The Delta's Daughter Chapter 96

KELLEN

The ride back to the kingdom would have taken two plus days, but I couldn’t wait another minute to get back there, my worst nightmare had come true.

My kingdom had been attacked and I was not there to fight for my people, to defend them. I had failed my people.

So I found myself, along with Mike, riding in this goddess damn thing they call ‘Birdie’. The ride was only a couple of hours, much quicker if we had gone by car, but it still wasn’t fast enough.

When Mike and I had come to our senses and realized what was going on, that the new moon pack, the kingdom, was under attack and people were dying, my wolf and I felt it the moment my mother had died. I could feel my father’s anguish through our link, even though we were too far away to talk through it, I could still feel his discomfort. His wolf was weak, but he was alive.

We had tried calling, texting, emailing, mind linking and we had got nothing.

The only thought I had was to get home. Our pack had been attacked and I had felt every one of those deaths. Link by link severed. It was more than eighty, and there were still pack members dying. Every few minutes I would feel a link in the pack break.

It wasn’t just me. Mike felt them too, being my Beta to the pack and the future royal Beta. He was just as connected to the kingdom as I was. I looked up at him, sitting across from me, his hands rubbing on his legs, up to his face, then through his hair and back down to his legs, repeating the process over and over again.

His eyes finally met mine. *I’m fucking scared, Kellen. I have never been so scared in my life.* He said through the link, knowing I wouldn’t hear him under the whooshing of the blades.

 I knew what he meant, he was scared of what we would find when we got there.

*Me too, brother, me too.* I sighed back. What else do you say? There were no words.

We were going in blind, no Intel or information, completely blind. We didn’t know what or who we would find when we got there and that was enough to scare the shit out of me. Next to Lamia, we held the next largest army. We were not an easy kingdom to take down. Not at all.

Before we left, after Xander so ‘graciously’ offered to fly us, we grabbed a bag each, with equipment and weapons, something Lamia always had prepared for her army.

I had overheard Mathias having words with Xander, telling him he was to watch our backs, “Those two mean something to her, brother, they play a major role in the gods' games, take care of them. They are your queen’s knights. She needs them.”  

Lamia wanted to come with us, but it was better if she didn’t. It could be another ambush to kidnap her. She was safer at MacTire, and needed to take care of her pack.

*How far out are you?* Lamia’s angelic voice drifted into my ears. We had kept the link open, hoping distance wouldn’t hinder us.

Apparently mine and Lamia’s bond was still intact, but it had shifted, it felt different, but a good different, stronger. I felt even more connected to her.

I looked at Mike, who tapped his head.

*About 20min* Mike's voice filtered through the link. I tipped my head to him, a little bewildered. She could link him over distance too?

*I got hold of Uncle Michael, rather he called us. They have neutralized the threat, but… the casualties are severe. Kellen, he wants you to come straight to the palace. Your father… your father is not well* I could hear and feel the heartache she held for my father.

*I’m so sorry Kellen*she said sadly, before cutting the link.

Through the window I could see the palace lights; we were approaching and would be landing shortly. The kingdom looked peaceful from way up here, but I knew better. It was anything but that. Knowing the threat was neutralized gave me some hope, but it did nothing to calm my nerves or tamper down the cluster of emotions that raged through me.

We set down on the training field, and before Xander could even cut the engine and fully land, I was out the door and racing towards the palace. I moved so fast my feet didn’t even touch the stairs as I flew up to the Royal floor and only halted in my rush when I stood outside the king's suite.

My heart beat rapidly and I took a few shaky breaths to calm myself.

“Kellen,” Beta Michael called out to me. I turned to see him, Mike by his side and Xander behind them. “Son,” he said, his head hung low as he stepped closer to me. Putting a heavy hand on my shoulder, his eyes met mine, conveying his emotions. His neck bobbed and his eyes held tears.

He was as close to family as it gets and I knew he was hurting, just as much as the rest of us. His sorrow was not for his king, but for his best friend, his brother.

“Would you like me to go in with you?” his voice cracked as he swallowed down the words. I shook my head. “It’s not good, Kellen; they catapulted needles at us…” His voice trailing off when my eyes hardened at the information, the only thing coming to mind was the email Lamia had received, the man injected and turning into one of those things, a Crawler.

“Is that why I keep feeling pack links break?” My voice wavered in fear of the Beta’s answer. He only nodded his head.

I took a deep breath, straightened my shoulders and back, and stared at the imposing door in front of me, mustering up the courage to see my father and hold it together.

Now was not a time to show weakness. I pushed the door open, the large oak panel seeming heavier than it ever had.

My father lay on his bed, sheets wrapped around him up to his neck. The two guards that stood in his room at the foot of the bed acknowledged me and then left the room, giving us some privacy. I took cautious steps towards the bed. It was so close but my feet were heavy, like lead, and each step weighed me down, wanting to root me in place as I took in my father’s frail figure.

His brown hair was thin, like it had fallen out and the skin on his face and arms looked as if someone had poured boiling water over him, pink and burnt raw. I knelt down at the edge of the bed closest to his head.

“Father” I croaked out, not even recognizing my voice.

“Son, you made it… cough” He heaved in trying to gulp the air. “I am… sorry…cough, your mother… cough.”

“Shhh, shhh.” I said, bringing the water from his night stand to his lips, helping him drink some. “I know father, I know.”

