Chapter 11: The King’s Wrath

My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my teeth. The Beta—Garrick, I think his name was—loomed over me like a storm cloud, his foul breath hot against my face. His aura pressed down on me, thick and suffocating, making my newly awakened wolf curl up and whimper like a beaten dog. Pathetic, I thought bitterly. Even here, I was still the weak one.

“You don’t belong in these halls, slave,” he snarled, his meaty hand shooting out to grab my chin, forcing my face up. His fingers dug in hard enough to bruise. “The King might be blinded by whatever spell you cast on him, but I see you. Weak. Broken. When he finally smells the truth on you and that human whelp, you’ll be scrubbing floors with your own blood. Or opening your legs for the guards in the lower halls. 

You are a defect. A barren, human-smelling glitch ”

Tears burned my eyes. I tried to pull away, but his grip was iron. My stitches pulled sharply, a hot flare of pain that made me gasp. Had I really escaped one monster just to land in the jaws of another? Kaelen had sold me like garbage. Now this Beta was promising the same fate, only wrapped in finer stone and darker shadows. Mael’s tiny body pressed against my chest, warm and trusting. I curled tighter around him.

“P-please… let me go,” I whispered, hating how small my voice sounded.

Garrick’s lips curled. He leaned even closer, his free hand sliding down to grip my waist, right over my healing wound. The pressure made stars explode behind my eyes. “Make me, little wolf-less bitch! I am going to do the Empire a favor," he growled, "I'm going to toss you and that pathetic runt over this balcony before the King realizes his condition blinded him to your—" 

The air suddenly changed. 

It grew thick, heavy, like the moment before lightning strikes. I could feel a sudden aura almost choking me. The training noise below—the clash of steel, the grunts of warriors—faded into nothing. A massive shadow swallowed the sunlight pouring over the balcony.

I braced myself, squeezing my eyes shut, expecting the Beta’s heavy hand to strike me.

Instead, a wet, wet gurgling sound filled the silence.

I snapped my eyes open.

My breath caught in my throat, choking me. Standing directly in front of me, so close I could feel the furnace-like heat radiating off his skin, was the Lycan King.

Half-naked. Still dripping sweat from the training grounds. His powerful chest heaved, each carved muscle glistening under the cold mountain light. Long, wet strands of dark hair clung to his broad shoulders and neck, dripping onto skin that looked like it had been forged in battle—scarred, brutal, and utterly unyielding. His golden eyes burned like molten metal, locked not on his Beta, but on the hand gripping my waist.

One second he’d been down in the dirt, fighting three men at once. The next, he was here. Inches away. Towering over me. Which means he hadn't run; he had practically teleported, moving with a speed that defied physical reality. 

“Alpha… please, I… I beg you…” Garrick’s voice turned into a wet gurgle.

Riven’s massive hand was already wrapped around the Beta’s thick neck. Veins bulged along the King’s forearm as he lifted Garrick clear off the ground with terrifying ease. The Beta’s boots kicked uselessly in the air. His face turned purple, his eyes bulging as he tried—and failed—to shift. The raw power rolling off Riven made my knees weak.

I couldn’t breathe.

Riven didn't look at the man he was strangling. He didn't even blink. His molten, golden eyes were locked entirely on my face, scanning me with a frantic, terrifying intensity, checking for injuries. 

“Was my Beta threatening you, little bird?”

I stared, stunned. Alphas didn’t do this. They protected their Betas. Their loyal enforcers. They were brothers in arms. I had never seen an Alpha look at his own Beta with such profound, unblinking emptiness.  Kaelen would have laughed if anyone dared touch Thorne. But Riven… he was looking at me. Waiting. Like his Beta’s life meant nothing compared to my answer.

The Beta, realizing his Alpha wasn't going to let him go, shifted his bulging eyes toward me. Tears were streaming down his flushed cheeks, blood already trickling from his down, down his moustache. His hands opened in a desperate, silent plea. ‘Save me.’

A dark, twisted satisfaction bloomed in my chest for one terrible second. Just moments ago I had been the one begging. Now his life dangled from my next words. The way Riven held him, suspended like a broken toy, meant it would only take one word from me to end his existence. 

But I was not a monster. I wasn't Kaelen. I didn't want blood on my hands just to prove a point.

I let out a soft sigh, shifting Mael in my arms. “Riven… he was just warning me about—”

Snap.

The sickening crack of bone echoed across the suddenly silent training grounds. It was so loud it ricocheted off the arched stone ceilings. Down in the courtyard, the chaotic clash of steel instantly ceased. Over two hundred elite soldiers froze, lowering their weapons, and turned to look up at the balcony. 

Garrick’s body went limp. Riven dropped him like discarded waste. The Beta crumpled at my feet, neck bent at an unnatural angle, his eyes rolled back into his skull. Did the Alpha… just kill his Beta??!