Chapter Six

A couple of moments later, Ruckus and his dad were now seared in the throne room. His father, the alpha had his throne lifted a little bit while his seat as the heir apparent was just a bit lower than that of his father . This was a common practice in their land that shows the hierarchy that existed even among the royal families. Right now, the both of them were occupying their seats before a large crowd of people. The throne was built in such a way that it could accommodate the entire assembly of the small wolf community. 

From where Ruckus sat, he could hear the little murmurings of people who were standing around. On a normal note, the murmurings would be related to the fact they had been kept waiting for a very long time. However, this time, this was not the case. Instead of complaining and grumbling endlessly on how they have been kept waiting, he could hear them arguing over the death of the moon goddess and the disappearance of the rebellious Omega girl that they abused. 

" You mean she must have escaped by herself? " One said. " Who will now do our dirty work for us?"

" What if she did not really run away? Someone said she heard Sophia scream around last night. It could be a case of torture. " 

" Everyone is talking about Sophia." Jael chipped in. " But no one is talking seriously about the sudden death of the moon goddess. Or do you guys not have any reason to be suspicious of the entire set-up?" 

Not so long ago, Ruckus had first summoned her before the order was passed to call on everyone. He had expected the current situation to be happening. As one among the people, Jael would help him to pacify the situation as much as possible. 

" Order!!" 

A court eunuch shouted , restoring the attention and focus that was meant to exist in the court from the first place. . 

" The alpha king has ordered silence!" 

The murmurings in the throne room had been reduced to the lowest term. However, in a situation like this, it was very difficult to stop the murmurings from coming. 

" Who said that?!" 

The alpha king asked loudly with strength and authority. He had clearly someone still speaking even after the eunuch had made his request to maintain silence in the throne room. 

No response came from anyone. The remaining strand of noise had been slashed out at the sound of his voice. 

" I asked a question. " 

He rose from the throne and began to take slow steps down to the center of the people. They were arranged in two columns that were opposite of each other. The line between them was a good enough space for the alpha king to walk around and gesture at the slightest will to do so. 

" Someone said something. " He continued. 

" Perhaps father, you heard wrongly. " Ruckus chipped in. " He knew someone had spoken . But it was the voice of Jael that he heard most clearly. If his father found out about the person, there would definitely be punishment attached to it. 

" Are you saying my hearing has been defected , son?" 

" No. Not at all, father. " 

" Then, you must be trying to cover up for someone you know . " He flashed his eyes through the people. " Who amongst these people could it be? " After a while, he smiled. He knew where it had come from but decided to respect his son. 

" Why not go ahead, father? Punish whoever would defy the alpha king right in his own throne room. " 

His father giggled. " Perhaps, I should do that. Anyway, that is not the reason we have gathered here. I believe whoever that was must have said something in line with the reason we are here. Now, that is the working of a curious person. " He paused and cleared his throat before continuing with what he had to say. " I have been the alpha king of this pack of ours for the past eleven years. And I'm up to sixty years old. I have witnessed ages in this pack. " 

Tiny murmurings were stirred up again. Has he been an alpha king that long? Eyes flashed in the direction of Ruckus who was maintaining his position as the heir apparent for the fifth year. It was beginning to be a rumor among the people that he would remain an heir apparent to the throne for a minimum of fifteen years. 

" Yes!" The alpha king continued , not minding the tiny whiskers he could hear. They did not really matter to him. " I have been an alpha king for that long. Sixty years is long enough to say that I have a wealth of experiences. And through the last forty-fve years , there have existed three moon goddesses. Three! Not one . Not two! And never has it been accounted for through the ages in this land of ours that a moon goddess was killed!" 

His voice thundered with tremendous energy. 

" However, last night, what never happened in our history, has its presence in our hearts. The third moon goddess of my reign got murdered in cold blood right in her own shrine!" 

Chatters of whispers stirred up again. This time, no one considered the fact the alpha king was still present among them. The noise continued. 

" Silence!!" The eunuch shouted, abasing the heat that was riding in the atmosphere of the room. 

" This is an abominable act!" One of the elders shouted. 

" Yes!!" Another cut in. " Whoever did this should experience the most painful death in this short life of ours!!" 

" Who is behind this?!"

" Silence everyone!!" The eunuch fired again. 

" I am as shocked as you all are right now. " The alpha king said. " However, we have been able to dig into this matter . And there has been a positive result with the finding. " 

" Who did this?!" 

