The Royal Alpha

Chapter 19: Some Revelations

Fuck!

I do not want to deal with Amaruq.

Not now. Not ever again.

The thought of his name alone makes something dark and corrosive curl in my chest, spreading like poison through veins already strained past their limit. He is a traitor. He admitted it. Confessed without shame once his fear outweighed his arrogance. And yet, even knowing that, I feel no relief—only exhaustion layered over fury, and fury layered over grief.

I already have too much blood on my hands tonight. Too many unanswered questions clawing at the back of my skull. Too much fear lodged in my ribs where my heart should be steady.

I got the answers I needed from Amaruq the only way he understands—through pain, through terror, through the certainty that his life could end at my hands if I chose it. I do not regret that. What I regret is that I was not faster. That I was not there when my mate needed me most.

The elders can debate ethics later. Right now, I am barely holding myself together.

Still, I knock.

The sound echoes dully against the stone corridor, far too soft for the violence thrashing inside me.

The door to Elder Alarick's private chamber opens almost immediately.

Elder Ernouf stands there, his expression carefully neutral, but something about his posture is wrong. His head is slightly bowed—not in greeting, not in courtesy, but in restraint. As if he is holding himself back from saying something he knows he should not say yet.

Without a word, he steps aside and gestures me in.

The door closes behind us with a firm, final sound.

Locked.

The click lands heavily in my chest.

I scan the room automatically, instincts honed by years of training and something older, sharper beneath it. Every elder is present. Alarick. Fridolf. Ernouf. Raoul.

Amaruq is conspicuously absent.

They stand in a loose semicircle, their robes brushing the floor, their hands folded before them. Their heads are slightly bowed—not fully lowered, but enough that it sends a quiet, unmistakable message.

My wolf straightens at once.

This pleases him.

The human part of me, however, tightens with unease.

I am not accustomed to this kind of attention. Reverence has never been directed at me—only expectation, suspicion, or tolerance. I am an apprentice. An orphan. A wolf who learned early how to survive without asking for more than was given.

This is... wrong.

"Please don't do that," I say finally, keeping my voice steady through sheer force of will. "You're embarrassing me. What is this about?"

No one answers immediately.

The silence stretches, dense and deliberate, until Elder Ernouf clears his throat.

"Fenris," he begins slowly, "in the past few days, too many events have unfolded in rapid succession. Events that, when viewed together, cannot be dismissed as coincidence."

I say nothing. I do not trust my voice yet.

"The letter from Xavier," Ernouf continues. "The knife delivered to you by an unknown ally. Sierra's abduction. Amaruq's betrayal."