001

The doors to the Alpha's court crashed open as she stormed inside. The aged-Alpha barely flinched at the loud noise, standing over the massive oak table where plans lay scattered.

His stance was stiff, but there was concern in eyes as he glanced at her.

"You're injured" he noted.

Niva wiped the blood from her brow, not bothering to check if it was hers. "It is happening again, Father. Another pack sector gone, wiped out. Our people are dying, and we still have no plan."

His gaze darkened, but his voice remained controlled. "We have strategies."

"They aren't working!" she snapped. "You know it, I know it, and they sure as hell know it." She gestured at the door, towards the warriors outside with their haunted eyes and bloodstained armor. "We are losing."

Her father sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "What do you want me to say, Niva? That I don't have the answers? That I don't know how to stop this?"

"Yes," she shot back. "Because that would be the first honest thing that you've said in weeks."

Alpha Alderic remained silent.

Niva took a steady breath, forcing herself to calm down. "Father, did you atleast read the proposition I sent to you?"

Alpha Alderic stroked his short beard lightly.

"No."

"No?" She questioned, "Father I sent you an official proposition, something very important, it was boldly stated at the front of the envelope that it required your immediate attention"

"Niva, what exactly were you thinking. Do you want to bring disgrace to our bloodline?"

So he did read it.

"Father, think about it. We can't fight this thing without knowing what it is and the things we possibly need to put an end to it. We obviously do not have. This is-"

King Alderic's nails dug into the mahogany wood. "So you would have me, negotiate with that....that thing"

"Father-"

"I won't." He crossed his arms as his gaze hardened. "Letting that beast stay alive in the dungeon is mercy enough. After this whole incident comes to an end, I and the elders will definitely be planning a public execution for him. So no, I will not be accepting your proposal because it involves me negotiating with a captive"

"Father, please....look around us. The kingdom is in the very heart of chaos and nothing we do is working. Approve of this, and we have a chance of surviving"

Alpha Alderic scoffed, crossing his arms. His muscles bulging from under the tunic.

"Do you know what that Dravemont boy might demand in return?, that is if he even lets you get close enough without taking out your vocal chords"

She wanted to say something but hesitated, she hadn't quite thought about it yet. But whatever it took, the future and safety of her people were her top priority.

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there, for now..... please father. I need you to be on the same page with me for this"

A pause,

Followed by a lengthy uncomfortable silence.

And for a moment Niva had felt hopeful.

"I'd rather burn that bridge before letting you get there. Case closed"

Her father's icy blue orbs, similar to hers held a look of finality. He had made a decision and he wasn't going back on it anytime soon.

And so had she.

"There is nobody on earth that despises Kiran Dravemont as much as I do" she lifted her head up, looking him square in the face. "But you always told me that an Alpha protects his people at all costs. Or was that just something you said to make yourself feel noble?"

Before Alpha Alderic could snap at her obvious insolence she had already started walking away. A tilt at the edge of her lips, and the dungeon keys in her hand.

For a brief moment, a sad glint flickered within her orbs. Until now, she had never defied her father.

••••••

The ground was damp beneath her boots. She hadn't been down here since she night she rejected him. Five years ago.

She followed the left lane of the dungeon path where Kiran's holding cell was located. Taking quick steps before she turned a corner.

Kiran Dravemont sat against the farthest wall, his crimson colored locks tacky and overgrown, his wrists shackled above his head, silver chains biting into his skin. His once-proud form was slouched, his body stripped of it's former strength, yet even in defeat, he held himself with an arrogance that made her teeth clench.

His gaze lifted up, his grey eyes holding the same neutrality they always appeared to have.

Was it the silence that was bothering, or the fact that his gaze had become more disturbing.

She cleared her throat, she was an Everleigh. She would never be intimated by a Dravemont.

"Missed me?" She mocked.

"Not particularly" he responded aloofly. His overgrown hair covering part his face, she noticed the hair on his chin.

"But I did miss something though, the taste of your mother's blood. She was the last person I decapitated, correct?"

Her eyes turned bloodshot and her hands grabbed the steel bar.

"I should be planning your execution alongside my father"

Kiran's lips twitched in the ghost of a smile. She was lucky that he was in cuffs.

But he did feel amused, seeing her clutching the bars like that. Her blue eyes, mimicking a raging storm.

Had he been free, he imagined the satisfaction he would have gotten from standing above her bleeding frame.

Footsteps,

Niva turned her head sideways and sniffed.

Men were on their way here, her father had realized that she had taken the keys.

She let go of the bars, a calm yet panicked expression morphing her features. She had less than thirty minutes to negotiate with him.

"Look, if it was up to me. I would never come down here to see you. But as it is, my hand has been forced"

He arched a thick brow.

"By whom?"

"I don't know what it is" then she tapped a finger on the cage rods. "But I hope for your own sake that you do, because if you don't, then you are useless to me."