Chapter 18

Cole POV

It was all my fault. Right before my eyes, I watched in shock as an arrow almost hurt Giselle. I should have talked to her for a little bit when she was passing by instead I behaved like a lovesick jealous hormonal teenager who has gotten his heart broken by his crush.

All through last night and this morning I couldn't get over Giselle's rejection and had decided to immerse myself in the affairs of the pack. I know it is stupid of me to be angry but I wasn't thinking straight and decided to pour my anger out on Giselle.

After having a fit-less sleep in my office I had run my pack through vigorous exercise and training and I could almost feel the side eyes they were throwing at me. I had intentionally made them go through vigorous training so I could take my mind off a certain minx that I couldn't help but think about.

By mid-afternoon, I had managed to avoid Giselle well enough at least not until she passed through the courtyard of our training hall and our eyes met.

I wanted to go to her and hold her but I drew my eyes away. I was still feeling the shame of her rejection when all of a sudden I noticed an arrow swinging toward her.

It was only my swift impulses bred through years of training that had been able to save Giselle from an accident that would have hurt my child. I berated inwardly as Giselle looked at me in concern. She looked tired and disheveled and I wanted to hold her but I didn't. There was something else I needed to take care of first.

I walked over to the arrow lying a few feet from where we'd fallen and examined it thoroughly and my fears were ignited. It seemed the arrow had been tampered with just as I had suspected.

I called for Rhys and he also examined it and agreed with my suspicion.

"This doesn't look like the types of arrows we practice with. Look the tips are coated with something," Rhys said, showing me the arrowhead. " It seems the tips were coated with poison"

My suspicion grew even worse and I suspected only one person could do this. When I trained with my soldiers in the training ground it was normal for soldiers to use arrows to train but I didn't instruct anyone to train with arrows today. T I, had today an all-combat physical training and had instructed no weapons to be brought into the training ground. The timing was oddly suspicious.

I looked at where the arrow was shot from at my training ground and I noticed it was thrown from a near distance and the soldier who had thrown the arrow was still standing there trembling in fear.

"Who sent you?" I asked quietly, anger rising through me. It took all of me to stop myself from jumping on him and attacking him.

"I don't know anything. It was a mistake. My hand slipped," the soldier trembled as he talked, pleading for his life.

"I know who sent you. I will help if only you tell me who sent you," I yelled at him at the top of my lungs and fear blazed in the soldier's eyes. He'd never seen me this angry before and it scared the hell out of him.

"Nobody sent me. It was all me. I did it by myself. Please spare me"

He continued to beg me looking pathetic and I completely lost it then. I charged and bounced on him in anger. He was no match for me with my alpha power and I subdued him in minutes. Rhys ran towards me and tried to stop me before I killed the soldier.

"You have to calm down. It's clear he isn't going to tell you anything," Rhys said, trying to reason with me.

I barked at my men who were still standing there and had watched everything and were now looking at me with fear. "Take him away and lock him up. Don't release him until he tells you who sent him. Is that clear?"

"Yes sir," she answered over to carry the now-injured soldier out of the training courtyard.

"Who do you suspect? It seemed like you have someone in mind already," Rhys asked me as soon as they were all out of earshot.

"There's only one person in this entire palace that has the gall to do that to me and it's only my stepmother, Tiffany," I spat in disgust.

"Why would she attack Giselle?"

"It must be because she must have found out Giselle is pregnant with my heir and she already feels threatened by it but what I can't believe is that witch was still able to manipulate one of my soldiers into betraying me"

"It's not that hard especially when promises of riches are involved. Now we just have to be more careful and not let our guard down"

"Yes, I know that," I uttered angrily, still upset that Tiffany had decided to go this far. If I was only just a second late, who knows what would have happened to Giselle?

I noticed Giselle was still standing at the spot where I had left her and I quickly went to meet her when I realized something.

"Where were the two of you going?"

"I was taking her to the other side of the palace for her next class which is on the other side of the palace," the maid Cynthia answered, her head bowed.

"But if you were coming from the dancing hall why didn't you take the west wing instead of coming all the way here," I asked the maid suspiciously.

Giselle looked at me in alarm, already realizing what I was thinking. The maid looked up in fear as she also understood the situation she was in.

"I was going to but I was informed that the west wing was under repair so we should pass the training ground instead"

"And who told you that?"

Sweat beads were beginning to form on her forehead and fear was vivid in her eyes. She was about to have a nervous breakdown as I continued to stare intently at her.

"It was the head butler. He is the one who told me the west wing was under repair and that I should go through there. I had nothing to do with it please," she pleaded, going down on her knees.

"Cole, it's not her fault. I'm sure she didn't know about it," Giselle said, trying to defend her.

I looked at Giselle's worried face and decided to let it go. It wasn't her fault anyways and there was no point losing two workers in one day.

"You can stand up. Just take Giselle to her room and make sure she she sees a doctor
"I don't need to see a doctor. I'm not even hurt," Giselle interjected quietly but my eyes stopped her from arguing further.

"Yes, sire.” The maid bowed before taking Giselle away. I watched them leave and motioned for one of my men to come.

"Make sure nothing else happens to her but watch from a discreet angle. I don't want to alarm her"

"You know that eventually the Luna queen would do something to hurt Giselle once again or even worse get her into serious trouble with the king," Rhys said, coming to stand beside me.

Of course, I knew that. That was one of the reasons it had taken me quite a while to form close relationships with people because I knew I might be able to protect them from that witch just like my mother. But not this time I would do everything I can to protect Giselle and my child no matter what. I swore to myself.