章節 27: His Banishment
DAEMON
"You do not appear shocked that it is him." Yaren said in a deadly voice as they loaded their belongings onto the carriage that was to leave for the border of the glaciers that very night.
"Eldric NorthSteed? Shock me? That will be another life." Daemon said casually as his younger half-brother's ever smiling face filtered through his mind.
People that acted like Eldric weren't normal. Either they were plunged with a disease of the mind that made them extremely fragile, or one that made them extremely dangerous. Daemon had found it was the latter when Eldric was just eight and had acquired an unhealthy obsession over privately acquiring imprisoned rogues. He would thereafter mete out a torture on them that would lead to their very violent death.
Eldric wasn't sane. Far from it. But then, Daemon inferred that he too wasn't very sane. If not, he would not be taking the hard path.
"You speak so much about protecting political ties, the werewolves, and the borders. And yet you would allow a man that would bring down everything that has been built for centuries to become Alpha King! He is barely out of the strings of a pup!"
If Yaren was going to keep lashing out that night, then Daemon might very not take him.
Observing his brother impassively, he decided to launch a very boring political agenda that he had been trying to avoid talking about that night.
"It is impertinent for me to leave. If I wish to acquire more power on my own, starting by waging war against the Arising Rogues is a good start."
"So you've finally woken up from lunging lazily and burying your nose inside books." Yaren sneered, still so angry.
Daemon flicked him an annoyed stare. Yaren, realising just how much he was crossing the line that night, bowed his head to Daemon in defeat.
Books were gateways to knowledge, the way of the werewolf was already brutal and barbaric at most, how could Daemon purport to rise above others if his mind was not refined and sharper than most.
There was brutality in him alright, a ruthlessness that he showed with great constraint. Daemon had never considered himself an emotional person. He hardly got angered or happy. He was born with a natural blandness and it was so bad that even in the face of the Alpha King's rejection of him, Daemon had never felt the pain of such abandonment. In fact, that night was the first time he had felt a flicker of anger coated with annoyance in him.
Not at the fact that Zina WolfKnight had levelled lies against him. But the fact that a woman such as she could creep past his defences. Never in his lie had he been taken by such crude surprise.
If there was anything the Late Alpha King had taught him, then it would be that he would never leave Daemon with anything. Not his titles, nor even his lands. Daemon must fight for everything he wanted, and that night, he had simply chosen the longer but more rewarding fight.
Unlike Eldric and whoever his helper was, who Daemon could bet was Moorim, he didn't have a straight gateway to their father's life. Hell, even that night, he had not been allowed to see the man despite the fact he was on the brink of death.
Now he was dead, Eldric who no doubt wanted to claim Daemon's life would want to go after him. Daemon would like to see him try though. Maybe then, Daemon would choose the shorter, less rewarding fight.
"Let's go, Yaren. The crescent moon is in our favour to run the rest of the journey."
Shadow appeared from the shadows, his figure hooded as usual as he bowed to Daemon.
"I have made the necessary arrangements. Your journey can start now."
"How many werewolves await us at the Persian Glaciers?" Daemon asked the man.
"Two hundred and fifteen."
The number was far from enough to combat the surprising thousands united under the banner of the Arising Rogues. But Daemon didn't intend to fight them head on.
The dominating Alphas of the surrounding regions were reluctant in participating in the war. But that was not out of fear but merely out of the fact that they were yet to feel the heat of the uprising. In that case, all Daemon had to do was make sure the rest of the Alphas felt the heat of the uprising. When they did, they would have no choice but to send their warriors.
Currently, the heat of the uprising was at the Border of Glacier that bordered the North-East and Eastern Lands. This meant the location of the uprising was smack dab in the Arctic North and some part of the Greenlands.
Rogues weren't particularly territorial. With the right kind of bait, they would surely spread out their ranks to other parts of the continent, and maybe then, the other Alphas would wake from their slumber.
It was for that very reason that Daemon intended to lose the first war. Although it would be quite pitiable if the display he intended for would be called a war.
"My Lord, someone is approaching us. She says she wants to see you." Galga, another of his close servants announced in an uneasy tone.
"Who?" Daemon asked with a flick of annoyance. If it was Bella there to throw another tantrum, he would wonder why Galga hadn't turned the nuisance woman away.
"Two women. One looks suspiciously like the Great Seer… I mean, the traitorous Seer." Galga marched all over his words like the thought of proclaiming the woman responsible for his master predicament a Great Seer was a dire crime.
"In case you're at a loss for what to call her, she is your Theta." Daemon all but said in the face of Yaren's simmering rage. But his half-brother didn't speak for fear that his cup of allowance was full that night.
Daemon stared at the direction of the two figures. He too was curious about why the woman who brought him down was asking to see him.
"Leave us." He said to his companions, and they all left at once, save Yaren who stayed back for some seconds, and then grimly left.
Daemon had some words to convey to Zina WolfKnight. Words that his normally stony expression failed to properly convey.
His bland expression said he could hardly care for the woman's treachery, but that was a lie. Zina WolfKnight had not only harmed him that night, by declaring Daemon a traitor she had harmed Yaren, Daemon's aunt and children that were married into the FrostBite high rank pack in the Arctic North, and all his mother's Weres that waited for him for years at the Persian Glaciers.
Everyone associated with Daemon now faced persecution due to her declaration.
Admittedly, she had greatly amused him at first. A thing of his curiosity, Daemon had wondered how someone seemingly weak like herself could bring him down. But then, it turned out that Zina WolfKnight was nothing interesting. In fact, she represented everything he had ever despised… and all of them could be surmised in one word, 'belief'.
Things of the moon goddess, the so-called mating process, visions… Daemon despised everything that represented an otherworld bestowment by some divine being. It irked him to no end that Werewolves were wholly incapable of making a decision without seeking some otherworldly sign.
Maybe that was in part, one of the reasons he didn't take his father seriously. How could Daemon take a man titled the 'lover of the moon goddess' seriously? For even the man's hatred for him stemmed from some superstitious nonsense. Even till his dying breath, Xavier NorthSteed could not yet decide whether he loved his mother, or hated her.
Perhaps he believed that since the mating process was a divine mandate, his love for her was to be expected. And yet, his father obviously hated that he was forced to marry the woman from the southern lands for the simple fact that she was his fated mate.
Believe? Some otherworldly hand? Daemon scoffed internally. No, he was a practical man, and all his life, he had always made practical decisions. He had long vowed to never be like his father—tied to the words of an unknown seer simply because she was chanted, 'Great Seer'.
Taking a precursory glance at the gleaming glacier castle that stood tall as the home of the Alpha King, Daemon knew he would return one day and return this smear.
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