Rejected by the King, Protected by Her Alpha Twin Chapter 02

Rejected by the King, Protected by Her Alpha Twin Chapter 02 Borrowed Regalia 

The captain ground his molars together, rage coiling in his frame. “They dumped her ou within the western wastelands.”

I bore down harder with my boot, pressing it into the nape of his neck. His cheek scraped raw against the mud-caked nameplate, skin splitting open under friction.

“Liar.”

My tone stayed flat and icy as I stared down at him. “If that tongue of yours exists onlyto spin falsehoods, I will carve it right out of your mouth.”

The blade’s edge grazed the corner of his lips, and his resolve shattered on the spot.

“Three days back! Selene vanished mid-convoy while being marched toward the territory borders!

“The Alpha King feared word would leak and ruin Evelyn’s coronation. Every exit got sealed off. All members of that escort detail were ordered to keep their mouths shut.”

Three days.

A jagged, tearing ache hollowed out my chest.

One month ago, our twin-bond link had flooded my senses with searing pain; I’d felt whip- ripped flesh through our supernatural tie, proof Selene had still drawn breath back then.

Yet three days ago, that connection had gone quiet. An injured omega could not simply vanish into thin air without a trace.

I snatched the sword off the ground, spun on my heel, and held its sharp edge up to the hand- maiden’s face. “Who was the final person to see her?”

Terror wracked the maid’s whole body, every muscle trembling. “Mara! Mara led a group to interrogate her, then handed Selene straight over to that escort unit!”

Heavy, rapid footsteps boomed from behind us. A squad of guards blocked every way out of the courtyard. At their head stood an elder woman draped in lavish silk robes, a silver-barbed whip dragging across stone at her side.

Mara.

Three years in the past, she had sworn an oath upon her wolf spirit to shield Selene with her very life in front of everyone.

Now she sported my sister’s thick wool cloak, holding her head high. One pearl I had gifted

Selene glinted brightly within her hair. No flicker of guilt crossed Mara’s features upon spotting me. Instead, she flicked her wrist and sent the whip cracking toward my person.

“Selene! Was banishment not enough for you? How dare you slink back and harm Luna Evelyn’s servants!”

I dodged the incoming strike. The whip smashed into a ceramic flowerpot behind mesending sharp shards scattering across the flagstones.

Mara curled her lip in a sneer and barked out her demands. “Head down! Hands out! That earlier lesson clearly never stuck. I will beat proper obedience into you on behalf of una Evelyn.”

My gaze locked onto the pearl nestled among her tresses. “They gave you that trinket as payment for your loyalty?”

Mara stroked the pearl tucked in her hair, smug oozing from every gesture. “Everything which once belonged to you now falls to Evelyn. The Alpha King holds that a vicious female like you deserves nothing at all.”

“Where are my private guards?”

Her smirk widened, turning cruel. “Your own parents tricked you into surrendering the command token before handing it directly to the Alpha King. Anyone refusing to swear fealty paid with their lives. Survivors fled away from our territory. Quit wasting our time with pointless questions.”.

That laid the full truth bare.

The fighting force I had left behind to safeguard my sister had been dismantled by my own parents. Small wonder she had endured well over a hundred lashes, with nobody daring to slip word of her suffering to me.

Mara misread my quiet stillness as fear. She strode forward and reached out, aiming to grab my hair.

“Evelyn is your mother’s long-lost niece. She endured terrible hardship out among the wild packs. Your parents only sought to make amends for all she suffered. Had you yielded the luna position sooner, you would never have landed in this predicament.”

I lifted my gaze to meet hers. Mother’s niece.

That explained why my parents had sat through the coronation ceremony, watching Evelyn usurp Selene’s rightful station. But what right possessed them to repay Evelyn’s hardships using my sister’s blood as currency?

Mara lashed a kick toward the back of my knee. I caught her ankle mid-blow and wrenched it

hard.

Agrisly snap cut through the air as bone fractured. She screamed and crashed hard onto the dirt ground.

I seized her silver-barbed whip, looped its length tight around her throat, and dragged her over toward the stump of a felled tree.

“Selene, have you lost your mind!” Mara scrabbled frantically at the whip cord, thrashing her limbs in wild panic.

I bound her firmly against the stump, plucked the pearl free from her hair, and tucked it away inside my pocket. Next I drove my sword blade clean through her sleeve, pinning her fast against rough timber.

“You drape yourself in her cloak. You adorn yourself with her jewels.” My fingers curled around the whip’s handle, and a slow, cold smile tugged at my mouth. “And you still imagine you can wield the very whip which tortured her, to force her head down?”

The first lash landed, silver barbs tearing through the fine fabric of her robe.

Mara let out a high-pitched shriek. “Selene! The Alpha King will make you pay for this!”

I brought the second lash crashing down onto the exact same spot on her body. “How many total lashes did she endure?”

Mara set her jaw tight, refusing to utter a single syllable.

Deep inside my consciousness, my wolf spirit bared its fangs, burning with feral, savage satisfaction.

I planted the full weight of my boot atop her uninjured leg and crushed her kneecap without hesitation.

Her scream resonated so loudly it seemed to shake the courtyard walls. “Ahhhhhh!!”

“Don’t black out just yet.” I tossed icy water across her face to rouse her, then tapped her ashen-pale cheek. “Every number you leave out, I will shatter one more bone of yours. We have the whole night to jog your memory.”

Mara’s composure crumbled entirely. “One hundred and twenty-seven lashes!” She dissolved into hysterical sobs and screams. “The Alpha King and Evelyn issued those orders! I merely followed what I was commanded to do!”

One hundred and twenty-seven.

I branded that number deep within my mind and raised the silver-barbed whip once more.

“Tonight I will collect ten of those strikes as interest. The rest of that debt stays pending until I fd Selene. Every last one among you shall pay her back for every injury inflicted.”

As the third lash split the air, disciplined, synchronized footsteps echoed from outside the courtyard walls.

“The Alpha King has arrived!”