Chapter 194

Third Person POV

The tension was maxed out as Xaden turned his fiery gaze on his oldest brother; his wolf surging to take charge and destroy Henry. All he can see is red right now; the fact that Henry tried to kill his mate and for what?!

“Why?” Xaden growled, his voice coming out gruff because he was barely in charge anymore; his wolf was taking complete control. “Why would you try to kill my mate.”

Henry growled back, his wolf taking a defensive stance.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Eric asked. “Men like Henry only care about one thing… getting the throne. Your Enigma baby prevents him from doing that.”

Xaden growled again, his wolf surging, only stopping because Lucas was inserting himself between the brothers. His wolf understood that Lucas was not a threat and was family, but all he could see when he looked at Henry was a threat to his mate, and he only knew one thing… he had to eliminate that threat.

“I wasn’t after Maeve, I was after her baby,” Henry hissed as if that made it any better.

“You were so focused on fighting me, that you didn’t even realize that I wasn’t the true monster here. If it weren’t for me and my men, Maeve, and your baby would be dead.”

“It was you, wasn’t it?” Xaden growled fiercely. “You were the one who had those men attack her in the middle of the night.” It was no longer a question, but a statement.

Henry didn’t reply, he just kept his stance and growled. They all seemed to have forgotten that a war was happening. The witches put a magic shield around them, blocking them from any attacks so the brothers can work out their shit.

“And my men were the ones who saved her,” Eric stated, his eyes narrowed at Xaden. “Where were yours during that crisis?”

“And they kidnapped her,” Xaden retorted, though his eyes never left Henry’s. “Get out of the way Lucas.”

“No, we shouldn’t be fighting each other. This whole thing is fucked up! What have we become??” Lucas asked, his voice tinged with desperation. “We are brothers! The royal princes! We all care about this Kingdom!”

“I’m not responsible for any injuries you may get because of my wolf,” Xaden growled and without another word, he lunged forward, shifting midair, knocking Lucas off balance.

Henry also shifted and the brothers fought while Lucas attempted to get them to stop, but to no prevail.

“Is this what you wanted??” Lucas asked Eric who was watching everything go down with an indifferent expression. “Did you want to tear them apart like this? What is it you want, Eric?”

“Revenge!” Eric growled. “I want to avenge my mother's death and all the deaths of the humans and witches around the world! They died because of our father, and I won’t stop until justice is served!”

“Dad is already dead, Eric,” Lucas told him. “He’s been killed during the battle!”

Eric’s eyes snapped to Lucas, darkness lingering in them, but then there was something else. Something almost humanlike.

“He’s dead?” Eric asked, not sure if he truly believed Lucas.

“Yes,” Lucas told him firmly, leaving no room for doubt. “The King is gone.”

Meanwhile, Henry and Xaden continued to fight; they both got a few good attacks. Both were injured by the other and bleeding, but neither was giving up. Xaden was out for blood and Henry was mainly defending himself, but the more Xaden attacked, the angrier and more daring he grew.

As the fighting continued, a scent made Henry freeze, knocking him off balance and making it easy for Xaden to attack him. He was knocked to the ground, Xaden’s wolf about to bite into him, until Xaden gained control and pulled his wolf back, noticing that Henry was no longer fighting. He was sniffing the air, his eyes darting wildly around, almost manically.

Xaden shifted back into his human form, and soon after, Henry did too.

“What is it?” Xaden asked, breathless as he rubbed his bleeding shoulder.

“My mate,” Henry said, trying to get to his feet. “She’s here…”

“Isabelle?”

“No…” Henry said, shaking his head. “A second chance.”

And with that, he was gone.

…..

Sarah left the palace and went straight to her family home. The mayhem and chaos outside had her shaking as she reached her home, only to find that it was nearly crumbling to the ground from one of the explosions. She did happen to find her mother, Victoria, crying over the remains of the house.

“Mom?” Sarah asked as she rushed towards her mother. “What’s happening?”

Victoria looked up, her eyes wide, when she saw her daughter, who was in the dungeon, running towards her.

“Sarah?” She asked, standing to her feet. “How are you here?”

“I was released,” she explained, her mind still whirling. “Maeve let me go…”

Victoria’s eyes darkened.

“Maeve,” she said in a growl. “She’s the reason this is happening. You can’t trust her, even if she let you go.”

“I don’t understand,” Sarah said, shaking her head. “What is going on?”

Sarah would normally be the first to say she couldn’t stand Maeve, but she could hardly believe Maeve had much to do with the downfall of the Kingdom. At least not like this.

