Alaric's POV
The world did not just stop. Roland spoke; it withered. The air turned to ash in my lungs. As the Chief Guard uttered the words. Sophie had been imprisoned.
The palace and it's history suddenly felt hollow. It was like the quiet before a hurricane. A silence so heavy. It made my eardrums throbbed.
Then the realization hit me. This was a plot. A calculated trap. It was designed to ensnare the only person who brought me peace.
I felt the wolf inside me stir. Its claws raking against my ribs. I had been a fool. I should have seen the invitation for what it was. I should have declined the offer to dine. I should have protected her from the vipers that call themselves my family.
I looked at Roland. My face was no longer that of a King. It was the face of a predator. My jaw tightened. I heard my bone creak.
"Who arrested her?" I asked.
My voice was low.
"Queen Mother Isolde Sire." Roland replied.
His voice steady despite the tension.
I did not wait for another word. I moved immediately.
I did not walk. I surged through the palace halls. Every servant who saw me scrambled. They pressed themselves against the walls. They sensef the lethal energy radiating from my skin.
I headed straight for the depths. The palace prison. A place where the air smells of forgotten hope.
When I reached the iron bars. I saw her.
Sophie was lying on the filthy floor. She looked so small. She looked so fragile. Her clothes were torn. The light of the torches revealed bruises on her skin. She was unconscious.
A sound escaped my throat. I did not recognize it. It was a sob. It was raw.
I knelt by the bars. I reached my hand through the cold iron. I tried to touch the hem of her garment.
I felt like a child who had lost his mother. A painful vulnerability I had buried decades ago.
"Sophie." I whispered.
My voice breaking.
"Please. Do not leave me."
The vulnerability did not last. It was quickly incinerated by a blinding rage. I remembered who I was. I was the Alpha King of the Blackwood Kingdom. Someone had dared to touch what was mine.
I stood up. My height seemed to double. I turned to the guards at the cell door.
"Open this cell right now." I yelled.
The sound bounced off like a thunderclap.
The guards stood frozen. They looked at each other. Then back at me. Their eyes wide with a mix of confusion and terror. They did not move.
"Did you not hear me?" I asked. I stepped closer until I smelled the fear-sweat on them.
"I said open this cell right now!"
"No... we cannot Alpha." One of the guards stammered.
His hand shaking as he gripped his spear.
"We do not mean to disrespect you but we are following orders. The Queen Mother..."
I did not let him finish. I shifted.
My bones started cracking. Fur sprouted. My snout lengthened. My muscles doubled in size. I reached out with a clawed hand. I grabbed the guard by the neck. I hoisted him off the ground. Until his boots dangled uselessly in the air.
"Do you dare challenge my order?" I snarled.
"No!" He wheezed.
His face turning a sickly shade of purple.
I dropped him. He hit the floor in a heap. He gasped for air.
"Open the cell. Immediately."
"I would love to Alpha." He cried.
He was cowering against the wall.
"But I am not with the keys. I don't have them!"
"Who has them?" I roared.
My golden eyes glowing in the dark.
"Queen Mother Isolde." He squeaked.
"She took the keys with her. She said no one enters or leaves without her word."
"Then break this gate!" I screamed.
I shifted back into my human form. My skin still pulsed with the heat of the transformation.
"I don't bloody care! Bring her out of that place now!"
The guards panicked. It's been a long time since I shifted in anger. They scrambled toward the gate. They were looking for a way to force the lock.
A voice interrupted with calculated authority.
"No one touches that gate."
I turned my head slowly. Queen Mother Isolde stood at the end of the hall. She was followed by four guards.
She looked at the scene. The trembling guards. The unconscious girl. And my disheveled state. She looked with immense satisfaction.
"What did you just say?" I asked.
My voice dangerously quiet.
"I said she remains there until she says the truth." Isolde said.
She stepped into the light.
"What truth?" I interrupted.
My hands curling into fists.
"The truth about her poisoning my son." She spat.
"The truth about how she tried to kill a Prince of Blackwood."
I let out a laugh of pure mockery.
"Did I not eat the same food with Young Prince Daemon? Look at me woman! How am I still standing here healthy? If there was poison in that pot. I would be dead."
Isolde raised a groomed eyebrow.
