Chapter 234 - 0234

Kaelen POV

"Are you okay?" Darius whispered urgently beside me, but I barely registered his voice.

The roaring in my ears was too loud. My heartbeat pounded violently against my ribs, and the rage surging through my veins was becoming too raw, too powerful, and far too difficult to keep under control.

Darius was staring at me with barely concealed horror, his eyes darting between my face and my hands. He could see the black veins creeping up my wrists. He could see that darkness spreading beneath my skin, no longer content to remain buried.

I ignored him completely, keeping my bloodshot gaze fixed on Jaxen.

He was still kneeling on the floor, his head bowed, looking every bit like a broken, grieving man who had come here seeking justice.

"Are you done?" I asked slowly, my voice so deep, ragged, and unnatural that it barely sounded human. "Are you fucking finished with your pathetic performance?"

The entire chamber fell into absolute silence.

Jaxen stopped mid-whimper and slowly raised his head. The moment his eyes met mine, whatever faint color remained in his face vanished completely.

He saw the crimson bleeding into my amber eyes. He saw the black, corruption-like veins pulsing beneath my skin. He saw the monstrous darkness I had spent years keeping locked away finally clawing its way to the surface.

"Snap out of it, Kaelen!" Darius hissed, grabbing my forearm tightly.

I shook him off with a sharp flick of my wrist, never once breaking eye contact with the coward kneeling before me.

"Lorelei will be my wife," I said, my voice echoing through the vaulted chamber like a death sentence. "Whether any of you like it or not. That is not your decision to make."

Unable to take it anymore, Elder Raymond slammed his hand against the carved armrest of his chair, his pinched face twisting with outrage. "Nonsense!" he shrieked. "What about our people? Do you intend to curse them too? Do you want to bring ruin upon the entire empire just to satisfy your own selfish desires?"

I shifted my blood-red gaze toward him, and Raymond immediately flinched, shrinking back into his plush seat.

"My people will survive," I replied, my tone flat, cold, and lethal. "They have survived for centuries. They survived my father’s tyranny. They survived wars, plagues, famines, and every other fucking thing this cruel world has thrown at them. They will survive one woman who has never harmed anyone in her life except by simply existing."

"Think this through, Alpha," Elder Marcus warned, leaning forward as his voice took on a sharper, more dangerous edge. "If you go against us, if word gets out about what she carries with her, it won’t end well for either of you. This could lead to a civil war."

I looked directly into Marcus’s eyes.

Then I smiled.

It wasn’t a smile born from amusement. It was the kind of expression that made hardened soldiers instinctively reach for their weapons, the kind that promised nothing but violence, pain, and a merciless death.

"Then let us go to war," I whispered into the quiet chamber.

Several elders visibly paled. Others exchanged nervous, panicked glances, suddenly looking far less confident than they had moments ago. Even Thomas’s smug, condescending smile had disappeared, replaced by something that looked dangerously close to fear.

Without saying another word, I turned on my heel and headed toward the grand double doors at the main exit.

I had barely made it halfway across the marble hall when a quiet, raspy voice drifted through the air behind me.

"You don’t look so good, Alpha King."

My steps faltered.

Because the truth was, I didn’t feel good at all. A deep, burning agony had begun spreading through my ribcage, making every breath feel like I was inhaling shards of broken glass.

Slowly, I turned back toward the dais.

It was Elder Augustus.

Unlike the rest of the loud, theatrical Council members, Augustus rarely spoke. He sat quietly in his chair, staring down at me with hollow, unreadable eyes and the faintest smile curling at his lips. It wasn’t warm or friendly. It was the smile of a man who knew a deadly secret most hadn’t even begun to uncover.

"I once knew a man who looked just like you do now," Augustus added quietly, sending an icy shiver down my spine.

With that, I lowered my gaze to my hands, the only exposed part of my skin. The black veins were still there, thick and frantic, twisting beneath my flesh like living snakes. The rage had consumed me so completely that I hadn’t even realized how hard my body had been struggling to contain the power surging through it.

"If I were you," Augustus continued, his expression remaining frustratingly composed, "I’d focus on taking care of yourself for now. After all, you’re our Alpha King. How is this empire supposed to function if you’re not in the right state to lead it?"

My chest tightened violently at his words. I looked back at him, my heart pounding against my ribs, while the rest of the Council exchanged baffled glances. None of them seemed to understand why Augustus was suddenly so concerned about my health when everyone knew I had survived battles far worse than this, not to mention poisonings that should have killed me.

But Augustus only held my gaze, that knowing smile still tugging at his lips.

He knew something was wrong with me.

I tore my gaze away from his unsettling expression and forced my heavy, aching feet to move.

Then, before the darkness clawing at the inside of me could spiral out of control and tear the entire palace apart, I turned and marched out of the building.

****

"There," Darius muttered as he shoved me into the back seat and slammed the door behind me. "There are no females around, so why the fuck are you having another episode?"

He hurried into the driver’s seat, but instead of starting the engine, he twisted around and began frantically searching me. His hands moved over my jacket, pockets, and belt, checking everywhere with a desperation that only grew when he found nothing.

"Where is it?" he demanded, his eyes widening as he looked at the black veins writhing beneath my skin. "Where the fuck is your suppressant?"

I tried to answer, but my throat was too tight. The darkness inside my chest had wrapped itself around my lungs, making every breath feel like a struggle. All I could manage was a weak, trembling gesture toward the inner pocket of my coat.

Darius immediately reached inside and pulled out the small glass syringe I had kept hidden there. It was the emergency dose I had started carrying after what happened with Lorelei, after I realized I could no longer trust my own body, my own mind, or even my wolf.

Without wasting another second, he uncapped it and drove the needle into my arm, forcing the liquid into my vein.

But the effect wasn’t immediate.

For several agonizing minutes, the darkness continued clawing at the inside of my chest, its rage filling my mind with a single, relentless command.

Kill him. Kill them all. Tear them apart. Make them pay.

My fingers dug into the leather seat as I fought to hold on to myself, but the power inside me refused to settle. It kept surging through my body, violent and suffocating, until the suppressant finally began to take effect.

Slowly, like a dark tide retreating from the shore, the shadow started to recede.

The thick black veins crawling across my arms faded, sinking back beneath my skin until they were barely visible. The feral snarls echoing inside my head gradually quieted, leaving behind only the low, pained whimper of my exhausted wolf.

And finally, I could breathe.

I slumped against the cool leather seat, dragging in air like a man who had just been pulled from the bottom of the ocean. My entire body ached, every muscle sore and every nerve left raw from the struggle.

But at least my mind was clear again.

My thoughts belonged to me.