CHAPTER 27: PUNISHMENT

Lucian’s POV

Roman came out of his room, dressed and ready to go out. He didn’t even glance at us or ask why we were all silent and what this tension in the air was.

"I have some work to attend to," he said to Kael, then walked out the door.

For a moment, I thought Kael might stop Roman, ask him something like where he was heading to, or talk to him about the anger still lingering from yesterday. And then it will help shift his attention from that bitch.

But Kael didn’t bother and stood up to go to that bitch’s room instead.

Rafe glanced at us with a crooked smirk. "I wonder what kind of punishment you two will get this time," he muttered before following Kael.

I turned to Jason, my voice low. "Is she really dead?"

"Not sure," he answered.

Truthfully, we still didn’t care if she was. But we cared about upsetting Kael—and then failing his chance of saving Sophia, which would truly hurt him.

He had been searching for a pureblood she-wolf for the past six years just to save Sophia with everything he had, and when we finally found one, unfortunately it was her.

Now thinking about Kael, about what he stood to lose, I silently hoped that bitch was still breathing.

I knew Jason felt the same.

We followed after them, entering the room just behind Rafe.

Kael was already standing by the bed, the sheet pulled back to reveal her fragile, motionless body. Her gown had slipped from the sides, letting him see every trace of the torture we had inflicted on her.

The numerous bites from the tarantulas on her chest, neck, stomach and thighs were swollen red and with blood dried over them, looked truly brutal.

Her toes, wrapped in tape—he didn’t need to be told what we had done with them.

He stared at her for a long moment.

Then his eyes turned to us, sharp and furious. He didn’t speak, but the rage in his glare was deafening. I half expected him to lunge forward and strangle us both on the spot.

Instead, he reached into the pocket of his pants and pulled out his phone.

"Liam," he said to the receiver, his voice cold and cutting. "I don’t care what you’re doing. I want you here. Right now."

He ended the call and looked back at us, his eyes like ice. "Explain."

As it was Jason’s doing, he stepped forward and laid it all out—what he did, why he did it, and what he got out of her in the end.

Kael said nothing. We waited in silence, neither of us daring to speak another word.

When Kael was this serious, the only smart move was to shut up and brace for whatever punishment came next.

Without a word, he walked past us and exited the room.

"Shit," I heard Jason curse under his breath, as if he understood what Kael was up to, and followed him out quickly.

Rafe and I followed them as well.

"This is going to be fun," Rafe commented, a hint of wicked excitement in his voice.

"You stupid bat," I hissed, glaring at him while following Kael and Jason. "Couldn’t you just keep your damn mouth shut?"

"That would be boring," he replied with a smirk.

This bastard was too entertained for someone about to get us killed. But that was Rafe—a vampire bored out of his mind most of the time, chasing chaos just to feel something.

We reached the storage shed at the stables just as Kael pushed through the door and Jason followed him in.

"Kael, that bitch is nothing to us. We don’t need to fight because of her." Jason tried, attempting to reason with him. "And don’t forget your parents died because of her."

Kael didn’t respond. His silence was more dangerous than his words. He had made his decision.

He walked over to Jason’s toolbox, flipped it open, and pulled out a gun. Then uncovered the cage that held Jason’s favourite pets—two huge tarantulas Jason had raised himself with so much care and dedication.

Bang! Bang!

Two bullet shots—and dead silence filled the shade.

Tarantulas were dead.

No one dared move as we felt the dominating Alpha aura emitting from Kael, something he rarely used on us. But this time, it seemed like he’d reached his limit.

Kael turned and came to face Jason closely, his gaze icy and his Alpha aura already suppressing Jason, leaving him too weak to fight the strongest Alpha we had already sworn and submitted to.

"That bitch is nothing to me. I want to kill her as much as you want," Kael growled. "The more you delay her recovery, the longer it takes to help Sophia—and the longer we have to tolerate that bitch in our home. And you—" his voice dropped into a venomous snarl, "you dared disobey my, your Alpha’s order?"

Now this was our Alpha talking. If we were in our wolf forms, we would have been already sprawled on the ground in submission.

Jason lowered his head in submission. Though his mind must be rebellious, the Alpha aura made him submit.

Then Kael’s eyes snapped to me. "You’re both going to the Shift Lock. For the entire day."

Damn!

The Shift Lock was hell. Frustratingly painful.

Forced into wolf form, shackled in enchanted silver cuffs that burned our skin and stopped us from shifting back for as long as we are locked in them. The strain on the body was agonizing.

It wasn’t just punishment. It was submission, enforced.

And Kael had just reminded us exactly who held the leash.

He turned to Rafe. "Make sure they go." And he left.

Rafe smirked and looked at us two as if saying—You two are doomed.

I offered him a cold glare, itching to slap away that smirk from his face.

’Bastard, enjoying our misery. One day I am going to put him in those silver chains that are especially made to punish the vampires, leaving them utterly weak. And let him starve for blood, until he begs me on his knees.’

’First I will make him suck my cock like a bitch, choke him to death, and once I empty inside that wicked mouth of his, only then I will offer him some blood.’

"Are you two going to shift right now, or after we reach the confinement room?" Rafe asked us, his tone teasing. "I don’t mind taking two obedient wolves with me right from here."

Jason and I didn’t respond him and left the shade to get our punishment, and Rafe followed us.