“No, they did something to us. I am dying… cough, in a few minutes I will not be me.” He coughed some more and his body began to shake. “I am strong, I could hold out longer… cough… burn the bodies, kill me before I become one of them…”

I couldn’t help the tears that slid down my cheek. He had been injected with the same shit. His once blue eyes were turning a pink color, and his hand I now held felt like fire. His body was heating up faster now.

“Father, I’m so sorry I wasn’t here” The guilt was eating at me. If I was here, maybe I could have done something, maybe things would have turned out differently.

“Stop Kellen, my son, you have made us so proud and you will make an excellent king… arggh…” He bit back the pain that was consuming him now, his flesh searing and smoking as the drug began to invade his blood stream. “I can be with your mother, please… let me be with her. ARGGGHHHH!!!!”

He began screaming, clutching his body, and all I could do was watch. “The dagger my boy!” He managed to grit out between his clenched jaws, his eyes wide and turning a darker pink, his skin melting from him.

I looked to the side and saw the silver dagger used in ceremonies or pacts.

Goddess I didn’t want to do this.

I picked up the dagger, my hand trembling and my eyes glassy, filled with more tears to shed.

I don’t want to do this. I knew I had to.

He couldn’t turn into one of those things. If he did, would there be an afterlife? Would the goddess welcome the unholy creature or would he be cast into darkness. Would he even have a soul?

“Father..” I whimpered “I, I can’t.”

“Argghh, yes you can. Be strong my son, you are now a king.” He stammered through his cries and anguish.

I blinked and turned my head. It took me a minute but I called on Conri, my wolf, for his strength. To do what I had to do. I felt him come forward, giving me every bit of him. He was there with me, to see this through with me.

‘Thank you’ I spoke to him.

I turned back to my father and lifted the dagger over his heart, heavy drops of salty beads splashed on my cheeks, rolling off on to my father’s arm where they sizzled away.

“I love you Father,” I choked out, looking him in the eyes before I plunged the dagger deep and hard into his heart.

“Thank you…” were his last words before he exhaled his last breath. His eyes slid closed and his death left a an eerie and thick silence in the room.

I broke down over him and sobbed like a three-year-old muttering my apologies, as his death swept over me, the bond of father and son breaking.

I lifted my head and howled out a mournful song: The king is dead; filling the night with my despair and dejection.

In the distance, warriors echoed my call, their king was dead.

The feeling of desolation filled the link to my pack and I felt their sorrow. I howled well into the night until my throat was hoarse and I had no more energy. It was only then, when the dark sky began to turn a deep purple, did someone enter and pull me from my father’s now cold body. The dagger still buried deep in his chest and a crimson stain on his shirt, I gave him one last look and let my best friend pull me from the room.

*****

I was left in my room, alone. How long I stayed there, I don’t know. I had no concept of time. I do know it took me a long beat to gather myself and find some resolve, digging deep. I was a king now and there were still things that needed to be done. My people would be looking at me to lead them now.

I raised myself up from the corner I had slumped into, brushing down my shirt and jeans. I had replaced grief with indignation, pushing my feelings deep, deep down under that resolve, and painting my face with a mask of indifference.

When I walked out of our suite, I found the Beta and Mike outside, Uncle Marcus too. No words were said, but Uncle Marcus was first to my side, pulling me into an embrace, placing our foreheads together.

“We are here for you, always. Whatever you need my boy, whatever you need.” His words were meant as comfort when he said them with emotion.

But I found no comfort.

Instead, I pushed back from him, the contact threatening to break me from my resolution and dissolve the thread of strength I was holding on to.

“Have the bodies gathered and burn them, all of them, together. Today.” I ordered, standing up straight and looking at the Delta. “I want to see my mother first. Then…”

“Kellen, you don’t have to do this, you need time to grieve...” I snapped my head at Mike, cutting him off.

“I don’t need to grieve, what I need to do is fucking find out how the fuck this happened!” I was spitting out my anger at him “How the fuck did they get into the kingdom and pass our border patrol!” I turned to the royal Beta to ask him this question.

“We can handle this” Mike tried to calmly say.

“Fuck you! You didn’t just lose your whole family in one night. Don’t assume, to tell me what to do!..” I raised my voice, almost screaming at him.

Mike's hazel eyes began to darken, the pupils widening and the white cross gleamed within them. “Fuck you Kellen! They were our family too! Mine, your uncles, aunts. Lamia’s! You think this only affects you!”

My hand connected with his jaw, snapping his head to the side, and Mike stumbled a few feet. He recovered quickly and came at me, punching me square in the nose. I returned the blow and before we knew it, fists were flying and blood coated our hands and faces.

“ENOUGH!” Uncle Marcus shouted, with a commanding presence that had us halting in our tracks.

“You feel better Kellen; you want to hit me again? Cuz I could go all night brother!” Mike snapped at me, goading me to hit him again. I looked at his face, blood oozed from his nose and lips. I had also given him a nice gash under the eye. I knew I wasn’t looking any better.

“Damn it, Kellen,” he said, coming up to me, hugging me. “You are not alone, brother,” Mike whispered.

“I’m sorry…” I didn’t know what to say, I attacked my best friend, my brother, the guy who had been by my side every step of the way. “I’m so sorry, Mike…”

“Better me, than someone else.” He smirked, then tightened his grip on my neck “I got you man, always.”