Chapter 30 The guests
Chapter 30: The guests
Damon pov
I opened the door to see James, my beta standing there, with a face filled with urgency.
He didn't need to speak, but his face, I knew that look all too well. And like a coincidence, I remembered why he was here.
“You forgot?” he said, like he was stating the obvious
I didn’t have to ask what. The moment I saw him, it occurred to me that I had a meeting with Alpha Magnus, an associate and a very good ally.
“I have been busy” I replied in answer to his question, already feeling irritated by the mere mention of work.
“It's already time, my king. They have been waiting for a while now.” he added, voice in a persuasive mood. Dark Alphas don’t like to be kept waiting.”
I exhaled, pinching the bridge of my nose, “Of course they don’t.”
The Dark Alphas or the unrighteous alphas, like we are called, are the alphas that refuse to be ruled by the council, a group of old mongers that want to take all the powers for themselves. Those of us who spit in the face of council so-called rules. We are wanted and labeled with a red tag by their security enforcers. The well-known most powerful security network owned by the councils.
James glanced over my shoulder, even as I tried to use my body to shield him from seeing Milo.
“Everything alright in there, my king?” he asked with concern laced in his voice.
“No,” I said simply, already closing the door, before he could say anything.
I sighed, my heart sinking a little as I entered my room.
My eyes fell on Milo, whose body was all tense and trembling, and no matter how he tried to hide it, it couldn't escape my alpha senses.
My wolf stirred inside me, shocking me.
Dax hadn’t said a word to me since the night of the arena after our bitter fight and disagreement in belief and morality. Dax my wolf acts and thinks based on emotions, like when he first saw Milo, he had immediately called him mate, and tried as much as possible to be near him. Then when Milo tried to poison us, the betrayal had hit him deeper than it did to me.
But me, I am the known stone cold evil mafia king, and I hardly do anything emotion or feelings. It's either we come to a consensus n fuck around with no feelings…, unfortunately the women I had come across all wnats something more.
That's the difference between my wolf and I, and since that day, Dax had been all quiet and brooding, and honestly, I couldn’t blame him for that.
That day was literally my darkest day in my life, where I had actually felt sheer fear. I couldn’t remember any other day I had felt like that…. And what pained me the most was the fact that Milo couldn't even look at me. He just sat curled in the corner of the room, as if my presence alone reminded him of what had happened. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see it all play out like that fateful day, again and again in my head.
His pleading face, as he begged me with his eyes to save him. I could feel the fear evident in his eyes and to know that even with all my powers, I couldn't even save him from the political games in my pack.
I couldn’t stop the punishments even when every whip that had landed on his body felt like a blade that tore through my heart…
A small whimper reached my ears, snapping me out of my dark thoughts.
Milo had retreated to the far corner of the room, shaking like a leaf in harmattan.
I almost face palmed myself. I didn’t realise until now that I had unknowingly let my alpha aura leaking around me.
I turned to Milo, who was still all hunched and curled up like a little doll. “I am so sorry, I didn't realise that I frightened you until now.” I apologized, putting up the most apologetic expression I could muster while hoping it was enough to convey how sorry I was.
But as usual, silence greeted me. My hands clenched and unclenched in an effort to not be angry.
I needed to be “human for once” like Daphne would say.
“Be free, please. Nobody will hurt you again…I promise you that.”
Milo didn't move from his position, I didn't expect him to, but his head lifted just a little, and for a heartbeat, our eyes met.
Just for a heartbeat…
Then he looked away.
I felt something shift inside me.
I wanted to kneel at his feet. I wanted to pull him into my arms and tell him that I had, out of anger, ordered a complete shutdown and state of emergency in my whole pack. Immediately, he fainted in the arena.
I wanted to tell him that he was safe and that not even a god could come down to hurt him again.
But the boy could barely look at me.
I sighed and turned away before the weakness plants itself in me. I couldn’t afford it. Not now when I have a meeting to attend to.
I paused at the door, hand on the knob.
“I won’t be long,” I murmured almost to myself. “Lock the door behind me.”
Still…no answer.
Hardening my resolve, I closed the door behind me, nodding at James, who had been watching me all this time.
a strange light glinting in his eyes.
We walked in deep silence through the dim hallway that seemed colder than I remembered. No matter how I try to keep my mind straight for what's coming next, it keeps on wandering. And Dax was not helping matters.
He kept on growling and snarling inside my head since I left Milo in the room. Even though he refused to talk to me. I could still feel his anger and restlessness at being far from Milo, and no matter how I tried to reign it in, it still found a way to seep out of my body.
Making me snap and growl at everyone, and truth be told, I was hardly keeping it together from exploding.
“You seemed off. I can arrange for the meeting to be postponed.” James, who had given me over a hundred side glances since we started our journey, suddenly said.
“I’m always off,” I muttered, not bothering to look at him.
“I meant today...”
I growled in warning, stopping him dead on track before he could say more.
I turned to him slowly. “Has word of what happened in the arena reached outside?”
James straightened, sensing the seriousness in my voice.
“No,” he replied. “The commanders are working their hands on the clock to contain it, and make sure that the news of what happened doesn't circulate. Anyone who talks about it is arrested and detained for questioning him or herself. The healers have been sworn to silence. They wouldn't breathe a word, else…”
He trailed off.
“Good,” I said coldly, “And Milo?”
James hesitated. “He doesn’t know anything. He was… barely unconscious.”
“Keep it that way,” I said sharply, my voice like thunder.
James tensed, “Understood my King”
“I don’t want a single whisper reaching his ears. I don’t care if it’s a servant, or a slave girl, or even a damn breeze. If he finds out what really happened that day…”
I trailed off, stopping in front of the double door to my throne room as I stared at him.
My meaning sounds clear.
“Yes sir”
The heavy doors opened with a heavy sound, My steps slowed as I felt his presence or rather the two presence in the room.
My steps faltered, for a moment in surprise. But that was just it, a momentarily pause out of surprise, but I quickly recovered, entering the room, like the king I was, even though my fist was clenched behind me.
Two men immediately stood up as I entered the room. My nose perked up…
One scent was familiar, aged leather, cold steel, and mountain smoke.
While the other…,
Dax surged, roaring in my head with enough force that I almost had a concussion. He was the reason I had paused at the door,
The first man was Alpha Magnus, my fellow ally and trusted business associate…well until today.
The second?
I fought the urge to turn around and totally end this meeting even before it started. My jaws clenched so tightly I could hear my bones grind together.
The other Alpha standing beside Alpha Magnus was no other than
Milo’s father.
My aura flared, just for a second, but enough for the reinforced walls of the throne room to rattle and James to stiffen beside me.
But I forced it in, rolled my shoulders, and strode toward the throne with a dangerous calm that was the real definition of a calm before the storm.
I sat down comfortably, smiling at the two men in my front,
“Let the games begin.”