Perry’s POV
“What now?” Flynn shook his head and winced at the gruesome scene before us.
Blood splattered the interrogation room walls in the dungeon, while three corpses lay sprawled across the floor, crimson pools spreading beneath them, gaping wounds covering their bodies.
Obviously, those men hadn’t died easily at my hands.
“Perry, you need to dial it back a little. This isn’t working. We need them alive to get information,” Flynn refused to step into the bloody room, worried about ruining his expensive shoes.
“Finished.” I stretched my body and sighed with satisfaction, as if I’d completed hard labor and could finally relax.
“What do you mean finished?” Flynn’s brows knitted together. “Do you know who the Valerium Kingdom’s spy is?”
“Yes.” My eyes gleamed with deadly intent. “I think the dungeon’s about to get crowded again.”
Whenever I was in a foul mood, I’d come here to kill one or two prisoners awaiting execution, doing the job myself.
Luckily, we never ran short of death row inmates to satisfy my bloodlust temporarily.
“You got a name?” Flynn followed me out of the blood-soaked room as two warriors entered, paling at the sight but pushing through to clean up my mess.
“Names.” I wiped the blood on my pants while Flynn stayed a step behind, not wanting to stain his clothes.
Those bastards had over a dozen people embedded in our ranks. Those spies…” I scoffed.
“How did you get those names? We tortured them, but they wouldn’t talk.” Flynn had worked hard to extract information from them but got nothing. They refused to give names – hell, they refused to speak at all.
“That’s because you don’t know how to torture properly.”
Flynn grimaced at that. “You sound way too pleased with yourself. That’s nothing to be proud of.”
“I’m living up to my reputation, aren’t I?”
The Mad King.
***
Phoebe’s POV
I woke with a pounding headache. I was curled up on the floor, which had grown ice-cold now that night had fallen, and when I touched my face, I felt tears on my cheeks. I must have cried in my sleep.
“My lady? Are you in there?”
Persistent knocking at the door jolted me awake. I sat up immediately, feeling disoriented in the darkness.
The shadows surrounded me, but I pushed down my fear and forced myself to stand.
When I opened the door, Mason’s face appeared before me. The young omega held a tray loaded with food.
“Why is it so dark in here? Did you fall asleep early?”
I couldn’t find my voice, so I just nodded.
I stepped aside to let her in. “Please turn on the lights.”
Mason did as I asked, flooding the room with brightness. She set the food on the table, then stepped back.
Once light filled the room, I felt like I could breathe again. I thanked Mason before she left, and then I was alone again in my massive room.
Slowly, I moved toward the food and switched on the television so the silence wouldn’t be so oppressive. I ate the meal, though it tasted like nothing on my tongue. I ate it anyway.
I flipped through channels and found a cartoon I’d loved as a child, which lifted my spirits. I didn’t realize I was laughing the way I used to when I was little.
But my bubble of happiness burst when someone knocked on the door, and my shoulders went rigid again.
The laughter died on my lips as I stood and walked cautiously toward the door. It creaked open, revealing the young blonde man from this afternoon.
“Yes?” I only cracked the door slightly, while the man stood before me with a warm smile.
“I haven’t properly introduced myself from this afternoon. I’m Timothy, the royal gamma,” he said, waving a plastic bag. “May I come in?”
Phoebe’s POV
Royal Gamma Timothy showed up with marshmallow sticks, suggesting we share them. His cheerful, laid-back vibe made it seem like nothing in the world could dampen his spirits.
He was nothing like the king or the royal beta. Something about him made my shoulders drop, the tension easing from my body.
“Oh, you’re into this show? Me too!” Timothy grinned as he dropped onto the couch across from me. He held out a marshmallow stick, and I took it without thinking.
Honestly, I hated it. No sweetness hit my tongue – just sticky gunk coating my mouth with a strange texture. But I couldn’t bring myself to refuse him and risk hurting his feelings.
Something seemed off about the marshmallow stick, though. Back in my pack, I remembered the coating being white cream or chocolate, not this red stuff.
I kept my mouth shut. Maybe things were different here in Centra City. I forced myself to keep eating, missing the way his eyes tracked my every move.
“So you’re the king’s mate.” It wasn’t really a question.
After what felt like forever – me wondering why the hell a royal gamma was here watching cartoons with me – Timothy finally broke the silence. His gaze felt like it was peeling back layers, reading secrets I didn’t know I was keeping.
“Yes, I think so…” My fingers found the mark on my neck without permission. I had no clue how to answer something so direct.
“But before this, you were mated to Alpha Kevin. He rejected you.”
My body locked up like I’d been hit by lightning, but I fought to stay calm. “Yes.” The word barely made it past my lips as shame burned through me.
“Then why do you still want him?” His eyebrows shot up as he grabbed the remote and killed the sound.
The silence pressed down on me like a weight. Unease twisted in my gut. I’d been so wrong about the gamma being easygoing. He wouldn’t hold a royal position if he was soft.
“I don’t.” I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth to stop the stutter threatening to break free. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.
The pressure rolling off him wasn’t as crushing as what I felt from the king, but it still made my skin crawl.
“That’s not what I heard, though.” He tilted his head, studying the panic probably written all over my face. Then he leaned back, letting his posture relax, backing off when he realized I was about to shatter.
“I heard you’d been chasing the alpha, begging him to fuck you.” I flinched hard, my nose wrinkling in disgust, but the words stuck in my throat.
His eyes never left my face. “So tell me – is that true?”
I shook my head frantically.
“No? Then tell me what really happened.”
***
“She’s terrified.” Timothy slouched deeper into the couch in the king’s study. “You’ve been reading fear as disgust this whole time. I’m telling you, those rumors are bullshit. She only looked sick when I mentioned Alpha Kevin’s name.”
“Or she’s one hell of an actress.” Flynn’s skepticism never took a break. He still believed Phoebe was playing games, because if she wasn’t, then the intel he’d gathered from Obsidian Claw Pack was garbage. And Flynn being played? Not happening.
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