Cy sits back, his lips thin, and he glances at Riot like it’s his fault. “Well, if that’s how you feel.”
“Dad, we really need help-”
“Yes, well, I really needed my son here, helping me to run the kingdom.”
Kingdom? Since when did wolves have kingdoms?
Cy stands up. “I think perhaps you need a night to sleep and think over everything.”
“No, I don’t need to sleep and think, I need to get back to her!” Khaos shouts.
Cy shakes his head. “Impossible, impulsive, selfish child. Of course, you can’t go back; that would break all sorts of treaties. She rejected your bonds; you told me that yourself. That means that she belongs to them.”
“Father!”
“Alpha!” Cy thunders, and we all bow our heads, though I see Khaos fighting it and, to my surprise, Wrath isn’t affected.
“She is our mate.”
“No, she was your mate, now you are free to mate for the good of the pack.”
“You’re mad.”
“No, I am king.”
“Alpha!” Khaos snaps. “You are alpha, not king.”
Cy glares at his son and then sweeps out of the room, leaving the rest of us staring after him, absolutely struck dumb by his bizarre behaviour.
My father puts his hand on mine. “My son, it might be best if you came with us and just had a little conversation. One alpha to another.”
I jerk my head around and see him look around fearfully. My father is afraid in his own home? What has happened here?
“Okay.”
I say it quietly, even though everything is urging me to get back to her, because it looks like…maybe…the alpha, our alpha, has gone mad.
My pack paces in the underground library. Wrath’s father, Oliver, and my father are standing shoulder to shoulder, deep grim expressions on their faces.
Khaos is jittery, and he keeps grasping his fingers and twisting like he’s trying to ground himself back in reality. I’m getting really worried about him.
“I know we weren’t easy on you, Mika, but you had so much to give the world, and the choices you kept choosing just kept putting you in the firing line of a world of hurt.”
I stare at him like he’s grown a second head.
“But I’m afraid you’ve walked back into another one. Our alpha got sick after Khaos vanished. He locked away his mistress and turned into what you are currently seeing. We…uh, don’t know if his mistress is alive.”
“How?” Khaos says hoarsely. “How has this happened?”
“We don’t know what’s wrong with him. Only that something is,” Oliver says and looks even more exhausted.
“How can we stop him?” Riot demands. “How can we make him let us go? Our mate needs us.”
My father looks at Khaos. “You are the only one who can save us, Kerrick.”
Khaos rubs his temples. “He’s using his alpha bark on me. The second he saw me, he pushed into me, commanding obedience. I’m not sure I’m strong enough to fight him.”
“Yes, he doesn’t like to be disobeyed anymore,” my father whispers. “There are lots of people missing now. We think they might be in the prisons, but no one can get down there to check them out.”
