Chapter 166
THIRD PERSON POV
In the quietness of his dark room, Varkas lounged lazily on the chair with his arms clasped behind his head. The dimly lit room made his features look dangerously savage.
His lazy eyes were on a figure standing not far off.
“My Lord, now that the Alpha King is here, it would not be easy to keep the Aethera in our possession. What do we do now? We’d lost all hope after all these years, only to find her now. We can’t—” His voice was laden with urgency and worry.
“You worry too much, Stephan.” Varkas hissed dangerously. “You think I don’t know that the Alpha King will be a problem? But now that I think of it, I am glad he was informed.” His voice was low as he spoke.
Stephan frowned slightly. “How so, my Lord?
“It makes it easy. There is no denying he would eradicate the other Alphas. Just when he emerges as a suitor, I would be there to make Lyra change her mind.” He replied lazily, as though the matter was of no serious importance, like Stephan was making it to be.
“They are mates. How will she sway towards you? That’s going to be quite difficult. She is very powerful, not to mention strong-willed. Even though it appears that she doesn’t favor the Alpha King, the bond is too powerful to run from.” Stephan spoke amidst his confusion.
He didn’t understand his Lord. They needed to get the Aethera. It was bad enough that she was in the palace, and the impending marriage was making it all difficult. Years ago, the seer had foreseen that the king’s heir was no ordinary child. Her powers were more than enough to usher in a new age. It is believed that her blood had the power of life in it. Anyone who had a taste of her blood was bound to be immensely powerful. Their powers heightened. But that was not all. The power the Aethera possesses was a pathway to immortality, only if she ascends.
The Vivarium sect had always been in the shadows and maintained its façade of loyal subjects, so even when the royal factions fought over the throne and civil war threatened all those years ago, they had watched by the sidelines. It didn’t matter to them who won; what was most important was the Aethera and its powers.
Their predecessor, Lord Koza, had died for this cause. He had dedicated most of his life to finding immortality. They had carried out experiments in thousands. They had used different species. Every time they thought they had found groundbreaking results, their specimens displayed anomalies that mostly led to them going mad and dying from their madness or pulling out their hearts themselves due to the rot of their souls.
They were a covert organization that not only consisted of Lycans but also werewolves and witches, whom they had as part of their sect. All of which were driven by the cause in search of immortality. In search of power. And while the civil unrest was threatening the peace, they were there by the Lycan King at the same time; they had their eyes on the Luna and her unborn pup. Then the war became too tough to ignore; the pup was in danger from the other factions who wanted to usurp the throne from the Lycan King.
The Lycan King, having a powerful child, only meant that the power to rule would move further from their households. They not only wanted the Lycan King out, but they also wanted the child killed, especially since the child had not been conceived. While they fought by the Lycan King’s side, they had also assigned men to the role of protecting the Luna and the unborn child. Unfortunately, things had gone awry. Everyone had died. Everyone, including the Luna and the child, was ripped from her womb and its parts torn to shreds.
Everyone except the omega servant, who was the Luna’s most trusted maid and confidante.
The Lycan King had not spared her since that day. Her torture had been so intense to the point at which she went mad. Lord Varkas had created an avenue to whisk her out of the palace grounds to the underground lab and had informed the Lycan King she had died from too much pain inflicted. All means to get what really happened that day had failed.
She was totally incoherent, mumbling words nobody understood.
Meanwhile, back in the Lycan King’s study, Lyra kept pacing angrily while Ryker stood in the corner, his eyes fixed on her.
“You can’t just come in here and claim we are mates. We stopped being mates the moment you allowed our child to die.” She fumed. Her body shook terribly as she was visited by the pain of the past she felt she had buried deep.
“I didn’t know—” Ryker tried to explain, but she cut him off angrily.
“You didn’t know, or you didn’t care. You chose to believe the worst when it came to me. You were meant to protect me, stand by me, you were meant to love me, but what did you do, uhn?!” Her voice cracked despite her attempt to sound strong.
“I do love you,” Ryker countered. “I do love you more than my life. And despite what you think, I mourned her death. She would have grown up to be as beautiful as her mother. After you left, I searched for you. I tried to reach you desperately, but I couldn’t, Lyra. You wouldn’t let me,” His voice broke, and for a moment, they just stared at each other. Two broken souls who needed peace.
Dimitri watched the duo for a while quietly. From the flushed looks on both parties, what they shared wasn’t just anger from past hurt. It was obvious they burned for each other.
Quietly, he stood up from his chair and walked lazily to the center of the room, facing both parties. Then he turned to face Lyra.
“You do know you’ll have to choose from one of those Alphas,” He spoke in his matter-of-fact tone.
Lyra swallowed, unable to speak. Her hands were trembling by her sides as she chewed on her bottom lip desperately.
“I will ask this again. If not him, then who?”