Chapter Forty-Five

Celina

The moment the cameras have turned off, I take a deep breath and put my head in my hands. I’m mentally and physically drained. This was a rude awakening to the Beast Kingdom. It’s insane that something that stems from the Wolfen society has severely impacted lycans in such a crippling way. What I want to know is how did a lycan learn about this prohibited practice. It was banned centuries ago and is no longer taught.

“Hey, are you okay,” Chris asks while he pulls me into his chest and kisses the top of my head.

“Just a little overwhelmed,” I tell him while Mara whines at me. She doesn’t like the distress going through me. The revelation of the blood oath certainly makes this whole situation more critical. My biggest fear is Damian lashing out and taking his anger out on the subjects bound to him. He doesn’t have to be near them to kill them. If he’s been at this for years, then there are a lot more out there who are stuck with him.

That was my hope with this broadcast. I don’t care what they’ll think of my mate, or myself. The only thing I wanted was to get the information out there and let those know there is a way out of it. I’m hopeful they’ll survive, but there is a slight chance they won’t. There is a reason why wolves rarely recant their oath. It’s painful, and it can kill you, however, it’s your only shot to escape a deranged alpha.

“Let’s go in away from the press, and we can talk about it,” he tells me as he leads me inside, and leaves Edgar to answer any questions. I take a deep breath once we’re inside and take a step away from my mate.

I let my hair down as I looked at the empty room. It’s eerily quiet. Most of our staff is helping out in the infirmary, and cleaning up from the battle. Ruben is being promoted to Chris’s prior role, so he’s preparing for his turn to speak to the press. He’s more upset about this promotion than pleased. Now he has to be the face of the family and be a lot more involved with treaties and disputes. Xander is currently resting in the infirmary ward, and Father is flying directly hear to oversee my coronation and to collect Xander. He and I will also be working together to assign a new Council.

I shake my head as I look at the gauze on my arm. It’s shocking how much this could have been avoided if Exzecial had accepted the son he sired out of wedlock. Then again, I’ve never heard of a man willing to kill his true mate in order to pursue one who had tried to kill him. It’s possible that no matter the circumstances, this would have still happened. I shake my head, Don’t go down that rabbit hole, Cel, you’ll be trapped there for hours.

“Celina,” Chris starts hesitantly, “I know you don’t want to discuss it, but how do you create a blood oath?”

I take a deep breath, looking at a picture of a field of daisies. “I guess you should learn this. A blood oath is created by slicing your veins open, bringing you to the verge of death. Just when your heart is about to beat its last beat, you pledge your loyalty to your alpha. Should your alpha accept you, he will bite your neck, as if he would a mate, and suck on your blood until your heart gives out. Then, and only then, will he force you to bite his wrist and allow his alpha blood to revive you. After that, you belong to him. He can control your actions if he should choose so, choose what you feel, or simply take your life. You’re essentially a living puppet to him.”

“Because he is your alpha,” Chris says, stepping closer to me, “the only way to break that bond with him is to reject him from being your alpha. Is there a way to force someone to perform a blood oath?”

I nod, “There are several, but the main one is usually desperation. To either save yourself, a family member….or a pack.” I say as I trail off. I look over my shoulder at Chris. “What if the packs that were killed were the ones that refused to submit to him?”

Chris’s brow furrows. “It’s possible, but there are so many attacks in such a short period, that I don’t see how one man had time to do all of that.”

“But the attacks have stopped since the focus has been on me.” I point out.

“Still, that’s too much for one man. Two maybe, but not one.”

I curse under my breath. It fit damn it. “Maybe he and Randaul tagged teamed?” I suggest.

Chris thinks about it. “It’s possible.” He comes and touches my shoulder. “We can handle this Cel, so just breathe. You already did the hard part, now we just have to do everything else.”

I give him a dirty look. “Thanks, that makes me feel so much better.”

He grabs my shoulders and turns me around, then starts massaging them. “Look, the only thing we can do is tackle what we know. Let’s start with that. Now, what do we know about Damian?”

“That his ego is bigger than mine?”

Chris chuckles, “Yes, and that his end goal is to take our kingdom, and you, as his queen. He has enacted a blood oath, and he’s not afraid to destroy something useless to him.”

I nod, “Again, that explains the packs that were slaughtered. If they didn’t adhere to the blood oath, they would serve no purpose and be a liability if left alive.”

He thinks that over, “You know, that does fit. If he had other packs under him, he could use them to wipe out the packs that refused him.”

“It’s a theory worth looking into.” I agree, starting to feel better that I have somewhere to start. It’s still devastating that so many council members, and their families, were slaughtered less than a few hours ago. I was the one to urge Chris to get an announcement out; since we might be able to stop this from happening again if Damian were to go on another rampage.

I rub my face as I groan. “Let’s start with interrogating the remaining councilmembers and their families. We’ll start with your father.”

