The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 618: THE FALL OF THE FAMILY OF THE CRESCENT PACK

The sound was deafening.

A single, wet gasp. Then silence.

For a long moment, no one moved. I just stared, frozen, at the blood running in thin streams down my fingers, hot and slick, pooling at my boots.

It had all happened too fast.

Uther had raced out of the throne room in a matter of seconds.

Fled as fast as lighting without breaking a stride.

Before anyone could even make a single move, all that could be heard outside was screaming, growling and tearing.

We could hear Uther’s screams in terror begging to stop.

And what sounded like bone being severed from the flesh rang through the hallway.

Kire, Erik’s departed wolf that had refused to return to his body, majestically walked into the throne room.

His height, times two of a regular wolf.

He tossed the severed limb and I knew it was Uther’s

The crowd gasped.

Men got up to perhaps bring in Uther but I rose my hand.

I knew what Kire was going to do.

”Kire.” I nodded in approval .

I watched as the brave wolf left the throne room and returned a few minutes later, dragging Uther in.

Uther was screaming. ”No please! Stay away from me! Stay away from me.”

Everyone cleared the path letting them walk past.

His blood spilled on the red carpet where his leg had been served.

Once Kire reached the steps of my throne he left his body.

Uther finally stopped screaming and slowly looked up to me.

My bones went chilly cold with hate and betrayal.

This was the only other bloodline I had.

The only tie I had other than Anna who had also betrayed me.

My family.

Now the root cause of my misery.

He looked up at me sharply and began to plead. ”Xaden I’m your uncle. I would never do such a thing. You know me. I care about you my boy. Have mercy!”

I gritted my teeth and spat in his face.

Uther withdrew as though he had been slapped.

What I had in mind for him was nothing compared to this.

”Xaden at least my leg hurts.” Uther pleaded. ”I’m in pains. Let me get treated and we will discuss this. I lost my wolf years ago I would die if I don’t treat it now. Please.”

I looked at him in disgust.

Appalled that he even shared the same blood with my mother.

Disgusted that he was my mother’s brother.

That he was even my uncle.

He and Anna were the same.

All the same.

Monsters who had disgraced my entire family pack.

I sighed heavily and looked up at the ceiling of the throne room.

Hundreds of my generation had been here and I wandered if they had ever been in my own place.

Having to judge my sister, my uncle for murdering my own child!

For murdering innocent people!

Just for their own selfish gains.

I looked back down at the wolves in the room.

The people who looked up to me as their Alpha.

Alpha who they expected to give justice for them.

”My lord ,” Uther began, his voice cracked, his knees hitting the cold floor. ”Please... please, I beg for your forgiveness.”

I said nothing. The murmurs that rippled through the court died down immediately at the sound of my silence.

”I was wrong,” Uther continued, clutching his chest as though his heart were collapsing under his words. ”But it was not my will. You must believe me, it wasn’t me who plotted against you. It wasn’t me who did it.” His breath hitched. ”Anna, she used dark magic on me. She bound my mind. I couldn’t think, couldn’t resist. Every act, every word, she controlled it all.”

My eyes flicked to Anna.

She stood , her golden hair perfectly arranged, her dress too calm for the storm unfolding.

”He’s lying!” she hissed. ”He’s always been the one pulling the strings! He wanted your throne, Xaden! He wanted Father’s empire. Don’t you see what he’s doing? He’s turning you against me again!”

Watching them turn on each other disgusted me!

”Enough,” I said.

The word echoed through the hall like thunder.

Both Anna and Uther flinched. The air grew still again.

I descended the steps, each footfall measured, deliberate. My wolf stirred beneath my skin, restless, waiting.

”Uther,” I said, standing before him, my shadow stretching long across the floor. ”You claim Anna used dark magic on you?”

”Yes, my Alpha,” he said quickly, eyes darting between me and my sister. ”You must have felt it, her deceit, her influence. You know what she’s capable of!”

Anna’s jaw clenched. ”How dare you—”

”Silence,” I ordered.

She froze. Even now, she feared my voice more than the gods.

