Chapter 166: The Unfolding Truth XLVl

Third Person POV

The heavy silence inside the great stone hall was thick enough to make a person choke.

Kai and his father had completely stopped shouting at each other.

The old former Alpha stood perfectly still with his thick arms crossed tightly over his chest, his face hard as rock, his black-and-grey hair messy from the wild fighting taking place outside the castle walls.

Kai remained down on the cold stone floor, his knees resting in the dirt, his large hands bound tight behind his back, his green eyes entirely fixed on the floorboards.

Helen sat directly inside her massive pile of iron chains, her long white hair tangled and dirty, her dark eyes silently watching every single movement in the room.

Nobody moved a muscle.

The tall iron torches along the stone walls flickered weakly in the draft.

The armored guards stood frozen like statues at the very edges of the grand room.

The Alpha King had simply been standing there, watching the entire family argument play out like a man enjoying a theater show he had already seen a hundred times before.

Now, he slowly took a step forward, his leather boots clicking against the stone.

"Well then," Lysander said, breaking the long silence with a dry chuckle.

"Since you have all finished saying your little pieces... I actually have a surprise for you."

Every single head in the room instantly turned toward him.

Lysander smiled. It was not a warm or kind look.

It was the specific, cruel smile of a man who had been waiting for this exact moment for a very long time.

He began to walk slowly toward Kai’s father. He did not rush his steps.

He moved with the slow, calm pace of someone who knew he had absolutely nothing to fear and everything to gain from this night.

Kai’s father stood tall as the king approached.

Despite the heavy lines of grey streaking through his pitch-black hair, and despite the long years of stress weighing down on his broad shoulders, he was still an incredibly strong man.

He had broad shoulders, a square jawline, and the imposing frame of a man who had once led massive armies into battle and commanded absolute respect from thousands of wolves.

Lysander stopped right beside him.

He reached out and casually placed a single, wrinkled hand on the old Alpha’s shoulder.

It looked friendly and familiar.

It was the exact way a man might greet an old childhood friend at a tavern.

"You ended up wasting a massive amount of my time, old friend," Lysander said softly, his voice echoing in the quiet hall.

"Before you finally decided to give me the exact thing I wanted from you."

Kai’s father stiffened under the touch, his muscles turning to steel, but he did not pull his body away from the king.

"And I thought to myself," Lysander continued, his fingers tapping against the old man’s shoulder blade, "if I just let you walk away scot-free after all this delay, it would simply be too easy on you."

"Someone else in the kingdom might try the same trick you played. Another Lord might think they can make a binding deal with me and then drag their feet for years without any consequences."

He gave the old Alpha’s shoulder a firm, sudden squeeze.

It was not a crushing grip, just enough pressure to make his point clear.

"So, I wanted to personally make sure you got a special surprise tonight," Lysander whispered.

Immediately, at the far end of the great hall, the heavy wooden doors creaked open once more.

Two burly soldiers came walking through the doorway, dragging a limp body between them.

The woman was not walking on her own feet at all.

Her bare toes scraped roughly against the hard stone floorboards as they moved, leaving dark, wet red smears behind her on the gray rock.

Her head hung low toward her chest, her long hair... a messy mixture of pitch-black and deep grey strands... falling forward over her face like a dark curtain.

Her arms hung completely loose at her sides. Her entire body was entirely limp.

The two guards carelessly dropped her right in front of Kai’s father’s feet.

The impact caused the woman’s head to roll lazily to the side.

Her face was completely pale under the torchlight... far too white.

Her lips had turned a dark, bruising blue color.

Her eyes were completely closed.

Kai let out a sudden, ear-piercing scream that tore through his throat.

"Mother!" he shrieked, his voice breaking completely.

He violently threw his entire weight forward, lunging against the thick hemp bonds holding his arms.

The rough rope bit deeply into his skin, and bright red blood instantly welled up around the fibers, soaking into the cords.

He did not care about the pain at all.

He thrashed his body wildly, fought against the constraints, and tried his absolute best to crawl across the floor to reach her side...

Lysander simply flicked his long fingers through the air.

The invisible magic coiled around Kai’s chest instantly tightened like an iron vice.

It squeezed his lungs.

Kai’s spine arched backward at a terrifying angle, his mouth opening wide in a silent scream of pure agony.

Dark blood began to drip from his lower lip, from his nose, and from the very corners of his eyes as the pressure crushed him.

"Mother... Mother..." Kai choked out, his voice a ragged, broken whisper.

His vocal cords cracked under the strain.

