Chapter 171 FRIEND OR FOE?
Chapter 171 FRIEND OR FOE?
MALIA'S POV:
Valir is standing and flanked by two armed guards with his hands tightly bound in thick blessed silver chains that singe his wrists while he glares at me with pure venom as I walk past.
Wasn’t he supposed to be locked in the dungeons? Perhaps Lucien granted him a temporary release just to witness the memorial?… Either way the fact that he's here makes me uneasy. His deadly stare makes my skin crawl, and I quickly avert my eyes, hurrying the rest of the way to the girls.
The second I reach them, Lila grabs my arm and pulls me into a tight, desperate hug!
"Goddess, Malia!" she scolds in a harsh whisper, pulling back to glare at me with wide, frantic eyes. "Where the hell have you been?! You disappeared for two whole days! You didn't tell us if you survived, if you got caught, or if your insane plan even worked! I started to consider breaking out to come check on you!“
Sophie and Sapphire also crowd around us with their eyes full of intense anticipation.
“I… I did it…” I whisper, "I got the blood and I handed it over to the servant girl."
Sophie gasps softly, clapping a hand over her mouth, while Sapphire’s eyes light up with excitement. "Wait... You actually did it??” Sapphire rasps. "So we're going to be rescued?!”
But Lila’s sharp eyes don't miss a thing. She stares deeply into my eyes and her green eyes narrow at me suspiciously. “Then why do you look like that if the plan worked? Did something happen? Tell me… Did Lucien find out?”
Tears burn behind my eyelids and I step closer, lowering my voice so low it's barely audible over the hum of the hall. "Kieran… He lied to me."
The three of them freeze.
"What?" Sophie blinks, looking completely lost. "What do you mean he lied?”
“He lied!" I choke out with my chest aching. "Lucien didn't kill my father! He didn't murder Maddox either! They escaped! They're alive and hiding somewhere! Kieran manipulated my grief... he lied to me just so I would betray Lucien!!”
"Alpha Kieran... lied?" Sophie stammers and her jaw drops in utter disbelief. “Why would he lie about such a thing…”
"I knew it!" Lila hisses venomously and her hands clench into tight fists. "I knew there was something fishy about that manipulative bastard! He used you, Malia! He used your pain to get you to do his dirty work! Damn him to hell! How could he!!“
"Stop it!" Sapphire snaps suddenly. "Don't you dare talk about Kieran like that! He is a good man! He must have had a valid reason for what he said! And... and he’s obviously just doing everything he can to save us!!"
Lila whirls on Sapphire and her face flushes red with a sudden, boiling rage. "A good man?! Are you insane, Sapphire?! What the hell is wrong with your brain! He lied and tricked Malia into risking her life based on a freaking lie! He told her her fucking family was dead and used her grief to manipulate her! That sounds like a good man to you?!"
"You... You don't know him like I do!" Sapphire yells back and her voice rises slightly despite the crowded hall, attracting a few stares. "He cares about us! He cares about our people! I know he had a reason for not telling her the truth!"
"Oh, shut the hell up!" Lila spits, glaring at Sapphire. "You're definitely very dumb! Why are you constantly defending him like he's some kind of saint?! How can you possibly be so sure he's a 'good man'?!"
"Because he's the father of my baby!!!” Sapphire screams back in frustration and the world stops…
Silence crashes over our little circle and I freeze as I try to process what I just heard… Maybe I misheard? It can't be...
Lila freezes mid-breath while Sophie turns entirely pale with her mouth hanging open in complete shock.
I just stand there, staring at Sapphire as the air is sucked straight out of my lungs… My head spins so violently I feel like I'm going to faint right here onto the floor.
"What...?" I rasp. "What did you just say?!”
Sapphire’s eyes widen in horror as she realizes what just tumbled out of her mouth. All the color drains from her face, leaving her ghost-white and she hastily covers her lips with both hands, stumbling back a step as terror fills her eyes.
Kieran... is her baby’s father?!!!!
No way… All this time… all those sweet, comforting words he whispered to me… telling me I was the only woman he ever loved, the only one he envisioned a future with. And the entire time, he was sleeping with Sapphire in his pack??! He got her pregnant while stringing me along?!!!
Oh Goddess… I was such a fool! A blind, naive, stupid fool!!!
“You cannot be serious… you bitch!!!!!” Lila roars, recovering from her shock with explosive, blinding fury and before anyone can stop her, Lila steps forward and swings her hand around, delivering a vicious, ringing slap straight across Sapphire's face!
The sharp sound echoes loudly through the grand hall and conversations instantly die down. Heads turn towards us in shock. Sapphire stumbles back, clutching her bright red, swelling cheek but as she stumbles away a strange cold look creeps into her features…
She’d known Kieran was the father all this time…
Up on the raised platform, Lord Harkins, who had been giving a speech stops speaking entirely. The old Lycan elder turns his cold, sneering face towards our corner.
“How disgraceful!!” Lord Harkins's harsh voice booms across the hall, dripping with disgust. "Look at them! Utter savages, causing a scene at a sacred memorial! This is precisely why these murderous werewolves should never have been allowed to defile this solemn ground!"
My head continues to spin and the noise around me starts to fade into a dull, echoing roar. I can't even process the Elder's insults and demands to send the werewolves out… I can't process Lila ignoring the elder’s tirade and still shaking a silent Sapphire… Or Sophie crying quietly and trying to split them apart… All I can see is the terrifying reality of how thoroughly I have been ruined by a liar! I was dumber than I thought!
High on his throne, Lucien finally stands up, his face is tight with anger as he puts the Elder in his place. "Hold your tongue, Lord Harkins, I gave an order..." Lucien growls and his voice vibrates with authority. "The Breeders stay… and ceremony will proceed as—"
"I will not hold my tongue!" Harkins interrupts hysterically, throwing his single arm into the air as he gesticulates wildly. "I refuse to stand here and take part in a memorial ceremony for our fallen while the very monsters who butchered our children stand among us!! I will not—”
SWISHHHH!!!!
A whistling sound suddenly cuts through the air and before Lord Harkins can finish his sentence, a black arrow flies at blinding speed through one of the high stained-glass windows and the jagged steel tip drives straight through Lord Harkins's throat, popping out the back of his neck in a spray of dark blood!!!
The old Elder’s eyes bulge in sheer shock as he clutches at his bleeding neck, letting out a choked, gurgling gasp— and then, right in front of everyone… his body suddenly explodes! Disintegrating into a cloud of black dust!!!
Piercing screams tear from the crowd as chaos erupts in an instant!!!