h4Chapter 81: Ready For The Battle/h4

    strongJason’s POV/strong

    Once Lucian left, my gaze moved to the bitch lying on the bed peacefully, as if she were the most innocent person in the world.

    Because of her, once more I almost lost someone precious to me—as if causing me to lose Alice and Jennifer was not enough. I regret liking her in the past—the greatest sin of my life—that I fell for the woman who killed my family.

    And I will never forget myself for that sin.

    I regretted that very first day when I saw her, when I fell for her, and when I started to think of my future with her. I must have been truly blind to not see her true colors.

    Over the past few days, I noticed changes in Lucian that were positive toward her. No matter how much he tried to show indifference, I knew he brought Fluffy for her sake and even cooked for her.

    He might forgive her one day, but I won’t. Anything was possible in this world—but not for me to for forgive her ever and fall for her ever again.

    All I could do for her is grant her wish of dying—but I had to hold back for my brothers’ sake, especially Kael’s sake.

    He was a rare top tier Alpha, and he needed to have his own child to continue his precious bloodline. And this bitch was the only way. I didn’t care if she would be used to save that other bitch Sophia. I didn’t care if she died on that hospital bed today itself—but I had to respect Kael’s wishes of saving her.

    My eyes narrowed at her. If she had not saved Lucianst night, she wouldn’t be lying here at this moment—but probably six feet under the ground.

    Frowning at the sight, I turned to leave, but then I noticed her body shivering a little.

    When Lucian left, the nket covering them both had slipped away from her body. I wanted to leave, but then I couldn’t help but go back to her and throw that slipped-away nket over her.

    iIf she falls sick due to cold, Liam will think we tortured her once more,/i I frowned inwardly. iThat old hag and his mocking are insufferable./i

    I adjusted the AC temperature to make itfortable for her and left the room, the door closing behind me.

    Downstairs, the servants had cleared the entire mess and it was arranged like before with lots of things reced to the new ones. The wooden structure needed some serious repairing which would happen eventually, but for now the ce was entirely usable.

    I saw Kael and Roman were talking to Lucian—probably so relieved to see him awake first thing in the morning.

    I saw Roman hug him tightly after Kael let Lucian free. Roman stuck to him like a leech, as if making sure Lucian was truly fine.

    "Bastard, you scared me to death," Roman mumbled, holding him tightly. "If you pull another stunt like that to put your life in danger, I’m going to whip your ass red."

    Lucian, annoyed by that hug, sighed. "I am alive, but might die of cringe if you keep acting like a bitch in love who’s crying to see her lover returned alive from war."

    Roman let him go and red at him. "You should say these lines to Rafe—your personal bitch."

    Lucian looked at Rafe, who was busy doing something on the tablet, and frowned to hear us. "Keep me out of your fucking cringe drama. I might just puke."

    Lucian smirked, clearly in the mood to tease him. "Instead of Roman, I wouldn’t mind if you cling to me like a crying bitch." He went closer to the sofa and nudged Rafe’s feet with his. "Come to daddy. Give me a hug. Daddy will rid you of your heartache."

    Rafe stood up straight, facing him, their mocking gazes meeting each other. "Want me to show who’s the real daddy here?"

    Lucian raised a brow, the smirk on his lips widening. "All haughty today, little bat. Were you so frightened to see what would happen to you if I died? Where were you going to find blood as tasty as mine?"

    "For letting me drink your shitty blood, I have something for you," Rafe said, cing the tablet in his hand. "Maybe you’ll like seeing one bitch crying over you—certainly not me."

    "I wouldn’t mind if you are that bitch," Lucian said teasingly and looked at the tablet screen. It showed a scene where Eira was crying for him, begging him not to die, and then how she saved him.

    "So it was not a dream, but she truly..." I heard Lucian mumble under his breath.

    "I made her voice clearer this time, which we couldn’t hear before because of other noise in the background," Rafe said, taking the tablet from Lucian to connect it to the television, so we could see and hear it clearly.

    As it started, we heard Alice’s name from her mouth.

    Lucian and I looked at each other, and then heard Roman. "Did she just say Alice?"

    "It looks like she was mistaking Lucian for Alice," Kael added. "She was desperate to save her."

    There was silence for a while as we tried to process her words, her actions, and her reactions—to make sense of Kael’s words. It truly looked like what he said.

