106

106
Emma 

“We needed you, as future Alpha, to accept the rules imposed by the Royal Pack,” Ace tries to justify himself further, a tentacle-like sensation wrapping around my throat, blocking my air. 

Kai looks at him in a mixture of anger and horror. “You risked the life of my mate and pup to teach me a fucking lesson?” He asks, his tone calm even if the fury is threateningly evident in it. 

“The Blood Fang Pack was getting too insurgent, and the Alpha King was afraid of a new generation that would go as far as to take over the throne.” 

We all stare at Ace incredulously while he looks around, his old thoughts colliding with his mindset that is slowly healing from the mind control. 

“Why are you talking about your family’s pack as if it were some foreign land?” Kai asks, standing up from his chair, fury swashing towards me. 

He walks back and forth, probably wanting to calm down. 

“I wouldn’t even know,” Ace answers in a whisper, and Kai laughs bitterly before turning back towards us. 

As soon as he moves again, he practically disappears into thin air. All I can see is a black flash, a strange swarm of sizzling lights surrounding his fist as he charges against Ace. 

“No,” I shout, practically in unison with Luna Artemisia. But while I would like to storm forward to get in between them, Artemisia holds me back, moving us away from the table. 

I barely have time to blink when there is a bang, and Kai is gone. Ace is standing there still in his defensive stance while we scan the room, finding Finnegan pinning his son against the wall. “Down!” he shouts, and I’m still looking at them lost, when Artemisia pulls me down to the floor. As I lie down, careful not to crush my belly, I see Ace letting himself fall onto his front. “Fuck.” 

An explosion rips through the air, wafting over our heads, and screams echo from the walls as we desperately cower, protecting our heads with our hands. 

“I was getting too powerful? I was too risky in case I became the new Alpha?” I hear Kai’s angered voice tear through the air, and my heart aches because through all the fury, I can also feel a lot of pain. “I was? The one you fucker left alone to train to become Alpha in your place!” 

Kai’s voice sounds transcendent as it booms over our heads, and I feel Artemisia’s arm wrapping around my frame tighter while she tries to protect me from the debris falling from the ceiling. “Breathe,” she urges me before she looks up at Beta Finnegan and, after getting a signal from him, pulls us up onto our feet. 

“We have to go,” she whispers, dragging me through the room while I look back at Kai that is struggling in Finnegan’s hold. I can see that he isn’t as distressed as he used to look in such a situation, while the Beta seems to be fighting with more difficulty to hold him back. “If the guards catch us in the same room—” She has barely started the sentence when the door opens with a bang, disclosing the few soldiers with their worried baby-faces. 

“What is going on here?” one of the asks, checking the room with his eyes teared wide open. “You aren’t allowed to be in one place—” He suddenly stops, stumbling over strange sounds as he lifts his hands to his throat, his arrogant expression turning into a panicky one slowly. 

Artemisia steps in front of me, shielding me even further as we watch the guards spellbound while he gasps for air. 

Or at least tries to. 

“I’ll show you too powerful,” Kai's powerful growl echoes from the walls, making us turn back around to him, seeing how his demon form has already taken over his features. 

Black veins grow from his eyes and down to his cheeks and further along his neck, which is still in the tight grip of Finnegan. His totally black eyes scan the room, and as soon as they find me, a grin grows slowly on his lips. 

“Look at me.” 

This time, his voice seems to resound in my head, and a shiver runs up my spine as an awfully strange sensation streams from my chest, feeling like now he is doing it to impress me. My arms fall to my side, although I sense Artemisia’s grip still clasping me desperately, my eyes locking on him while I get drawn in, getting hypnotised by his gaze. 

“Oh, my goddess,” Artemisia breathes out, pulling me back to the floor even before we hear Beta Finnegan shout. 

Down!

A constant ringing takes over my senses as my vision blurs. The metallic smell of blood reaches my nostrils, mixing with another stomach-churning scent. I blink repeatedly while I try to reach out for my mother panically, not being able to, and I realize that we must have been ripped apart. Curling into a ball, I protect my stomach and head, blinking repeatedly in the hopes that my vision to focus on my surroundings. I hear feeble sobs, my heart stopping in my chest as the screams muffled by the noise shatter through my mind, muddling with the shocks rippling below the ground. 

As soon as I find the courage to move my head for my eyes to roam the room, I still can’t make out anything due to my blurry vision. I press my eyelids closed, counting to three before opening them again, only to find a figure standing in front of me. 

Gasping, I try to push myself backwards as I don’t recognise the aura or the scent of it, but I am too slow as it reaches for me, grabbing my arm. 

I want to scream at the stinging sensation rushing along my skin, but even before I am able to open my mouth, the burning has already taken over my body, knocking me out.