blood on the dance floor

Dante Milburn

“Could have fooled me. If she really is, then you wouldn't mind having her head on a pike, think of it as our wedding gift from you to me—” She breezed, pushing away from me and making the blood drain from my face before she threw her hands up in the air.

“Caius! There you are!” 

My jaw tightened as I watched her knock the shadow over, barreling right into my Beta’s arms.

The blond wolf’s eyes swept to me in surprise and he let out a chuckle, embracing the princess tightly.

Embracing my wife-to-be if Kefas was to be tamed.

“Oh my goodness, watch it will you?” the redhead’s petulant whine was barely above a whisper, but I saw the way the princess’ shoulders stiffened as the shadow righted herself, shaking off the wine the servant accidentally doused her with.

I stomped down on the urge to take her in my arms, hating the pathetic look on her face when she realized none of the other wolves were paying attention.

She couldn't have seen the way Ronan’s hands clenched to fists at his side or the way Caius begged me not to act with his eyes.

We were treading on thin ice, that much was certain.

My hands felt like they had been sucked into a void when I snapped them around her small rounded shoulders, hating the sick feeling in my chest when I sent her flying back.

I could see the way my harsh words cut into her until she was so close to tears that her jaw trembled.

I wanted to cradle her face in my hands, but I firmed them at my sides instead, refusing to let any emotion show.

If hurting her feelings was the price I had to pay for sparing her fucking life, then she could be my guest all she liked.

“Get out, get lost before I change my mind about killing you—” I spat finally, watching her scurry off with a pang in my gut.

Why did she have to be so damned weak? It was pathetic.

She didn't belong here. Weak didn't belong in Infinity Fortress. Not when wolves like us craved it…devoured it.

“Oh, Dante! You're awful—” Triel tutted, but I could tell from the pleased note in her voice that the spectacle was exactly what she had hoped for.

Guilt left a sore spot in my chest as I watched her retreating back before she disappeared into the crowd.

I had done the right thing hadn't I?

Only bad things would come of her mixing with the Infinity wolves like she belonged here.

And that dress…that godawful, damningly tempting dress she wore that left barely anything to the imagination!

It was no wonder Caius— whore that he is, was showing her off!

If Amara Eldwood wasn't my true mate, then why was my wolf in so much agonizing pain?

Why the fuck did I care who looked at her? Enough that my wolf wanted to stab out their eyes with its claws?

“Don’t think about that now, Dante. What’s done is done,” 

My hands formed fists at my side and I ignored Ronan’s accusatory stare before he shoved past me.

“Bloody hell, I’m going to find her—” Scarcely had the words left his mouth before Caius’ alarmed shriek made us all pause.

“Triel? Are you alright there, Princess? You look a bit pale—” the blond wolf queried, and alarm made my heart cease up when I saw the thin sheen of sweat beading her forehead and the way her thick blond brows had drawn together in concentration.

The wine flute fell from her hands to shatter noisily on the floor, sending shrapnel flying with a dramatic burst.

“I…I don't feel so good,” Triel wheezed, stumbling back before Caius’ strong arms shot out to catch her and his worried gaze met mine.

Indeed, quite the hero I had on my hands, wasn't he?

“Cut it out, Triel, for fucks sake, its just us now, there’s no need for your theatrics—” I growled, tearing my fingers through my hair as the music reached a crescendo.

The medley of the pianos and violins grew so loud that it reverberated painfully in my skull.

“I’m not pretending, Dante! It really freaking hurts!” She squealed, her eyes wider than I had ever seen them as she keeled over, turning blue in the face and clutching her hands to her throat.

“Your Grace, are you alright? What’s going on?” Caius barked, his baritone rising with alarm before he turned to bark orders that at the maids and his words faded to static in my ears.

She was choking. The daughter of the grand Alpha commander of the west end pack was choking in our base.

“I can’t breathe…Can’t—” she heaved, lurching forward to vomit a sea of red onto the stainless burnt orange floors.

Poison. The sickly sweet smell of it rose like a mist from the sticky black blood, hissing when it hit and darkened the cold tiles.

Wolfsbane. Lethal, especially for royal wolves.

“Oh my goodness! Poison! The princess has been poisoned! Somebody! Sound the alarm! Get the healers!” a courtesan’s high-pitched whine made the tension that had been straining tightly in the air snap in two.

The world around me seemed to fade to silence and everything happened in slow motion as I closed the space between us, taking the princess in my arms just before she could hit the floor.

“Seal the gates, the doors, heck, seal the goddamned windows! Do you hear me? Seal the doors!” Caius bellowed loudly, his six feet six inch frame of meat ad muscle powering through the crowd and making the other wolves shrink away.

The stampede of wolves all hurrying to the exit was only drowned out by the creak and groan of the double doors closing before the finality of its thud brought on a deafening silence.

Ronan’s wet earth scent washed over me as he crammed in before me, brushing Triel’s limp blond hair back so that her dried-up face gaped up at us.

The formerly porcelain skin had gone black, with cracks forming along the sides of her wide-open mouth and the gaunt pockets beneath her bony cheeks.

She had become stiff, the rigor morris hitting like a flash of lightning.

“The nurses, if we can get some of the nurses to station fresh blood into her body—” Caius was saying, his frantic quiver lost on the two of us who remained silent.

Troops of red uniformed guards formed a circle around us to keep out the curious eyes of the crowd as an eerie calmness settled over the hall.

My eyes were burning, and the throbbing in my temples doubled when her body went slack in my arms, the sticky blood on the tiles sizzling until only an ugly dried stain remained.

“Quickly! I want a hundred bags prepped for the infusion! No one leaves without the Alpha’s order!” Caius bellowed as I lowered the woman to the gauze bed the white-coated nursemaids had formed on the tiles.

Their needles snapped and broke every time they tried to open up her coarse veins and for what felt like the second time in my life, I watched the woman I should have married slip away.

“Triel! Triel, please! You’ve got to open your eyes, sweetie! Everyone here’s tryna help you, okay?” Caius pleaded, slamming to his knees and cradling the woman in his lap as he rocked back and forth.

They had always been close, enough that he saw her as something of an elder sister even.

Twice removed cousins.

His large hands shook as he brushed the blood matted hair from her face, his painful groans ripping what was left of my composure to shreds.

“An Alpha must not show weakness. You do that and you might as well fall on your own sword and let your people find your body at dawn,” Father’s cold voice echoed in my head as I rose shakily to my feet, not daring to move a muscle on my face lest my mask of indifference splinters.

“Triel, Please! You’re all I have left goddamn you, please! Don't just stand there! Hurry!” The Beta roared, snapping at the aghast nurses who scrambled forward in his other as my gaze locked on Ronan’s unreadable eyes.

I wouldn't be the one to tell Caius, because we all knew his attempts would be useless in the end.

Triel Winters was already dead. We were too late. 

The commandant’s daughter was dead.