CHAPTER 35: Wrath

**AKIHIRO**

“ALICIA!”

I was screaming as I woke up from my bed. I was panting and sweating. My eyes were glowing red…and my whole body was shaking as I am still feeling everything from the torture.

I wanted to move, but I am paralyzed now. I looked at my hands…and my body. I am still not healing. Just then, Hades went inside along with the other pureblood vampires.

“Where is Alicia?” I immediately asked them.

They all shook their heads. Fuck! I cursed. Considering that I am not inside my room, my whole body still intact and I am still breathing, they already got their hands on Alicia.

“You all need to be thankful because I am weak right now or you are all dead.” I warned them, with my eyes glowing.

“We are just following your grandfather’s order. The clan wants us to hand something to them that we cannot! They want to end our bloodline and we are not sorry for choosing you!” Hades seriously told me. “We cannot just let them control us. Alicia is the best we can give them because of her blood!”

“Why are you getting mad at us? You should be happy because you are saved. She is just a collateral. You are the most important creature in our clan. You cannot die, Akihiro!” Leah yelled at me. “Can you for once think of your clan instead of thinking of that girl! You are making me useless now. I am your fiancee yet all you can think about is that bitch!”

“Call her bitch again and you’ll lose your tongue!” I warned her. Right now, I am tired of pretending that I don’t care about her when it is pretty obvious that I wanted to be with her to the point of even fighting my own kin.

“You should start forgetting about our wedding because it will not happen, Leah.” I seriously told her. “I am cutting our engagement right now. You are nothing to me…so I suggest you stop deciding about my life!”

“What?” She protested. “You cannot do that to me! You're not the one who gets to decide that but our grandfather. Do you think they will agree on knowing that you are choosing a human over me?” Leah scoffed.

“Come on, Akihiro. You might just be flowing with so much emotion because of what happened to you. You need to chill right now!” Niko interrupted. “You might regret saying this after a while. So, calm down.”

“I am calm, Niko. And, I will never regret this decision of mine. Tell your whole clan that there will be no engagement!” I shouted, making all the people in our villa hear it, including my father and grandfather.

From a distance, I know my grandfather is listening and he will surely come to me after this. I don’t care. All my life, I followed their decisions to be worthy of the noble title of being the king. I thought it was my destiny to be king yet it was meaningless for me now. If only I can choose to be human, I would trade anything for…just to be with Alicia.

“That girl had brain-washed you, huh?” Leah shook her head. “I will pretend I didn’t hear about this, Akihiro, so you have time to think because you know what will happen if you break a hundred year engagement between our families.” She warned me, her eyes glowed red.

“It is a hundred year engagement, Leah. Still, it never occured to you why I didn’t marry you in those hundred years? Perhaps now, you would realize that I never have an intention to marry you.”

I saw tears start falling in her eyes. I smirked. “Well, at least now you are aware that you still have feelings even though you are a vampire. You probably want to think of how ruthless you are when you sacrifice a human life for me.”

“I am sorry, Akihiro. But, I will never feel anything towards that human knowing she is the reason why you are breaking our engagement. I would even pray for her death.” Leah said before leaving the room.

“You better leave now before I forget that you are my friends.” I said. As much as I want to use my strength, I am weak…that they can kill me any moment.

They left until it was only Hades and me. “What are you doing here, Hades? If you want to lecture me on something, you better stop because I am not changing my mind right now.” I laid on the bed again…but it was so hard because of my wound.

“I’m sorry, Akihiro.” He replied. “I am your bestfriend. I tried to talk to your grandfather about Alicia because she doesn’t know anything about us. But, when your cousin pretended to be you and wanted to get inside Alicia’s house—”

“I know it will happen so I warned her not to go invite me whatever happens.” I smiled. So, she was able to follow my order. Although, it is still sad knowing I was too late. I cannot prevent this.

“My father will kill me…and perhaps will lock me if I will not follow the order of the king.” He reasoned out.

“It’s too late, Hades. You should have let me die in there instead of putting her life at risk. I am trying my best to give her a normal life but you guys are ruining it! You should have left her alone. Look, it’s even too late to save me. My wounds aren’t healing!”

Hades shook his head. “I don’t think they will kill Alicia. They are hunters but humans, too. They aren’t as bad as we think…so we are waiting if they will let go of Alicia. After all, they immediately let you go upon knowing we brought Alicia.”

“What?” I raised my brow. “You are saying to me that they let me go without fighting?”

He nodded. “Which made us think that we did the right thing. She is human and they will never harm humans. We should have tried another human though instead of her.”

“No!” I quickly got out of bed. “You were wrong, Hades. Alicia isn’t just any other human.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Where is Alicia? Is she back home? Did you check if she is still alive?”

Before he could say a thing, we both heard footsteps. It was my grandfather and my father who entered the room. Hades immediately went out leaving me with the both of them.

For the first time, I felt the wrath of my grandfather as he stared at me…and after a second my whole body was already burning with fire.