Chapter 82: 🐉

"I sent you a couple of gifts. I believe they brightened up your afternoon, didn't they? I hope you liked them, dearest sister!"

Dom stomped over to the screen, making Y's attention divert from Iris to him.

He gave an elated look, "Ah! The Alpha King, is it?" He mocked, "Come to bless me with your gracious presence, your highness!"

"You will pay for every life you have taken, You bastard!" Dom was beyond furious and he had no way to convey it through that screen. "Come out and speak like a man, you coward. Saying big words while hiding behind a screen. Ordering others to do your dirty work-"

"Oh, I do my dirty work plenty, Dominic." He sighed dramatically before continuing, "And, don't worry, you'll see me soon enough. After all, I have a traitor to punish in your lines. She failed to deliver a very important task I was dumb enough to assign her. Now, I'll be coming after her. Where-" He impatiently looked around them as much as the camera could allow, "Where is she? Are you standing by the side, full of shame, you little-"

"Who are you talking about?" Iris asked, having had had enough of his bullshit. Waai simply fixed his perfect hair and sat back in his seat, ready to enjoy every single second of the bomb he was about to drop at them. He smirked, "Why, Liliana McBlaze, of course!"

The revelation was followed by a series of gasps that belonged to all the allies present and connected around Dom.

"Wait! That's the Alpha King's sister, isn't she?" Said one of them.

"She has been working with the enemy all along?" Asked another.

"She is the reason so many of our innocents are dead!" Another exclaimed.

"Did you know the Alpha Queen? That your sister-in-law was betraying us?" Spoke yet another one through the video call feed going on live.

"Were you aware of your sister's betrayal and did nothing about it as she played with all our lives? Alpha King!" Blamed another from one of the computer screens.

The questions overwhelmed Dom as he tried to make sense of the baseless blame Y had put on his sweet younger sister. Y, on the other hand, could barely control his excitement, "Seems like you've got your hands full, Dominic. See you soon. Hopefully, accepting your surrender and the head of your traitor of a sister, who had promised me a small dead good news by this time today. Ta ta!" He waved at the screen and cut the feed before it could be traced back to him, further infuriating Dom.

The Alphas were impatient and suspicious now. Lily was nowhere to be found, and there were innocent corpses to be buried. Dom thundered at them all, "SILENCE!"

Making them all shut up in a second and look at him shocked and suspiciously, "My sister, is not a traitor. She would never do that to me. She cares for all of us and the innocents-"

"So he was what? Lying? Do you want us to think that-" Alpha Alaric asked.

"That he is only trying to break us apart. Divide and conquer! Ever heard of that? He is a liar and manipulative psychopath. How can you believe anything he says ever? My sister-"

"Yeah? Where is she, by the way? Haven't seen her since that maid died of poisoning meant for your unborn child! Apparently, your sister prepared and brought your wife that breakfast, didn't she?" Alaric noted.

Dom pulled the man by his collar and picked him a foot above the ground, "You dare accuse my sister of such a-"

Iris quickly leaped to stop him from doing something he might regret, just as all the rest of the werewolves came to Alaric's aid, "Dom, please let him go dear. This is exactly what Y wants. Look what he has done to the allies in the war against him. He knows it's easier to win when we are not united. You said it yourself. Don't give him what he wants, please! Let Alaric go, now."

She tugged slightly at his arm, making him glare at Alaric, but put him back on the ground reluctantly, before roaring the order, "Find my sister from anywhere and bring her here. Now!"

Another Alpha from across the room asked cautiously, "We agree, Y only meant to try and get us to fight each other and distrust you but, for a second, imagine if your sister really is to blame. Then what? What will you do?" Dom was about to charge at the man when Iris stopped him and replied in his place, "If such a scenario really occurred-"

"Then you'll see her head on a spike outside this very castle, impaled by my own hands!" Dom spoke full of rage and pain with every fiber of his body, wanting the accusation to be just false blame.

