novelraw Chapter 114: Your Fault
Chapter 114: Your Fault
Liam stood over the blood-stained bag, his chest heaving as he stared at the warriors. His eyes were bloodshot, glowing with a dangerous, unstable anger.
"Keep searching!" Liam roared, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "I don’t believe this! This isn’t her! She can’t be dead!"
He turned his fury on the Head Warrior, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. "Go back out there! Comb every inch of that ravine! If you don’t find her—the real her—I’ll have your heads!"
The warriors scrambled back, terrified of the Alpha’s rage. But deep down, Liam knew he was lying to himself. He could ignore the Seer’s words. He could pretend the bag of scattered flesh brought in by the patrol was a trick. But the bond... the bond couldn’t lie. The golden thread that had hummed in his soul was gone. There was only a cold, dark silence where Scarlett used to be. The silence was the loudest proof of all: his mate was no more.
The heavy doors groaned open once more. Sir Lennox walked in, his face masked in false shock and grief. He looked at the chaos, the blood on the floor, and his three broken sons.
"What am I hearing?" Lennox asked, his voice low and filled with fake confusion. "What has happened?"
Liam, who had always been the strongest and most stoic of the three, broke. He was the closest to the door, and seeing his father—the one man he still looked up to—made the last of his strength vanish. He ran to Lennox like a little boy seeking shelter from a nightmare.
Liam collapsed against his father, his fingers digging into Lennox’s expensive coat as he fell to his knees. "Father..." Liam sobbed, a sound so raw it made the warriors turn their heads away. "Father, Scarlett is gone. She’s gone!"
Lennox put a hand on Liam’s head, his expression flickering with real guilt as he felt his son’s body shake with agony. Behind them, Leon was still staring at the bag with a terrifying, blank look in his eyes, while Leo remained curled on the floor, whispering her name over and over again.
"I know, son," Lennox whispered, his voice smooth and deceptive. "I know. The pack is in mourning. We all are."
"The rogues," Leon spoke up, his expression hardening. He stood up slowly, his face pale and his eyes dark with a murderous promise. "They didn’t just kill her, Father. They tore her apart. I want them. I want every single one of them dead."
Lennox looked at Leon, and seeing his son in such a state, he felt terrible knowing he had a hand in their pain.
"We will have justice, Leon," Lennox said firmly, guiding the trembling Liam to a chair. "But right now, you three need to breathe. You are the Alphas of this pack. If you fall apart, the people fall apart."
"The people?" Leo laughed, a high, broken sound as he finally looked up. His face was soaked with tears. "I don’t care about the people. I don’t care about the pack. She died thinking we hated her.... She died alone and scared... she was in trouble... yet she didn’t call for our help. She fought the rogues all alone."
Leo stood up, his legs shaking. He looked at his brothers, then at the bag on the floor. "I’m going to the ravine. I don’t care what the warriors found. I’m not stopping until I find every piece of her. She deserves a proper burial. She deserves to come home."
As Leo stumbled toward the door, Lennox blocked his path. "Leo, stay. You are in no state—"
"Move, Father," Leo growled, his Alpha aura flaring weakly but desperately. "Or I will move you."
Lennox stepped aside, watching as his son staggered out into the rain. He looked back at Liam and Leon, realizing that while they had saved his sons’ lives from the prophecy, he had effectively destroyed their souls.
"Go after him," Lennox commanded the warriors, his voice tight. "Don’t let him out of your sight. He is in no condition to be alone in those woods."
As the warriors scrambled to follow, the heavy doors swung open again. Ethan walked in, his clothes damp and his face a mask of pale shock. The moment he stepped into the light of the hall, Leon snapped. With a low, animalistic growl, Leon rushed across the floor and slammed Ethan against the stone wall, his fingers digging into the collar of Ethan’s shirt.
"Where were you?!" Leon roared, his face inches from Ethan’s. "Why did you leave her side? You were supposed to be with her! Where did you go?"
Ethan couldn’t speak at first. The sight of the blood-stained bag on the floor and the raw agony on his cousins’ faces made his throat tighten with guilt. He knew she wasn’t in that bag, but he had to play the part. He had to let them believe the lie.
Liam stood up from his chair, his eyes red with fury. He spat on the floor near Ethan’s boots. "You caused this, Ethan. If you knew you couldn’t stay with her, why did you send us away? You claimed you would protect her!"
Ethan’s eyes snapped to Liam’s, his own anger flaring through the fake grief. "Do you think this is easy for me?" he snapped back, shoving Leon’s hands off his chest. "I am in pain, too! I love Scarlett! And I did not send you away. Your father asked you to leave. For the record, I was with Scarlett all through the night and this morning. I only left to handle some personal issues, and now... now this happens!"
The air in the room hummed with the clashing power of three Alphas, all of them pushed to their breaking point. The brothers looked ready to tear Ethan apart, their grief turning into a violent need for a scapegoat.
"Enough!" Lennox shouted, stepping between them. The authority in his voice was the only thing stopping a bloodbath. "Ethan, you will have to go back to your pack. Immediately. If you continue staying here, you and your cousins will tear each other’s throats out before the sun sets."
Ethan looked at the broken remains of the triplets—his own family, now destroyed by a secret he was forced to keep. He took a deep breath and looked Liam and Leon in the eye. "I’m sorry about Scarlett," he said, his voice thick. "I am also in pain. More than you know."
"No," Liam spat, turning his back on Ethan. "Don’t compare your pain to mine. Get out."
Ethan didn’t argue. He turned and walked away, his boots clicking heavily against the stone. As he pushed through the doors and out into the cold rain, he closed his eyes and opened a mind-link to Elara.
"Elara, wait for me at the café. I’m coming back."