Chapter 6: Collateral Damage

(Katriona)

ALEXANDER’S warriors, who seemed to be hiding behind the trees, appeared all of a sudden, blocking my mate and the rescue team. Their number was equivalent to the warriors sent by the city.

It was easy to spot Alexander’s subordinates. All of them had tattoos on their backs. Alexander also had tattoos on his chest and arms. They seemed to be symbols which were all unknown to me since no one had them in the city.

Alexander purposely commanded the driver to slow down. He was clearly taunting me and the rescue team. Letting me watch how Bradley and the knights shed so much blood just to save me was breaking me. I felt like my heart was being ripped out from my chest.

How could the most beautiful day of my life turn out like this? This was a day for me and Bradley, a day to celebrate our love and happiness.

By this time, we should be in the reception hall filled with flowers, drinking with our family and friends, and having our first dance as husband and wife with the guests who were cheering for us. We should not be in a snowy place like this. The suits the knights were supposed to wear for the wedding had been smeared by blood.

And when they shifted, it was chaos. I heard nonstop rumblings and whimpers.

I turned my gaze back to Alexander. I had never hated anyone this much in my entire life. How could someone be this vicious to his own family member? Was this what he wanted? To kill everyone?

There was a dark aura surrounding him, screaming how dangerous he was. I heard that even the Rogues submitted themselves to him and were now residing in the North which had made his domain the most frightening place in the entire kingdom.

Alexander had built his own kingdom from the ground up. Now, he was ruling over ten thousand wolves while instilling fear to those who knew his name.

And I could see why.

Alexander crossed his muscular arm and gazed back at me.

“It’s still not too late. We can still talk this out, alpha, I’m begging you,” I pleaded. My eyes welled up when I heard how the warriors wince, including Bradley. They did not deserve to be hurt like this. “I can convince them to forget all of this as if nothing ever happened. We will forgive you. You have my word, alpha. All of us can start again. Just please… let me go.”

“Let you go?” Alexander repeated in a low and dangerous voice as he leaned down. His hot breath was gusting over my ear as he whispered, “Never. And who the fuck wants the city’s forgiveness?” His words became harder and heavier when he added, “It’s definitely not me, Katriona.”

(Alexander)

TEARS sprung into Katriona’s eyes and I refused to be affected by them. She was nothing but a collateral damage in the game her groom started. I looked away and swung my head back to my brother’s direction who was currently leading his pack and the city warriors.

We had already reached the walls and passed through the Northerners’ crest on the iron gates. It was an image of a white wolf with the city flag in its mouth.

After a while, I saw the King himself rushing to the gates.

Blood rushed into my head. He was doing all the things he never did for me and my mate. If only we did not look alike in many goddamn ways, this gesture would have everyone wondering who his real son was.

This protection he was doing for Bradley’s sake had only made my anger intensify. That son of a bitch and his bride were lucky. No one had ever fought for me and Alison this way. Whoever said only the couple were breaking at this moment?

I… was breaking too, goddamn it. And once again, this man they referred to as my father was among the reasons why. Then and now, all he ever does is break me. Some things truly never changed.

“What do we do now, alpha? Your father has gotten involved,” Jace reported. “He looks exhausted.”

“Let him be. That old man needs exercise. He has been sitting on that useless throne for so long now that dealing with a couple of wolves had already made him pant like that.”

“How could you say that to your own father?” Katriona asked, her eyes wide from anger, disgust, and shock. “You have no shame!”

“What does a sheltered princess like you know?” I scoffed and turned to my warrior. “Stop the car.”

I went out and walked towards the King who stood outside the gate. There was blood in his majestic white and red uniform, a proof of how much he had fought for the happiness of the son he adopted.

What an award-winning performance from a loving father. If I knew he would be coming here as well, I would have prepared a darn trophy.

He clenched his hands and looked at me straight in the eye.

“As the King of this nation, I, Augustus McCain, commands you, Alexander McCain, to stop this madness at once!” his voice echoed in the snowy area.

Madness? That word made me laugh. I looked up at the dark sky. I wanted to scream. If mom was watching from wherever she was, I wanted her to look at the man she married, at the man she was willing to die for.

Goddess, she was so foolish. What did she ever see in this man? Augustus was nothing without that stupid crown on his head.

“Alexander!” he roared.

All of his men grabbed the iron gate but none of them could break through it. The North was no longer the same place they knew. No one cannot penetrate our walls anymore. No one can belittle our people anymore.

“Alpha Alexander McCain, kneel and accept the royal command,” Ulric, the king’s right hand man, ordered.

“Kneel? What a joke. In case you had forgotten, you are now in the North,” I replied in a rough voice. My smile faded as the color of my eyes changed into gold. “Your commands do not matter inside my territory because in this place, I am the King!”