Chapter 99

Chapter 99
“Ladies and gentlemen! It gives me great pleasure to present to you, your new King and Queen!” Theresa announced.

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, a gun went off, and I felt it coming straight for my heart. It was like the world slowed down and everything was in slow motion. Wyatt leaped in front of me, trying to shield me from the attack, but I had my eyes locked on the bullet that was headed straight for me. The room was filled with shocked and scared expressions, but my focus was on the bullet.

As it inched closer, I felt this internal need to protect my baby. The only problem was, I didn’t know how. I felt an explosive energy leave my body and surround Wyatt and myself. It had hues of green and silver swimming around the sphere that surrounded us.

The bullet hit the sphere and simply fell to the ground. My baby produced a forcefield that protected his dad and mom. I knew this was not me doing it, but it was the baby protecting us. Just how powerful was this child?

Wyatt’s head was looking all around at the sphere before turning to face me. “How are you doing it?” he asked in awe.

“Can we talk about that later? There are more important matters to handle!” I said, starting to get angry. Not at Wyatt but at this motherfucker that thought it was appropriate to take a shot at me!

“Reed is on it.” Wyatt said. “Can you take it down?”

I opened my mouth to speak but shut it again as I didn’t know if I could take it down. I tried sending a message to the baby to let him know it was okay and I tried relaxing myself, but nothing seemed to help. Finally, I just shrugged at Wyatt. He looked around and stuck his hand out of it, and surprisingly, it went through. So, he took his whole body and stepped out, and the sphere wrapped around me. It looked like I was in an egg. I wonder if the baby sensed more danger.

“QUIET!” Wyatt shouted as the room had erupted into chaos. “The situation is being handled and everyone is safe and able to proceed with the celebration!” Slowly, everyone nodded and sat back down. The music started playing.

“Reed found a teenager with a slit throat in the woods about a hundred yards away. No knife,” Wyatt whispered to me as we made our way down the aisle and to our seats.

“Interesting,” I said slowly. The sphere slowly lessened, but I felt it at the surface at my belly, waiting to be put up again if needed.

People started coming up to us and greeting us, congratulating us on our new titles. It was all going good until the next person in line was Damian.

“It is a pleasure to see you again. Wyatt, this is Damian and his mate, Holly. And you know my mate, King Wyatt,” I said, making the introductions. Wyatt and Damian’s handshake was pretty firm from what I could see. Holly looked horrible. “I am surprised you didn’t bring your cousin with you today?” I asked with a hint of pettiness in my voice.

“She is here, I just don’t know where.” Holly said dismissively.

Part of me wanted to call her out for being disrespectful, but I let it slide. Wyatt didn’t, however.

“You will address her accordingly!” he firmly stated, glaring at them.

“My apologies, King Wyatt and Queen Nina. My dear mate forgets her childhood friend has moved on, and it hurts us that we haven’t stayed in touch. Maybe this will allow us to build a relationship of sorts, even if it is business,” Damian said, sounding politically correct, but the silent jabs were still there.

“Fortunately for us, we have already picked our staff and are not looking to increase our business partners at this time. I have put my childhood behind me, and I suggest you do the same,” I said with an edge of annoyance.

“I am sorry to hear that. I am sure we will speak again… soon,” Damian said ominously with an evil smirk and walked away, pulling a glaring Holly behind him.

“I don’t like the sound of that,” Wyatt said in my ear.

“Me either. I do need to use the restroom.”

“I’ll walk you there,” Wyatt said.

“Don’t bother! It is just right inside, and we still have a lot of people to greet. Stay and mingle, I will be back in five minutes!” I said, blowing off his concern.

As I made my way to the bathroom, multiple people kept stopping me to say hello or congratulations. Thankfully, Kelly was standing right there.

“Hey, queenie!” Kelly said smiling.

“Hey, I am trying to make it to the bathroom!”

“I need to go, too. Let’s all go!” Brooke said, standing up. Kelly and I looked at each other but didn’t say anything else.

