Replacement Bride for the Alpha of the North - Chapter 31

Chapter 31: CHAOTIC MORNING, BLOOD WAS SHED
Dawn was slightly taken aback with Zander’s answer, because it aligned with what Zenith told her the previous night.

Were the two of them playing a game with her? But, seeing how they interacted with one another, Dawn didn’t think that was the case at all.

She could imagine Zander pulling something like that, because of how playful he could be, but Zenith was not a person who would waste his time for such charades at all.

“My King, you must have woken up on the wrong side of your bed. Can’t you see?” Dawn pointed her finger at herself. “I will not be able to hurt a single hair on his head if he took me seriously.”

“I heard he is training you.”

“Yes, even so…”

“And you sleep together.”

“But, I don’t have any reason to kill him.”

“You have a lot of opportunities to kill him in his sleep.”

Dawn was upset. King or not, this man didn’t listen to her at all. “This is ridiculous!” Dawn stood up and probably her voice was too loud, thus all the warriors shifted their eyes to her.

“You really need to control your anger. You are full of hatred.”

Dawn couldn’t see the king’s face clearly, but his blue eyes were sharp, so sharp until she felt like he could see through her soul.

He wasn’t wrong to say that Dawn had a lot of anger inside of her. She tried to forget the life she lived the last five years, but deep down, she knew her resentment had never really disappeared.

“Sit down, you gathered so much unnecessary attention,” Zander said calmly. He didn’t seem ruffled with Dawn’s sudden outburst.

“I don’t have any reason to kill him.” Dawn repeated what she said. She felt this baseless accusation was upsetting. But, she sat down again.

She lost her appetite, but she couldn’t storm out of this hall. It was not polite and she kept reminding herself she was talking to the king. It was already good enough that she was not punished for raising her voice in front of her sovereign.

“There was this prophecy when we were little.” Zander put his elbows on the armrests, as he intertwined his fingers together. He looked very casual when he mentioned the prophecy, even though it contained the death of his brother. “He will die at the hands of his chosen mate.”

“And you believe it just like that?”

“No.” The answer came very fast, but sounded convincing enough.

“You don’t believe it, yet you want to kill me.” His words didn’t match his actions. Wouldn’t it be very normal for her to be angry?

“Better safe than sorry.”

The corner of Dawn’s lips twitched. “You are being very honest, My King.”

“I am an honest, benevolent, warm as a sun, kind and generous king.” Zander chuckled to see the disgusted look on Dawn’s face. “That’s what people say about me, right?”

“It’s true that people have to know someone better before they make a judgment.” Probably, it was not that bad to have a conversation with him, but Dawn felt a little bit tired with his antics. “I will emphasize here that I will not kill him, okay? So, stop your attempts to kill me for the sins that I didn’t even commit.”

Zander didn’t answer that, he simply stared at her, but Dawn couldn’t understand the meaning behind that smile.

But, all of a sudden, Dawn felt this murderous aura that flooded the dining hall and when she turned her head to see the source of this tension, she saw a huge black beast storming toward the king and everything went so fast.

Everyone was shouting, the pressure was crazy and from the corner of her eyes, Dawn could see Darius and Axel shift into their beasts as well to stop the black beast from attacking the king.

Thankfully, Pyro moved very fast and created a barrier between the two siblings, while the beta and the gamma tried to calm down their alpha.

[Get the fuck off her!]

The force of the mindlink was very strong, it made Zander furrow his brows a little.

[I can forgive you if you disrespect me in private, but I will not let it slide if you continue to be like this in front of so many eyes.]

This was a warning. Zander was the king and he was not going to be disrespected in front of his subjects, even if it was his own brother.

However, something felt off. Zenith would not usually be reckless like this. This must be the first time he went insane and lost his composure.

[Get off her!]

The black beast prowled close to the barrier that Pyro created. All the warriors inside the room were very tensed, they held their breaths to see how their alpha went crazy to openly attack the king.

[Or what?]

[Or I will celebrate the day I became the only son.]

That was it. It was a threat to the king. Zander didn’t know what was going on in Zenith’s head, but he already crossed so many lines.

“Shift back!” Zander roared. He stood up from his seat. Even when he was wearing his mask, one could tell how enraged he was.

It didn’t have any effect on Zenith, but Darius and Axel immediately shifted back, feeling the strong surge of power that rolled off the king’s voice.

“SHIFT BACK!” The king’s voice boomed inside the dining hall and this caused physical pain to anyone who heard it.

Dawn clutched her chest, it was very painful, how could Zenith endure it when the order was directed at him. In fact, he didn’t even budge.

It took more than just stubbornness to be able to stand against the king at this point.

Seeing his order took no effect on his brother, Zander snatched a knife from the table and pulled Dawn closer to him, he pressed the blade against her neck, which drew blood from the wound.

Everyone gasped to see this. Things would go nasty really fast now.

But this time, neither Zenith nor Zander exchanged words through mindlink, they glared at each other. If looks could kill, then this must be the definition of it.

The way they looked at each other was simply insane.

But in the end, Zenith shifted back into his human form. His face was dark with rage, his body trembled with the killing intent that he directed toward his brother, the king.

There would always be people in Zander’s ears to tell him how his brother would usurp the throne one day, he didn’t believe it, but right now, he knew Zenith would if it meant he could keep this woman safe from him.

What was going on with Zenith?

Even Darius and Axel were flabbergasted by the alpha’s drastic change.

Meanwhile, Dawn felt numb. She breathed slowly, tried to compose herself, but the images kept playing in her mind.

She had felt this kind of terrifying feeling before, when she was attacked by the rogues and her mother was killed in the attack.

Dawn felt the dining room shift between the present and the past. She didn’t feel the pain on her neck when the blade cut her skin and her blood stained her dress, but all she felt was the pain of losing her mother and how scared she was when one of the rogues wanted to kill her as well.

The rogue wrapped his hands around her neck and pressed her down, he was going to strangle her to death. Despite Dawn’s attempt to pry his slimy fingers off her neck, he didn’t budge. She remembered how his hands were covered in blood.

Her mother’s blood.

She remembered how her five years old self kept calling for her mother, but she didn’t answer, she had never answered her since that day…

All the past memories were brought back to her mind. The same with her resentment toward her father and his new family, Dawn didn’t really forget what happened, despite how normal she acted every day.

This burst of painful memories was overwhelming and what Zander was doing to her, triggered them back.

It was too much.

Dawn couldn’t breathe.

She felt that slimy hand wrap around her neck again.

The blood of her mother still afresh on his hands.

Her ears were ringing painfully and everything went black.

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“She will be fine, Alpha, you don’t need to worry,” Sylvia informed the king. She was the royal healer. Pyro took the pain to bring her right away from the capital city before Zenith went ballistic when he saw Dawn collapse.

Zander didn’t expect this either. He didn’t even press the blade too deep to kill her. Yes, he wounded her, but it was not enough to take her life.

Right now, the room was filled with tension that was very suffocating. Darius felt like he wanted to crawl away from this situation. This was too much for his soft heart.

But, even after Sylvia’s confirmation, it didn’t alleviate the pressure. The two brothers kept emanating killing intent toward one another.

“Thank you, Sylvia,” Pyro said. “When do you think she will wake up?” Zenith didn’t ask about this, but the royal beta knew him well enough to tell this was an important question.

“She will be fine once she calms down. She was in shock.” Sylvia contemplated. “I think she will wake up in a few hours.”

Zenith cradled Dawn’s body in his arms. His voice was very deep when he spoke. “Leave.”

This time, Zander finally spoke too. “Everyone leave, I will have a conversation with him.”

But, it was not a good idea to leave them alone…