Chapter 44: Evelyn: My Mates Want To Kill Each Other
Evelyn~
"ALPHA! THE ROYAL SOLDIERS ARE COMING HERE!"
The moment I heard those words, I was absolutely certain that my bad luck wasn’t just mine anymore. It was now surrounding my mates too.
Rael was still trying to process the emotional damage I had just delivered—five mates, remember?—and now, the one he proudly referred to as "the bastard" had apparently come knocking at his door.
Which could only mean one thing: Theron had officially marked me, and that was why he was able to track me down so quickly.
From a distance, I heard the bells in the center of the settlement ringing again and again. It was probably a signal for everyone to evacuate to a safer place.
"Alpha! Alpha! The King has found us!"
A man burst into the house without knocking, completely ignoring Rael’s privacy and mine, and barged straight into my room like he owned the place.
"You must—"
He stopped mid-sentence when he saw me.
Then, very slowly, his eyes moved to Rael, who was still sitting motionless on the floor like a broken doll.
"ALPHA! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY POSSESSED RIGHT NOW?!" he shouted in panic before finally mustering the courage to shake Rael with force.
Rael’s head flopped slightly from the motion, but he didn’t resist. He just gave the man a dead-eyed stare and said flatly, "Tell Theron to wait. I’m having a spiritual crisis."
The man looked at me in horror, as if I were the cause of all of this.
Which ... alright, maybe I was.
"How the hell am I supposed to tell the Alpha King to wait?!" he shouted again, but this time right next to Rael’s ear. "If you don’t go out there soon, the King might kick the door down and steal your Luna!"
Rael’s head snapped toward me, then toward the door, and then back to me again.
It was like he’d finally come back to life.
He shot up to his feet in one swift motion, startling both me and the man beside him.
His jaw clenched, and he ground his teeth so hard I could hear it. Rage burned in his eyes, held back only by sheer force of will.
Then he asked the man beside him in a dangerously low voice, "Tell me ... what’s the worst thing that could happen if I beheaded the Alpha King?"
It seemed like he had completely forgotten my warning from earlier that he would also die if he killed Theron or any of my other mates.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the man’s whole body stiffened, probably not expecting Rael to say something that outrageous out loud.
It became clear that not all the werewolves in this pack were brave.
Some of them were too afraid to take extreme risks. Especially something as reckless as killing the Alpha King, a man who ruled over countless werewolf packs under his command.
However, before the man could say anything else, the noise outside grew louder and more chaotic.
The royal soldiers had broken through the defenses of the Nocthra settlement.
The werewolves of Nocthra couldn’t stop them in time, not when the royal forces had also infiltrated through the cliffs, bypassing the main barricades altogether.
When I peeked out through the window, I saw the royal soldiers throwing small orbs that released thick smoke, covering the area in a dense, fog-like mist.
At first, I feared it might be poisonous gas, but I could still hear people yelling within the smoke, and none of the soldiers were wearing masks.
I quickly concluded that the smoke was only meant to obscure vision.
That was such a relief.
For a moment, I had truly feared that Theron might be cruel enough to release poison into a settlement filled with children.
"If Theron had used poison, Rael would’ve already dragged you out of here or hidden you somewhere far away," my wolf said calmly. "Besides, there’s no way Theron would use poison."
I whispered softly, just loud enough for myself to hear, "Because he knows there are children here?"
"No," she replied. "I don’t think that’s the main reason." She paused for a moment, then continued, "I guess ... the real reason he didn’t use something as dirty as poison is because he knew you were in here."
That ... kind of made sense, but at the same time, it didn’t.
I honestly didn’t believe Theron would ever endanger innocent lives.
"Oh, Evie," my wolf sighed. "How do you think he even claimed the throne in the first place?"
I frowned. "What’s that supposed to mean?"
"Don’t be fooled by his polished exterior," she said. "Theron is ... not as kind as you think he is."
I narrowed my eyes, a chill running down my spine.
Once again, I couldn’t help but wonder, how did my wolf know so much about them? I hadn’t even known Theron or Rael for that long, and yet, she spoke as if she’d been watching them for years.
"Did you know them in another life?" I whispered quietly in my mind.
She didn’t answer immediately.
The silence lingered just long enough to make me uneasy.
"... Maybe," she said at last. "Or maybe I just remember things you’ve forgotten."
I felt the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Before I could question her further, another crash echoed from outside, followed by a deep, commanding voice that cut through the smoke and chaos like a blade.
"RAEL COVERN! GET OUT OF YOUR F*CKING SHELL NOW!"
Theron’s voice echoed across the entire settlement, and the tone was nothing like the voice he usually used when speaking to me.
"GIVE MY LUNA BACK, AND I WILL SPARE YOUR PACK!"
His voice was filled with fury and so much hatred, as if he truly would burn the entire settlement to the ground just to take me back from Rael.
It sounded like he was ready to reduce Nocthra to ashes.
But I didn’t think wiping out Nocthra would be that easy.
Even though some of the werewolves in Nocthra still carried fear in their hearts, most of them were fierce warriors—ready and willing to do whatever it took to win a war.
"Your Majesty, you clearly don’t value your life the moment you set foot in our territory!" Marek stepped out of the smoke with a rifle in his hands.
He didn’t look the least bit intimidated, even as he stood not far from the Alpha King himself.
No wonder he was the Beta of this pack. If Rael couldn’t fulfill his duties, Marek looked like someone who could step up without hesitation.
His presence radiated authority and fearlessness.
Theron’s eyes narrowed slightly as they landed on Marek. His cloak billowed behind him in the smoke-filled wind, and the soldiers at his back instantly raised their weapons in perfect sync.
"Marek," Theron said coldly, his voice lower now, but far more dangerous. "Step aside. I’m here for my Luna, not your blood." He continued, "However, if you refuse to hand her over to me, I will be forced to take measures you won’t like."
Marek didn’t budge after hearing Theron’s threat. "Oh, Your Majesty, she is not your Luna," he said firmly. "Luna Evelyn is our Alpha’s mate. You have no right to take her from us."
Theron clenched his jaw, but said nothing for a moment. Then he gestured for his soldiers to stop throwing smoke bombs into the settlement.
"Your Alpha’s Luna?" Theron scoffed at Marek. "Don’t make me laugh. I have marked her, so how the hell could she be that motherfucker’s Luna?"
At that moment, I saw Marek looking so shocked that he froze in place, and from a distance, the werewolves of the Nocthra Pack also looked visibly stunned.
Of course they were surprised since none of them knew that Rael wasn’t the one who marked my neck.
I wanted to hear Marek’s response, but I was caught off guard by Rael, who had suddenly appeared behind me. "Am I really not allowed to kill him?" he asked.
I answered without turning around. "If you kill him, you’ll die with him," I said. "I might not die with the both of you, but the pain of losing my mates would be far too much to bear for eternity."
Rael didn’t say anything, but I knew he was truly thinking deeply about what I said.
If the reason that he would die too if he killed Theron wasn’t enough, then knowing I would be left in unbearable pain after they died would surely make him think twice before taking such an extreme step.
"What if I just torture him a little?" Rael’s question left me completely speechless. "You won’t feel any pain or misfortune from that ... right?"
I blinked. "Rael—"
"I mean, just a little," he continued, eyes gleaming with barely contained chaos. "Like ... a scratch, a bruise, maybe tie him to a tree upside down for a few hours. He did break into my house, after all and he scared the pups and probably traumatized them."