72. Athos

72. Athos
..." We have to do this ourselves, brother. They have to know who their new King is..."
I stared into Leo's eyes, meeting that pain that lay hidden beneath the surface. It was deeper than those healing wounds that littered his body, and it nestled within his heart. I swallowed, my back going ramrod straight. Right. There was no time to mourn. No time to grieve our losses, for the dawn of his reign has risen, and there was so much to do. We had a whole pack to take care of, now. An entire kingdom. We had to show strength; bravery and resilience.
The Alpha of the Moonlight Pack was standing ahead of us, flanked by several packmates. Alpha Derryck and his mate, Luna Leyla. They were the next ones scheduled on our tour to visit all of the werewolf packs, and they were waiting to greet us. We walked the rest of the way towards them, and they bent at the waist in reverence.
"Your Highness, it is an honour to have you in our midst," The Alpha said, his gaze shifting from Leonidas to me. I could sense the truth in his words, see the admiration that shone in his eyes. The whole kingdom was aware of what had happened in the royal pack by now, of how the youngling prince had defeated the mighty King in combat.
"I am Derryck, and this is my mate, Leyla," The Alpha presented himself and his mate, the Luna performing a small curtsy.
"Oh, and..." The Alpha's brows drew together as he looked around, appearing to be searching for something. Or maybe someone. My beast stirred, as if sensing that something was about to happen.
"Now where's that wayward child?" Alpha Derryck's hands were planted on his hips, shaking his head lightly with mild vexation. His gaze met Leonidas' again, looking every bit ashamed and apologetic. "If you'll excuse us, my King, we seem to have misplaced our—" His words were cut short as soon as he peered somewhere past our shoulders.
"Oh, here she comes."
"Jeminah darling, come meet your King and his Royal Beta!"
I whirled around instinctively, and my breath caught in my throat as the most stunning female that I had ever seen in my entire life approached us. She was...so delicate, and feminine, with a slender body, and bronzed, glowing skin. Goddess. I stared at her, measuring her light steps and the way her silken brown hair swished from side to side with every move that she made. I was hypnotized. Was this...? Mate... my beast rumbled from within, confirming my thoughts, rising with brutal force and relentless yearning. Fuck. My heart was pounding inside my chest, barely able to hold still as she approached steadily. Painfully slow.
She was young, perhaps a little younger than Leo and me, but her innocent beauty managed to take my breath away.
She smiled as soon as she laid eyes on me, and I swallowed thickly, growing sick with nervousness. There were no more coherent thoughts forming inside my brain. It was a jumbled mess in there. And I didn't even care.
She stopped right in front of me.
"Mate..." she whispered softly with a sweet and airy voice, looking up at me with those enchanting hazel eyes. I smiled like a fool, melting under her stare.
She was so beautiful... I couldn't believe that she was here, standing before me... Alive...
My brows drew together at that last thought, looking her up and down, only to notice that deep red stain that suddenly appeared in the middle of her bright white shirt, and started to grow.
My eyes widened with horror, and I looked at her face, noticing that she was no longer smiling. She looked pale, and lifeless.
"No..."
She swayed on her feet and I caught her, lowering us slowly to the ground as tears started to form in my eyes.
"No... Please..." I begged with a hiccup, bringing her close to me. "Please...don't do this to me..." I held her against me, rocking her slowly as I wept, my heart tearing into tiny little pieces.
"Please, Mother, no!" I stared up at the sky, with those tears streaming down my face as I begged our Holy Mother not to take her away from me.
"Please! I will do anything! Please!"
A soft, delicate hand fisted my shirt, right before I heard that meek and breathy voice whispering sensually in my ear,
"Maximus..."
I shuddered at the sound of that, shaken to my very core. Every strand of hair stood up on end on my body, and I peered down with wonder, only to grow sick with horror once again as soon as I saw Calla lying limp in my arms, and covered in blood.
"No...Callaaah!!"

I abruptly jerked awake with a breathless gasp, my heart pounding inside my chest so violently. I blinked and shook my head, struggling to recover from that panic and horror that held me hostage for another few seconds. It had been a while since I'd last had that recurring dream. And it would seem that now, Calla was—
I tensed suddenly as I grew more aware, remembering those last moments of consciousness. I looked around quickly, taking in my unfamiliar surroundings.
Silver. I was surrounded by silver bars. A cage. They put me in a fucking cage. And I was also wearing a pair of silver cuffs, I noticed after a quick look at my wrists. I looked ahead of me through those bars, and my heart fell into the pit of my stomach once again as I saw Calla standing before me, strung up by a thick rope that hung from the ceiling.
My beast thrashed within me with alarm, and I was clutching those bars not a moment later, my eyes wide with fear as I called out her name,
"Calla!"
She looked up immediately, and I could see those streaks that marred her beautiful face. She looked like she'd been crying. A lot.
