The Stench of Betrayal

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[TAMIKO]

Once Gabe was out of sight, Tamiko slammed the door angrily before he let out a frustrated growl.

'What am I becoming?' the young lycan asked himself as he slid down his door. 

This version scared him and he hated what he had done. 

Tamiko looked at the green amulet on his arm and wondered if he could call out to Sadako for help. But then it wasn't like he was in grave danger and like he was in desperate need of help.

"I miss him so damn much," Tamiko said as he got himself snigging, trying to catch a whiff of Igor's scent, but the only thing that he could get were desperate sniffs. He couldn't even get himself to admit that he was in a terrible position. 

Of course, he knew that Gabe would hate him for what he had done, but Tamiko wanted to hold on to something. He looked at his bedroom door that was still open and he wondered if this was really a good time to open the letters. 

He was mad at Igor and he hated that Igor had left without goodbyes. It wasn't what he had expected, after everything, but that thought alone drove him nuts. 

"Perhaps I should read his letters, no?" Tamiko asked no one in particular as he looked at his bedroom door. 

The temptation was so high, but he could feel a defiance in him. 

If Igor really cared, he wouldn't have left just like that. He would have tried to communicate. He would have said something when he felt Tamiko wake up because Tamiko was sure Igor heard him wake up. 

Igor could have said something and yet he didn't. 

Shaking his head angrily, Tamiko got up and headed towards his bedroom, the desire to open the letters was so intense, but when he got there, he went under his covers and pretended like there wasn't a thing that was eating him up.

For two hours, the young lycan slept, as he tried not to think of Igor, and yet even his dreams were filled with the man he had hopelessly fallen in love with. 

He could see Kosta, even when he didn't need to and that made him wonder if his whole life was going to revolve around a man who had abandoned him. 

Sighing defeatedly, Tamiko got up and went for a run in the woods. 

He couldn't think of anything to do right now, especially now that everyone in Grealor seemed to have learned the art of minding their business, not to mention the fact that no one had even accused him of trying to murder the alpha. 

It was all so strange to him, but it was a life he was willing to get used to. For years he had wished for peace, but now that he was having it, Tamiko couldn't help but feel like his whole world was slowly becoming empty. But was it?

'Read the letters, moya dusha. I'm sorry I didn't say a word earlier. I know it sucks and I can feel your anger and pain. Just read them and you will understand. 

'And in those letters is a gift for you, a gift that will be essential to your vengeance,' Kosta suddenly said in the mind link, before instantly shutting it without letting Tamiko say another word. 

Oh but this was a cruel game and Tamiko was slowly losing his mind with it. 

What the hell did that even mean? 

Then again his Kosta had promised him a gift for his vengeance. He had promised him a con nuance of what he desired the most and that was the only motivation needed for the young lycan to run back to his shelter and walk to get his letters. 

He had kept them safely and he didn't want them torn or anything. So when he rushed back into his house, he expected to find his letters there, but he couldn't see them. If anything, it was like there was a blank space where the letters were. 

Tamiko was confused as hell. 

"Unless there are ghosts residing here, I am certain that I put them here," Tamiko said as he looked in the drawer where he had left his letters. It hadn't even been a whole day and we had lost that shit? 

What the fuck was happening? 

Then again he thought back to the scent he had been met with when he came back from running. It was an oddly familiar scent, one that he could have sworn had left the house. 

"No way," Tamiko said as he kept on trying to find them. But then he hadn't even put them that far. 

They were closer to him and now they were gone. 

However, after a few more minutes of searching, he was met with a new note. One that didn't have the scent of Igor, but had the same familiar scent he had tried to ignore earlier. 

"Don't start a war you can't finish outcast. With sweetest regards, Gabriel Grealor," the letter read and Tamiko let out a sinister laugh. 

Surely this couldn't be happening, right? Gabe couldn't be that stupid to start a war with a fully unhinged lycan who wanted nothing other than the doom of their whole pack, right? But perhaps it was a mistake. 

Then again, could it be, really?

"Galya, I need some help with identifying something," Tamiko said to his best friend in the mind link. He knew that he was probably skiing for too much from his friend, but what else could he do? 

He couldn't go to war blindly this time and he had to be sure before he stated his vengeance, because it seemed like someone was desperate for more happy times. Only that they wouldn't have any more happy times if Tamiko found this to be true. 

No one took anything that belonged to him anymore. And he wasn't about to forgive.

"What is it? Should I come over?" Galya asked.

"No, I'll come to your house. I need to greet your mom anyway. It's been a while since I saw her," Tamiko said and Galya chuckled. Her friend never came home because of the female beta. He never showed up because he never wanted to get them in trouble. 

"Meet me at the back of our house, I'll be waiting for you," Galya said and Tamiko hurriedly got out of his house, with the letter in his hand, not even bothering to hide it. 

If this was the one thing that got him declaring war on them, then they needed to be ready for it regardless. They needed to know that they were going to war because someone had been stupid, a little too stupid.

"Are you familiar with this handwriting?" Tamiko asked barely a few minutes later when he saw his best friend again. He had rushed there and with his cyan speed, what should have taken him ten minutes, took him two.

"What is this?" Galya asked, her voice testing as she looked at the letter carefully. She recognized the handwriting so well and she wished she did. It was one that she had seen more than once and was way too familiar with.

"So… Do you recognize the handwriting? Or even the scent on it?" Tamiko asked, even though he already knew the answer, and was trying to confirm it.

"Tamiko—"

"Yes or no, Galya?"

"Yes… It belongs to—"