CHAPTER 37 - COLD, CUNNING & CRUEL

Hi... :D

Yes! A chapter... after a long, long time!

I am alive and good... but I was away from wattpad for a long time as I had a lot of reality check in the last 2 years of my life.

I want to finish this story. I do not wish to leave it incomplete. I hate it when things do not have an ending and I will not do the same to my readers.

For a while my laptop got formatted and then I even forgot my Wattpad password :/ But those all seem like silly excuses. I was just tired with work and couldn't give as much time here as I did before. I cannot promise the same going forward but I do intend to finish my work. 

Without wasting further time... here we go... Presenting Chapter 37...

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"In order to get the power and retain it, it is necessary to love power; but love of power is not connected with goodness, but with qualities which are the opposite of goodness, such as pride, cunning, cruelty."

- Leo Tolstoy

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CHAPTER 37 - COLD, CUNNING AND CRUEL

They met as boys, grew up together, parted ways after his betrayal and now, he was dead. Lysander closed his eyes and let silent tears flow down his cheeks as he thought of Bardo, who in his last breath too asked for forgiveness and Lysander did forgive him.

What use was that anger when the person it was directed at wasn't in this world anymore? What would he do with that fury alone? What good did his anger bring?

Sitting quietly in Yolanda's office at the Hospital building, Lysander ran his fingers over Bardo's bracelet that he found minutes after his men took away his body. The bracelet had blood stains in it and Lysander couldn't bring himself to wash it because that would mean taking away everything.

Placing his hands on the table top, Lysander read the words inscribed on the inside of the bracelet, "If a man's mind becomes pure, his surroundings will also become pure."

It was a quote from Buddha and Lysander knew why Bardo had engraved those particular words.

In his guilt for betraying his friend, Bardo had then decided to change his life for better and he had sought inspiration from none other than Lysander's uncle, Alexander Zeke who liked reading about Buddha.

An honest, hardworking man, Alexander had helped them find a better way for their life and he had succeeded. Bardo had completely turned around his life and had given shelter and a way to homeless young pups.

A man sobs could be heard from downstairs and Lysander flinched. He had been hearing wolves crying since this morning and it pained him. Yolanda had been helping and tending to the wolves non-stop for hours now as she was prepared to handle emergency situation like this.

More and more wolves were rushing in and there weren't enough doctors and nurses to care for all. Several have volunteered to help but there weren't any beds. It was a chaotic situation outside and Lysander knew he had to go to help them but just for now, he wanted to mourn for the loss of a friend and the friendship.

Bardo's death wouldn't be in vain, Lysander swore to himself. Bardo's last wish would be fulfilled. He would save the boys. He would save Lachlan and Xanthos.

The moment they were alone, Minerva had calmly shared with him that Xanthos himself was Acheron and Gideon had confirmed it too. For a good whole minute, Lysander was stunned into speechlessness and in the current state of mind, it was still hard for him to process everything.

There were people who knew about it but all of them were loyal to Xanthos and Lachlan. Lysander suspected it was because of the Fidus oath that they were successful in keeping all this a secret for so many years.

He didn't know their stories. He didn't know why Lachlan and Xanthos were the way they were but he would find out. What he did know was that the boys were merely a mask, covering the true face of the man who wanted vengeance from Stanislaus.

Picking up his phone, Lysander scrolled down for Roderick's number and made the call.

"I found out" Roderick said grimly from the other end and Lachlan gulped. Of course, Cyane's grandfather had known Bardo for years too and he would have already been informed.

"Did you forgive him? That's the only thing he truly wanted in his life" Roderick asked quietly and Lachlan nodded his reply before whispering the same. "Good, I'm—"

"It is you" Lysander interrupted Roderick because he couldn't hold it in anymore.

He was angry. So very angry at Roderick. So very angry at Stanislaus, those creatures, Xanthos and so very angry at the knowledge that their actions had caused innocent people like Cyane, Minerva, Gideon and other pack wolves to suffer.

Clenching his fist on his lap, he tightened his hold on the phone and supressed a growl.

When he had visited Roderick last week, Roderick had only given him the half-truth which had ensured Cyane's safety. The old man had deliberately concealed the murky truths that would paint him as the bad guy.

"You have played a very dangerous game" Lysander gritted out tightly and complete silence greeted him from the other end.

Bardo had been aware of everything Roderick had done and the effect it was having on Lachlan and Xanthos, which is why he wanted to save the boys.

A low growl of warning erupted from the other end before Roderick hissed, "I did what was necessary to protect my granddaughter. Cyane is the only family I have left and she means everything to me. Everything."

He stressed the last word and it had Lysander's wolf stiffen in anger.

"At what price?" Lachlan snapped in fury. "At the price of two innocent boys?"

There was a brief pause before Roderick spoke again, "So you know."

"Bardo told me everything about the boys."

"They lost their innocence before they met me. They wanted vengeance, which I promised to give to them" Roderick snarled, no regret in his voice.

Lysander chuckled humourlessly before saying, "It was your personal vengeance too. You want Stanislaus to suffer and die. You helped Xanthos masquerade as Acheron. It was all you."

"MY CHILDREN WERE INNOCENT" Roderick roared from the other end, suddenly losing his head, and that silenced Lysander. His wolf stepped back that moment because there was nothing but truth in Roderick's words.

"Lisa and Duke died for no fault of their own. Duke was maimed by those creatures and Lisa was murdered ruthlessly too. She was true friend to Yolanda, just like Bardo was to you" Roderick reminded and Lysander gulped because he could still remember Lisa with her dark hair and bold attitude.

Killed gruesomely by Stanislaus's men just because she kept Yolanda's romance a secret. Something which every friend does.

Lisa's death was cruel and unfair and there was no denying it.

"This might be coming too late but Yolanda and I are very sorry for what happened to Lisa" Lysander breathed out as his wolf silently bowed his head, apologising to a father, who lost his daughter too young.

"It is not your fault so, I do not need your apologies" Roderick breathed out curtly and Lysander stiffened. "Stanislaus was responsible for her death and he will die. One of those boys will definitely kill the cunning bastard."

"Lachlan Knox and...?" Lysander paused, waiting for Roderick to continue because he wanted Roderick to say the name as the phone call was being recorded. "And?" he pressed when there was no reply.

"You know his name" Roderick scoffed.

"Acheron" Lysander said but then shook his head, "But that's not his real name though."

There had been a boy named Acheron but Lysander suspected, he was either dead or in hiding because Xanthos had been masquerading as Acheron since the time he was released from Edmund's captivity.

"I want his full name" Lysander demanded.

"He has your family name" Roderick barked.

"His real name then" Lysander probed. "Give me his real name."

"Xanthos Zeke" Roderick breathed out and Lysander closed his eyes, glad that he got the recording because he was going to give this to Cyane.

She was the only one who could intervene in this situation because she was the only one Roderick and Xanthos genuinely cared about.

"He is too powerful for you to handle" Roderick warned coldly and Lysander smiled.

All Lysander knew about Xanthos was his hatred for Stanislaus and the dangerous brain he possessed that came up with devious plots. Lysander knew Xanthos had something big planned for Stanislaus and all of it was coming to an end but now wasn't the right time to end it because the Liberi were still in the kingdom, brought ahead by none other than Stanislaus and it only meant that the old man had some connection to their mother, the witch.

The Liberi could cause havoc on the kingdom but they were being restrained by Stanislaus. He had some sort of control over them and that would last only as long as he was alive. If Xanthos killed Stanislaus now, then there would be nothing stopping the Liberi from razing the streets and killing every wolf they come across.

The witch, Georgia, hated the werewolves and the only one to stop the witch was the Lycorian queen, but she would never extend her help until Cyane was back home to her, which is why, Cyane had to go back to her kingdom.

The recording would help Lysander in two ways. One it would reveal Xanthos's truth to Cyane and then, she could either convince him not to kill Stanislaus or she could return back to her home. Either of the two outcomes would work in the kingdom's favour and save the werewolves, which is what Lysander wanted the most at the moment.