I turned my gaze back to Uther. ”Tell me something, uncle. When you ordered the guard to stand down during the siege at the northern borders, was that her doing too?”

He hesitated. His lips trembled. ”...I err....yes.”

”And when you sent scouts to the southern territory without my knowledge? When you plotted with others to declare me unfit to rule?” My tone was low now, dangerous.

”That—That was her influence, I swear it!”

A bitter smile curved at the corner of my lips. ”No,” I said softly, almost kindly. ”That was you.”

His face blanched. The hall stirred with uneasy murmurs.

I stepped closer until I could see the flicker of fear in his eyes, the first honest emotion he’d shown all morning.

”I know what you’ve been planning, Uther,” I said. ”I know about your little council meetings in the shadows. I know about your attempt to stage a coup and take the pack. You wanted my pack, my lands, my people.” I leaned closer. ”But you made one mistake, you thought I was blind.”

The blood drained from his face completely. ”That’s not true—”

”Oh, but it is.” My voice sliced through his plea. ”Did you think no one would notice your whispers? The gold that vanished from the treasury? The letters smuggled out through the border guards?”

I straightened, my tone cold as winter. ”You underestimated me.

The shock in his expression was almost pitiful.

For a brief moment, the man looked older than time itself, broken, hollowed, caught in his own web. But I had no sympathy left to spare.

”Erik,” I called.

A ripple spread through the room. From the crowd, Erik stepped forward,

He walked to me, his expression hard and unreadable. From within his coat, he withdrew a sealed scroll and placed it into my hand.

I looked down at it for a moment, the crimson wax still unbroken, marked with the faded symbol of a crescent lily.

”This,” I said, raising the scroll, ”is a letter I received three moons ago.”

Uther’s brow furrowed. Anna stiffened.

”It came from Lily,” I continued. ”My former mate.”

The words were met with a murmur of surprise from the crowd.

”She had gone to live in a convent before I went to the royal pack,” I said slowly. ”But she sent a message.”

The hall was deathly still.

”’To Xaden,’” I read, my voice carrying across the marble expanse. ”’I do not deserve forgiveness. I was weak, and my weakness became the weapon others used to destroy you. Anna promised me redemption. Uther promised me safety. I believed them both. I helped them forge lies, spread fear, poison Jasmine’s trust. I helped them stage her fall, her pain... even her miscarriage.’”

The words felt like ash in my mouth.

A gasp tore through the crowd. Even the guards exchanged glances, their hands tightening on their hilts.

I continued, my voice steady though my blood boiled beneath my skin.

”’ we planned Rudy’s death. I was there when they decided Jasmine would be blamed for treason. I cannot undo what I’ve done, but I can tell the truth before I go to meet the goddess. If there is mercy left for me, it lies in confession. Forgive me, or don’t, but know that Anna and Uther were never victims. They were the architects. And I hope that the goddess forgives me.”

I let the scroll fall shut.

Silence.

Anna’s face was white as bone. Uther stared at the ground, his lips moving soundlessly. The weight of the words hung heavy over everyone present.

”She ended her life,” I said quietly. ”Threw herself from the convent bell tower. Perhaps she thought death would cleanse her sins. She was lucky because the goddess might give her mercy but I would NEVER have!”

I

Anna shook her head violently, her voice trembling. ”That letter! it’s a lie! It’s all a lie. Xaden please! Would never do much a thing to you or anyone! You need to believe me!”

She no longer looked well kept.

She looks like a mess!

Her hair was now scattered, not in it’s usual arranged golden curls.

Her face was a mask of terror and desperation.

I looked down at my uncle who was half dead.

His blood still spilling from where his leg had been severed from his body.

Was this who my family had become?

What I now had to call a family?

”Enough!” I roared, the sound rumbling with the edge of my wolf’s fury.

I growled so cruelly and my mind blazing in rage.

The room went silent and my blood boiled in rage.

I tasted anger and hate!

”Anna and Uther, according to the laws of the crescent pack, standing for over five hundred centuries, you have both been sentenced to death!” I declared