His eyes were not their usual bright green anymore; they were completely bloodshot and red.

It was not the proud red color of his inner wolf spirit.

It was the horrific, broken red of a son watching his own mother’s dead body thrown into the dirt at his feet.

Helen’s heavy iron chains clinked loudly against the floor as she tried to force her body to move toward him.

She could not budge.

The thick iron bands held her shoulders tight against the ground, and the massive padlocks kept her pinned.

She could do absolutely nothing but watch the horror unfold.

Hot tears streamed down her cheeks, soaking into her tangled white hair.

Kai’s father dropped heavily to his knees in front of the body.

His large hands shook violently as he reached out toward his wife’s face.

He touched her cheek with the tips of his fingers. Cold. She was far too cold.

He pressed two fingers against her neck, searching desperately.

But there was no pulse beating beneath the skin.

He quickly scooped her entire limp form up into his broad arms, holding her tight against his chest.

"No," Kai’s father whispered, his voice trembling as he held her.

"No, no, no..."

He began to rock her body back and forth on the floor.

His long, grey-white hair fell across his face, hiding his eyes.

"What did you do to her?" he suddenly shouted, his voice rising in volume as he stared up.

"What did you do to my wife?!"

Lysander looked down at the weeping man, his face completely calm and unbothered.

His icy grey eyes did not blink.

"Where exactly are your manners, old wolf?" Lysander asked flatly.

"That is definitely not the correct way to speak to your king."

But Kai’s father did not hear a single word the king said.

He was entirely focused on holding his wife’s pale face in his palms, pressing his own forehead flat against hers as the truth hit him.

"I am so sorry," the old Alpha sobbed, his large shoulders shaking as he wept over her.

"I am so sorry, my love. I am so sorry..."

The Alpha King turned his back on the weeping old man, walking casually over to Kai, who was still bleeding on the floor, his body shaking violently as he tried to crawl toward his parents.

"You see that over there?" Lysander asked, gesturing with a lazy wave of his hand toward the old Alpha.

"None of this tragedy would have happened tonight if you had just fully cooperated with my demands from the very start."

He stopped his boots directly in front of Kai’s face.

"You need to learn how to actually think like a real Alpha, boy," Lysander said, his voice cold as ice.

"Do not just act like a fool who only cares about protecting his favorite people. You cannot protect a single person if you end up destroying everything around you in the process."

"This... this grand mess right here is exactly what happens when you cross me."

Kai did not look up at him.

His head remained bowed toward the stone, his broad shoulders shaking with silent sobs.

Across him on the floor, his father suddenly stopped rocking the body.

The old Alpha slowly raised his head. His eyes were no longer wet with tears.

They were hard as flint, burning with a terrifying, fierce fire.

It was a deep rage that had been building up inside his soul for decades, and it had finally snapped wide open.

He glared straight at the Alpha King’s back.

"You..." the father muttered, his voice dropping into a low, deadly register.

He stood up on his feet.

His large hands curled into tight fists.

His fingers began to elongate, long, sharp claws ripping straight through his skin... he was not shifting his entire body into a wolf, just changing his hands enough to do damage.

Just enough to tear a throat out.

"You killed my wife!" the old Alpha roared.

He lunged forward with all his might.

Lysander didn’t even turn around; he just casually moved his right hand through the air.

He did not even strike out toward the old Alpha.

He just flicked his wrist in a careless gesture.

The heavy invisible magic that had been holding Kai down instantly released its grip on the young man and snapped across the room toward his father.

Kai’s father froze completely dead in mid-air.

His entire body stopped moving instantly, suspended above the floorboards.

His sharp claws were stuck just inches away from the Alpha King’s face.

His legs kicked wildly against the empty air, and his thick arms strained against the invisible force, but he could not move an inch closer.

He could not reach his target.

He was completely trapped, held firmly in place by nothing but the absolute will of the king.

Lysander turned his head around to look at him, his face calm and patient.

"I really just wanted to give you a nice parting gift tonight," Lysander said softly, staring at the frozen man.

"But it seems you are not very happy with my generosity."

He tilted his head to the side, studying the old wolf’s strained face like a scientist looking at a bug.

"So, I am going to do you a massive favor instead," Lysander said, his tone turning thoughtful.

"One of the greatest favors anyone could ever do for a man in your pathetic position."

He stepped a few inches closer to the suspended man, his flat grey eyes softening into an expression that looked almost kind.

"I am going to send you right to her side," Lysander whispered.

