Chapter 184: CONQUER THE KINGDOM

Maisie was their new sitter for the twins, and she had just started working last month. She was good at her work, and Madelline was at ease leaving her daughters with her.

"Tell Maisie to pack the girls, and she will leave too." Jack started to throw Madelline’s clothes into the suitcase again.

But then, Madelline noticed something; Jack only packed her things up, but he didn’t do it for himself. "Jack, you told me to leave... will you leave with us too?"

Madelline didn’t need to hear the answer; she knew right away when she saw her husband’s eyes. This was ridiculous, and she lost all of her patience.

"I am not going anywhere until I get an explanation about what is going on!? What happened with you?!" Madelline was angry now; she threw the suitcase, and the clothes Jack had put randomly in it tumbled onto the floor. "Those aren’t even the clothes I will wear for vacation!"

Jack was in distress. But he knew he couldn’t ship his family away without a proper explanation. Moreover, given Madelline’s status as the head of the research for the animagus, her disappearance would alert the devils, as they were so close.

Jack felt that he couldn’t trust anyone. The image of what happened to that monster named Oscar was etched in his mind, engraved on the back of his head, as fear rattled him.

And the person who had done that was none other than Owen Brooks, the person with the same authority as him—someone who was supposed to protect this country from the animagus. But if what Zade Blaze said was right, then he would be the one who would bring calamity.

Jack had witnessed with his own eyes what they were capable of doing. They could be everywhere. And what was more terrifying was the fact that they could be anyone.

"Jack!" Madelline shook Jack’s body because he was spacing out again and didn’t listen to her. "You are not listening to me!"

Madelline pushed Jack away when he tried to get the suitcase and continued packing. She kicked the suitcase across the room and glared at him.

"I have to go. Get yourself together; we will talk about it when I return." Madelline had an important meeting that she had to attend; she couldn’t miss it.

She wouldn’t go anywhere outside of her lab once she stepped out of the house, let alone travel out of the country.

But Jack grabbed her hand so tightly.

"Listen to me. I will tell you what happened, but you can’t cut me off before I finish." Jack looked at his wife. "Promise me you will not say anything about it."

Madelline was confused, but she agreed to listen to what Jack was saying.

And he was right; the story indeed didn’t make sense at all. It sounded like a bad fairy tale, something that came out of your imagination instead of real life.

"You don’t trust me," Jack stated. He could tell right away with one look at Madelline’s lukewarm reaction. "I know what I saw."

Madelline took Jack to sit down on the bed and talked to him gently. "Recently, we discovered that the animagus has unique brainwaves. They can communicate with each other through their minds within a certain distance. It is like a radio signal."

"What are you trying to say?"

Madelline grimaced. "I think they can manipulate someone else’s mind too." She then hastily added. "Probably, they had done something to you and forced you to see something that was not there in the first place."

***

"We need her, King Zade. We need to know if there are more people who have been compromised." Kaleb was practically begging Zade to lend him Seara.

However, the way he talked about his mate didn’t sit well with him. He addressed her like a tool that he could borrow anytime. It pissed Zade off, but he knew a time like this would come, though it was faster than he expected.

"We need her here." Zade’s answer was still the same.

"King Zade, if our kingdom collapses, yours will be next, and there is no way you can win this war if you fight alone. You—the Lycans—are strong, but being strong alone is not enough. The Devils have abilities you have never seen before. The dark era will be very different this time."

Kaleb was right, but at the same time, he sounded desperate, too. He needed Zade to relent, but it wouldn’t be easy to ask a shifter of their mate, especially not a Lycan, as they were well known to be overly possessive.

"I can go and take a look at the situation there," Seara volunteered; she was well aware Zade wouldn’t give her up. She didn’t want to go and be separated from him, but the situation was not right for her to be selfish.

Even so, the thought of not being with Zade already gave her a panic attack. Her palms were clammy now, and her heart was beating so fast when she gave the suggestion.

"Zade?" Seara tried to reason with him, but Zade didn’t budge. He didn’t want to compromise, so they couldn’t find a middle ground for it.

"Give the authority of your kingdom to me," Zade finally said. "Without Altair, your alphas are in disarray. I want them to be under one command with the alphas in my territory."

"What?" Kaleb was shocked by the idea. "Do you want to expand your territory at a time like this?" The first thought that came to Kaleb’s mind was that Zade wanted to conquer their kingdom.

"The arrangement will be temporary until we can get Altair back. It will be easier that way."

"No, you can’t do that." Kaleb rejected the idea vehemently.

"Do you think Jazz can appease the alphas who want the blood of the humans now? How many of them will go mad once they start the killing spree?"

There was that problem too.