Chapter 165: The Unfolding Truth XLV

Third Person POV

The grand hall of the Zanzia pack house had completely lost its former glory.

It was no longer a place of celebration, but a cold, silent prison.

Along the stone walls, the iron torches burned low, their flickering flames struggling to cast light into the dark corners where heavy shadows pooled and waited.

The expensive furniture had been violently shoved aside to clear the space.

Fine wooden chairs lay overturned on their sides, and a massive oak dining table had been split clean down the middle, its jagged wooden shards scattered across the floorboards like broken bones after a battle.

Soldiers in heavy, dark armor blocked every single exit.

Their metal plates were completely blackened from soot, and their faces remained hidden behind cold, expressionless iron helmets.

They did not move an inch, nor utter a single word to one another.

They simply stood there like stone statues, waiting for their next command.

Helen knelt directly in the center of the dusty floor.

Right beside her, Kai knelt as well, his large hands pulled tightly behind his back and bound with rough, thick hemp rope that bit deep into his skin.

His fine clothes were torn to shreds, hanging off his broad shoulders in dirty rags.

Red blood streaked across his jawline and forehead, his own blood, drying dark under the torchlight.

His bright green eyes were completely locked onto the Alpha King, tracking his every breath since the moment they had been dragged into the room.

Lysander stood tall right in front of them.

The old king looked incredibly ancient, his wrinkled face deeply lined with age, though his jaw remained rigid and tight with anger.

His hair was entirely silver-grey, straight and swept neatly back from a high forehead that had witnessed centuries of history pass by.

His eyes were the absolute worst part of his appearance.

They were a flat, icy grey color, completely cold and devoid of life.

They were the eyes of a creature that had stopped acting like a human being a very long time ago.

Lysander looked over at a nearby soldier who was nervously holding a coiled bundle of standard hemp rope.

"Rope?" Lysander asked, his voice dripping with pure disgust as he stared at the guard.

"Have you completely lost your mind?"

The soldier hesitated, his arms trembling as he looked down at the floor.

Lysander pointed a long, wrinkled finger directly at Helen.

"She is a nine-tailed fox. She could snap that flimsy rope with a single thought if she wanted to."

"Go back inside the armory and get the real chains. The heavy ones. Get the exact iron you use for prisoners you actually intend to keep."

The guards did not wait to be told twice.

They scrambled out of the room instantly.

They returned only a few minutes later, dragging massive iron chains that clanked and scraped loudly against the hard stone floorboards.

The links were incredibly thick, dark, and rusted orange at the edges.

The heavy iron padlocks were the actual size of a grown man’s fist.

The soldiers quickly moved in, wrapping the heavy iron lines around Helen’s body.

They looped the metal tightly across her arms, over her chest, and around her wrists until she was completely pinned.

Each heavy padlock clicked shut with a loud, metallic sound that echoed through the quiet hall, sounding far too final.

Helen did not fight back against their rough hands.

She did not say a single word to stop them.

She simply sat quietly on her knees inside the heavy pile of iron, watching the old Alpha King with dark eyes that had stopped being grey hours ago.

Kai watched the guards handle his wife, his chest heaving with a deep, silent rage.

His hands were tied tight with the rope, but that was not his actual restraint in this room.

The Alpha King’s invisible magic coiled tightly around his entire body like a suffocating serpent.

It was completely unseen to the eye, but it was there, heavy and suffocating.

One wrong move from Kai, one slight twitch of his muscles, and that invisible snake would tighten and crush his ribs.

Lysander slowly turned his body to face the bound Alpha, stepping closer.

"I told you before that you would not like my methods when I decide to take things by force," Lysander said, his voice soft but incredibly cruel as he looked down at him.

"I tried to sit down and talk with you like men. I tried to make sense of this situation with you before. But you simply refused to listen to my warnings."

He took another step forward, bending his old body down until his wrinkled face was completely level with Kai’s bloody nose.

"And now, just look at what your stubbornness caused," Lysander whispered, his breath cold.

"All those innocent pack members lying dead out there in the mud tonight. Every single drop of that blood is on your hands because of this choice."

The old king turned his head slightly, his icy gaze landing on Helen.

He spat the word out like a disgusting curse.

"Because of this."

Kai’s jaw clenched so hard his teeth ground together. His green eyes burned with a fierce, unbroken fire.

"My answer to you is the same as it was before," Kai said, his voice remarkably steady despite the pain racking his body.

"It will always be the same answer, Lysander. I will do absolutely anything to protect the woman I love."

