Snarls of fury

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Rune sat in his chambers which was supposedly the biggest space in the palace. Everyone claimed that its sheer size was massive but sometimes he still felt trapped in this place. He felt trapped in the palace as a whole.

Rune ruled as the Alpha-King of Blood-Stone from a very young age. He was supposed to take up the throne when he was of age but due to unforeseen circumstances, he couldn't. His parents died protecting Blood-Stone in a battle that shook the city to its core.

His parent’s death gave his kingdom life and even though he wasn't ready, Blood-Stone became his to protect. He experienced extreme grief and loss so early in life but at his age, he didn't seem to be over his parent's deaths. He thought of them every single day.

Everyday, he felt like he was an imposter. Even though he had been king for such a long time, he felt like he was still learning on the job and he wished he still had his parents to guide him.

Today was one of the days when he felt super sad and he just wanted to wallow under the covers in self pity but his peace and quiet was soon disturbed by a loud knock. He let out a sigh. Only one person knocked like that. Like a freaking maniac. Of course it was Knox.

“Rune! We're coming in.” Knox announced and Rune rolled his eyes as they slammed the door open. These damn betas kept forgetting that he was their Alpha and their king. Their Alpha King!

“What do you want?” He growled but his dangerous tone didn't seem to phase his betas as expected and they entered his room fully.

“We are here to make an official plea, Your Majesty.” Asha supplied as the two betas came to stand in front of their king.

Rune raised an eyebrow. “All official business should be handled in the throne room. You know that.”

“Please make an exception this time, Rune. It's pretty important.” Knox pleaded and the Alpha King looked at his betas for a moment before letting out a sigh.

“Fine. What was so important that you had to barge into my chambers?”

“It's about that human girl.” Asha said and Knox glared at her.

“She has a name. It's Hera.” He replied sassily and Asha rolled her eyes.

“I don't care if she has a name or not. I will call her whatever I want!”

“Well, maybe I should start calling you whatever I want too, huh? How about grumpy lady huh? How do you like that? Or sour faced donkey. I bet you'd like that one.”

Asha growled and her eyes flashed with fury. “I swear to the goddess, I'm gonna kick your—”

“Enough!” Rune yelled, rubbing his aching temples. He could bet that someday, his immature betas would end up killing him with their incessant bickering. “Why are you two here?!”

“Like I said, we are here because of Hera.” Asha, who was now calm, responded and Knox had a smug look on his face at the fact that Asha called Hera by her name.

“What about her?” Rune asked.

“We have every reason to believe that she might be telling the truth.” Knox said and Rune raised a confused eyebrow as he eyed his betas warily.

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“We're talking about Hera's story of werewolves invading Wardsville, killing her family and biting her.” Asha said, placing both hands on her waist with an intense look on her face.

Rune raised an eyebrow. “So you're telling me that three werewolves had the audacity to break the law, flaunt my order and cross the border?”

“I know it seems insane but think about it. Why would Hera lie about this? She has no reason to and there's honestly no other explanation for why she has the human and werewolf scent. She has both scents because she is a werewolf in transition. She became that way because she was bitten by a werewolf.”

Knox said and Rune was slightly taken aback at how Knox was getting emotional over this. His right-hand beta was never so passionate about anything. This was certainly a sight to see.

“But that’s impossible! No human can survive the werewolf bite!” Rune insisted.

“Well, maybe we thought wrong all this time. Maybe some of them are strong enough to survive the bite and we just didn't know about it. We need to start thinking outside the box, Rune.” Asha replied and Rune didn't understand why his betas were suddenly taking Hera's side. Did she poison their minds or something?

Rune was silent for a bit as he pondered over the issue. A part of him knew that she might be telling the truth but another part of him didn't want to believe that his subjects disobeyed his orders by crossing the border, invading the human town and killing humans.

If Hera's story was indeed true it meant that in a way, he was responsible for her parents death and for the fact that the human was now turning into a werewolf.

His inability to properly control his subjects probably ruined the young woman's life. Rune wasn't ready to accept something so heavy and so he held on to his delusions.

“Well, what do you want me to do?” Rune asked in a resigned tone.

“The right thing, Rune. Hera needs to be set free. You have an innocent woman locked up.” Knox said.

“I cannot do that.” Rune said. For some reason, he was reluctant to let the woman go. The thought of her leaving the palace didn't sit right with him. In fact, it felt more than that. It felt like she belonged in this palace. By his side.

And instinctively, he couldn't explain it but he was going to do everything he could to keep her from leaving even if it meant keeping her locked up. That sounded as messed up as it was but he didn't know what came over him at that moment.