Chapter 89 - Just kill me already

HADRIAN

The silver chains rattle when the guards tug me forward. Eight men surround me and they each pull on a chain to guide me towards the throne room. The silver is wound tight from my elbows to my wrists. It digs into my skin. Through the fabric, I can feel the burn. I grit my teeth and refuse to show them the pain it’s causing me.

Eyes follow me when I pass the corridor. Soldiers train in pairs, some wolves litter around the grass field. Sparring matches falter as their heads turn to me. They can all sense my weakening wolf. They watch me as I'm chained and guided by my father's guard.

They haul me into the throne room like a prisoner receiving his sentence. They push me further until I lose my balance and my knee scrapes over the marble floor.

I land in front of the throne and the chains fall around me. My breaths are getting heavier as my body tries to fight the silver. My head is heavy as it hangs on my shoulders, but I push myself to raise my head.

The Alpha King watches me with intent. Victory shines in his dark amber eyes and the curve turns his mouth in a smirk. I’ve never seen this much elation in my father.

He enjoys watching me suffer.

The heavy doors of the throne room close with a loud clack. The sound tears through the room until a deafening silence is left. The guards have left and there are no other beings present in the room. My breathing is getting even heavier as I try to cope with the chains. They drain my energy and keep me kneeling on the ground.

My father chuckles. “If I knew that finding your mate would make you this weak, then I would never have tried to kill her.”

This is a confession I never expected to get. My father doesn’t want me as his son. He never wants me to succeed him. I can feel my muscles losing strength and threatening to collapse. “Why don’t you just kill me already?”

“I’m not going to kill you.” My father hums and taps a finger on the wooden armrest. “I need you alive, but barely.”

His darkness makes me tremble and I clench my hand behind my back. I grit my teeth and force myself to find my strength. My father has always found ways to tear down my strength and the power of my command.

*Placing me lower than my sister, punishing me with silver whips, killing any potential mate and making me choose a human mate.*

I find strength in my anger. I can’t let him succeed again. “You killed countless girls, humans and werewolves, just so that I won’t grow stronger than you.”

When I speak the words, I know they’re true. I can see it in the hard edge of his eyes.

I find myself releasing a chuckle. It’s dark and humorless. “The thing is that I was never going to challenge you.” I grimace as I watch my father stuck to the throne, always exuding the power he has.

I shake my head and lower my gaze to the ground. “I didn’t want the throne, I just wanted a father that would look at his son with respect and pride.” I scoff at the idea in my head that is never going to happen.

I fought all my life to be the perfect Crown Prince and never was I good enough. Never did I live up to the expectations. Never was I recognized for being the future Alpha King. Everyone started to believe it and after years, I believed it too.

“I never wanted to be like you,” I mutter.

The only person who saw me as the future ruler of this kingdom was Emma. She never questioned my competence. She treated it as a fact, not a possibility.

The fury builds in my chest and fills my breaths with anger. He can take my birthright, he can take my kingdom, but he cannot take my mate. “You threatened to kill my mate. You planned on burning her to ash…”

I can feel my muscles swell and press against the chains. They strain against the silver, creating deeper burns. “You will pay for that.”

I realize that this isn’t about me. He was right when he told me to choose Emma as my mate. This war needs to end. The years of suffering have gone on for too long. But to end this war, he needs to go down.

“You are crazier than your mother if you believe that you can defeat me.” My father says with mocking laughter.

I strain my muscles as hard as I can. I pull until the chain breaks under the pressure. The silver burns through the fabric and leaves painful blisters, even though the fabric of my shirt stays intact.

The metal clatters on the marble floor. I lift my head and straighten my back. I hide the fact that this costs me a severe amount of energy with a growl. “Do you want to find out right now?”

I know that challenging my father to a dual is committing suicide. I don’t have the strength right now, compared to my father. I don’t have my wolf to take him down. I will have to fight dirty.

I pick up the chains from the ground with my left hand when I rise from the floor. My skin hisses when it burns away the first layer of my skin. The full brunt of the pain is excruciating. I’m willing to bet that no werewolf ever voluntarily touched silver after they have been burned once.

The pain seeps through the layers of skin, it slices into my nerve endings and tears through the little veins in my hand.

I throw the chains in the direction of my father. He must not have expected this course of direction, because he doesn't move quick enough out of the way. Realization dawns in his eyes.

The chains hit his hands, his face and his neck. Burning flesh wafts in a stomach-rolling wave through the room. The roar of pain is loud and booms through the throne room.

The guards are quickly present, they burst through the doors. They move to the Alpha King to protect him from the threat.

They don’t realize quickly enough that the threat is me. I run past the guards and out the door.

“Capture the traitor!” The Alpha King roars in an undeniable order. His command is loud enough to travel through the halls.

I know that getting caught will mean immediate death. He’ll probably enjoy sinking his claws in my chest until my heart stops beating in his hand.

I run the same route back to continue the trail of my scent and disappear through the nearest tunnel.

By now my father will have mind linked every guard and soldier in the kingdom. Every single one will be hunting me.

I run through the dark tunnel with blind trust. I’ve walked all of them so many times that they’re engraved in my memory. I can walk them with my eyes closed.

Fighting an army of werewolves in my current state is impossible. It will only evade my impending death in mere seconds. I wonder if these were some of the same thoughts going through Emma’s mind when she escaped the dungeons.

I cannot fault her for running away, I just wish she wouldn’t have gone alone.

But now that I know where she has gone, no army of werewolves can stop me.