Chapter 18
"You can't send them away," Andrea looked at the king with fire in her hazel eyes.
"I can't keep them here," Rafail snapped back at her.
"Of course, you can. You are the king," The huntress argued.
"Precisely, Andrea," He glared. "I am the king. Of werewolves."
"You can't send them back. They'll die," She tried to make him reason.
"You think I don't know that?" Rafail shouted, his stormy grey eyes piercing through her cool façade.
"Then why are you arguing with me?" She shouted back, making him growl. "Just keep them here for some time."
"Do you even hear what you're saying?" He slowly spoke, gritting his teeth as he tried to keep his wolf under control. "Do you really expect me to welcome a group of thirty hunters into my palace?"
"Why not?" She looked at him daringly. "You were one of them two years ago. Did you already forget your old friends?"
Rafail let out a dark chuckle. "Friends? You really call them your friends? Make no mistake, Andrea. There are no friendly relationships within the hunters. Elson would never allow that. So no, I did not forget my old friends because they weren't my friends in the first place."
Andrea opened her mouth to say something but she had no reply to that. "You accepted me," She mumbled after some seconds of silence.
"Because you actually were my friend," He exhaled loudly, tired of the recent turn of events. "Be honest with me, did the idiotic brothers' death truly upset you?"
"Y-yes," Andrea stuttered, unable to look him in the eyes.
"You know that's a lie," Rafail kept his gaze on her face. "At best, you feel the same sadness you'd feel if you heard the news of the death of some stranger. At worse, their death is a relief. They were hated among the hunters after all."
"I-I,"
"There's no point in denying it," Rafail cut her off. "I feel sorry for them but I'm not grieving. And neither are the hunters downstairs and you know it."
"Why can't you keep them here?" Andrea asked again as she raised her head to look at him with wavering hope in her hazel eyes. "You're strong enough to kill them all. I've seen you training. If anything happens, you'll be able to neutralize the situation quickly."
"I can kill them, yes. But what happens to the ones that are caught up in the middle?" He raised a brow at her. "You can't possibly expect me to kill them all at once and I can't risk having my people die because I showed kindness to my enemy."
"But-"
"You do understand they're my enemy now, don't you?"
Andrea bit her lower lip in frustration.
"Why isn't Roi here now?" Raf suddenly asked her, not waiting for her reply. "He's keeping Sarin locked in a room because all of his senses are screaming danger. Do you expect me to risk the life of my niece?"
"No," Andrea sighed.
"And where's Jonathan?" Rafail rose a brow at her and Andrea felt her heart skip a beat. "You can't tell me that you aren't worried about him being down there with them right now."
The huntress wanted to argue but she knew he was right so she kept her mouth shut.
"Even if I agreed to host them, the council would never support my decision," Rafail added. "There's no way they wouldn't try to wipe them out without me knowing."
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Crowned King (Throne of Thorns #2)
काल्पनिक'Heavy is the head who wears the crown.' Rafail knew the words to be true as he weighed the gold piece in his hands. He had finally managed to avenge his father and take back a kingdom that was rightfully his. But at what cost? As a new threat cam...
