Chapter 7 You Betrayed Us

Dax

I had no idea what I was expecting. 

No, the truth was that I didn’t want to be right. I wanted to prove that damn talking cat wrong no matter what. I wanted to quieten the voice in my head which said Cassius was up to no good. I wanted proof, strong proof that I could count on our bond. 

What I did not expect was the series of events that happened after I lifted the cup to my lips. 

I didn’t expect Cassius’ hand to shoot out and knock the drink from my hand before it touched my mouth. I didn’t expect him to fall to his knees, hold his hand out and demand that we arrest him. 

I stared mindlessly at the red spill in the rug beneath our feet. A thousand thoughts flew past my head all at once but I could only pick out one in all of it. She was right all along. The talking cat had been right about Cassius. 

I didn’t feel the hot tears that spilled down my cheek, neither did I feel my heart shattering into more pieces than the cup. I heard voices in my ears but I couldn’t make out what they were saying, not with the ringing in my ears.

Was this the end? Something has snapped in us. Maybe our bond. The one which had pulled us up to this very moment. Why would he? Why would Cassius do something like this? Zane was basically like a brother to both of us. Why would he plot to kill him?

Those questions never got past my throat. My mouth opened and closed, croaking uselessly but the words wouldn’t come out. 

I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to hit him, to growl to damage something – that perfect face of his preferably. But I couldn’t move from where I was standing. It was as though my body was frozen to the spot.

Even my wolf, whom I expected to be more hostile against anything and anyone who was a threat to Zane was silent. He couldn’t process this. That if anyone wanted Zane dead, it would be Cassius. 

“Someone needs to explain to me what the hell is going on here at this instant!” Zane's voice rang in my head, pulling me out of my daze. His wide eyes looked between me and Cassius. The red was a constant now, which meant his Alpha wolf was on the surface. 

I sank into the rug, allowing the red liquid to sip into my clothes. I opened my mouth and closed it, then tried again. 

“I intercepted information that Cassius here would try to kill you during the banquet.” My voice came out as a croak. Or maybe it was more like a whisper. I could barely hear myself but it seemed Alpha Zane had no issues hearing me. 

“WHAT?” He roared but his eyes were on Cassius. Asking, demanding that my words were lies. That I couldn’t probably be calling him a traitor. But Cassius merely bowed his head, his hands still held out. 

He looked…pathetic. 

When did he sink this low? When did he become this person who would plot against his friend? For what? Power? What the hell did they offer him to betray us?

“He’s right.” Cassius said finally, his head still hung low. But his voice was steady, calm, even. It was like his actions or inaction didn’t affect him. Our disappointment and friendship now breaking didn’t faze him. 

Who was this man?

“I laced your drink with the deadliest Wolfsbane poison.” He continued, raising his head to look Zane in the eyes. “You would have died the moment that drink touched your lips. You should be thankful to him. Somehow, he was able to spot what you couldn’t.”

“How dare you?” The voice sounded very much like mine but I could hardly recognize it. I was on my feet in a breath and crossing the room to where Cassius knelt in another. I felt the rage all at once. 

My rationale snapped and in the blink of an eye, I was a hateful, mindless beast. My claws were deep in his belly and my teeth flashed against his face. But someone pushed me back, bigger hands held me down until I calmed down and my human part returned. 

“Why would you do this?” Zane asked when everything was back to normal. No, this could hardly be called normal. 

I was laying naked in the middle of a bloodstained room with only pieces of my clothes covering me. Cassius was still on his knees, his clothes were torn where my claws pierced his stomach but the wound had healed. 

He looked up at both of us, then smiled. “Why do you think so?” 

“Bastard!” I cussed. “Fuck you.” 

He chuckled. “That’s actually the first time in a while I’ve heard you cussing. You should do it more often.” 

I hissed, pushing myself off the ground to punch his face in again but Zane held me back. 

“You understand the punishment for your crimes.” Zane said calmly, his eyes were still red but it seemed he was in control and not his wolf. “Why did you do this? Were you threatened? You knew you could always talk to us.”

I glanced up at Cassius, my stomach dropping. I hadn’t even thought of that. If he was threatened if he’d been forced into

I winced at the ragged laugh that pierced the air between us. The sound was grating to my ears and irritating. Even Zane seemed to lose some control himself but he held himself better than I did. 

“Threatened?” Cassius said between bursts of uncontrollable laughter. “Now, that is funny. Zane, you seem to forget that despite the fact that we reduced ourselves to follow you around as betas, we are Alphas as well. I have Alpha blood flowing through me and I’m from one of the most powerful royal families. Who would dare threaten me?”

What was left of my heart faded. Bile rose in my stomach. I changed my look at Zane but I couldn't read his face at all. Still, if I was feeling this way, how would he be feeling knowing his best friend just tried to kill him? 

The doors opened almost immediately and Zach, the commander of Zane’s Army, flanked by two other men, stepped into the room. He barely glanced at the mess the room was in, or me who was still naked or Cassius whose knees were still on the ground. 

“Arrest this man,” Zane ordered. “Keep him in the interrogation room until I get there.” 

Zach simply nodded. If he had any questions, he kept them to himself. Together with the other men, they bound Cassius' hands and dragged him out of the room. As soon as they were gone, Zane turned to me. 

“Go clean yourself up,” he said. “We still have a banquet to attend.”

I was in no mood for a banquet, I wanted to say. There were a thousand other things I would rather do than go back into that hall and pretend like all is well but Zane was my Alpha and he’d just given me a command. 

The cat had been right. I thought as I sauntered back to my room. Thankfully, there were no omegas around to see me wandering the hallways naked. 

I needed to talk to the cat again. To ask it what else it knew and why it could talk. Morning lights streamed in from the windows. It was way past midnight. Did that mean we evaded the threat? That Alpha Zane wouldn’t be killed today? 

I really wanted to know so I hastened my steps, rushing to my room like a madman. But when I opened the doors, I expected anything but the silence and emptiness that greeted me. 

The talking cat was gone.