The Alpha's Forsaken Feisty Mate

Leon paced in his room, wondering why Radulf and his beta, Darren, didn’t arrive yet. He looked at the time and found it was already past midnight, making him wonder him something bad happened.

"Did Father send someone to harm them?" Leon murmured. However, his feet halted as he felt his beta’s presence and realized Radulf was there too. He eagerly went to the heavy doors of his chamber and opened them.

What surprised him was Zenna also accompanied them.

"Why are you here?" Leon questioned in worry and pulled Zenna inside. Radulf clenched his fists, but it wasn’t the moment for any argument. He walked inside the chamber before Darren closed the doors behind him.

"I know my mother is alive," Zenna said as she pulled back her hand from Leon’s grip. She saw his eyes moved to Radulf. "He didn’t tell me. It was someone else, who told me," she replied.

"This wasn’t the part of the plan. If someone finds out that you are here, then the Alpha King will lock you right away," Leon said with a concerned gaze.

Radulf stepped between them, his stance firm as he met Leon’s gaze. "Listen to me first," he urged. "We wore disguises to avoid drawing attention from the palace staff. I’ve masked my scent completely. Zenna’s is undetectable too," he added, then quickly laid out the plan that justified bringing Zenna with him to the palace.

Leon’s expression remained tense, brows knitting together in thought. "Did you ask Jakob about your mother? What she was like?"

Zenna gave a faint nod. "We did," she replied. "But Jakob didn’t know much. All he could tell us was that my mother’s werewolf clan was... different. It was mysterious, with certain magical abilities. But even he was kept in the dark, his mother never revealed the truth to him."

Leon’s jaw clenched. "That’s why Father kept you alive. He’s waiting... for something," he muttered, the pieces clicking together in his mind. His eyes flicked toward the tall clock in the corner. "We don’t have much time. In five minutes, the guards’ shift will change. That’s our only window to reach the underground dungeon."

He turned to Darren, whose posture straightened with confidence.

"The Crown Prince need not worry," Darren said with a slight bow. "I’ve already handled everything. We’ll get in and out without a single soul noticing."

"Then, let’s go," Leon said, pulling out the pocket watch from his trouser pocket and checking the time.

As planned, they took the route Leon had carefully studied earlier that evening. The late hour worked in their favor, most of the palace servants had retired, leaving many corridors empty and giving them the perfect chance to move undetected.

Leon walked swiftly, his eyes flicking between the dimly lit halls and the ticking hands of his watch. Radulf and Zenna followed closely behind him, their footsteps soft but brisk. Darren was behind them to keep a check at their backs.

At a corner, Leon raised his hand and quickly ducked behind a wall. The others stopped behind him.

"The shift is changing," he whispered.

Peeking out, Leon and Radulf saw the guards leaving their posts in front of the dungeon gate. The entrance was momentarily unguarded.

"Darren stay here. When I’ll mindlink with you, you have to divert the guards’ attention," Leon instructed him. Darren nodded his head and he stayed hidden behind the wall.

"Now!" Leon said.

The three of them sprinted toward the heavy metallic doors. But the moment Leon reached for the handle, he realized he had forgotten the key.

"I forgot to arrange the key," he muttered in frustration, glancing at Radulf. In his rush to prepare everything else, the arrangement of the most important item had slipped his mind.

Without a word, Radulf plucked the hairpin from Zenna’s bun and knelt by the lock. "Stand back," he said calmly. In the low light, the gleam of his green eyes helped him find the keyhole.

"Can you really open it?" Leon asked, keeping an ear on the hallway.

"They’re coming," Zenna said, voice tight with anxiety. "I hear footsteps!"

"We may have to fall back," Leon whispered tensely.

But Radulf didn’t waver. His fingers moved.

Zenna’s trembling hand found his shoulder, her breath quickening as the footsteps grew louder. Just then, with a soft click, the lock gave way. Radulf pushed the heavy doors open, and the four of them slipped inside.

Leon closed the doors behind them just as the sound of boots echoed just outside. Without wasting another second, the three of them hurried down the narrow passageway until the space gradually widened.

"I can’t sense any wolves’ presence here," Radulf said, his brows furrowed.

"But the underground dungeon does exist," Leon responded.

