Chapter 61
I didn’t look away until a high-pitched scream had me whipping my head to the side where I saw one of the council members standing as still as you can, he wasn’t panicking or swaying from side to side trying to catch a breath and his eyes were wide and round while the blood spilled calmly from his mouth.
He reached up and wrapped his fingers around his throat, he slammed his other hand into the table and knocked over the glasses when the desperation for clean breath took over and panic ensued in his mind.
The council member, Mr. Ashbury, fell to the floor where his body went into shock and he spasmed uncontrollably.
Elise fell to her knees next to him and tried her best to help. She lifted his head and tried to put pressure on his chest to move the air up but to no avail. Out wolves can’t heal us from everything, sometimes fate intervenes and there isn’t much we can do about it.
And sometimes it’s karma, pulling you down the burning nail-covered road to hell by your feet for all the shit you’ve done and the pain you’ve inflicted on innocent people, I thought as I turned back to falling king.
Darian slammed his fist into the floor, causing a tremble in everything that wasn’t cemented to its spot.
A pool of blood gathered under his mouth and a loud growl rumbled from his chest as he pressed his hand against his throat.
I didn’t see it at first because his head was down but then he lifted his chin and that’s when I saw his claws inside his throat, digging deeper into his flesh while blood spilled around his hand. My hand flew to my mouth and I swallowed the bile that rose while stepping back and shaking my head. I didn’t know why I shook it, maybe it was the horror of seeing him digging into himself like that or maybe it was the fact that even now, after everything, he somehow drew a breath.
Darian pulled his hand out and everyone was staring in shock. I looked out over the crowd of people, It was like watching a silent movie where everyone stood around and their faces expressed more emotion than their words ever could. One after the other they grabbed the hand of the person they were there with and stood back to watch their king rise to his feet, slowly lifting his body and grabbing the table to stabilize himself.
I turned my head slowly, part of me wished I didn’t have to look at him at all and another part had to see if this was truly happening.
It was. He got up.
His eyes were as black as the feathers on a raven, and no visible humanity existed in them.
He gasped a wheezing breath and reached out a shaking hand to grab a napkin from the trolley.
Darian wiped his hands, the white napkin was crimson when he was done and the sigil on the front was hidden under his blood.
He coughed once, then twice, spitting up blood in his hands and wiping his mouth. A breath hitched in my throat and I had to blink ten times to believe what I was seeing. Darian would live to see another day.
“Elise.” He growled and threw the blood-covered paper on the floor.
Everyone in the ballroom held their breaths and watched silently as Elise fumbled with her hands and staggered across the floor to reach him.
Her head was down and she was scratching the polish of her thumbnail while flickering her eyes over her feet.
Darian turned around. He clenched his fist and stepped closer to Elise who was visibly shaking.
He reached out and grabbed her chin, pressing until a yelp left her lips as he forced her head back and her eyes were locked on his.
“Who did this?” He asked slowly and with a calm that we all knew was a front to cover the anger he bore.
The Alpha’s Hunt