Of course, by returning to her home, Cyane would also be safe because her people will protect her.

"I am not going to handle him. Cyane will" Lysander said cleverly and then cut the call.

Through Ari, they had managed to sneak a phone to Cyane and Lysander called that number but it went unanswered. Worry about Cyane made him anxious after the call went unanswered again and so he proceeded to send her texts, hoping she would see the messages. In his messages he tried to warn Cyane about Xanthos being Acheron.

She had to know because she was the only one who could do something about it!

His phone pinged and he clicked on the notifications. Lysander smiled, relieved to see that the it was from Cyane.

I JUST FOUND OUT. CAN'T TALK NOW. MEET ME ON THE 11TH FLOOR OF OCTAVIA HEIGHTS AT 9:00 P.M.

Lysnader frowned. Octavia heights was an under construction building that had been on hold for nearly two years. The workers had protested and walked out after being under paid for several months; and when one of the partners was declared insolvent, the building ran into debts with the banks and was now completely unused and left to rot.

It was almost an hour drive from his home and he wondered why Cyane chose that particular space. But then he realized that it was on the way to the Nest and she might have imagined it to be safe considering that no one would be around that building.

Eleventh floor might have been easier for her to get to because she had wings but it wasn't easy for him. He agreed to it as it seemed convenient for Cyane to escape if they get interrupted by Xanthos or the Liberi.

The thought of the Liberi had him freeze before he snapped out of it. If Liberi could make him agitated then he feared, what it would do to Cyane who was traumatised by them. Just to be on the safer side, he opened a cupboard in Yolanda's cabin and picked up a vial of Propofol and an unused syringe before pocketing it along with his phone.

If he had to make it to the building at nine, then he had to leave now. He decided against informing Yolanda as she was very busy and he didn't want her worrying about him while performing her duties.

As he was heading downstairs, he came across Minerva, Gideon and Miki, one of Xanthos's friends.

Lysander paused and stared at the trio, especially at the worried look in his daughter's face.

"What's wrong?" he demanded, taking a protective step closer to his daughter when he saw the tears clouding her eyes. Furious, his wolf growled within him and stood up aggressively.

•••

It was a growl that woke Cyane up. She slowly peered her eyes open and realised she was still in the hotel room. Her muscles ached in various place and sighing she turned her sideward and froze when she met curious blue-grey eyes of a dog.

Gulping, she slowly got up and so did the dog, which also had a cone around his neck. When she realized that she was naked, she gasped and struggled to cover herself with the sheets.

It was the same Siberian Husky she had seen days before and it still had the cone around his neck. This particular breed was her favourite but this particular dog looked furious and ready to attack.

The dog let out a bark and flinching, she pushed herself against the headboard.

"Villain"

She looked up to see Xanthos seated on chair in the balcony. His attention was on the dog though.

Villain? Theos! Who kept that name?

Villain stopped barking and whimpering, sprawled on to the floor but kept an accusatory eyes on her.

Gulping, Cyane looked up at Xanthos in confusion. This dog.... She had seen Villain in Ash's compound.

"Xanthos?" she called him, curious as to why the dog was here. What was going on? She wasn't stupid... but...

No sound escaped from her lips when she saw two more dogs in the room and she recognized the Rottweiler— Savage. Who apparently lived up to his name!

She suspected the Doberman too had his name on the similar lines. She kept staring at the Rottweiler who barked angrily when he recognized her. The other two dogs followed and a low growl from Xanthos silenced them, but not Savage.

"You have already met Savage and that's Rowdy" Xanthos explained, nodding towards the Doberman with the docked tail.

"Your dogs" she whispered.

"My pets" he amended and silenced the Rottweiler with a snap of his finger.

If these were his dogs, then it meant....

Cyane raised her lashes to collide with icy blue eyes and for the first time, she saw it— the true coldness in it and a chill crept over her spine making goosebumps appear all over her flesh.

For a moment she just stared at him, trying to put it together. That her Xanthos, the man she only a few hours ago made love to was... Ash! The killer who made sure that the only thing left of his enemies were their ashes and the man who was planning the destruction of Aelius along with his best buddy Lachlan.

She couldn't say it out loud. She didn't want to say it out loud.

She tried to join the dots, her thoughts moving in different directions. It was always Xanthos. She had first met him... Xanthos, in the woods. She was always with Xanthos. Then where was Ash?

How? Why? Since when? What caused this.... So many questions!

She couldn't fathom it at once. She looked at Xanthos again and he was still watching her. His eyes never wavered and so, she simply stared back at him to catch a glimpse of Ash and it was there... in the classy clothes he wore that had monogram in it, in the watch around his wrist, in the bottle of an old, expensive whisky lying on the table, in the dogs sprawled around the room and in the luxurious setting of the room itself.

It all reeked wealth and Ash was wealthy!

Rich. That was the first word Minerva had used to describe him and here it was, the proof of his wealth.

"Your house" she said looking around the large room of the house. The walls were wood panelled, but the giant TV was attached to a marble wall panel above a linear fireplace.

"Yes" he confirmed and she didn't know what to call him anymore. "You barged into my house that day."

Cyane gasped and then clenched the mattress even more tightly to gain composure. She recalled everything that happened that day and now she knew, how they were prepared.

They all knew... even Mr Black, and she had hurt her friend for the man who she had never really known. Her only true friend in the world was a mute creature and he couldn't say the truth to her. To protect her, he had attacked Xanthos but she... she had hurt Mr Black.

"I..." Cyane couldn't form a coherent word. Xanthos had lied to her, played games with her. "Why?" she asked him.

Why the double face? Why the games? Why all this...? He kidnapped Gideon.... He hurt Minerva.

"For vengeance" he breathed out before gulping the rest of his drink and placing the glass on the table with a snap.

"You kidnapped Gideon for vengeance?" she asked in disbelief while he refilled his glass. "You hurt Min for vengeance?"

"I kidnapped Gideon because he came close to finding out the truth and I kept him alive because he was your friend and he saved you that day." At her confused look, Xanthos continued, "Gideon knocked me down and it made me furious because I had plans to kill everyone in the building that day. As I lay on the floor, I heard you talking to him and I knew then that he was helping you escape. He saved you, but he also came close to wrecking my plans, which is why I held him captive."

"Your plans?"

"Stanislaus Winthrop" Xanthos said and then he smiled. But there was so much hatred in his eyes when he said the name that the smile looked almost maniac like. "I know you hate him. But trust me, no one hates him more than I do."

It should have been obvious to her along with several other facts but still Cyane was left speechless by his declaration.

"I don't understand" she shook her head. Xanthos was always loyal to Stanislaus. Xanthos always defended the man but now, here he sat as Ash and he... "If you have always hated the king, then why pretend?"

"It was part of the plan. Stanislaus wanted Xanthos and he got me exactly the way he wanted but he did not expect Ash and so, as Ash, I could be anything I wanted" Xanthos shrugged, smiling at the Doberman that moved to sit and curl around his feet.

"But Ash... Miki told me you had a friend named Ash."

"He died."

"He attacked the king and you escaped together until he abandoned you midway" Cyane continued because it did not make sense. Miki and few of his friends knew they were two different people.

"Acheron did not abandon me. He died that day... right in front of me, when we were fourteen" Xanthos said flatly and Cyane believed this was the turning point of his life. It changed him in more ways than the prison ever had. "He had eight bullet wounds on his fragile body. Just so that he cannot be caught by the king again, he moved to the edge of the cliff and fell off there because he was dead even before he could jump off."

Cyane sucked in a breath as she heard it because she could not imagine what it was like for him to see his friend die like that, at only fourteen years of age, and be unable to save him even after escaping from the prison.

"As his last wish was vengeance, I took his name then and I formulated a plan to bring down Stanislaus. Slowly and cruelly" Xanthos growled. "I want to see every drop of blood drain from that old man's frail body."

