Chapter 79 Feeling Betrayed

Chapter 79 Feeling Betrayed
\[Allister’s POV\]

I wake up feeling like I was hit by a Mac truck. Frowning, I sit up and slowly look around my room before settling on Vanessa and Marie, who are asleep on either side of me.

"Fuck!" I growl, rubbing my temples as my head pounds. “What the hell?”

Frowning, I try to think of what exactly could have happened to leave me feeling like this, but come up short. The last thing I remembered was fucking Tabitha during the blood moon and then the awakening ceremony, but after that, everything was blurry.

What happened after that? Did Tabitha awaken, and if she did, where the fuck was she? Was she with my father since he was her lover in the past, or was she somewhere claiming her place?

Sitting up, I continue to try to remember everything, but I continue to come up short and realize that the only way to truly know what happened was to find my father.

Grimacing, I begin to untangle myself from the two women who are clinging to me and then get up while they curl into each other.

After throwing on some sweatpants, I begin to move, making my way out of my room and down the hall toward my father’s room, but before I can reach, a commotion downstairs draws me.

Peeking over the banister, I take in the large crowd that has gathered in the foyer, and standing in the middle of them is my father.

“What are we going to do?”

“They murdered many!”

“How are you so calm?”

“Was this all planned by you?”

Confusion flaring, I start to move again, making my way downstairs while the crowd's anger grows until their voices blend together in a deafening roar that is quickly stopped by a burst of authoritative power exploding from my father.

“Shut up!” He snarls as those around him drop to their knees. “Who are any of you to attack me this way?”

Stopping at the bottom of the stairs, I continue to watch and listen as my father commands the crowd around him.

“What happened last night was a once-in-a lifetime occurrence, and I am already taking precautions to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. If you believe that I am a poor leader who has allowed danger to come our way, then you are more than welcome to leave, but know that I will not sit here and put up with your insubordination.”

Listening quietly, I begin to wonder exactly what happened last night. Did it have something to do with Tabitha’s awakening, and if so, why didn’t I remember?

Something about all of this was leaving me feeling uneasy, but I couldn’t quite place it, and before I could truly consider it, my father’s eyes came to rest on me.

“Please rest assured that Allister and I are doing everything in our power to find the ones responsible and do away with them.”

Taking that as my cue to come forward, I begin to move again, pushing my way through the crowd of kneelers until I am beside my father.

“Isn’t that right, my boy?” He continues, clamping my shoulder and sending a wave of unfamiliar energy through me.

Eyes widening, I look down at my hands, which are beginning to become covered in metallic scales that travel up my arms and along my body until I’m completely covered.

‘This,’ I hiss through mindlink after realizing that I can’t speak. ‘What is this?’

‘What you’re truly meant to be,’ my father responds.

What am I meant to be? How was it possible that I was the very thing that Vance and I were hunting? Not to mention, why couldn’t I remember being this, and why was this time around so different from the others?

As these thoughts whirl around in my mind, exclamations of shock begin to erupt around the crowd as wide, fear-filled eyes come to rest on me.

“As you can see,” my father says, seeming oblivious or just not caring. “We are prepared to defeat anything that comes our way.”

To prove his point, my father pulls a stake from his hip and slams it against my chest while I let out a hiss of shock, but to my surprise, the weapon shatters into a million pieces.

“With our secret weapon, no one will win against us,” he chuckles. “Now, please go back to your quarters and rest assured.”

For a moment, no one moves as if they are debating whether or not my father is being serious, but when he lets another burst of power escape him, they scurry away like fucking cockroaches.

It’s only when we are truly alone that my father fixes his hollow gaze on me and lets a broad smile that seems a bit manic cross his features.

“I am sorry for keeping this from you, my son,” he begins, deciding to address the elephant in the room. “But I needed you.”

Needed me. As these words leave his lips, Damien’s words about the purpose of this strange creature begin to appear in my mind. This whole time I was harvesting organs, but weren’t they supposed to be for the goddess’ reincarnation?

‘I don’t understand,’ I say slowly, trying to put the piece together. ‘What has been your purpose?’

‘Youth,’ my father announces, turning and beginning to move. ‘Follow me, son.’

Wanting to get to the bottom of the mystery that has been surrounding me, I do as I’m told, following my father from the foyer to his room and then through a secret door that leads to his throne room.

Neither of us speak as we move, but with each step, I can feel my unease growing more and more until we finally arrive at what seems to be a cooler.

Giving me a look, my father begins to open the lid until I can see all of the organs that are resting inside of it.

Reaching out, my father grabs a heart and brings it to his lips so that his fangs can pierce it, allowing the blood that is still inside of it to flow onto his tongue while I watch on in confusion.

“This,” he says, throwing the now-shriveled heart. “Is the key to my full revival?"

‘Full revival?’ I repeat as he grabs another organ and repeats the process.

One by one, he consumes the life force of each and every organ that I stole from humans until his appearance begins to shift, and the once decrepit man that I knew turns into a handsome man no older than forty.

“You see,” he beams, flexing his new muscles. “I am back to my original form, and with that, my powers have returned as well.”

‘So all of this was for power,’ I murmur, feeling both disgusted and betrayed. ‘Does this mean that you have been using Vance and I this whole time so you can achieve your goal?’

Vance… As my brother appears in my mind, I can’t help but wonder if he is okay. The last I knew, he was still in prison beneath this castle, awaiting execution for going against our father. Although I had gone along with what my father wanted, that didn’t mean that I wanted to see my brother’s demise, but even now I was too scared to go against the bastard, especially since he was the only one with the cure to stop myself from turning into this damned lizard.

“Don’t look at me,” my father sighs, moving forward and clamping my shoulder. “You too will benefit from all of this. Together, we will work to rule the world and take our rightful place as kings.”

‘Who said I wanted to be a king?’ I counter. ‘All this time, I simply didn’t want to hide in the shadows anymore.’

With each passing minute, I was seeing how badly I had fucked up, and now the only thing I could do was either go along with this crazy bastard in front of me or go against him.