Khaos could feel it too, he turned her body around and looked at her. “Something is bothering you.” That was a statement, not a question. “How was your journey?”
“Fine.” Zuri’s answer was curt and she felt his fingers slid under her chin, as he lifted her head to look at him in the eyes.
“Tell me what is it?” Khaos’s voice was gentle, but firm. He would get to the bottom of it. “Is it because of Elena?”
“Don’t say her name!” Zuri growled. A miniscule part of her screamed at her to stop being difficult. She was being ridiculous now.
Khaos immediately alerted, he immediately figured out what’s going on. He cupped her face and kissed away her tear, Zuri didn’t even realize that she was crying. She was very upset, but she was not sure, to whom, or why. It was a mess in her head.
“I shouldn’t have left you behind,” Khaos said, as he licked her cheeks. “I am sorry.”
This made Zuri cried even more. She felt ashamed and ridiculous. She couldn’t fight back her impulsiveness and the voices in her head.
But when the voices grew louder, she heard his voice and clung onto it.
[You are alright, I am here. Everything will be alright. Just listen to me, okay?]
Zuri nodded. She listened to him, she was holding dearly to his voice, until the other irrelevant voices that screamed in her head became a background noise and then disappeared, and it was quiet again.
Khaos pressed his forehead against hers, as he told her everything in detail about what had happened, about their plan, the strategy that they would use to take down the Blackthorne pack and engaged her in the planning. He distracted her to think of something else, aside from her baseless, ridiculous jealousy on Elena.
One thing that Zuri noticed later on was the fact that Khaos didn’t tease her about her jealousy on Elena. He didn’t tell her the obvious thing about how silly and crazy she was to be jealous of her for no reason, which obviously, if he did that, Zuri would feel even worse about herself.
“I drove Caiden crazy,” Zuri admitted when she told him about their journey here. Their conversation turned into an easy topic, once Khaos had relayed the difficult part of the plan on the battle.
It turned idly, but both of them found it was peaceful and comfortable.
“How?” Khaos chuckled, he caressed her back, as if he appeased her, while Zuri tucked her head under his chin and straddled him. Khaos was sitting on the chair, they were still in the same tent.
“He said I threatened to kill someone in regular basis, he didn’t take me seriously after that.”
“And why do you want to kill someone?”
“They annoyed me. The cult member annoyed the hell out of me, I want to castrate them all.”
“I wouldn’t be be happy if you touched someone else’s dicks, though.”
The next day, the ten thousand warriors that had deflected the king finally arrived. Most of the warriors here were the people, who followed Khaos to defend the Three Deadly Way against Great Lunar kingdom.
They didn’t know about the fact that Khaos was a lycan, but even when they knew, they still deflected the king to join under Khaos’s flag.
The old dynasty flag was everywhere in this campsite, they also put the flags on the area that they had conquered. River Creek pack had raised the old dynasty flag as well, indicating that they were on Khaos’s side.
Thing didn’t look good, neither it was promising on Dacre’s side. He was put in tight spot. Especially with ten thousand warriors, who deflected to Khaos’s side, it ruined the moral of the royal warriors.
“I have written to my father,” Nycta said when Dacre came to see her. He started to visit her palace again, but of course for the reason that related to the war between him and Khaos.
Dacre had been insisting for Nycta to write to her father, asking about the troops that they promised him, but king Amidas didn’t reply to any Nycta’s letter.
“Why don’t you ask for negotiation?” Nycta suggested, she approached Dacre and held his hand. She could see blood on his palms from where his nails dug too deep into his flesh, because he balled his fists too tight. “Invite the alpha to come and you can discuss about this matter. Both of you are still brother, right?”
No. Dacre didn’t think Khaos as his brother at all after he learned who he was. He needed someone to tell him what to do at time like this, because usually, it would Khaos, who would deal with the stressful situation and he would sit back to relish in the victory that Khaos had brought to him.
In retrospect, Dacre could see how Khaos made him rely on him heavily, to the point, he couldn’t think of a way out of a situation without any help.
It was a long game for Khaos and he played it well. Dacre couldn’t even be angry with him, even when he was the reason why he had an infertility issue, because he actually impressed there was someone as persistence as him.
“Dacre.” Nycta approached him and for the first time after what happened between them, he didn’t avoid her, she saw this as her opportunity. She hugged him, resting her head against his chest. “Celeste kingdom, Wolfdale kingdom and Great Lunar kingdom were part of the lycan empire, the three kingdoms belonged to the old dynasty. It’s not too late for you to talk about it with alpha Khaos.”
Dacre said nothing, but he hugged her back and Nycta felt relief with his touch. This was the first time he saw a shred of affection for her.
Still, the troops from Wolfdale kingdom didn’t come and this agitated Dacre.
***
Khaos’s warriors move steadily toward the heart of Blackthorne pack, as they conquered two more cities within this week.
All people could see as clear as day, who was the victor of this battle. It was only a matter of time before Dacre’s regime fell, as his royal warriors were cornered and were forced to move back, losing town after town because they didn’t have enough warriors to protect its large area.
Most of the warriors deflected to Khaos’s side, or they fled from their rank. Obviously, moral was plummeted in the royal warrior troops.
Khaos’s black magic user played a crucial part to defeat them, since none of them knew how to fight against their magic.
Luca and Logan were trying to come up with solution, but the odds were against them. Their last resort was to destroy rural settlements and moved food, people and supplies behind walled cities to prevent Khaos from using them.
What couldn’t be moved was burned, poisoned, or buried. It was the oldest strategy and it only amplified the suffering of innocents.
One party wanted to conquer you and the other party wanted to prevent you from being useful and you get fucked from both sides.
It was the innocent who were suffering the most in this civil war and Zuri learned quickly how to appease them.
Well, she learned this from Rose. If there was something useful from Zuri encountered with her that must be she learned that people’s opinion was mattered. The way people perceived you was important.
Thus, despite her discomfort, she asked Khaos to build an open kitchen for the villagers, who were suffering from their lost, since the royal warriors burned their supplies when they retreated, which left Khaos with deserted city or town.
More often than not, the city or the town were burned to the ground with its civilians were watching on the side line, witnessing their hard earned possession turned into ashes.
It was gut wrenching to see when children and women cried, while the men tried to appease their family, as they couldn’t do anything.
As the battle continued, the suffering of the innocent spiral into something else entirely.
“I will sell these two girls for two gold.” An old lady tugged two little girls around the age of five and seven with her, they probably were her granddaughters.
“What?” Zuri frowned. She stared at the timid girls, who looked around them, didn’t understand with the situation they were in, staring at her with their innocent eyes.
“One gold.” She persisted. “They work hard and they are not complaining. They don’t eat much.”
This was very absurd for Zuri. The battle had gone for more than two months now and they had conquered nine cities by this time, but the furthest they went, the worse the condition of the civilian.
Apparently, the royal warriors ransacked their food supply and everything valuable that they could use even when they encroached in their city. The civilians were suffering under the royal warriors’ occupation.
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