28
The Silver City, Lycan Territory
Third Person POV
The three sons of Lucius huddle around the table with annoyance and dread on their faces, the news from The Vale placed firmly on the table in front of them.
The three men knew of Rudo's plans and rejected any part in it but they still feared their father's wrath, not only Lucius's but the Alpha King, Kanes.
Leon is the youngest of the brothers and is the first to make a sound, he had grown too uncomfortable with the silence and refuses to sit quietly, the quieter the room the more guilty the brothers felt. "That bastard, I warned him father would kill the idiot." He swipes the newspaper off the table and across the room in annoyance. He sits back in his chair and rubs his temple, he did not want to face his father's wrath.
Maximus snorted and poured himself some more red wine, he finds it pitiful that the mutt Rudo would dare defy their father's orders to leave it alone, everyone knew in the Silver City that we value order above everything.
Christophe growls, having enough of his younger brothers. "Even so! For Lucius to hide this... Acela Shaw from us, what the hell was he thinking." He says out in disbelief. His father had always been careless doing whatever he wanted, he was the one that taught the sons that they must always abide by the law of the Lycans in order to strive and survive.
All the sons had spoken their minds on the matter of their half-sister, Rudo was the only one that refused to accept that a female Lycan halfbreed was playing princess with the royals in The Vale, Rudo refused to let her live, thinking somehow her being alive means that he wouldn't be next in line when all the sons but Rudo knew Christophe was the oldest and wisest.
Who was going to be King had been a constant argument within the Lycan council and their father, Lucius. Not ready to surrender his title, no one could simply force Lucius or fight him for it, so The Silver City sons of Lucius were constantly on edge. Having a female Lycan in the family changed things for the sons and Lucius knew that.
Lucius made the right decision to go to Acela, he knew he could not control the temper of a disobedient brat for long, he had to know which one of his sons would go for Acela, so he could deal with it swiftly and with dealing with it, letting it be a lesson to any other who would dare harm his youngest, female or not.
Leon stands up and glares at his brothers. "We need to go to The Vale, we need to be there for the execution, he is our brother." He says stiffly, even though Leon hated Rudo, he had to be there for the death, it was the way of Lycan and family.
Maximus and Christophe stand up from the table, both very annoyed that they had to leave because their brother had done something stupid, they all hated Rudo, he was loud and obnoxious, it was sooner or later that Lucius would kill him.
None of the brothers were directly related, Lucius had many women during his time of reign, resulting in four sons. He took no wives or girlfriends, so when Lucius told his sons about Brianna Shaw, the sons were shocked, it was like the sons of Lucius did not know their father anymore, or he had a split personality, it was out of the norm for him.
Little did they know then, but Lucius had only loved one woman, Acela Shaw's mother. After the 'death' of Brianna, the sons knew their little sister was alone, none of the sons showing any movement to meet the young Lycan female as it was their father's wish to leave her alone.
But now that she was here, alive. The sons are even more confused as to what the hell their father was thinking.
All three sons of Lucius head towards the royal garden, none of them wanting to be the bringer of bad news, but she had a right to know what was happening in The Vale.
Upon spotting the slim beautiful woman in a sundress, kneeling in front of a rosebed tending to the flowers, the sons walk cautiously towards the young woman with scowls on their faces.
The woman turns upon hearing the footsteps of others, she smiles when she spots who it is, those that stand behind her she had grown very fond of them, they always seemed to cheer her up when she felt sad. "Hey what's up? Is Lucius back?" She asks with a soft smile, while mud and sweat cover her beautiful face, her blue eyes shining brightly from the light outside.
The brothers looked at each other and sighed. Maximus hands her the newspaper from The Vale from today, he thought it would be less painful to read it on the paper than have him tell him what is happening to Rudo and within The Vale.
The young woman looked at the three with confusion on her face, she stands up and removes her gardening gloves from her hands, she takes the newspaper and scans the front page.
The words on the front page make the young woman pale, her heart sinks at the words in big letters.
"ANOTHER ATTEMPT ON ACELA SHAW'S LIFE!
There was yet another attempt at Prince Caelans Mate, Acela Shaw last night. We at The Vale Times find this to be a coincidence, multiple reports of the famous Lycan King Lucius were made, Lucius was seen inside the palace the same time the intruders tried to take our young queen's life. The young woman Acela Shaw was left unharmed and the suspect remains in custody within the palace.
The palace has yet to comment. "
The young woman looks up to the sons in panic on her pale face. "Was this Rudo? Have you heard from your father?" She asks in a panic as she storms past the men and heads back into the palace, the three sons following behind her.
