Chapter 185: Who Did It?
Kaden’s POV
Fuming with rage, I stood up on weak legs. My boots dug into the dirt as I looked down at Rebecca. "Can you walk?" I asked, my voice rough and thick with a panic I tried to hide.
Before she could answer, the sound of snapping branches and heavy, hurried footsteps erupted from the bushes. Six of my best pack warriors burst through the trees. Alarm was written across their faces, their hands gripping their weapons tightly. The moment they saw me standing and Rebecca safe, they let out big breaths of relief and immediately bowed their heads.
"Alpha King!" their leader gasped. "We—"
"Quiet," I barked, cutting him off right away. My eyes never left Rebecca. "Well? Can you walk?"
Rebecca swallowed hard, looking up at me, then at the guards. "Yes," she said quickly, her voice tight.
She gritted her teeth and tried to push herself up onto her feet. But the moment her right ankle took her weight, her face went totally pale. A sharp gasp came from her lips, and her leg gave out. Her body shook as she started to fall back toward the dirt.
I caught her before she could hit the ground, my hands gripping her waist. "You’re lying, bitch," I growled softly against her ear. The harsh word slipped out because I was so frustrated and still terrified from almost watching her fly off that cliff.
"Put me down, Kaden!" she hissed. Her fingers dug into my black shirt as I scooped her up into my arms, holding her against my chest. "Stop! You are hurt! You’re bleeding from your head!"
"Shut up, Rebecca," I growled, tightening my grip so she couldn’t move around. I didn’t care about the blood dripping down the side of my face, or the bad ache in my back from hitting the ground. The only thing that mattered was the fact that she was breathing.
I marched over to my horse, which had stopped a few yards away. Its coat was sweaty, but it wasn’t hurt. With one quick move, I lifted Rebecca up and placed her gently onto the front of the saddle before climbing up right behind her. I pulled her back tight against my chest, holding the reins around her waist, and made the horse move forward.
We rode out of the thick forest and back onto the main racing fields. The moment the trees cleared, a wave of loud noise hit us.
The field was in total chaos.
Hundreds of wolves were shouting, pack guards were running everywhere with weapons drawn, and the stands were a mess of panicked people. Word had clearly spread that the Alpha King’s slave had run into the woods on a wild horse.
The moment my horse walked onto the grass, the crowd began to split open to let us through. The murmuring died down into a tense, heavy quiet.
Alpha James came running across the lawn, his face covered in sweat and his eyes wide with fear. "Alpha King Kaden! What happened? Goddess, you’re bleeding! What happened out there in the woods?"
I didn’t answer him. I didn’t give him—or any of the staring Alphas around him—a single word. My jaw stayed clamped shut in a tight, angry line as I guided the horse straight toward the main doors of the resort.
Reaching the steps, I slid down from the saddle and immediately reached up, carrying Rebecca down into my arms once more.
"Kaden, let me down, I can—" Rebecca started, her brow furrowing as she looked at the crowd.
"Don’t," I snapped quietly, my green eyes flashing gold as I looked down at her. "Not a word."
She bit her lip, holding back her anger, and stayed silent as I carried her through the glass doors. My main warriors were already waiting by the private elevators.
I stepped inside, my chest moving fast as the doors began to close, and looked at my men. "Take her up to the penthouse suite," I ordered, my voice dropping into a command. "Lock the doors. Get the pack healer to look at her ankle and every single scratch on her body right away."
"Yes, Alpha King," the guard replied, carefully taking Rebecca from my arms.
Rebecca looked back at me as the elevator doors began to close. Her eyes were wide with confusion, lingering fear, and something else I couldn’t read.
The metal doors clicked shut, taking her away from the danger.
The moment she was gone, any softness left in my chest completely vanished. The temperature in the lobby felt like it dropped to freezing as I turned around slowly. My hands curled into tight, heavy fists at my sides, the blood from my head injury dripping slowly onto the marble floor.
I turned back toward the glass doors leading out to the wild field. My eyes scanned the crowd until they landed right on the spot where Alpha Zach and the rest of the council were standing.
They thought they had targeted me. They thought they were playing a game about borders and old fights. But they had almost killed her.
