Chapter 165

"Father?! Alpha Derrick?!"

At my alarmed interjection, the city newcomers howled with laughter as though in a practiced innuendo. I stood there, still, in Alfred's arms-which I wasn't even thinking about due to my obvious astonishment. "So it's true?" I quizzed in a soft voice.

"What is true, dear daughter? The fact that I am alive despite that cursed husband of yours trying to kill me? Or, that I am here?" my father inquired as their laughter lessened.

"I can't believe this," I mouthed inaudibly and they released another bout of laughter, indicating my effort to be hushed went unheeded.

"Well, it's good we are now complete," Alfred said, restoring back the awareness of my position close to him and with amassed effort, I ripped off him and scooted to his side, earning a tiniest lip twist from him which wrested my stomach.

"Why is she standing without bruises and blood gushing through that worthless body of hers?!" my father veered and made to lurch himself at me but Alfred was fast to barricade him from getting to me. "She caused this! She deprived me of the joy of being with my one and only daughter and cost my dear friend right here his position as the Alpha! She is cursed!" My blood froze. I can't believe he still harbors this resentment of me after not seeing me for so long.

"You will hold back your claws this minute, and you will not dare call my future Queen cursed or you shall suffer the consequences of my hands!" Alfred snarled at him and I observed how fear skidded past my father's hard features, then his shoulders slumped in resignation.

"I'm sorry, my dear King," he apologized with his head bowed slightly. "But you promised if we will work with you that I can do what I want with her! And right now all I want is to make sure she pays direly!"

Standing there and watching him vent all manner of nonsense was making raw fury surge through me. I wanted to let him know I was no longer the Danika he used to know. The one he trampled upon without care to our affinity. I wanted to inform him that I also shared in his animosity and would make sure if I come out of this alive, I shall watch him burn to death!

"And I said it's enough!" Alfred bellowed.

"No, it's not!" I charged forth, balling my fist by my side. "Perhaps, father, it is the goddess will that we meet again..." I smiled sardonically and threw a leg forward in his direction, getting all their attention at once. "From the moment I was born you chose to despise me, resent the earth I walked on, and heaped all manner of harangues on me as well as scarred me. All those scars up to the moment they all vanished from my body, I counted them each day, wondering why. How can one man hate his own blood so much that he doesn't hesitate to mark her as soon as the opportunity presents itself?" I took another step forth, still maintaining my stoic gait.  "How can one love one child and yet, hate the other? All for what? For something absolutely beyond my control?"

"Because you are cursed!" He stoned in my face.

Alfred growled at him ruggedly.

I shook my head, not perturbed by his rash remarks anymore. "Thank you, father. Your contempt gave me the best things in my life today. A mate, a pack that I will do anything to protect," I eyed all of them while I continued, "and most importantly," My smile turned passionate, as I rubbed my hand on my stomach, ".. a pup. A pup you will never ever come to know and you know why?" I snorted euphorically, "because I am going to make sure you burn! I will make sure that after you have been killed, I watch you burn until you are nothing but ashes, falling apart before my eyes and you know what else? That is the only thing that will satisfy me!" I spat at him. I saw a look of disbelief cross his face and I couldn't have been happier.

"You hear what she said to me? She has no respect for me!"

"I will rather respect a dog on the street than you, father! I have no regard for you and just as I said that day at the execution ground, I have cut off every tie with you!" I craned my neck towards him defiantly and stuck my neck out. "Now you are alone without anyone! Not even your precious daughter who takes after your evil mother! I found out, I found out how I had inherited this curse inside me from her! Yet you punish me for something that was relatively your fault! But you know what? I am nothing like her and would never be!"

He didn't speak to me. He was alarmed. I guess he didn't know I will find out. Now it's on his face.

Someone cleared their throat. Alpha Derrick. "So since you have her, when am I becoming the Alpha to the pack?" he voiced his concern apparently unfazed by my father and my tantrums.

"Which pack is he talking about, Alfred?" I swung my concentration to him.

"Once my brother is dead, the pack would be without an Alpha and would need one, so..." He shrugged nonchalantly.

I made a noncommittal sound down my throat, one of mockery. "I feel pity for all of you, to be honest." I shook my head.

"You will do well to talk to me with respect, Danika!" Alfred flashed.

"And you will do well to release me this minute!" I challenged him. "Have you no shame? You want to kill your brother and install an offensive man over his pack so you can take a Kingdom he has paid the price to rule? How low can you stoop just for power? Alfred!"

"I also paid my price!" he returned, his lips quivering with withheld rage.