"Vengeance" she repeated his earlier words. "For what?"

"For fucking my life. For fucking my friend's life. For killing those innocent boys. For torturing us and starving us in prison. For rape, murder, for mutilation and humiliation. For coercion and submission. For being a hero and giving us our freedom back, when it should never have been taken from us in the first place" Xanthos snapped the last words and Cyane flinched.

Edmund's prison, Miki had told her about it but after hearing Xanthos's words she realized that Edmund was just a puppet, while in fact, the prison was constructed by Stanislaus himself.

"The king orchestrated everything" Cyane said in alarm and then asked, "Why?"

Xanthos smirked, "It's a question that I will ask him, moments before I slowly slit his throat."

And Cyane understood, her mate's need for vengeance. What had shaped him. She understood the coldness in his eyes, the impassable mask in his face, the lack of emotion in his deeds. She understood it all.

Stanislaus was nothing but a two-faced snake. He acted as a saviour to all the young boys and kept emotionally blackmailing them with loyalty when the truth of the matter was that he had them captured and tortured badly. He was no saviour. He was their hangman. He was the one who had ruined several innocent lives.

How messed up was the man that he intentionally messed up several other lives? Why kidnap children and torture them? What did he wish to gain from that cruelty?

Xanthos was a product of Stanislaus's hate but the old king did not know that. Nor did he know how powerful Xanthos already was and had the potential to be!

"You could have done it anytime you wanted. You didn't have to do all this" Cyane said because she understood why Xanthos hated the king and why he wanted his vengeance so badly but to drag it this way. She didn't understand that!

"Oh! Yes, I did" Xanthos countered. "I had to do it just like him. I had to be his saviour too until he was so completely dependent on me that he would never expect me to betray him."

And for Cyane everything fell into place then. It was Xanthos's game all along. She had always thought Stanislaus controlled Xanthos but it was the other way around. Stanislaus did exactly what Xanthos wanted him to do.

This man, her mate, was not just powerful. He was very, very clever and he had played a long game. Several things made sense now. The computers in the nearby apartment, the sound proof walls of his apartment, the way he pulled out information about Minerva from her, how he found her in the middle of the woods after she met Lachlan, him killing Johnny before the latter could meet the king, him killing Gunner, moving to the Nest and threatening the wolves there. Ash's men hesitating in attacking her when she had barged into this house.

The signs were always there. From the tattoo on his back to the way he disconnected the cellular network in Nest.

My wolf is ascending, he had said about the tattoo and that's what he had been doing all these years. Slowly raising to power so that when the time comes, no one would realize how powerful an opponent he truly was!

He moved in the light and in the shadows. Camouflaging himself in ways she couldn't even imagine.

She was angry with him for lying to her, for several other things too but she understood him. Understood the hate he felt for the man who had stolen his childhood from him.

He remembered everything bad that had happened to him while she forgot. His memory gave him pain, while she had no memory of anything and just wished to feel something. It was because he was so deeply affected by his unlawful imprisonment that he was scarred in ways she couldn't imagine.

He had to become this way to fight Stanislaus, the man who had wronged him and several other innocent boys for years. He was a boy when he started all this and hate was spewed into him through murder and torture. How could she blame him for being consumed by that hate?

"I wanted to kill Saint that day," Xanthos began when she didn't say anything. "When I had found out that you were the one, he had kidnapped. But it would have been too easy and I don't do easy" he added, shaking his head.

"You let him humiliate you in front of the crowd" Cyane said looking at Xanthos in disbelief. She remembered the rage she had felt when she had seen Saint's leg upon Xan's shoulders. If he hated them, how must he have felt? And yet he had done and said nothing.

"I have let them humiliate me for years, let them amuse themselves at my expense so that they think they are always ahead of me" Xanthos laughed and Miki's words about Xanthos's game plan echoed in her head.

"He always does this. He lets his opponent think they are winning by letting them throw a few punches at first."

So that when he defeats them, the victory feels even better... Cyane finished in her head. It was apparent he was winning because the king had no clue at all.

"You..." Cyane couldn't continue. She didn't know what to say to him. She had so much to ask and everything was running inside her head at lightning speed that she couldn't hold on to any particular topic at all.

Xanthos raised a brow, waiting for her continue while his dogs watched her. Villain and Rowdy seemed okay with her presence by now, but Savage still had distrustful eyes on her and it reminded her of Miki.

"Do your friends know?" she questioned watching the floor and then raised her lashes to look at Xanthos. "Miki, Grayson and Brody? Do they know?"

"Miki does"

"Of course," Cyane rolled her eyes.

"He didn't always know. I told him only after Johnny's death." And it was very recent which meant Miki hadn't really known.

"Why hide from your friends? And these people you have in your building... Lachlan, Viktor..."

"I didn't know whom to trust after the prison experience. I returned home, returned to the people I knew but they were all dead. An old man, who had recently lost his family, took pity on me and decided to help me. He became my benefactor. He secretly funded my education and provided me resources to get even better at the one thing that I was very good at... Computers."

Coding. That's how he made money. He was a software developer who could create exclusive apps for his consumers. Minerva had elaborated on that but Cyane hadn't been interested in Ash.

"How good?" Cyane enquired.

"I was first introduced to computers at the age of six, by my neighbour, and I learnt five computer languages within two years. I developed my first app, at the age of ten. A game of chess. Someone else took the credit and the money, but I couldn't care less. By the time I was thirteen I was very good at programming and I was unofficially declared a prodigy."

"Then you were kidnapped. But... if you are so talented why not continue down that same road once you were released? Why an assassin? A cage-fighter? Hound? You could have become so much better."

"I couldn't have" Xanthos shook his head. "If I chose computers then, the king would have done something worse to me and my friends."

"What do you mean?"

"It was me he wanted" Xanthos said quietly and Cyane wasn't sure she heard him clearly just then. "The kidnap, the prison, the torture.... All that elaborate set up was for me. The other boys were merely pawns."

Cyane stiffened and stared at him in disbelief but the cold look in his eyes told her that he was speaking the truth. Why?

It's a question that I will ask him, moments before I slit his throat— Xanthos didn't have the answer to that why either.

Him? The king hated him too? Why?

All this time Cyane had thought that the old man was pathetically exploiting Xanthos's loyalty but the truth was something else altogether. It didn't make sense for the king to simply hate Xanthos since he was a child. Through Xanthos, the king was punishing someone else and Cyane could only think they were his parents.

It was why the king went to such extent to punish Xanthos. That old man was mad!

"It's why you never told your friends; you were protecting them" Cyane summarised that bit and he merely nodded. "What about these other people? Lachlan, that lawyer, Viktor? Who are they?"

"Rogues with difficult lives and stories of their own. Some were the victims of king's evil deeds and others orphans with no particular aim. Most of them are Bardo's men, who work for me and who, I know are strong enough to face the king on their own. They themselves chose to make a Fidus oath to me." At her confused look, he continued, "It means, they are loyal to me and even their wolves will not allow them to betray me. It's the same oath an Alpha takes when someone becomes part of his pack."

"Work for you... for Ash" Cyane breathed out and then gulped. "You have people on your pay roll. How rich are you?"

"That apartment building we lived in... I owned it" he gave a small example after pondering for a while. "I am not royalty rich, like you."

When Cyane dropped her hands from her chest, the sheets too fell off baring her naked chest. She watched Xanthos's gaze shift and turn dark.

Gasping, Cyane covered herself again but felt the burn on her cheeks. It was only the cruel reminder that she had just given herself to a man who had lied to her, vanished any lovey-dovey thoughts from her mind.

However, there was also the part that she had deliberately concealed her identity from him. His eyes told her that he knew but she did not ask him how because as Ash, he had connections she wasn't aware of and he might have somehow found out the truth that she was a princess.

