Staring at Logan was the familiar face of Jesse, his Gamma.

"What the hell are you doing here? And hooded too?" Logan asked. There was a nagging, almost uncomfortable feeling about this situation, but he tried to push it off. Jesse's deep blue, almost black eyes that stared up into his were wide and full of everything suspicious. His eyes kept looking behind Logan's back as though he was expecting someone else to show up.

"Can you get off me, alpha?" Jesse said, squirming uncomfortably. Logan stood up with a grunt and even stretched out a hand to the man, who took it and stood up from the forest floor, dusting his clothes.

Everything about this screamed suspicion, but Logan paid no heed to it. He wanted to trust his gamma beyond any reasonable doubt, but the man kept giving him every reason to doubt him. The hands that dusted his clothes were shaky; only someone who felt guilty about something would fidget so much. And the clothes—Logan hadn't noticed them before—he had a black turtle-necked shirt on, and a stretchy black pair of trousers. His shoes were black too, including the mask that Logan was still holding in his hands.

The person that attacked me in the gardens was hooded, he remembered Aella had said that after her attack. 

He drew his gaze from the man's clothes and general look to his face. The gamma still wasn't meeting Logan's eyes. His own eyes kept moving frantically, as though he was looking for a mode of escape, like a deer trapped in the oncoming headlights of a vehicle, about to become roadkill.

"Are you okay, Jesse?" Logan asked, narrowing his eyes "You look...stressed."

"It's nothing much, alpha. Only the way you jumped on me was startling. I'm fine, really." He replied, still fidgeting profusely.

The alpha threw the mask to Jesse, still full of suspicion. "You haven't answered my first question, Jesse." He spoke. "What were you doing so close to that cave? Do you...did you know it existed?"

"What? No!" Jesse replied. 

he's lying! Logan's inner wolf screamed. 

"I was passing by and I saw someone with a flashlight inside. I didn't want to disturb whatever was going on, so I took off running." The gamma continued.

Logan narrowed his eyes. "Shouldn't you have at least investigated? Seeing that the cave was there, and you hadn't noticed a cave there prior to this time. Shouldn't you have at least raised an alarm or alerted other members of the pack? Why did you run?"

A swift look passed across the gamma's face. Logan barely had time to grasp that look, but he thought it was of anger. "I'm sorry alpha." The gamma said, almost condescendingly. "Next time it won't repeat itself."

Logan was still trying very hard to believe that Jesse wasn't hiding anything from him. Jesse was his literal third-in-command after Casper, and he had built a level of trust with the man. His inner wolf kept screaming for him to discard any trust he could have for the gamma, but he shut the animal down.

He had known Jesse for almost all his life. They had been childhood friends, although Casper had been his closest and most trusted friend. Jesse had been a very calm and reserved personality, but he had the ability to calm people with a few words.

He was patient and observant in situations where Logan was too brooding to see the truth and Casper was too ready to jump into action. Amongst the three, he was the only voice of reasoning.

Logan knew that with all of this, it was only prudent that he gave his gamma at least an iota of trust.

The forest was as quiet as a grave when Logan looked up into the sky. The crescent moon, by this time, was already halfway across the sky. Logan guessed that by this time it was already 12 midnight or at the very most, one in the morning. "It's very late already. Let's go back to the pack house." He murmured to Jesse.

And that was the first mistake Logan made that night; or probably the second. The first might have been to trust his gamma too much. Before he could take more than three steps forward, he noticed that he wasn't hearing any footsteps behind him.

He should have known something was wrong; he should have turned and asked Jesse what was wrong. But that was his second or third mistake of the night. He continued walking, and before he could comprehend what was going on, the man that he had trusted so much for so many years of his life, suddenly had his hands around Logan's neck and was squeezing the life out of it.

Logan's eyes bulged and his throat burned. He coughed and spluttered, trying to get just one gasp of air as Jesse pressed down on his windpipe. He clawed at the man's hands as his eyes started to roll up into his head and his vision started to black out.

He thought he would die. He began to see stars that weren't those illuminating the dark night sky. Then Jesse leaned down and whispered venomously into his alpha's ears. "The Rogue King sends his regards."

With one last heavy effort, Logan yelled in anger and his fangs shot out of his gums painfully. He grabbed the gamma's arm and bit into it with all the force he could gather. Jesse yelped and released Logan, who stumbled for a few seconds, then righted himself.

Logan quickly turned his back and leaped into the air; half transformed into his wolf form. His clothes ripped to shreds and hair sprouted along his arms and across his face. His eyes were glowing bright green and his fangs and claws were out, but he was still vaguely humanoid. He collided with Jesse in midair and they landed on the forest ground, each grappling for the other's throat.

"You...traitor!" Logan growled, spitting blood and venom. "You worthless Lycan. I trusted you!"

"Well, the Rogue King trusted me even more to be his spy." Jesse managed to say as the alpha grabbed his neck.

Logan stalled for a few seconds, realizing something. Did that mean—

"You have been the spy all along, haven't you?" He snarled. "You have been the one informing the Rogue King about all our movements. You bloody traitor!" 

Jesse grinned; his mouth full of blood. "It took you this long to figure it out, didn't you? Some alpha you are, Logan. Some alpha you are. Even Elias would make a better leader—"

Logan yelled and smacked his gamma across the face before he could finish the sentence. "Shut up!" He bellowed. "Confess everything, this instant!"

"Oh, I will, my dear alpha," Jesse replied without fear. He raised his arm and drew back the sleeve of his shirt to reveal a tattoo in the crook of his elbow. A tattoo similar to the one Aella had on her shoulder and the one the captured rogue wolf had on his neck.

Like the one, his mother had on her wrist.

"See?" The gamma said, waving his tattooed elbow in Logan's face. "I have been a spy all these months that you have been getting attacks from supposed rogue wolves. All this time, it had been me. I killed Kylie and those two wolves. All the wolves that had died in the past year were killed by me. I did everything, and I could not have been prouder."

Logan felt a stab of betrayal in his chest. "Keep talking!" He said. 

"And Aella, your precious little mate. I was the one who attacked her those two times in the pack house gardens. I successfully attacked the first time and she passed out. I thought she had died, but it seemed she was stronger than her tiny frame led me to believe. That's why I attacked her again some days ago in the same gardens. But this time she managed to escape without being finished off. I must give her credit though. She's very resilient—"

"Why did you attack her? Talk!" Logan yelled, shaking the man by the throat.

"Because she refused to do what the Rogue King sent her here to do." Jesse continued. "Which is to spy on the pack. Instead, in a weird turn of events, she became mated to you. She had been getting messages from the Rogue King ever since she joined your pack, telling her that she would be killed if she didn't do her job, and that's why she attempted to run away. She didn't want the Rogue King to kill so many innocent people because of her failure."

Logan felt a small joy in his heart, followed by immediate pain. Aella was innocent—but to what extent?

"Come on!" He said, lifting his gamma up by the shirt and dragging him towards the pack house. "You're going to tell all of this to the Council."