Chapter 163 King Revolt
Chapter 147
Jax's POV
My hands slammed down on the table so hard the wood shook.
"Tell me why you are here!" The words tore out of my throat like a growl.
Alpha Vexhood stood in the middle of my sitting room. His long white robes swept the floor. His totem, that old carved stick he carried everywhere , was gripped tight in his wrinkled fingers.
I did not wait for him to answer.
"She came to your house," I said, my voice dropping low and dangerous. "She sat in front of you and told you lies. She told you that nothing sexual or conjugal is happening between us. And every single argument we have had, every shouting match, every cold silence, has happened right here in this palace. Right here. Not anywhere else."
Alpha Vexhood's eyes went wide. Then his chest puffed up like a storm cloud filling with thunder.
"You must be joking, son!" His voice hit the walls and bounced back at us both.
Something hot and sharp shot through my chest.
I took one slow step toward him.
"Point of correction," I said, each word landing like a stone dropped in still water. "I am not your son. I will never be your son."
I let that sit in the air between us for a moment.
"Your son is Ryder," I continued. "Ryder, the one who ran away from this pack and hid for months like a frightened rabbit. That young wolf is your son. Not me."
I pressed my fist against my own chest.
"I am the son of Alpha Knox. My father. A king who woke up every morning thinking about how to make the people around him smile. A king who would give away his own meal if someone near him was hungry. A king who had a heart so wide and warm that the whole pack could have lived inside it."
My jaw tightened.
"And that same good heart," I said quietly, "is exactly what killed him. Because he did not know. He sat at the same table with the very people who wanted him dead. He laughed with them. He shared food with them. He called them friends."
I looked straight into Alpha Vexhood's eyes.
"He was dining with wolves wearing the faces of men."
Alpha Vexhood opened his mouth.
I kept going.
"I will not be scared of your threats. Not today. Not ever." My voice grew louder with every word. "If the gods want to strike me down , let them come. If you want to call down your power and your old magic on this pack just to show everyone that you still control the spiritual world here, then do it. Go ahead. Show us all."
The room went completely silent.
Alpha Vexhood pressed his lips together so tight they disappeared. Not a single word came out of him.
"And as for the elders," I said, my voice steady now, like a river that had stopped rushing and found its depth, "the ones who walked away from their duties , the ones who poked and twisted things until they made the moon goddess herself turn her face away from us, let their names be remembered."
I straightened my back.
"By the power that lives in me as the Alpha King of this pack, the power that speaks a thing and watches it become real, I am making a decree today."
I paused.
Something in my body had been burning so long that sitting had become impossible. I stood up from the couch, my legs carrying me forward almost without my body telling them to.
"Any elder who has abandoned his post for more than six months," I said, "loses that post. Today. Right now. The old laws of this pack already say what must happen. I am simply making sure those laws still have teeth."
A sharp voice cut across the room like a slap.
"That is not possible, Alpha Jax!" One of the elders stepped forward, his finger pointing at me. "You are putting your hand inside the mouth of a snake. You do not know what you are doing…"
"Maybe not," I said, cutting him off clean. "But I would rather reach into a snake's mouth than sit on a throne surrounded by rot."
I turned my eyes to Alpha Vexhood.
My arm rose slowly. I pointed at him, something I had never done before in my life. It felt like crossing a river I could not cross back over.
"And his son," I said. "Ryder's place as Beta of this pack is finished too. That role no longer belongs to him. It is gone. Removed. As of this moment, it does not exist."
The room cracked open.
Alpha Vexhood moved. Not fast, but with the slow, heavy steps of a man who has broken things before and is not afraid to break more. He walked toward me. We stood close enough that I could see the lines carved deep into his face, the hard dark shine of his eyes.
We stared at each other the way two animals stare before one of them decides to charge.
"You dare do this, Alpha Jax?" His voice was low now. Almost quiet. That was worse than the shouting. "Go and ask the ones who tried something like this before you." His grip on his totem was so tight his knuckles looked like pale stones beneath his skin. The air in the room changed. It felt thicker. Heavier. Like the air before lightning comes. "Ask them where they ended up."
Something cold and sharp moved through my stomach. But I kept my face still.
"Like my father?" I asked. My teeth pressed together so hard my jaw ached. "Like the man you slowly chipped away at, piece by piece, year by year , until his body gave up? Until he was so broken he stopped fighting? Until death was the only door left open for him and you pushed him through it while I was still holding his hand?"
Alpha Vexhood's face moved. Something flickered behind his eyes. Pain, maybe. Or anger. I could not tell the difference with him.
"Who put those foolish stories in your head?" he said, his voice cracking slightly at the edges. "Your father was my best friend. Not just my king , my friend. Before the throne, before the titles, before any of this , he was my brother in all but blood." He swallowed hard, like the words were stones he was trying to push down his throat. "I would never touch my friend."
He straightened.
"About your decree , I am telling you now as someone who has watched kings rise and fall , do not do this. Think carefully. What waits at the end of this road will not be pleasant for you."
He turned and walked toward the door. His totem tapped the floor with every step.
Then he stopped.
Without turning around, he spoke over his shoulder.
"On your way, stop by Rosa's room and collect her. Bring her out of this palace. Because I do not understand what purpose she serves here
anymore."
I felt my shoulders pull back.
"And why," I said slowly, "would I take orders from you?"