My hands gripped tighter around those bars, mindless of that little sting that greeted me in return.
"Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" I worriedly scanned her from head to toe, checking for any signs of mistreatment. She didn't appear to have any visible bruises or injuries, and I sniffed at the air, sighing with mild relief once I noticed that her scent hadn't been tainted. She shook her head slowly, but my attention was snagged as soon as I took notice of those footsteps coming up from behind her.
My beast bristled, and not a second later, Busboy emerged from behind her back. I bared my teeth in warning, unable to control it.
"She's a feisty little one, your girlfriend here," the little asshole smirked, throwing Calla a thorough once-over.
"You fucking monster! What the fuck did you do to her?" I spat out through gritted teeth.
"She managed to sucker-punch two of my boys, so we had to restrain her," he answered with a shrug, his gaze still lingering on her in a way that made me want to gouge his eyes out.
"What? Why did you even keep her in the first place, you sick fuck? She's human, she doesn't know anything!" I shouted incredulously. I had to keep that pretense. The less he knew about her, the better.
He grimaced, performing another nonchalant shrug, "Yeah, I kinda grew fond of her,"
My eyes grew a little wider at the sound of that. What?
"Aaaand I happened to notice that the animal inside of you kept growling at me whenever I touched her, even while you were unconscious," he smirked knowingly, shifting closer to her. I swallowed that growl that threatened to erupt from my throat. Fuck.
"You're quite taken with her, aren't you?" he pressed tauntingly, raising a brow.
My jaw clenched with anger. I dodged his question with one of my own.
"What do you want?"
"What I want?" Both his brows shot up to his hairline, placing a hand against his chest dramatically. I envisioned myself ripping it off of him and beating him with it.
"Oh, we've been waiting to catch one of you big bastards for a long time now," he offered me a grin, his dark eyes glinting with hatred. I blinked, my mind working as I listened to him blabber. This must be an organization of sorts, behind all this. Which meant that we were in way more trouble than I'd initially thought.
"And the moment I heard what had happened in our quiet little town, about a poor girl being found lying naked in a ditch at the edge of the forest, I knew that you were out and about," he droned on, wiggling his brows in a suggestive manner. I frowned, offering him a repulsed glare. Wait a minute. Was he implying that I...
"I know what you are...Lycan," he spat out that last word as if it were something vile on his tongue.
"And I want your blood," he added, stepping closer to look into my eyes. My hands clenched tighter around those bars, shifting my gaze from him to her for a moment.
"Done. I will give you however much you need. Just..." It felt like I was spitting on Adalind's grave and everything that she had worked for so hard in her short life, but I didn't care. Not in that moment. I didn't care what he did with it. Fuck, he could expose me for the whole human world to see if that meant that I could protect Calla from his filthy hands.
"Oh, you are no fun, man," he shouted all of a sudden, throwing his hands up in the air. My brows drew together, watching him pace around like a crazy person.
"I was planning on playing with your little plaything here first, see if you really liked her enough to have me stop..." he added in a much softer tone, and my body tensed as I watched him approach her once again.
He stepped up behind her, placing his hands on her hips. She jolted, letting out a frightened little whine, one that managed to strike me right across the heart. I did this. I put her in danger. It was all my fault. Once again, the female who had my heart was suffering because of my carelessness.
I watched him trail his hand up the curve of her waist, and my beast rumbled with dark wrath, forcing our claws out.
"You are playing with fire, little human boy," he warned from inside of me with his rough and powerful voice, and I saw the human falter for a moment, looking a little unsure about himself. But then his features hardened once again, and he wrapped his hand around Calla's silky hair, pulling her head back forcefully. She yelped with pain, and my beast roared with unbridled anger.
"Whohohoah, so you do—" he suddenly stopped speaking, as soon as his gaze landed on that delicate junction between her neck and shoulder. Fuck. My eyes widened, and I swallowed thickly, watching his gaze dart between her and me in a calculating manner.
Fuck!
"Well, what do you know..." he smirked knowingly, and I watched his hand dive into a pocket at his thigh, my body freezing with horror.
No...
"Looks like we'll need to check something real quick," he uttered cunningly, and then the needle of that tiny syringe in his hand was sinking into Calla's arm, releasing the liquid inside.
"No!" I growled horribly, tortured by the memory of that dream, the image of her lying limp in my arms flashing before my eyes over and over again. My heart was pounding inside my chest, and I was panting faster and faster, as that wave of earth-shattering wrath threatened to overwhelm me.
I stared at the little vermin, and I knew that my eyes were already glowing, if I were to judge by that terrified look in his.
"Looks like your time is up, human," The monster within me sneered with a viciousness that managed to make him squeak like a rat and tremble.
He threw away that syringe and then fled screaming.
My beast exploded into a whirlwind of claws, fangs, and fury.