"I do not care if you come at me a thousand more times with your army. I do not care if you kill me a thousand times over. My answer will never change for you."

Lysander straightened his old spine back up. The deep wrinkles on his face pulled into a tight, ugly expression that resembled a smile.

"You really are a stubborn boy, aren’t you?" Lysander asked, his voice dry like sand.

Kai did not give him the satisfaction of an answer. He kept his mouth shut.

Lysander turned his back on them, walking slowly over to the grand glass window. He stared out into the night that had arrived, watching the thick black smoke still rising from the ruins of the burning pack houses in the distance.

"You two might be sitting there wondering exactly how I found out about her," Lysander said, his tone turning casual, as if he were simply talking about the evening weather.

"How I discovered your mysterious new wife. How I figured out exactly what kind of creature she really is."

Kai and Helen both raised their heads, their eyes tracking the old king’s back.

"You are going to be very surprised when you find out the truth," Lysander said, still staring out at the fires across the land.

He raised his right hand high into the air and loudly snapped his fingers.

At the far end of the great hall, the heavy wooden doors slowly creaked open. A lone man walked slowly into the room.

He was an old wolf, his once pitch-black hair now heavily streaked with stark lines of grey and white.

It was thinning considerably at his temples, worn down by long years of bitter thoughts and hidden regrets.

His face was deeply lined with wrinkles around the eyes and mouth, but the strong handsomeness of his youth was still very visible in his jawline.

Despite his advanced age and the heavy weight on his shoulders, he still walked into the room with a firm, powerful stride that showed his old Alpha strength.

He did not look down at Kai kneeling on the floor.

He did not cast a single glance toward Helen in her heavy chains.

He looked at absolutely nobody at all. He just kept his eyes glued straight ahead.

The color completely drained from Kai’s face, leaving him looking ghost-white under the torchlight.

"Father..." Kai whispered, his voice barely audible as his chest tightened in shock.

Helen stared blankly at the old man who had just entered their prison.

This was the exact man who had refused to acknowledge her existence even once since she had arrived at the pack grounds.

He was the man who had completely ignored her even after she gave birth to his own granddaughter, Azura.

She had spent months thinking that maybe, just maybe, if she stayed patient, she would finally get a chance to speak with him like a real family member.

But everything was turning out completely wrong.

She had never spoken a single word to him. He had never allowed her to even say hello.

And looking at him now, standing beside the tyrant, the truth finally slammed into her chest.

She finally understood exactly why he had always gone out of his way to avoid looking her in the eye.

Lysander turned away from the window, a small smirk playing on his thin lips as he looked at the two older men standing together.

"Your father asked me for a massive favor, Kai. A very, very long time ago."

He walked away from the glass, pacing until he stopped directly beside the old Alpha.

"Back in those days, we were all much younger," Lysander continued, his voice dropping into a softer, mocking tone.

"You were just a young boy, Kai. You had absolutely no idea what was actually happening behind closed doors in your own home."

"But your mother... your sweet mother was terribly sick. She was dying right in front of your father’s eyes."

The king placed a heavy hand on the old man’s shoulder.

"The only power in this world capable of saving her life from that sickness belonged to me," Lysander said, his grey eyes flashing with malice.

"So, like any desperate man, your father made a binding deal with me. He promised to give me whatever I wanted in the future if I helped him."

"And I kept my end of the bargain. I used my magic and I saved your mother’s life."

Lysander looked over at Kai’s father, his expression turning cold and sharp.

"But after his wife was completely cured and healthy... this old wolf suddenly found out he could not bring himself to keep his promise to me."

"The years kept passing by, and his remaining time on this earth was running out. My patience was completely gone."

Lysander turned his body, gesturing broadly with his hand toward Helen where she sat bound in iron.

"And then, out of nowhere, your mysterious new Luna showed up at this pack house," Lysander said, laughing softly under his breath.

"The moment your father saw her, he thought to himself, ’This is it. This is my perfect way out of the bargain.’"

"He immediately contacted me and offered her up on a silver platter. He gave her to me to fully settle his old debt."

Kai’s hands clenched into tight fists behind his back, the rough hemp ropes straining and cutting deep into his skin as he fought against the restraint.

Lysander walked right up to Kai, stopping directly in front of his knees.

"But you see, Kai... after the deal was already finalized between us, you refused to cooperate with my plans."

"I tried my best to be a reasonable man with you. I tried to communicate nicely. I sent my best warriors to talk to you."

"I sent multiple letters and messages to your office. But you rejected every single one of them."

He leaned down slightly, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper.

"So, all of this destruction you see outside tonight is not my fault at all. Not really. This entire war is your own father’s fault."

