TO KILL A KING

FIVE-k******e

KING

I turned back to the cells with my mind all made up.

"Get up."

The girl with the flaming red hair shot up at once her hands already eagerly gripping the bars. "Are you letting us go?"

"No." I eyed her suspiciously, maybe killing them was a better idea. "Once you enter our lands you don't get to leave. Ever."

The second female, the girl  with her dark brown hair and honeysuckle eyes rose slowly to her feet, as she did helping the third, wounded female, shakily to stand with a hiss of pain from her pale lips.

"What are your names?"

"I'm Rose," Said the brunette, then she c****d her head towards the injured blonde. "-And this is Grey."

Tuesday seemed to grow increasingly restless, shifting her weight from foot to foot as she asked feverishly, "What's going to us then? Are you going to kill us?"

"Maybe." I deadpanned. "Maybe not, it all depends on how you behave in the coming weeks."

Rose shuffled forwards with a limping Grey's arm around her shoulder, taking the brunt of her weight so that they were level with the red head. "Just tell us what to do. We will behave, I promise."

I chewed my cheek, debating if this all was really worthy the risk for a couple of extra hands within the pack.

"I want you to listen and listen closely. You only have one chance. Blow it and you're out." 

I didn't feel the need to reiterate that out was just another word for dead, they could figure that one out themselves.

"You're going to join the pack upstairs. You will work, and you will work hard. I will know if you don't, so follow their orders closely. Don't mess up. If you do, you're out." 

I moved a step forwards to the cage, raising my lip in a slight snarl. "Most importantly, you will do whatever I tell you, whenever I tell you. If you disobey. You're also out. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal." Grey said through teeth that were gritted in an attempt to cope with the blinding pain and Rose nodded in agreement.

"Okay then." I said, reaching deep into my pocket for the key Elijah had left me. "Don't f**k this up because we will not hesitate to kill all three of you."

The door clicked open as I turned the key, swinging open with a high shriek as metal and stone fought vehemently against one another. 

The females slowly filed out of the cell, watching me with wide doe eyes as they passed, as if worried that at any given moment I may change my mind and turn on them. 

-They were right to be cautious. 

I turned and locked the cell behind them. For the next few weeks their lives would be on the line, my leaders of each division on the pack would be watching their every move closely-

I felt something cold and sharp held tightly against my throat, and a warm body pressed closely into the snug of my back. I froze, hissing out a venomous breath, "What the f**k-"

The voice of the redhead I once thought small and unassuming cut me off. "Shut up. Shut the f**k up."

I grit my teeth as I held my tongue, to my right I could see Rose and Grey staring wide eyed and afraid at the girl, careful not to make one wrong move and set her off towards them in her self destructive path.

"Which way is the exit?" The blade pressed harder against my neck. 

How had she gotten a knife? Elijah and Cole would've checked them all for any semblance of weapons on the way in. 

I could feel that it was still slick with cold blood as it cut into my flesh and it was then that the realisation hit me like a freight train. 

"For f***s sake Cole." I whispered under my breath. He had left the knife he used to torture the attempted assassin unattended and in reach of this crazed b***h.

"Don't make me repeat myself." The frustration in her voice grew as she shifted her grip on me, and though she made a valiant effort to hide it, I didn't miss the worried tone that crept into her speech. "How do I get out of this damn rabbit warren."

She was worried. She knew just as well as I did that she was fast running out of time. My beta's would be back soon with the healer I called for.

Hell I could even take her down with ease right now if it weren't for the dagger.

I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips though it felt cold and void of humour as it echoed off the jagged stone walls. "You don't get it do you? There is no way out.. and even if you somehow made it to the outside, you wouldn't make it five feet before the crawlers got you."

I had captured enough rogues in my time to learn that they often referred to my patrols especially as crawlers, more so than any other pack. Due to their sheer dense and impenetrable numbers. I had always found it quite interesting, the way rogues had almost devised their own langue to refer to pack hierarchy's. A tongue born out of hatred and malice, created specially so that by refusing to call me Alpha they could hide beneath their defiance.

"Stop f*****g around and tell me." I felt the warm blood as it began to crawl down my throat, pooling in the hollows of my clavicle and staining my shirt a deep shade of scarlet. "I'll slit your throat like a lamb. Don't think I'll hesitate."

And then it happened, as suddenly as the blade had found a home against my skin it fell away with a clutter along with the warmth of her body behind me as she fell to the floor, sounding a dull thud.

"Neither will I." Elijah spat as I whipped around to stare at the girl that now lay dead on the cold hard floor. Her neck broken at a wicked angle.

"Thank you." I said smoothing down the slight creases that had formed in my shirt.

"What the f**k was that King?" Cole yelled running down the final stone steps with Farrah close on his heels. "Are you alright?"

King, of course, was not my birth name, but instead the name the people gave me when I killed their Alpha, taking control of their pack.

"I'm fine."

"You didn't look fine." Elijah scowled, his eyes scanning my body for any signs of injury. "What the hell happened there?"

"Nothing happened." I snapped, "I just let my guard down, that was all. It won't happen again."

I noticed Farrah, who usually remained neutral throughout every conflict glance between the two males. I was too busy watching her internal conflict to notice Cole was standing right in-front of me, his hand already outstretched to brush my hair away from my neck. I hissed, slapping his hand away as his fingers swiped my wound.

