Chapter 102 Death Hangs Over You

Chapter 102 Death Hangs Over You
Liam's POV

"Are you ready to talk now?" I asked Roman as I stepped into the dungeon.

He looked me up and down and said nothing. That alone annoyed me more than anything else he could have done.

I had been down here for the better part of an hour. I had hit him hard enough to make anyone else talk. He just fixed his eyes on the wall and stayed quiet, like I wasn't even worth the energy of a response.

"Roman." I set the rag down on the table. "We're going to stop the performance now."

He looked away.

"You have been embezzling from the army accounts for the better part of two years," I said. "I have the figures. Your hidden account has been confiscated. Every coin of it."

His face twisted. He shrugged.

Then he looked at me and smiled with the split half of his mouth. "Alpha Liam, do whatever you want already. Stop wasting my time because I'm not saying anything. Not to you. Not ever."

I smiled back slowly. "That's quite a good performance of a loyal servant of Harlan but funny enough, he doesn't give a damn about you."

"Cam."

Cam straightened from the wall.

"Harlan knows you're here," I said, turning back to Roman. "I hope you're aware."

Something shifted in his expression. Just slightly.

"He's known since the night we brought you in." I folded my hands behind my back and walked slowly around him. "And in all that time, no message. No attempt to extract you. No inquiry through any of his contacts." I stopped in front of him. "Nothing."

"You're lying," he said.

"Am I." I tilted my head. "Think about it from his perspective. You're a liability. You know things. You've been making threats, leaving loose ends. A man like Harlan doesn't rescue loose ends. He cuts them off."

Roman's jaw tightened.

"And then there's Tiara," I said.

The restraints shifted as his entire body tensed.

I looked at Cam. "How has Lady Tiara been lately?"

Cam answered without hesitation. "Remarkably settled, my Alpha. Moving freely around the palace. She even slept with one of the guards. I caught them myself but let it go to report to you first." A deliberate pause. "She seems completely unbothered."

"Unbothered," I repeated. "That's disappointing for him."

"You're lying!" Roman's voice cracked. "Tiara would never– she loves me, she–"

"She's in the palace enjoying herself," I said. "You're in a dungeon. And Harlan is up there making plans that will certainly include deciding who sits where after the coronation." I leaned forward. "Do you think he's going to let her wait for you? She's far too useful for that."

"Stop talking."

"He'll find her someone suitable. Someone who serves the arrangement." I straightened. "To him, you no longer exist. You'll be down here and Tiara will be at a wedding banquet." I picked up the rag. "That's the math."

Roman yanked against the chains so hard the ceiling bolts groaned. The sound bounced off the stone walls. "Tiara, my love, you can't do this!" he shouted at nothing.

I turned away.

"Continue being loyal to people who've left you for dead," I said, and walked toward the stairs.

He was still shouting when the dungeon door closed behind us.



I exhaled. "He'll break."

"Sooner than expected," Cam agreed. "The Tiara part hit him hard."

"Good. When he does, I want two witnesses in that room. People the council can't question."

"I'll arrange it."

A guard appeared at the end of the corridor and bowed quickly. "Movement from Lord Harlan's estate, my Alpha. Another shipment. Larger than yesterday."

I looked at Cam.

"Take a small team. No uniforms that can be traced back here. Follow the shipment to its destination and report directly to me. No one else."

Cam nodded. "Consider it done." He was already moving.

I turned to the window to keep my mind busy with anything.

I had already sent word to my loyal armies. Quietly, through routes Harlan couldn't monitor. If it came to a fight, there would be soldiers in position.

Plan B. I didn't want plan B. But I had built it anyway.

"My Alpha."

Mrs. Fernworth appeared behind me. "The physician has arrived. He's with some ladies."

I turned from the window. "Where?"

"The receiving room." She bowed. "This way."

I steeled myself and walked.


The physician bowed the moment I entered.

Beside him stood three women.

They looked similar enough to suggest kinship, same bone structure, same stillness in the way they stood but the differences were there. The first was tallest, her dark hair streaked with silver, her bearing unhurried and entirely self-possessed. The second was shorter and younger. The third one has normal average height with eyes that question a lot.

"My Alpha," the physician said. "Permit me to present–"

"We know who he is," the tallest one said. "And he knows what we are. We can spare the formalities."

I looked at them. I did not like what I felt in the room when they were in it, a heaviness, a weight the air hadn't carried before they'd arrived.

"Thank you for coming," I said, swallowing back everything I actually wanted to say.

Flora, the tallest, stood abruptly. Her gaze settled on me and didn't move.

"There is death hanging over you," she said.

The room went completely still.

The physician stiffened. A maid near the door made a small sound. Samuel took a step forward and I raised my hand to stop him without looking at him.

I held Flora's gaze.

"Death," I said. "You're certain about who you're referring to?"

"Yes, Alpha Liam." Her voice was level and sharp.