7
1065 Words
R A I D E N
The door slammed shut behind me with a deep, final thud, and for a moment I just stood there, breathing out slowly. That girl was locked inside now, shaking, crying, terrified. Exactly where she needed to be until I decided otherwise. I shoved the thought aside and kept walking, boots striking the floor in sharp, controlled steps. My mind was already moving to the next problem waiting for me.
I hadn’t even gone far when my beta stepped out from the shadows, bowing low at once.
“Alpha,” he said, his voice steady but carrying a grim urgency. “The rogues are back. They’ve brought the Hale family.”
A dark, satisfying heat uncoiled in my chest. Finally.
My eyes narrowed, sharpened, a cold edge pushing through my calm. “Good,” I said, the word slow, deliberate. “Bring them in.”
He dipped his head again and rushed off, his footsteps fading fast. I continued down the corridor, the air around me shifting as the halls opened toward the throne room.
Two guards stood at the massive doors. As soon as they sensed me approaching, they straightened, bowed, and pushed open the heavy slabs of metal and stone. The sound boomed through the hall.
I walked inside, each step echoing, filling the room. The Seer stood nearby, head immediately dipping in deep respect. I barely glanced at her. My attention was fixed on the throne, my throne. Black stone carved into winding roots, raised high enough that everyone was forced to look up at me. Forced to remember exactly who held their fate.
I climbed the steps and sat, the cool stone pressing against my back. I spread my legs slightly as I settled in, claiming the space as naturally as breathing. The hall went silent. Waiting.
Then the noise hit.
Screams. Pleading. Voices overlapping in panic.
Chains clattered sharply against the floor as several figures were dragged down the corridor. Boots scraped. Someone cried out for mercy. The doors were thrown open again, and the chaos spilled into the chamber.
My guards yanked three people forward like they weighed nothing, an old man with a stubborn but fading fire in his eyes, an older woman shaking so hard her teeth rattled, and a younger woman fighting every step but losing to the strength of the warriors holding her.
My beta walked beside them, calm and almost bored despite the way they clawed at him with their words, begging, swearing innocence, accusing others, bargaining for their lives as if their voices mattered anymore.
But the moment they lifted their heads and saw me sitting on that throne, everything inside them broke.
Their knees buckled. Their bodies hit the cold stone. Their voices dropped into fearful whispers.
“Alpha.”
The word trembled through the hall, full of dread. And I watched them, silent, letting their fear settle deep into the room like a spreading shadow.
My beta stepped forward, head bowed low, arms out as he presented them like criminals awaiting judgment.
“The Hale family,” he announced, his voice echoing through the hall.
I let my gaze settle on them, cold and unyielding, taking in the trio at my feet. The elderly man, Mr. Hale, no doubt knelt with a mix of defiance and desperation etched into his weathered features.
Beside him, his wife clutched at her skirts, her face pale and drawn. But it was the young woman who drew my eyes, her posture rigid even in submission, dark hair cascading over shoulders that spoke of careful grooming and privilege.
So that's their golden child, I thought, a flicker of dark amusement stirring within me.
The daughter they treasured. The one they protected. The one they refused to give when payment was due.
And instead, they offered me the wolfless one.
The one they saw as worthless. Disposable. The memory stoked a slow, simmering anger low in my chest.
The father, Mr. Hale, must have felt my attention on him, because he jolted, his head lifting just enough for desperation to crack through his voice.
“Alpha, please,” he stammered, words spilling fast, frantic. “There was a miscommunication. I…I was told I needed to give my daughter to clear the debt. It wasn’t…wasn’t specified which daughter. If I knew it was you asking, Alpha, I never would have offered Ayla.”
He swallowed, then forced out the next words with a strange kind of pride that made my lip twitch in disgust.
“I would have offered my beloved daughter, Liora.”
Liora. The young woman stiffened beside him, terror flickering through her eyes. His wife gasped softly. But it was Mr. Hale’s tone that made the air grow colder.
I watched him closely as he spoke, every syllable laced with calculation. The resentment dripped from his voice when he uttered Ayla's name, a bitter twist that he couldn't quite hide. And then, when Liora passed his lips, a smug little smirk curled at the corner of his mouth, as if he believed this pathetic excuse would sway me.
My eyes shifted to the guard gripping his arm, a silent command passing between us. Without hesitation, the guard's fist slammed into Mr. Hale's jaw with brutal force.
The man went down hard, collapsing like a bag of grain, blood spraying from his mouth as his head hit the stone floor.
His wife screamed, stumbling forward until the guard holding her jerked her back. The younger daughter, Liora, let out a piercing cry, her body shaking in terror.
The guard who struck him straightened, voice booming.
“Do not speak unless the Alpha asks you to.”
Silence swallowed the hall once more thick, cold, trembling. And I let it sit, savoring the burn of fear rolling off them in waves.
I let my gaze settle on Mr. Hale, still sprawled on the ground, blood dripping from his mouth, fear shaking through his frail bones. Pathetic. A man willing to trade one daughter for his debt, then switch to another the moment he realised the price involved me.
My voice cut through the hall, cold and sharp. “Guards put that one’s head on a spike in the town square. Let it remind every fool what happens when they try to cheat their Alpha. Take the other two to the dungeon.”
- Writer
