Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: YOU ARE GOING TO KILL HER
Dawn immediately knelt down in the presence of the king, but when she remembered Zenith’s warning, she felt a chill run down her spine. This was the king, who wanted to take her life for unknown reasons.

But then, how could he be here when Zenith made it clear not to open the gates? Did he change his mind and let him in again?

It would take two hours to travel from the main gates to the pack house, thus how could he get here so fast?

Meanwhile, the king walked closer to Dawn. “The two of you can leave.” His voice was deep and dangerous, which made Kynes and Pyllo rush away from the greenhouse. “I see… it seems, my brother has not marked you yet.”

Dawn was still kneeling and from Zander’s position, he could see her neck. There was no mark on her.

“Hm… should I kill you now, or later?” Zander talked to himself, he tilted his head, as if Dawn couldn’t hear his vicious thoughts.

“My King, I don’t understand what you mean,” Dawn said calmly. This king was insane!

It was why you shouldn’t trust the rumors! People always said the king was an embodiment of sunshine, someone who was warm and kind, while Zenith was a dark shadow.

However, right now Dawn felt like the alpha of the north seemed more sane than the masked man before her eyes.

“This will be a quick death,” Zander said. He fished out something from his pocket and put it in Dawn’s palm.

“What is this, Your Highness?”

“Poison.” The answer came very clear and simple. “You will not suffer. It will feel like you just fell asleep.”

Dawn couldn’t believe her ears. This king was very blunt with his intention, he didn’t even try to hide it.

However, instead of making her afraid of him, it made her furious. This reminded her of how Emily and Julia wanted to kill her at some point and they were not shy about their intention.

What the king did to her right now was nothing but triggering the rage that she had been holding back.

Dawn took the poison, it was a small tube, almost as big as her thumb. She lifted her head and looked at him defiantly.

“How do you know, My King? Have you tried it?” Dawn stared at his blue eyes that reminded her of Zenith’s. They were of the same color, but while Zenith exuded aloofness and distance, the king’s eyes were filled with calculation and cunningness.

A flicker of amusement flitted across Zander’s eyes to see her retaliation, but before he could answer that, he saw a flower vase coming shooting toward him, but instead of dodging it, he simply smirked.

Before the flower vase could hit him, it stopped mid air and then fell to the ground, the sound of it startled Dawn, but before she could see what was happening, a black cloak covered her sight briefly and someone yanked her arm, pulling her up.

It was Zenith! The alpha growled dangerously at his brother.

Meanwhile, a man that had been very quiet all this time finally spoke, he greeted Zenith first. “Good day to you, Alpha Zenith.” Pyro nodded politely. The beta was the one, who had stopped the vase from hurting the king and Zander knew Pyro would protect him, thus he didn’t move to dodge it.

Unfortunately, Zenith didn’t have any interest to pay attention to him, because his main focus was on his brother.

“What are you doing here?” Zenith pulled Dawn behind his back, anger rolled off his body. He thought Zander would come looking for him, he knew he would get into the pack house in one way or another, but he didn’t expect he would go straight to Dawn.

How could he find her so fast?

The audacity of this man was baffling!

“As a brother, I want to see the woman you chose as your mate,” Zander said playfully, but when he spoke again, his tone changed, it was way darker and full of authority. “And as a king, I need to know what kind of woman you are bringing into the family. Shouldn’t you have the ceremony in the palace instead of here?”

Dawn was well aware that Zenith was the king’s younger brother, but because of how people used to think of the two of them very differently, as if they were from two different worlds, it just clicked in her mind that Zenith, as his status demanded, since he still belonged to the royal family, had to have his ceremony celebrated in the palace.

“Stay away from her, Zan,” Zenith said, he matched his brother’s dangerous tone. His voice was not even shaking when he chased away the king blatantly. “I will not be polite if you lay a hand on her.”

Zander didn’t back down either. “What if I did?” It was clearly a provocation.

