Chapter Forty-Three

Christopher

Celina is stiff under me while she tries to process what has happened to her. We all are silent for a moment, including my disgraced father. Ruben can’t even look at him, and every time I try I want to rip his throat out. How could he do this to our family? How could he not tell us? Ruben is right. If he had, we might still have Danny with us. I might have had to share my sweet Celina with him, but if that meant he was alive I could handle that.

At that thought, I pull Celina into me to help calm my rising temper. My vision is on the edge of red when I realize what I must ask, and get the truth for once. “Father, what did you and Danny argue about? Honestly this time,” I tell him with a warning in my tone.

Dad looks away; still on the ground after submitting to my incredible mate. “That night, Danny approached me and demanded that I remove your Crowned Prince of the Beast titles and give them to your firstborn brother.”

He stands up while a shock wave of emotions ricochets through me. “Your brother then proceeded to tell me how he met a man claiming to be his half-brother and demanded to know if this was true. When I confirmed it, Danny again demanded that I give him the rightful title. I told him that I refused to give the title to someone who was a mistake and shouldn’t even exist.

“Danny was more or less angry with my choice of words. He told me that I was cruel and that I didn’t deserve the title of King of the Beasts. I told him that I deserved the title since I had the guts to sever a dead limb that would have been poison to our family. I also told him that I was only giving the title to Chris if he was going to continue to be so insolent. Your brother lost his temper at that point and told me he’d force me to tell the truth.

“Of course, I couldn’t allow your brother to ruin our family, and I wasn’t going to submit to him, so I put him in his place. He was such a pathetic mess after I was through with him. He was sniveling and told me that he was going to tell Christopher the truth, and they’d renounce their titles together. I couldn’t let that happen, so I forced him into submission once more and ordered him to keep this a secret at all costs. He still struggled under my control so I gave him the option to renounce our family and just disappear with that piece of trash and never contact us again, or to forget about that abomination and accept his title. Your brother chose the prior option instead of the latter.”

“You’d rather banish your own son, than admit to your mistake,” I demand as anger tries to take over me. Celina gently touches my arm with a wet hand, claiming my attention. When I look down, I notice that she is injured. A hard growl goes through Rajin and me as I lift her hand to inspect the wound. It is an injury from a lycan.

Ruben is the first to speak. “You sent your own son to his death, because of your pride?”

“It would have ruined us,” Father roars as he takes a step toward me. Celina growls a warning and he immediately takes a step back. “I didn’t know that they were going to attack the Alpha King after that. I thought he’d return a few days later, but he didn’t. Instead, I heard about the attack on the Alpha King’s children, and even then I didn’t consider that attack to be from your brother. It was so far out of his character that it never crossed my mind.”

“His children,” Xander asks while Celina stiffens with that realization.

Celina turns her head to Xander. “Do you think they attacked us because they thought we’d be weak since it was our first shift?”

Xander nods, “It explains why they did it at that particular time. They knew we’d be inexperienced and they’d have more access to kill us.”

“Why would they want to kill you,” Ruben asks, clearly unhappy by this theory.

“So they could get to the Alpha King and become an automatic ruler of all werewolves.” Celina answers, seeming thrown by this fact. “That would give them enough of a chance to capture the world’s attention and give them more of a foothold to supersede the Beast Kingdom.”

“But you killed Danny and caused their attack to fail. Killing Danny and foiling his attempted takeover, enraged Damian enough that he risked himself to get revenge by going after you,” Xander says while he goes back to that memory.

Celina nods eagerly, finally solving this puzzle. “That’s why he’s so fixated on me being his mate.”

“If that’s true,” Ruben interrupts, “then why didn’t Damian ever try to contact Chris?”

Celina shrugs, “How should I know? My guess is because he was living in London at the time this all took place.”

“Out of sight, out of mind.” Xander muses. “Either way, where we’re at now, is not how it should have worked out. We’ve got to start thinking of what steps we can take now to stop this problem.”

“Xander is right,” Celina says quickly. “We can’t focus on the what-if rabbit hole. All it will do is create more anger and it’s not productive. I don’t care how you choose to handle your anger toward Exzecial. Right now, while Damian is weak, we have to prepare for his next move.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Ruben snaps. “You didn’t just find out that you have a half-brother who is a complete monster.”

Celina takes a deep breath, but I can feel her anger. “Ruben, I understand that you’re angry, but please don’t take it out on me.”

“Take it out on you? You’re the one that is behind every single move Damian has made. You’re the one he wants to destroy. You’re the one that took my brother away from me. You’re the one that drove Damian to this madness. You’re the reason why my family is being attacked, and the reason they’re falling apart.”

