fingers together, looking about as serious as I had ever seen. "I'm giving you two a week to find this girl. And if anything goes wrong, it's going to be on your head," he warned, narrowing his eyes on Ryder. "Once we have her, we will do what we can to figure out what the fuck is actually going on."

"But you won't hurt her, right?" I blurted.

Ajax didn't even flicker his eyes over to me. "We will get to the bottom of this. One way or another."

~~~Question of the Day~~~

How do you feel about Disney?

It's no secret that I have always loved their movies. But as a cooperation that has a chokehold on content targeted towards young audiences, I think they could do better.