The Beast's Possession

**Bane pov**

Bane pov

While my men exchanged worried glances and Bill waited for me to speak, I realized how serious the situation really was.

In all my years, I had never had a run-in with the Foogers, but it seemed like finally, I had caught the attention of the high Council after all. "Shit," I hissed under my breath, unable to hide the frustration I felt.

"What?" Bill choked out, growing visibly worried.

"That shadow you saw wasn't a shadow. It was one of the Council Foggers. You know, the rumored entities, tied to living by illegal rituals?" I pinched the bridge of my nose and focused on my breathing. The last thing I needed was to blow up in front of my men.

"Isn't that illegal, Alpha? The Council themselves deemed those demons too dangerous to be kept among us, so why would any of them appear all of a sudden?" Adam asked.

I shook my head as disbelief, still stuck in my own mind, wondering why they would release one of those fuckers on me. Even more, why would the Council threaten Aife?

"Those creatures are as illegal as they get. But don't forget that those old fucks had a couple of them each way before they passed the new law. That law, by the way, didn't ban the Foggers for good. What it did was ensure no one was allowed to pull the creatures from hell anymore. It never said the existing ones had to be released or banished. Besides, the only way for a Fogger to return to where it came from is to wait for the Council member to die. It's not the ritual that holds them trapped here, it's the living soul."

As I explained the details I knew, I felt like a new weight was added to my shoulders and it kept pushing me down, nearly forcing my body into the ground.

"But why would they send one of them here then?" Adam asked another brilliant question.

A loud, annoyed groan left me. "I don't know. Up until now, I had no idea how the letter appeared in the cabin, let alone who left it. Honestly, for now, I can hope this is just an option, not reality. I assume it's a Fogger because nothing I know of really explains what Bill described."

A wave of silent tension washed over us. It enveloped my men and me as they kept exchanging worried glances while I tried to come up with logical explanations to what was happening.

It couldn't be that the Goddess truly had planned such a vicious thing for me, could it? She took every chance at happiness I had long before I was born, and now, she was pulling her strings everywhere she could just because, for once, I felt happy?

Even the idea about Aife, staying at my side, was slipping through my fingers. Why, just why couldn't everyone leave me be and let me enjoy the joy and happiness I had never dreamt of experiencing? Then, I was hit with another through. Would setting her free rid me of this mess? I was ready and willing to fight for her, to give up my life for her, but what would that mean for Aife?

Step by step, she was truly consuming my life, but in return, I pulled her deeper down into the abyss of my misery. The last thing I wanted was to watch her suffer for the crimes she hadn't committed. Shaking my head, I forced myself out of my thoughts and glanced at the bunch of men surrounding me. A massive lump grew and spread in my throat as I tried to find the right words to describe my thoughts. "Alpha, no," Adam gasped. My eyes focused on him, instantly catching the horror in his. He shook his head and tried to step closer. "You can't do that. That's not right. Ever. She would never forgive you."

The chuckle that left me was low and bitter. "You don't know what I'm planning to do, Adam."

All eyes were on him as Adam took another step closer to me. "I know. I can see it in your eyes. We all can. No matter what it is, we will stay at your side. We will die to see our Alpha happy. And she makes you happy. Ask anyone, literally anyone around the pack, even the reject women, all of them will tell you that they have never seen you as happy as that woman makes you. The woman who broke you never brought a smile to your face, definitely not as bright as Luna does. You need her. We need her."

Each word was aimed at my heart. Instinctively, I brought my hand to the center of my chest and rubbed it as a tight, heavy feeling appeared there.

Just thinking about not having a chance to wake up next to Aife hurt, let alone never seeing her again.

If I did anything stupid, I would hurt her too. Like the asshole I was. Just thinking about taking her virginity and basically kicking her out right after, discarding her like a replaceable piece of crap, even though she was irreplaceable, made me feel like shit. "We need her," Adam repeated.

Seeing the desperation in his gaze, I tried to think about the choices I had. If, just if, I sent her away, I would hurt her beyond the limits of anyone's imagination. But if I remained the stance of a selfish asshole, someone might hurt her even

worse.

Whatever the reason the Council had to sent those creatures here and threaten me, it was clear they didn't want Aife at my side. They didn't approve of this relationship.

I could let her go to her parents since I knew where they were now, but how could I be sure Aife wasn't a pawn in the Council's game?

One thing was clear - she couldn't be just a random Alpha's daughter, and promised to marry another Alpha. There had to be more to her if the Council was getting involved like this.

I wondered if Aife knew anything about it. Did she have any idea if she possibly had a hidden power or perhaps an old, unstained bloodline?

If she was coming from pure blood, it would make sense why the Council went after her, but in that case, they could easily go after her father too. In fact, her father would be enough for those old fucks and Killian wouldn't fight them every step of the way as I would for Aife.

This didn't make sense at all.

"Alpha?" Adam stood in front of me and placed his hand on my shoulder to get my attention. "What are you planning to do now?"

My eyes scanned the surroundings and when I spoke, I didn't address my men. I addressed whoever was surely hiding in the shadows, watching every move we made. "I'm planning to find out if one of those fog fuckers are on my ass. Then,

I'm planning to reach out to the Lycan King and hopefully, get a chance to kill the fucker who owns the fog bastard myself. After that, we're going back to our pretty, boring old life."

My words were loud enough to fulfill the initial goal. They reached the creature. A slight smile tugged on my lips as I heard a rustling of leaves and twigs for a moment and then, it disappeared.

Now, I had dug my own grave, that much was sure. The fucker would surely deliver the information to the Council and neither of them would stop until they got my head.

I had always wanted to sign my own death sentence, it seemed that happened sooner than I had planned. But that was life, it worked in mysterious ways and mine just happened to be fucked in all senses. *"Guillotine, here I come."*