The Devil's Son and His Fated Bride
Chapter 139: The wails of avenger souls.

Chapter 139: The wails of avenger souls.

Kai seated his Queen first, his hand lingering a moment at the small of her back, then took his place next to her. The silence that enveloped the throne hall was forged of steel, sharp, rigid, and ready to snap.

"Bring them in," the Alpha King commanded, his voice cutting through the stillness like a force of authority.

The doors groaned open, and the guards ushered in the four Gamma warriors. Their Alpha’s faces were etched with creased brows and clenched jaws, the mark of dishonor weighing heavy on their nerves. These four Gammas had brought disgrace upon their packs, brawling with each other when they’d been explicitly ordered not to.

The four warriors strode forward, broad-shouldered and silent, until they reached the base of the platform. There, they dropped to their knees before the throne, heads bowed in shame.

The air thickened, a volatile mix of tension and humiliation as if the stone walls themselves recoiled from their presence. A reckoning was coming, a harsh one.

Kai’s face was carved in stone, his expression was unreadable and absolute. It was a warning before the storm. There was no kindness in his eyes, only the heavy mantle of command. Beside him, Ren fought to steady her breath, anxiety coiling in her chest. She didn’t know what Kai was about to do until she felt it. Shadow stirred.

A thick, voluminous thread of black smoke unfurled from the Alpha King’s body like a living serpent. It reeked of death and decay, having an unnatural ancient air. This wasn’t Kai’s aura as an Alpha wolf but his dark side.

The darkness slithered across the marble floor, curling through the air like a predator. Then, with calculated grace, it coiled itself around the kneeling Gamma warriors.

The entire hall was still in place. No one dared to breathe. Even the elders- hardened by war and centuries of bloodshed- turned pale.

"Shadow is torturing them..." a whisper broke through the suffocating silence, brittle and hushed.

Gasps followed and eyes widened in terror.

The Gammas trembled violently, their bodies slick with sweat. Their fangs protruded against their will. Pain twisted across their faces, so raw and unrelenting.

Kai’s voice rang out, it was low, nonchalant, but hoarse, too calm for what they were witnessing.

"Do you hear it?" he said, his gaze never wavering. "The screaming. The pain. The hatred. What you feel is the suffering of thousands of souls who left this world with poisoned hearts. They became vengeance incarnate, drifting as shadows, waiting for a body to claim... to crawl back into life."

He leaned forward slightly, his tone sharpening.

"If even one of you had died... I would have heard your wails among them."

Throats bobbed as everyone swallowed hard. Some of those present had endured this torment before, either for defying the Alpha King or during the brutal trials to earn their pack’s crown, to become an alpha leader. But even the infamous Alpha test had never reached this depth of despair.

"Please, Your Highness... forgive us!" one of the Gammas cried out, his voice cracking.

Kai didn’t flinch. He simply shook his head.

As their faces drained of color, his eyes narrowed into slits of cold fire. "I see your grief," he said, his tone serene but unyielding. "It weighs heavy in your chests. But tell me, do you think your fallen brothers, now resting in the heavens, would rejoice at the sight of you tearing each other apart? Would they want your souls dragged into the shadow realm, cursed and writhing for eternity?"

The Gammas shook their heads quickly, shame pooling in their eyes. His words were sharp with reason, impossible to refute. The weight of his authority crushed the air from the hall. It was a remorseful to let their tears of agony to fall.

Ren sat in strained silence, her hands trembling in her lap. She curled her fingers inward, hiding the quake in her palms. This wasn’t her place. She couldn’t interfere, even if everything in her ached to the core.

"We won’t fight again," one of the Gammas rasped, his voice brittle. "We... apologize. We forgot we are brothers."

The others nodded, barely able to speak through clenched jaws and chattering teeth. Their pain leaked through in every breath. The sound of it- their grinding molars and labored exhales- echoed through the grand hall like something unholy.

Even the spectators shivered. The idea of hearing the screams of the dead? No one wanted that. This punishment was far worse than any nightmare.

The thick rope of shadow recoiled slowly, slipping back into the void from which it came. Just that thread, just that sliver of its pain, had pushed seasoned warriors to the brink of madness. Ren didn’t dare imagine what the full force of it could do.

Kai wasn’t cruel, never needlessly. But she knew, without question, that these Gammas would carry nightmares from this moment for the rest of their lives.

The men trembled as the darkness released them. Their limbs shook, their faces pale and drenched with sweat. Their respective Alphas who had stood watching with hearts in their throats rushed forward to steady them.

One Gamma hailed from Alpha Xander’s pack. Xander himself was absent, still locked in the frozen war front beyond the mountains, holding the line against vampire infiltration into Thegara. A brave man, a relentless wall for the wolves’ throne. He wouldn’t have allowed this. Everyone could see it in the way his warrior looked ashamed to stand alone.

The elder of the River Wolves approached quietly. He extended a hand to his Gamma, one of the mighty few his son- Xander had trusted in battle. The shame of this would reach his son like a blade. With a nod of silent understanding, the elder helped him to his feet, and together they joined the others in a line.

Kai turned to the side, his voice gentling slightly. "Agara. Give them the elixir, please."

Agara bowed his head and stepped forward, drawing four crystal vials from the folds of his robe. He passed them to Beta Coran with care, each one glowing faintly with a silver-blue hue.

"Take these elixirs. Let them mend what your pride has broken," Kai said, his tone calmer now, giving the men a moment to collect themselves.

The silence that followed was dense, the kind that pressed into bones. Then, Kai rose to his full height, his voice echoing through the hall with grim clarity.

"This war we face..." he began, "is unlike anything we’ve endured in generations. Keeping Thegara safeguarded from every claw and whisper of danger, has never been easy. And it won’t be, not now."

His gaze swept the hall like a blade, locking on each Alpha, each warrior.

"We have gold. Gem mines. Fertile lands. We remain neutral, untouched by empires or crowns. And that neutrality makes us a target. Our enemies are many, they want what we protect. They call us predators."

He took a step forward. His voice hardened.

"So what will you do? Prove them right?"

The Gammas bowed their heads, shame carving lines into their faces. They couldn’t meet his eyes.

"A single fracture between us is all it takes to crumble everything. Discord is poison, and they are watching. Waiting. The moment we turn on each other, they will strike and leave only ash behind."

His voice lowered, heavier now, as he pointed toward the back of the hall.

"Before you let vengeance rule you again, ask yourselves, is your anger worth the lives of our children? Look at the Omega pups hiding behind their mothers. You should be the ones protecting them, not turning their world into rubble."

Kai paused, letting the silence hang like a noose.

The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l