The Villain Alpha's Cursed Mate

Esme made her way to the third floor, and she found it nearly impossible to stomach the gruesome scene in front of her. Dried bloodstains smeared every surface of the floor, bearing witness to the unimaginable slaughter of hundreds of guards. It was difficult to fathom that such carnage could be done by a single entity, whether shifter or demon wolf.

Looking around, her eyes spotted a few guards who were laboriously moving the remaining dead bodies that were yet to be recovered from the fortress. The warriors went through a central door and stepped out a few minutes later. After making their exit, Esme separated herself from Leo and approached the central door.

Entering, her gaze fell on the five lifeless bodies laying next to each other on the cold floor, all shrouded in white cloth, their innocence tainted by the crimson stain of death. Esme steeled herself and pushed aside her anxiety, then she hurried to one of the corpses. Kneeling down, she slowly extracted a syringe from her bag and drew a blood sample, then she safely stored the needle in a designated pouch.

After collecting the three different blood samples, Esme quickly attempted to leave the room before someone showed up and found her here. Reaching the door, she was startled to see Leonardo standing at the doorway, his piercing gaze fixed on her. Her hand flew to her chest as though it would calm her racing heart, and she shot him a stern glance. Leonardo’s head tilted slightly, acknowledging her wariness.

"I was wondering where you snuck off to." He explained dryly, his eyes darting past her and taking in the corpses behind her. His gaze returned to meet her stare, a hint of understanding flickering in their depths.

"I won’t pry into whatever draws you to the dead, but be careful not to wander off in a fortress like this one. The king will have my head if I let anything happen to you. I told you before, we’re probably being spied on by the demon wolf, so we can’t let our guard down."

Esme walked past him, her words laced with a hint of annoyance as she muttered. "Why do you keep saying such nonsense? If what you want truly happens, many lives will be lost and you know this better than I do. I’m starting to wonder if you don’t care at all about the consequences, or if you’re that driven by your own selfish reasons that you would choose to overlook the sacrifices it would bring." she still hasn’t forgiven him for what he had done this morning, and maybe a part of that anger she felt was poured into her analogy.

Leonardo didn’t respond to her observation on the matter, but his gaze never wavered. Esme suddenly paused in her lecturing as though she just thought of something, then she asked. "Leonardo, how many bodies were found in the fortress initially, before these ones were discovered?"

"Ninety-two." he replied in a measured tone.

Esme’s eyes narrowed intently, her mind working through the calculations. "If you add that amount with the five bodies, that makes ninety-seven." The two of them halted when a few warriors carried three lifeless bodies into the central room, and Esme whispered. "One hundred."

She looked at Leonardo, her eyes clouded with skepticism. "Don’t you find this strange? The bodies are complete, with not a single bite taken." Her eyebrows furrowed,hinting at her growing unease, and she stroked her chin. "Something doesn’t add up. If the demon just awakened, wouldn’t it need to ’feed’ to regain its lost strength? But these bodies are intact. It didn’t feed on a single one. Is there a reason behind it?"

Leonardo crossed his arms and didn’t say a word, making Esme’s expression fall flat at his decision to keep her in the dark. She walked off, and he followed. Arriving at the fortress’s main core, Esme found the king standing before the withered oak tree.

He placed his hand against the trunk of the tree, as if feeling the texture. A warrior had moved to whisper something into his ear, and he stepped back. The king’s face was etched with concern, and his royal warriors exchanged worried glances.

"He didn’t eat a single body I ordered them to leave behind, not even a bite." Lennox muttered inaudibly to himself, puzzled by his own discovery. "How is that possible?"

A frown contorted his forehead, and he turned to his warriors. "Search the entire fortress and leave no rooms unchecked, something doesn’t feel right about it. Find Dahmer and tell him to meet me outside." he gave his command, and the warriors rushed out to fulfill his order.

Lennox was about to take his leave when Esme entered with Leonardo. His eyes shifted from Leonardo before resting on Esme. "Don’t get into trouble, okay?" His golden colored eyes looked pleading, and Esme nodded in understanding. She was certainly going to stay out of trouble, she didn’t need anyone reminding her of that.

When the king left with companions, Esme and Leonardo were the ones left.

She quietly approached the oak tree, and she rested her hand on the weathered bark. "Is this the same tree that sealed his powers?" She asked Leonardo, her eyes never leaving the tree. Her sudden interest in the demon’s history led her to conduct her own personal research before coming here. She had been in the library, and one of those texts had revealed the crucial role this oak tree played in subduing the demon.

The gravity of his crimes was such that they even had to write a book about him.

Esme withdrew her hand from the tree, and she stepped out of the room. She had gotten exactly what she came here for, so she saw no reason to interfere in whatever strategy the king was planning. This was a demon, and he must be put down to save the entirety of Illyria.

"Who is that?" Leonardo’s abrupt halt and fixed gaze out the window piqued Esme’s interest. It was unlike him to react that way to anything at all. As Esme approached to follow his line of sight, her eyes landed on a figure clad in dark attire.

Outside, the figure in black drew closer to the gate, but halted at the sound of a growl coming from ahead. About ten of Lennox’s warriors had shifted into their lycan beast form, to Esme’s unexpected astonishment, and the guards who were yet to shift were led by Dahmer, with their weapons at the ready.

Though the warriors remained patient, awaiting their king’s orders, their eyes seethed with fury. King Lennox’s gaze, in particular, burned with a deep-seated hatred for the figure ahead, his mind flashing back to the brutal murder of his father, and the devastation that swept Illyria.

"Donovan," he uttered the figure’s name in spite. "Reveal yourself!" He commanded in an authoritative tone. "I’d like for everyone to see the face of the monster who has done nothing but bring havoc to the people of Illyria. You’ve done enough damage after finally waking up — reveal yourself, I demand!" fгeewёbnoѵel.cσm

The figure, whose name was indeed Donovan, remained motionless at the king’s stern orders, but then seemed to reconsider his choices at the last minute. With his hands raised in a slow, deliberate motion, he pulled back his hood, revealing a sight that left the onlookers stunned.