Chapter 98 98
Denzel’s POV
“You dare enter my kingdom and challenge me for my throne?” Rochelle snapped. “I am royalty by marriage. I may not have borne a child, but I have many years ahead of me. Your King and the Bear King have no claim here. My husband’s death is nothing but speculation. Until he returns or his body is found I will remain on this throne.”
I exhaled slowly, the sound heavy in my chest.
“I am not disputing your right to rule in his stead, Your Majesty,” I said evenly. “But if that is truly what you’re doing, then you have no authority to overturn his decrees or dismantle his accords. You are merely holding the fort on his behalf.”
She leaned back into the throne, visibly relaxing, and her gaze slid to Venessa with calculated interest.
“And how fares the rogue situation on your side of the fence?” she asked smoothly. “Have you presented your brilliant ideas to your own king? Or did you challenge his leadership before deciding to challenge your Queen?”
The question was a trap. I knew instinctively that I wasn’t meant to answer.
“You have no right to stand against me, Shaw,” she continued, her voice sharpening. “I rule the kingdoms now. I am king. I sit on this throne. And I will make an example of you so all will know what happens to those who dare question my authority.”
That was when King Jamar stepped forward and pulled down his hood.
“Or else what, Rochelle?” he asked quietly.
Shock rippled through the throne room like a physical force.
Guards flooded in from every entrance summoned by Jamar himself. The air went deathly still. I watched as Jahlil subtly edged away from Rochelle, abandoning her to stand alone with his father before the living king.
Relief flashed in the eyes of the former Gamma and Delta as they dropped to their knees.
King Jamar advanced slowly toward the throne. Tears streamed down Rochelle’s face fear and disbelief warring openly now.
“You’re alive,” she whispered, forcing a brittle smile that cracked instantly. Then her gaze snapped to me, terror blazing in her eyes.
Even if ascending the throne in his absence could have been justified, she had damned herself already. She had confessed to hunting down his fated. She had admitted to attempting to murder his child.
There was no escaping this.
“Darling,” she breathed, her voice trembling.
“Denzel,” King Jamar said calmly, “do as I instructed. The guards will assist you.”
I moved without hesitation, arresting the former and current Betas father and son alike. The fact that the former Gamma and Delta were spared told me they had already pleaded their case to their king.
“Please, Jamar, I can explain,” Rochelle sobbed.
“You can start by getting off my seat,” he replied coldly.
She rose reluctantly.
“Arrest her,” King Jamar ordered.
The guards closed in.
“Darling, what are you doing?” she cried. “I’ve done nothing wrong!”
I stared in disbelief. Did she truly believe ordering Danisha’s death was not a crime?
“I had no choice, Jamar,” she wailed. “That woman took you from me. I lived my entire marriage in her shadow. Then after all that time, you decided to search for her bastard so you could name the child your heir. It wasn’t my fault I was barren. Fate decreed it so. I could not allow you to humiliate me like that. I hunted the bitch down and killed her. And she was a rogue in exile I did nothing wrong!”
Rage burned openly in Jamar’s eyes. His kingdom was rotten, and he knew it now.
“Danisha was my fated,” he said, his voice breaking the room. “My life. And you knew it.”
Gasps echoed. Many had never known the king had a fated.
“Yes, Lycans and werewolves rarely mix,” he continued painfully. “But fate chose her for me. And it is not my fault that you bore no child, Rochelle. I could not allow my heir to suffer in obscurity while another ascended my throne. A Morrison lived and ignoring that would have disgraced my soul.”
He paused, grief etched into every word.
“What more did you want from me? I gave you everything. I kept you as my queen. I was permitted to take another woman for an heir but I did not. If Danisha had not been my fated, I would never have loved her. But she was my life. I accepted her. Loved her. I released her only because of my father and you knew that. And still, you murdered her.”
His voice hardened.
“I can forgive many sins, Rochelle. But not the murder of my fated.”
She collapsed into sobs.
“She was a rogue,” she argued weakly. “You cannot execute me for her death.”
Jamar nodded once.
“You are correct. Death would be unlawful for this crime. But you will be banished from my sight. After your trial, you will be stripped of your title. From this moment onward, you are no longer Lycan Queen. Until the investigation concludes, you will be confined. You will be tried alongside your Beta lover and his son.”
Her sobs grew louder.
“Please,” she begged. “Spare Jahlil. He only followed orders.”
Jamar inclined his head.
“And yet he failed to inform me. I am his King and Alpha. You were his Luna. It was his duty to report any command you issued before executing it unless I was dead or comatose. His silence tells me there are many things you’ve done behind my back that I know nothing of.”
She fell silent. She knew he was right.
By law, the Queen could not be imprisoned but the Betas could. Rochelle was escorted to a guarded chamber adjacent to the king’s quarters, where she would remain under watch until judgment was passed.
Venessa and I were assigned rooms beside Jamar’s chambers.
I didn’t know what the coming days would bring but one thing was certain.
The Lycan Kingdom was about to erupt.