The Broken Queen

Chapter 40: The Stables

Quinn's POV:
As the three of us leave the close to empty dining hall, we move through the corridor on the left in a hurry, moving towards the sound of shuffling and grunting. With our bags and satchels swinging and bouncing with each hurried step, we stop at the corner as we hear a door slam open close by. I'm standing pressed against the wall in between Sophia and Ethan, trying my best to be as quiet as possible. Sophia hesitantly pokes her head out around the corner for a moment. Looking a little startled, she turns back around to us. "Fionn is being dragged out of a room by those guards of Alpha Timmothy that left during dinner. He is bound and gagged!" she whispers. Ethan voices my own thoughts as well as his own with a surprised and confused verbalisation of "what in the Goddess? What has he done this time?!" We all get lost in thought for a few moments as we realise we are too late to stop him from sabotaging everything. I can't help but to be filled with dread and anxiety. I just hope whatever this is doesn't hurt our alpha.

I am pulled back to reality when I hear the two alphas' voices quickly approaching from the direction we came. I peek out around Sophia's waist. "We gotta move, now. The alphas are coming, and the coast is clear." We immediately start to follow the scents of Alpha Timmothy's guards throughout the halls of the packhouse. We end up creeping into these old stone stables and towards these large iron cells with chunky shackles on the wall, ground and ceiling. Staying out of sight, we crouch down behind a wall of hay bails. I try to nudge Fionn's mind to open a link when we spot him being hoisted up onto a huge metal meat hook by his bound wrists. While he doesn't open it or try to reach back out to me, his head snaps from side to side as he looks around in confusion. He quickly gives up on his search, glaring at the three guards and thrashing about in a vain attempt to get free. What on earth is going on here? Looking through the thick strands of hay, it takes a lot of effort and awareness to stay as still as statues and breathe as silently as possible. Carefully holding onto one of the wooden slats beside me for support, I look over at Ethan anxiously, which he returns with furrowed brows of his own. My breath hitches as Dani walks into the stables, followed by Alpha Timmothy. As soon as she reaches the end of the hall, everything goes silent. Her eyes. One is split between silver speckled grey and ocean blue, while the other is split between a fiery red and deep magenta. They are breathtaking. Alpha Brown is somehow co-fronting with all three of her counterparts. Her wolf, vampire and dragon, all at once. How?! Why? This must be something really damn serious for her to be this level of intense. I may not have known her long but she has this crazy intense level of power unlike anything or anyone I have ever seen before, and I would not like to ever be on the receiving end of her power or wrath, I know that much. If this is about something Fionn has done, then he has got to have done something criminal level bad, and personal to her. She only gets this tense when it involves her pack or family...

Ethan's POV:
Dani's eyes have never looked more beautifully terrifying than they do in this moment as she stands outside the iron cell. She has her hands gracefully cupped behind her back, her shoulders set and her chin level. My wolf and I can't help but to feel drawn to the power of her stance. Dani has never held herself more like a queen and I don't think she even realises how elegant she looks as she stands in front of a now thrashing about Fionn, silent, emotionless. I feel my wolf come forward with me in curiosity and out of the need to protect our Alpha if it comes to it. He has his ears down though, as he feels the air around us shift when the silence becomes unbearable. I glance at Sophia to see her gulp, also lost in deep thought about this whole scenario playing out in front of us. Breaking the unsettling silence, Dani suddenly speaks in the deepest and eeriest voice I have ever heard and it instantly sends a chill down my spine. "You can either tell us the truth now, or later when you are begging us for death, the choice is yours."

One of the guards on Fionn's right removes his gag, almost receiving an angry headbutt from him in the process. The guard simply rolls his eyes with an amused snort. Though Alpha Timmothy reacts very differently to his pathetic lash out. He growls lowly before smashing his fist directly into Fionn's nose, his head snapping backward with the force. "Don't you dare lay a hand on any of my men you bastard" he grunts. While I can't exactly say Timmothy is wrong on the whole Fionn being a bastard thing, cause he is, it seems out of character for him to speak to any of us this way. Though, the wolf in question likely deserves it and said wolf's Alpha is in the room, so she clearly has no issue with it, especially since she herself threatened Fionn's life just moments ago. What in the Goddess is going on here?! Fionn winces slightly before spitting blood at Alpha Timmothy's feet. "How dare you disrespect Alpha Timmothy, you will pay for that mistake I assure you. You won't get a second chance Fionn, so make your choice, what's it gonna be?" He glares at her before responding. "I don't know what this is all about Alpha. I was just trying to go to the bathroom when these monkeys here cornered me in the theatre and wouldn't let me leave before injecting me with something and tying me up, dragging me here." He turns as best as he can to Timmothy, throwing him a hateful glare, "So your 'men' deserve a good beatdown and if my wolf and I had time alone with each of them, they'd-" Dani sneers at his little rant, showing her fangs and losing her elegant stance as she steps toward him and extends her claws. Kayla and Olivia must have pushed forward in anger, but it's amazing to see two counterparts partially surface like this. Though there's this look of pure rage on her face that makes her look like she's about to explode. Uh oh...

Olivia surfaces enough for her voice to isolate from the other counterparts. "Have it your way asshole. Dani has been dying to put some skills she learned growing up to use on someone, and we have all deemed you perfectly worthy of being the first person to be on the receiving end of them." She giggles in this high pitched airy voice, but it sounds so dead that it's genuinely scary. Goddess she is one creeeepy vamp. Fionn's eyes widen slightly and I can tell he is scared by her too. My instinct is to try to intercept this to attempt to calm our Alpha down or figure out what is going on, but she doesn't act extremely without good reason and Fionn has been one nasty piece of work for as long as I have known him so we just gotta trust her judgement on this one. Whatever Fionn has done to get himself in this kind of predicament has got to be really really bad, so my gut is telling me that whatever the reason for being here, Fionn has it coming. Plus, Alpha Timmothy is present and is clearly willing to participate so at least we don't have to worry about the alliance being effected by Fionn's reckless and manipulative actions...