I marched back out into the bright midday sun, my boots hitting the steps with a loud, heavy thud. The blood from my forehead was drying against my skin, tight and itchy, but I didn’t wipe it away.
The entire crowd of Alphas and council members stepped back as I approached. The wild whispering died instantly, replaced by a scary silence. They could smell my anger in the air, and they knew my inner wolf was right at the surface, ready to fight.
I stopped right in the middle of the lawn, looking down at everyone. My eyes, burning a bright, wild gold, looked over the faces of the most powerful men in the world until they landed on Alpha James and the inner circle of the High Council.
"Which of you pulled that stunt?" I roared.
My voice boomed across the whole field. It was so loud that the glass windows of the resort behind us shook. A few weaker wolves in the back actually flinched and dropped their heads in fear.
The Alphas looked at each other, truly confused and scared.
"What?" one of the northern Alphas muttered, looking around. "What is he talking about?"
"Alpha King, we don’t know what you mean," another council member said, holding his hands up to calm me down. "The horse just ran away. It was an accident—"
"An accident?!" I hissed, stepping right into the middle of their circle. My powerful energy slammed into them, making even the oldest Alphas take a step back. "The strap under Midnight’s saddle was cut halfway through with a blade! A silver knife was hidden right under the leather padding, made to cut deeper into the animal with every step until it went crazy from the pain!"
I slammed my fist against the wooden railing nearby, smashing the thick wood into tiny pieces. "That horse was set up for me. Whoever did it knew I was supposed to ride it first!"
Alpha James turned pale. He stepped forward with his hands out, sweat dripping down his neck. "King Kaden, please... please calm down. We didn’t know. If someone messed with a horse from my pack, I will find out who did it myself. We need peace right now. The High Council cannot handle a war over a—"
"Calm down?!"
I completely lost control. My sanity snapped, and my wolf screamed for blood. I stepped right into James’s face, my chest rising and falling fast. The gold in my eyes was blinding.
"You tell me to calm down when there is a killer standing right here?!" I screamed, my voice cracking with pure rage. "Target me! You want to take my crown? Come try it! You want to attack me in the woods? Bring your fighters! Fight me face-to-face, plot against my life, throw your knives at my chest—fine! I will bury every single one of you without blinking!"
I stopped to breathe, my jaw locking hard. I turned my head slowly, looking at every single one of them so they could feel how angry I was.
"But her..." The word tore from my throat as a low, deadly growl. "She wasn’t supposed to be on that horse. She wasn’t your target. She had nothing to do with whatever cowardly game you’re playing against me. And because of you, she almost went over a three-hundred-foot cliff!"
The Alphas stayed frozen, completely shocked. They had seen me angry before, but they had never seen the Alpha King lose his mind over a slave. It didn’t make sense to them. They didn’t understand that the thought of her falling off that cliff had nearly stopped my own heart.
"This meeting was called so I would sign the Northern Treaty," I hissed, my voice dropping into a cold whisper that everyone could hear perfectly. "You all sat at that table begging me to share the extra silver from my mines and open the trade routes. It would have saved your poor packs. It would have fed your people for the next ten years."
I let out a dark, mocking laugh, my fingers curling tightly into fists at my sides.
"Because of this stupid, dirty trick... I am officially taking my name off the treaty. The trade routes stay closed. The silver stays in my mountains. And if any of your packs cross into my land to beg for help, my warriors will kill them on sight."
"Kaden, you can’t do that!" an old council member cried out, his voice shaking. "Without those trade routes, our people will starve by winter! You are punishing the whole council for the mistakes of one bad wolf!"
"Then you better find that bad wolf before I do," I growled, turning my back on them with absolute disgust. "Because when I find out who touched that saddle... a closed trade route will be the least of your worries. I will burn their whole land to ash, and I will destroy the dirt so nothing ever grows there again."
My gaze swept across the council and stopped briefly on Zach.
Unlike the others, he wasn’t shouting.
He wasn’t demanding answers.
He was simply standing there, his bandaged wrist held against his chest, watching me.
And for one brief second, when our eyes met, something shifted across his face.
Fear.
Then it disappeared.
I didn’t wait for them to answer. I turned around and marched back toward the resort, leaving the entire High Council standing there in absolute terror and ruin.
My only focus now was getting back upstairs to the penthouse. To her.