Chapter 178

Chapter 178
Madelyn’s POV

My hands hovered around the doorknob, my fingers quivering underneath the tray I was holding, which contained three mugs.

I took in deep breaths to steady my nerves and compose myself. My outward appearance was very much important, even if it felt like I was going to explode on my inside.

My mind felt like a dam was opened, and an ocean of thoughts was let loose. I found it hard to stay focused on one thing. On one hand, I had yet to deal with Usurla and Lady Loveth for daring to steal my joy away from me, and on the other, I had my husband’s ex-wife, who also happened to be my doppleganger, seated in our council room, with three girls.

How was I supposed to deal with it?

How was I supposed to react?

I couldn’t even tell if I was supposed to remain calm. Hell, I had not been slammed with this kind of scenario in my entire life, and I had never even imagined or dreamt that this day would come.

Lady Loveth’s betrayal was something I wasn’t even expecting, and now, I didn’t even have time to process it properly. My mind was still troubled, knowing that Elio could be in trouble anytime soon.

I finally summoned up the courage and pushed the door open. I was going to deal with it one at a time.

‘Sorry, I kept you waiting,” I feigned a smile, as I walked briskly towards them. I wasn’t oblivious to the tension that had grown thick between them; something was obviously going on.

“It’s okay,” Aria waved her hand dismissively, with an awkward smile plastered on her face.

“Not like we were having an important discussion anyway,”

“Here you go,” I passed a mug around for each person. Her eyes told a different story, and somehow I couldn’t shrug off the feeling that she was sad, and there was more to her story.

A part of me wanted to reach out to her, to listen to her, and to comfort her; I could call it a motherly instinct, or so, but another part just didn’t want to poke a sleeping bear.

“Do you think we can trust her?” Nora asked softly in my head.

“I don’t know what to think,” I shrugged.

“She seems genuine,”

“Yeah,” I tilted my head sideways, “Until she’s not,” I added and sighed.

‘I’ll be leaving as early as tomorrow morning.”

“Why? What’s the rush?” I raised my brows at her, not understanding what was going on. She had only just gotten here, and now she wants to leave, already?

“Unfortunately, I can’t stay; I have pressing matters to attend to.”

“I insist, Aria,” I bit my lips as the words rolled out of my mouth. Was this something I was going to regret in the long run? I couldn’t even tell.

“Maddie,”

“No, Nyx,” I cut him off gently, more confident now that this was the right thing to do, “The lady had just arrived, what would it say of our hospitality if we were to send her back immediately?”

‘You’re not sending me back, duty calls,”

‘Come on, don’t tell me you don’t take breaks,” I cocked my head sideways, as I stared at her.

“Fine,” she chuckled and finally caved in, “Maybe I could spare a day or two,” she shrugged, and my lips curved into a wide smile.

If it could, then I’d love for this to birth into an amazing friendship, assuming I don’t get stabbed in the back, which seems to be the new trend around here. You can’t figure out who is trustworthy and who isn’t.

But when has that ever stopped me from taking chances?

This was my idea of extending an olive branch; I wasn’t about to be seen as the bad guy in this story.

“Nyx, I’ll leave you now,” I nodded at him, took one final sip from my mug, and walked away, armed with the knowledge that she wasn’t leaving anytime soon, I could focus on the more pressing issues or… Threat.

Lady Loveth.

My eyes darkened as I took slow, calculated steps down a path I never thought I’d be back in so soon.

The dungeon.

Lady Loveth had lost my respect for her by taking Elio for whatever reason she had cooked up in that mind of hers.

So, yeah, I had her sent to the dungeon, till such a time as now, when I’d be free to attend to her.

“Your majesty,” the guards at the gate bowed and opened the door. I stepped in calmly to meet Lady Loveth, curled up in a corner, backing the light.

“That was fast,” she spoke calmly.

“Why? Why did you do it?” I crossed my arms across my chest, as my eyes bore holes into her back.

“It was the right thing to do,”

“Cut the crap, Loveth,” I snapped, “The right thing to do what exactly? Take a baby away from his parents to what end,” huh?”

“Madelyn,” she rose to her feet slowly, “I can’t say I regret my actions, you’ve always known that my loyalty lies with the pack, and with whatever will benefit us, Elio is a future threat to this pack, and has to be eliminated, no matter how you people put it that child is a pure bred wolf,”

Oh wow, I slapped my forehead with my palm, this was her twisted reason after all.

“If my child was a problem to you, the least you could do is voice it out, not trying to kill my innocent baby, for something he knows nothing about,” I yelled, hot tears brimming in my eyes.

“And I thought we had settled this,” Nyx’s deep voice came from behind me, and I had to hug myself to keep myself from crashing to the ground.

Settled what? They had this discussion, and no one bothered to tell me? It was my child we were fucking talking about here, my blood.

I shut my eyes tightly as the tears rolled down my cheeks freely.