The Blackfang Alphas and Slaves

Chapter 15

NAI

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and wiped a bead of sweat from my temple, feeling the harsh sun beating down on my shoulders. I hated this heat, and it was doing a number on my skin, making it feel rough and dry no matter how many oils I applied in the morning. I was standing in a secluded clearing near the edge of the territory, far enough from the pack house that no one would stumble upon us by accident. I was stuck waiting for my father’s wives to show up, and every minute I spent out here in the open felt like an hour.

Finally, I heard the sound of footsteps and saw Lady Seraphine walking toward me, her face pulled into a tight expression of annoyance. She reached the clearing and stopped, smoothing out the skirts of her fine gown as if she were standing in a ballroom instead of the dirt.

"I never knew you kept to time, Seraphine," I said, crossing my arms over my chest.

She opened her mouth to snap back at me, but before she could get a single word out, Lady Vanya appeared from the opposite direction.

"Is that why you were so late to the council meeting yesterday?" Vanya asked, jumping right into the conversation without even a greeting. "Because I seem to remember everyone waiting on you for twenty minutes while the Alpha grew more impatient by the second."

Seraphine’s face turned a deep shade of red, and she looked like she was about to explode, but then Lady Ilara strolled into the clearing with a playful smirk on her face. She was the youngest of them, and she always acted like everything was a big joke.

"Oh, don't mind her, Vanya," Ilara said, waving a hand dismissively. "She probably just got lost on the way to her own vanity mirror. It happens when you spend that much time staring at your own reflection."

"At least I have a reflection worth looking at," Seraphine hissed, turning her glare on the younger woman.

"Ladies, enough," I said, feeling my own temper starting to fray. "We aren't here to discuss your morning routines. We have actual problems to deal with."

They continued to bicker for a few more seconds, trading jabs about their status and their clothes, but they all went silent the moment a group of men stepped out from the shadows of the trees. It was the rogues we had hired for the job, and they looked exactly like what they were: filthy, dangerous, and completely out of place next to the wives.

We all straightened our backs and smoothed our expressions, trying to maintain the image of being orderly and high class. We couldn't let these stray dogs see any cracks in our unity.

The reason we were all standing in this heat was simple. The coronation was supposed to hold the day after tomorrow, and we needed to know why the ambush had failed and if Kai was actually dead. My heart was pounding against my ribs, and I looked at the leader of the rogues, a man with a jagged scar running down his throat.

I was about to ask for an update, but Ilara beat me to it. She stepped forward and looked the leader up and down with an expression of pure disgust.

"I knew you were a bunch of useless cowards who couldn't get a simple job done," Ilara said, her voice dripping with venom. "We paid you a fortune to make sure that brat never saw the sun again, and yet here we are, still wondering if he's going to show up and take the throne."

My stomach did a slow roll of panic. These were rogues, men who killed for a living and didn't follow any laws, and we were out here without a single guard for security. If they decided to take offense to her mouth, there was nothing we could do to stop them.

One of the younger rogues took a step toward her, his hand dropping to the hilt of the rusted blade at his belt. "Watch your tongue, little lady, or I'll give you something to really complain about."

Ilara didn't even flinch. She just tilted her head and made a face of mock fear, widening her eyes and putting a hand over her heart. "Oh, I'm so terrified! Are you going to fail at hitting me too, just like you failed with Kai?"

She was about to keep going, but my mother, Lady Seraphine, reached out and grabbed her by the arm, jerking her back. "Shut up, Ilara! You’re going to get us all killed with that mouth of yours."

The leader of the rogues held up a hand, stopping the younger man from moving any closer. He looked at us with cold, dead eyes and spat a glob of dark phlegm into the dirt.

"We didn't fail," the leader said, his voice grating like stones being rubbed together. "The boy fought like a demon, and that slave girl he had with him was more trouble than she looked. But we didn't let them walk away. We successfully drove them into the deeper regions of the forest, right into the heart of the beast territory."

I felt a slight shiver go down my spine. The deep regions were a place even seasoned warriors stayed away from. It was filled with things that didn't just kill you, they tore you apart and left nothing behind.

"A region even we wouldn't survive for more than a night," the rogue leader continued. "They’re as good as dead. If the pythons don't get them, the starvation will. No one comes back from that place, especially not a spoiled prince and a weak girl."

The wives all exchanged wary glances, but I could see the relief starting to settle into their faces. It wasn't the clean kill we had asked for, but it was enough.

Reluctantly, my mother nodded, signaling that the meeting was over.

"Fine," she said, her voice tight. "But if he shows his face at the pack house, your lives are forfeit. Do you understand?"

The rogues didn't bother answering. They just turned and melted back into the woods as quickly as they had appeared.