Kael
I stood at the study window for a long while, watching the morning mist thicken and then thin, only for it to thicken again, never fully surrendering to actual light.
Erevon’s sky didn’t commit to brightness today; it simply sat there, grey and heavy.
The palace felt different today.
Nothing a visitor would notice, but I knew every variant of the silent walls; this one felt wrong.
Servants moved slightly faster; guards stood slightly stiffer.
It was the particular sound of a place where people sense something is coming and have collectively decided to pretend otherwise.
My guards’ hearts pounded like panicked drums against their ribs as I moved past.
They could sense the shift in me.
The King was gone; only the Alpha remained.
I looked at the desk bearing four names: Varlen Varick, Thorne, and Haren.
I had been staring at that last name for twenty minutes, and it still wasn’t easier.
His betrayal didn’t provoke anger; it felt different.
I was still lost in thought when Riven spoke.
“Kael.”
Riven was in the doorway.
I knew he was ready, alert, and waiting for my command.
“Is everything in place?” I asked.
My voice sounded like it was coming from the depths of a grave.
“The courtyard is prepared. The Council members are being notified. They think it’s a compulsory evening assembly,” Riven paused, his gaze steady.
“The families have been detained and held separately until you decide what to do with them.”
“Good.” I needed to move; I needed to occupy my body, or my mind would spend the next eight hours doing things I didn’t want it to.
“Let’s go to the Training yard. I need to vent my anger on something.”
“Yes, Sire,” Riven responded.
We moved along the upper corridor towards the east stairs, and her scent hit me before I saw her.
It was honey and rain, filling the entire corridor as it always does.
I knew it was her.
I paused and looked down from the balcony.
There she was.
Lena was with my mother.
A heavy textbook was balanced on her head with the specific precariousness of something that had already decided it wouldn’t cooperate.
Her face was flushed red, and her lips moved; I could sense she was cursing inwardly about her situation.
She took a careful step, the book slipped, and she missed her grasp.
It hit the ground with a thud that echoed up to us.
She let out a sound, staring at the book on the floor.
She looked at my mother like a puppy that had done something wrong.
Her eyes were adorable, then she looked back at the book, picked it up, set her jaw, and kept walking.
Just watching her frustration, I felt a loosening in my hardened heart for a moment.
In that instant, I forgot about the execution and the rage I had been feeling for days.
Riven was beside me, and I heard him give a small, quiet exhale through his nose.
I knew he was struggling not to chuckle.
“She has a very stubborn spirit,” he whispered.
“She has no idea what kind of world she has stepped into,” I said.
My voice was cold and hard as always, but my eyes remained fixed on the little human who had no clue what was happening in a world she had just entered.
I wanted to go down there and tell my mother to drop all the royal formalities and let her be what she is—a simple girl, just like the one I saw in the clothing store that day.
But I knew I couldn’t do that, not today.
I looked one last time and walked away with Riven following.
In the training yard, I didn’t pick up a sword because I was reserving it for the traitors.
Riven attacked me without holding back.
I pressed forward over and over, using each impact to drown out the face of Haren that kept trying to form.
I used the pain to silence all the memories.
By the time I felt satisfied, my knuckles were split, and my breathing was heavy.
It was enough.
I felt a little better for now, but the “pruning” still had to happen; after that, I would feel better.
Later in the evening, it was time.
I was already dressed, my monster already unleashed.
I was enraged and ready.
Tonight, I wouldn’t go to the Council as a King; I was going as an executioner.
Riven was waiting outside.
“Is Kira in position?” I asked.
“She has already taken her to the wing. She’ll be inside before the assembly begins.”
I nodded and headed to her wing; I needed to see for myself, to be sure.
As we approached the corridor, Kira stopped and bowed properly.
“She’s inside and safe,” Kira reported quietly.
“Her maid is with her. I already told her to stay indoors.”
“And the hidden sentries?”
“They are all in position, Your Majesty. She can’t see them.”
“Good.” I looked at Kira, my eyes cold as ice.
“If anyone approaches that corridor tonight without my personal seal, I don’t care if it’s a Council member or someone who has served this palace for thirty years—kill them on the spot. I don’t trust a single soul in this palace until the traitors are dead.”
