MATED TO THE BEAST ALPHA BROTHERS
Chapter 41: Heavy is the head for the crown

Chapter 41: Heavy is the head for the crown

"What the actual fuck just happened at the council hall?!"

Tiago’s voice cut through the thick tension in the dimly lit room. He stood near the window, his fists clenched, his entire body vibrating with disbelief. His heart still pounded from what they had just witnessed.

Helen slammed a goblet onto the table, her nails digging into the polished wood. "That little witch....." she snarled, her face twisted with rage. "How did she become so powerful? This wasn’t supposed to happen!"

Layla sat on the velvet armchair, her breath uneven. She was still in shock, fingers gripping the armrest so tightly her knuckles had turned white. "You mean to tell me that was Haelyn?"

Her voice was laced with something between doubt and denial.

Arthur sat still at the head of the table, fingers tapping a slow rhythm against the wooden surface. His face betrayed nothing, but his mind was a storm.

"That wasn’t her," he muttered finally.

Everyone turned to him.

"What?" Malcolm frowned, rubbing his sore jaw from where he had taken a hit earlier.

Arthur’s jaw clenched. "I’ve watched that girl grow up under my roof. That wasn’t Haelyn." His voice was low, sharp. "Something...." he hesitated, his lips curling slightly, "or someone else is inside her."

A chilling silence filled the room.

Then,

The soft, deliberate shuffle of boots against marble.

Nyx.

She had been standing in the shadows, silent and still, watching.

Now....without a word....she turned and made her way toward the door.

Layla scoffed, her nerves frayed. "And where exactly do you think you’re going?"

Nyx didn’t stop.

"To find my father."

Layla let out a dry laugh. "You think he’s still alive after being beaten to a pulp by little Haelyn?" she taunted, rolling her eyes.

She never should have spoken.

Before anyone could react,

Nyx spun around so fast that Layla barely had time to gasp before Nyx’s fingers wrapped around her throat in a vice grip.

Layla choked, her hands clawing at Nyx’s wrist, but the pressure was unbearable.

Her feet dangled inches off the ground.

Nyx’s violet eyes burned with fury.

"Say that again," she whispered, tilting her head slightly.

Layla gagged, her face turning an unnatural shade of red.

Malcolm lunged forward.....but Nyx barely moved.

With a flick of her wrist, she hit Malcolm in the chest.

The force sent him flying.

He crashed into the glass table behind him, shards embedding into his back.

He coughed violently, blood spewing from his lips.

Helen took a step back, her earlier confidence now replaced with something closer to fear.

Arthur, however, remained seated.

His expression unchanged.

His voice, low and unwavering.

"Enough."

Nyx didn’t release Layla.

She simply turned her head, her gaze slowly meeting Arthur’s in a silent battle of dominance.

The room stilled.

Arthur exhaled, his fingers pressing against the table. "If you leave now, you better....."

Nyx laughed.

A sharp, mocking laugh.

"You better what?" she sneered.

Arthur’s face darkened.

"Do you really think you hold any authority over me?"

Her fingers tightened around Layla’s throat, causing the woman to let out a strangled wheeze.

"I don’t take orders from weak men who owe their existence to my father," Nyx hissed.

Arthur’s fingers curled into a fist, but he said nothing.

Because she was right.

He didn’t have the power to stop her.

Nyx’s lips curled.

"That’s what I thought."

She finally released Layla, letting her crash onto the ground, coughing violently.

Arthur’s eyes followed Nyx as she stepped toward the exit, her expression unreadable.

"I don’t answer to you," she said simply, her voice as cold as death. "I never have, and I never will."

She turned away.

"Where are you going?" Helen asked cautiously.

Nyx didn’t stop walking.

"To bring my father back."

The room tensed.

"You think he’s alive?" Tiago muttered, rubbing his temple.

Nyx smirked over her shoulder.

"I don’t think....." she said, reaching for the door handle.

"I know."

And with that....she disappeared into the shadows.

Deep in the Forbidden Ruins,

Nyx’s boots crunched against the damp ground as she entered the ancient ruins.

