110

110
Kai

“Hey, Dad,” I chuckle, wetting my lips with my tongue. “Nothing is wrong. Why would you think that?” 
My heart finally restarts beating properly, my breathing pattern normalizing. He steps closer, tilting his head. “You look dizzy.” 
Ah, so he knows. 
“Well, how is she?” he asks while my brain is still regaining its normal working pace. 
I shake my head, mocking him, “Why do you even play by their rules? How are they able to actually keep you from going to get her?” 
Growling, he grabs my arm, pulling me to the side. “Let that be my problem. Answer my question, son.” 
“She is doing fine,” I sigh as we start walking towards the offices. “But something strange happened.” 
I squint my eyes at him turning towards me. “Yeah, they keep filling the rooms with a gas-like substance.” 
“I beg your fucking pardon?” I blink repeatedly, stopping in my tracks. 
He clicks his tongue, urging me to continue walking. “You heard me right. It puts the demons to sleep, and the wolves are also being affected by it. They keep fighting it, which leads to them exhausting their hosts.” I keep my eyes glued onto him as he continues to explain while closing the door behind us, locking the nosy royal guards out. “Apparently, Logan is getting knocked out by it constantly. But how would I know? Missy’s mind link nearly never reaches me, and when it does, it is wanky.” 
I can’t believe what he is telling me so casually, even before we sat down. 
“I hate it here,” he murmurs to himself, finally slumping into one of the couches while I remain standing, looking at him in shock. 
“What?” I breathe out, feeling helpless, and sit in the chair in front of him. 
“Good thing you didn’t bring Emma here,” he praises me while I don’t get him. 
“What the actual fuck, Dad! What is going on?” 
He shrugs, tapping the back of his fingers against his lips as he looks right through me. “How would I know? They locked me out.” 
“How?” I shift in my seat, scooting forward to prop my forearms onto my knees. 
As he just shrugs again, I scoff. “How is Drake coping?” I ask him after realizing that he wouldn’t say anything more. 
“Meh,” he answers nonchalantly, rolling his eyes when Drake’s voice rumbles through my mind. “It doesn’t really affect me much. But I wouldn’t give a shit anyway.” 
His laughter is still echoing from the walls of my head as my father pinches the bridge of his nose, huffing. “He is useless.” 
He starts shaking his leg, and I notice how tired his eyes are. I open my mouth, but a knock on the door causes the words to die in my throat. 
“Took you long enough,” my father groans, leaning his head onto his fist. “I thought you wouldn’t show up anymore. The reception here is shitty these days.” 
Ace halts in the crack of the door, clenching the wooden material before opening it fully. “What is happening here? Where do all those warriors come from?” 
“You tell me. Aren’t you the expert on the matter? How does the Alpha King send them here to keep annoying us and hurt my mate?” his expression darkens, and Ace closes the door, clearing his throat while looking around, lost. 
“I swear that they never did that under my watch.” He sounds truthful, making me sigh as I lean back in my seat. 
“I can’t believe this. First the witches and now this,” I mutter, exhausted, rubbing my eyes. 
Father gets up, walking around his desk, which looks like he never uses it because papers covered in dust pile on it. Ace and I lean to the side simultaneously, observing him opening a drawer and taking a bottle filled with an amber liquid, along with three crystal glasses, out of the bottom of it. 
“You need to go to the Royal Pack and sort this mess out,” he states, putting the glasses down onto a coffee table. 
“We know,” Ace retorts absentmindedly while we get hypnotised by the liquid he is pouring into our glasses. 
My father straightens back up, closing the bottle. “Perfect, we can’t risk them doing their next move, and someone has to go get Cayden. I hate being in charge when he is not around. He knows that.” 
That finally gets us to laugh, and it makes a smile appear on his face as well. 
“I’ll get Ryder and Serena, and we will get going,” Ace explains, and my father nods. 
I turn towards him, furrowing my brows. “Why would you want to take Serena?” 
“It’s the best strategy, if you think of it,” he explains, and I can hear the ‘duh’ in his voice even if his face stays frozen in its impassive state. 
Glaring at him, I wait for him to tell us more about his fantastic strategy, but he just stares back. “In which of your delusional universes is putting more pack members and, on top of that, our sister in danger a good strategy?” 
“They expect her,” he answers as if I were an absolute illiterate. “If we take her, it still looks like I’m acting per my mission.” 
Standing up slowly, I tilt my head, pushing down the rage rising in me. “And what is your mission supposed to be?” 
“Stop it, Kai,” my father intervenes. “He actually has a good point.” 
The gas must have corrupted his brain severely. 
“But take the little bastard with you as well,” he adds in a grunt, causing Ace and me to look at him, confused. 
He sighs, holding his hands up. “Little Junior is still here. Your mother fought for her brother to leave him in the pack.” Lifting the glass with the liquor to his lips and muffling his words by taking a sip. “Fucking drove me mental.”
Chuckling, I take my glass as well, rolling back my shoulders while trying to shake off the uneasiness of the situation with my brother that had crept upon me. “Fine enough for me. But will you guys be alright?” 
“Yeah,” he smirks. “Just talk to each other before you arrive there. You two not being in sync is the worst that can happen and they will use this to get to you. If they manage to get between you, they will end up destroying us.” 
We nod, Ace staring into his drink silently. “Don’t worry, Dad. We have a plan,” I confess proudly, puffing my chest. 
“What kind of plan?” 
Looking back at Ace, I get him to look at me as I joke, “If the idiot doesn’t fuck it up, you will hear from it when it will be the moment. We fear that saying it out loud would endanger us. It is too risky.” 
“I won’t fuck it up,” Ace protests, but I ignore him. “You are the one with the crazy idea.” 
Our father laughs, putting down the glass, “Well, I would ask you to not do anything stupid, but I guess I’m the wrong person for that job. And what a pity that Cayden isn’t here.” 
“Don’t worry, Beta,” I grin, emptying my glass with one go. “It will only trigger a war. But if it works out, they will leave us alone for good.”