Claimed by the Mad Lycan King

”What troubles your mind?” Zade asked Seara, who had been very quiet on their way back to their hideout.

Jared was driving, while Zephyr was sleeping on the shotgun seat. The poor gamma had been running around in the past few days and barely had time to sleep. He was not the only one, though. Everyone had been losing sleep lately with how the tension increased between humans and shifters.

Not only that, the alphas were also unhappy with the Lycans’ decision to hold the attack. Zade, Altair, and Asher agreed not to rush into an all-out fight with humans, because once it happened, it would be irredeemable.

However, the alphas didn’t have the same vision as the Lycans. All the alphas knew was that their family members had been prosecuted unfairly, brutally... and all they wanted was revenge.

With the media broadcasting the same things over and over, it was only a matter of time before the alphas defied the Lycans and took the matter into their own hands.

So far, the alphas’ families had not been affected until Alpha Oscar. It meant that they didn’t have a long time before everything went south.

”Do you think it is enough?” Seara asked; she fiddled with her fingers. ”Should we make Admiral Jack see more so he can be more convinced?”

Zade took Seara’s hand and kissed her knuckles. ”If, after what he has seen, it is still not enough, then he is a lost cause. We don’t have much time for that.”

Seara understood what Zade meant. She felt nervous because the feeling of being that close to the devil lingered.

”Get some rest,” Zade said. He told Seara to lie down. ”There are still two hours before we arrive.”

Having nothing else to do, Seara used Zade’s thigh as a pillow and closed her eyes. She had trouble falling asleep, but when Zade started caressing her head, she felt relaxed and closed her eyes.

The rain started pouring down out there. The sound of it lulled her.

”You have to get some rest too...” Seara said in a small voice before she fell asleep. She couldn’t remember the last time Zade was well rested.

Every night, he would lie down with her, but when Seara woke up in the middle of the night, Zade was not there. He was not sleeping with her; he just accompanied her to sleep.

”I will.” Zade tucked a stray hair behind her ear; he leaned over to kiss her cheek gently.

After that, the rest of the journey was rather quiet; aside from the sound of the cars and the rain out there, Seara’s and Zephyr’s deep breathing were the only things Zade and Jared could hear.

But when they arrived and thought they could finally get some rest, Ace had been waiting for Zade to inform him of shocking news.

The car barely pulled over when the royal beta approached Zade with an ashen expression. His jaw tightened, and he looked as if he had just attended a hundred funerals.

”They have Altair,” Ace said even before Zade could come out of the car. ”Kaleb is here, while Jazz is trying to hold back the alphas in his territory from going all-out into a war.”

Both of them knew Jazz would only be able to hold them down for less than a day. If that happened, the alphas under Zade would join the fray as well.

Forget about resolving this problem in a negotiation, because the only negotiation Zade would engage in was with his alphas and Altair’s.

”What?” Zade’s electric blue eyes became a few shades darker when he heard that. ”How could that happen?”

”The same thing happened there.”

Behind Ace, Kaleb rushed to the car, and the high tension woke Seara and Zephyr up. They looked confused at the sight of Ace’s grim expression.

”What? Don’t tell me it is bad news.” Zephyr didn’t think he could take another piece of bad news; the assignment that he had to do was already killing him, and he didn’t need more. He thought he was going to die if something went wrong again.

But the universe proved him wrong. He was still alive even after he heard what happened.

”Alpha Zade, with all due respect.” Kaleb glanced at Seara, who was sitting next to Zade. ”I need your mate.”

***

”Pack your things up and the children too,” Jack said to his wife, but he started to pack for them in a hurry.

”What’s going on?” Madelline looked confused by her husband’s erratic behavior. She was happy to finally be able to see him after the news announced that the monsters had kidnapped him.

When he finally returned home, she thought he would get some rest, but the first thing he did was tell her to pack up. He wanted them to be out of the country right away.

”Stop it. Talk to me. What happened?” Madelline yanked the suitcase from Jack’s hand; she stopped him with difficulty. ”Why do you want me to leave? I can’t leave; you know that I lead the research on those monsters.”

Jack rubbed his face roughly. He looked at his wife with a grim look on his face. It was difficult to explain what had happened to him without sounding insane.

”Look, Madelline.” He held his wife by the arms. ”This is not what you think. This is way more than you can handle. You can’t trust anyone.”

”Jack, you scare me. What is it? What did they do to you?” The first thing that came into Madelline’s mind was that those monsters had tortured her husband to insanity, but there was no sign of a wound on his body, and he was fine.

No. When Madelline saw Jack in their base, he looked fine—he was composed. But the moment he was at home, away from his men, he was rattled and became erratic.

”Where are the children?” Jack demanded. He had twin daughters who were only ten years old, having had them very late in their marriage.

”With Maisie.”