Chapter 86 The Wrong Firstborn

Chapter 86 The Wrong Firstborn
The tension between Michelle and Shax thickened, filling the damp air of the basement hallway until it felt suffocating.
As their eyes locked, not a single word was spoken. Silence fell, leaving only the sound of their heavy, pounding breaths bouncing off the cold stone walls.
Shax didn't explicitly answer Michelle's question. But in moments like this, his silence spoke louder than any confession.
He knew. He knew everything, she thought.
Seeing Shax's reaction, or rather lack thereof, Michelle grinned wryly. A dry, hollow laugh escaped her pale lips, her voice hoarse and sore like rusted metal scraping against iron.
"So you know, now," Michelle said bitterly.
She then lowered her gaze to the stone floor, cursing softly. Her lips moved to her own under her heavy breaths, cursing fate, destiny, or perhaps herself.
Shax watched her behavior from behind the iron bars. A strange feeling rippled through his chest at the sight of such naked despair. He winced, trying to pull Michelle back to reality.
"Hey," Shax called in a low, demanding voice.
Michelle lifted her head quickly. When their eyes met again, the glint of sadness and despair had vanished, replaced by a fire. Through gritted teeth, Michelle began to threaten.
"So what?" she hissed sharply. "What are you going to do with that, huh? If you dare hurt that child, I won't stand for it, even if I have to haunt you after I die."
Michelle growled, then forced her weak body forward, reaching her hand through the gap in the iron bars. Her dirty fingers gripped Shax's shirt tightly, pulling his broad chest roughly until he nearly hit the metal barrier.
"I swear, Shax," Michelle breathed heavily right in front of his face. "You won't be able to live in peace if you dare hurt him."
Hurt him?
That was ridiculous, Shax thought. Why would she think he would hurt his own flesh and blood? Did she think he was a monster?
He let the weak grip on his clothes linger, returning Michelle's murderous glare with an equally piercing one.
"Then why did you do all this in the first place?" Shax retorted in a low, dangerous tone. "Do you think you're smart enough to keep lying to my brother, or... me?"
For a flash, perhaps just a split second, the fiery glint in Michelle's eyes flickered in waves. She then narrowed her eyes, smirking.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Michelle's voice broke. Her despair seeped out again. "Everything will be obvious. I'll be banished, chased if I'm found out to have given birth to him. And worse... there will be those determined to separate him from me."
Shax's brow furrowed. His jaw clenched.
In his head, he couldn't deny that part when Michelle was actually talking about it. What Michelle was saying was an absolute fact. If Sylas or the pack knew that Skai was his child, a child born before Sylas had any children, they wouldn't see him as just another child. They would see it as a threat.
A deviation from the established order.
And threats like that… usually don't survive.
Shax was about to open his mouth to retort when heavy footsteps approached.
"Beta?"
A patrolling guard appeared at the end of the hallway. He paused, his eyebrows raised in suspicion at the sight before him. Shax was standing too close to the cell, and Michelle's hand was gripping his shirt.
"What are you doing in prison?"
With a swift and ruthless movement, Shax swatted Michelle's hand away from his shirt. He spun around, facing the guard. Faced with Shax's towering frame, the guard had to look up sharply, instantly dwarfed.
An aura of intimidation radiated from Shax. His eyes were intense, locking the guard in.
The guard swallowed hard, his body trembling violently before giving a stiff, broken nod. Satisfied with that reaction, Shax strode out of the prison area, roughly ruffling his hair and cursing under his breath.
Throughout the night, Shax's mind raced. He kept thinking hard, but he couldn't find the best way to take Skai and publicly claim him as his own, not Sylas's.
Something kept nagging at the back of his mind. Why was Sylas so determined to get Skai back? His brother had shown Skai no fatherly care or affection.
And Shax didn't want his son to continue living under that man's false claims.
More than that, Shax began to have nightmares. If Michelle died while serving her sentence, Skai would be devastated and in unbearable pain. Strangely, at the thought of that happening, Shax also felt a throbbing pain in his chest.
However, his hands were tied. He couldn't get Michelle out of prison as long as Sylas remained in control and determined to punish her. His immediate priority was Skai's well-being and the child's safety.
The next afternoon, Alpha Sylas stood proudly on the mansion's main balcony, looking down on the crowd of pack members. In a loud, echoing voice, he announced that he had decided on the form of punishment for the sinner, Michelle.
"She will be sentenced to a fight to the death in the ring!" Sylas exclaimed, grinning savagely. "Against other sinners! The victor who emerges alive from that fight... will be freed from his sins."
The momentary silence was broken by loud, enthusiastic cheers from the bloodthirsty pack members. They applauded the decision, calling it a fitting form of justice for the traitors and sinners.
Amidst the din, derogatory whispers began to spread like wildfire.
"Isn't that maid an omega without a wolf?" whispered one member with a mocking laugh.
"Right! She can't even transform into a wolf. She'll definitely die when the bell rings, right?" retorted another.
The crowd grew increasingly unruly as members began to enthusiastically place bets on Michelle's death.
At the side of the stage, standing not far from Sylas, Shax stood frozen. He stared blankly at the crowd, but his hands were clenched into fists so tightly at his thighs that the veins on his arms stood out.
His knuckles were white, suppressing the urge to stifle his wolf howling wildly within him.
Sylas turned his head. The man was grinning lopsidedly, staring at Shax with a probing gaze.
"Why, brother?" Sylas asked. "You don't like my decision?"
Shax turned slowly. He stared at Sylas's still grinning face. His mouth was slightly open, ready to give an answer.