CH.100

Knox's rage had finally reached its zenith when he stormed out of the bedroom.

His teeth were gnashed together so tightly that the muscles beneath the taut skin of his face danced and his visage was one of pure, unrestrained ire.

The veins in his neck and temples throbbed visibly with each thunderous beat of his heart, pumping anger through his system like molten lava.

“Pretending to be happy with you all this time while neglecting the love of my life has been a great deal of suffering for me.”

Memories of his past continued to flood Knox’s mind.

The air around him seemed to crackle and distort with the sheer force of his wrath, as if the very atmosphere itself was bending and warping to the gravitational pull of his all-consuming rage.

The hallway's temperature dropped rapidly, as if his rage had drawn all the heat out of it and replaced it with a bone-chilling cold that would make anyone unlucky enough to be in his path shudder.

“My main intention has always been to win your trust, discover the source of your powers, and figure out how to destroy you.”

An unearthly darkness settled behind Knox as he walked down the long, exquisite corridor toward the big staircase.

Black tendrils licked along his body, clinging to him like a living, breathing second skin composed of pure malice and hatred.

The shadows undulated and pulsed in time with each of his ragged breaths, swirling in an ever-tightening vortex around his imposing figure.

The dreadful mist felt more real, more palpable with every stride as though his fury was rupturing a barrier between our world and some otherworldly dimension beyond human comprehension.

Knox appeared more like the physical embodiment of the king of death itself at that precise moment. It seemed as though a terrifying judgment had descended from above in the form of an avatar seeking revenge and retribution.

“We just cannot allow such an evil being to run wild on this planet. You were brought here to aid in the healing of our land and to give your life as the chosen one that the heavens had bestowed upon us.”

The portraits lining the walls seemed to shrink back from his approach. Even the very marble floor beneath his feet groaned in protest, as if it too feared being consumed by his fury.

“You were sent here to help I and Sebastian to lead our people to a greater height. We will take that which you possess weather willing or unwillingly!”

‘Enough!’ Knox snarled internally. He suddenly felt the urge to run wild and exterminate the entire world.

This level of all-consuming rage was entirely new territory for him.

He had experienced flashes of anger before, certainly. But they were simply passing storms of emotion that would rise and then dissipate as quickly as they had rolled in.

This... this was something else entirely, threatening to swallow him whole if he didn't regain control.

Knox had only reached the midpoint of the grand, sweeping staircase when Killian and Seven with a man that bore a striking resemblance to the very person who had been plaguing his mind finally came into view at the bottom.

The two men were overjoyed to see him alive and well. However, their joy was short lived.

They had immediately sensed the shift in Knox's aura the moment they arrived back at the mansion some minutes earlier.

They had immediately gone to have the individual they had rescued examined before bringing him here.

However, the air itself felt electrically charged and superheated upon arrival.

Knox’s potent pheromones washed over them in an oppressive, suffocating wave, the scent of his anger so palpable they could almost taste the bitterness on their tongues.

‘What happened to them now?’ Killian wondered. He tried to understand Knox's feelings through their own unique bond, but all he felt was emptiness.

‘Master…Killian. What’s…happening to the Alpha? He…is realizing such…a… strong pheromones,’ Dimitris choking voice sounded in Killian’s head. ‘You need…to…stop h-him before he k-kills us all.’

“Is the ice mountain actually… angry? Has my sister—” Killian trailed off when he felt his blood begin to boil from the inside out and his fight-or-flight instincts screaming at him to flee from this dark force bearing down on them.

The back of his neck stood on end as Knox approached, his very presence raising every alarm in Killian's hindbrain.

A cold sweat broke out across his skin.

His heart was hammering against his ribcage so forcefully he was sure Knox must be able to hear it even from this distance.

Seven standing beside him shifted from foot to foot, clearly just as affected by the overwhelming aura of rage emanating from their friend.

His pupils were blown with slight fear as he struggled against the primal urge to submit or flee in the face of such raw power and fury.

Seven cast a quick glance at the man standing between them, whose mouth was hanging open and whose eyes had grown incredibly big like saucers, staring at the approaching Knox through a cloak of darkness as if he were seeing a ghost or perhaps something more horrifying.

