Chapter 123

Cassie

I wanted to cry, to scream and rant and rave but even though my mouth was open no sound came out.

I was screaming silently, the only sound was the ragged sound of my breathing as I hyperventilated.

The rest of his face was fine. Totally unscathed but those sightless gaping holes? They would haunt my dreams as much as anything else I had seen since I had given birth.

He might not be my blood father but he had been the only dad I had ever known and he didn't deserve this. No one did.

"Come away Cassie." Ian's hand closed around my bicep and tried to pull me away but I stood my ground. I wouldn't let him pull me away. I needed to see this. I needed to see him. He had betrayed me and his king and I had to admit that he deserved this. Except no one deserved to die like this.

And to live like this was even worse.

My father had tried to usurp the true king, he had ordered the imprisonment and torture of my husband and tried to have me kidnapped an raped on several occasions. He would have had me killed if he got the chance. He probably still would. But I still couldn't sit here and watch him suffer.

He had gambled and lost. He had put his trust in a man who turned on him. It had a kind of poetic justice.

But it still made me sick. I was full of sympathy for him. My father had always been weak. He always had been.

"Cassie." The ruined man turned his head every which way. He could clearly hear us but didn't know we were hidden in the walls. He thought we were in the room with him.

"Cassie help me." He moaned. "I am your father." His voice was a weak whisper but it was growing louder. If there were guards outside his rooms then they would hear and we would be found out.

"Please."

My hands scraped against the wood. I couldn't just leave him like that. No matter what he had done. I couldn't leave another human being suffering that way. I wouldn't even leave an animal.

"Come on child. I am your father and you owe me-"

I stopped listening. Tensing I drew myself up to my full height with a frown.

I owed him?

"Cassie?" Julian warned. "You can't help him."

"I know." Leaning close to the grate I placed my hands flat on the wall and put my lips to it. If he had said anything else I would have tried to help him, at the very least I would have eased his passing but to tell me I owed him something? After everything he had put me through?

He could rot in hell now.

"Can you hear me papa?" I whispered and I knew he could because I saw him tense. He nodded his head.

"You're going to die in that room." I hissed. "You will die and you won't even see it coming." A tear slid down my cheek.

Goddess I hated that I was crying. Hated that I had almost helped him when he deserved everything that was happening to him. Ian and Julian were right, I had to think about my children. About my husband and our future.

"Help me." He wailed and the sound of it pierced me like a knife.

I stepped back. Dropping my hands to my sides. "Rot in hell."

I took a deep breath and a wave of relief flowed through me. My relief was short lived though. Opening his mouth wide my father screamed. "She's here, Cassie is here."

There was a moment were we all froze and then Ian pushed me in front of me. Almost causing me to stumble and fall down. Strapped to my back Noah let out a high pitched wail.

"Run." Ian yelled, as he heaved Ian into his side. "Run and don't look back."

From the other side of the wall I heard my fathers door open and the sound of running booted feet and then I was running as well.

At my back my babies cried and there was nothing I could do to sooth them. They were crying because I had just put us all in unbelievable danger.

"Which way?" I called back over my shoulder. Only There was nothing there. Just darkness. The secret passageway was empty behind me. "Julian?"

My stomach lurched and flipped over. Had they fallen behind or had they been caught? I had run blindly and without knowing where I was going , so maybe I had taken a wrong turn and-

A light appeared ahead of me. A flicker of a tiny flame and my heart took root in my throat. Every part of me was telling me to run towards that light but a small part of me wanted to run away.

I didn't know who was coming towards me. I couldn't see and I couldn't scent them.  And I was alone. Just me and the babies alone against an unseen assailant.

I looked around wildly. There was no where to hide.  No where for me to even hide my babies so I could fight. I would have to do battle with them strapped to my back.

And if I fell then they would die down here.

"Julian?" I whispered again. Where was he? Where was my mate and where was Ian my protector. They couldn't have just vanished.

Except that's exactly what they had done.

I was utterly alone and no one was going to pop out to save me.

"Sssh." I whispered to Noah and Niall. "It's going to be ok." I lied. There was nothing more I wanted than to cradle them in my arms and just stop fighting but I couldn't do that.

Pulling the knife that had tortured my husband from its sheath I waited as the light came closer and closer.

Behind me and to the side the sound of trumpets sounded distantly.  And I turned to the wall that separated me from outside with a frown.

"What the hell is happening-"

"Lycans." A soft familiar voice said from twenty feet in front of me and I whirled around in shock.

"Scarlette?"