TO KILL A KING

TWO-FIREWITHFIRE

KING

"How did he get through?" I hissed, my voice echoing off of the dank underground corridors that almost seemed to stretch out like thin tendrils of veins for miles. "Where were the patrols?"

"He killed them.." Farrah deadpanned, increasing her pace to keep in time with me. "He killed all of them."

"How could he kill all twelve of them!" I said angrily. My men were some of the best trained in all the land, I refused to believe that one man alone would be able to take down a whole unit single handedly.

"I don't know.." She said, averting her eyes to the floor. She was truly beautiful, her rich skin almost seeming to glow gold in the deep light. Her dark eyes always so careful and kind, hiding the fire that lay within behind their midnight shade. -

But her beauty would not excuse her incompetence.

I grit my teeth. "That isn't good enough. Where are Cole and Elijah?"

"They're already questioning him in the East Wing."

"Good."

***

Cole wiped the blood from his hands onto an already crimson stained towel as he walked towards me. "Hello love, nice of you to make an appearance." He smirked his usual lopsided grin. His raven hair falling over his face briefly, before he raked it back with his hand.

"Don't make me regret not killing you." I snapped, not in the mood for his nicknames and games. He stepped back, clutching his heart in mock hurt.

"Ouch.. But if you kill me you'll never get to see what I found.."

"I'm sure Elijah would gladly tell me, without any sarcasm or stupidity."

"Speak of the devil.." Farrah smiled as Elijah appeared behind Cole.

"Elijah." I sighed, grateful for a reprieve from all the incompetence that surrounded me. "Have you found out how he managed to surpass patrols?"

"Not exactly.." He began, wiping blood from his hands to his jeans, littering them with abstract scarlet streaks.

"For f***s sake!" I cried in frustration and pinching the bridge of my nose to ward off the migraine that threatened to appear, "What's the point of having three Betas if not a single one of them can get anything done? Do I have to do everything myself?"

Elijah continued, ignoring my blatant temper. He had always been the most level headed of the three, "I found something that I think you'll like much more.."

Cocking my brow in confusion, I followed him back into the confines of the small room behind him. The scent of copper blood permeated my senses until everything that I could smell, taste, and see was red.. My favourite colour. 

-To me, red was success, sick though it may seem.

A man, if you could even call him that anymore slumped over at the waist, as much as his chains that bound his wrists to the ceilings in a cross like fashion would allow. Deep gashes and what looked like burns littered his entire body, splitting open the dark black ink that covered almost his entire body from the neck down.

Ink depicting everything from beasts, to nature, to battle. His skin bore every one of his sins, each work of art was a story of a life well lived, and instantly I knew what Elijah wanted me to see.

The dark black ink covering the left side of his chest, shaped to compliment every curve and plain of his muscled physique. Showing a stag, a magnificent beast carved into his olive skin with great big branching horns.

"The Stag.." Farrah whispered, just as mesmerised as I was by the drawing.

"There's only one pack that uses the Elen trials anymore."

It was a symbol used in the old days. When a wolf came age they would under go the Elen trials, an agonising series of barbaric practises, if successful ending in a packs symbol being permanently etched into their skin, by one method or another. It varied from pack to pack, some burn branded, others chose scarification. This pack had chosen tattoos.

Most abandoned the practice many, many moons ago, along with most of the other 'old ways' traditions.

Yet evidently one still remained.

Only one pack was primitive enough to still practice the Elen trials.

"He's from Grey Ridge." Said Cole, picking at his nails as he leaned against the marred stone wall. "All the more reason to kill him."

I contemplated it for a while, weighing up my options as I stared at the bloodied and beaten beast of a man before me. His head hung limply from his broad shoulders, a mop of dark curly hair drenched in sweat fell down over his eyes. I watched for a long moment, observing the way his strong shoulders heaved and shuddered with every breath he took, the way every muscle in his back seemed to flex and ripple.

I frowned as I noticed the thin ink carved letters just above his sternum, leaning in closer I breathed, "Wait."

The closer I came I realised that what I had originally thought was cursive was actually Arabic.

معا نحن اقوياء

Cole squinted his eyes at the tattoo as he leaned in next to me, "Farrah, you speak Arabic right? Come have a look at this."

He moved aside so the Tunisian born female could decipher the words that were a virtue of a foreign tongue. I watched as her eyebrows knit together in an emotion I couldn't quite interpret before she spoke. 

"Together, we are strong"

"Holy shit." Cole laughed humourlessly, "We caught ourselves a big one boys!"

"Knock it off Cole." Scolded Elijah, though his eyes were alight with a smug sense of satisfaction as we glanced at one another. Not only did we know what pack he was from, we also had their Beta hostage.

The inscription was the words that a Beta would speak during the ceremony in which the Alpha would be blooded and crowned, another series of cruel tests undergone in 'the old ways.'

"I can already tell this is going to be a lot of fun." Laughed Farrah, though I highly doubted that as the designated head of keeping the peace she realised the true gravity of the situation.

***

He wasn't quite broken. Not just yet.

-But it would be my pleasure to be the one to finally push him over the edge before I sent him back to his master as a hollow shell of the man he once was, death would've been kinder.

I would only kill him once he begged me to, and by the time I was done he would be crying out for the sweet solace that only death could bring.

"So what's the plan?" Cole mused, flicking absentmindedly through a book he had stolen from my bookshelf. "My vote is we send him back to the savages bit by bit in tiny little pieces."

"That-" Elijah began, snatching the book out of the mans hands and putting it back in the bookshelf as he sat down in the arm chair next to him next to him. "-Is a very bad idea... No offence."

"None taken." Huffed Cole, crossing his arms. Clearly taking offence.

"That would only serve to start a war. We need to think about this logically." I nodded along as he spoke. He was right.. To an extent. "You need to offer them a choice."

Frowning, I bit my lip, not quite following his latest train of thought. "What sort of choice are you suggesting? I won't let them off lightly, they sent a man to have me killed."

"Offer them a pardon-"

Cole interrupted by scoffing loudly, clearly having quite enough of Elijah's proposal of peace, "Elijah I think you're missing the part where we dethrone their Alpha and burn their pack to the ground."

Though Farrah remained silent I watched as she pursed her lips disapprovingly. Despite her unconditional love for both Elijah and Cole as if they were her brothers by blood, she often found herself disgusted with their brutish mentalities of violence and despair.

Elijah looked to me with a raised eyebrow, to which I sighed and said, "Let him finish Cole."

"Thank you, as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted..." He shot a side wards glare in the raven haired man's direction. "I suggest that we offer their Alpha two options. Option one, he surrenders both his title and lands in exchange for a full formal pardon."

"And option two?"

He smiled darkly has his hazel eyes bore into mine. "Just as Cole said, we dethrone their Alpha and burn their pack to the ground."

***

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-TFOA