Chapter 141 - 0141
Kaelen POV
How?
How could they let this happen?
Were they really this incompetent?
Four fucking guards, and they still allowed someone to spike her drink right under their noses.
I really had been going too easy on them.
Show people mercy once, and they immediately mistake it for weakness.
Although learning that she was safely locked inside a secure VIP suite eased the immediate panic clawing at my chest, it did nothing to calm the murderous storm still raging inside me.
Darius and I strode side by side through the dimly lit back corridors toward the secluded basement room where the guards were holding the bastards.
Before we even reached the heavy steel door, agonized, gurgling screams seeped through it, barely audible beneath the relentless bass shaking the walls from the nightclub overhead.
The moment I stepped inside, my gaze swept across the room.
Two men were pinned to the concrete floor by my guards, both barely recognizable beneath the blood covering them.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Nala was casually crouched in front of one of them, lazily twirling a gleaming combat knife between her fingers.
Fresh blood dripped steadily from the blade, and my eyes followed the crimson trail to the man’s left hand.
All five of his fingers had already been cleanly severed, and they lay scattered across the stained concrete beside him.
Meanwhile, Nala wore the brightest, most innocent smile as she lowered the bloodstained tip of her knife until it rested lightly against his crotch through his shredded trousers.
The man’s entire body convulsed in terror as he struggled helplessly against the guards restraining him.
"Please! No! I’m begging you! Please!"
"What if I simply remove it?" Nala asked softly, tilting her head with almost childlike curiosity.
"No! Please! Don’t!" the man screamed, his voice breaking into a shrill, panicked cry.
"Why not?" Nala asked, her golden eyes sparkling with sadistic amusement. "You admitted earlier that this is not the first vulnerable woman you have hunted for your own pleasure. Does that not make this the root of your problem?"
She smiled even wider, her voice remaining frighteningly gentle.
"If I remove it, then no woman need ever suffer because of you again. To speak truth, that sounds like a kindness to the world."
To prove her point, she pushed the blade forward, driving the tip through the denim and into his skin, causing the man to unleash a bloodcurdling scream that echoed violently off the concrete walls.
Normally, I would have found her twisted little game amusing.
But as I stared at the pathetic piece of shit who had dared lay a hand on what was mine, all I wanted to do was rip the knife from her grasp and bury it even deeper.
"Alpha..." One of the guards restraining the second prisoner immediately lowered his head the moment he noticed my presence.
Slowly, Nala turned her head toward me. She spared me a brief, thoroughly unimpressed glance before returning her attention to the trembling man beneath her.
"You arrived with remarkable speed, Alpha King," she remarked dryly. "Exactly how long were you waiting outside before fate offered you an invitation through that door?"
I didn’t even bother dignifying her with a response.
The next second, the mutilated man lying on the floor suddenly realized who I was, and his tear streaked face lit up with desperate hope, as though I were some divine savior sent to rescue him.
"Alpha! Please help me!" he screamed, blood spraying from his lips. "You have to bring me justice! This witch... this crazy bitch is keeping me here against my will!"
His pathetic attempt to paint himself as the victim earned a soft chuckle from Nala, while my own expression only darkened.
"Which one of these two spiked her drink?" I asked, my voice dropping into a dangerously low tone. I wanted to deal with the easier one first.
One of the guards immediately pointed toward the younger man pinned beside him, who looked almost untouched compared to the gruesome state of Nala’s handiwork.
Satisfied with the answer, I silently extended my right hand.
Within a heartbeat, Isaac stepped forward and placed the cold weight of a semi automatic pistol into my waiting palm.
Without taking my eyes off the young man, I calmly loaded four silver bullets into the magazine before chambering a round.
The moment he heard the metallic click, his eyes widened in absolute horror as the realization finally hit him.
"No! Alpha, please!" he screamed, his voice cracking with terror. "He forced me to do it! I swear to the Moon Goddess, I had nothing to do with any of this!"
He didn’t seem to realize that every pathetic excuse spilling from his mouth was only fueling my anger.
"But you did," I replied, my voice dangerously calm. So calm it was almost unsettling. "It was your hands that slipped the drug into my woman’s drink, was it not?"
The moment the words my woman left my lips, every trace of color vanished from the bartender’s face. Whatever hope he had been clinging to shattered instantly. His legs gave out beneath him, and he collapsed to the floor, sobbing so hard he could barely breathe.
"Mercy, Alpha!" he cried desperately. "Please... show me mercy!"
I raised the heavy pistol and pressed the barrel against the center of his forehead.
"This is mercy."
BANG!
I pulled the trigger without the slightest hesitation.
The deafening gunshot exploded through the cramped concrete room.
His body went completely limp before crumpling to the floor, blood pouring from the hole in his forehead and spreading rapidly across the cold cement.
Without a word, I turned the still smoking barrel toward the second man.
The moment he found himself staring down the muzzle of my gun, a terrified gasp escaped his lips.
"I didn’t know!" he babbled hysterically, struggling violently against the guards pinning his shoulders in place. "I didn’t know she was your woman, Alpha! If I had known, I swear I never would’ve touched her!"
I tilted my head slightly.
"So you’re saying you would’ve touched her if she wasn’t mine?"
The man instinctively nodded.
Then realization crashed over him.
His eyes flew wide open in horror, and he immediately began shaking his head so violently it looked as though it might snap from his neck.
"N... no! That’s not what I meant! Alpha, please..."
Unfortunately for him, it was already too late.
Or perhaps fortunately.
As if on cue, Nala quietly stepped out of the line of fire without saying a word.
"Please..."
BANG!
I lowered my aim and squeezed the trigger, letting the silver bullet rip through his right kneecap, shattering it instantly.
A bloodcurdling scream tore from his throat as his legs buckled beneath him.
Before the echo of the first shot had even faded, I adjusted my aim ever so slightly and fired again.
BANG!
The second bullet tore through his left kneecap.
He collapsed fully onto the floor, writhing in agony and sobbing as blood streamed beneath him.
Every desperate scream that left his mouth only made the silence inside me feel colder.
I looked down at him, but the rage burning inside my chest remained far from satisfied.
Slowly, I raised the pistol again until the barrel was aimed directly at his forehead.
Then, after a brief pause, I glanced at Darius.
"Should we kill him now?"