" My heir's efforts yielded the results. Perhaps, he would want to address you all concerning this matter. " 

The alpha king gestured to Ruckus to take over the speech. He heaved a breath and returned to his throne. Ruckus stepped forward with the effulgence of one who desperately needed to take over the highest position of power in the land. Did his father just proudly say that he had been in power for straight forty and five years? 

" Last night, " he began," was meant to be a memorable one for everyone, myself included. The prestigious rite where I would give my mate went down. However, not as everyone had expected it to be. And first, I would love to say sorry to everyone I let down among you all that are gathered here by my petty actions last night. " 

He tilted his head in a low degree bow and observed the reactions of everyone who saw it. Yes! That was the plan. He always used the slightest opportunity he got to sway the hearts of the people into believing more in him. Very soon, his father would be a living past in the hearts of them all. He read the looks on their faces when the alpha king made mention of the number of years he had occupied the seat for. It was that of pity for him. 

" I was not expecting my mate to be an outcast of the pack. A girl renowned for her lousy behavioral pattern and dirtiness. It just did not make sense to me. Besides, I already had someone in mind who you all know as well. "

Glances went in the direction of Jael who at that moment felt like she was Luna already. 

" I let my emotions get the better side of me. And that was why I reacted so arrogantly. However, after the rite was ruined, I had flashes of regret for my actions. I had literally shown great disrespect to the moon goddess of this peaceful pack of ours. I made up my mind to go and say words of apology to her. " 

He paused and studied the rising curiosity on the faces of the people. Yes. He was hitting the hammer directly on the nail. 

" To my greatest shock, I witnessed what my eyes could never have imagined. I saw the moon goddess being murdered in cold blood by one of us!" 

A round of chatter went high again. The people probably found it difficult to accept what their ears were hearing. But they were yet to receive the shocker. 

" That can't be!!" Someone shouted. " How possible is it that one of our own would rise up against the moon goddess with the intention of killing her? I say we look deep into this matter. It could be an intruder. " 

" There was no intruder!" Badmus fired. " My men are always vigilant. Besides, I was the one who accompanied the heir apparent to the shrine of our moon goddess. " 

" The chief guard here suggested to me the need to tender an apology. " Ruckus said. " And I agreed to it. But when we got there, we saw our own moon goddess being murdered. Murdered by no other person but the Omega that she mated with me!!" 

" Woah!" 

" This is madness!" 

" How can this be?!" 

The questions kept on rising. The atmosphere of the throne room had become very heated up. It was nothing close to what they had expected. 

" That is what I witnessed with my own eyes. No one told me about this. " 

" This can't be true!" One of the elders said loudly. 

" Are you by any means saying that the words of the heir apparent can't be trusted as the truth?" The alpha king interjected. " Is that what you teach the people as an elder in this pack?" 

" Apologies, your majesty. " The elder replied. " However, just like every other person here, I too am finding it difficult to connect with the story. I mean, the Omega girl, though has been said to be all sorts of things, would not have a reason to kill the moon goddess. In fact, the moon goddess stood by her in a very awkward manner. The moon goddess even considered such a lowly thing like her to be the mate to our honored and respected heir apparent. It is the dream of every young lady in our midst to climb that mountain and become the Luna of the pack. Why would she now do such an awful thing?" 

" I will tell you a short story. " The alpha king said and rose from his throne. " My own father told me the same story. A frog and a scorpion got to the mouth of a lake. The frog could just swim across. But the toad could not. So, the scorpion pleaded with the frog to take him.across since he could not swim. However, the frog refused. Why? Because of the fear that the scorpion would definitely sting him. But the scorpion pleaded and even swore he would not dare that. Guess what happened?" 

He walked out and took a few steps to Ruckus. 

" The frog decided to take the scorpion across. What was the end result of this?" He smiled. " The scorpion stung the frog to death. That's it. Now, you might wonder why the scorpion had to do it. I mean, there was no reason to take such a ridiculous move. Killing your helper? I too would swear the scorpion would not do such a foolish thing to the frog but it happened anyway. So, in summary of all this, it was the nature of the scorpion to sting. And that was what it did in the story. Likewise, Sophia. To everyone gathered here, there was definitely no reason for her to have killed the moon goddess. However, if it's her nature, it can't be helped that easily. " 

While he was still covering up the story with his sweet words, someone bolted in. 

" To what do we owe this disturbance?" The alpha king asked. 

" Your majesty," the man bowed," an elder has been found dead in the woods. "