“The witches using the dark magic are from her coven,” Victoria said, grabbing Sarah’s arm. “Or rather, her mother’s coven. But they are still Maeve’s family. She’s the reason they were able to enter the kingdom in the first place. This whole thing is her fault. Nobody here can be trusted; we need to leave.”

“What about dad?” Sarah asked as she was dragged away from the crumbled remains of their home. “Where is he?”

“He’s off fighting and trying to protect the King,” Victoria said. “We need to leave now. He’ll catch up to us!”

Sarah, with a thudding heart, didn’t argue. She continued to be dragged away by her frantic mother. Her body trembled and tears filled her eyes. This was not what she wanted; she only wanted to see the downfall of Maeve, never the entire kingdom.

They didn’t get far before a bear had cornered them, a couple others by his side.

“Well, look what we have here,” one of them said, shifting into human form, an evil glint in his eyes. “It seems we have a couple of runaway she-wolves.”

Victoria’s hand tightened around Sarah’s wrist.

“Just let us go,” Victoria demanded, keeping her head held high. “We have no business with you.”

“Oh, but you’re part of this kingdom, are you not? You are a wolf… are you not?” He taunted, stepping even closer. “That means you have all the business with us.”

This made the others chuckle as they too stepped closer.

“Please… don’t kill us,” Sarah said, her tone trembling and much weaker than her mother's.

“Oh, sweetheart, we have no intentions of killing you unless you fight us,” he said with a smirk. “In fact, we were hoping to keep all the women and use them as our sex slaves.”

A sickened shudder ran through Sarah, and she winced as Victoria dug her nails deeper into her wrist.

“Why?” Sarah asked weakly. “Why are you doing this??”

“Female wolves are strong and make great breeders,” he explained, his fingers under Sarah’s chin, lifting her head so he could examine her face more clearly. “And you will make the perfect little breeder.”

Sarah’s lip trembled with fear. He was a sadistic monster; they all were.

“I’ll give you a deal,” Victoria quickly, her hand tightening around Sarah’s wrist even more. “I’ll give you my daughter if you let me go.”

Sarah’s heart fell into her stomach as she looked at her mother; horror clear on her face, but Victoria remained unwavered

“Take her and let me leave. I won’t be a bother to you, I assure you. I won’t stand in your way. I’m already older and won’t make a good breeder anyway. You can have my daughter in exchange for my life,” Victoria continued without missing a beat.

The bears all looked at her and then looked at one another.

“You’d give up your daughter for your own selfish benefits?” One of them asked.

“In a heartbeat,” Victoria continued; to show them she meant it, she released Sarah’s arm and shoved her towards them, forcing one of them to catch her. “Take her… just let me go.”

Sarah could see that her mother was serious.

What the actual fuck?

She wanted to yell and scream at her mother for betraying her like this. Had she always been this horrible? She was selfish and cruel… Sarah’s heart shattered in a second as she saw her mother’s determined eyes. When Victoria looked at Sarah, there were no emotions in her eyes.

There was nothing.

“Very well,” one of the bears said with a grin. “We’ll take her.”

Victoria looked actually relieved and just as she was about to turn and run, the bear shifted and attacked her, ripping out her throat and killing her an instant.

“If there’s one thing we hate is mothers who betray their children. They prove to be useless for us,” one of the bears said, watching as his ally killed Victoria in cold blood.

Sarah screamed, watching as her mother was mauled to death.

“Take her away,” the bear closest to Sarah said, waving at Sarah dismissively. “Put her in the cage.”

Another bear grabbed Sarah, about to drag her away when they all paused at the sound of a furious roar that came from a short distance. Even Sarah felt a chill going down her spine, yet the scent that filled her nose made her entire body freeze for an entirely different reason.

A large wolf, bigger than anything Sarah had ever seen before, ran straight towards them and within seconds, the three bears that surrounded Sarah, were all dead, nothing but discarded corpses in the path of the giant wolf.

Sarah, heart was pounding as she stared at the wolf, half expecting him to turn on her as well, despite his comforting and overpowering scent that made her weak in the knees. As the wolf turned his blood-soaked canines in her direction, she looked into his eyes and her heart melted slightly; the warmth in his eyes when he looked at her made her kneel to the ground in front of him, a show of respect to an Alpha.

He shifted back into his human form and knelt in front of her as well; his large form towering over her. He cupped her face with his large hands and made her look up at him.

Her breath hitched.

“Prince Henry?” She whispered, staring into the prince’s eyes.

He lowered his face to hers, his breath fanning her features and warming her entirely.

“Mate…” he whispered, just before he captured her mouth with his.

.