Chapter 544

Lynn’s face was triumphant. Brandon screamed, “Derek!” But he was still frozen. Derek himself was stuck on his knees, eyes open but glossy. Blood still trickled from his wounds, but that was more from gravity than from his heart, because his heart was silent. “No!” Brandon screamed again, but Lynn just laughed. “You stupid bitch, I’ll kill you myself. He didn’t deserve to die.”

“He deserved every fucking slice,” she screamed back. “Every time he touched me, cut me, burned me. I kept count. I kept track of every fucking breath he breathed against my neck. He got lucky that I was stuck like this before I had finished.”

Brandon’s eyes burned as he opened his mouth, but Garith screamed, “Enough!” He waved his hands towards me, and I stepped up next to him. “Good girl.” He opened the toolkit in my hand and smiled. “You wouldn’t mind holding this for me, would ya, darling?” He smiled as if he were asking, but I felt the weak command he put into his words.

Rowan snorted. “You did all of this to kill me and take over as king, but that was your command?” His eyes turned to Garith’s. “You are fucking weak.”

Garith snarled. “I know I won’t be king, but my son is stronger.” He grinned and grabbed for me. He pulled me around the pew so I was standing next to his thigh, and he unzipped the toolkit, displaying the knives there. “Now… let’s get to work.”

“Gavin would never,” Rowan was baiting him.

“Gavin is a disappointment. I was smart enough to have a backup. Not as strong, and Garren has no magic, but beggars can’t be choosers, I guess.”

Garren… I’ve heard that name before.

The wolf that Aurora was with in the caves. Nix growled low as she remembered.

Garith sighed. “I would have been happier with Gavin’s girl… now, she had potential. But…” He turned to look at Brandon. “Some people have different ideas.” He turned to Shannon. “And some have ambitions they shouldn’t. But here we are.” He turned back to Rowan. “It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m close.”

“Close? To what?” Rowan laughed again. “Killing me will do nothing for your position. My Luna is already in place to take over for me.” His words made my stomach clench.

Garith waved a hand. “There is a solution for your Luna. But I’m close to the first family. I can feel it. I have traced a few lines, and I feel like I am close.”

Nix snorted. Closer than he actually thinks.

Rowan snorted out loud. “The first family? Of course, I’m from the first family.”

“Not Lycans, you idiot. The first family to wolves.” Garith’s face morphed into something close to devotion. “If I can get close to the first family… any child I have with someone from that family would be strong.” Then he turned back to Rowan. “Then I would just kill the rest so no one could interfere.”

Rowan laughed. “What would you do if they wanted nothing to do with you?”

“Simple… I would cull them… like I did when the King turned down giving me his daughter.”

The room plummeted into icy silence.

Rowan’s eyes flashed to the icy blue I loved. “What did you just say?”

Garith laughed. “You didn’t know?” He threw his head back and twirled the knife in his hand. “Your mother was pregnant with a she-wolf. He was so excited for a second pup. As I heard Lycans only have one pup, right?” He grinned. “So when he scented the pregnancy, he threw a party. Apparently, his finding out he was having a girl triggered something inside of him. He wanted some alphas to pass down the torch, so to speak. He said that times were changing, and he wanted to make sure we were changing with them.” Garith shook his head. “He grew soft. So I offered him a deal.”

“A deal?” Brandon jumped in. “To step down? Why?”

He turned to my ex-mate and glowered at him. “'Cause I was thinking bigger. You all think so small. But I told the king that if he promised me the hand of his daughter, I would step down happily.”

“She wasn’t even born, and you were trying to marry her?” Rowan growled.

Garith waved his hand. “He said no; your father wasn’t great at thinking big picture either. He just said that the goddess would pick her mate, and that was that.” He laughed low. “Or so he thought.”

“What do you mean?” Shannon asked, obviously confused.

“Well…” Garith shrugged. “He could have mated his daughter to me, and none of this would have happened. But instead…” He looked at Shannon and dropped the acting. His eyes turned cold, empty. He went from being a vibrant man to looking like he was dead inside. And I guess he was. “Instead, I gave up my pack, sure, but I killed his mate, his child, his entire race.” Garith laughed, but his eyes stayed dead. “I killed all the Lycans, wiped out his line—well, most of his line…until today.” He turned back to Rowan. “But hey, better late than never, right?” And then he slammed the knife into Rowan.