The Alpha's Blind Fate
Chapter 225: Shadow’s Return

Chapter 225: Shadow’s Return

ZINA

"Well isn’t this the perfect family meeting."

On cue, they all turned their heads to the direction of the voice that was all to familiar to Zina. If not for his voice, only one man could creep up unnoticed on two Alpha Prince’s, and that was of course, none other than Daemon.

"Your majesty," Zina muttered like a cat that had been caught doing something very wrong, while she bowed with her eyes turned to the ground.

But Daemon never looked at her for once, instead his eyes were on Garuk’s who stared back at him as if he was standing before a stranger. While Falcon bowed in the manner she did, Garuk never did the same despite how much Falcon tried to tug him down and force him to do so.

On cue, an image of Yaren being beaten by Daemon flashed through Zina’s eyes... only this time she imagined that a far worse fate would be waiting for Garuk in the hands of Daemon.

It didn’t seem as though Daemon had been eavesdropping on their conversation. At least, on her own part, Zina had made sure to stretch her senses and observe their surroundings. She only noticed his presence close by just now that he announced himself, but Zina couldn’t help but wonder if he had been watching them for a long time. When Falcon had approached her, she had felt eyes on her that made her skin prick. And now that she was thinking about it, it could have been Daemon staring at her from wherever he was.

Daemon approached Garuk, his towering stature over the other man blatantly obvious. "You must be Garuk," he said with a chuckle that Zina certainly hadn’t expected.

Maybe it was something in Daemon’s voice, or Falcon’s persistent pleading eyes, but Garuk finally bowed at Daemon while he gritted. "It’s I, your majesty."

"You do not have to force yourself." Daemon said to him, while his eyes finally rested lazily on Zina who would have given anything to avoid his frosty stare. "I assume there must be a great reason why you’re in my palace without my permission and are meeting with my Theta in secret."

Zina made to protest, but as soon as she was about to say that it wasn’t what he was thinking, Daemon’s eyes narrowed into slits at her and that successfully shut her up.

Falcon stepped in front of Garuk as if he was shielding the younger man from the wrath of their brother. "Garuk and I were only consulting the Theta on something with regards to our private Packs. We have done just that and were about to leave."

The blatant lie was like a slap against Zina’s cheeks, and she could stand helplessly while looking everywhere but nowhere in particular.

Falcon’s eyes pleaded with her to give her more time, Garuk’s eyes seemed to be doubting why his older brother consulted her in the first place, and Daemon’s eyes seemed to be looking at her for some sort of confirmation of Falcon’s allegations.

Talk about being trapped between the devil and the blue sea, but the three pair of NorthSteed eyes on her wanted to drown her in a turbulent ocean.

The words were difficult. Indeed, she didn’t want to say them, but she found herself lying. "Yes, Alpha Prince Falcon and Alpha Prince Garuk were consulting me indeed."

The word ’consulting’ made her lie sound less like a lie. Afterall, Falcon had been consulting her indeed. But between her and Dameon, she knew she had just spewed a terrible lie to her mate and all for what? To protect her friendship with Falcon? Or to protect the arrogant but wounded Garuk?

Daemon’s eyes held hers and Zina dared not blink the wrong way. What had she gotten herself to? However if she thought Daemon would leave her at that, she was sorely wrong.

"Is that so Theta? Pray tell, what matters are you being consulted on? As Alpha King, I am sure I would be able to offer far more insight than you, no?"

Zina was finally forced to blink the wrong way as a bead of sweat rolled down her face, down to the middle of her breast. Before she could speak, Garuk aggressively answered. "I was asking the Theta how an Alpha Prince can get past abandonment issues, you know, especially where the abandonment was done by a man in a position of power. How do I handle such a situation? How do I move past it? How do I deal with my anger? That was about it, and other miscellaneous things of course."

Throughout Garuk’s snide rambling, Daemon never took his eyes from hers that seemed to hold all of her guilt.

Without another word, he extended his hand for her to take. That was the moment Zina began to seriously pray that soemthing... someone would come in and interrupt whatever spell that was charged in the air, for how could she place her trembling hands in his?

Slowly, she raised her hand towards his and her prayer wasn’t answered until his hand was gripping her fingers that were shaking so violently. There was no way Daemon didn’t know of her lies, and something about his eyes told Zina that he knew more than the fact that she had lied to him.

"You can come in." He muttered in a low voice that startled Zina whose heart was already beating so hard and fast she knew that Daemon could hear it.

She was usually an excellent liar, but her emotional entanglement with Daemon was messing with her brain. But she didn’t need to worry about that when, surprisingly, the door opened, revealing a man that Zina had last seen in Daemon’s Army Without An Alpha....

...Shadow, Daemon’s protector and the man without a wolf.

Falcon and Garuk seemed slightly startled as Shadow approached them menacingly; that was when a lot of things began to click in Zina’s head. Shadow had been absent for a long time, so the man could have been possibly investigating the missing money.

The gods, they were in trouble.

"I hear my dear brother Garuk has a peculiar ability," Daemon drawled while he began to tug Zina away from the room slowly, "he has the ability to put most wolves under a hypnosis spell. It’s a good thing that Shadow has no wolf."

Before Zina could fully process that information, she watched with wide eyes as shadow cornered Garuk and easily subdued the man in less than a second like he possessed the force of the wind and the nimbleness of a panther.

For a man who didn’t have a wolf, Shadow moved even more powerfully than a wolf. He was fast and invisible in his moves... just like a shadow. Falcon could only stand and stare in a daze while Garuk struggled under Shadow’s unrelenting grip.

"You will be hereby detained, Alpha Prince Garuk." Shadow announced in a bleak voice while he began to pull him away from the room.

"For what crime?!" Garuk screamed, still struggling and thrashing hard under Shadow who was now leading him out of the room.

"For the crime of stealing from the crown."