The Found One

Chapter 24

Izzy POV

Izzy felt as much as she heard the eyes of everyone turn to the door off to the side of the hall, following Rowan's gaze. Just as she was about to ask Hayden what was going to happen, it opened.

Austin was the epitome of a warrior as he strode into the room. His face blank and harsh, his eyes scanning the room, back straight, weapons decorating his body.

Sometimes Izzy forgot how capable and dangerous these men were. Even having seen them fight the day before, seen them kill, she still saw Austin as the carefree goofball who had broken down her guard and resistance, but watching as he led in a string of beat down and broken prisoners, guards falling in behind him, she saw exactly why and how he was able to be Beta to the Pack of Rowan's family, and stood so surely at his Father's, the Kings, side. Izzy had to wonder if this was an act and he was really the other person, or if this was the real Austin and the other was just an act – either possibility was slightly terrifying.

Getting over the shock of seeing Austin so fully embraced and encompassed in his role, she moved her sights to those coming in behind him.

They were boys. Just boys.

Yesterday, with the risk of death and the fear of their threats, they had been intimidating, and menacing. But now? Now, they looked like lost little boys. Her heart flinched. Was Rowan really going to kill them? They can't be older than me, just stupid reckless teenagers.

There was a change in those in the hall as the boys' presence washed over them. The Royal guards tensed, reacting to the sudden shift, their backs stiffening as they studied the crowd.

Austin eyed those at the front as he passed, the prisoners following in single file behind him. Izzy gasped as a woman in the first row took a step forward, her hand reaching for a tall dark haired boy near the front of the line, she could easily make out the tears on the woman's cheeks. The guards reacted instantaneously, blocking the women, spinning her back and away from the prisoners. The dark haired boy yelling out, his face that had been studying the ground under his feet snapping to the side as he lunged at the guard's back. Another black clad Royal guard had the boy restrained before he could move six inches towards the woman. They were ruthless in their efficiency, competency and skill making them lethal and deadly. A man at the woman's side acted before he could think, lunging at the guard holding the woman, a third guard was on him before he could touch the first. And still Austin didn't pause, didn't turn.

Rowan watched detachedly as his Royal guards dealt with the incident, his eyes lingering on the crowd rather than the 8 prisoners he was considering murdering.

Izzy felt like she was going to vomit. It didn't take a genius to figure out who the woman and man were, even without the matching hair, and strikingly similar features; parents.

This boy's parents, gathered here to watch and listen to whether their son would be condemned to death - by their Prince.

Rowan looked different to her, older, untouchable, gone was the ego and flirty-ness she had become accustomed to. Instead he felt cold and distant, harsh even. The man standing before her was someone she could see ordering the death of eight young men who had disobeyed him, this was a man who assumed, no – who expected, his orders and wishes to be complied with, without question or hesitation.

Izzy didn't know how she felt about the change in him, she still wasn't scared of him – she didn't think she could ever be truly scared of Rowan again, at least not anymore, but she also wasn't sure she liked this particular side of him.

Austin and the prisoners made their way on to the stage. Hayden stiffened beside her, shifting so his body brushed along the side of hers, his stare landing heavily and intimidatingly on those shuffling forward.