It took about another ten minutes before we reached the bathroom. There must have been hundreds of people out there trying to speak with me! It was exhausting! However, I made my way into a stall, and Kelly was in the other one. Since there were only two, Brooke was waiting by the sink.

We didn’t speak as we both finished our business. Kelly finished first and walked out of the bathroom. I heard the sink turn on and then I heard a loud THUD!

Looking under the stalls, I saw Kelly laying there, on the ground with blood pouring from her head! Oh shit! She must have passed out! Quickly finishing up, I walked out of the stall and saw Brooke holding a gun—straight at me.

The baby instantly put up the shield to protect me, but my eyes were on Kelly. The blood on the butt of the gun told me Kelly did not fall on the floor from passing out; Brooke hit her.

“Why?” I asked. I really just needed an answer.

“You will get your answers later. If you even link Wyatt or anyone, I will kill Kelly and the stupid baby!” Brooke said, pointing the gun at her sister. I couldn’t have that. I weighed my options. If I blasted her, Kelly would feel that, and it would harm the baby. I couldn’t electrocute her unless I was close to her, and she was keeping her distance. If I played along, I would get to see who was at the end of all of this! Plus, I could keep Kelly safe. “The third tile from the bottom, on the right. Kick it. It is a secret passage out of here.”

Turning, I saw the tile that had a footprint on it. Fair enough. No one would think anything otherwise. I walked up to it and gave it a push. Sure enough, the wall slid open and revealed an opening about the size of a normal doorway. Damn, Reed was good.

“Hurry up!” Brooke said and picked up the lifeless body of Kelly.

“She can stay here!” I said angrily. She needed medical attention.

“No, she can’t. I need leverage to get you to listen. You might be immune to drugs and stuff, but she isn’t!” Brooke said extremely evil like.

“You know this won’t end well for you,” I said honestly.

“I have accepted that. I don’t want to be mated to such a spineless man anyway! And to think he was okay with his pitiful life, living in someone else’s shadow!” she said, spitting the words out.

“I know you are not the mastermind over all of this. Who is?”

“Pretty bold of you to think that I wasn’t involved in this. It was my idea to get Reed away from Kelly. I am the one who staged that pathetic attempt on your life. I was hoping Wyatt would have gotten shot, but we can still improvise. Accidents happen. I did get the idea from whoever tried to shoot you at the meeting when Wyatt did get shot. I thought I would get lucky there, but nope, bastard lived on,” she said, shaking her head.

The tunnel went on a downward slope for a while, and then all I could smell was soil. The random lanterns that lined the tunnel told me they had been using this for a while now, and the footprints of different sizes told me there were a couple people in on this.

We walked in silence for what felt like hours. “I already informed Wyatt of everything. He is getting prepared to come. They don’t know I can do that, so don’t inform them of anything,” Raven said to me. She was such a perfect companion. She knew what she needed to do, and I fully trusted her.

“Okay.”

Finally, I saw a light at the end of the tunnel. As it got closer and closer, I saw the stairs.

“Hurry up! She is heavy!” Brooke whined. Rolling my eyes at her, I grabbed Kelly and pulled her close to me. Oddly enough, the shield zapped Brooke but enclosed Kelly, letting me carry her bridal style as Brooke rubbed her hand. “Freak!”

I lifted my eyebrow at her but said nothing in return. She would get hers soon enough. As we walked up the stairs, we entered a room that instantly made me cringe. It looked exactly like the one that I was tortured in at the hands of the council. NO! This couldn’t be happening! There were three chairs in the middle of the room with blankets over each body, so I couldn’t see who they were.

“Put Kelly down and step away!” Brooke said, pointing the gun at me.

“Um, no!” I said. Did she think I was stupid?

Brooke stomped over to the first bag and pulled the bag off his head. Johnnie was unconscious with his mouth taped and his face was almost unrecognizable. Brooke held the gun to his head.

“Now!” she said again. This couldn’t be happening!

