Kaden

Cold

After ending the call from my neighboring alpha, a man whose heart was in the right place but his pockets empty, I sighed. Allies were complicated. It was easier when I was alone, but I needed someone watching my haunches when I made my move for revenge. Upon remembering my revenge, I recalled why I dragged the object of my anger from her cell.

I stormed to her prison, to see if she had any other secrets hiding within its walls before I retrieved her. At first, I saw nothing, then I spotted the thing she shielded from me venturing forth from it's hiding place. With a grim smile, I stalked towards it, noticing the thing reached towards me with its front legs. I didn't hesitate, stomping on it with my boot and dragging my foot across the wooden floor to ensure it was dead. Then I left without a backward glance.

She wasn't where I left her, in fact my pack stared at the spot she'd been with shocked eyes. "Where the hell is she?" I growled and they flinched. I swallowed a sigh, then cleared my throat. "I'm sorry. Do you know where my prisoner ran off to?" They flinched again and I frowned.

"Beta Jax took her to the infirmary," my delta replied in an awed voice. Before I could ask why, I noticed the body of Jax's wife on the ground and sputtered. "Jax killed her," Xander informed me with a wide grin. I furrowed my brow, trying to decipher why Jax would kill his wife, and why Xander found that amusing. "Jax is besotted with the princess, and took her to the infirmary so Zach could see to her wounds."

"Wounds? What?" I asked, my brow furrowed after I realized the 'princess' was my prisoner. I often forgot our kind considered her a princess since she was the daughter of the strongest alpha. They viewed him as a king, and his youngest daughter as the princess. His oldest son was the prince, not his youngest which I found curious. Why was the female twin the princess but the male twin not the prince? Whatever. I didn't care. I wanted that damn family to suffer. I didn't need to understand the way our people viewed them for that.

"The princess protected Tuck when his mother came to get him."

"We thought she wanted to use the pup as a hostage, so we let his mother deal with her."

"But she never moved from the spot you told her to stay in."

"The princess is so kind."

I shook my head when the members of my pack spoke at once, then glanced at Xander with a quirked brow. "Tuck cleaned the bloody footprints the princess left behind," my delta began with disapproval oozing from him albeit he didn't look at me. "When he got near the princess, they looked at each other and she knew right away from what the pack reports. We were blind to it, but the princess took one look at that pup and knew someone abused him. She knelt, and he cried into her shoulder while she hummed. Without a word, she gave that pup hope. And accepted his pain. The pack says they felt it build until it dispersed and Mandy showed up. They thought the princess hid him out of spite, until she didn't keep a hand on him. He stayed hidden while Mandy approached, and the pack approved of her knife. Until she attacked the princess who didn't cry or defend herself. She used her body to shield Tuck."

Shield? Why would she need to shield Tuck from his mother? "After Mandy tried to gut her, Tuck promised to come out if she stopped hurting the princess. Mandy... Mandy said she had to die for protecting his worthless life. And the princess was calm while she pushed him back behind her, refusing to let him go to that... monster. When she tried to stab Tuck for peeking, the princess guarded his face with her hand and got a knife through it for her valiant effort. While the pack tried to understand what they witnessed, Jax and I came in and he looked around, then snapped Mandy's neck after she lied. It was evident from our point of view that the princess took the knife to her hand to protect Tuck. Poor pup took quite a beating recently too. It appears he received it for trying to alert his father to his suffering. And the princess gave Jax this soft look which I swear made him melt, then she passed out. Jax caught her as she fell, otherwise she'd have hurt her knees," Xander continued.