Chapter 152 Feral Queen

Chapter 152 Feral Queen
❀ Maeve ❀

My heart in my throat, I ran alongside Bastian’s punishing pace, the earlier scream still reverberating deep in my bones.

It had sounded so strangled. Haunting. 

I let my claws lengthen in case of a threat.

Had ferals infiltrated the fortress?

Everyone else seemed to believe Graves had perished in that fire, but there’d been an unyielding glint in his eyes as he’d tortured me. He wouldn’t go out so cleanly.

We rounded the corner, and stuttered in our steps.

My hands flew to my mouth at the horrific sight in front of me.

A gleaming, slowly spreading pool of blood covered the floor in a wet, crimson carpet. 

My mouth watered, fangs throbbing even though I’d only just fed.

I shook my head hard, dispelling the cloying scent of blood from my head.

Only then did I realize where we’d arrived.

The alpha’s cell.

And in front of it lay a body. A female body, small and limp. Her gray eyes were sightless, her jaw open in a silent scream.

Another woman knelt over the body, her dress bloody as she desperately shook the dead woman as if to wake her, wailing.

The scream had come from her.

Bastian walked forward, his eyes alert, just as a flurry of onlookers began to gather.

“Clear the area. Now. This is a sensitive matter,” Bastian ordered.

But the whispers abounded.

“The alpha has killed someone!” “Oh no, it’s Darlene!” “Poor girl! I’m leaving this place!”

“I said leave!” Bastian roared.

They scattered, but in their wake, a few remained.

They hurried forward.

Ashar and Yara, Sorin and Gwen. Their faces twisted in shock.

Ashar and Yara immediately went into investigative mode, sniffing the air as their eyes flickered gold. They went in opposite directions, tracking some lead. 

I glanced at Gwen, and she regarded me with an expression of pain that made me shift my gaze.

Trembling, I glanced at the alpha’s cage and back to the wailing girl on the floor. The dead woman must’ve been someone close to her.

From this angle, I couldn’t see the inside of the cell, just the bars.

The memory of my last encounter with the alpha made my nape tingle. 

I pushed through the fear and stepped forward.

I was the princess consort, and my skills were needed here. The wailing woman needed to be separated from her friend’s lifeless body and monitored. Questioned.

As I stepped forward, someone jerked me back by my wrist.

My head snapped back. My eyes widened.

Nikolai.

“What are you doing here? They’ll see you!”

“They already have.” 

I glanced back to see Sorin, Gwen, and even the crying girl gaping at Nikolai and me.

“We should leave,” Nikolai muttered. “I sense a ploy.”

“What?” I hissed, freeing my hand. “They need me. I’m important here, in case you haven’t noticed.”

Nikolai sighed and released me. But he didn’t leave. That small act struck me.

I headed to Bastian and the girl.

The blood squelched thickly under my feet. More painted the walls in a violent arc.

It had been a violent death. So recent, warmth still wafted from the carnage.

I lowered myself to reach for the crying girl, but she flinched from me, grasping the body even tighter.

“What happened here? Did you see anything?” Bastian asked her gently.

“N-no, I heard her call for me through the link, then I heard her body fall. When I got here, she was already dead.”

My brows furrowed.

Then I glanced backward into the alpha’s cell. 

He was in the exact same position I’d seen him in the last time. But now, his eyes were closed, his breathing even. Shadows clung to him like an ancient scourge, the light from the sconces barely illuminating the corner.

He didn’t seem like one who’d just committed a murder and decided to take a nap sitting down.

The amulet rested on his chest. The more I stared, the more my chest tightened.

The air seemed heavier, light dimming around me—

“What is this?”

I snapped out of the fog to see Commander Leif striding toward us. Carmela followed behind him, two attendants trailing her.

My lips thinned.

Even I, the princess consort, didn’t traipse around with attendants. Her smooth occupation of a position that didn’t even exist irked me.

Commander Leif’s heavy presence intruded on the scene. He flicked his slitted gaze around, chest heaving as if personally affronted.

“This cannot be allowed to continue!” he shouted, eyes flashing with his wolf. “I warned you all—now look what it has come to. The alpha’s reign is over. He must be put to death for this crime—”

“The alpha didn’t do this,” I cut in.

Silence reigned.

Commander Leif looked on the verge of combusting. “What did you say?”

Bastian rose to his full height, handing the weeping girl off to Gwen. My adoptive mother gently led the girl away, her head turning back to glimpse her dead friend.

I exhaled a ragged breath. Our last meeting weighed on me, but I pushed it aside to face Leif.

