Chapter 27: Chapter 27 The Responsibility Of A Leader

Zion, or rather Shura, hunted down every last vampire and tortured them for an entire month. The only reason there were any survivors was because, the moment the others saw Shura lose control, they abandoned the battlefield and left it to the beast. He was unrecognizable—no longer Alpha Zion, but a feral force of destruction.

Some weren’t lucky enough to escape.

There were unfortunate casualties from their side too—shredded beyond recognition, their bodies mangled until not even bones remained. Some of them belonged to another pack.

Greg, sensing that something was wrong with Zion before the shift, had barely managed to warn his own pack. They fled as fast as they could, retreating to safety.

They didn’t return until the next day.

And when they did, they found Zion soaked in blood, standing alone in the middle of the battlefield. The stench of death clung to him like a second skin. His presence was monstrous, terrifying—so much so that from that day on, the other packs began calling him ’The Beast.’

He was the one Beta Greg feared the most. That’s why he was desperate to keep Zion away from the dungeon. If Zion discovered what Greg had done to Addison… there’d be no escape from his wrath.

Even though Addison had already escaped, the scent of her blood still lingered in the cell—thick, coppery, and impossible to hide. One whiff, and Shura would lose control. Greg could already imagine the chaos that would follow if that happened.

He needed time.

Time to find Addison.

Time to silence her for good.

Once she was gone, he planned to blame it all on a rogue or a vampire—some enemy that had slipped past their defenses during her escape. With no body, no witness, and enough false evidence, he believed he could cover it up. That was the only way. The only way to survive Zion’s fury.

At the very least, this way, Greg could wash his hands of the problem and shift all the blame onto Addison—claiming she ran away and was killed by a rogue or vampire near the border. Even if Alpha Zion got furious, Greg doubted he could be held entirely accountable.

For now, all he could do was buy time. He could order the other pack members to thoroughly clean the dungeon cell, scrubbing every trace of Addison’s scent from the stone. If Zion came sniffing around, he had to find nothing—no blood, no clues, no reason to suspect.

’That’s right… I could send an omega to clean up the dungeon cell,’ Greg thought, pacing anxiously. ’But wait—if it’s too clean, Alpha Zion might get suspicious. I can’t erase everything.’

’Maybe I should leave some of the blood scent… Alpha Zion knows Addison was injured, so if there’s no trace of her blood at all, that might raise more red flags. Yeah… I just need to dull the scent a bit—make it seem like it faded naturally.’

Having made up his mind, Beta Greg finally moved to respond to Alpha Zion, feeling the weight of their bond press down on him. Zion was getting impatient… and worried.

“Alpha Zion, please… rest assured and stay with Miss Claire,” Beta Greg urged, his tone gentle but firm. “She would be heartbroken to wake up and find you weren’t there. As for Luna Addison, leave her to my care. The healer has already treated her injuries, and you can see her another time.”

He paused, choosing his next words carefully. “Besides… doesn’t she need time to reflect on what she did to Miss Claire? If you rush to her side now, she might think her actions were justified—or worse, that she’s above the consequences. We can’t afford that, especially with the royal convoy arriving.”

Greg lowered his voice slightly, appealing to reason. “Even though she’s the Luna, we must uphold our laws. If the convoy thinks we’re showing favoritism or turning a blind eye, they might act on their own. And you know what that could mean… they could execute her on the spot.”

He tried to steady his heartbeat, hiding the guilt behind his calculated reasoning. ’Alpha Zion may not have realized how deeply he already cares for Addison… but I have. And I need to keep myself safe—even if it means lying through my teeth.’

Zion didn’t want to put Addison in more danger, and he also needed to think as the alpha of his pack, so his hands are really tied right now.

If Zion showed leniency toward Addison now and the royal convoy deemed it as defiance or favoritism, the consequences could be catastrophic—not just for Addison, but for the entire pack.

The royal family had every authority to enforce collective punishment, especially with the royal princess involved. She was pregnant with a direct descendant of the royal bloodline and was the most beloved daughter of the Alpha King. If the convoy felt insulted or wronged, they might sentence the whole pack to suffer under the weight of her grievance.

Just the thought of it made Zion’s head throb with tension.

He had no choice but to listen to his Beta’s advice. He forced himself to calm down… and to calm Shura.

His wolf was already clawing at his mental walls, growling and snarling in his mind, desperate to break free and run to Addison. If Zion didn’t keep him under control now, Shura might snap—lose all sense of reason and tear through the territory in a frenzy to reach her. And that? That would only drag them all into a storm of trouble they couldn’t afford.

This was his responsibility—as the Alpha, the leader of his pack, Zion had to weigh everything, no matter how painful the choice. It tore at him, but for now, he had to stay put. Gritting his teeth, he spoke inwardly, trying to reason with the restless wolf clawing at his mind.

“Shura, calm down. Greg has already taken care of Addison. She’s probably sleeping now. We need to let her rest and talk to her later, okay?”

But Shura’s response was immediate, a guttural snarl echoing in Zion’s head. “No! My mate was in pain! I should’ve carried her to the healer myself!”

The fury in Shura’s voice was reverberatingly obvious—raw and unforgiving. He couldn’t accept that Zion had helped Claire instead, leaving Addison lying on the cold ground, bloodied and broken. That image haunted them both, but for Shura, it was betrayal. Even now, he hadn’t let it go.

Zion had fought hard to maintain control, barely managing to hold Shura back with the grim reminder: if he had chosen Addison over Claire in that moment, the royal convoy would’ve seen it as favoritism and negligence of the Royal Bloodline, and Addison would be executed on the spot the moment the Royal Convoy arrived. Only that brutal truth kept Shura from tearing free and going feral.

Still, Shura hadn’t stopped pacing—hadn’t stopped scratching at the walls of Zion’s mind. His growls were mixed with heart-wrenching whines, his need to be with his mate gnawing at Zion’s already-cracking composure.

Right now, Zion couldn’t shake the feeling that Addison’s recent outburst was rooted in jealousy. He hadn’t spent time with her since the three days and nights they shared, and that absence seemed to have built up into frustration and anger for her.

A tangled mess of emotions churned inside him—guilt, anger, longing—each one pulling in a different direction, and he couldn’t quite make sense of any of them. The hatred he thought he felt for her now seemed strangely intertwined with emotions he hadn’t even acknowledged, emotions that unsettled him deeply.

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