A Kingdom of Wolves

Chapter Six.

Chapter Six.

The ice shifted and rumbled, as the sounds of snowmobiles echoed around the Glacier Pack. The members were motionless, standing in stunned silence, wondering what was going to become of them. Their Alpha had broken the law, the Luna was half-crazed, and life as they knew it would never be the same again. Some blamed the new Luna, whilst others cursed the prisoner, Eliza Whitestone.

The royal Elder Carson could smell the stench of death before his keen eyes spotted the blood between the Glacier pack’s enforcers' legs, which lay barely hidden under a pile of freshly moved snow.

He cut the engine of his snowmobile, acutely aware, the noise could induce an avalanche of ice from the mountains that surrounded the pack. He took a moment, scanning the area before stepping off his snowmobile. The elder saw the distraught Aiden Whitestone, and his mate, his ice blue eyes filled with contempt as he stared at his eldest daughter, and the new luna of this pack. Carson then glanced at the killing poles. The young woman who hung between them had grief-stricken tears falling onto her cheeks, as she glared at Alpha Greyson, with nothing but contempt for the man.

Carson understood all was not well at this pack, and he needed to react with his brain, to think carefully about his next move, so that this matter could be brought to justice quickly and quietly. However, he also understood that Eliza Whitestone was not the only prisoner he would be taking back with him to the Ice Palace. It was as clear as the Glacier Lake itself, that young Alpha Greyson had done something abhorrent and was misled in his thinking that he would be able to hide it from the king’s envoy.

Taking a deep inhale of breath, the royal elder walked before the Alpha and Luna throne.

“Kill her, she murdered my pup!” Rein instantly screeched, pointing at Eliza hanging between the poles, and forgetting the basics of pack manners when in the presence of the royal envoys. They were to be treated as if they were in the presence of the king himself.

Elder Carson ignored Luna Rein, turning his attention to Greyson. The Alpha instantly stood and bowed his head in reverence, as Rein remained sitting, pointing and shouting.

“Alpha Greyson. If you cannot control your Luna, then how is the king to believe you have full control of your pack?” Carson asked, giving the young man before him a pointed look.

Eliza watched the interaction. She could not deny the satisfaction she felt when Greyson paled, and hissed at her sister to stand, bow her head and shut up. She turned her head slightly from the warmth of the unusual sunshine that still beat down on her face, the clouds suddenly appearing as if still. Her eyes sought out her parents, finding them both still huddled together. Her heart pounded in her chest. She hated the pain that was radiating from them, as her mother continued to sob in the comfort of her father’s embrace.

After Rein relented and greeted the royal elder as protocol dictated, Carson turned his attention to his old friend.

“Royal Warrior Aiden. My heart is sad about the circumstances of meeting with you again. It has been too long since we broke bread and drank fine wine together,” Carson smiled at Eliza’s father.

Aiden immediately bowed his head, not lifting it until the royal elder addressed him once more.

“I feel you have broken your bond with this alpha,” Carson commented, knowing that no matter what had transpired, this man was one of integrity and would be completely honest.

“I have, Elder Carson. I find I am unable to respect or serve an Alpha that kills a pack elder, on the whim of his luna,” Aiden stated, his voice ringing out around the pack.

“LIAR!!!” Rein immediately screamed in the direction of her father. Carson snapped his head around and glared at the young alpha, his face a stoic mask.

“Alpha Greyson, I will not tell you again. Control your luna, or I will.”

Instantly, Greyson reached out to his mate, placing his hand on her arm in a bid to control her compulsive nature.

“Please excuse my mate and Luna. She is in much pain after the murder of our pup.” Greyson gave his excuse before squeezing Rein’s arm in a silent warning for her to settle down.

The royal elder turned to a trio of kingsmen's enforcers, and gave them a simple bob of his head, watching them as they peeled off from the group, and walked in the direction of where Maisy Starlight had been brutally murdered not twenty minutes before.

Carson turned his attention back to Aiden, his features softening as he looked at his old friend. The man who had saved the old king yet had lived a humble life here at the Glacier pack, when he could have riches and men waiting on him hand and foot, due to the life debt.

“This matter will be brought before the King,” Carson reassured Aiden, who simply bobbed his head in response, his eyes then settling on Eliza, as she still hung between the killing poles.

Carson turned on his heel and approached Greyson once more.

“Tell me, Alpha. What do you accuse your prisoner of?” He asked.

“Murder. She took a silver knife to my pregnant mate and killed our unborn pup. This is a traitorous act against the pack Alpha, who is under the protection of the king,” Greyson’s nervous voice said, hoping the charge against Eliza would somehow stop the royal elder from investigating Aiden’s accusation against him.

Carson bobbed his head once, before turning to face Eliza. As his gaze fell on the beautiful young girl, he immediately spotted the royal moonstone hanging around her neck. Instantly, he understood that Elder Maisy Starlight had gifted the girl the artifact that only the king could now remove. His heart sank, as he looked around the pack, trying to spot the cousin of the old king, who had tended the old queen, above and beyond the call of duty, before meeting her mate. The moonstone made Carson’s job in returning Eliza to the King for his investigation easier.

However, if it was Maisy that Greyson had killed for gifting the moonstone to Eliza, then Carson had no option but to arrest him, and his whining luna.

“How do you plead, young Eliza?” Carson gently asked the girl.

Eliza looked down from the sun, her eyes locking with the royal elder.

“Not guilty, Sir,” she simply responded, and bowed her head in reverence to him.

Carson felt it deep in his bones: this girl was innocent. He offered her a small smile before turning to the Glacier pack enforcers.

“Take her down. She will appear before the king at the ice palace,” he announced, as Aiden let out a long-held breath, and Meradith let out a low sob in his arms.

“Royal Warrior Aiden and your mate are welcome to travel with us,” Carson stated, as Aiden nodded his head.

“My dear, you may return with one of my female enforcers to your abode, to get yourself cleaned up and in some clothes for the journey,” Carson smiled at Eliza.

“WHAT. NO! KILL HER!” Rein screeched.

Carson locked eyes with his trio of royal enforcers, one of which had moved over to the snow cave in the western glacier mountains and entered.

Greyson visibly paled, as Rein immediately fell silent.

As the imposing figure of the royal enforcer exited the snow cave, the slumped body of Maisy in his arms, Carson let out a long, menacing growl before turning to Greyson and Rein.

“Arrest them!” he bellowed.

Rein screamed as she jumped up from her Luna throne, attempting to run away, as Greyson lowered his head, not putting up a fight.

The royal enforcers soon captured Rein as she fought against them, before being bundled into the back of the silver barred box, which was held between two snow jets, screeching like a banshee at Greyson sat alongside her in the silver infused prison vehicle, his head hanging low, as he contemplated his recent decisions, and his spectacular fall from grace.

Eliza walked calmly back from her home, washed, and in her warm clothes, her single snow bear pelt around her shoulders.

“Eliza Whitestone. You will ride with me. Your parents will follow on their own snowmobile. Who is the beta of this pack?”

Emmerson Littlerock stepped forward, his face pale, wondering if he would also pay for Greyson’s mistakes.

“You are the Alpha of this pack, until further notice, by order of the Kingsmen,” Carson stated, before nodding to the enforcers, who covered Maisy’s body with a shroud, gently holding her fallen body against them, as they sat on their snow mobiles. The roar of the engines started, as they set off on the long journey towards the ice palace, for the king’s justice.