Chapter 294

294 Broken Home

The Golden Moon Pack was ready to receive the royals when they arrived, having gotten the information about their arrival a little late and very abruptly.

The king was impressed by the speed with which the pack got ready to receive them. The alpha of the Golden Moon pack along with his heir was waiting for them at the pack house and looked to have been waiting for a while even if they had only been there a few minutes.

King Davin chose to keep his detection of the sentries a secret. It was only natural for the pack to know precisely when the royals would be arriving.

The cars were welcomed and led to the parking lot of the packhouse. The king was impressed by their take on nature. They built as little with unnatural materials as they could and it kept the wilderness growing freely and beautifully around them turning their humble pack into a perfect integration of nature and man-made structures.

“It’s a pleasure to have you, your majesty,” the alpha greeted when the king stepped out of the car.

However, as more royals stepped out of the car, the man realised his error. The wolves that had come with him to welcome the king bowed in the presence of the three royals, “Allow me to correct my words, your majesties. It’s a pleasure to have you all visit our humble pack. I trust your journey here was... comfortable and not too long.”

“Well, it’s not every day three royals set out to visit a place such as this on a whim,” the king replied, “When you’re the king of an empire, you learn to love a nice road trip.”

“I do remember similar tales of your family travelling on a whim to a remote town known as Brigadia,” the alpha replied, his voice filled with wonder. The man was clearly in the dark about the happenings of the visit, “I used to go there myself for their lovely festival.”

“Oh, that... Yes, we had to pick a member of the family that had been living there. I don’t think I would count that. In any case, we didn’t come here for the occasional royal visit,” the king spoke, emphasizing an authoritative tone in his voice.

.....

“I thought it was unlikely for the king to make an abrupt visit such without a reason,” the man replied with a chuckle, “To what may I owe the pleasure?”

“More like to whom?” the king replied allowing Madeline to step out from behind them. The alpha’s eyes widened in concern when he saw the girl. Madeline wouldn’t meet the man’s eyes under all the attention she’d gathered. Her cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment.

“Thank the goddess. I thought we’d lost you,” the king sighed in relief. His shoulders slumped and released a tension he hadn’t known he was holding. However, there was no smile to grace his face. Instead, the deep-set creases in his forehead only deepened with worry, “However, you’re not the first ones here on this matter and I fear for worse news to be uncovered.”

“Is anyone injured?” the king asked with growing concern.

The alpha was silent for a moment, “I don’t know what to make of it, your majesty. I guess it would be best for you to come and take a look for yourself.”

The alpha then turned and began to lead the king’s party to the house of the Seeker. Curiosity burned in their hearts as they yearned to get to the bottom of whatever it was they were dealing with.

Soon enough, they’d arrived at the cottage that was meant to be Madeline’s home. Lina noticed the girl who’d been walking beside her slow down the closer they got to the house. The two of them soon fell behind the rest of the group.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked Madeline, “You can stay behind if you don’t want to...”

The girl swallowed in fear before shaking the thoughts from her head violently, “No, I want to go in. It’s just... scary. He was here... in my house. I don’t think I can be as brave as my grandmother that day. She barely flinched,” the girl said, a shiver running down her spine as she remembered the suffocating presence of the rogue king.

“Well, she might have just been faking it. Who knows? Your grandmother is your grandmother. No one said you have to be like her. You’re meant to be you. Her strength is not the same as yours. Someone once told me that strength comes in many different forms,” Lina said, placing her hand on the girl’s shoulder.

At that moment, the girl jerked back from the girl as though Lina’s hand was made of fire and gripped the spot her hand had just touched. Lina noticed the way her eyes flashed bright silver before settling down into their calm grey that she covered up with amber, “What’s wrong?”

The girl was stunned for a moment before replying, “I-I’m not sure. It just felt like I had relived one of the moments that night,” the girl replied.

Lina wanted to pry further but noticed the horror in the girl’s voice. What was odd, however, was that for the first time in her life, she wasn’t curious to know what had made the girl flinch. ‘It must be something bad if neither I nor my wolf wants nothing to do with it,’ she thought to herself.

“Very well,” she replied, lending the girl her hand, “Would you want to come in then?”

Madeline reluctantly took her hand, as if afraid to touch Lina again, and followed her into the house. On the inside of the house, the living room was organised. Without the scent of blood, there was no way any of them could tell what had happened.

A man was standing by the seat Madeline remembered her grandmother to be seated in, “This is where the civilian was,” the man mumbled to himself.

'

“Yeah, that is where she was,” Madeline replied involuntarily, “That’s where she always sits... or sat in this case.”

The man looked up to see her. His hair was black and short and the muscles beneath his dark green shirt were toned and clearly visible.

If it wasn’t for the leather biker jacket that covered added more coverage to the man’s body, he would have been considered a walking statue of perfection.

His eyes flew between her and the stairs that led up to her room as though he was trying to piece together one thing after the other. Before the man could speak, a deep voice filled with authority interrupted him.

“Who are you?” the king demanded.