Chapter 91: Three years ago...
Noah POV
It seemed like my breath was knocked out of my lungs as I stared at the shrunken, severed head of Tanner in the wooden chest. My heart was pounding so fast and loud that I feared Xavier and Kurtis would hear it. The figure in the chest was unmistakably, Tanner.
For one, he had the hidden mark of a Lycan King carved on his left ear and then my eyes spotted a hand that had the royal seal and ring of a Lycan that glues on our skin from the day we take our oath until the day we hand over to our successor. For the ring to still be in his hand and possession, meant that he didn’t hand it over to anyone.
Memories of how we met several times – most times during annual meetings or at balls over the years came to my mind. Tanner was a quiet person... almost looked like a snob and only spoke when he was spoken to. He always didn’t follow whatever plans we had because he would always argue that he knew his people best and would do what was right for them and not some widely accepted solution that is not structured to solve any problem in particular.
Eventually, we warmed up to each other, in one of the last conferences we attended where I had vehemently kicked back against the motion that we have a Lycan Head over us. It was a bad idea because asking several Kings to still answer to another sovereign head wouldn’t go down well. Most of us still had stubborn Alphas in our regions to contend with and as far as the hierarchy of power in the werewolf clime was concerned, the Lycan King was the sovereign head.
What was most distinct about him and why I had taken an instant liking to him was because of how he had stood for the truth back then even when he was to gain. If we were going to go with the selection of a supreme head, it was going to be him no doubt. He controlled the largest region, a flawless government that worked so well that back then we used to try to sneak in spies to study his methods but they never got past the gates.
So, I was surprised that he wasn’t a power-thirsty leader and that stuck even until this moment.
During the short break, we quickly bonded and he was surprised that I was unmated but went ahead to show me pictures of his children and his mate. His eyes had been filled with love and warmth as he swiped through each slide whispering excitedly of how much he loved his family and was lucky to have one and urged me to get married quickly.
That was the last time we heard from Tanner. That was ten years ago. They closed their borders, stopped trade with almost everyone and stayed in recluse. The only explanation we had gotten was he lost his mate and wanted time alone to grieve for her. No one was expecting it to take years... but I had sincerely been shocked when I got a message from him saying he wanted to open their gates and borders and he wanted me to be the first person he traded with.