Page 63 of Own To Obsess

“Do you have anything to say about your actions?” Kardos growled.

Anata stood shivering a few feet to his left, her hands bound behind her back, and between them, a round hole had been cut into the ice of the lake they stood on. Surrounding her were three of his guards, while Zolt stood by his side.

“You made promises you didn’t keep,” Anata spat. “When you became tribe leader you said you would always keep to your word. You said you would ensure that Tribe Nyek did not become corrupt, and that there would be no conflict of interest in you being both shinno and tribe leader. That was a lie!” Her eyes blazed. “If Tribe Nyek had had a separate tribe leader, you would never have been able to get away with things you are doing. There would have been someone to stop you.”

“What the fuck has that got to do with you attacking my Omega?” Kardos bellowed. “Your problem is with me. You do not attack another’s family to punish them. It is against all tribe laws, every single one! I cannot guess why you are so obsessed with your cousin coming to Tribe Nyek, but if she’s anything like you I am glad to have avoided her.”

Anata glared at him. “Not all tribes are like Tribe Nyek.”

“Are you saying that Tribe Obari is corrupt?” Zolt interjected. “Is that why your cousin wants to get out?”

Anata didn’t reply and in her silence was the answer.

“You know we cannot interfere with another tribe’s business,” Kardos said to Anata. “It is against the very nature of the Southern Isles. You should have gone to the high chief.”

“I didn’t need to,” she hissed back. “Until the Omega came along and bit you, there was nothing to say to him.”

Kardos shook his head, unable to believe she couldn’t see there was a better way to have addressed her concerns. “You are a coward and a manipulator,” he said with disgust. “You are exactly like the tribe you came from and you should never have been accepted into our community. You were given a warning, and you still continued to act against me in the most dire of ways.”

He unsheathed his sword. “Anata, you have been charged with three counts of treason and will be executed immediately.”

Finally a thread of fear and uncertainty embraced Anata’s frame. She glanced at Zolt and the guards. “Wait! Don’t I get to decide my fate?” she asked, panic in her tone.

Usually the accused had the option to choose their death: jump through the hole into the freezing water, killing them within moments or have Kardos decide. Choosing to jump was the easier death for most, but Anata did not deserve that option.

Kardos strode around the hole and grabbed her by the hair as she inched away from him. “Did you give my Omega a choice?” he growled, as he yanked her head back. “When she was battered by her carriage, frightened, and begging you to stop, did you show her kindness?” He slid his sword into her neck and snarled with satisfaction as her blood spurted out onto the white ice.

Anata’s wide eyes rolled and she gurgled as she tried to gasp for, blood seeping from her mouth.

Kardos dragged her forward and pushed her into the hole so she could also freeze to death. Perhaps some of the blood-loving sea creatures would also feast on her before she lost complete consciousness.

He dipped his sword in the water to wash off her blood, then sheathed it before turning on his heel and striding back to his carriage.

Zolt was soon by his side. “It seems there is more to Tribe Obari than meets the eye.”

“Not our problem, Zolt.”

“Agreed. But it’s good to be aware of when you take your role as high chief. I assume whatever is wrong must be bad if Anata was willing to go to such lengths.”

“Anata was crazy,” Kardos confirmed. “We cannot give her words too much credit.”

When they arrived at their carriage, a temple attendant was waiting for them.

“You have been summoned to temple,” he said to Kardos.

“When?” Zolt asked.

“Immediately,” the attendant said.

Kardos nodded. This was it. He was about to become high chief. “I will be there.”

***

“What you did was risky, Kardos, too risky,” the high chief said sternly. “You could have killed her.”

“It may seem risky to everyone else,” Kardos said evenly, “but I knew she would make it out.”

“How?” the high chief demanded, moving from around the desk in his temple office to stand opposite Kardos. “How could you know? She is not from this land and she is an Omega. Explain to me how it wasn’t a risk, Kardos?”

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