She nodded once, her expression turning serious.
I walked past her, leaving her and Riven.
I reached Lena’s door.
I needed to be certain, to catch her scent before I became something else.
As I neared, the bond sharpened; her scent filled the corridor.
Inside, I felt her restlessness.
I nodded once I saw the guards and confirmed her wing was secured.
“I’m doing this so you don’t have to see it,” I whispered to the wood.
I knew she couldn’t hear me, but I needed to say it.
I inhaled her scent one last time, then sealed my emotions away in a small box inside my mind.
The gentle Kael was gone; now, the Ruthless King remained.
I headed towards the courtyard.
This was where everything would unfold tonight.
As I strode in, the air was thick with the scent of wood and grass, and I could feel fear and uncertainty.
What was going to happen here would be clear.
I entered, and all the council members bowed their heads.
The sword was placed in the centre of the courtyard.
My throne was already there, but I wasn’t sitting; I wasn’t there to watch a spectacle—I was the one performing it while they looked on.
The four men were tied and kneeling on the ground with bruised faces.
I approached and threw a stack of letters onto the ground in front of them.
The sound echoed like thunder.
“The garden is overgrown,” I said.
I looked at their families, all bound in the corner.
I had arranged for them to witness me execute them one by one.
I didn’t need anyone else to do it; I would do it myself.
I surveyed them first.
“You ate from tables set with my trust, and yet while you did that, they funded this,” I said.
“They will all be stripped of their ranks, exiled from the palace, and made the lowest of slaves.”
I turned to the traitors.
“You all know I am being merciful, and this is not my usual form of justice.”
Then I advanced towards the four traitors.
“Tonight, another four chose to side with the hunters. They drew a map to my mate’s chambers and handed it to killers, all to end my reign.”
I drew my sword.
“I thought the last execution would serve as a lesson, but it did not. I have been too kind. But that ends tonight.” I grasped the sword; it was sunset, and the blade was gleaming and sharp, just as I wanted.
The council members watched in fear; I could feel it.
Haren was brought forward first.
He looked up at me with quiet guilt.
He didn’t speak; he nodded once, acknowledging his guilt.
“You gained the trust of the royal family through my father, and you betrayed that trust by colluding with our enemies. My father is dead, and I am not my father,” I growled.
I brought the sword to his neck and snapped it with a quick jerk, dropping his body like trash.
His head rolled on the ground.
Gasps, cries, and fear rippled through the courtyard.
I was just getting started.
Varlen was next—the cunning, greedy one I knew well.
He looked at me with flat, confident eyes.
“You think you’re saving her,” he said.
“I know you’re a king without a wolf, a beast who will only consume her. You’re just a butcher.”
I didn’t let him finish the next sentence.
“Finish that sentence with your creator,” I said, as his head joined the others on the floor.
Varick was next; he begged, but I ignored him.
He should save his tears for his creator.
And then Thorne, the youngest, was last.
He was already frozen in terror and met the same fate.
I stood in the centre, my black tunic stained darker.
I felt like a monster—powerful and hollow—a quiet smile like that of a man who had completed a necessary task, and I felt fulfilled.
I looked at the remaining Council members and everyone in the courtyard, all of them with the four heads on the ground.
“This is how your heads will roll on these grounds. Just like theirs.”
By then, it was dark, the moon shone brightly, and I turned to leave the courtyard when the bond tugged at me.
I smelled that scent.
I looked up to the corner and saw her standing there.
Lena was there.
Her knuckles were white on the railing, and her face was ghostly pale.
She looked at the bodies, the blood, then at me.
The smile faded from my face.
The executioner mask dropped, leaving me standing in the blood.
In her eyes, I saw pure, unfiltered terror.
She had seen the truth of what I was.
She made a small, broken sound and fled into the darkness.
I stood there, surrounded by the men I had killed to save her.
I had protected her from hunters, traitors, and the entire world.
I looked at my bloody hands and realised the truth.
I had protected her from everything.
Except myself.
I really found it difficult to write this chapter.
The execution scene was heavy, and I went back and forth on how far to take Kael’s ruthlessness.
I’m not sure if it matches what you expected, but I’d love to hear your thoughts—did he go too far?
Hope you like it!”