Second Chance for the Barren Luna (Talia and Jason) novel Chapter 293

Jason’s POV

I killed the last guard outside the hall and wiped the blade clean on his sleeve. Kent's torch lifted twice in the window above me. I grinned. It was the signal I had been waiting for.

I walked the path to the great doors. The doors began to open as I came up to them. I stepped through into the hall. The whispers started as soon as they saw me, sharp and shocked.

My wolf was on edge and so was I. It was risky coming here. The hall was full of Alphas, and if they decided to attack me, I could take some of them down, but I would not make it out alive. The trick was reading the room before the room read me. I scanned the faces in the front rows and saw exactly what I needed to see. Confusion. Hesitation. No one wanted to make a move. No one would dare harm me with me being backed by the Rogue King.

I looked at the stage and froze. The Alpha King stood there, staring back at me. This was wrong. He was supposed to be on his deathbed. The reports had said he was bedridden, barely able to lift his head. Yet here he stood, no cane, no one holding him up, looking like he had never been sick. How the hell was that possible?

‘Don’t panic. We’re here now. Follow through,’ my wolf urged.

Solon was already moving along the side of the stage. "Guards. Surround him. This man is a traitor!” he ordered.

The guards moved in on me. I lifted my open hands waist-high so they could see them. “Is that how you are going to treat a guest?”

“You are no guest of ours,” Solon snarled.

"You will want to hear me before you throw me into the dungeon,” I said.

“You can say it from the damn dungeon,” Solon countered.

“I have brought a gift today. It is worth enough to end the bounty you placed upon me,” I said with a smirk.

"You are only trying to buy time. You have brought nothing into this hall but yourself," Solon scoffed. "Take him and lock him in the dungeon.”

"Wait,” Talia said and the guards stopped their approach. Solon’s jaw flexed in annoyance, but he didn’t undermine her and waited for her to continue.

"If he claims a gift, let him show it," she said.

“You won’t be smiling for long, bastard,” Nolan growled, low enough for only me and the guards nearby could hear.

I turned my attention to him and smiled smugly, knowing it was driving him crazy as well that he couldn’t touch me. We would have our fight in due time. I’d make him pay for what he did to my father.

"He will be treated as a guest for today. Tomorrow he will present what he has come to present. Until then he is under the roof of Silverfang. See him escorted to his room,” the Alpha King ordered. There were murmurs from the Alphas, but no one argued with him.

The guards lowered their drawn arms. They formed a circle around me and led me out of the hall. I could feel their hostility towards me, but they were bound by the Alpha King’s word. They wouldn’t harm, not like they could anyway.

'Why did you let this moment go to waste?’ my wolf questioned. ‘We had the room. This was the perfect opportunity to finish him off.’

‘In case you missed it, that was a man on death’s doorstep. Somehow, they cured him and I need to know how. So, for now, we will stay and bid our time. We will figure out what they’ve done and then tear it apart even if it means poisoning him again.’

Seeing Talia and Nolan’s fury at seeing me was worth as much to me as the original plan would have been. The Alpha King would die. Whatever had restored him would not hold forever. When he died, I would use his death to split the two of them apart and take my rightful place as the Alpha King.