The Alpha's Unwanted Bride

Chapter 667: THE KING’S DECISION

Hildegard rushed up to meet her best friend and now sister.

"Rose." she whispered as she bent down, slipping an arm around her trembling Queen.

Rose was soaked, shaking, and staring blankly at the corpses being lifted from the ground.

Hildegard helped her up carefully. "Rose... take it easy."

Rose jerked her arm away.

"Take it easy?" She said through a broken breath. "My pack is falling apart, Hildegard. Everything around me is burning, dying, collapsing and it is because of me."

Hildegard said nothing.

There was nothing she could say.

Rose inhaled sharply, dragging a shaking hand across her wet face.

Then she straightened her spine.

The Queen resurfaced through the grief.

"Gather their bodies," she ordered the wolves. Her voice trembled, but it carried. "Prepare them for a proper funeral. And alert their families... tell them I will speak to them myself."

The Lycans bowed immediately and carried out her command.

"I can’t believe he did this." Rose shook her head in disbelief. "I truly can’t believe this. He was never like this. I changed a good person. I changed him the moment I accused him now look what I have brought on us."

Hildegard stepped closer. "Rose you can not blame yourself."

"But I have to." Rose said sadly. "Moreover you warned me. Warned me against accusing him. But I was so drunk with rage and anger that I did. Listened to Cherry and now well.... And now look where it has brought me."

"Well I can tell you for free that Jasmine isn’t dead." Hildegard said. "I don’t think he has her either. If he did, then he wouldn’t have even bothered killing the wolves would he?"

Rose had to admit that was true.

"I just truly hope you are-

But before she could finish, the guards suddenly parted.

A figure walked into the courtyard.

His steps were heavy.

His eyes red.

His aura violent.

Xaden.

XADEN’S POV

He had returned.

Xaden had been with the search parties looking for Jasmine from last night.

He has searched for her non stop.

Lucky enough for him, Erik had let Kirk come along.

Kire was the only one who had seemed to have Jasmine’s scent.

Jasmine being an unshifted, Xaden couldn’t catch her scent but for Kire.

He could smell her out anywhere.

Kire had followed them everywhere and unfortunately nothing had come up.

He was angry.

Angry to discover that Jasmine was the grand daughter to the Queen.

The true heir to the throne.

If this was true then that meant Bale’s servant had been Jasmine’s mother and the missing princess.

And then Cherry being evil.

The King sleeping with his sister in law.

Coral being the one who pushed Scarlett.

It was a messy situation.

And he knew that he didn’t want Jasmine here.

He wanted to find her and take her home.

He loved her.

She was the air he breathed and she was his world.

He couldn’t imagine her staying here.

He had searched and searched but not finding her, broke him.

He looked at the bodies, at the water on the stones, at Rose standing drenched and hollow eyed.

His jaw tightened.

"What happened?" he demanded, voice strained. "Who killed them?"

One of the wolves explained briefly.

The trespass.

The siren king.

The deaths.

Xaden’s nostrils flared so fiercely his wolf nearly broke free.

He turned to Rose, eyes glowing black.

"Any good news?" he asked.

Rose swallowed hard and shook her head.

"No."

For a moment he was motionless.

Then...

"WHEN," Xaden snapped, "were you going to tell me there were two trespassers?!"

Rose flinched.

"Xaden look at me do you think I am even stable enough to think?" she whispered. "Everything is collapsing I am trying to-

"So you’re telling me," he cut her off in a cold, violent tone, "that Jasmine might be in the custody of the king of the fucking sea?"

Rose’s eyes widened. "No. If she was, Corallos would not have killed wolves. He would have bargained with me. He would have taken pleasure in telling me she is alive in his hands. He-

Xaden stepped toward her.

"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT."

Rose froze, breath shattering.

"If you hadn’t locked Jasmine up if you hadn’t treated her like a criminal she would be alive. She would be safe."

The courtyard went silent.

Xaden pointed at her accusingly, shaking with rage.

"I brought her to you," he hissed, "to save her. To protect her. To give her something better than what she had. And you... you DESTROYED THAT."

Rose closed her eyes, broken.

"I regret bringing her here," he said harshly. "Do you think Jasmine will ever come back to a place where the woman she thought loved her locked her in a cell?"

"H-How dare you say that to me," Rose whispered. "I loved her. I...

"Stop." Xaden snapped. "I should never have trusted you."

The words cut deeper than any blade.

Hildegard stepped forward, "Xaden enough-

But Rose suddenly stiffened.

Her grief turned sharp.

"You think I am the only one who failed her?" she snapped back. "What about you, Xaden?"

Xaden’s wolf nearly lunged.

"You treated her terribly," Rose said, voice shaking with pain and truth. "You locked her up. You screamed at her. You made her lose her child."

Xaden froze.

Everything in him stilled.

He swallowed hard.

He looked sick.

Haunted.

Rose regretted saying it the moment it left her mouth... but it was too late.

Xaden’s eyes darkened, his jaw clenched in anguish.

And then his voice dropped to something colder than winter:

"If anything happens to Jasmine..." he said softly, deadly, "I will kill you myself."

And he turned sharply

Storming away.

One of the guards rushed toward him.

"Alpha wait!"

Xaden didn’t slow.

The guard shoved a parchment into his hands.

A wanted poster.

A sketch.

Jasmine’s face.

Her curly red hair.

Under it:

WANTED/ MISSING

5,000,000 GOLDEN COINS

Xaden stared at it.

His hands shook.

His wolf howled violently inside him.

The reality that she was truly missing, hit him.