There was a ripple of hesitation before Father boomed, “You are under my rule, and I command you to secure him. Do not let him free.”
I glared daggers at my father. Whatever game he was playing had gone way too far. He had gone mad with power and I knew that I had to stop him.
When the knights had finished tying me to the statue, they backed off. I turned to Woods. “What is going on?” I asked in an urgent whisper.
“…us be together…” Woods mumbled. He was almost incoherent. “Took him away, doing something horrible—”
“Eugene Woods, pull yourself together right this instant,” I snapped.
Woods may have been a mess, but he was still an upper quarter omega. A sharp command coming from his prince had an immediate effect on him. Some lucidity returned to his eyes and he blinked.
“They separated us,” Woods said hoarsely. “Me and Bjorn.”
I ground my teeth. “They did the same to us. I don’t know where Rourke is.”
A shadow fell across Woods’s face as he turned his head towards the edge of the crowd. I hadn’t noticed it before, but there was a large box covered in a black tarp. I squinted. Was the box moving?
Father’s voice resounded in the air, summoning everyone’s attention. “Good. The alpha Rourke has arrived. We can finally begin.”
My heart leapt into my throat. There. I saw him in the middle of a mob of knights. Rourke met my gaze across the courtyard. He looked relieved yet afraid. I wanted to call his name, but I didn’t know Father’s game yet. As difficult as it was, I needed to hold my composure. I bit my lip hard.
The knights led Rourke to the other side of the large open space, across from the strange box. Something about the arrangement deeply unnerved me.
It reminded me almost of a—
“Open the cage,” Father ordered.
The black tarp was flung away.
It was not a box. It was a cage with Bjorn inside. He was wild-eyed and crazed. A gag stuffed in his mouth prevented him from speaking or making too much noise, and his hands were shackled, just like Rourke’s.
Terrified, I whipped my gaze towards my mate. Rourke was frozen with unease.
By now there were hushed murmurs of confusion rippling over the crowd. The eldest prince and a well-known upper quarter omega were both tied to the statue in the courtyard, while two shackled alphas stood across from each other.
The bottom fell out of my stomach. Cold dread gripped my entire body. I knew what Father was going to say even before he spoke.
“For the crime of mating down, these two omegas have committed treason, while these two alphas are co-conspirators,” Father stated, his voice loud and clear. “However, since I am a fair king, I propose a better solution than to simply execute all four criminals.”
I saw the visible shock run across the crowd. Nobody knew why they had been forced to gather, but now that the King had spoken, they couldn’t believe their ears. They all glanced anxiously at me. They knew exactly who I was.
I was Prince Sebastian Lacehaven. And now my own father, the King, was publicly branding me a criminal.
“Their alphamates—” Father spat the phrase like it was poison— “will fight to the death to determine which omega lives, and which one dies.”
He was not serious. He couldn’t be.
But I already knew the truth. Father intended to go through with this, and furthermore, he saw nothing wrong with it. It was almost laughable. Didn’t he realize how ridiculous he sounded? These were the words of a tyrant, not a fair king.
The crowd—and even the knights—looked uneasy with Father’s ruling. The only person who seemed excited to witness a bloodbath was Melchom.
I realized now what this gruesome scenario reminded me of: a dog fight.
Father met my gaze coldly one last time before he said, “Release the alphas.”
24
Rourke