"You know" she said instead and he nodded. She was no great statue of honesty either. They had both lied, concealed truths from each other because in reality they didn't really know each other that well. Trust, honesty takes time to build up and by talking to each other, they could get to know each other. However, her family was already here and so their time with each other was limited and she had to find out more!

When he didn't ask any questions about her background, Cyane began, "You own that building. Which means..."

"Everyone in that building worked for me" Xanthos confirmed.

"They knew you were Ash?"

"Only a couple of them. The men who lived in my island... they were the only ones who knew I was Ash. They worked hard to earn that trust and they were the ones under Fidus Oath."

"How did you do it?" Cyane asked, truly intrigued. "The king wanted you and yet you managed to build an entire empire underneath his nose. How?"

"By splitting myself into two" Xanthos replied calmly by splitting his index and third finger. "The king wanted Xanthos and I gave him a quiet, poor, gullible Xanthos whose strings he could easily pull. He did not expect Ash and as Ash, I could be myself. Cunning, cruel and a child prodigy."

It hadn't been easy for him. He had to build up an entirely new persona just to survive and Cyane's heart went out for the boy he was and the man he had become. Tears flooded her amethyst eyes but she refused to let them stream down her cheeks.

"At daytime, I trained with the king's men to become an assassin and at night, I focused on programming and developed apps to earn some serious money. The richer I became, the better control I got over my own life. He had people monitor my moves; so, I developed unique apps to communicate with my men. As more and more men started working with me, it was easier to cover my tracks and switch to Ash, anytime I wanted" Xanthos snapped his fingers to get his point across.

"I managed to stay ahead only because of my friend Acheron. The king hadn't seen him dying that day and had assumed he had escaped. My benefactor told me to use that fact to my advantage and I did. Ash was reborn and this time as the strongest opponent of King Stanislaus. It was my way of honouring the last wish of a young boy, who lost his life too soon."

Xanthos looked away and Cyane gave him some time, while she quietly wiped her own eyes. She watched the Doberman get off the floor and rest his head on Xanthos's lap.

His dogs... he loved these beasts and it was obvious they adored him too. Watching him pet the dog had Cyane realize that he was capable of feeling so much more but had it all suppressed.

"What was your friend's last wish?"

"That I make the king suffer."

And he did. As Acheron, Xanthos had been a real pain for King Stanislaus, Min had told everything to her about that.

"How did you find out it was the king's scheme?"

"I heard two guards talking the day I tried to escape from that hell-hole" Xanthos replied and Cyane recalled Miki telling her about the same. How Xanthos had given up hope that day.

"Every day was pain. But that particular day, Edmund tried to dominate me when I refused to succumb to his demands. He had me shift and force my wolf into submission, the same way he did with other boys. He failed because my wolf refused to bow and that was the first time, I saw fear in his eyes. It gave me enough confidence and we planned our escape" Xanthos deftly placed his hand on the Doberman's head as Cyane pulled her knees closer to her chest and waited for him to continue.

"Couldn't find the escape route but found two guards talking about me and how the king specifically wanted me punished. I didn't even know who the fuck this bloody king was back then" Xanthos laughed harshly. As his smile faded, his eyes darkened considerably in supressed rage. "I hated him since that moment."

His breathing was harsh and loud. There was so much sincerity, so much cruelty in those words and Cyane believed him. His hope did not die that day. His fight began that day.

"You were just a boy" Cyane mumbled quietly. Why? Why did the king hate that little boy?

She wondered, how it must have been for him to face the king every day and pretend everything.... She paused her thoughts and slowly looked at Xanthos, seeing something new for the first time.

His stoic personality. It was built to hide his emotions from the king. The stoic personality was so much a part of him that now it was impossible to distinguish between the cold, solid mask and the true Xanthos.

"Why do you think the king targeted you?"

"I have had many doubts over the years but now I'm pretty sure it's because of my parents. I don't know who my biological parents are" Xanthos shook his head and gulping, Cyane nodded. "The one's I thought who were... are also not my parents."

"Have you ever tried to find out?"

Xanthos shrugged but Cyane knew he would go after his parents too. Once he was done with the king, he would look for his parents because that's how badly he was affected by the mistake of several elders.

"I am sorry that your whole life has been a battlefield for you. One war after another" Cyane said sincerely because she felt wronged on behalf of him. Most of the elders around him have treated him so poorly that he had to become something entirely different to fight his battles.

What shaped him today was his childhood and it was so messed up. How could she simply just blame him when everything that happened to him as a child was so wrong?

"I took great pleasure in winning those wars, Cyane. Do not feel pity for me" Xanthos said gravelly. When he said her name like that, the hairs on the back of her neck stood pointedly. "I used to annihilate anything and anyone that came in my way. Until you."

The silence echoed.

Cyane felt tears prickle the back of her eyes and she gulped. He meant it. She could see in those cold blue eyes of his that he truly meant it and it showed her the other one... Ash.

She compressed her lips when she could feel them trembling, but she refused to let the tears flow in front of him and show him how much his words hurt.

"I didn't ask you to drag me into this" she pointed out stiffly.

"No, you didn't. Saint dragged you into this. But you were my queen to protect and I realised a little too late that just like the queen in the chess, you are the strongest player on the board who needs no protection."

It was a compliment but Cyane didn't know what to make of it because she wasn't a player of some game. She was a person with feelings and she felt a lot when it came to him. To know that he treated her like some sort of chess piece was humiliating and she felt winded, as though she had been beaten up.

"The first time I saw you in the woods, I knew who you were to me" Xanthos confessed. "For a moment," Xanthos raised his index finger and then immediately dropped it to emphasize his point, "Just for a moment, I was glad you ran away because it would be the best for you." He then shook his head and smirked, "But I am selfish and when I found you again, I knew I couldn't let you go."

"Miki found me."

Xanthos laughed. It was the same, cold laugh that sounded odd more than funny.

"I was in the building that day to take Minerva to Gideon but so was Miki and he was the one who kidnapped you, thinking you were Minerva. Once I saw you in the car, everything changed and my priorities shifted. I had to rethink and replan everything, keeping you in my mind. I knew the king would eventually find everything about you and he would try to kill you but what I didn't expect was for you to stand up to the king to protect me. You believed I was vulnerable to king's actions and you tried to defend me. My men considered you naïve and vulnerable, which you are, but when push came to shove, you are as tough as they come."

This was a compliment she could take but she still did not reply to it.

"It takes courage to be that bold in front of your enemies."

"If you are calling me brave, then you are wrong" Cyane shook her head.

"I am not" Xanthos countered firmly, leaving no room for further argument. "The king liked killing people who were close to me and I knew he would target you too which is why I took you to the Nest."

"A hell" she said numbly but her mind was whirring with his words. It was why he never let his friends in too close. The king could have easily killed them. He had always, always protected his friends. In more ways than one!

"A place where king had complete control and I was all the more tempted to break those strings. In a week, the wolves there started to fear me more than they ever feared the king."

"Is that what you want? For people to fear you?" Cyane asked solemnly.

"I want the games to end. I don't want people controlling other's lives" Xanthos said sharply.

"And yet you tried to control Lysander and Minerva by kidnapping Gideon" Cyane frowned at him.

"Ah Lysander, that prick" Xanthos ran a hand on the back of his head with a lazy smirk on his face and Cyane scowled at him. "Always poking his nose into other people's businesses."

"Xanthos" Cyane reprimanded. "I can understand your hatred for king but I don't know why you hate Lysander so much. He is a good man who has saved my life."

"Yes, he is" Xanthos agreed sarcastically. "He is such a good man that he even forgives his enemies, spares their lives."

"What are you talking about?" Cyane perked up with a confused look.

"That man had a chance to kill Stanislaus. He attacked the palace and nearly took over the throne. Did he or his family ever tell you that?"

Shocked, she simply stared at him. Lysander almost took over the kingdom? If that was true, then why give it up? Why fight again for Minerva?