Celina gives him a blood-chilling smirk. “My, I didn’t realize I had that kind of power, Ruben. To drive a man to insanity by simply trying to survive is such a powerful gift. And to attract all this bloodlust and destruction by simply breathing, I guess I truly deserve your anger. I mean, I guess the result of someone else’s actions is truly my fault. Thank you for pointing that out, dear Ruben.”

He flinches at her poisoned sarcastic words. “I didn’t mean it like that Celina. I-I’m just-”

She cuts him off. “I understand Ruben, but directing your anger at me isn’t going to fix this. Nothing is going to fix what has happened, and I mean nothing is. We just have to stop it from getting worse.”

“How?” He roars, “How is that even possible?”

“I don’t know,” she admits, and I can tell she’s about to lose her temper. “But this sure as hell isn’t it.”

Sensing my mate is losing her patience, and feeling my own growing anger at my brother, I shut down their argument. “Let’s take a moment and reconvene after I have Celina looked over, and we’re all dressed.”

At this moment, they all look at Celina and see her injury; making her shift uncomfortably under my hold.

“When the hell did that happen?” Xander demands from her.

“Leo did it,” she says almost softly. “He was trying to hold off dying long enough to warn me about Damian.”

A sobering air settles in after that disturbing reminder. Ruben and I exchange hard looks and slightly nod. No matter our anger at our Father, there is a clear villain here. Yes, my father shouldn’t have chosen the path he had, however, Damian didn’t have to choose his.

Damian, the name of the man who is tearing my family apart. The pathetic beast that wants my life. Who wants to take my mate away from me. My mate. Mine. This gorgeous, incredulous woman that is currently in my arms. My sweet Celina. He can take the throne from me, but as sure as the goddess lives, he will not take my given mate from me. This demon is not my brother, nor ever will be. I would have gladly accepted him into the family before any of this transpired. Now, there is nothing that will steer me from this decision. Even with my dying breath, I will forever denounce that demon.

“Come, my love,” I tell Celina as I lead her out of the room. I need to make sure she is okay, and I need to prepare for the hell that is about to break out. There is no way this is going to go unnoticed by the public, and I have no intention to hide it. I shall also be announcing the true reason why we survived this attack.

We walked to the infirmary in silence, both of us unable to come up with the words to describe how we feel. I can feel her panic and her anger, but that is nothing compared to the sadness I feel dwelling inside her right now. My sweet mate always seems to be the one to come out on top, but she’s also the one who has lost the most and in the cruelest ways possible. Ever since she explained her wound, I can feel how lost and unnerved she is. She may know what happened, but it was another thing entirely to witness it. How the hell did that inhuman being learn what a blood oath is? I’ve never even heard of it. Perhaps I should ask Celina more about it when she’s in a more stable place.

I leave her to answer the doctor’s questions and immediately get to work to put precautions and plans into action. The first thing I do is to notify the beast kingdom of Celina’s succession into Queen of the Beasts. I also speak with Edgar Rovare about what I want him to release to the public. Edgar is our public relation specialist. I also put in an offer for the capture of Damian. He’s been getting by so far due to his anonymity, and I’m more than willing to strip him of that. It will give my family a black eye, but I’d rather take the lump than cause this shit pile of a mess to get bigger.

“You’re okay putting it out to the world that Celina, the Alpha Princess, was the one your father submitted to?” Edgar asks me with surprise in his voice. “You know what this will mean to the world if you do?”

I look at my mate who is staring blankly at the floor, reliving the events that have fallen throughout the day. I can tell it’s Leo she’s thinking about by the grimace on her face. I truly don’t see how she can handle what happened so calmly. She’s seen hell and what the devil can do, and yet she’s marching on without even slowing down. Celina is the definition of a queen in my eyes. No one more than her deserves to be the true ruler. I’ll die defending her reign, and I’ll do whatever I can to keep her safe and happy.

Celina lifts her head and smiles at me, sensing my eyes on her. She gives a small wave and pats the spot next to her.

“I’m prepared to handle anything that they may say about me,” I tell him before hanging up. More than willing to answer her request I go and sit next to her.

She takes my hand and leans into my arm. “What do you want to do?” She asks softly while watching the doctor stitch her wound.

“Not what we have to do,” I answer after taking a steadying breath. In these next few hours, Celina will be announced as Queen of the Beasts, and myself as King of the Beasts. If Damian’s actions are any indication of what is to come, we’ll be walking into hell. I squeeze her hand. With Celina by my side, I do not doubt that she’ll end up ruling it by the end.