Chapter 100 The Trusted Enemy

Chapter 100 The Trusted Enemy
Mother hadn't just been murdered. She had been desecrated.
And Father would lose his mind.
I turned back toward what was left of my mother’s body. Drawing in a shaky, difficult breath, I forced myself to step closer.
Her flesh was torn, with gashes so deep, they exposed bone.
Whoever had done this had acted with pure cruelty.

I started to take another step when Benedict’s voice stopped me in my tracks. 
“Master Zephyr…”
I spun sharply.
“Benedict?" My eyes scanned him, checking for injuries. “You're alive?”
His eyes were red, with hints of tears in them.
“T-the Luna heard them coming…”
“Heard who was coming?” Nik cut in. He'd gained a bit of composure. 

Benedict swallowed hard. “Finnley and his Betas. I-I saw them”
Alex let out a curse. "We should’ve killed that fucking bastard when we had the chance.”
Finnley Corrigan.
He’d rejected the peace treaty our father had offered after the last bloody clash between our packs.
We’d known he was dangerous.
But now he’d declared outright war.

“She ordered me to take the remaining staff down to the wine cellar before they arrived at the doors.” Benedict narrated sadly. “I-I didn’t want to leave her. But she made me.”
“How did they take out all the guards so easily? From the looks of them, they didn’t even put up much of a fight.” I spoke.
Benedict folded his arms to stable how uncontrollably they shook.
“They were weakened,” he whispered. “You remember Gin, sir? He was with them. All this time, he was their inside man. He must’ve spiked their drinks”

My jaw ticked. 
Gin.
The cook.
The infiltrator.
He had access to everyone’s food in the mandion.
They’d done it by turning our own table against us.
Benedict began to sob. “It should’ve been me instead.”

I forced myself to breathe, to be strong, despite my mother's ravaged body lying some meters away. 
“Benedict. Help me.” I said. My voice came out in a robotic tone. “We need to move the body. My father can’t…”
“Can’t what?”
The voice made us all freeze, and I shut my eyes. 
He was here.
Father didn’t even finish his question before his gaze found her, and immediately, his face drained of all color.

Sheer horror spread across his features, as he shoved past us, stumbling forward till he was in front of the body.
“Father,” Alex choked.
“Lilith…!” Father’s plaintive voice called out. “Lilith, please. ANSWER ME!”
As Father dropped to his knees beside what was left of her, he let out a roar of grief. A completely inhuman sound.
A sound of a man being destroyed from the inside... one I would never forget for the rest of my life. 

We watched our Alpha, our father, reduced to something beyond broken. It was such a heart wrenching sight. But even in our own grief, we couldn’t look away. 
For a long time, he stayed there, shaking and sobbing.
It felt like hours. 
Then, slowly, he fell silent, wiping roughly at his face with the back of his hand. 

Father took in a deep, ragged breath. 
And he stood. 
When he finally spoke, his voice was dead and cold. 
“War.”

†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††

Finnley hadn’t expected us to retaliate right away. No sane enemy would have. 
Normally, any family would have taken at least the rest of the day to grieve. 
To tend to the Mother's body and bury their dead.
We begged Father to let us do that. But he wouldn’t listen.
He was a different man. 
His eyes were wild, and his actions were unpredictable. 

We couldn't let him go after we’d just lost our mother in the most brutal way imaginable.
So we stopped arguing and made plans. 
We called in favours from our allies and rounded up some Betas to join us, ignoring the tears still on our faces and the ache in our hearts. 
We moved.

That same day, we hunted them and showed no mercy, except to the women who didn’t fight and the innocent children.
They weren’t our enemies. But the ones who stood by Finnley, who dared to draw blood from our family, we struck them down without a second thought. 
Father dealt with Finnley himself.
It was a tough and brutal battle. But when it was finally over, the Alpha of the Corrigan pack lay dead at his feet.

His head was mounted on a stake before sundown, planted at the gates of their pack grounds as a warning.
A message to anyone else who thought they could come for us and live.

We drove home in silence.
With the fighting over, with no more blood to spill or enemies to rip through, the reality of what had happened sunk in harder than before.
The reality of Mother’s death… of how brutally she’d been taken from us. 
Revenge hadn’t brought her back. It hadn’t even soothed the ache in our chests.
But if there was one thing we gained from it all, it was that no one would ever dare cross our family again.
And if they did, they’d suffer the exact same fate. Or worse. 

†††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††††
ZEPHYR
PRESENT DAY

I'd been so fucking stupid.
All this time looking in the wrong place. Looking at the wrong person. 
Alice. Christina. Even Maria.
And sure, Christina's suspicion made sense. But still, we'd been circling a fire, blind to the one feeding it.
And not once. Not once did I stop to consider him.
Elliott Sinclair.

He had the motive.
He had the resources.
And worse, he had my trust.
I kept telling myself he wasn't the kind of man who'd stoop so low, who'd involve himself in something so personal, so cowardly.
But now... now that the pieces had finally come together, it all made sense.
Christina ruined the alliance. I ruined her father's company. Her life.
And in turn, Elliott planned to ruin mine. Quietly. And cleanly. 
He'd set it up so well, too, letting us suspect Alice. Letting us believe it might've even been his own daughter. 

I drove through the huge gates of the Sinclair estate like I had demons from hell chasing me. The gatekeeper, scrambled out of his booth, waving frantically, probably to ask if I was okay.
I didn't stop or even glance his way. My focus was dead ahead as I slammed the car door shut and stormed toward the main house.
It didn't take long for the guards to react. Two of them started toward me, their hands already reaching for their weapons, which was understandable, because I didn't exactly look like I was there to shake hands with their master and smile. 

I looked like what I was: fucking pissed off and ready to spill blood.
"Sir…" one of them began.
"Move," I growled, not slowing down.
The men exchanged a glance, debating whether to follow protocol or trust their instincts.
One of them moved to stand in my way. 
"I'm sorry, Alpha Wrath, but you'll have to…" 

I grabbed the imbecile by the shirt and shoved him aside. He pitifully crashed into a stone pillar, groaning and losing consciousness. 
Without waiting, I barged into the mansion, while the other guards chased after me. 
"Mr. Wrath, please… you can't just…"
Another hand tried to grab me from behind, but I caught the idiot's arm and wrenched violently in the other direction. 
A wild scream left his lips, as he fell into the arms of his colleague, freaking out.