He kept asking her why she betrayed him when he was inside her, but all Nycta could do was crying, which only angered Dacre even more.
Nycta was in pain and she thought it was better than him ignoring her, she hoped it would offset her betrayal.
However, when the next day came, thing did not become better for Dacre.
There was this urgency in the way Leonard knocked on the door, it was still early morning and Dacre was still disoriented from the overwhelming emotions from the previous night.
Beside him, Nycta was sleeping, she was naked and the room filled with the smell of blood and sex.
Putin on his robe, Dacre went to the door and opened it to find Leonard’s aghast expression. “What is it?” His voice was heavy and hoarse.
“Killian is dead.”
If before, Dacre still doubted what Killian said, he believed him now.
Killian said Khaos was going to kill him and it happened. He said that Khaos had a few spies that he placed in the palace. One of them was going to kill him.
Dacre felt his soul left his body when he heard what Leonard said, it was so hard to comprehend the concept that Killian was dead.
His royal beta’s lips moving, he was talking, but Dacre felt it was hard to understand what he was saying. None of what he said made any sense in his head. How could Killian die when they were talking last night?
He remembered the last thing he said. Killian apologized and said he hoped things would be different.
‘Take care of yourself, Dacre. The lycan is coming for you and your throne, but you are not his main goal. Gather your power and unite with the other kings. Tell them about the existence of the lycan, that’s the only way to stop him.’
Dacre remembered word for word, as if Killian was talking directly to him right now. His voice echoed in his head.
“Dacre, are you alright, my king?” Leonard looked at Dacre’s pale face, he put his hand on his shoulder, but Dacre shrugged it off and started to walk away, he followed behind him, half running.
“Where is he?” Dacre asked sternly.
“His body still in the dungeon, we can’t get him out, because it will draw suspicion.” Leonard then explained how they found him dead in his cell.
A guard came to deliver food this morning like usual, but they found him already dead with his face turned purple. From the look of it, he died because of poison.
Poison.
There was poison inside the palace.
“I want a thorough investigation. Lock down the palace and interrogate all the people. No one come in and no one come out. Now!” He could feel his voice was shaking, his whole body was trembling, he was enraged.
He had every intention to kill Killian, but not in this way, especially not when he had not yet said his goodbye. He didn’t get to say anything last night, he was listening to him like a fool. He didn’t get to say what he needed to say and now, even if he said it, Killian would be no longer able to listen.
“I want a funeral for him.”
That was the first thing that Dacre said after two hours of standing still, staring at Killian’s dead body. His skin had turned purple and pungent smell started to emanate from his body.
“We can’t have a funeral for him, Dacre.” Leonard reminded him that there was a pressure from the elders to give a death punishment for Killian for his misconduct. He also reminded him that their plan originally was to kill Killian.
They were going to hang him in public to absolve the rumor that spread around about the weird relationship between the king, the queen and the personal warrior. They even questioned the baby that the queen conceived, which could weaken the legitimate right of the baby.
They were right to question the baby’s origin, but they couldn’t know about it.
“I am not going to let him rotten like this.” Dacre gritted his teeth, pain in his eyes.
“And you will only confirm the rumor if you did that. I know you are hurt, but you can’t show you care about him.”
“I care about him.”
“But, you will put his child in danger. Is that what you wanted? The elders will keep asking about the legitimation of the baby in the queen’s womb. You will only confirm the rumor if you show them how much you cared about him. This is for him too, for his baby. The last part of him that you have to protect,” Leonard talked sense to him.
But, Dacre didn’t want to hear anything that make sense, his emotion was all over the place.
“Think about it again after you calmed yourself down.”
Leonard then left him alone and on his way out, he saw the queen was on her way to the dungeon, she must have heard what happened to Killian and her appearance here made Leonard agitated.
“My queen, you shouldn’t be here, you need to go back to your palace,” Leonard said sternly, her grabbed her arm and turned her around, which made her screeched.
“Why I can’t be there?”
Leonard sighed deeply. Why neither Dacre or Nycta could understand the severity of the situation. Their action now would determine what would happen in the court next.
Begrudgingly, the royal beta explained about this to Nycta, she was young and impulsive and Leonard still stood by his opinion that Dacre had chosen the wrong princess. If it were Rose, she would know what to do without being told.
He walked her back to her palace, she said nothing and didn’t make any attempts to post a question, until they reached the palace and she asked the first question.
“So, the rumor is true after all,” Nycta said. “Dacre and Killian… he loved him, right?” the question was blunt and filled with raw feeling.
Leonard tried to find the right way to answer that, but he couldn’t. She already knew it. “You are his mate, my queen. You are the one, who has his mark.”
Nycta smiled, a derisive smile and then turned around and entered her palace. She said nothing, but Leonard could see how hurt she was.
A few days later, they still couldn’t find the spies that Khaos had put in the palace, thus Dacre issued a massive order that terrified the court. He was going to kill all the guards, anyone, who had made a contact with Khaos before.
The king prepared warriors to march toward Greywolf pack and asked for a meeting with the king from Wolfdale kingdom, a week later, Rose arrived at the messy and bloody court. The king was losing his mind.
And word came out that the lycan was still alive.
The news about the lycan spread far and wide, sending turmoil among the people. Though, it was still a form of rumor, but people stopped coming to River Creek pack and the pack member started to avoid Khaos. They were afraid of him.
The younger generation only knew that the lycan was barbaric, the old dynasty was being trampled because of their cruelty.
The story that spread among the people portrayed the lycan as a dynasty of a tyran and the previous king from the three kingdoms were the hero, who had trampled the regime.
“Not you too,” Khaos said in impassive tone, he controlled his voice, but it only meant one thing; the alpha was livid. He was enraged and if it was not for the fact that Bryden was his beta for a long time, he would have killed him right there and then.
Bryden was sprawling on the floor, but he immediately scrambled to his feet, as he begged for Khaos’s forgiveness. He didn’t dare to raise his head to meet with the alpha’s eyes.
“You are being comfortable and you thought we are friend,” Khaos enunciated every word calmly, which only told the beta the amount of anger that the alpha was holding back right now, he was trembling. Since he knew his mistake, he messed up a big time. “You are a disappointment.”
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