Fated To Three, Betrayed By All… Until She Rose.-Chapter 339: Royal treasures.

Leilani.

"Royal treasures." The word slipped out of Caleum’s mouth with so much certainty that if I didn’t know any better, I would’ve believed him. "He was accused of stealing royal treasures from our father’s private chamber as well as some documents that could’ve easily brought our pack to the ground."

His words and the way he said them made me realize that he believed in the gibberish he was spewing, and something about that... something about his quiet certainty made me see red.

I walked up to him before realizing what I was doing and fisted my hands into his collar, my voice as cold as ice as I spat; "Did you know that he was an Alpha?"

He froze then began to sputter; "An... Alpha? That’s... that’s impossible!"

"Did you know that he had been wrongfully accused by your father and his beta, or did you really believe in the things you’ve just said?"

"Leilani stop and get a grip on yourself!" Kael snarled at me from the top of the stairs, and as soon as I heard those very condescending words, something in me snapped.

If I was angry before, then now, I am royally pissed.

I still do not know how I did it but one minute, I was letting go of Caelum’s collar and looking up at Kael with all the contempt I could muster and in the next minute, he was floating midair. He was no longer at the top of the stairs where he once stood menacingly like a predator...

And do you know what he is now?

A prey.

My prey.

My prey who was choking and coughing. My prey whose hands were scratching at an invisible force which now held onto his neck while his face coloured a bright shade of red— so bright, he resembled a tomato. He struggled to breathe, to move... to speak. But there was nothing he could do and no way out.

When next he managed to speak, he sounded pleading, not arrogant. He begged; "Please... please let me go."

Zevran and Caelum who had been stunned into silence by my actions finally found their voices at that exact moment too. They turned to look at me, their eyes wide as if quite seeing me for the first time, and then as if suddenly spurred into action, began to speak at the same time;

"Leilani please..." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"What the hell...?"

"Leilani.... Leilani, please I am sorry. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. I swear, I just wanted you to let go of Caelum..."

Kael’s pleading voice finally managed to seep into my subconscious. I looked up at him— at his suffering form— and hissed;

"Again, I’ll ask about Ragnar. Did you three know that he was not a thief when he was being accused or were you also left in the dark and simply used as the hitmen to commit the act?"

At my voice, the three of them stopped to look at me; And like this, I could sense all the emotions they couldn’t voice in their eyes. There was confusion and frustration... yet a tinge of anger.

Zevran was the first to snap out of his reverie. He took some steps forward until he was so close, I could feel the warmth seeping from his body burning through my side. It felt extremely good to be this close to him, yet I was too angry to pay any attention to the way my body responded to his.

He drawled; "We only knew that he was a thief."

"If you say the word ’thief’ one more time, I would so hurt you, you would never ever be able to pronounce that word another time."

He gulped. "We were told that he stole, but we never knew what it was besides the fact that it was said to be ’royal treasures’... that and some very important documents."

"What about the trial?"

"We never attended his trial because father and beta Malakai were in charge of it and they took care of it pretty well. We were only—in your words— their hitmen."

Those words... those silently spoken words filled my heart with more anguish than anything else I may have heard today.

I let my hold on Kael loose and watched him as he crumbled to the floor with a loud cry. But I didn’t feel anything, not even remorse.

I was simply numb. To everything and everyone. And what I hated the most was the fact that no one could understand just how I felt about the whole situation.

I lowered my head to hide the tears in my eyes. And goddess, I even do not know how long I stood there crying silently while I watched my trembling hands until Caleum’s voice seeped into my head. He asked; "Was he really your father?"

At his voice, I looked up and sighed, my voice barely above a whisper as I said; "Yes. Yes, he really was."

The silence that settled between us after I said that was deafening. It hung in the air like some invisible fog, swallowing up everything until all I could feel in the air was a kind of tenseness that was so much, it bordered towards discomfort.

"How?"

Now, that was a question I never expected any of them to ask, and even though I already knew the answer, I couldn’t bring myself to respond.

"How?" This time, it was Kael who asked, and I found myself looking down at him in almost-disgust before turning away.

"My biological father, Ragnar, was looking for a way to get my mother and me out of Malakai’s clutches. He was an Alpha not a thief, but due to some bad blood between him and Malakai, especially since Malakai had just found out then that he was trying to elope with my mother, he was falsely accused and was then executed by you three."

As soon as I said those words, they froze while I collapsed to the floor, clutching my chest as I could no longer, for some reason, breathe.