"Twenty years ago, Lysander could have changed the future of this whole kingdom. He could have become the king and he could have done so much good" Xanthos stated calmly and through his words Cyane grasped that Xanthos did know Lysander was a good man who had the capability to become a better king.

"If you are aware of it, then why hate Lysander? Why hate a good man?" she asked curiously.

"He is not a good man. He is a weak person, incapable of making wise decisions" Xanthos hissed through gritted teeth. "Lysander knew all about King Stanislaus and knew that old geezer did not deserve the throne. Yet, when he had a chance to dethrone him, all Lysander did was chop off his hands when he should have gone for the head" Xanthos spat in fury and his dogs stood up growling lowly at her, as if she was the enemy who had pissed their master off.

Dimly, Cyane recalled her conversation with Lysander months ago in which he had told her that he had intentionally missed the chance of killing Stanislaus.

"I didn't kill him because I wanted to show him. He hates my family. He hates the royal family of Zeke's and I will show him that Zeke's are the true rulers of this kingdom. I will have the people overthrow him and I will have a Zeke sit on that the Imperium Throne again."

She did not believe Lysander was incapable of making good decisions. She knew he was doing things the right way, even if it meant delayed justice.

When Xanthos snapped his finger's, the dogs quieted down and settled comfortably on the floor, adoring eyes affixed on him.

Xanthos was furious that Lysander lost a chance like that because if Lysander had killed Stanislaus that day then many more lives would have been saved. It was a what if situation and not something one should hold a grudge against.

"His one decision cost many lives and that's all on him" Xanthos bit out angrily.

"I believe he had his reasons" Cyane said refusing to believe that was simply the reason Xanthos hated Lysander. There was more. There had to be more!

"But that's not the only reason you hate him" Cyane began curiously.

Xanthos tapped his fingers on the armrest and stopped when her eyes flickered to his fingers.

"He has been a problem for a long, long time" Xanthos paused for a minute before continuing. "Did Minerva tell you about my first fight as Ash against the king?"

Cyane nodded because she knew. Minerva had told her about the rape of the minor girls and the blame that had fallen on Ash because the bodies had been buried on a piece of land that he had owned. However, she had also assured that Ash had been an innocent because Lysander had crucial evidence to prove it.

Cyane hadn't wanted to know more about it then, but now that it concerned Xanthos, she wanted to know every detail.

"It was distressing to have such a false accusation fall on you. Rape is a very serious issue and so is to be falsely accused of it. Even if a man is proven innocent in the case, there will always be a certain section of people having doubts over it. What one needs is solid, unquestionable evidence to prove their innocence and Lysander had it" Xanthos growled loudly and his claws and fangs appeared, as he said, "But he withheld it."

When Minerva had said Lysander had crucial evidence, Cyane had believed he had helped Ash but now she was shocked. Why would Lysander do that?

"I didn't care about me. But him withholding that information, failed to provide the required justice for those girls" Xanthos spat in fury and Cyane inhaled sharply.

"Lysander owned a farm, few metres away from that disputed land. He had visited that farm that night too and the pack wolves had thrown alcohol cans at him as he had been coming towards the road. They had been carrying the bodies of those girls in their truck at the time and that video would have revealed the faces of the culprits."

"But... But Min told me that Lysander had given the evidence to prove your innocence" Cyane said shakily.

"A clip from the toll gates of a car passing with four men in it. All it showed was that I was innocent, not that those fuckers were rapists."

Shocked, Cyane gasped and leaned back against the headboard. Did Lysander actually do that? She knew Xanthos was telling the truth but she also knew that Lysander might have had a reason to conceal the truth too.

"As someone who had heard the screams of victims and seen their pain before, I couldn't excuse Lysander, however grave his reasons are" Xanthos bit out. "One of the girl's parents had gone to Lysander to beg him for the proof with no success."

"He... he must have had a reason" Cyane muttered in consternation and then shook her head to push out all ill thoughts. Lysander had to have a very good reason.

It was only as the silence lingered that she sensed the hostility in his gaze.

"You still defend him?" Xanthos asked incredulously. "Would you still defend him if I told you that he went against your wishes and contacted your family?"

Stunned into absolute silence, Cyane stared at him but she knew that Xanthos was telling the truth. It was how Ari had managed to find out where she would be. Why did Lysander do that? Why did he go looking for her grandfather now when he was quiet for the first two months?

What changed?

"Bardo would always defend him too and he died today, fighting beside Lysander, who had never ever considered him a friend" Xanthos said angrily and every skin cell in Cyane's body turned cold after hearing the news.

"Bardo... Bardo is dead?"

When Xanthos noticed her shaken expression, he nodded and Cyane gasped. Bardo... her uncle Bard, was dead? The man who had trained her to fight, who was always kind and affectionate to her, was dead, now!

Though it was months, it felt like days since she had last seen him and tears dropped down her eyes. How must her grandpa feel now? Bardo was a dear friend and even her grandmamma had always been polite with him.

Covering her mouth, Cyane lowered her head and cried.

"You knew him well?"

"He and his men were the ones who trained me. He was a good man!" Cyane sniffed.

"He was" Xanthos agreed and as she looked at his pale, graven face, she noticed that the news had upset him too. If he knew Bardo this well, then...

"You were one of the boys he had helped. Was he... was he your benefactor?" Cyane queried shakily, because she was aware of the fact that Bardo had helped a lot of rogues.

"No. But my benefactor was the one who introduced me to Bardo" Xanthos replied before taking another sip.

"What happened?" Cyane wanted to know what had happened to Bardo and now, she wanted to go to her grandpa too because she knew that if there was anyone her grandpa called a friend, then it was only Bardo and now that he was gone, how was her grandpa coping? She had to be there with him.

Xanthos gave her a short, crisp version that Bardo died while he was fighting alongside Lysander against some wolves. He was too badly injured to heal and could not have been saved, even if help had arrived on time because his wolf had already given up.

Wrapping the sheet, tightly around her cold body, Cyane cried thinking of Bardo and all the memories she had with him.

"The king is the cause of Bardo's death too" Xanthos said through gritted teeth and through teary eyes, she saw how furious he really was and how hard he was trying to suppress his rage. "Many more will die if he is alive and I have to kill him, Cyane. I have to kill them all."

Cyane nodded gravely because the news of Bardo's death had devastated her. To know that he was injured and unable to heal himself... it hurt!

The cell phone screen glowed and she watched Xanthos pick it up and read a message. One corner of his mouth tilted upwards and his eyes gleamed in satisfaction.

"Like I said, Lysander should really have stayed out of my way."

"Lysander?" Cyane said shakily. "What did Lysander have to do with Bardo's death?"

"Bardo was here, because of Lysander" Xanthos forced out and confused, Cyane furrowed her brows. "Lysander interfered and contacted your family, which is how Bardo found out that you were with me and he came here to warn me about your family but got caught up in a fight that wasn't his and lost his life. All because of Lysander."

"No, Xanthos, please, don't blame Lysander for this too" Cyane begged. Bardo was already gone and she did not want to lose any more people.

"Who else should I blame? Hmm?" Xanthos demanded, raising a brow. "I had asked one thing, one simple thing from Lysander and he failed to even do that."

"I... I believe he has a reason" Cyane said, refusing to believe the worst of Lysander. She knew Yolanda, she knew Minerva and for them, she would trust Lysander too.

"Are you trying to justify him to me or yourself?" Xanthos scoffed and Cyane frowned at him. His face was back to being a mask.

He hated Lysander and that was it. Nothing she said, nothing Lysander would do, could change that!

"You are so cold" she whispered, unable to stop the words from escaping her lips.

Her heart broke even as she said it because she knew where he came from and why he was the way he was. He didn't choose this kind of life, but he seemed to flourish in it and she wondered, how well he would have done had he lived normally. She hurt for the man he was now and the man he could have been.

Xanthos got off the chair and walked towards her with a smile in his face. And it was cold just like the gleam in his icy blue eyes. Everything was wrong with that smile!

