The Alpha King's Nemesis-Chapter 171: Suffocating ()

"Mhijani! You shouldn’t be out here." Askel fussed the moment he set eyes on Zariah.

Askel walked over to Zariah, coming to stand beside her, he trailed Zariah’s gaze to find her eyes were fixed on Caedmon, just as Caedmon’s own gaze was fixed on her.

They always said there was a moment when the entire world faded away and all that was left was just you and that one person.

Zariah had always thought this scenario was one of love and longing, but it seemed such a thing could happen with a feeling equally as strong as love... hate.

"Mhijani, this is Caedmon Grey, Alpha of the Waning Moon Pack." Askel introduced, unsure of what to make of Zariah’s reaction, or lack of it.

However, that thought soon changed in Askel’s mind when Caedmon broke the silence with a single word no one could ever have expected to hear him say, no one except Zariah of course.

"Mine!" Caedmon snarled possessively, declaring his mate claim in the presence of all eyes to a woman that had already been claimed by the Alpha King.

Before the words even came, Zariah had seen it coming. Right from the moment she stepped into the main hall, that feeling that something was terribly wrong was exactly this,

The mate bond with Caedmon was exactly as it had been, Zariah felt it just as she had in the previous lifetime, strong and demanding, pulling her towards Caedmon with a familiar urgency and intensity that she had fallen to once before.

Which only meant one thing, nothing had changed in this lifetime. Caedmon had still falsified the mate bond and his intentions to make use of the mate bond to weaken Zariah were still the exact same.

This was exactly how it had happened in the previous lifetime, all she had done up till this point had only delayed the inevitable but the evil had still come... the evil would always come.

And in this moment, the evil in the person of Caedmon Grey walked towards Zariah, his eyes clouded with intense possession while everyone could only look on in shock.

’Breathe...’ Zariah reminded herself, but her body was completely unwilling to listen to her mind.

And Zariah was not certain she would be able to take another breath, not until a deadly growl echoed from King Askel.

King Askel moved in a flash, standing before Zariah and blocking off Caedmon’s path to her.

Caedmon snarled fiercely at King Askel, looking ready to attack but Lucas and Dechlan were quick to defend their king, lunging at Caedmon Grey, they held him down, stopping him from going any closer to Askel or Zariah.

"Get away from my mate!" Caedmon snarled as he struggled against the two Ethereal wolves restraining him.

"I dare you to say that again, I will have your head!" King Askel vowed, his tone eerily calm though the glow in his eyes told that his wolf side was right at the surface and would take over at any moment.

"Let go of me! You have no rights to keep me from my mate! This is unlawful!" Caedmon snarled fiercely.

"Alpha Caedmon, I do not understand what exactly it is you are saying! Zariah is His Grace’s mate! Everyone knows this!" Lucas hissed, completely baffled at the situation.

Zariah could see that no one could understand what exactly was going on, but she did.

Zariah sucked in a deep breath as she watched Lucas and Dechlan struggle to keep Caedmon down, failing terribly when he broke free, his desperate attempts growing increasingly fierce.

The moment he had the opportunity, Caedmon lunged at King Askel, his eyes glowing in rage.

"Alpha!" Allen exclaimed, the crimson wolves were by Zariah’s side in a flash as Lucas and Dechlan lunged at Caedmon again to suppress him, tackling him down just a short distance from Askel.

Zariah stared between a wild Caedmon battling to get to Askel and a visibly furious Askel who practically shook from rage.

’They both knew each other...they both have some form of connection. Which means, I was right... the King Caedmon spoke of then...it must have been Askel.’ Zariah realized.

All this while, Zariah had believed her suspicions must have been wrong.

That she had misunderstood something somewhere, there was absolutely no way the Askel she had come to know could be the same monster that ordered the annihilation of the Crimson Moon.

But in this moment, Zariah realized she still knew nothing, she still had no answers and it was most likely that she had opened her heart to her mortal enemy.

A sudden feeling of exhaustion came over Zariah, bearing heavily down on her heart, so heavily that Zariah’s shoulders slumped in defeat.

All that happened around her sounded so far away, the growls, the snarls, everything sounded like distant echoes and all Zariah could hear was the unsteady beat of her own heart.

Zariah did or said nothing, instead she turned and walked away, ignoring everything and everyone.

Zariah walked right out of the Ethereal Palace hall, out into the courtyard and she just kept on walking, having no destination in mind.

The moment Zariah was at the forest line, she broke into a swift dash, running through the forest at blinding speed.

She ran and ran until Zariah was certain she had lost the crimson wolves following her and it was only then that she stopped, leaning against a tree to catch her breath.

Zariah gasped, sucking in large gulps of air, but even then, her chest felt tight and stuffy, she was breathing just fine but Zariah still felt like she was suffocating... like her lungs no longer understood what to do with air.

Zariah lifted a hand to her chest, hitting her fist against her chest to relieve that suffocating feeling, all to no avail.

Zariah collapsed to the forest ground, gasping for breath, her hand clutched her chest as silent tears streamed down her face.

Those familiar black spots danced across her vision and Zariah did not fight the darkness as it laid claim to her consciousness.