Claimed by the Mad Lycan King

"This will be a capital offense, Zade," Jack said as he handed the USB, which contained the blueprint of the laboratory where they held Altair.

Zade handed it to Caspian and told him to check.

𝙛𝕣𝖊𝚎𝑤𝘦𝕓𝓃𝕠𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝑐𝕠𝑚

Both of them were in the car, and despite the chaos out there, they still managed to avoid getting caught by the people.

Not only that, but they also managed to gather all the shifters in the area who didn’t manage to get out of the city in time and placed them in a safe house.

"This is it." Caspian handed the laptop to Zade, and Jack showed him the way to get to Altair.

"This is impossible, Zade. You will not make it through the building. The security there is top-notch."

"Just do what I said in time; we will handle the rest," Zade said. "Where did they put Rio?"

"Rio? The werewolf who killed Owen Brooks?" Jack furrowed his brows. "That will be impossible."

"We need the doctor." Zade’s answer was clipped, and if things went south soon, they would need as many doctors as possible. Even though they possessed healing abilities, they couldn’t heal fatal injuries quickly, and their numbers put them at a disadvantage.

Humans outnumbered them significantly, and shifters couldn’t kill humans directly to prevent the madness, which was another disadvantage.

Moreover, there were not many shifter doctors; Rio was one of the three doctors in his territory, while Asher and Altair had two in theirs.

After some back and forth, Jack finally told Zade where they were holding Rio. It was in the opposite direction of where Altair was held.

"Are you sure the King Azrael is the new host for the devil?" Jack asked with worry. He felt the difference with the king, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. Therefore, this was the only explanation.

"Yes," Zade replied. "The devils can’t die, but they can change their hosts."

Currently, they were in a small cafe near Jack’s house. It was a regular coffee shop run by Jack’s sister. In that case, he could wipe the evidence that they were there, so no one would know they had met.

Because of what happened, the coffee shop was currently closed. Many people didn’t dare to come out, and the number of crimes increased significantly.

"How could everything be like this?" Jack rubbed his face roughly; he looked a few years older now.

"There is this dark time every one hundred and ten years—when everything plunges into chaos, because the devils are at their peak," Zade explained casually, as he had a conversation with Caspian through the mindlink.

Jack always found it weird how they could communicate through their minds, and they were doing just that at the moment.

"You know what? If a year ago, you had told me about that dark time, I would have put you in an asylum."

"I have been there."

"What?" Jack blinked his eyes in shock.

"Just for fun."

Now Jack was completely at a loss. He furrowed his brows, but before he could ask further, his phone rang, and it was his wife.

"I will be home in a minute. Yes. I know. I will be careful," Jack calmed his wife down. She was worried because he had been out for an hour. "You can ask Maisie where it is. Yes. I will be home. I will wrap this up quickly."

Zade fixed his eyes on Jack, and the latter thought he wanted to say something, so he ended the call quickly.

"Who is that?"

"My wife."

"No. Maisie. Who is that?"

Jack was confused; why would this Lycan be interested in his babysitter? "The babysitter for my children."

"What does she look like?" Zade mind-linked Caspian to pull Maisie’s picture. "Has she worked for you recently?"

Jack was alerted. "For a few months. She is a young girl, with long hair and black eyes, a small nose..."

Caspian pulled Maisie’s picture from the database where Zade kept track of the people who worked for him. "Does she look like this?" Caspian asked, turning the laptop screen to face Jack so he could see Maisie’s picture.

Jack blanched when he saw the picture. "It’s her." His eyes darted from Zade to Caspian. "Is she... a shifter? Did you put your person to watch me?" But the moment the second question fell, he immediately realized it didn’t sound right.

"She was a shifter, but now she is the new host for the devil." Caspian generously told him.

"Fuck!" Jack stood up immediately. "My family is in danger!"

***

Seara was anxious while holding her phone like it was her most precious thing. She was waiting for Zade to call her, and it had been two days since the last time she heard his voice.

During those two days, Asher visited and requested that she attend the morning meeting—not only as Zade’s representative but also to see whether there was a devil among his people, because that was how the devils could get Altair.

Seara agreed to that; she would stay in the pack house once she got better. Her shoulder was still hurt, but it was manageable.

However, Jared had not yet returned with the search party who looked for Jeremy and the others. Their whereabouts were still unknown, and they couldn’t move recklessly. They had to be careful not to catch people’s attention and become the next victims who would be killed on the street.

It was a common thing now.

Thugs were everywhere.

You could also see dead bodies on the street. It was not clear whether they were shifters or humans, as their bodies rotted. Many missing family members made things difficult for the police to handle every case. Not to mention, their main attention was not on searching for the missing people.

And the phone was ringing as Seara sat on her hospital bed—it was Zade. She picked it up, and a wave of strong emotions hit her as she started crying.