“I’m sorry I failed you…” Sophie continued sobbing. “I know you’ve been longing for a child of your own. I’m sorry I couldn’t fulfill my responsibility…”
At long last, Sophie could finally cry it out . She could finally admit it. Say it aloud. For a whole day, she was out of this world. She was detached. She did not want to accept. She didn’t want to talk. She didn’t want to eat. She refused to do anything that wouldn’t help her forget about what had happened.
She was blaming herself. She knew, that at some point, she was at fault.
Then there was Flora, whom she thought was the other wolf in the Palace, beside Axel that could truly understand her. She thought she was trustable. She thought she was… kind.
Even after she heard from her servant, and from her aunt, that Flora was communicating with Flora, she tried to look for a positive side on it. She did not want to doubt her. She could not even bring herself to asked her about it. All because she had fully trusted her. Because she believed in her. Because she treated her as a friend.
Sophie’s sobs got louder, and pitiful. Her tears continued to flow down her cheeks, wetting her face and neck. Axel hugged her. By caressing her shoulder, and slightly tapping her back, he wanted her to feel that he was there, and that he wasn’t blaming her.
Though Axel was also deeply affected by the sorrowful news, the only thing he could provide for Sophie at that moment was emotional support.
“It wasn’t your fault, Sophie…”
Sophie relentlessly cried until she fell asleep in Axel’s arms. After being awake for twenty four hours, she finally found comfort. She finally found a comfortable to position to sleep. She finally felt permitted to rest.
Axel accompanied her, even in her slumber. He hugged her like he knew she could feel it. But unlike Sophie, Axel was not satisfied by just talking about it. Axel was not able to find solace just by crying and sharing it with Sophie.
Thus, after he made sure Sophie had already gone to a deep sleep, he went out to see Hugo in the courtyard. He talked to her, briefly about what ha wanted to do to Flora and Rousel, before he personally visited them.
“Wake them up.” Axel ordered Hugo in a cold manner.
Axel looked at Flora and Rousel’s contiguous cell. There was nothing else inside but them. These prisons were the cell where Axel would often lock his captives, before assassinating them. So it was not always occupied. Back in the day, those who have done him wrong would undergone such tremendous torture before meeting their end.
He had always been fierce.
He would execute a wolf who would try to harm his fellow. He would torment to death those who were spying on him, just like what he did to the Wesleyeians his men caught. His ways had always been vicious.
But those did not seem enough for these two, who had done him the greatest sin.
Hugo lit the two torched on the wall to give them enough light to see each other’s face. He walked towards chair, where the bucket of water was in.
For a whole day, none of them had eaten, nor drank water. The bucket was meant to torture them. But since they seemed to had already accepted the judgement that the Alpha would soon make, it did not affect them. But those two were only the starting point.
Hugo, who wanted the two to suffer, also did not allow them to see any shed of light, to make sure they’d feel hunger in this dusty, dark, and reeking of dead animals place.
It was hell.
But it was better than the kind of punishment Axel had ordered Hugo to give them.
Hugo, as what Axel asked him to do, woke the prisoners using the water in the bucket. He aimed at their faces, to make sure they’d wake up. He threw it afterwards, intentionally creating a loud noise to further waken their spirit.
“The Alpha’s here to see you.”
Flora, who was startled by the sudden splash of water on her face, woke up. She lifted her face, trying to take a glimpse on Hugo’s face. She weakly used her arms to get up. Her vision was still blurry. Her stomach was aching from starvation. She felt weak.
So was Rousel, who was beaten up by Edward’s men this morning.
“You sure have some guts sleeping…” Axel deadpanned, his eyes void of any emotion. “It’s been a long time, Rousel.”
“Axel…” Rousel dared to utter the Alpha’s name. His voice was scratching, deprived of water. “I take it that you already know?”
At that kind of respond, Alpha wanted to unlock the chain and beat him to a pulp. But giving him any more of what he wanted would be lousy. He was not even worth the time and energy he’d use to abuse him.
But that did not mean he wouldn’t do anything to reciprocate what Rousel had given him. Anything comes with a price. His will just happened to be much worse.
“I heard your wife had gave birth to twins three months ago…” Axel’s eyes darkened. “How are they, Rousel? Is Rebecca taking care of them well?”
Rousel’s hands curled to a fist. “You will never find them, Axel.”
“I won’t. But I’ll bet she’ll be more than willing to show herself if I announce that you’ll be executed publicly, right?”
“Just kill me if you want!”
“No.” Axel looked down on him. “That would be too easy for you.”
Executing him was out of the option. He would not allow Rousel to escape, nor would he let him take his own life to be free. He had to be alive, to be able to fully understand what grave sin he committed by messing up with him.
“From now on, you’ll eat nothing but the flesh of your own children.” Axel asserted with authority. “And each time you refuse, your wife will be punished.”
This was not a matter of conscience anymore. Axel was more than willing to commit much graver sin just to punish those who dared to go against him. Even if it meant breaking the Goddess, or the wolves’ law, he wouldn’t give a hoot.
In this Kingdom, he was the Alpha. And those who would do him wrong will face a befitting consequence.
“Rebecca won’t allow you…” Though Rousel tried to deny it, it was written on his face.
The fear he felt upon hearing the punishment he’ll receive was evident in his eyes. In his tone. In his remark. By now, he was probably already measuring how much he could trust Rebecca; how much she’ll abide by their agreement. But this was not for Rebecca to decide, but him.
“Alpha.. Please. Spare my family…” Flora’s fragile voice caught Axel’s attention. “Take my life instead. They did nothing to be punished for my sins!”
Flora..
Of course, she was not forgotten. The mere fact that she was on Rebecca side from the start was already unacceptable. But even so Axel would also desire if Flora were to receive the same fate as Rousel, he cannot.
“I can no longer hurt Sophie, Flora…” Axel’s deep voice resonated in the four corner of the hidden prison. “So, I will not do that.”
Rousel shrieked in disagreement. “Until the end, you have your favorites, Axel.”
“Because unlike you, Rousel. Flora was threatened.” Axel countered. “But you had a choice. And it was your decision to be my enemy.”
“You pushed me to.” Suppressed anger was laced in Rousel’s tone.
“You’re just prideful, Rousel. Had you come back and ask me to put you anywhere so you could still provide for your family, I would have acepted you.”
“That’s not true.”
“Believe what you want, Rousel. It is what it is. What I said will happen, and you will live your remaing years hoping you did not decide to conspire against me.”
And so Axel greeted the two prisoners with the punishment he decided on. A day later, Axel and Sophie had finally come to a decision to publicize the treachery that had happened while they were out for war. They announced of Rousel, along with the servant who poisoned Sophie herself.
And just like what Axel had foreseen, Rousel’s wife showed herself, begging the Alpha to not execute his husband. It was how the Alpha llured her. In cold blood, Axel had manipulated Rousel’s wife into thinking he will no longer have Rousel killed. He took back his word, and made a fake announcement that Rousel had committed suicide.
He asked Rousel’s wife to bring her kids, unaware of the kind of fate that had been decided on by Axel himself. He put Rousel’s wife in a cell in front of his. And on the first week, Rousel’s eldest son was killed.