Page 71 of Heart Broken Mate

Not my city anymore.

“Do you remember what we talked about?” Klint asked.

“Yes,” I said and nodded.

“Good. Let’s go down and say hello to them.”

“Wait,” I said. “Tell me, Klint. Why did you do it?”

He smiled at me. “You aren’t fit to rule this land, Viper. Under you, the people will die because it wouldn’t be the Tarloux alone that will be coming after you. Nillport is the envy of many people, and with James gone, they saw it as open season. People were just waiting to see where the chips would fall from the run-in you had with the lone wolf before they attacked. The Tarloux family will stop that attack. It is not about you, Viper. It is not about James either, even though I wished he was alive now and we weren’t in this position. It is about the people and what is best for them. That isn’t you.”

“Would you have done the same thing, insist on handing the reins of the rule of Nillport to the Tarloux if Hayley had been in charge?”

“No,” Klint said without hesitating. “Even James knew she would make a better ruler than you.”

He bowed once more to me and headed down. I followed him, through the hallway, to the front of the Palace, where the first of the soldiers were just arriving. He moved past the Palace, making camp around it and establishing their presence heavily. I knew this was just a fraction of the men they had arrived with, but even at that, it was a large number.

The message they were sending was simple. War was coming.

I stood on the stairs in front of the Palace as the motorcade arrived, and the long black limousine stopped in front of me. One of the soldiers walked to the door and opened it. I watched two men step out of it. They were old and wrinkly but moved with such agility that it was impossible. They were twins and looked perfectly alike; nothing was different between them. Not even the cold stare they threw across the street and the lithe manner as they walked. I had a cold sensation that I was looking at a member of the old family. I knew it was a lie, but they held such awe it was almost numbing. A lot of Tarloux rulers have come and gone, but these two were the longest yet. They also were the ones that had conquered the largest amounts of provinces. They were brutal and callous in their ways. And it was all there to see in their eyes.

They started up the stairs and towards me, and naturally, from the way they looked, one would expect they might need help walking up the stairs. Nothing like that happened. When they got in front of me, they both extended their hands to me. One on the left and the other on the right, so it was side by side and in their middle finger was a large red ring that glittered like it was holding some kind of shimmering matter inside. I kneltdown before them and kissed the rings. The left first, then the right. They looked at each other and smiled as though they were making an internal joke.

“Viper, they call you,” one of them said, and he had a very disturbing voice. It was itchy but still had that same reverence common to everything about them. His voice was that of evil and pain. Everything about them made me shiver.

“I don’t see anything venomous about a man on his knees.,” the other added and cocked his head to see me. They did this to every alpha that had ever bent his knees to them. They ridicule him. I was glad there was no one but Klint here to witness this.

“There is nothing venomous about a man with a horde of Tarloux army outside his city,” I said.

“Yes, and nothing venomous about a man who can’t seem to kill an errant wolf and a lone wolf,” the other said.

When he said the lone wolf, they both had a look of disgust wash through them. So, it was true what people have always said about them and the lone wolves. No wonder James wanted the lone wolves out. There was only so much rebellion he could stand in the face of men like this. I had nothing to say to the insult they directed at me, so I remained on the floor.

“But we’ve found out she’s a descendant of the old family. A family we thought we exterminated, so it is no surprise you were unable to handle her. She and her newfound mate are noble, and they have old blood running through them. They are not like you lowborn wolves. They have power, they have heritage, and they have huge destinies. It is our job as Tarloux to take the three from them. They also seemed to have stumbled upon something that we want.”

“Stand up,” the other said. “Walk with us and tell us about this girl.”

“Hayley?” I asked.

“Yes, that one. The one that now has the moon stone with her. A stone our family have been after for centuries.”

I walked behind the two of them as they walked through the Palace as though they had been walking through it forever, and they knew just where they were headed to. I thought they would talk about Pique, but no one mentioned it.

“She’s a runt,” I said.

“I’ll hardly call her that. She is powerful. She’s killed all the hunters you’ve sent after her, and she is the reason we are here to take your city from you and to help you guard it.”

“She does have power,” I said, admitting.

“Now, we are getting somewhere,” the other said.

“James picked her up from the street like me too.”

“So, she’s known a lot of hardship.”

“Yes, she has. And she is rather resilient too. She wouldn’t budge even in the face of inevitable death.”

“She sounds just like a Heline. I would love to meet her soon.”

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