"That way, your poor heart won’t have to be broken anymore. You will get to be with the woman you love forever. You know, not every king would do something this nice for a traitor."

"Not everyone is as incredibly generous as I am."

Kai’s father did not beg for his life.

He did not plead for mercy.

He slowly, painfully twisted his neck against the crushing weight of the magic, turning his gaze down toward his son kneeling on the floorboards.

"Kai," the father said, his voice strained and tight.

Kai lifted his wet face, his eyes completely red and filled with pain.

"I am so sorry, my boy," his father said quietly.

"I was never a good father to you."

His voice cracked slightly as he looked at his son one last time.

"I am so sorry for bringing all of this terrible chaos into our home. I really hope... You can find it in your heart to forgive me."

Kai could not speak a single word in response.

His throat felt completely closed up, his mouth hung open, and his tears just kept falling onto the gray stone.

Lysander watched the two of them interact, a small smile appearing on his lips.

"You see that?" the king asked gently.

"I really am a good person at heart. I even let him say his final words to his family."

Lysander tightly closed his right fist.

The sound that followed immediately after was not overly loud. It was not a grand, dramatic explosion.

It was just a succession of sharp cracks.

The sound of solid bones snapping.

One after another, the quiet, wet noise of a human body being crushed into pieces from the very inside out echoed through the hall.

Kai’s father went completely limp in the air.

Lysander opened his fist, relaxing his fingers.

The invisible magic instantly let go of its grip.

The old Alpha’s broken body dropped heavily to the stone floor, landing with a dull thud right beside his dead wife.

His neck was twisted at a horrific angle that should have been impossible for a living person.

His right arm was bent completely backward where no arm should ever bend. He did not move a single muscle.

Kai just stared blankly at the two bodies lying in front of him.

His mother. His father.

Both of them were dead. Both of them were gone from the world forever.

He did not scream out in rage this time.

He did not thrash against the heavy ropes binding his wrists.

He just... stared.

His green eyes looked completely hollow and empty.

His face was entirely blank. He was not crying anymore. He had absolutely no tears left inside him to shed.

Helen tried with everything she had to force her body to move.

She dragged her frame slowly across the floorboards, her massive iron chains clanking loudly, the rough metal scraping harshly against the stones.

She desperately needed to reach her husband’s side.

She needed to touch his shoulder.

She needed to whisper something... anything at all... to bring his mind back from the dark, empty place he had just gone into.

But the heavy metal lines snapped tight, stopping her movement.

The massive iron padlocks held her down firmly.

She could not reach him no matter how hard she pulled. Then she slowly lifted her head, glaring directly at the old Alpha King.

Her grey eyes had turned into a dark, deep ocean color now... completely deep, cold, and filled with a dangerous ancient power that had been sleeping undisturbed for centuries.

Her voice came out incredibly low, steady, and dangerous.

"What exact kind of monster are you?" Helen asked, her tone ice-cold.

Lysander turned his body around to face her fully.

His flat grey eyes met her gaze without a single hint of fear.

He did not flinch away from her stare at all.

"A monster?" Lysander asked, his voice entirely calm.

He began to walk slowly toward her corner of the room, unhurried and relaxed.

"I am definitely not a monster, little fox," Lysander said softly.

"A real monster would never have sent that old man straight to his wife’s side. A true monster would have made him sit here and suffer."

"A cruel man would have forced him to live the rest of his miserable life knowing exactly what his choices did to his people."

He stopped his leather boots directly in front of her kneeling form, looking down at her trapped inside the iron links.

"But you see," Lysander said, a wide smile pulling his wrinkled skin tight, "I am a truly good person. I am simply not that cruel."

Helen did not bother giving him an answer.

She just kept her eyes locked onto his face.

The intense hatred burning behind her dark irises was not a hot, fiery rage; it was completely cold.

It was as freezing as the absolute bottom of the ocean floor, as cold as the deep places where the sunlight could never reach.

The Alpha King stared back down at her for a long moment, the smile slowly fading away from his thin lips.

He slightly tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowing.

"So tell me then..." Lysander asked, his voice dripping with sudden curiosity, "Where exactly is the little one hidden?"

Helen’s facial expression did not change even a fraction.

But somewhere deep behind her dark eyes, something shifted.

Something became incredibly careful. Something became entirely guarded.

"What little one are you talking about?" Helen asked flatly.

The simple words hung heavily in the freezing air of the great hall. The low torches flickered along the stone walls.

Kai did not move a single muscle on the floor.

The Alpha King’s icy grey eyes narrowed into tiny slits as he stared down at her face.