He breathed a quiet sigh of relief. Good thing the oppressive atmosphere had no effect on the man.

“I hate you!”

“I hate your lying and cheating ass, thinking you can fool me with some supernatural bullshit.”

The sounds of Serena's anguished screams from the bedroom upstairs, punctuated by the shattering of objects and furious cursing reached their supernatural hearing.

The cacophony formed a horrible soundtrack to the tense scene unfolding on the staircase.

Seven opened his mouth, then promptly shut it again with an audible click as another wave of Knox's anger washed over them.

He knew better than to speak right now unless directly addressed - to do otherwise would be like putting his head willingly into the lion's maw.

On the other hand, Killian felt an overwhelming urge to go to Serena, to scoop her up in his arms and whisk her away from whatever fresh hell Knox had unleashed on her this time.

The protective instincts he harbored for the woman warred with his more logical side, which knew all too well that approaching her right now would be akin to signing his own death warrant.

Knox was like a raging inferno in this state, liable to explode at the slightest provocation.

If Killian so much as looked in Serena's direction, Knox would undoubtedly kill him where he stood without a second's hesitation or remorse.

A bead of cold sweat trickled down Killian's spine as he watched Knox descend the stairs.

The air around him shimmered and distorted from the sheer heat of his fury.

Killian wondered why the raging mountain hadn't immediately brought up the matter of his outing with Serena the previous night.

He had fully expected the man to blow a gasket on learning that he had taken his wife out for a night on the town behind his back.

Surely that had to be a significant part of what had set off this uncontrolled conflagration of rage, right?

The thought made Killian's stomach churn guiltily.

To make matters exponentially worse, he had just received words earlier that morning that a photo from their outing had surfaced online - one that didn't clearly show Killian's face but depicted Serena in an extremely compromising position.

The image caught her in what looked like a passionate kiss with some indistinct figure that could only be Killian himself.

Killian had scrambled to get all his resources working on taking it down wherever it appeared across the internet as soon as he'd been made aware of the photo's existence. However, he knew it was an impossible task.

Once something like that was out there, it was virtually impossible to completely erase.

It was only a matter of time before Knox saw it, if he hadn't already.

The implications of that made Killian's blood run cold. If - no, when - Knox laid eyes on that damning image of him and Serena in such an intimate embrace, it would undoubtedly spell the end of his life.

There would be no explaining it away, no extenuating circumstances that could possibly save him from Knox's wrath.

Whoever had taken and released that photo clearly did so with malicious intent, aiming to pour gasoline on the dumpster fire that was Knox's tumultuous relationship with Serena.

Though Killian had done his utmost to track down the culprit behind the photo's release, calling in on every contact in his considerable network, he had so far been unable to uncover their identity.

The trail had gone frustratingly cold, leaving him with nothing but speculation and a gnawing sense of dread in the pit of his stomach.

Serena's name had been blowing up all over the internet and gossip rags lately in the wake of her arrest scandal, transforming her overnight into the most controversial celebrity in recent memory.

The insatiable appetite of the public for juicy drama surrounding her had reached a fever pitch, with new salacious rumors and unconfirmed reports surfacing seemingly by the hour.

No doubt Paparazzi had been desperate to catch even a glimpse of the woman at the center of such a scandal.

The last thing any of them needed was for Killian to have taken Serena out in such a public setting last night, essentially waving a red flag in front of the relentless paparazzi and gossip-mongers.

He had only wanted to help take her mind off the unfolding shitshow surrounding her for a little while, to let her be herself without the crushing weight of problems for just one evening.

Killian had foolishly thought a little change of scenery might lift her spirits and make her happy, even if just for a few fleeting hours.

He had convinced himself it was worth the risk, that they could slip away unnoticed and give Serena a much-needed reprieve from her troubles with Knox. But now, in the blazing light of Knox's wrath, it was glaringly obvious that his actions had been a terrible, potentially life-ending mistake.

Seven finally gathered what little courage he had left and cleared his throat loudly, desperate to get Knox's attention before the situation deteriorated even further into catastrophe.

"Don..." he began in a deep voice wavering only slightly with trepidation. "Here is the package. Alive and in one piece without a single hair out of place as you have ordered.”