Chapter 30: Plan In Motion (3)
The pack members gasped again, the beta did what?!
"No, Luna, you misunderstood. Of course, I care about the pack and would give my life for it!" Beta Ryan protested, his face reddening as he took a step forward, his hands raised in a placating gesture, but his eyes flashing with a defensive anger that only served to further erode the pack’s trust in him. "I was thinking of what was–"
"That’s true, you’ve always cared for the pack’s well-being, reason you led the war against thousands of rogues yesterday...oh, you weren’t there. My bad." Reana’s voice was laced with sarcasm, her eyes glinting with a cold amusement as she delivered the verbal blow, her words hanging in the air like a challenge, daring Beta Ryan to defend his absence from the battle.
The pack members’ gazes turned to him, their expressions a mixture of shock, disappointment, and accusation.
"You locked me away in the dungeon!" Beta Ryan screamed, his voice carrying far as he took a step closer to Reana, his eyes blazing with anger and indignation.
He was growing frustrated now, his composure crumbling beneath the weight of Reana’s relentless verbal assault. This vixen was ruining his reputation, exposing his secrets, and undermining his authority, all with a calculating calm that only served to enrage him further.
"I did," Reanna nodded calmly, her expression unruffled, before turning her attention to the dungeon guards. "I leave these guards to you, Beta Ryan. They’re disloyal to me, and it seems they’re taking orders from someone else. How do you think I should punish them?"
Beta Ryan’s anger boiled over, and he blurted out the words without thinking. "Disloyalty is punishable by death." His voice was fierce, and in the next instant, as if to vent, he closed in on a guard - one who stayed closest to his cell. The same guard who knew about his relationship with Vivian and Lillian.
Before anyone could react, a sickening crack echoed through the air, and the guard’s head snapped violently to the side. His lifeless body crumpled to the field, eyes frozen in a permanent stare of horror.
Amidst the turbulence of emotions in his heart, Beta Ryan still managed to smile faintly, a cold, calculating glint in his eye. He was pleased to have killed that guard. The guard knew too much, and if left alive, his own life would be at risk. The weight of his secrets, the true extent of his loyalty and betrayal, would have been exposed. With the guard’s death, Ryan had silenced a potential threat...
But unfortunately, in doing so, he had also revealed a darker aspect of his nature, one that sent a shiver down the spines of the pack members.
"That’s barbaric, Beta Ryan. That guard has a family... killing him was uncalled for," Reana shook her head in disapproval, her voice laced with a subtle tone of disappointment and disgust.