Christophe sighs heavily as he walks beside her. "Yes, Lucius is to execute him for the attempt, apparently he came close, he hurt the King's mate in the process, he is to die tonight, privately."
The young woman halts and looks at her sons as they frown. They knew that she was going to say but it was out of the question. "I'm coming with you." She says which the men immediately shut down.
Maximus grips her arm with a scowl. "You know you can't leave, you are still in danger here Br-"
She interrupts Maximus, annoyed of being treated like a prisoner. "I want to see her! Don't you even care that Rudo tried to kill Acela?!" She huffs out in annoyance as her head starts to throb.
Leon holds her steady so she doesn't pass out. "You need to sit, and we do care, but you have no right to show up out of nowhere and start acting 'mom' Brianna!" Leon says roughly in annoyance.
Brianna pales and closes her eyes, she knew he was right but it hurt every time she was reminded of how bad a mother she was. She thought she was doing the right thing to fake her death and illness so she could have a normal life without her.
Brianna Shaw was being hunted, 100million rubies for her head, a bounty from her own family, she could not risk the life of her daughter for hers, she had turned to Lucius, the only one she could trust, he was the love of her life as was she his.
To save her daughter she had to fake a lot of things just to hide, moving constantly had weighed heavy on her daughter, she did not want that life for her.
Maximus crosses his arms and glares at Leon for being insensitive. "You have immunity within these walls Brianna, move from them and you put not only your life in danger but also your daughters." He says simply, without sounding too harsh, he knows where Brianna is coming from, someone had almost killed her daughter twice now.
Brianna sobs in her hands as she thinks of how scared her daughter must be, she would not forgive Rudo for this, he had threatened her life once he had found out about her. Brianna had nowhere else to go after faking her death, to show up on Lucius's doorstep had been her only hope for life and to protect Acela.
The sons found out immediately once Lucius told his sons everything, only Rudo had threatened to find her and kill her, calling his father and his lover's child an abomination.
Maximus kneels in front of Brianna, they all hated to see her cry, they all had understood her predicament with not leaving, but the risk was far too great, one Lucius would not risk, he could not risk losing her again.
"I'm sorry, is there anything we can do?" He asks the silently sobbing beautiful woman as she looks up to the sons with hope in her wet tearful eyes.
She nods her head, in the hope they do not argue about what she was about to ask. "My bedside table, there is a letter.. please.. take it with when you leave." She asks softly, close to begging as he eyes plead with the sons.
All three look at each other and groan out, they knew Lucius was going to be pissed but they had grown tired of waiting for this all to unfold as it should, they all did not approve of both Brianna and Lucius lying to their daughter, but for the girl to not even know she is alive? They all agreed it was wrong and shameful, she deserved to know.
Nodding his head he says no more as he walks away from the sobbing woman wiping her eyes, he did not care to look anymore. It was all such a mess, something needed to be done to fix this shit and he knew that whatever Brianna wrote in that stupid damn letter was a start.
As the sons walk away from Brianna, she takes a deep breath and stares off into the garden, she hated this pain she felt thinking of her beautiful daughter, leaving her alone in the world without a clue who she was, what she was. To tell her she came from love and she has people who love her.
But Brianna didn't have to say anything or tell her, she had found her mate, a Prince. She always knew the Black royal family would protect her through everything, or die trying, she was lucky to have them as family, Brianna couldn't ask for more from her goddess, she was overjoyed when she had learned of her daughter's life, she had opened her own business, she had a fascination with the taste of coffee ever since she was a small baby.
She kept all newspaper clippings of her beautiful daughter and scrapbooked them, Lucius and Brianna had made a hobby out of it, to keep up with their daughter's life, both were extremely proud of her. They both longed to tell her, show her how much they missed her, it was only when Rudo disappeared from the Palace that Brianna and Lucius had to make a move.
Lucius did the only thing he could, to keep his family safe, even if it meant leaving his love for a few days, he had not seen Acela since she was a baby, he had never stopped thinking of her tiny hand gripping his large finger, he felt love only twice in his life, from the only two girls in his life, Brianna and Acela Shaw, he was going to risk it all to protect them both.
They both had to make their moves, after all, they had both grown too accustomed to living in the shadows of the past, something had to be done and it had to be done today.
No more running away.
The three sons make their way to the front of the palace, a car already lays in wait to take them to the private plane, there is no going back after this, all sons take one last look at the palace and hope they all come back with their heads knowing how pissed Lucius is going to be.