"If you want to blame someone for the deaths of your people tonight, you should blame the father you love so much."

Kai looked past the old king’s shoulder, completely ignoring his mocking smile.

He focused his burning green eyes directly on his father’s face.

"Tell me he is lying to me," Kai said, his voice shaking violently with an intense emotion.

The old Alpha kept his chin down, refusing to look up at his son.

"Look at me and tell me he is lying!" Kai roared, his voice booming against the high stone walls of the hall.

The old Alpha slowly raised his head, his tired eyes finally meeting his son’s gaze.

For the first time in many years, he actually looked at Kai.

He really looked at the man his boy had become.

"I had to do absolutely everything in my power to keep your mother alive, Kai," his father said, his voice quiet but firm.

"Everything. You simply do not understand the weight of that choice. You were not there in the room with us."

"You did not have to sit there night after night watching the woman you love slip away into the dark."

"And you decided the only way to save her was to do this?" Kai asked, his fury boiling over as he glared at him.

"You chose this path yourself. You chose to destroy absolutely everything we built here. The very pack you used to lead with honor!"

"The innocent people who gave you their trust for decades! Just look around this room and see what your choices have done to us!"

"Do not sit there and lecture me, boy!" the old Alpha shouted back, his voice rising in anger as his face hardened.

"I am actually doing you a massive favor right now!"

Kai could only stare at him in absolute shock, his breath catching in his throat.

"She is not even your real, fated mate," his father said, his voice growing steadier, cold, and analytical.

"You will find your true mate out there in the world one day. Someone who is actually meant for your soul."

"Someone the Moon Goddess specifically chose for you from birth. These intense feelings you think you have for this woman right now... they will fade away."

"They always fade away with time."

He turned his cold, detached gaze directly onto Helen, looking down at her like she was a stray animal.

"So just let her go," the old Alpha said flatly.

"Let her go with the king so peace can finally return to our lands. I did what I had to do because the two of you are not fated by the moon anyway."

"Whatever love you think you feel for her in your heart, it is not a real bond. It is just a temporary phase."

The entire great hall fell into a suffocating, heavy silence.

The low torches along the walls flickered wildly in the draft.

The heavy iron chains clinked together softly as Helen shifted her weight on the hard stone floorboards, the metal biting into her skin.

Kai’s father stood there with his arms crossed tightly over his broad chest, his face completely hard and set, fully convinced in his own mind that he had made the right decision for the family.

Kai stared up at him, the betrayal cutting deeper than any physical sword ever could.

"Are you even listening to the words coming out of your own mouth right now?" Kai asked, his voice dropping into a quiet, broken whisper.

His father did not utter a single word in response.

He just looked away.

Kai slowly turned his head to look at Helen.

He looked at the heavy iron chains wrapped tightly around her small body.

He saw the dark purple bruises already forming on her delicate wrists where the metal dug in.

He saw her beautiful white hair, now completely tangled, dirty, and messy from the courtyard mud, with that prominent black streak still cutting through the center like an open wound.

"She is my wife," Kai said softly, his voice cracking completely as tears of absolute agony welled in his green eyes.

"She is your own daughter-in-law. And you just sold her to a monster. You traded her away like she was absolutely nothing to us."

"Like she was just an object to be bartered for a debt."

He took a ragged breath, his shoulders shaking as he looked at the floorboards.

"How could you possibly do this to me, father? All these years we have never been close as father and son."

"I always thought that one day you would actually try to fix our relationship. I thought we could build something real."

"But every single conflict, every single war between us is completely your fault. And your grand solution to everything is just to kill my wife?"

His father said absolutely nothing to him.

He remained completely silent, staring into the dark corners of the room.

The Alpha King watched the entire family drama unfold with those cold, flat grey eyes.

A look of pure enjoyment settled on his wrinkled face.

He was thoroughly loving every second of this.

He loved the immense pain vibrating through the room. He loved the deep betrayal cutting through their hearts.

And he loved watching the slow, agonizing breaking of absolutely everything Kai had spent his entire life building.

Helen sat perfectly still inside her heavy pile of iron chains, watching her beloved husband completely fall apart right in front of her eyes.

She did not open her mouth to speak a single word of comfort.

But deep inside her soul, beneath the heavy weight of the iron and the blue fire humming under her skin, she was using every single ounce of her remaining strength to stay perfectly still.

She forced her body to remain quiet, holding back the devastating monster of her nine-tailed rage, doing absolutely everything in her power not to unleash the destruction that would end up hurting the very man she loved.