"Maybe you both planned it. Maybe you took an antidote. Maybe you wanted to appear the hero while the boy suffered."
I felt my wolf struggling to burst forth again. The accusation was so foul. So illogical. It felt like a physical sting.
"Why would I want to poison Daemon?" I asked.
I moved toward her.
"He is my brother. He is a child."
"Because he is the next King after you." She said.
Her voice rising.
"You are a tyrant Alaric. You probably don't want a competition. You want to clear the path before he grows strong enough to challenge your bloodthirsty rule."
I narrowed my eyes. I looked her straight in the soul. The masks were off now. The years of feigned peace and forced smiles were over.
"So all this while you've been acting like you are at peace with me." I said.
My voice trembling with suppressed fury.
"You've been harboring this poison in your heart. You've been waiting for a reason to hate me."
Isolde didn't blink.
"I don't know what you are talking about. All I want is for that ghost to tell me what she did to my son."
"She is not a ghost!" I yelled.
The sound echoing through the prison.
"And you will release her now!"
"Over my dead body will that prison gate be opened." She said.
Her voice turning to ice.
"My son is lying half-dead. He is gasping for his life. And you are supporting a woman whose very origin is unknown. A girl who appeared out of the mist to bewitch you."
"Open the cell Isolde." I warned.
"This is your last chance."
"I won't do it." She repeated.
Her eyes burning with a zealot's flame.
"I said it. And I mean it. Over my dead body will that creature leave that cell."
My patience broke. The last thread of my restraint snapped.
I reached out. I drew Roland's broadsword from his hip. The steel sang as it cleared the scabbard. I did not care about the laws of the land. I did not care about the council or the elders. I only cared about the woman bleeding behind me.
I raised the sword high. It felt heavy. And right in my hand. I was ready to kill my own stepmother to free the woman who had brought me peace.
The sword began to descent. It was coming down with a terrifying force.
"Alaric... stop."
The voice was faint. A little more than a whisper. But it stopped the sword mid-air. It was a familiar voice. A soothing balm that cut through my rage like a cooling rain.
I turned my head. Sophie was awake. She had managed to drag herself toward the bars. Her hand clutching the iron for support. She looked at me. Her eyes clouded with pain. But filled with strange wisdom.
"Sophie." I breathed.
The sword trembling in my hand.
"Alaric... put it down." She struggled to speak.
Her voice cracking.
"Please. Put down the sword."
"She did this to you." I growled.
I looked back at Isolde.
"I know." Sophie whispered.
"But I know what will happen if you kill your stepmother. The kingdom... the elders... it won't be good for you. You will lose everything. Please. For me."
I didn't fully understand what she meant. But her voice alone was enough to quell the beast inside. The sword fell from my hands. It clattered loudly against the stone floor. I ignored Isolde. I ignored the guards. I ran to the bars. I sank to my knees.
I reached into my tunic. I pulled out the accessory; the bronze vine clasp she admired at the market. I had bought it for her. I intended to give it to her at the farm. I wanted to tell her to stay. Not as a chef. But as something more.
I pushed the small trinket through the bars. She took it with shaking fingers. A small smile touched her split lip.
"I wanted to give this to you... before all this chaos." I said.
My heart heavy with guilt.
"Be calm Alaric." She said.
Her hand reaching out to touch mine through the iron.
"I have been here before. Remember? I was in a cell when I first came to this palace. I survived then. I will survive now. The truth will come out eventually. It always does."
The guilt washed over me in a cold wave. I was the one who had thrown her in a cell when she first arrived. I was the one who had treated her like a criminal. And now she was the one comforting me.
"Sophie I will get you out." I promised.
"Go to bed Alpha." She said.
Her eyes closing briefly.
"Go. I will be out before you know it. Just... find out what is wrong with the Prince. Find the real cause."
I forced myself to stand up.
Every muscle in my body protested. I moved away from the bars. The pain in my was greater than any physical wound.
I looked at Isolde one last time. She was still standing there. She looked triumphant. But she had miscalculated. She thought she had won a victory. But she had only succeeded in identifying herself.
Isolde was no longer just my stepmother. She was my number one enemy.
And the Blackwood wolf does not forget an enemy.