“Look at the splash of blood on the opposite wall. The girl’s throat was slashed from the front, which means the perpetrator was standing outside the cell when this happened.” I glanced at the sleeping alpha pointedly. “He hasn’t a drop of blood on him, or even in the cell, except for the spreading pool on the ground.”

Leif promptly faced Bastian, his ire mounting. “Bastian. Caution your female.”

Heat flared in my chest, teasing my wrath. “Cautioned? Are you so terrified of critical thinking that you won’t engage me?” I said calmly. “There’s a murderer on the loose, but you’re bent on killing the alpha and rising in the ranks from beta to alpha. You are the one committing treason by endangering the pack with your narrow-mindedness.”

Leif took a menacing step toward me.

Bastian responded with a deep-throated snarl, meeting Leif halfway. Nikolai drew his sword with uncanny speed, the tip pointed at Leif’s throat.

The commander’s surprise waned fast, turning to amusement.

“What is this now? Are we granting leeches free reign of the fortress? Bastian. Wasn’t that the same leech who took your mate on several months of vacation on his cock?”

Bastian seized the man by the throat, his arm muscles flexing as he squeezed. “Do you mind repeating that, Leif?”

Oh gods.

Bastian was facing ridicule over my choices, my selfishness. And still he defended me—

“What’s this?” Carmela tittered. She stepped closer to the body, tilting the head with the bottom of her shoe.

My fists clenched, disgust assailing me at her blatant disrespect. 

Carmela gasped dramatically. “There’s a bite mark on her neck!” she shrieked, letting the head thump back down. “She’s been fed on!”

My ears roared. Bite mark?

Bastian released Leif to study the body closely.

Sorin, who’d been quiet for a time, stepped forward. “This is no light matter. If IronWolf has been breached—”

“Of course we’ve been breached! By the hybrid whore and her vampire lover. It must have been them!” Carmela clutched Leif, who angrily massaged his purpled throat. “None of us are safe from them, my darling! This cannot stand.”

I glared at Carmela. “This crime was committed not even thirty minutes ago. Nikolai and I were with Bastian. Right, Bastian?”

Bastian didn’t respond, his jaw tight.

My stomach dropped.

Was he ashamed of me?

“Sorin, take care of the body. Leif, tighten security in and out of the pack. Our mission remains to rid the pack of threats. When will your witch arrive?”

Witch?

Commander Leif looked irritated at Bastian’s order. “Tomorrow.”

“Then tomorrow, the alpha dies—not for this murder, because any being with eyes can see that this was a setup. Though unnecessary. I’d already made my decision to put him out of his misery.”

Leif looked a little too relieved at that.

“What of the other two ferals, my darling?” Carmela purred, her glinting gaze on me. “Maeve and Nikolai are both afflicted by the same madness the alpha suffers. There are rumors that Nikolai blindly attacks Bastian, and Maeve attacked me not over a day ago. They’re dangerous.”

A chill ran down my spine—not from fear. From blinding hatred, and something else. Pain.

Pain?

My skin misted with sweat.

Leif’s eyes slitted. “We can’t end one threat only to let two more run free. Bastian, do you have no pride left? Your mate mocks you at every turn. Even now, their eyes gleam at the sight of blood. Or are you their wolf toy?”

The first pang wracked through me like a thousand slicing knives. 

I gasped from the shock of agony, claws digging into my chest.

My eyes watered.

The amulet. The crimson stone demanded its due.

“Look at her, pretending to be distraught to escape punishment,” Carmela sneered with venom.

Bastian glanced at me but didn’t move, his brows furrowed.

Nikolai grabbed me from behind, whispering in my ear, “You’re fine. Let me trace you from here. This will be the last time you ever suffer this, bride.”

Carmela laughed. “Oh, this just gets richer and richer. The vampire calls her bride? What a joke!”

My head reeled. 

The heavy, metallic scent of rich, spilled blood. 

The mind-numbing pain from the crimson pangs.

Above all this, the wrath demanded to rise, to shield me from the pain, the anger. To retaliate against the disrespect from a lowly, grating wolf.

My head snapped up, my gaze latching onto Carmela.

She dared mock a queen?

Bastian said in a warning tone, his gaze stricken, “Maeve…”

Some deep part of me resisted the wrath. I didn’t want my mate to see me like this, my eyes blazing, my form sinister—

No.

Let him.

Maybe then he would appreciate the greatness before him, the royalty in his keeping.

I surrendered to the wrath. If only to escape the pangs.

My fangs dropped hotly, my hands heavy with sharp, glinting claws.

Carmela’s eyes widened. “She’s going feral!”

“Going feral?” I chuckled, voice grating. “Silly wolf, I’ve always been feral.”