167- I Am the Law
POV Aldren Valmorin:
“Aldren, please, it was quick, I, I…” His brows arched downward and his trembling chin almost made me feel sorry for him. It was enough to remember for two seconds what was at stake for any shred of pity to drain from my body. “I had just stepped out! So fast! Please, sir, please!” he went on.
I sighed, impatient. Mikonos should have carved into his soul the knowledge that, in my world, respect isn’t asked for politely—it’s demanded. It was that, or certain death.
While he begged, my men who had gone into the forest in search of the intruder stepped onto the laboratory’s grass.
Sparing Mikonos in front of so many of them would cost me an incalculable loss. They would all think I would tolerate the mistakes they might make in the future, or that their alpha didn’t enforce his own laws.
But even if, in that place, it were only me and Mikonos, my conscience would not allow me to dishonor the souls of those who had died because they too were punished for grave disobedience.
The laws had always been clear, and they had been followed for centuries. After coming of age, disrespecting the alpha or his orders was punished with life imprisonment or death. Mikonos knew that. Everyone there knew it.
I waited until my newly arrived men came closer, and I motioned for them to speak. Mikonos’s best friend among them saw him on his knees and clenched his jaw, but then cleared his throat, masking his discomfort, before he spoke:
“It was a female.” I know. “We were close to capturing her, sir, when we ran into the territorial boundary barrier.”
Shit!
A growl rumbled from my chest at the thought that I’d lost the intruder, but it was known that only alphas could travel all lands. None of my wolves could enter another alpha’s territory without having their head torn off as punishment.
I swallowed my rage, feeling my heart beat against my eardrums, and looked back at the offender, who decided to cry like a baby.
“The lives of the people of Valmorin depend on what’s inside this laboratory, Mikonos,” I snarled, so everyone could hear and learn from it.
“There are alarms, sir! No one c-could g-get in!” he tried to excuse his behavior, choking on his own sobs.
“Everyone present here”—I pointed a finger toward the men—“knows very well what one lapse cost us in the past. We live on alert, because it is the only way to protect those who cannot do it for themselves! We follow the law, because without it there is no order!”
“Sir Aldren, please… please…”
Ignoring his bent knees, desperate tears, and eyes begging for mercy, I let my claws spring out.
Tara, who had been covering her mouth, began to plead alongside her lover.
Iulian hauled Mikonos up, forcing him to stand.
“You have dishonored the trust your Alpha gave you, Mikonos, and putting the pack’s livelihood at risk is punished by death. That is the law! I am the law!” I roared so loudly it could be heard in all four corners of Valmorin.
Before he could spill another whine, I drove my claws into his chest, piercing deep until they hooked between his ribs. I braced fragile bones against my strength in a crushing grip, and under a sharp, agonized scream, I tore them from his ribcage.
Blood sprayed everywhere, leaving the heart—still beating—exposed.
None of my men let out a single whisper, not even Mikonos, who fell silent on adrenaline, holding only a fixed stare and parted lips.
Some of his blood and bones now decorated my lawn in a macabre way.
“No! No!” Tara screamed, thrashing in the guard’s hold. “You fucking tyrant! Son of a bitch!” She dared to insult me.
So I wouldn’t tear off her head and make more of a mess, I drew air into my lungs, which were not punctured like those of the bold mutt’s lover.
Before dealing with her, and unable to control my muscles swelling with rage, I sank my claws into Mikonos’s exposed heart and ripped it from his chest.
If there’s a Judas on the boat, throw him into the sea, I thought of the phrase the blind elder used to tell me as I watched Mikonos’s life drain away.
Every drop of his essence spilling into the soil like the sand of a broken hourglass, his last moments before he ran out into the abyss of oblivion.
The blame for his end belonged to him alone, in the midst of that whole pool of blood.
Breathing audibly, fire coursing through my veins, I turned to the infamous one who had dared to disrespect me in front of my men.
“Your shitty death will be my reminder not to take any more stray bitches into my fucking pack!” I snarled, baring my fangs.
I brutally gripped the sides of her face, puncturing her skin.
“Aaah! Help!” To the sound of the melody composed by the bitch in heat’s screams, I yanked her by the hair, pulling her away from the guard. The blood on my hands mixed with hers, leaking from the punctures at her temples.
I glared with fury into her brown eyes, pupils blown wide. I took satisfaction in her guttural shrieks and in all her suffering and pain before I twisted her neck.
Who did Tara think she was, to disrespect me like that?
In that moment, the mutt’s death would satisfy me—until I could find the intruder and give her the same end, after tearing the truth from her about what lay behind her invasion.
More beautiful than the ragged harmony of her screams of pain was the sharp, dry crack of her neck breaking.
The last horrendous note that reverberated that night, sealing her end.
Just another nightfall, and two lifeless bodies sprawled on my lawn, now stained with blood.
“I need a bath. I stink of mutt.”