WHAT THE GHOST OF KI UNCOVERED

This is what we missed because we had Lycan Study Group:

Killion, Ben, and Beta Lucas shifted and ran over to the borders first. Ben wanted to get back for at least the second half of his study group. They went into the warlock lands. I took great interest in this, but Killion didn't sound like it was worth any notice. He went into the warlock lands!

Normally that would be as good as suicide... At least that was what I had always thought. But after this account, I'm having second thoughts.

Beta Lorent had left a blood trail from where Bell bit him, and because it was so cold last night, the blood was frozen on the ground and even on the leaves of the undergrowth.

Beta Lucas had taught Killion the signs of an enchantment or trap. Little crystals that rang like bells whenever magic moved. They were hung up in the trees at various positions and usually hard to spot, except now in winter, the trees were bare and they were exposed.

Going near the crystal will result in cuts from the shards of magic surrounding each of them. Touching them will burn like silver.

Some of the crystals made invisible barriers, others held invisible darts, wires, or traps. The crystals work selectively... It attacked Beta Lucas and Ben, but not Killion.

Why?

So Killion went on alone, following the bright red frozen trail and the clumsy pathway that Beta Lorent had carved out while stumbling through the first undergrowth.

Rebel had really taken a big chunk off his uncle, Beta Lorent's white wolf was stumbling and bleeding a lot. But the trail ended by a dirt road. The road had tyre marks, quite deep ones, so we were talking heavy pick up or four wheel drive type. There was no pool of red indicating that the white wolf didn't have to wait long for a ride. He probably hadn't waited at all.

Someone was waiting in a vehicle in the middle of warlock land, someone who allowed a bleeding white wolf up into his vehicle?

Why?

More and more mysterious.

And then Killion heard vehicles in a distance, fearing a convoy of rogues, he quickly retreated back to where Beta Lucas and Ben were waiting for him.

"Why?" I asked.

"Why what, goddess?" Killion asked.

"So many whys." I said, "Never mind, please continue your story."

Next they headed to the dungeons. Now this was the fun part.

They got there in good time and dressed in our general sweat suits stored there. Except for Killion who was going to wrap himself with an old sheet, but Ben had found something better. An old Lorent sweatsuit.

Savy had told Killion that he had to try to look like himself when he was younger. She also provided him with a hair tie and made Killion shave super cleanly earlier this morning.

So Killion tied up his hair in a man bun and followed Beta Lucas and Ben down to the Warrior cells. We had kept the Warriors separate from the rogues because they kept snarling and yelling at each other side by side.

Beta Lucas turned out to be quite a good actor. He entered the confinement and called through the bars, "Alight listen up boys, your alpha will be here later this evening to pick you up."

The warriors said rude things and grumbled about their gross mistreatment. "We're warriors, not rogues. You insult us Beta."

"Yeah, when our Alpha comes, you'd be in trouble."

To which Beta Lucas simply said, "How can I know for sure? None of you are even in uniform."

A lot of growling and cussing.

Meanwhile, Killion snuck to a dark corner, and then stood up, allowing himself to glow very slightly for effect.

"So clever!" I praised.

"Yes, I knew you'd appreciate my attention to detail." Killion grinned.

The warriors freaked. They screamed, "Ghost! It's James!"

"He's dead and come back to us!"

And then one of them realized their mistake, "No wait, that's.... I know that face anywhere. I can't believe it! It's Ki!"

"Ki? But he died years ago!" Another guy said.

"Ki? Is that you? Do you remember me?"

"Did you? Did you remember them?" I asked.

"Of course I remembered. These were the guys I ran with in my past life. We played football and climbed trees... So I nodded to them, because Beta Bunny was filming and he said I couldn't be seen or heard by the camera. And then I pointed at them one by one just to freak them out." Killion brushed aside the heavy nostalgia and chuckled, "They freaked out big time."

Killion handed his phone to me so I could watch their reaction.

"What the heck! What is it ki?"

"Oh goddess, you knew! I swear she came to me first... Or I never would have messed with your girl."

"Wait you too? Oh s***. Which girl?"

"No way! It better not be my sister."

"Oh so it wasn't because I let you take the rap when I broke the Alpha's window?"

"I never did you wrong buddy."

"Yes, you did. You told your sister all that s*** about him."

"Only to keep her away. Hey, if you had a sister, you would too!"

It seemed that Killion was quite the player in his previous life.

"Wait," one guy said, "But Ki isn't petty like that."

"Yes, he is super petty - don't you remember what he did to us when we interupted his date?"

"No... It was me! He's after me!" Suddenly one of the warriors shouted, "I admit it, I'm sorry Ki. I never wanted anything to happen to you, but my family needed to money for my sister's coming of age. We needed to buy her jewelry. So my mum took the money and poisoned the flowers."

"I swear, I didn't know till the next day. She didn't know what it was either. She was just told to empty the bottle into the flower water for it to smell better. We didn't know till after the fire."

"Mum realized that it had to do with the flowers because of the extra money she got, also she said the stuff made her feel nauseous. She told dad about the bottle and when he smelled it, he realized it was Wolfbane. He threw the bottle away but my mum's been suffering the guilt for years since."

"Please Ki, I'm sorry. I didn't say anything. I had to protect my family..." The young warrior choked back on his tears, "My sister's chances of finding her mate was pretty bad as it is..."

"He was just a brat then." Killion said softly to the road in front of him as he drove.

And I knew I was right. Killion wasn't a bad guy.

Beta Lucas' voiced boomed out then, "What the hell are you boys whimpering about?"

The warriors pointed, "There sir, a ghost! Our late Beta's son."

Beta Lucas walked off camera to where they pointed, "Where? What ghost? There is no such thing."

Then he sighed, "Someone get the doctor. Have them sedated."

"No! No! We're fine." The warriors really panicked now.

Beta Lucas sighed, "I'll contact your captain again. Just sit tight, boys."

The warriors obeyed, quieting down.

Beta Lucas deserved an award for his incredible acting.

"Look boys, you're safe here." Beta Lucas said, "If you really are Lorent Warriors, you don't have to worry. Once your identity checks out, you can go home. I don't need to hear made up ghost stories."

"But-" One of them said.

"Ki's gone!" Another noticed.

They relaxed a bit more and looked at the sobbing warrior who just admitted his family's guilt in poisoning the Beta family.

The video cut off at this point.

"His whole family will be dead by tomorrow." Killion told me.

"Wait, but why? They didn't know!" I protested.

"They committed treason, they withheld information from their pack. Because of that, the culprits were not caught and were allowed to continue attacking other pack members. Now the Alpha's own son had been kidnapped by the same culprits." Killion turned off the expressway, "If it happened in our pack, to Beta Lucas' family, what would you have done?"

"I don't know." I answered honestly.

I handed the phone back to Killion, who pocketed it into his jacket.

We were silent the rest of the way.

Why do good people do bad things?

Why do smart people make stupid decisions?

I think I could've been any one of the guys in the video. I think I also could've been the mum who accepted the extra money for my daughter. Or the dad who threw away the evidence to protect my mate. Or the boy who kept quiet for my family.

It could've been me, and would I have not done the same thing? I don't know.

But putting myself in their shoes gave me an epiphany: What this family needed wasn't an escape from the punishment, what they needed was forgiveness.

I glanced at Killion who was currently focused on changing lanes. What Killion needed wasn't revenge, what he needed was closure.

There was nothing to be done about those who were dead, only the living had hearts full of pain.

And with that depressing thought, the car pulled smoothly out of the expressway. We have entered the Gold Packlands.