Chapter 98: The Convinient Daughter

The walk through IronRidge Castle was quiet.

Neither of them spoke.

The guards lowered their heads the moment Augustus passed, and Beatrice followed half a step behind him just as she always had since childhood.

It hadn’t changed.No matter how old she became, she still found herself trying to match his pace.

Trying to walk the way he walked.

Trying to stand the way he stood.

Trying...to be enough.

Augustus eventually looked over the training grounds where hundreds of wolves sparred below. The clash of steel echoed around them, and he rested both hands on the stone railing.

"I heard she attacked you that night. You seem to have recovered,"

"Mostly." She replied tightly.

He nodded once.

No more.

Beatrice waited as the silence stretched. She stared at the side of her father’s face, knowing he was already thinking.

Or judging.

Eventually, the words she had expected came out of his mouth, "You were careless."

Her shoulders stiffened, for it didn’t hurt any less even if she saw it coming.

"You let your emotions dictate your decisions."

"I know."

"You confronted Selene."

"Yes."

"If she had decided to implicate you after your rash actions and spoken your name to Malachi... you would be dead by now,"

Beatrice lowered her eyes, "I’m sorry."

Another silence.

"I failed you. Selene was—" Beatrice pushed, "She had plans to kill me. I needed to threaten her so she would rethink her actions, Father,"

"I worked hard to secure the marriage between you and Leopold, and sent you to Eclipse Crown because you possess something very few women do."

She slowly looked up.

"Discipline. Intelligence. Patience."

She gripped the side of her gown so hard her knuckles bleached white, and her muscles strained hard against her skin.

"You abandoned all three because you allowed emotion and hatred to cloud your judgement."

Beatrice bit the inside of her cheek.

"After everything, even after I supplied you with more Moonfire to use for the Sovereign Moon Ceremony, you still failed at getting rid of your sister,"

"Father—"

"Killing her here at IronRidge would have been very simple," He continued, cutting her off without a care, "Because she would still be in my territory. But you begged me not to,"

Beatrice swallowed.

"You told me you wanted her to suffer first, that instant death was too easy. You hated your sister all your life, simply because of the way I looked at her,"

Beatrice’s gaze snapped up at her father, awe gnawing her eyes in waves. How did he know?!

He looked at her face, and his weathered eyes carried nothing but stone-hearted emotions as always, "Elena was my first wife and the only woman I’ve ever loved. And when she died while giving birth to Della, I had no choice but to marry your mother so I could get a male child. I’ve always told Evangeline that she’s only useful for bearing me an heir,"

Beatrice’s throat ran dry and turned more sour. She could almost feel like she was being strangled again, but this time it was the pain from his words that caused it.

"And then, you also came along. And despite how you always pretended like you loved your big sister, I always saw the spite you had for her. It turned out to be very useful. At least, you didn’t make me regret having you,"

Beatrice always knew.

That she wasn’t loved by her own father.

That he would never look at her the same way he always stared at Della when she wasn’t looking.

She had spent all her life training harder, learning politics, diplomacy, and everything else that was asked of her.

But her father remained the same man toward her.

"You never told me why you wanted Della dead," Beatrice stated, her hands visibly shaking by her sides.

A tear threatened to fall, but she quickly wiped it off before it did.

"Della is a stain," Augustus replied calmly, "A stain that I shouldn’t have left alive for that long just because I missed Elena dearly. And because of my weakness...she has awakened,"

Beatrice took two seconds to register what he’d just said, "You knew?" She took a step closer to him, "You know rotbloods can awaken?"

He didn’t answer.

She exerted some self-control on herself and stepped back.

"You still want the position of Luna of Eclipse Crown Pack?" He asked all of a sudden.

"Yes."

"You want Alpha Malachi."

"No."

Augustus finally looked at her, and then it clicked, "You wanted what standing beside him represented."

Power.

Recognition.

Validation.

"You wanted to become the woman no one could ever overlook again."

Beatrice remained silent, because he was right.

She hadn’t wanted Malachi. She wanted to become someone her father could never look away from.

Someone...worth choosing.

He took his eyes off her and stared toward the mountains in the distance, "I’ve known for many years that Rotbloods were never what history claimed."

Beatrice frowned, "What do you mean?"

"They were always going to awaken. I was suspicious about it," His eyes darkened, "And I wasn’t willing to gamble IronRidge’s future on a suspicion, and that is another reason why you’re the one standing here right now...NOT della. Looks like I made a huge mistake, and now I have to live with it and keep on moving forward with what I have,"

Nothing...

Absolutely nothing...

Has ever hurt Beatrice more than those words that had just left his tongue.

She felt it deep in her soul, like a trigger for a denser pain to settle into her heart and encourage the hardened anger she already had residing there.

Before either of them could say anything, heavy footsteps thundered down the corridor, "My Alpha!"

Augustus turned.

His Beta dropped to one knee, breathing hard, "My Alpha..."

"What happened?"

"Our eastern scouts have returned, and they’ve brought urgent news."

"Speak."

"It was Frostriver Pack."

Beatrice’s face changed. Frostriver are one of IronRidge’s oldest allies.

"They were attacked before dawn." Beta Luncan reported, "The entire Pack has fallen,"

Silence.

"Clawfang?" Alpha Augustus’s grip on the stones hardened till web of cracks started to spread through it.

"Yes."

"But..." The Beta swallowed, "Our scouts found something that shouldn’t be possible."

"What?" Augustus frowned, the lines between his eyebrows making him look older.

"There were tens of rogue corpses found on the battlefield. From what the scouts found, it looked like...they were fighting beside Clawfang."

Neither Augustus nor Beatrice spoke.

Mindless rogues...fighting as an army? That wasn’t possible. It had never happened before.

Augustus looked genuinely unsettled, then he turned back to the Eastern horizon and muttered under his breath, "Something has changed."

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