    "Given the situation her life is in, the torture she’s gone through, she must have regretted killing her and must want to correct her mistake," I said. "Finally, she regrets killing her. Good—she should know her sins better."

    "But her regret won’t earn her our forgiveness," Lucian said. "Her regret won’t bring back my sister, my mother, the people we lost. That bitch needs to regret it even more."

    "But she saved you," Rafe said this time. "She didn’t ask you to protect her, but you did on your own. I can let her pass this time, just with the fact that she saved you."

    "Because of her, we lost so many of our people—what’s so great if she saved me?" Lucian spat out. "And at that, the bitch seems to have some healing abilities. She should have used that to save my sister."

    "She was a minor back then, and minors are not aware of their powers, let alone be able to use then," a voice came through, and frown lines appeared on all our foreheads.

    "Here’s thewyer of that bitch," I said, clearly annoyed. "And he doesn’t even get paid by her."

    Liam put his bag on the table and smiled. "It was probably her first time using her powers, which caused her desperation. And you should be d she was desperate to save you."

    "Not me—but my sister," Lucian said. "Or she was just acting, for a reason only she knows."

    "Whatever she does, you will never trust her anyway, so let’s just stop at it," Liam said, his tone mocking. "I’m going to check her. Ah! Just to make it clear," he looked at all of us, "— is she still alive, or shall I prepare to cremate her body?"

    "If you continue this way, I’m sure I’ll cremate your body next to hers," I spat out angrily.

    "Be my guest," Liam said, and walked upstairs, clearly knowing we wouldn’t harm him.

    Kael was quiet, while Rafe and Roman were enjoying us being mocked by the old hag.

    "Stop grinning already—unless you don’t want me to pull those fangs of yours," Lucian warned Roman and Rafe.

    "Alright!" Kael finally meddled in, letting us have our time with our usual banter.

    He rarely meddled in unless it was getting serious or there was something he needed to talk about. By letting us be, he made sure we wouldn’t feel like he was controlling our lives.

    Kael got our attention, and we knew it was time to talk about the attack—and which bastard was calling for his death.

    "The bastard is someone from one of the six strong packs. Leave ours out, so we have five others to look into," Roman said.

    "You can leave out Dreadwyn Pack as well, so only four are left to look into," I told him.

    "Are you leaving that bastard Kaizan out of it?" Lucian asked. "He should be the first one we doubt."

    "He was there at the council meeting, and we know it’s not him," Kael said. "In fact, he was the one to hint that something was going to happen here—so we rushed back."

    "That’s news to me. Does he think that by doing so, he’ll get into our good books and we’ll share that bitch with him?" Lucianmented.

    Kael and I shared gazes, unsure how to put it.

    "He’s not interested in our she-wolf," I said. "He said he’s ready to give up on a pureblood she-wolf if we hand him over the bitch his brother Keiran and his friends used to fuck together. He seems to have some twisted interest in her... and you know who that is..."

    Just as I said it, I could see all of their expressions darkening. In the end, Kaizan was interested in Eira only.

    "This bitch— is she a witch or what?" Lucian spat out. "We need to make sure she doesn’t have witch blood flowing through her, making every man around want to fuck her. She must be using some kind of twisted witch spell on everyone. Tell that bastard to go fuck himself."

    "We did," Kael told him to calm Lucian. "Also, we can drop Alpha Gerald, Hollowcrest Pack, out of it." Kael exined the reason and our encounter with Alpha Gerald of the Hollowcrest Pack. "...So now we are left with the remaining three packs."

    "What did you find from inspecting thosemandos?" Lucian asked.

    "Those are hired mercenaries and don’t belong to any of the packs," Kael answered. "We need to find out who hired them."

    "Leave that to me." Lucian smirked as he stood up, already ready to start working. "Just prepare yourself to shower in some good bloodbath. It’s been a while since all five of us got the chance to wipe out an entire pack."

    We didn’t doubt him when Lucian said that. I stood up to follow him as well. Lucian stopped and looked at Kael. "And to let us enjoy it entirely, you are not going to use your Alpha aura on them. We will kill them while letting them fight with all their might—or their souls will cry in hell that we were being unfair to them."

    "Sure," Kael replied, and we left as Lucian let out a goodugh and stretched his body, as if he couldn’t wait to get onto a battlefield.