Chapter 15: Hands Tied
Augustus
My heavy feet echoed through the halls of Hunt Manor, followed by the quiet but precise steps of His Eminence, Castiel. After the chaos Medea caused earlier, I could not help but feel…
Like shit.
My wolf howled as Hestia’s face crossed my mind. Her auburn locks, her green eyes, her lips…
I was too close to touching them again. I was this close to holding her again…
I didn’t expect her to return. After all, Medea’s intel told me that she had run away because she was scared of our marriage and the weight of being a Luna.
I tried to search for her. I really did. The Mother Goddess knew all the sleepless nights, the drunken fights, the endless howling of my wolf whenever Hestia crossed my memories. And if it wasn’t because of the Council, I would have marked her right away. But they asked me to delay it over and over. If it wasn’t for that…
I would never be serving as a Vassal to her sister now and hurt her.
“Alpha,” Castiel called, stopping me from my thought. I turned to look at him. “Your wound has opened again.”
I glanced at my shoulder, only to notice blood seeping through my clothes. The wound that I got from fighting in the borderlands almost a week ago hasn’t healed yet, despite continuous efforts from the Council and the Temple.
“I can handle it, Your Eminence,” I dismissed him. “Please, let me show you to your room for the night.”
“You know that you’re not healing well, Augustus,” he commented, his icy blue eyes shooting a knowing look at me. “And you know why.”
Of course, I do. After all, my mate bond with Hestia was quite strong. I should’ve been the one still standing beside her right now. We have synced our abilities with each other, even though I haven’t claimed her.
“I serve Medea Locke now.” I received his gaze with the same intensity. “I have sworn myself to her, and I can’t go back on my word. Besides…”
Castiel finished his sentence. “Besides, somebody else stands beside her now, is that it?”
Just as I was shocked to see Hestia again, I was equally surprised when I saw Kieran too, years after he left the pack following his mother’s death.
We never got along quite well. After all, he was my father’s bastard. Despite being older for three years, he never named him his heir and preferred me instead, his son from his legitimate marriage.
And my mother… she never liked his mother nor Kieran. That was evident. And when Luna Hunt gets scorned, she would raise hell threefold.
“Is there any rule within the competition that a Queen candidate cannot take a White for her Vassal, or a Rouge?”
Castiel’s eyes glinted. He knew me well. After all, we grew up together. We trained together before he decided to join the priesthood.
He knew how I would bend rules to get what I want.
Unfortunately, Castiel has been in a foul mood since the banquet. His usual calm tone was now calmer, laced with dangerous, slow-acting venom. “Pardon me, Alpha, but I would not bend rules to fulfill your demands. You represent another competitor, and I do not wish to betray Hestia the way you did.”
I scoffed before turning the knob of the door to my left. “Betray her? I had my reasons, Your Eminence.”
“I surely don’t follow. And even if you did, Alpha, I doubt it was enough to leave her half-dead in the middle of the forest, disfigured and on the brink of death.”
I paused and spun around to look at Castiel again. “What?”
“You’re the most powerful Alpha in the kingdom, and yet, you didn’t know? Even the intel from the Temple worked better than yours,” he snarked at me. “You might reconsider trusting the allies you have now, Alpha.”
I froze in my spot as Castiel walked into the room, deliberately bumping on my shoulder to make me move.
“Alpha! Your Eminence!”
Before Castiel could slam the door right in front of my face, a Gamma came rushing towards us. He was still out of breath as he delivered the message. I noticed his uniform.
“You belong to the unit I sent to the borderlands… What happened?”
He pulled out a piece of paper to show me a medical report. “Alpha… there’s a rabid outbreak in the borderlands. Our men have been dropping like flies… If this continues, we won’t be able to suppress the Red invasion in the area… Beta Kaiden heard that Crown Prince Alfonso would be commanding a massive battalion on the fifth. It’s the largest one in six months…”
I almost crumpled the paper in my hands. Great. My hands were fucking tied. I could not simply leave because of the competition, but Kaiden and our men desperately need our help.
Alfonso Vergara has been a massive headache for months now. After the news of his being missing, possibly dying in the neutral lands, he came back twice as vicious as he once was.
I cannot afford to lose more men to that Red.
“Alpha, I believe the Queen candidates might be of help this time,” Castiel suggested before taking the paper from me. “Divine wolves possess powerful healing abilities. The Temple will assist as well.”
“But the trials haven’t even begun,” I said. “We might get questioned by the Council—”
“If they want to stay in their comfortable beds, they will not question my decision to begin the trials prematurely,” Castiel argued. He slammed the paper against my chest before stepping out of his room. “I’ll send the announcement. Gather your troops and some of your finest healers. We must leave as soon as possible.”
“We need to personally inform Hestia and her Vassal. I believe they must be staying at the White Manor at the moment.”
Castiel nodded before disappearing once again. I instructed the Gamma to rest for a bit before turning to inform the healers of the pack about the situation.
A million thoughts were running through my mind that as I turned around the corner, I did not see Medea standing in a dark corner, visibly eavesdropping.
“I don’t like Castiel’s behavior lately,” she commented before smiling at me. “He’s been… a thorn to my side since my sister returned.”
My jaw clenched as I stopped myself from doing something drastic. “Why did you lie to me, Medea?”
Her eyes glinted as she stepped out of the darkness, staring at me in the eye. “You have no right to question me, Augustus. I am your Queen.”
As if on cue, my body stiffened and moved on its own. I tried to stop my hand when it raised to grab the gun in my holster, but it acted as if it had a mind of its own. My hand cocked the gun and pointed it at my temple. I tried to open my mouth, but I couldn’t—
It’s happening again!
“You’ll help me eliminate those three pests during the first trial, Augustus. Don’t even think of crossing me… You know I don’t hand out mercy to traitors.”