Dacre tilted his head, considering what she said and then waved his hand to the guards for them to retreat.
“Explain.”
And Rose started with her boring story about a family in Wolfdale kingdom. It was a family of shifter and magic user. Some of their member was shifter and the rest was magic users and she got her hand on them.
“They are here. I can bring them here and they can help you to defeat alpha Khaos and help with the labor.”
“What they can do?” Dacre looked at her incredulously.
“What do you think a magic user can do? You have seen how alpha Khaos tore your cities easily with his black magic users, right? They can do the same thing.”
Dacre gritted his teeth. “If you have such resource, you should have proposed this since the beginning!” He was livid now. His kingdom was on the brink of its destruction and she held back an important resource.
“I have been working on it, because that family is under my father’s influence. I don’t want to give you false hope, my king.” Rose then added hesitantly. “But, there is price to be paid for that.”
There was price that needed to be paid for black magic to work, that was how it worked, but the real question here was; was Dacre willing to pay for the price?
Which one was more important for him? His mate or the baby from the man he loved?
His mate…
He couldn’t help, but calling her that, despite the fact that she had rejected him. Nycta had shattered the mate bond between them, but even so, there was still lingering feeling between them, after all, there was time when they were bound with each other, believed that they would last forever.
Despite everything that happened, Dacre loved his mates…
***
“The baby is dead,” Gayle said, as he entered the tent to report the last information that he could retrieve from their spy.
There was only one more city to be toppled down and it was the capital city. After that, they could march toward the palace without any obstruction.
“I don’t think that’s surprising,” Zuri commented. She narrowed her eyes at Khaos, who was sitting not too far from her, he was mulling over the map of the capital city. He didn’t shift his attention from the map when he heard the news, as if it was not something important. “Did you do that?”
“Hm?”
“Did you have anything to do with the dead of the babies?” Zuri remembered the previous queen, Rimera, how she looked so haggard, exhausted and fragile after losing so many babies and now, the story seemed to repeat itself. “Did you do something that make the baby couldn’t survive?”
This time Khaos lifted his head and looked at her with amusement, he arched his brows and Zuri always loved the sight of him.
“No,” he replied simply. “He can’t sire his own child because of me, yes. But, I didn’t do anything to the babies.”
“Oh.”
Zuri didn’t continue to ask, she was not really interested.
For the two of them, for the other people that heard this news, it was not something surprising, because this was not the first time for Dacre to lose his baby. It felt like a common knowledge, where people only assumed he was going to lose his baby every time he tried.
To the point where they thought it would be odd if the baby survived. It was obnoxious, yes, but that was what it was.
The death of the baby was not surprising.
However, little did they know, Dacre had a chance to save his baby. He had a chance to see the last piece of Killian, but he chose not to.
“Why?” Rose asked, she was bewildered when she saw the king held his dead baby. Nycta was still unconscious, she was sleeping now after she delivered her stillborn.
It was a boy. A son for the throne. Killian’s flesh and blood. The last piece of him. Yet, Dacre gave it up.
“Why? Why didn’t you choose the baby?” Rose couldn’t understand him. She was very upset because she thought it was an easy choice to make for Dacre. He loved Killian, didn’t he?
But here he was, choosing her sister over Killian’s legacy, holding the dead baby in his arms like a pathetic man.
“Why?” Rose asked again, but instead of giving her the answer that she wanted, Dacre’s voice sounded very tired when he posted the obvious question.
“The troops will never come, right?” Dacre asked in small voice, which didn’t sound like the voice of the king. “You and your father are playing a waiting game.”
Dacre turned around and Rose could see the tiny body in his arms. She grimaced. She had never seen a dead baby before. The little one looked like he was sleeping. He was so perfect, the way he pursed his lips, the way his fingers curled, the way Dacre held him fitly in his arms.
But, the only thing that the baby couldn’t do was breathing. The baby was dead. The baby was not breathing.
“What Khaos has offered to you?” Dacre asked again and he knew he had asked the right question.
Khaos had been his advisors for long time, despite how stupid he was to concoct his own plan, he was not that stupid not to see this.
Rose opened her mouth, she wanted to say something, but she decided not to, yet in the end, she couldn’t pretend anymore.
“I can help you, but you chose not to be helped.” Rose lifted her head, so she didn’t need to see the baby. The death of the baby was very unfortunate, she felt like she was the one, who had killed him when in fact, it was Dacre’s decision that had erased the baby’s chance to live. “I tried to help you.”
“No. You only tried to seize the power for yourself.” Dacre tilted his head and gave her a mocking smile. “You are trying to erase your sister and replace her position. You are not willing to help this kingdom for a mere title of the luna of the pack. You want to be the queen. If you were going to help, you wan the throne. That’s what you thought, right?”
Dacre knew he was right. He could see it in her eyes.
On the other hand, Rose said nothing. There was nothing more to be said when she walked out of the room and leaving them alone.
She didn’t return to the pack house, where it was guarded tightly. The pack house wouldn’t be a safe place, nowhere was safe in this city. This kingdom was going to collapse and she needed to go for his plan B.
Rose shifted into her beast form and dashed toward the city gates, where she looked for Logan.
“What are you doing here?” Logan looked surprised to see her here. “Go back to the pack house, this is not safe here.”
But, Rose didn’t want to listen to him, she took him into a tent. “Do you want to be a king?”
“A carriage has been waiting for you. It will take you to Wolfdale kingdom,” Dacre said, his expression was so cold, as if he was only a body without a soul or emotion. “Everything has been prepared. You only need to go.”
Nycta leaned against the bedrest. She just regained her consciousness less than an hour ago, someone told her about the death of her baby and the first thing that Dacre said to her was for her to leave the kingdom.
She was exhausted, she was in pain, she didn’t know how to process her emotions and what the appropriate way to respond to this.
She could only stare at him.
“Are you… sending me away?” Nycta asked in the tiniest voice she could muster. She blinked her eyes, thinking she might daydream this conversation. “Are you sending me away because I lost the baby?”
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