“Let’s start with getting you something to eat. You haven’t eaten all day, and your wolf needs her strength right now. After you eat, we’ll go talk to him.”

I nod and take his hand. “How are you holding up? I mean, you did just find out you have a long-lost half-brother.”

“He’s not my brother,” Chris growls, leading me to the kitchen. “That freak is nothing more than a homicidal killer to me. He gave up the right to even claim any right to get to know me the moment he started going after my family.”

“Danny seemed to accept him,” I muse as I think out loud. “Was there anything that stood out to you about his behavior back then? Something that would stand out? I’m just trying to figure out a timeline for when he met Damian.”

Chris gives me a hard glare due to my choice of words but nods before starting to think about it. He falls into silence as he escorts me to get something to eat. His body is tense while he goes down memory lane, and I wonder what memory has triggered this kind of reaction.

When we go to the kitchen, it’s empty. We did dismiss the staff for the day after the attack, so it isn’t unusual. Chris leans against a prep area while I hunt down the ingredients to make us both sandwiches.

“Here,” I tell him as I hand him his sandwich. It snaps him out of his reverie, and he just watches me hop on the table across from him, so I can sit and talk to him. “So what is going on in your brain that makes it look like you swallowed battery acid?”

He grimaces at my word choice and holds the sandwich in his hand like it’s going to disappear. “One thing is standing out to me. It was four months before your birthday. Danny called to ask me if I was coming home for the Alpha Prince and Alpha Princess’s birthday, and that there was something he wanted to show me. I told him I couldn’t because there was a major pack dispute I was working through. I also told him I had no interest in meeting you two since I was happy living in London with Mia.”

He grimaces again. “Danny…did not take that well. He was upset with me and accused me of neglecting my royal duties because of my controlling bitch of a girlfriend. I told him this was my decision and not Mia’s, and he became further upset. He told me I was wasting my life on someone who wasn’t even my mate and demanded to know why I was passing up the chance to come home. I told him I didn’t care if Mia wasn’t my mate, we hadn’t found one and I was happy.

“Danny then asked me what if the Alpha Princess was our mate. I told him that…a she-wolf was unlikely to be a Lycan Prince’s mate and to stop trying to start an argument. He became enraged after that and demanded to know how I could say that about you. I told him that you were a wolf, so what had I said that was so offensive. He told me to go fuck myself, and that he was going to make sure that he was known by you at your birthday party, before hanging up on me.”

Chris looks up at me through his lashes, measuring my reaction. I’ve honestly heard worse out of him. “I didn’t think of it until now. He called me back almost immediately after that and apologized and blamed it on missing me. He told me not to worry about coming, and he’d tell me if anything interesting happened at your party.”

I raise my eyebrow, “That was quite the personality switch,” I say as I fold my arms. “I wonder why that was. Maybe Damian had something to do with it.”

Chris nods, “Most likely. That wasn’t his only attempt to get me to come home, but it was the only time he brought you up, and your birthday specifically. I would have loved to come home and visit him, and now I wish I had, but I just wanted to stay far away from my father. He was pressuring me to select Mia as my mate, and that would force Danny to accept her as well. I never wanted to claim Mia. She was just company to me, and it kept me from being lonely. Danny hated her, and he refused to even date another person until he found his mate. Danny was always the romantic between the two of us.”

“He sounds like he was an interesting person to meet,” I agree; feeling that hard familiar pang of despair. I wish I had gotten to know him, and that I didn’t have to kill him. I flinch when I remember seeing Beta Logan’s fading eyes. I can’t forgive that, even if he was my mate.

I open my mouth but jump when I hear my phone ring. I had forgotten Xander had given me my new one. I pull it out of my pocket and look at the screen. Blocked number? “Hello,” I ask in an exasperated voice; believing it’s a wrong number.

“Listen here Princess,” a voice snarls on the other end of the line. My body goes rigid when I recognize his voice. “I’m still out to strangle your throat, but I figured I owe you a favor. Thanks to your little broadcast, I was able to free myself from that monster and save my own neck. Judging by his screams, some of those pathetic packs joined in. Still, if you want that spawn from hell, you can find him in an abandoned house just outside Lunar Pack. They swore a blood oath to him, so they will try to protect him.”

“Randaul” I start but he cuts me off.

“Save it for someone who wants to hear what you have to say, Celina. I’m not your friend, and I’m not looking for a pardon for this information. The next time we meet, I will be ripping your throat out. The way I see it, you’re the only one that has a shot to defeat that narcissist. If you kill him, it’ll be doing me a massive favor. If he kills you, then that’s one less pain in the ass bitch I have to deal with. He’s locked in the basement, but I don’t know how long that will last. If you value your time, you better hurry.” There is a loud crack at the end of the line just before the line goes dead.