Chapter 81
“L–late?”
“Yeah, late.” Ezra holds an invitation up. The same one all the other Alphas had.
“How dare you set foot
here?!” I shout unable to
contain my temper.
“I got an invitation just like
everyone else.” He
nonchalantly says.
“Don’t bullshit me! You know
this was all you, you f**ker!”
Colt holds me all this time
because I have been trying to
get to him. All I can think of
is ripping his head from his
shoulders.
“Let me go, Colt!”
“No, this is exactly it. This is what he wants…what he is up to.” He says.
Victor nods as he rushes to
- me. “This is how he’ll gain the support of all the other packs. If you attack him, it
will be considered a violation
of the protection seal. They
will all band together against
us.”
then I will have to take
control here. Take a deep
breath, girl, and be the Alpha we need right now.”
My eyes dart to him with
anger.
He nods. “His time will
come. Bide your time right now and watch him closely.”
“It seems there is a problem?” Oliver speaks.
Warrick stares at me to try
and get my answer.
Grinding my teeth, I speak. “No, no problem at all.” I
look at him. “Sit. Enjoy the
food.”
Warrick relaxes and Colt lets
me go.
Warrick then addresses
Victor. “Victor, the borders?”
“I have not received any update of anything out of the ordinary.”
I continue speaking to the guests. “As I was saying…” My words are tense. “I want to
thank you all for coming. It is quite a surprise that you all
made it. As stated in the
invitation, this will be a
neutral feast. A safe festivity
even if there is conflict
between us. You may talk
freely but also remember
that you are my guests, I will not tolerate misbehavior.” To
be able to say all of this, I have to force myself not to
look at Ezra and Oliver. I feel
like if I do, I’d fly over to them and rip them apart.
I give a hand gesture telling
them all to sit and then the
feast commences.
People start speaking with
each other. Ezra and Oliver
sit in one of the other tables
far from us but all I can do is
keep my eyes on him.
I have him so close and yet I can’t do anything.
Excruciating frustration.
All sorts of ideas run through my head.
I could command one of the
maids that is serving us to kill him for me. But my
conscious hates the idea.
Killing is not an easy thing to
do and I would ruin the
maid’s life. She’d be executed
by the neutral law.
All I can do is imagine
myself getting up and
plunging my stake knife right through his eye. I don’t
think I will ever be able to be in peace as long as he lives. I
want him dead.
To my displeasure, Ezra starts speaking. “Oh dear
Bryn and Miles. How I miss
you. It saddens me that you
were not able to be there for
Mother’s death. It was
agonizing for her. She
screamed your names
searching for you but you
weren’t there. Alas, I am the
only one she had for comfort
in her last moments of
breath.”
Bryn is paralyzed with fear
while Miles frantically looks everywhere he can except at
Ezra.”
“Leave them alone.” Colt
says, in a calm tone.
Ezra gives him an angry look
he can’t hide.
“All mighty Colt, always to the rescue. Little brats can’t
take care of themselves.”
“And you don’t change.
Always a bully to the very
end.”
“And what end is that,
brother? Are you saying that
I will die soon?
“If you do, it is because you
made your own bed.”
“That sounds like a treat to
me.”
“So? As long as I don’t act on it, I am not breaking any
rules, right.” Colt smirks.
Ezra is pissed and shaken
while Colt remains calm and
unbothered. I love it.
“So tell us, Alpha, why have
we been invited here.” Alpha
Holmes asks me.
That is a damn good
question. I have no idea of
what to tell them.
I take a long sip of my drink as I think of what to say.
“I can’t wait to hear this.” I
hear Oliver utter.
My hands tighten around the glass, cracking it. I set the
glass on the table making a
loud noise.
“I’ll be completely honest, I didn’t invite you all here.”
The room grows silent and they all glance at each other
with confusion.
I point at Oliver and Ezra. “I
am pretty sure that those two are the ones who invited you
all here.”
Oliver and Ezra look a bit
shocked. I am sure they did
not think I’d just be telling
the truth.
“I don’t know what the
agenda behind this was if
that is what you want to ask but they are here. Ask them yourself.”
All the Alphas look at Ezra
and Oliver’s direction.
“No idea what you are
talking about. We received
the same invitation as all the
others did.”
“I don’t buy it.” I say.
“Maybe it was someone else here. Maybe one of the people you took in I mean, you take so many strays. My siblings, rogues…the witch.”
“Witch? So you have a spy in our pack.” I sit defiantly.
“Oh no, not at all.”
“Then how do you know
this? No one knows about
Honora.”
“I just remember her.” Ezra
says.
Remember her?…from
where?
I look at Honora who shrugs. “I’ve never met him before.”
“What a horrible little liar.”
Ezra whispers.
I look between them. Ezra
has a smirk and Honora
looks unfazed.
I leave it alone for now but I
don’t like it. It bothers me.
“How are you holding up?”
Colt whispers in my ear.