The air was thick with old magic, humming against her skin.

Her breath came slow, measured.

"Father?"

Her voice echoed into the endless dark.

Nothing.

She stepped forward.

The walls trembled slightly.

A soft growl rumbled through the cavern.

Her fingers tightened into fists.

"Father....."

Then.....

A shadow moved.

Two glowing red eyes snapped open in the blackness.

A guttural snarl.

A massive claw slammed into the stone pillar beside her, splitting it in half.

The ground shook violently.

Nyx barely flinched.

Instead.....she smiled.

"I knew you weren’t dead."

"How pathetic."

The words dripped with amusement, but the mockery beneath them was razor-sharp.

Haelyn stood in the doorway, or at least, what remained of Haelyn.

The dim torchlight flickered against her form, casting eerie shadows across the damp stone walls.

A slow, deliberate click of her boots echoed as she stepped forward.

Chained to the wall, Lyra barely lifted her head.

Her once-beautiful face was gaunt, dark circles shadowing her sunken eyes. Her body trembled with weakness, her wrists raw from the heavy iron shackles that had bound her for months.

But when she saw Haelyn....or whatever had taken residence within her.....her hollow gaze burned with hatred.

"You," she rasped.

Haelyn tilted her head slightly, watching her as if she were nothing more than an inconvenient insect.

"You look awful," she mused, crossing her arms. "But I suppose that’s fitting for someone who crawled through the filth of deception, only to drown in her own failure."

Lyra’s cracked lips curled into a weak smirk.

"And yet," she coughed, her voice hoarse but filled with venom, "you still went through all the trouble of keeping me alive."

Haelyn’s lips twitched at the corner, something between a smile and a sneer.

"Alive?" she echoed, taking slow, deliberate steps forward.

The chains rattled as Lyra instinctively tried to back away.

"Oh, Lyra..." Haelyn crouched down, her glowing eyes boring into her. "What makes you think you’re alive?"

Lyra swallowed.

Something was wrong.

This wasn’t Haelyn.

The air felt too heavy. The shadows twisted unnaturally. And those eyes...

Lyra had seen many monsters in her life. But this,

This was something else.

"Tell me," Haelyn continued, her voice barely above a whisper, "does it haunt you, Lyra?"

Lyra’s fingers twitched.

"Does what haunt me?" she bit out.

Haelyn smiled.

"That moment."

Lyra’s breath caught.

"That moment when you realized no matter how many poisons you poured into him, you were nothing. That he was never yours."

Lyra’s chest rose and fell rapidly.

"Shut up."

Haelyn leaned in closer, her lips brushing against Lyra’s ear as she whispered....

"And now you rot, forgotten. A failure in every possible way."

Lyra screamed, lunging forward, but the chains yanked her back, slicing into her already torn skin.

Haelyn only laughed.

"You should rest, Lyra," she said, standing up. "Your nightmares are only beginning."

"And I have plans for everyone of you.. All of you"

With a flick of her wrist,

The torches in the room extinguished.

And Haelyn walked out, leaving Lyra in complete, suffocating darkness.

"She is unnatural."

The words hung in the air of the grand council chamber. The torches flickered violently, as if afraid to burn too brightly.

The elders sat in a circle, their faces grim, pale, and shaken.

"We saw what she did," one of them murmured. "The power she wields is beyond any Alpha, beyond any wolf we have ever known."

Another slammed his hand against the table.

"That is not Haelyn anymore!"

Marius sat at the head of the room, his fingers steepled together, hiding his trembling hands.

"Then we must eliminate her."

Silence.

No one spoke.

No one breathed.

Finally, an elder with a brittle voice whispered.....

"How?"

Marius’s lips pressed into a thin line.

"We summon the only thing that could ever destroy a god."

Eyes widened.

"You can’t mean....."

"I do."

The room darkened.

The shadows stretched, curling against the walls.

Somewhere, deep within the void of silence...

A whisper slithered through the air.

And the council, men who had never bowed to anyone, suddenly felt very, very small.

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