"Then leave us alone! If you want to remain the King of the vampires, I'm sure Alonso would not mind. All you have to do is to leave us alone and oh, another good piece of advice, stay away from deceitful people like these ones!" I pointed from my father to his friend, both mouths falling open in horror. "They will surely put you into trouble. I'm sure most of this idea was theirs. I'm not surprised."

"I guess we are too late for that now, aren't we?" He took step toward me and I backed off. "You two can go back to your quarters, it's time I take my wife to the priestess to remove the garbage she has in her so we can proceed with the Queen's rituals... if only my brother knows what he has done for me by not placing his Alpha mark on her up to now..." He starts chuckling devilishly, his finger extending to touch my neck but I flinched.

My pulse increased, abject fear filled my pores and slowed my breathing. I frantically skidded my eyes around the room and made to scamper away from his reach but he grasped my right arm and tumbled me to him. "Alfred, let go!" I cried. "I will not let you kill my child! Alonso, help!" I cried unconsciously, striving to link him through my frenzied emotions but couldn't.

"Come here, my beautiful bride. Why else do you think I brought your father here? I needed him to officially give you to me." He stooped and hoisted me up to his shoulders effortlessly and I thrashed and clawed at him as he started walking away, while the men parted for us to pass. Not even my wicked father made to help me despite my fervent cry for help.

"Hush now, Sweetface," Alfred purred, "you wouldn't want to delay the inevitable would you?"

"Let me go!" I kicked out, tears pouring in tides down my face like an unbridled fountain. I didn't care about the numerous people we crossed along the dark halls, nor how they looked upon me like I was a disease. My eyes flicked behind to see my father and his friends hastening after us and my body overflowed with more animosity toward them.

We didn't leave the large mansion, instead, he walked across the staircase and wandered into another hall and stopped at the first brass door, opened the door, and walked in. It was a room. A room that smelled of Silphium ointments. Silphium ointments are what we used to eliminate pups if they are unwanted, a dose of it and our pups flush down the drain. He can't do this to me! I will not allow this!

"It's okay, Sweetface. Stay calm and e-"

Alfred is pushing me to the brink of my control! "If you think I will allow you take away my child, then you are dafter than I thought!" I retorted in a snarky tone. "I will rather die than allow anyone to hurt my child!"

"Dan-"

"No, you listen to me! I have been trying so hard to be patient and understanding with you but it seems you are taking my serenity for granted. Stop this at once or I swear you will not like the monster in me."

He wasn't fazed. "I know who you are, Danika. I trained you, I watched every effort you tried to control yourself and even though you didn't tell me, I knew everything I wanted to know. How do you think I used to know you went to the library that day and came for you?"

"You were reading my mind," I muttered in realization. Alonso was right all along.

"It's a natural gift to me... my subconscious wanders into the deepest part of the soul of anyone of interest to me."

"And you didn't tell me?" I narrowed my eyes in angst.

He scoffed disrespectfully. "I do not need your permission to do what I want, Danika! Have you not yet understood that?"

"You are appalling!" I vented. "You are merely a mask of your true nature, Alfred. You are despicable!"

He snorted and waved off my comment like a fly. "Try something new."

The more unfazed he seems, the angrier I get. "I will kill you if you come near me, Alfred. It doesn't matter if you know what I am, but you hardly know what I'm capable of."

"Why do you think I'm enamored with you?" he queried casually, yet, darkly.

My jaw dropped to the floor. "You want to use me."

"Let's say that..." he said in clowned thought, bobbing his tousled hair.

"How dare you?!" I screamed and without a thought to my action, I vaulted across the yard at him, catching him unaware to the bed, my balled fist crashing on his jaw and pinning him to the bed. I hit him repeatedly in my unleashed rage, fury blinding my senses.

I stopped and jumped away from him, a mild gasp leaving my lips at my uncharted behavior. I slid off to the side of the bed and started bawling while he stood up slowly as if I didn't just pummel him. "You are acting so childish, Danika! I am the right man for you! My brother is a weakling and cannot protect you! How many times did I try to abduct you and how many times did he save you? None!"

"Stop!" I covered my ears.

"No, I will keep talking until you see sense in wha-"

"I love him!"

"And I love you! I am offering you an opportunity many women would die for. Become my Queen and we will become the greatest King and Queen that ever lived! We will merge the two Kingdoms and restore back the peace that the two Kingdoms deserve! My brother can never achieve that, you know that. Our biological father knew that, Dani-"

The door busted open, flying off its hinges and when my eyes sprinted there, my heart soared as the man behind my smile stalked into the room, looking feral, his emerald wolf eyes prominent and his claws out as his chest heaved raggedly. He growled loudly showcasing his pointed fangs and in a flash launched himself across the room at his brother.

"No!"

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