“King Dacre has been hinting at you to take a luna for the pack. He sent over information of three candidates and it will be a royal intermarriage with the Wolfdale Kingdom. Let me look at the women… hm…” He thumbed through the information on the three women. “Princess Alana, fifteen years old. Princess Nycta, seventeen years old. And Princess Rose will turn twenty one in two months.”
Caiden smirked. He lifted his head and grinned at the alpha.
“Choose the younger one, she looks cute. I have been wanting to have a little sister!” The twins were a headache. He wanted a demure and delicate little girl as a sister.
***
The news about the monsters running rampant on Mount Eve was a false report. Xaden and his warriors had been there for two weeks and the mountain was clean of monsters. Most of them seemed to have gone deep into the mountain, with no sign of bothering the town nearby.
Based on that, after two weeks, Xaden returned. He was furious and swore he would get back at Khaos.
According to the report he got, Khaos was still in Three Deadly Ways, as the conflict there was continuing to intensify and the welcoming party that he wanted to hold was canceled due to the circumstances.
Actually, Khaos wanted to hold the party to vouch for Zuri, but because the woman had come to his doorstep voluntarily, there was no need for the party. Khaos didn’t like strangers stepping into his residence.
“What is the meaning of this?” Alpha Roland looked at Xaden grimly the moment they were alone. “I told you to treat my daughter right, but you caused trouble again and what? Separate bedroom? House arrest? You are very bold, aren’t you?”
Xaden walked toward his desk and sat down, he looked unbothered by Alpha Roland’s wrath. Instead of talking about Zuri, he changed the topic to something else differently.
“It was my brother, who orchestrated the miscarriage.” He told him how it happened and how Dacre called Faye to see him, using that woman to stir trouble. “He admitted that.”
Alpha Roland looked even more livid when he learned about that. “That bastard king!” He hissed under his breath.
This anger was what Xaden wanted from Roland. “Why don’t we return the favor?” He smirked. “Queen Rimera is due in less than two months. From the looks of it, this baby will
survive.”
“It’s too risky.”
Killing a baby was a whole different thing than causing a miscarriage. Dacre would realize that it was intentional. It was done for revenge.
“We don’t need to dirty our own hands for it, we have a lot of people at our disposal to do the
job.”
And as if luck was on their side, there was a knock on the door and a guard entered the room to deliver a piece of shocking news to them.
“The queen is currently in early labor,” he reported. “But, there seemed to be some complications in the process. The baby is not coming out and it has already been half a day.”
Alpha Roland smirked. “I tell you, the universe is helping us with this. We don’t need to do anything.” He sat down on the sofa and leaned his back, looking satisfied.
Xaden dismissed the guard and walked over to Alpha Roland. “I think we can speed up our plan.”
“I want Khaos to go down with him too. He has been a good dog for your brother,” Roland said, malice trickled from his voice.
“We can arrange that.” Xaden smirked, but he confirmed one thing that he had suspected since the very beginning; Roland didn’t really care about Zuri as much as he tried to show. His mask slipped and Xaden could see the coldness in his eyes toward his daughter.
He also knew that Roland had beaten Zuri up yesterday before he returned to the pack house.
Since Zuri’s injuries were only cuts and bruises, by the time he arrived and met her, she had already healed. She looked fine, but her eyes looked dead.
“What do you think you are doing?!” Karina hissed, she looked her daughter dead in the eyes.
Because Roland and Xaden were having a discussion right now, she rushed over to take advantage of the moment and straighten her daughter up. She had spiraled; not only did she not know what was good for her, but she actively sought death.
“How many times should I tell you?! You can’t provoke him! Do you want to die so badly?!” She was exasperated. “Do you know that he almost killed you?!”
Right now, Zuri was sitting on her bed, hugging her knees, as she stared into the distance. Her mother’s shrill screams couldn’t drown the voices in her head. She was back to feeling numb again.
This was not the first time Zuri had been like this and every time she went through this phase, it caused Karina immense pain. She only had one child and it was a girl, but even though she was smart, she was… broken. Crazy, just as Roland would call her.
Roland kept blaming her for giving birth to a girl, a crazy girl on top of that.
However, Karina couldn’t bring herself to hate her. Zuri was still her daughter after all, she wanted her to survive at all costs.
There were times when Zuri looked completely normal, but there were also times when she went spiraling and let her impulse control her.
“Are you even listening to me?!” Karina snapped, she cupped her face roughly and forced Zuri to look at her.
“Mother,” Zuri called her in a weak voice. “Did you know that white wolves are very rare? There is a myth that says they are spiritual animals of the lycans.”
Zuri didn’t know why she started to blurt out a random story about the white wolves that Caiden told her during their stay in Lumicen city. That gamma liked to talk.
“What are you talking about?” Karina shook her head. She looked so sad, because her daughter was losing her grip on reality again.
“Mother, can we not talk about how to survive? My head hurts…”
“So, what do you want to talk about? A story about the wolves? Weather? Or do you want to talk about your favorite color?”
Zuri narrowed her eyes when she heard that. “Do you know my favorite color?” She didn’t think she had ever talked about it or that her mother knew, and she was right.
“Heavens! Zuri!” Karina was exasperated with her. “Pull yourself together! Who cares about your favorite color?! If you keep doing this, they will replace you!”
“It’s gray, mother.” Zuri blinked her eyes. She didn’t think she had a favorite color until she saw that pair of gray eyes.
“I don’t care about that! You need to compose yourself, or your father will deem you unworthy and useless. He could cast you aside!”
With the wealth of the River Creek pack now, they didn’t really need Zuri’s constant assistance anymore. All the businesses could run without her, therefore, she needed to prove her other values to her father or else, Roland could discard her and Karina didn’t want to watch Zuri suffer.
As long as she had her father’s support, Xaden wouldn’t dare to go overboard with her. That was what Karina thought.
However, Zuri didn’t seem to care about herself.
“Mother, you are too loud.” Zuri pursed her lips and shook her head, as she continued to hug her legs and rocked her body back and forth. She rested her head on her knees.
Watching her like this was Karina’s worst nightmare. She stood up and walked out of the room. She needed to get in contact with that healer again. The current medicine no longer worked on Zuri.
The room grew quiet once Karina left. Outside, it was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and the sound of birds chirping. The wind was getting warm, as if to announce that summer would be here soon.
A ray of light filtered through the window and Zuri watched how everything that the light touched produced a shadow.
More Kickass Werewolf Reads
Dive into our collection of free werewolf romance novels—where fierce Alphas, daring heroines, and heart-stopping twists await. Every story burns with forbidden desire, loyalty, and destiny. Don’t wait—here’s a world where love bites hard and nothing is stronger than the call of the mate.
Leave a Reply