"I am not cold, Cyane" he shook his head and bent down when he reached the edge of the bed. "I am cruel" he breathed out and then slammed his mouth against hers.

Pulling away immediately, Cyane tried to shake him off but placing his palms flat on either side of her in the bed, Xanthos rested his forehead against hers, his harsh breath fanning her face.

"Now you know" he said and closing her eyes, Cyane nodded as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Xanthos did not apologize or justify himself. He just told her how it was for him and it was up to her on how she would take it. He had done a lot of bad things; she could not deny that but in it also lay the truth on what had led him to do it. He was a victim more than a perpetrator.

The king had wanted him broken and submissive but that Xanthos survived and thrived against all odds, was to his credit. He wasn't bad, but he had seen so many bad things that it had made him the way he was now- Cold, cruel and cunning!

"What happens now?" she asked him, quietly. Her family was here and they would come get her anytime now. She wanted to see her grandpa, be there for him in his most difficult time. Xanthos was Ash and everyone would find it too, including the king.

"Now, you go, take a shower" Xanthos replied tucking a strand of her hair behind her ears, but muttering a sound of protest, Cyane refused to pull away.

"What are you going to do now?"

If Xanthos had confessed to her, it's only because he decided it was the right time to settle everything. He had obviously planned something big and she wanted to know what was it!

"I am going to end the game" he said calmly and she straightened because she learned very quickly that his calm demeanour was the deadliest one.

Clutching his arm, she stared at him with wide, cautious eyes, "How?"

"By sorting out everything before sunrise and then, we will talk about your family" he said slowly and then pulled away to stand up. "Go, take a shower."

Cyane felt numb for a second as goosebumps erupted all over her skin. She knew what he was about to do and to whom, but she also knew that if she argued or tried to reason, he would only turn cold.

As he indicated her to go to the shower, she watched him. He looked so perfect. Breathtakingly beautiful but it was just the outside. Inside he was a scarred man. The difference between them was that he knew each one of his scars and remembered how and when he got them, but she didn't.

She did wish to remember her scars, but if remembering them made her like him, then she was glad she did not remember anything. She didn't want to be like him!

Xanthos himself had told her that he was cruel and cruelty could be killed only with kindness.

She knew what she had to do.

Swallowing audibly, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath before getting off the bed and walking into the bathroom, wrapped only in a bedsheet.

She locked the door from the inside and turned on the shower. As she stood under the shower, she did not feel the hot water brutally assailing her skin. Instead, all her senses were focused on every tiny movement in the bedroom.

She stayed quietly in the shower, until she was convinced, Xanthos had left the room. She waited then, for a couple of minutes to pass, before turning off the taps. Quickly drying herself, she went into the bedroom and was irked to find the dogs still in the room. That they did not bark at her was a good thing.

There were fresh clothes laid for her on the bed along with a note from Xanthos that asked her to rest.

Like she could rest, after the bomb he had just dropped, she thought crumpling the note. After getting dressed in the jeans short and striped top, she began to march towards the balcony but the moment she stepped over the threshold, she was pushed back into the room.

As she fell onto the floor, the dogs stood up cautiously, ready to attack.

It was only then that she noticed the iron powder line on the floor. She turned towards the door and the similar line was drawn there too.

"Oh no, you didn't..." she muttered staring at the iron powder. Xanthos was prepared and he had trapped her in the room without even a cell-phone.

The dogs stood up to stare at her but it was the Doberman who approached her first.

He sniffed her legs and she stiffened, but then relaxed because she knew he wouldn't hurt her. With a smile, she even forced herself to pat his head and the dog raised his neck to sniff at her palms.

A note was attached to his collar belt and she hesitantly pulled it off.

I AM SORRY, was all it said and compressing her lips, Cyane shook her head, refusing to accept this apology.

"You shouldn't have caged me" she whispered to herself because by trapping her in this room, Xanthos did to her what her family had been doing all along. It only ascertained her belief that Xanthos had gone far beyond control and needed to be stopped even before Stanislaus.

But she couldn't do that trapped in this room.

The door was locked from the inside and she couldn't touch it because of the iron powder line on the floor in front of it. She could sense that there were people downstairs but she was also sure that they wouldn't help her.

She made a frustrated noise and the Rottweiler growled. When she looked at him, he let out a bark and then looked away, to show how uninteresting he found her.

Rolling her eyes, Cyane focused her attention on the third dog, Villain, a Siberian Husky. She moved towards him and pouted when she saw the cone around his neck. The dog wagged his tail in excitement when she touched the cone, but she shook her head apologetically and gently rubbed his body.

Standing up, she once again moved towards the balcony. The iron powder was preventing her and she had to erase the line off. She tried to erase it with a book but when the pages started burning, she dropped the book and quickly extinguished the fire.

The line could not be erased by her or through her help.

Clutching her hair, she stared at the clock. She had to get moving quickly to reach Xanthos before he reached his destination, wherever that was.

The curious dogs moved towards the balcony when they noticed the burnt book on the floor. While the Husky and Doberman sniffed at the burnt pages, the Rottweiler easily moved past the room and into the balcony.

Cyane smiled when she saw that and picking another book she threw it wildly in the air, towards the balcony. All the three dogs jumped to catch the book, but it was the Rottweiler who grasped it between his jaws and while landing on their paws, the dogs erased the line as they slipped a little on the marble floor.

It was all the opening Cyane needed and smirking, she spread her wings wide and flew through the balcony and straight up the sky, ignoring the barks of the Rottweiler.

Xanthos could have either gone to Stanislaus or to Lysander. But she bet her chances on Lysander because Xanthos had been texting on the phone Ari gave her, which is why, she flew towards Lysander's home.

___

Bringing his car to a slow halt in front of the abandoned building, Xanthos grimly stared at the car already parked there.

His wolf shifted uneasily inside him causing him to frown. He took a deep breath and sure enough caught Lysander's lingering scent in the air. He was here!

Picking up the gun lying on the seat beside him, he tucked it into his belt on the back and looked at the rear mirror. When he was sure there wasn't anyone around, he opened the door.

Cool evening breeze fanned his face as he stepped out of the car and looked up at the tall building. He couldn't catch any other scent. Good! Just the way he wanted it and the main reason he had selected this Octavia Heights to meet Lysander.

He had let the old wolf get away with a lot of things but now it was time to put an end to it!

Metal scraps, iron rods, buckets and cement bags lay scattered all over the ground floor. Lizards crawled over the wall and rats jumped around discarded materials. There was no light in the building but that wasn't a problem to a wolf like Xanthos.

Growling, he climbed up the stairs and with his supernatural speed, he was on the eleventh floor within a couple of minutes.

With his back to him, Lysander stood inside one of the apartment rooms, staring at the view through the open balcony. When his wolf reared back in confusion, Xanthos was confused but it quickly turned into anger when Lysander turned to face him.

Clad in khaki pants, dark sweater and white shirt that had blood stains on it, Lysander stared at him with a grim expression. Eyes blue and sad.

"Why am I not surprised?" Lysander said more to himself, shaking his head in disappointment and that irked Xanthos. "Where is Cyane?"

"She is my mate and no concern of yours" Xanthos said possessively.

"My mate and daughter care a great deal about her and it's only natural that I am concerned about her wellbeing" Lysander admitted.

Xanthos scoffed, "If you really cared about her wellbeing, you wouldn't have contacted her family."

Instead of defending himself, Lysander simply stared at Xanthos and that set him on an edge but he refrained himself. Instead, he demanded, "Why the hell did you use silver here?"

"To stop your wolf from taking over, why else?" Lysander countered and Xanthos noticed that the silver was making the other man uncomfortable too. Lysander was no fool. He had come prepared.

Xanthos's wolf snapped his jaws, furious at having been restrained against his wishes. "I have asked you to stay the fuck out of my business, didn't I? Numerous times!"

