Chapter 62: Chapter 62

On realising the truth, I rushed towards the kitchen,it was busy and it took a while for me to realise that it was busy because of tonight's event.

The king had planned everything on his own and concluded on me marking Tala today but that will never happen, the food would probably be for the midnight feast afterwards but too bad for him the whole food would be fed to the street dogs because there won't be any celebration of me marking Tala tonight.

They all noticed my presence and stopped what they were doing as they bowed to me while I scanned the room but realised that was pointless as I had no idea who the head chef was.

"Where's the head chef?" I asked and realised my voice echoed, I must really be annoyed and so is my beast.

"I'm right here your highness" She immediately rushed to where I was as she knelt and bowed on the floor.

"What brings you here my lord..." she tried to be formal but I had cut her off to make her fear and squirm.

"Shut the crap and answer the questions I'm about to ask you" I said in my authoritative tone and could immediately smell fear coming from her.

"Who is assigned to feed Lenora?" I questioned.

"I am the one your highness "

"What have you been feeding her?" I asked and could smell her fear increasing.

"Your highness, I..."

"What the hell have you been feeding her!" I growled under my breath as it sent echoes around the room.

"Forgive me, your highness " she pleaded in tears as her head never left the floor. My anger began to increase as she wouldn't answer my question and I hated it.

"Don't make me mad, what have you been feeding her?" I asked one last time as I made sure my tone sent a warning to her.

"Spikes of wolfsbane, forgive me" she announced in tears as I heard the other cooks murmuring in a low tone but the murmurs immediately died after some seconds as no one there would want to anger me than I already was.

At the sound of it, my beast wanted to rip her head away from her body and maybe chop her parts into pieces with my claws and teeth but I knew that wouldn't get me anywhere as I knew she was just a cook and wouldn't do it on her own will else someone paid or threatened her to do it, mostly the latter.

"Who sent you?" I asked and sensed someone coming into the room and I immediately picked the smell, it was Jenny so I shoved it off and concentrated on the woman.

"I hate to repeat myself " I threatened as I immediately sensed her fear increasing than it was like her soul wanted to leave her body.

She slightly lifted her head but immediately bowed back as she started to cry out loud.

"The Hunters, your highness. Clara hunter and Tala hunter" she cried out as I scoffed.

I knew everything would come back to those two beasts but one thing I wasn't sure of was why they would do something like that to Lenora as she was still part of their family no matter what.

I wondered what kind of mother would feed her daughter poison throughout her lifetime and want to eventually kill her child. She's just as evil as Adolph and if I can't kill Adolph, I can kill her with ease.

"Lock her up!" I ordered Jenny as I stormed out of the kitchen completely ignoring the pleas from her and her cries. She should have known better than to mess with somebody I love, someone I would risk my life for and most of all, my soul mate.

I decided to warn Lenora about her mother but when I went to the room I couldn't find her anywhere. I checked her room but she wasn't there either and I don't think she has been in there for a long while since she stays in my room most of the time.

As I walked past doors, I suddenly caught her smell and traced it to the door it led to as I barged and met her seated on a dressing chair with her mother beside her as she was about to eat a cookie.

With my speed, I collected it from her hands and threw the whole box away as I grabbed her mother by the neck squeezing the life out of her.

LENORA'S POV

"Eat up," she said to me as I brought the cookie to my mouth but as I was about to eat it, the door suddenly barged open and in a blink of an eye the cookie was slapped out of my hands and the next thing I could see was Alaric's hands on my mother's neck as he held her neck really tight that I feared she might choke to death.

"What the hell are you doing, Alaric?" I yelled at Alaric as I tried to release his hands from my mother's neck but he wasn't budging.

"This woman doesn't deserve your love" he growled and as he turned to look at me, his eyes were all different and had changed. It wasn't emerald anymore but was sparking gold. Fire gold.

I spotted Tala being scared on the bed as she tried to leave the room but Alaric seemed to be faster as he instantly threw my mother against the wall and stopped Tala from escaping but as he was about to touch her I remembered the rules from the game.  He can't lay a finger on her either as it'll make him face consequences.

"Please stop! " I cried as I fell to my knees in tears. I have never seen Alaric like this since Asher and it feared me because I was starting to remember the true beast he was. Tala immediately scurried to where my mother was as she tried to help her up.

"These people are monsters, Lenora, the woman who you called mother has been the one poisoning you" he turned to me as he spat in frustration.

"That's not true and the only monster here is you, can't you see that you're turning to a monster that you used to be" I yelled and I could see his body calming from the words I said as he closed his eyes but the time they opened they weren't sparking gold anymore as they were his normal emerald eyes. He was trying to calm himself.