It didn't take them long to find Liliana. Elijah himself had gone searching for her immediately after the news. If anyone could find her, he knew it had to be him. He had questions that needed answering, and Dom was too angry to listen to reason. He knew if Lily was going to tell the truth, she would tell him, not Dom or anyone else.

Elijah found her trying to escape through a hidden backdoor in the mage's greenhouse, without success. He knew every entrance and exit point to the safe house, even ones like those that were hidden from most people. It was logical she was there and he was relieved he alone had found her first. Her breathing was erratic.

She looked like a scared little girl who had broken Dad's favorite watch and had no idea where to hide. She had 'guilty' written all over her expression. She was crying and mad with desperation to try any and everything from the greenhouse to use to unlock the passage that Elijah himself had once shown her and had recently ordered Mage Master to upgrade the lock, so only a certain spell could unlock it and nothing else.

"Lily flower." Elijah made his presence known softly, but it still jerked her as her eyes went round and wide at the sight of one person she could never bring herself to look in the eye. In her nervousness of having been found, she dropped the latest pot of magical herbs. She was about to throw at her exit to blast it open. Thankfully, the herbs were not explosive.

"Baby girl, calm down. I am alone. No one knows I am here." Elijah softly told, and with a pitiful expression, cautiously began taking steps in her direction, very slowly. She knew why he was there. She knew she had been discovered. Everything was lost and so was she.

"Dad!" She whispered. She had no more words to say. No apology in the world could reverse the damage she had caused. She was, of course, regretful of a few things but had overlooked them as collateral. Now, standing guilty with nothing but innocent blood on her hands, she stood sobbing at her own foolishness to trust a werewolf, especially Waai.

"My little girl, it's okay! If you tell me why, I can protect you from Dom. Your brother will not be able to lay a finger on you-" Elijah still had hope that all of this was a huge misunderstanding and maybe his little girl was manipulated or threatened. But his nurturing treatment of her after everything she had done, only made her cry more. She knew she didn't deserve it. She knew she had lost the right to be loved by anyone.

"You can't!" She cried out to him, "After everything I did. I don't deserve to be saved." She confessed and then cried even more in terror, "But I don't wanna die, Daddy."

Elijah could still only see his baby girl, who was broken by nature and was now being hunted by her brother. He opened his arms wide to show her that she didn't need to be afraid of him. And since she was tired of hiding and running and conspiring, she ran straight into her father's arms and hugged him like he could cocoon her so that all of this could turn into a nightmare that she could wake up from, happy and at peace with her loving family.

They stood there for a second as silent tears rolled down Elijah's cheeks at the realization that this might be the last time he was ever going to be able to hold his only daughter. Her crimes were too big, and he was sure they didn't even know all of them yet. He mind-linked Iris because telling Dom would only add fuel to the raging fire. Lily was convulsing in his arms as she cried. She knew full well, too, what her future held.

But one last time she needed to tell her father, not to be a bad guy in his eyes, "I swear, I didn't want any of this to happen like it did, Dad." She cried as he kissed her forehead and nodded. He knew she was not evil, she didn't have to tell him that.

"Dad, I didn't choose to be broken. I didn't choose to have an imbalance with my dragon. All I wanted was to prove to you that I was just as worthy as him. That I could be the Alpha Queen with my mate, too. I was only using Y. I swear I was never on his side. I would've killed him myself-"

"I believe you, Liliana, I do. But you didn't have to prove anything. Thrones never prove worthiness. You've read about Baron, The brute, in our history books. He was an Alpha King. Was he good? Was he worthy? No! You are my daughter, and that should've been enough." He held her face in his hands as she cried more upon hearing his words, proving to her how badly she had failed.

"I am so sorry, Father, I failed you. I failed-"

"Failed us all! And if you were sorry, you wouldn't be trying to escape after attempting to kill my child!" Spoke a cold grave voice from behind them.

They were surrounded in seconds.

**Author's note:

The cat is out of the bag. What will Dom do? Will Lily lose her life at the hands of her brother? Is blood thicker than water?**