"I do what I believe is the right thing to do" Lysander proclaimed, squaring his shoulders.

"The right thing?" Xanthos said and then laughed, except it was false. "Do tell me, what exactly is the right thing? And who are you to decide what is right?" Lysander seemed to ponder over that in silence and Xanthos shook his head. "You were right when you said you do what you believe is right. But what is right for you, need not necessarily be right for others and it definitely isn't right in my dictionary."

"I understand what you are saying. I know about your traumatic childhood experiences" Lysander said sadly and Xanthos growled.

"What do you know? How do you know?" he demanded, stepping closer.

"I..." Lysander was silenced before he blinked and took a deep breath. "I know you were one of the boys held in captivity. I cannot imagine the pain and suffering you have gone through there. I—"

"Shut up!" Xanthos said sharply. "I don't want your sympathies. I am not here to talk about me. I am here because of—"

"Cyane" Lysander interrupted. "You make this about her, but it's all about you."

Xanthos glared at him, but Lysander continued, "You cannot forgive me for a sin you believe I have committed."

"I know what you did" Xanthos said through gritted teeth, taking a step closer. "You did nothing" he bit out like a curse and then took a step back. "That old geezer on the throne wreaked havoc all over the kingdom and you and your family did nothing to stop it!"

"You really believe this family didn't do anything? Do you know why Yolanda had that hospital built? It was to help pack wolves from both the kingdoms. It was to give shelter to those wolves who had nobody. She doesn't charge a single penny from the wolves seeking refuge in the hospital premises and I... I help her. We don't do something big, but these little things that we do holds some significance in the lives of people we have helped" Lysander said with a hesitant smile. "Cyane was brought to us and I treated her well, like my family, because Yolanda cared about her. But what you just said, is also right. I knew Stanislaus was unworthy, yet I had my reasons for sparing his life."

"You care about this kingdom and its citizens, right? What could be more important than them that had you forgive Stanislaus?"

"I did not forgive Stanislaus. I will never forgive him. He took something precious from me. He made my family name turn to mud and I want to show him that a Zeke is worthy of that throne" Lysander said with conviction. "Killing is very easy Xanthos. It's watching the cycle of time, that's difficult. But if you are patient and sit through it, then you can watch karma come right back and Stanislaus's deeds will catch up to him one day."

"I cannot wait for that one special day" Xanthos sneered and shook his head. "I only know that I waited fourteen fucking years" Xanthos bit out harshly. "I only knew that I had to make Stanislaus suffer for every breath he took and I did. I took his wealth, I tormented him as Ash, gave him sleepless nights. Killed his allies, gathered a loyal team to fight against him. Turned people against him. Pressured and manipulated him into making decisions he didn't like. I let him think he was winning, when in reality he was failing at every turn."

"While I can never completely understand the horrors you have been through in the prison, I can say that it has shaped you and made you into something, you are not."

"Shut up" Xanthos snapped again.

"Xanthos, if you can just calm down and listen—"

"Silence" Xanthos gritted out, picking the revolver from his back and pointing it at Lysander. "I have told you before that I do not want your sympathies."

Lysander's eyes rounded when he saw the gun and raised his palm, in a gesture of surrender but did not step back. He remained calm as ever and that outraged Xanthos.

"I am not pitying you. I am trying to reason with you" Lysander began slowly and then continued, "You are furious with me for sparing Stanislaus when I should have killed him, yet you did the same! You spared him too when you could have killed him very easily. How is what I did different from what you did?"

Xanthos chuckled, "It is different because I have never pretended to be good. Neither as Ash, nor as myself. I care only about the people under my protection and I did my best to protect them. I do not care about the people of this kingdom because they are the very people who treated me and my friends like some low-class citizens when we came out of the prison, starving and in need for shelter. No one cared about our wellbeing and so, I do not give two fucks about the citizens. They seemed happy to live a life under a tyrant, so let it be so!"

"You really believe they were happy?" Lysander asked in a low voice. "No one was happy but they could never raise their voice either because they feared Stanislaus. They lacked a leader."

"Then, why didn't you become their leader? Since you care so much..." Xanthos remarked sarcastically and Lysander sighed.

"I am many things Xanthos, but I am not a leader. I can never be that one firm voice, leading people. I thought with time, I might develop that trait but it's just something I am not blessed with."

"Excuses" Xanthos scoffed with a smirk and lowered his gun. "Why don't you just admit that you are not brave enough to shoulder that kind of responsibility? You are all talk about saving people but when it actually came down to it, you realized how much of a fucking coward you truly are and so spewed bullshit about being unworthy when the truth of the matter is that you have not even tried to be worthy."

Shocked, Lysander flinched and paled, while Xanthos glared at him in disgust.

This was the man Cyane respected so much? This was the man; she was trying to convince him was a good man? He might be a good man, but he was also a weak man!

"I am not like you. To an innocent like Cyane, you might seem like the bravest man on the planet but the fact is that you are nothing but a farce. I have pretended to be two different people but in each of that role, I have done my best to protect the people who have come to me, who have seen me as their leader. I have done my best to be their leader. I have promised them vengeance and I will give them that because they chose me and I intend to be worthy of their choice" Xanthos growled, stressing his point by tightening his hold on the gun.

Lysander swallowed audibly and then began, "You are right, I am not worthy of being a leader, but Minerva is and that's all I want, I want the people of this kingdom to want her as their queen. She has the capabilities and she will be a good leader."

"If she is truly so capable then nothing can stop her from becoming the queen, not even me" Xanthos said sincerely and Lysander nodded. It was a promise, the only kind that he could make.

Lysander smiled, blue eyes kind and Xanthos gritted his teeth while his wolf stepped back hesitantly. That smile reminded him of Cyane but that couldn't be it. He had made sure Cyane would stay put.

Her family would be coming for her and Xanthos wanted to protect her from everything and everyone and it was the only way he could think of. She would think he was trying to imprison her, but that was not why he had drawn the line. It was to keep not just the wolves but also the fairies away.

Tomorrow, when he is done dealing with his past and her family, he vowed to himself that he would take Cyane with him. Far away from all the chaos and the pain she had been going through since she had escaped from her unwanted wedding. It would just be the two of them and they would live together and sort things out peacefully.

He knew she got upset after he revealed himself, but he was also glad that she found out the truth through him and not through some other source. It was how he had wanted it to happen!

"She will become the queen" Lysander interrupted his train of thoughts and Xanthos watched to see a serene smile on his face and that irked him.

How can the man be still smiling while there was a gun pointed directly to his chest? Lysander cannot smile like that. Not after what he had done!

"Unfortunately, you will not live long enough to see that" Xanthos said coldly and had the satisfaction of watching the colour drain from Lysander's face.

"I am not your enemy Xanthos" Lysander said calmly, causing Xanthos to growl murderously.

His wolf stepped forward as anger slowly rose up inside him. It was like molten lava rage that was burning and twisting inside him all these years, erupted as he snapped, losing control.

For years, Xanthos had wandered if what he was doing was truly the right thing? No matter how hard he tried someone did end up getting hurt always and it had raised several questions inside him.

Just like King Stanislaus, Xanthos never really knew or heard about Lysander until he had met Bardo. While Bardo sang praises about him, Cyane's grandpa, Ricky, had always been brittle while talking about Lysander. The pack wolves also seemed to have mixed opinion about Lysander and so, Xanthos never really understood what kind of person is he until Lysander had provided shelter to Wallace, one of the boys, who after enduring the prison couldn't take the harsh trainings required to become a hitman for Stanislaus.

At seventeen, Wallace had run away and gone to Lysander for shelter. Lysander had provided money for Wallace, while his wife had treated him. Unfortunately, Wallace was killed three weeks later by Alex on Stanislaus's orders for daring to escape.

Lysander and his wife had held a funeral for Wallace and had given him a proper burial, which Xanthos had been stunned to hear about but at that moment Lysander had earned his respect and it was for that very reason he had never hurt Lysander or his men.