“Not good. I don’t understand why are we indulging these men.”
“So that we don’t make more enemies.” He responds.
“I am tired of playing good, Colt. They play nasty so why do we have to play by the
rules?”
“Like I said Cass,
consequences.”
“Damn the concequences!”
I have been raising my voice
and now notice that almost
everyone is watching me.
“Someone is a bit agitated.”
Ezra mutters.
“Agitated? Agitated?! You are lucky I don’t skin you alive right now you f**ker!”
“Ah, is that why you brought
us here? To threaten me?”
I really should. I really should just kill him right
now.
“You killed Lauren! All
because you didn’t get your way. You might call yourself an Alpha but you are just a pathetic piece of meat
plaster on this earth to be a
cancer.”
he looks serious now. “She
begged. She begged me to let her live. Even played the pregnancy card on me but I cut her down like a f**king pig-” He gargles his last
words as his mouth and
throat fill with blood.
“James!”
James stands behind Ezra with a knife plunged into
Ezra’s n*ck. He takes it out
and thrusts it in his n*ck
again and then starts
stabbing Ezra over and over
on his back.
People start panicking but I
smile as Ezra stares at me, a look of fear in his eyes.
Look at me, you bastard. Let my joyous smile over your death be the last thing you
see.
I wish it was me doing it but James deserves his
vengeance.
I watch as Ezra breathes his
last breath and soon his eyes
become void of life. He is finally dead.
Guards immediately
apprehend James.
“Let him go!” I rush over and
command them. They
immediately release him.
“What is this?!” An Alpha
complains.
“You can’t just let him go!”
“I can and I will.”
“This is unacceptable! He killed an Alpha in a neutral festivity! He must die!”
“Try it and see what happens!” I warn them.
“We can’t stand for this!”
They all start getting riled
- up.
“Yet you will do nothing to
him.”
I can see the concern on
Victor’s face, Garret’s, and
even Colt’s. But I have no
intention of letting these men hurt James.
“He is under my protection and if you want to get to
him, you have to go through
me.”
“So you want war?”
“If war is what you wish to
have for a man who deserved
this death, then so be it.”
I look at Oliver who seems
amused and unfazed by all
this, in fact, he wasn’t even surprised when James killed
Ezra.
“War? No need.” James says. “You shouldn’t be punished for my actions. I’ve done what I wished. Avenged my beloved and my child and kept you safe. I can leave and
be with them now.”
“James, that is not going to hap-” While I am saying this, I watch as he brings the knife
to his n*ck and slices it.
“JAMES!” I scream and rush
to him. “NO!”
Unable to say anything, he
just smiles and closes his
eyes.
“No!”
I cry, merging my forehead
with his.
Silence befalls the festivity. For a few seconds, there is
not a single sound.
When the space of silence passes, Victor speaks. “It is
settled!” He shouts at the
Alphas. “You wanted blood!
You have it! The matter is
now settled!”
Suddenly, Oliver starts
clapping and laughing. “This
turned out to be a better
show than I had expected.”
“Show? SHOW!” I shout.
“Yes, show. It baffles me how
good I am. Everything went as planned. Pure perfection.”
“It was you pulling the strings on James.” Warrick suddenly speaks.
“Yes and very wise for you to
notice.”
“Wait…what?” I look at
Warrick.
“James was the one behind
the killings.” Warrick reveals.
“What?!”
“It is true. I had a plan. And it involved James killing Ezra.
He did well I think.”
“How! And why did James
kill those three pack
members?”
“To protect you.” Oliver
smiles. “See, before I…took
you that day, I might have told James that these three
particular people were
planning to assassinate you.
But since I was leaving, I had
no way to protect you. The
man was so out of touch with reality that he didn’t notice that you were gone from the pack and still was plotting his
killings. All in the name to protect you. I also spoke to
him about his mate and how
she was killed. How I
couldn’t stop it but told him of every single detail and made sure that he knew it
was all Ezra’s doing. It was a trigger for sure. Of course, I
never witnessed his mate’s
murder but he still believed
- it. It was fuel to the fire for
when I managed to bring
Ezra here. Wasn’t sure how I
was going to do that at the moment but I am very good
at improvising as you can see.”
I am shocked. I think we all
are. This man was much
more dangerous than we all thought.
“And…all for what?” I ask.
He leans back with a big
smile. “All to gain a pack and
territory.”
“You…you can’t just take over his pack.”
“I can when they have no more Alpha family running
things and all they have seen is me. Plus, mixed with them
are the mercenary rogues I bought. So…who will there be left to stop me?”
“All of us.” One of the Alphas
says.
I am glad that they don’t agree with this ludicrous
idea.
Oliver lifts a hand up with a
phone in it. “If only. Your
mistake was that you had
your full attention on Ezra when we got here.” As he says
this, I notice that it is not a phone in his hand. He
presses a button on the
device and suddenly I am on the floor with my ears ringing and there is smoke
everywhere.