Chapter 170: Escaped.
Alex.
Life has lost every single shred of meaning to me over these past few agonizing days now. A suffocating, hollow darkness has settled deep within my chest, leaving me feeling completely empty, broken, and defeated.
Absolutely everything I ever owned—every piece of power, every acre of territory, and every bit of authority I once held so securely—has been ruthlessly taken away from me.
I lay down flat on my back, staring blankly up at the ceiling as I recalled Ella walking into the boardroom. The vivid image played on a cruel, inescapable loop inside my head. I had lived my entire existence in utter blindness, having never once realized that she was this powerful, this calculating, or this capable my entire life.
She was meant to stand proudly by my side and rule together with me as my equal, but I had always looked down on her with foolish arrogance. I had consistently diminished her worth, trapped in my own blinding pride. I genuinely thought it was a magnificent privilege for a woman with no known background or grand lineage to be raised up and called a Luna—but I was dead wrong.
She has a background, a deep and formidable one, and she must have finally remembered to step out of the shadows and address herself by another name.
Ever since my world collapsed around me, I have done everything in my power to undo the damage and make things right again. I have spent every waking second exhausting every single resource, idea, and option available to me, desperately trying to mend the massive breach between us.
"Alpha!" Philip’s sudden, sharp voice echoed loudly through the heavy air, shattering the tense silence as he barged recklessly into my room.
"Speak!" I ordered coldly, the command cutting through the space without me even bothering to look up from where I lay.
"Everything had been prepared for the execution," Philip said firmly, his posture stiff and his voice tight with an undercurrent of panic. "But we have a problem!" he added quickly.
I immediately lifted myself out of the bed, my muscles tightening as my raised brows pulled up in deep annoyance, my eyes locking directly onto him.
What problem do we have again?
I had been lying there in the dark for hours, endlessly racking my brain and thinking of ways to make it up to Ella. After wrestling with every possibility, I had finally decided on the ultimate gesture: I would present Eva’s head neatly placed inside a box for her. It was a dark and bloody offering, but at least that way I could pacify her burning anger, prove my absolute devotion, and make her open up her heart to me once more.
So what problem do we have?
"Speak, Philip!" I roared, my voice booming off the walls with enough force to make the silence itself seem to shatter.
My eyes remained locked on him without wavering, burning with barely restrained fury.
Every muscle in my body was drawn painfully taut as I fought to keep the violent rage surging through my veins under control. It took every ounce of my self-restraint not to lose my temper completely.
"The prisoner is missing!" he replied, his voice trembling uncontrollably before gradually dropping to little more than a strained whisper.
The words seemed to stick in his throat as though he dreaded saying them aloud. Almost immediately, he lowered his head, his shoulders growing rigid, completely unable to meet the furious glare fixed upon him.
"What?" I asked, my voice dangerously calm, carrying a volatile mixture of utter disbelief and dark amusement that made the single word sound even more unsettling.
A humourless smile threatened to tug at my lips, born not from amusement but from sheer incredulity.
"What exactly do you mean by missing?" I demanded, each word slow, deliberate, and heavy with restrained anger.
Throwing the covers aside in one sharp motion, I rose from the bed. My full height towered over him, my imposing frame casting a long, oppressive shadow that seemed to swallow him whole as I waited for an explanation.
"Alpha—" Philip started, his breath hitching as he tried to find the right words to de-escalate the situation.
But he didn’t get to finish, as I cut him short before he could utter another pathetic excuse.
"I instructed for the prisoner to be heavily guarded and executed today..." I paused, letting the silence hang thick in the room as my temper reached a boiling point. "How then did she go missing?" I asked, leaning in closer, each word dripping with lethal venom.
"We suspect there is a spy among us!" Philip blurted out immediately, trying to offer an explanation before my wrath consumed him. "It was a clean prison break," he added, his voice barely above a whisper.
I crossed the remaining distance between us, grabbed him forcefully by his collar, and yanked him forward until we were nose to nose. "And?" I asked through gritted teeth, my eyes boring into his.
"From the CCTV footage we got, we suspect the culprit is working for Thomas Blake, as the plate number of the car caught on screen belongs to him," he added rapidly, stammering under the crushing weight of my grip.
I shoved Philip backward, releasing his shirt so hard he stumbled, and burst into a cruel, incredulous laugh.
*Thomas?*
He isn’t afraid anymore. First, he went directly after my company, ruthlessly stripping me of my wealth, and now he has the nerve to enter the pack territory without facing a single obstruction or alarm.
Doesn’t that mean he could easily overthrow me next?
A cold wave of panic suddenly pierced through my anger. I clenched my fists so tightly my knuckles turned white, my fingernails digging sharp painful grooves into my palms, and immediately turned back around to face Philip.
"I don’t care what it takes," I paused, my voice dropping to a dangerous, icy promise that left no room for failure. "Ensure you track them."