Cruel alpha

“The only person that’s left to be disappointed right now, Leona, is you. Maybe your sister as well,” Alpha Zane said, tinging my sense of alarm. “I’m sure you didn’t take her feelings into consideration as well when you stormed here to yell arrant nonsense —”

“And you’ll punish me?” I stated the hinted fact, no matter how distasteful it felt coming from my tongue.

“You’ve been nothing short of disregardful since you stepped foot in here, Leona,” he snapped, anger reflecting in his eyes as he took threatening steps towards me. “Make no mistake in thinking I would be lenient with you. You knew what you had coming when you decided to spurt nonsense and interrupt me like I was your cohort when I am your King!”

Again he was leaning, giving me a clearer view of how dark his eyes went when anger shone from them.

“You do not disrespect your King, wheelchair or not. Promises, or not.” He grunted, holding my gaze

“Your majesty, please have mercy on her. She was only acting on emotions —"

“Shut it, Gilbert,” he growled. His eyes never left mine, as if they peered to dig deep into my very soul and tear me apart from inside out. I should be afraid, yet I wasn’t. My resolve was too solid to crumble, my anger too large to quench.

“What would you do to me this time, huh?” I sneered. “Banish me from the pack? Make my life a living hell as a rogue?”

“Stop talking, Leona,” Gilbert huffed at me. I snorted as he approached Alpha Kane side. “Your highness—"

“You disrespect the king in public eye, Leona Kazan, and I waste no time in passing my judgement,” His voice toned across the entire courtyard. I hadn’t noticed before, but palace servants had already gathered, muttering hushed nothings to themselves as they passed me demeaning stares. “But I’ll be fair enough to let you choose, Leona, what you think you deserve as a punishment.” Then he snapped his fingers. “Bring her in!”

Panic settled in the moment I heard small, familiar grunts coming from the entrance of the courtyard, and the moment I turned to look, my heart dropped to the ground from sheer horror.

Fiona was being dragged in, as she tried to fight off the grip of the burly men that held her tight, but her strength was unmatched with theirs. When they’d brought her closer, they threw her hard to the ground that she stumbled, and I almost leaped from my chair to her to save her graceless fall.

“Fiona!” I yelled. Her eyes held equal panic, searching the entire panic until they landed on mine. Her brows dipped, pain and guilt lining her features, and her gaze fell to the floor. Befuddlement and trepidation watered through my entire body.

What was happening?

“The said woman, Fiona Kazan, stands—or rather, lies accused of secretly plotting a coup against the King, information courtesy of my very loyal beta here...” Alpha Kane drifted closer to Gilbert, whose eyes was on Fiona’s lean frame on the ground, equally stunned. “Gilbert. Evidences were presented. ”

“What?” I sparked. Fiona? Planning a secret coup? It had got to be the worst sort of accusation I’d ever heard my entire life. “The heck you would—”

“One more word, Leona, and I will be forced to cut off your tongue to add to your disability.” His gaze sleuthed through me, dark and threatening that it made me recoil with shock and...fear?

Alpha Kane puffed up his shoulders, sighing, his features relaxing when I didn’t utter a sound, and he moved to Fiona, maintaining a distance from her. The way he moved, with so much inconsideration, it made me wonder how anyone watching him would deem it fit to call him a worthy, loving Alpha like everyone was made t believe.

Unless, of course, we were painted the villains in everyone’s book. Which was very much likely.

“It’s not surprising how both sisters are disappointments to both the king and the kingdom,” he said.

“Gilbert!” I grew my gaze to Gilbert, seeking an explanation. Why was Fiona being accused of a secret coup I knew nothing about? Against the king? When Fiona could barely harm a fly?

But his gaze offered me nothing. Only regret and the expression I was growing sick of seeing on his face—remorse.

He wasn’t freaking denying the claim of him ratting her out. My gaze shot towards Fiona. Her shoulders were still slumped. Her gaze unraised.

“It is punishable by death when one is caught involved in a coup against the King, and your sister happened to be leading one, Leona,” Alpha Kane continued. Ignoring his words, I wheeled towards Fiona, unwilling to believe my ears.

I had to hear her decline the accusation. To tell me that this was just some plot to put us in a spot because clearly, the king despised us.

Touching her shoulder, she flicked and immediately backed away, fear glistening from her eyes at me. She was shaking her head as if to say a no, her eyes glassy with tears.

The turmoil down in my stomach increased and made me nauseous.

Fiona, I signed, agitation build-up ramming against the walls of my ribcage. They’re lying, right? They accused you of forming a coup...My hands stopped mid- day when she broke her eyes from mine, and her hands shakily signed.

I’m sorry.

It was all I needed for my entire world to break in half.

“You have the choice to either watch her die a slow, torturous death, an utter shame since you stormed here trying to blindly protect her, or...” He paused for a beat. “you become my mole in Alpha Zane’s Kingdom.”

I scoffed, a bitter laughter following. Of course that was what he wanted. What this ploy was all about. He’d made sure I was trapped, whatever decision I made, just to get what he wanted, even at the cost of a life.

“You should decide quickly, Leona,” he remarked, annoyance painting his smug face. “I’m not very patient.”

My laughter dried out, replaced by a deep-seated malice that raged through my bones as my gaze ran through the entire faces in the courtyard. From Gilbert—the betraying coward who still couldn’t look at me, or at Fiona anymore—to Alpha Kane.

His eyes held inpatient anticipation at me, waiting for my reply like it was the last hanging thread to life and death.

“Alpha Kane,” I uttered, my emotions bolstering firm on the name. “go to hell.”