"Yes, but it feels... empty. I should be able to pick up something, even faint traces. But there’s nothing," Radulf added, clearly unsettled.

"We still need to check," Zenna said firmly.

"Of course," Radulf agreed with a nod, and they pressed forward.

Eventually, they reached the center of a large, dimly lit space.

Zenna’s steps slowed as her hand instinctively rose to her chest. A strange, unexplainable sensation filled her.

’Is my mother in there?’ she wondered as her heart began pounding.

Radulf and Leon were the first to approach the massive iron gates. Seeing they were locked, Radulf dropped to his knees and used the bent hairpin once again. Within moments, the lock clicked open. They stepped inside, Zenna following closely behind.

Their steps slowed as their eyes fell on a frail woman with silver hair lying unconscious on the cold dungeon floor. Shackles bound her wrists and ankles, and her body looked painfully thin, as if life had been drained from her.

"Mother!" Zenna cried, rushing forward.

"Zenna, wait! Be careful!" Radulf warned, quickening his pace behind her.

But in that moment, it was as if she couldn’t hear him. Her hands reached out, nearly brushing against the silver chains, until Radulf swiftly grabbed her wrists and pulled them back.

"You might get hurt," he said firmly. Then he added, "I’ve got gloves on. Let me check her."

Zenna looked at him as she nodded.

On the floor, Karina stirred slightly from her unconscious state. Though her eyelids remained shut, the soft echo of their voices had reached her ears.

Radulf gritted his teeth as he grabbed the silver shackles. The metal seared his skin, burning through the gloves, but he didn’t flinch. His only focus was freeing her.

One by one, the restraints snapped under his strength; first her wrists, then her ankles, and finally the cruel collar around her neck.

Zenna fell to her knees beside her mother. With trembling hands, she brushed back the silver hair clinging to Karina’s face, revealing features that had aged far too quickly. But it was her. The woman who had given her life. The one whom she had always hated for abandoning her right after the birth.

Tears welled in her eyes as her fingers caressed her mother’s cheek. "Mother..." Her voice broke.

Leon stood frozen as he clenched his fists. Radulf, though still recovering from the silver’s sting, couldn’t take his eyes off the scene either.

Zenna’s mother, Karina, had been alive all along. But she was imprisoned, hidden and tortured in this place.

’Phillipe had locked Zenna’s mother. But why?’ Leon felt utterly disgusted thinking he was Phillipe’s adopted son. The man was no lesser than a devil, who only knew using people in his own way.

"Mother, wake up. It’s me. Zenna. Your daughter," she spoke as tears escaped her eyes.

"We need to take her out of this place," Radulf said. "Move aside. I’ll carry her on my back. We need to leave the dungeon as soon as possible," he told Zenna, telling her to get herself together.

Zenna wiped away the tears from her cheeks and helped her mother getting on Radulf’s back.

"Leon, lead the way and communicate with your beta right away!" Radulf instructed him as he carried Karina up on his back. Zenna removed her dark brown overcoat and draped it over her mother’s back and they began walking.

’Darren, can you hear me?’ Leon established a mindlink between him and his beta.

’Yes, Alpha Prince,’ Darren responded immediately. He was waiting for this connection as he had an important information to share. ’Please hurry outside. I saw one of the guards rushing toward the Alpha King’s manor,’ he informed them.

"We need to hurry. One of the guards has gone to inform my father!" Leon said.

"What?" Zenna gasped with a terrified look.

"Don’t worry. We will make out from her," Radulf said. Despite his body was already exhausted, but he couldn’t let himself fall back.

’Darren, we are almost near the door. Move the guards away,’ Leon instructed his beta.

’Yes!’

Darren had already planned for it too. He mind linked with Leon’s gamma, who distracted the guards from the door by suddenly appearing before them in his wolf’s form.

The guards at the huge metallic door moved and tried fighting the gamma wolf before making them run behind him.

’Hurry, you need to come out now!’ Darren informed Leon.

The door opened after a few seconds and the three of them were out.

~~~~

"What? The dungeon door was not locked tightly!?" Phillipe left the bed as soon as he heard that. Wearing his slippers, he hurried out to check the underground dungeon himself.

"Your Majesty, what are you doing here at this hour?" Nina’s voice reached his ears as he stopped in the middle of the corridor.