But then, three minor girls were raped and the blame had fallen on Acheron Zeke. Xanthos had just begun starting to extract his revenge and he remembered feeling numb and cold after hearing the news.

To be falsely accused of a crime that major was devasting and it had brought back memories of the prison, of the screams, of the pain. He had felt helpless, chained and upset all over again. For a while he had thought of giving up his vengeance because Stanislaus had crossed limits and had hurt innocents. The fear of losing his friends and anyone he cared about in this journey had been back and he had lain low for a while!

He had known he was innocent and those around him had known too but he had been unable to walk with his head held high. He had been unable to meet gazes, unable to look at himself in the mirror because three young, innocent girls had been killed to teach him a lesson.

At his lowest, when fear had lodged itself in his chest, he had decided he wouldn't give up so easily. Not to Stanislaus. He was ready to give up everything, but not the chance to prove his innocence. Xanthos had decided that he could not live with that false tag and he had decided to fight.

Skyla had been of tremendous help at that time, gathering evidences to prove his innocence. She had figured out the route the culprits had taken that night and had contacted Lysander. At the time, Xanthos had been pathetically grateful to Lysander for giving that evidence and had even considered approaching Lysander.

Skyla had shown the video to the girl's parents and had requested them to withdraw the case against Acheron Zeke. They had done that and so, Xanthos had then filed a complain as Ash against Alex and his gang. With solid evidence, Xanthos knew Alex could not escape sentencing and Stanislaus would be forced to punish him severely, which would have offended Ajax, who would have then pulled out his support to the throne.

But everything went pear shaped when, at the last moment, Lysander had changed the video clip and with lack of solid evidence, the parents of the victims had refused to file a complain against Alex and his gang. He remembered the mothers crying, he remembered the smug, superior look on Alex's face and his men mocking the girls' parents. They were so severally harassed by the Hynson pack wolves that they left the kingdom within a week, never to be seen or heard from again.

Xanthos had tried hard to find the clip but it had been permanently deleted and he had hated Lysander since that moment. For destroying solid evidence, for letting the culprits get away, he had hated Lysander. His image of Lysander was shattered as he had realized that Lysander was as much a part of this power game as Stanislaus and Xanthos had sworn then that he would not let either of them have any power over him and would destroy the both of them!

That his mate, a woman and a doctor, stood by him even then had shattered her image too and Xanthos had hated them all. Rich, superior and living in their big mansion, all the while and doing nothing for the ones who genuinely needs help.

"You became my enemy the day you let Stanislaus and his men get away from their crime" Xanthos breathed out harshly, as he placed his index finger on the trigger.

"Will you please just listen to me and not make hasty choices?" Lysander begged.

"This is not a hasty choice. I have thought about it for a while and think that it's the best decision for everyone" Xanthos smirked coldly.

"Your choices will have consequences which are going to affect Cyane. So, for her, will you please just drop the gun Xanthos and give me five minutes to explain myself."

"I will not give you even five seconds because you are not worthy of it" Xanthos snapped. "You always do what you think is right, don't you? Was destroying evidence against Alex and his crime buddies the right thing? Was letting the rapists free the right thing to do?"

"Xanthos... all I am asking for is five minutes of your time" Lysander said taking a step forward and Xanthos shook his head.

"Have you got no answer to my questions?" Xanthos asked angrily and Lysander gulped. "Of course, you don't! You are only good for talking and fucking up someone else's lives. All I had asked from you was to stay out of my business but no, you wanted to mess with me and so you went and contacted Cyane's family."

"They would have—"

"She didn't want to go to them. She wanted her freedom but you took that away from her too" Xanthos said in disgust.

"Her family would have eventually found her" Lysander said quietly.

"But you took that choice from her!" Xanthos bristled. "You almost killed her today. Those creatures went after her like vultures and they could have seriously hurt her. Not satisfied with all that, you even injured her. You can't just let anyone be happy, can you?"

Lysander had a confused look on his face and he stared at Xanthos with furrowed brows before sighing. "Nothing I say will make you see reason as you are not in the right frame of mind to talk. Please just—"

"Enough" Xanthos snarled and looked at Lysander through eyes as hard as ice chips. "I lost Bardo today because of you" Xanthos said and then gulped, "I refuse to lose Cyane too."

Lysander lowered his head, took a deep breath and then spoke, "If you pull that trigger, you are going to lose her."

Xanthos shook his head, looked at the gun, a Desert Eagle, and back at Lysander. "It is for her that I am going the easy way for you. She has an illusion that you are a good man, but it'll be shattered once your true face is revealed to her" Xanthos said coldly.

There had been a moment of hesitation for him before. But now, there was no such thing. Lysander was not a good man and Xanthos knew it better than anyone. He refused to lose Cyane because of Lysander's cunning tactics. She was his mate and Xanthos feared, as long as Lysander was alive, he and Cyane could never truly be together. The man would always find ways to twist up Cyane's gullible mind and would mess her up emotionally.

Cyane would be upset with him, but eventually she will understand!

Lysander nodded slowly, smiled and took a step back. "If shooting me will shatter an illusion, then do it, so that you can see things clearly."

"Goodbye, Lysander. We'll meet again in hell."

Xanthos did not blink as he emptied all the seven rounds of the bullet onto Lysander's torso. The noise of the gunfire was deafening and terrifying in the silence of the night and the vacant building.

When hit by the bullet, Lysander's shoulders moved as he threw his head back and gasped, the silver of the bullet piercing into his chest, shoulders and stomach.

Xanthos's wolf howled in anguish as if he felt the pain and he did, right at the centre of his chest as if his flesh was being torn by the bullet.

He watched Lysander stagger and then slowly transform into Cyane.

He froze as the gun slipped through his fingers and dropped onto the ground with a thud. As his wolf continued to howl and claw in desperation Xanthos watched Cyane stagger back and drop onto the cemented floor.

Blood. So much blood soaking her pale, pastel top and dropping on to the cold floor that it made him sick.

His vision was blurred as he realized in horror what he had just done!

"CYANE" Lysander shouted her name from the floor below. It was followed by loud footsteps and heavy breathing.

He watched Cyane gasp, struggle to breathe and Xanthos, who had thought he had survived the worst of it all, realized that nothing could be worse than this.

"You" Lysander snarled when he saw Xanthos standing still like an unmoving statue. "What did you do? What did you do?" he continued in rage, glowering at Xanthos and without any warning, strode ahead and stabbed Xanthos in the chest with a syringe before roughly shoving him out of the way.

As Xanthos dropped to the floor, he turned his head to look at Cyane and blinked repeatedly to stay awake. "Cyane" he breathed as he tried to reach for her.

He shot her. He shot his mate! He wanted to chop off his own hands for doing that to her.

She was wounded and she needed help. She needed a doctor. She was bleeding. Xanthos's wolf kept whining in pain because he was unable to move or do anything.

He was fucking useless and he was the one who had shot his mate.

The one person who he did not wish to hurt and he did the worst thing to her possible! He shot her! Seven times with a gun laced with silver bullet.

Silver hurts her because she was a daughter of a wolf and now the bullets were lodged inside her fragile body. How could he do this to her? What kind of a person had he become that he had hurt the person whom he loved the most and had vowed to protect at all costs?

What kind of a monster had he become in his quest for vengeance?

His vision was becoming faint every passing second and he remembered whispering her name again before passing out.

****

Yes, we are back to the prologue and well, Xanthos was the one who shot her!

What do you think of Xanthos? Is he right? Wrong or somewhere in between? 

I honestly don't know when the next chapter will be up. This is perhaps after a long time that I got a weekend with time to update in wattpad. My weekends usually has me traveling 180kms to go to my husband or him travelling to come and meet me.

It's been taking a severe toll on health and time!

But like I said before, I will complete this story. I cannot leave it like this.

Please vote, comment and share your thoughts.

Love,

Shruthi :)