"Believe me, Lenora, these people are your enemies and they want to kill you, they're the ones that have been poisoning you all along..."

"Just shut up Alaric, I don't want to listen to the bullshit you're about to say. I won't tolerate you talking to my mother that way!" I yelled at him as I was also getting angry from the words he was saying to me. There was no way she would want to kill me because she only wants nothing but our family's unity.

"I can see you're still the naive girl that you were, you never learned anything from the incident with Asher" He said and my anger rose.

"Tell him you're not Asher, you're my mother and you'll never poison me, you love me and you're not what he says you are" I turned to face Clara as I urged her to say those words. Maybe Alaric would leave me alone after he hears those words.

"But I am" Clara replied and for some while it didn't dawn to me what she meant until some seconds later and my face fell.

"What do you mean?" I stuttered.

"What are you doing, mother?" Tala asked with concern on her face but she seemed to be more concerned about her mother, not me.

"I mean what I said, he's right,  I poisoned you, I have been poisoning you since you were just a baby. What are you going to do about it, Lenora?" She asked with pride.

"Mother stop!" Tala tried to warn Clara but it was clear Clara didn't give a fuck and would proudly say more.

"Chill out," she said to Tala with a smile.

"You bastard!" Alaric roared as he held her neck once more but she had no feeling of regret on her face as she only smiled and laughed while her neck was being held tight by Alaric.

"The most you can do is to kill me, but you can't lay a finger on Tala. She'll win tonight and become the future queen. Even if I die, nothing changes' ' She boasted as she continued to laugh.

I didn't know what to apprehend in my mind as I had mixed emotions running through me, I was confused, angry, sad and devastated all at the same time.

I knew she once hated me but never would I imagine she had actually been poisoning me since I was a little child for reasons that are yet unknown.

"Why did you do that?" Tears flowed from my eyes as I asked her the question but she only kept laughing as she choked on her way to death.

"Answer me!" I yelled as she rolled her eyes backwards.

"I need my throat to answer your questions" she responded while gagging and I didn't only hurt me but irritated me at the way she was openly boasting about poisoning me.

Alaric slowly let go of her neck as she chuckled and gave me a wicked smirk.

"I hated you Lenora,  I hated you right from birth for everything you did. We were all born naturally and I had a happy family with my husband and Tala before the moon goddess decided to be unfair to me and had me give birth to you, an abomination."

"It was on a stormy night and my water broke, I was to give birth to you but it was impossible for my husband to drive to any hospital in the storm. I suffered and managed to give birth to you yet you came out of my womb glowing like the night stars."

"You possessed a power no one has ever seen and made my husband leave me in search of what you possessed, claiming it was the gift from the moon."

"I was left alone without any job, strength or food to take care of you both while your grandma never cared about me. No one ever cared about me including my husband who had left me because of you."

"I watched how you grew and how your powers increased but you don't expect me to watch you grow up happy after giving me a miserable life do you?" She scoffed while I watched her talk in dismay.

"There was no way I was going to watch you grow to be a happy person and I will never let you be happy for the joy you took from me. Anyway, long story short , I found a way to get wolfsbane and so as to not be suspicious, I fed it to you in little quantities in your every meal."

"When I realized your powers would come back after a while of not feeding it to you,  I made sure to meet your school's cafeteria and instructed them to feed it to you but that was never enough."

"I heard my daughter would be up for a match against the atrocity so I came to finish the work myself and it was plain easy as you were gullible as ever" she chuckled and before I could control my emotions any longer I had slapped her hard on the cheek.

She smiled it off and raised her head to look at me right in my eyes.

"You won't win this fight, you'll lose and die being unhappy just like how you made me unhappy " she cursed me.

I wanted to hit her again but I knew it was of no good use as tears only kept on rushing down my cheeks. Perhaps it would have been better if she gave me up for adoption rather than slowly killing me and taking my strength from me.

"I won't kill you now, I'll make you a scapegoat and hang both of your bodies in public " Alaric threatened them as he grabbed my hands to leave the room while I could hear Clara laughing as she mocked us.

I could sense Alaric's anger but something was different,  he was trying hard to control his anger as his grip on my hands weren't hard but gentle and they reflected his pity towards me.

I knew it wouldn't cost Alaric anything to kill Clara yet he didn't and I felt it was because of me.

"Order from the King, every wolf should be present in the battle ground,  the battle starts in 10 minute. It's the final battle and the day the prince marks his partner!" The King's guard announced yet again but my mind was way far from what he was saying.