“No,” I said again. Brooke called my bluff and placed a single bullet in Johnnie’s head. His body was already limp but somehow got even more limp. She then walked over to the next person and pulled the bag off his head.

I couldn’t contain my shock as the face of Trevor stared at me. He started shaking his head no. He had been given wolfsbane, so I wasn’t able to communicate with him. His eyes pleaded for me not to listen to her, but my heart was breaking. I could not give her a pregnant person to torture.

“Now!” she said again but yelling at me this time.

I shook my head no as tears rolled down my face. I closed my eyes as the gun went off a second time. I am so sorry, Trevor!

Walking over to the third person, she ripped the bag off his face. Zach was tied to a chair, duct taped and bleeding heavily. The one good eye was glaring daggers at Brooke.

“One last chance to save a person that you love!” Brooke teased.

I opened my mouth to speak but the door opened, and the last person I expected walked into the room.

“Now, Brooke, let’s not kill the last bit of persuasion we have!” Grant said in a very cocky voice.

“YOU!” I said, and my eyes glowed green. I was beyond pissed at that moment. I felt every emotion rising to the surface very quickly.

“Yes, it was me! It was always me!” Grant said, opening his arms and showing himself off to me. After one twirl, he kicked a chair over to me. “Please sit and watch the show!”

Walking over to Zach, he pulled the tape off his mouth in one swift movement. “Brooke, you are up!” Grant said laughing and took a few steps back.

Brooke walked up to Zach. “I, Brooke Evens, reject you, Zachary Davis, as my mate!” Brooke instantly clutched her heart as Zach cried out in pain.

Grant stood off to the side laughing. “That was great! Zach, your turn!”

“FUCK… OFF!” Zach spat blood at him.

“Just do it, Zach. Set me free!” Brooke said as she looked up at the ceiling and did this little girl twirl with her hands outstretched.

Zach looked at me, and I nodded. His wolf wouldn’t live through this, but I had a feeling he didn’t want to live through it regardless.

“I, Zachary Davis, reject you, Brooke Evens, as my mate!”

Both Brooke and Zach cried out and went unconscious. “Well, that was dramatic!” Grant said.

“Why?” I asked him, hugging Kelly close to me.

“You know what? I will tell you why. It was my destiny to be king! I was of royal bloodline, and I was going to announce myself, taking the title. However, my dear brother knocked up his mate and had you. You stole my abilities that should have been mine! You stole the crown from me. However, I knew I would have to bide my time. I needed you to succeed, so I could simply kill you and take the crown from you. I tried to kill you with that bullet. However, Wyatt took that for you. He didn’t die, which was a setback, but no matter! I have plans for him later... If he even lives through your death! I wasn’t planning on Brooke taking you so early though. Stupid girl has never shown any patience through this whole deal. Not keeping her damn mouth shut and fucking up a couple chances I had to kidnap you.” Grant walked over to her, and without missing a beat, picked the gun up and unloaded three shots into her. Two in her chest and one in her head. I couldn’t stop the shock and gasp that left my mouth at that. It was so sudden and quick!

“I also hoped the council would kill you, but somehow you managed to actually escape. That wasn’t my fault though. I sent that housekeeper in there to catch you, I pulled the card to break your legs intentionally, I even ‘forgot’ my wallet, making us turn around!” he said as he put up quotation marks around the word forgot. “I was playing you from the start!”

I was too shocked to even utter a word. My eyes were glued to Brooke on the floor as a pool of blood formed around her.

“One last chance! Put Kelly down!” Grant said as his eyes gleamed red.

“No,” I said defiantly, and Grant turned, emptying the rest of the clip into Zach, causing him to fall backwards in the chair. “Hmm, I am out of people to kill. I will just get more,” he said, walking over to the wall with different tools. He pulled out a small ball-like thing, and a moment too late, I realized it was a grenade. Pulling the key, he threw it down the tunnel. A second later, we felt the explosion and the tunnel collapse. Now Wyatt wouldn’t have a way in. “I will be back! Feel free to get yourself comfortable. We will have a lot more fun!” he said and shut the door, locking it.