THE ALPHA KING'S BASTARD SON

🌒 THE UNDERGROUND CELL

"Stand up Kenneth. I trusted you the most, but not that boy!"

With Darius’s sharp words cutting through the air, Kenneth knew there was no more hiding beneath his piercing gaze. The trap had closed. He realized he had no choice but to lay bare Danriv's true identity, hoping against hope that the shocking truth might finally snap the King out of his madness.

"Since you came here all the way, may I know if you have another concern?" Darius asked.

"My King, the reason that I came here is that..." Kenneth stopped when the royal messenger suddenly came in a hurry.

"Alpha King! An urgency report!" the messenger says it loud, as he kneels down in front of the Alpha King.

"What now?!" Darius said.

"The Southern Mire is under attack, Alpha King!" the messenger gasped, his chest heaving.

"A massive faction of rogues has breached the perimeter. They are targeting the underground cells where the oldest rogues are held captive."

Alpha King Darius’s eyes flashed dangerously, like a predator, with his suffocating Alpha pressure.

"They dare to strike my underground cell?" he growled, slamming his fist onto the armrest.

Kenneth’s heart plummeted. The Southern Mire was exactly where Danriv was being held. If the underground cell fell, or if Darius slaughtered everyone in sight to quell the riot, Danriv's life would in danger before the truth ever came out.

"My King," Kenneth interjected quickly, stepping forward in his panic.

"Your majesty, please allow me to lead the vanguard. If the prisoners break free, the surrounding villages will burn. We must move immediately."

Alpha King Darius leveled a freezing glare at Kenneth. But his suspicion from moments ago had not vanished, it had merely been redirected.

"You will ride with me, Kenneth. I will keep you exactly where I can see you."

Then the Alpha King turned his gaze to the shadows near the doorway.

"Garrick!" he called.

An Omega warrior stepped forward, bowing low. Despite his official rank, Garrick possessed a razor-sharp mind and impeccable tracking skills.

"Yes, Alpha King."

"Assemble the elite guard. We will ride for the Southern Mire now!" Alpha King Darius commanded.

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Going to the Southern Mire, where the underground cell was built by ancestors. The heavy iron gates lay torn off their hinges. Smoke billowed from the stone guard towers.

"Spread out!" Kenneth yelled to the warriors, drawing his twin blades.

"Secure the courtyard! Do not let them reach the lower levels!" Darius said.

"Garrick, with me to the cells" Alpha King Darius ordered, shifting in his wolf form partially, his claws extending as he tore through a rogue trying to ambush them from the fog.

"Kenneth, clear the underground cell. Try anything foolish, and your head rolls next." Alpha King Darius reminded him.

Kenneth nodded, his jaw tight. He cut through the attacking rogues with desperate precision, but his eyes constantly darted toward the underground cell entrance. He had to get down there. He had to save Danriv before Alpha King Darius found him.

Garrick, utilizing his agile frame, slipped past a skirmish and sniffed the air, his eyes wide in surprise.

"Alpha King! The scent...it's the rogue leaders, they are already in the high-security block. They aren't trying to kill the prisoners. They are trying to liberate someone."

Alpha King Darius let out a deafening growl that shook the very foundations of the whole building of the mire. "As I expected! They are challenging me now!" he said.

The heavy iron doors of the high-security block groaned, as Alpha King Darius kicked them inward. The powerful strength of his kick, throws two rogue sentries across the stone floor. Kenneth and Garrick pressed closely behind, their blades slick with the black blood of the outer guards.

From the outside, they can smell the air from inside the building that were thick with moisture and the sharp, metallic tang of fresh spilled blood.

Garrick remained fighting with the rogues behind, until he lost his eyes to Kenneth, the same with Alpha King Darius who is busy to the rogues leader.

Kenneth finally finds his way to get into the underground cell where Danriv was said to lock up. He knew Danriv's scent, so it's easy for him to identify the where is he about.

"Danriv!" Kenneth’s heart beat fast as he scanned the dim corridor.

The air inside the underground cell was thick with the acrid stench of sulfur and burning timber, a choking gray fog that turned the underground stronghold into a tomb of smoke.

Through a shifting haze, suddenly a violent crash echoed off the stone walls. Kenneth turned to look at the central cage, he saw a massive grid of rusted iron bars, that had been torn completely open, its hinges warped and weeping black robes.

Emerging from the dust was the rogue leader. He was tall, grotesque wall of a man, his heavy frame clad in layers of thick, blood-stained dark furs that made him look like a starved bear. Deep, jagged white scars crisscrossed his fat chin, weathered face, catching the flickers of the surrounding fires.

With a mean grunt, the leader grabbed the heavy iron chains. He dragged the beaten prisoner out of the pitch-black cell. The chains scraped loudly against the stone floor.

But the prisoner was Danriv.

His clothes were shredded, his body has a visible map of deep purples from violent bruises, and his head hung low from sheer exhaustion. But as his boots scraped against the debris, he forced his chin up. Through swollen eyelids, his gaze pierced the smoke. Suddenly, his eyes flared with a sharp, desperate shock of recognition. The agony in his face vanished, replaced by an expression of disbelief.

"Captain, you came...?" he rasped, a broken voices of a young man who wrongly judge by someone. And keep fighting for his survival.

"Hands off him!" Kenneth roared, abandoning all caution.

Kenneth lunged forward, his twin blades spinning in a lethal arc, cutting down the rogue guards flanking the leader.The rogue leader snarled, dropping Danriv to the stone floor and drawing a heavy broadsword to parry Kenneth’s frantic assault.

"Look who it is! The King's loyal dog, coming to kill me?!" the rogue leader laughed

"Silence!" Kenneth's voice echoed through the underground cell, a wave of pure pressure slamming into everyone in the room, forcing the weaker rogues to fall to their knees.

Kenneth stepped into the torchlight, his golden eyes locked directly onto Danriv’s bloodstained face. Kenneth froze. His breath hitched in his throat.

In a seconds, Alpha King Darius came into the underground cells to check. But when he saw how Danriv was being treated on this cell, Apha Darius did not ask anything , instead he looked at the rogue leader.

For a split second, the madness in Alpha Kings Darius's eyes flickered, replaced by confusion. He saw the boy's features, the distinct shape of the jaw, and the familiar tilt of the eyes. Memories he had violently buried rushed to the surface.

"You..." Darius whispered, his voice trembling with a mixture of rage and sudden horror.

Garrick, who had slipped around the perimeter to secure the flank, sniffed the air sharply. His eyes went wide as he looked down at the entrance of the underground cell.

When the battle outside ended, Garrick immediately ran into the underground cell to follow the Alpha King. But he arrived too late. Darius had already killed the rogue leader, and fresh blood was still dripping from the Alpha King's sharp claws.

Once Garrick saw that Darius was safe, Danriv immediately flashed through his mind.

Danriv was right next to them, being supported by Kenneth. Garrick did not recognize him at first because of the heavy bruises and his swollen eyes. However, what shocked Garrick the most was the strange scent of Danriv’s blood. It was a very special scent, one that revealed he carried the bloodline of powerful and royal beings, as if no need of proof and even there is no need of testing, he knew that scent, the scent of Lycans blood.

"Alpha King... the scent. His bloodline... it isn't normal wolf" Garrick said in confusion.

Garrick was about to point to Danriv but suddenly, a blown up from the outside happened coming from the ground, creating a wave shock in the whole building.

"Leave the underground cell now!" Alpha King Darius urged them.