The King (Alpha Trilogy #3)

Chapter 12

Lorenzo

The few Alphas gathered in the room are getting on my nerves. They keep interrupting the meeting and I have to put them in their place just to be able to continue. I've been constantly meeting with the packs for the last weeks due to the difficult situation with recent attacks on them. Almost every pack has been attacked and suffered a great damage.

Almost.

The Dark Moon Pack, where I am at the moment, hasn't really suffered, having the strongest army on the whole continent, led by none other than Beast.

She and her army of Deads easily dealt with the attackers and even managed to catch a few of them alive. After I visited the packs that didn't handle their situation so well, I came here to interrogate the intruders.

Right now I'm sitting in Alpha Kingston's office, with his mate, Thea, his son Theo, - I wonder what happened to their firstborn, Hunter - and a few neighboring alphas accompanying us. The men are way chattier than I would've liked. I hate having to listen to their constant banter, it's extremely annoying.

Luna Kingston, also known as Beast, seems to share my sentiment, glaring at the men every once in a while and rolling her eyes at them.

"Enough. – I command, fed up with them – We're not here to exchange gossip are we?" I snarl, using my alpha command to get them to submit. They all immediately bare their necks to me, lowering their heads. Only Beast remains unaffected by my authority.

Annoying woman. I hate the fact she's immune to my power. It's incredibly aggravating to see her defy me in everything.

"How many wolves attacked you?" I direct my question to Beast, who was the one fighting the attackers.

"Almost a hundred. Some of them smelled like rogues, some not. There were also humans in their midst."

"Humans?" I lift my eyebrow incredulously. This hasn't happened in other packs I went to. "Were they equipped to fight against werewolves?" I question.

Beast hesitates for a moment, glancing at her man unsurely. She clearly doesn't want to talk to me. The feeling's mutual. "They were. Leo got hit with a silver bullet and Shane was grazed with one." I frown at this.

"No one else got hurt?"

Leo lets out a relieved sigh. "No, thank goddess."

I notice Beast staring at me seriously, so I decide to ask what she wants. "What is it, Luna Kingston? You seem to be hiding something." I accuse with a curl of my lips, letting her know I'm not fucking happy about her keeping things from me. We're facing a serious crisis and she thinks she can just do whatever she pleases.

"There was something weird about the attack. – she states, tightening her grip on Leo's hand – Those guys... they seemed to target Leo." I don't let my surprise show, even thought this piece of information is quite shocking. They targeted Leo? Again, weird, no other alpha was targeted. The attacks seemed random, only focused on doing as much damage as possible. Why would they focus on Leo?

My half-brother pulls his mate closer to his chest, soothing her nerves by kissing her head and face, smothering her with his affection. He's so fucking lucky to have his mate with him, unlike me.

I haven't seen my little mate for weeks, having to leave in a hurry before we even had the chance to go on our date. Onyx was heartbroken about leaving her and has completely withdrawn from me. He's not taking being away from our mate well. Then there's the pain in my chest that just doesn't seem to disappear, it's like something is crushing my heart. My whole soul yearns to go back to our mate, but I can't just neglect my duties as the Alpha King. There are thousands of wolves that I'm responsible for. I wish I could just take Ivy with me, but it's too dangerous for her when I have no idea who I'm dealing with. She's safer without me, even if it hurts me. I just hope she'll forgive me for leaving without a word. She must've thought I stood her up.

I quickly dismiss the thought of my mate from my mind, and even though it's near to impossible to stop thinking about her, I need to focus on the matter at hand. "I want to see the intruders. We need fucking answers." I order, getting up from my seat and heading outside, not even caring if the others follow me or now. There's something that doesn't add up and it's frustrating.

Beast and the alphas follow me to the dungeon, where the attackers are being held, thankfully not saying even a word. They must've noticed I'm not in the mood to deal with them.

The first thing that catches my attention when I enter the prison is the stench of rogues, along with a weak smell of a human. Why would humans attack the pack? There are very few people that know of our existence; it makes no sense for them to attack us.

The rogues clearly recognize who I am as they pale considerably, some of them are even shaking in fear. "Who do you serve?" I ask as soon as I'm in front of their cell, not beating around the bush. The alpha command in my voice compels them to answer me, no matter how much they don't want to do it.

The rogue in the front struggles to keep his mouth shut, clenching his jaw tightly and averting his gaze from mine. The others don't even bother trying to defy me, mumbling incoherently.

When I growl at them to speak clearer, they all open their mouths, showing me their cut tongues. Shit! They can't fucking speak!

I turn to the man closest to me, who's muttering something under his breath, clearly still having his tongue intact. "I said, who do you serve?!" I put more force into my voice, making him squirm in fear as he tries to not give into the command.

"They'll kill me if I reveal anything." I catch him mumble as he stares at his clenched fist. Following his line of sight, I see a small bump on the inside of his wrist, hidden by the chain restraining him.

I gesture at Leo to open the cell then walk in and take the rogue's filthy arm in my hand, easily ripping the chain off, and inspect the hard protrusion on his wrist. It looks like an implant.

In a split second I have the small device removed from under his skin, using my claw to cut through it before crushing the bug between my fingers. "It's a fucking bug. Who gave you this?" I question the rogue, tightening my hold of his already broken arm. I might've used a bit too much force when I grabbed it, but I don't feel even an ounce of remorse for hurting him.

"T-The human that... he wa-wants to... I can't t-tell y-you... please d-d-don't make m-me..." He wails pathetically, struggling to speak. I'm losing my fucking patience. He better give me something or I'll rip him to shreds!

"WHO?!" I growl, throwing him into the nearest wall.

"I d-don't kn-know." He coughs out. I don't smell a lie, and it infuriates me even more. He really doesn't know and the others can't tell me cause they got no fucking tongues!

"Lorenzo." Beast's voice catches my attention.

"WHAT?!" I snarl at her, baring my canines in warning.

"Don't give me this shit. – she sneers, flashing her red eyes – I was trying to tell you that the human has something on his fucking neck!" She spits angrily, glaring at me. How I fucking hate this woman.

I turn to the human in question, staring at his neck to see what the hell Beast saw there. Then I notice it.

The tattoo.

It's the ancient emblem of the Alpha King.