“I don’t mind destroying the whole kingdom.”

“Is that a threat? Be careful with what you are saying, I can charge you with treason.”

Dawn clutched Zenith’s cloak. She was clueless as to why they acted this way, even more when it came to her. She wanted to tell Zenith to stop, but she didn’t think it was her place to speak.

Thankfully, Pyro jumped in before things could escalate too far.

“Your Highness, you came here to discuss ‘that’ matter. Shouldn’t we talk about it now?” Pyro reminded him about this.

The king came to see Dawn, but at the same time, there was another urgent matter that Zander had to discuss with Zenith.

Actually, the latter was the actual and main purpose they were here.

“Alpha Zenith, I think your banter scared your mate.” Pyro approached them, he stood next to Zander.

Zenith glanced at Dawn, who was still clutching his cloak and whatever expression she had right now, softened the alpha’s stance.

He took her hand and walked away with her, but not before he gave Zander a final warning. “I meant what I said.”

Dawn glanced at the king and his beta over her shoulder and saw the king wave his hand at her playfully. She could only imagine he was smiling at her behind that golden mask, but Zenith pinched her chin and made her look ahead.

“Do you think he wants to keep her because she is cute?” Zander asked Pyro.

“Zan, you pushed him too far.”

“He said it himself. That he would be the one to kill his chosen mate, but what the hell with the ceremony preparations? He even brought her here.” Zander walked out of the greenhouse and Pyro followed him, just in case his king would cause more trouble again. You couldn’t trust these two brothers not to claw each other’s throats if they were left alone. “This is not what he said he would do.”

Pyro could only sigh deeply. Being the middleman of this brothers’ duo was even harder than taking care of the entire kingdom.

Meanwhile, Zenith took Dawn into his bedroom. He checked on her, there was this worry in his eyes.

“Are you okay?” Zenith cupped her face and caressed her cheeks. “Did he do something to hurt you before I came?”

Dawn shook her head.

“Don’t go out. If you were not with me, don’t go out. Stay inside the bedroom. Understand?” Zenith leaned over and kissed her, which caught her off guard, but she didn’t dislike it. “Don’t go out.”

“Wait.” Dawn stopped him, when he was about to leave. She clutched onto his cloak. “Will you explain to me one day what all of this is about?”

Zenith was visibly tensed up. “You will not see me the same if you know about it.”

Dawn frowned. “How can you be so sure?” She walked closer to him. “How can you be sure that I don’t see you in a bad light now?”

Zenith chuckled, he kissed her again, which felt like a normal thing to do for him. “Stay.”

After that, Zenith left the room, Kynes and Pyllo came shortly, the two of them stayed with Dawn the whole time.

However, Dawn was deep in thought, she was still holding onto the poison tube that the king gave to her. She forgot to mention this.

“What poison is this?” Dawn mumbled to herself. She was curious. She knew some poisons, but her knowledge about this subject was still very little.

“What is that, my lady?” Kynes asked, she came closer to Dawn. “It looks like something sweet.”

Dawn smiled at her, ever since what happened, the two of them were very sweet and polite with her, so was the rest of the pack members, which was nice, since she didn’t want to get into trouble.

At the same time, after Zenith asked Dawn to stay inside their bedroom, he walked straight to his study room and found Zander and Pyro were already there.

His brother was sitting on the windowsill, staring at the white snow falling over the vast land out there.

“You can leave us now, Pyro,” Zander said.

“But, the matter about the poison…”

Zander cut him off firmly. “I want to have a talk with my brother alone first.”

Pyro looked back and forth between Zander and Zenith. “Are you sure the two of you will not start killing each other?”

“Nah, I am a better fighter than him,” Zander said, waving his hand nonchalantly, while Zenith scoffed at that statement.

With that, the royal beta left the brothers alone.

“You said it yourself. That you will kill her.” Zander took off his mask, his expression hardened. “What changed?”