The Center Of It All

Kael

“Fucking asshole!”

I rubbed my temple in irritation as Asher's furious voice exploded inside my head.

“Will you shut up already?”

The damn mutt had been yelling at me nonstop ever since I left Lyra's room.

“No, I won’t shut up!” Asher barked furiously. “What the hell was that?”

I shot back, “You were the one whining about wanting her. You’re the reason I even made that request in the first place.”

Asher snarled. “Oh, don’t pin this on me. I never told you to force her into accepting like that! You used her mother against her… Now she’s going to fucking hate us.”

“She already hates me.”

“That’s because you rejected her like an idiot!”

A headache began pounding behind my eyes. The irritation brewing inside me worsened by the second.

“Asher…”

“No!” he growled. “You acted like a complete bastard. She just lost her parents, Kael. She’s grieving, broken, terrified, and instead of helping her properly, you cornered her into becoming our whore.”

I frowned. Okay, the word sounded worse now that he said it out loud.

I walked toward the wine bar at the far corner of my study, grabbed a whiskey bottle, and poured myself a glass, downing it in one gulp.

Asher let out a low scoff. “Drinking won’t change the fact that you handled this badly.”

The annoying part was… he wasn’t entirely wrong. Maybe I shouldn’t have forced Lyra into thinking becoming my mistress was the only way I would help her mother because the truth was, I had already deployed trackers before our conversation even happened.

The moment I received confirmation that Margaret Vale might still be alive, I sent the best warriors and trackers out immediately.

Margaret Vale was too important. She and her late husband had always maintained certain connections throughout the realm.

She was intelligent and well respected. Even my late father had once admired her.

I respected her enough not to leave her to die. So yes… using her as leverage against Lyra felt low.

But I had needed a reason to stop Lyra from leaving. She clearly had no idea what kind of danger surrounded her existence.

Did she really know her parents at all?

Did Gregory and Margaret ever tell her who they really were and why they abandoned pack life so suddenly years ago?

Judging from the way Lyra spoke earlier… she knew nothing. If she did, she never would have tried walking out of Stormfang Pack without protection.

There were enemies in the shadows who would kill to get their hands on the surviving daughter of Gregory and Margaret Vale.

“That isn't the only reason why you don't want her to leave,” Asher began again. “But you should have done things differently. You basically demanded she become our mistress a few days after rejecting her. What kind of idiotic strategy was that?”

I clenched my jaw. “Then perhaps you should’ve controlled yourself instead of flooding my head with filthy thoughts about her even after rejecting her.”

Asher immediately barked out a dark laugh.

“That wasn’t my fault. You wanted her too. You’ve been with women before, so why the hell did you suddenly act like some emotionally constipated monk who doesn’t know how to properly coax a woman to be with him?”

“That’s enough. She agreed, didn’t she?”

Asher became quiet for a moment, then his next words came lower.

“Not because she wanted us. She agreed because she had no choice.”

Something about that irritated me far more than it should have. That headache pounding behind my eyes worsened. Without another word, I immediately blocked him out completely.

A knock suddenly sounded at the door.

“Enter.”

The door opened, and Craig, my Beta, stepped inside. He was one of the very few people I trusted completely.

“What is it?”

“Alpha Simone of Blackthorne Pack sent another message.”

I immediately groaned.

“He says he’ll be visiting Stormfang in a few weeks. He wishes to discuss the business arrangements concerning the coal ore trade personally.”

That old man was quite persistent. Alpha Simone had been my father’s closest ally for years. The two of them built several successful trade routes together before my father’s death.

After I became Alpha, Simone repeatedly proposed strengthening ties between our packs further through business partnerships and alliance treaties, but I kept delaying them.

Not because I distrusted him.

Alpha Simone was actually one of the few Alphas I considered honorable.

But permanent alliances created obligations, expectations, and dependencies. And after watching how quickly some supposed allies abandoned Stormfang after my father died, I became cautious.

“I’ll deal with Simone later.”

Right now, I had far bigger problems.

“Any updates on Margaret Vale?”

Craig’s face immediately became serious.

“Not yet. The trackers are still searching. No confirmed sightings since the picture was taken before our trackers lost her. However, we did uncover something important regarding the attack on the mountain resort.”

“What?”

“According to our intel and investigations, the ferals weren’t acting randomly. They were sent there.”

My entire body stilled.

“That’s impossible.”

Feral rogues were monsters. Mindless killing machines that hunted and killed for pleasure. They couldn’t follow orders, couldn’t strategize, or coordinate organized attacks. Unless...

“There’s a strong possibility the rumors of the Rogue King are true,” he said quietly, confirming my suspicion.

Unease settled heavily inside me.

For years, whispers had circulated throughout the realm about a mysterious masked man who self-proclaimed himself the Rogue King, and supposedly possessed the ability to control feral wolves.

At first, nobody took the stories seriously because controlling ferals should’ve been impossible. But now…

If someone truly possessed control over ferals, then the entire realm was in serious danger.

“What could be the possible reason the ferals were sent after the Vales?”

“That part remains unclear. But our sources believe they were sent to retrieve something from the Vales. No one knows whether they succeeded or not.”

Questions immediately flooded my mind.

What could Gregory and Margaret possibly possess that would make someone send ferals after them?

And why attack now? Gregory and Margaret had lived in seclusion for years. So what changed?

I rubbed my jaw slowly. Nothing about this situation felt normal anymore.

Too many pieces were missing. Too many unanswered questions. And right in the center of everything was Lyra.

A sharp possessiveness stirred unpleasantly inside my chest at the thought of her.

I remembered how fragile she looked earlier.

The anger in her eyes.

The tears.

The way her body melted against mine despite fighting it.

Asher growled faintly from behind the mental wall I placed between us.

I ignored him.

If the ferals failed to retrieve whatever they were searching for, if they found out that Lyra was here and she became their target...

No.

The thought alone triggered immediate anger inside my chest.

I would never allow it… not while I was alive.

Gregory and Margaret sent Lyra here.

To Stormfang… to me.

Why? What exactly did they know?

Whatever secrets Gregory and Margaret had been hiding...

Whatever the Rogue King wanted from them...

One thing was certain…

Lyra sat directly at the center of it all.