"You're bleeding." He said bluntly, staring down at his fingers that dripped with my crimson blood.

"I said I'm fine." I wiped at my neck, trying to rid the scarlet stains but instead only ended covering my hands with the sticky stuff. I was in no real danger of bleeding out at all. Not only had she barely grazed me, but also with enhanced healing the would would be gone in a matter of hours.

"Cole." Farrah said softly, "Leave her. She said she's fine. She can handle herself."

He paced with his hands gripping at his hair before he snapped, throwing a fist into the stone wall. "f**k, King!"

Even the dense rock seemed to quiver from the hit as small shards of stone and dust fell from the ceiling. 

Cole's fiercely protective nature, co-morbid with his fiery temper often made him unpredictable in times like these. 

He blamed himself. He always did.

He wasn't there, he would say. He wasn't good enough.

It was all his fault.

"Elijah, calm him down." I composed myself with one final breath, trying to ignore the sharp scraping feeling in my throat as I did. "The rest of you." I said to the two forgotten females that stood practically cowering in the corner. "Come with me."

We climbed the stairs and walked the halls without any words exchanged for what felt like hours. Even Farrah was mute as she walked beside me, her mind remaining in the dungeon with the dead girl and the men.

After a long while, right as my fingertips rested on the cold metal of the handle of the door to the pack house she whispered, so quiet I almost missed it entirely. "He killed her King... Without a second thought.. I watched as he tore the life from her... Just like that."

"He gave her the kindest death he could." I assured her, I didn't need to tell her the torture she would've endured if her death had been down to Cole and I. "She felt no pain I promise you."

"Still.." Her voice was as small as she felt in the moment. "She was somebody's daughter."

I clenched my jaw, she was right but there was no use dwelling on it. A sin is a sin no matter the innocents entangled within it. No sin can go unpunished.

She turned to me innocently as I opened the door to reveal the grandeur of the house. "Do you ever think about that when you kill people?.. Their families I mean.. and their life before all this."

"That's not how it works in this world Farrah," I said gently, she was far too pure for this world. 

I knew that Elijah felt some kind of debt to her after she rescued him from a very dark place several years ago. She tore him out of a debilitating sadness, some called it an illness, an affliction that caused nothing but a crippling melancholy.

He tried to drown his demons beneath a bottle of bourbon, but soon they had learned to swim.

She freed him from those blackened chains. And since he had spent his every waking hour buried in gratitude for her. He tried his best to protect her from the true darkness of this world, to shield her from all the killing and bloodshed that went on outside the four walls of the pack house. 

But he couldn't protect her from everything. Some things slipped through.

I knew that he loved her deeply too. Though he would never say it aloud let alone to her. I knew he didn't even allow himself to think it within the confines of his own mind. He scolded himself for his feelings, told himself to remain cold, austere.

I continued, leading the small pack of females through the white halls, "In this world you don't get to hesitate. It's either kill or get killed. A single second can cost you a lifetime."

• • •

SCARLETT

"Come on.." I whispered, tapping my fingers against the hardwood table. "..Pick up."

I didn't have long, before they would be back to show me where and how I would be working in the pack house from now on. They had given the other girl and I a room each, leaving us briefly to get cleaned up. But they could be back at any second, I didn't have a moment to waste.

"Hello?" His gravelly voice seemed even deeper over the phone.

"North." I said, glancing around just to make sure I was completely and utterly alone. "It's me. Listen I don't have long."

"Scarlett. Have you found him? Is he alive?" He tried to hide the worried undertone in his voice, but we both knew he cared deeply for his brother. In fact I believed that in this world or the next, living or dead, Orian was the only person I certain he had ever truly cared for.

"He's alive, for now at least." I chewed my cheek, pacing with the phone to my ear. "But I don't know how much longer he has left."

"What do you mean? Have you seen him?"

"I got caught." I deadpanned, "I was down there with two other females, they killed one of them so I doubt they'll hesitate to kill him too. I saw him on the way in and I could hear them torturing him from my cell... North, he's in bad shape and his usefulness is quickly running out. He's refusing to give up anything to them."

"Where are you now? Are you somewhere safe?"

"I'm in the pack house, they're planning on integrating us into the pack. They gave us each a room, but they could be back any minute so we have to be quick."

He cursed, "Is there anyway you can get him out and make a run for it?"

"I can't." Throwing another glance over my shoulder I continued to pace. "I've never seen this many patrols around a pack, it's a miracle he even made it through in the first place. They're strong. Much stronger than we had ever anticipated and there's just so damn many of them."

"Did you manage to find out anything about their Alpha? Have you seen him yet?"

"No. Not yet. Only a couple of rookies in the cells."

"Just say the word." Even over the phone his growl sent shivers down my spine. "Say the word and I'll send everyone over. They may have the numbers, but you and I both know that our men are far better trained."

He was right.

"Bring them. We need to end this and fast, they know Orian's from Grey Ridge, they're just biding their time to think of a plan. We can't let them get the angle on us."

For a long moment he was silent, but I could hear mumbling and rustling over the line. "It's finalised. We leave tonight."

"See you in the morning." I said, setting the phone down with a smirk.

***

QOTD- Who do you guys think the informant is pretending to be?

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-TFOA