The Rogues Who Went Rogue
Chapter 111

Greg's answer made everyone even more stunned. Lucianne gritted through her teeth when she asked Kate, "Earlier, you told me that you didn't know where the discretus who invaded Blue Crescent was supposed to take you. Now, the trace is showing that your boyfriend is from the Forest of Oderem. Are you saying that you didn't know where he was from?"

"No."

"Then how are these two contradictions both the truth?"

"My boyfriend wasn't going to bring me to the forest first. He said he needed permission to do that, not just the leaders' but also the forest's permission. I was supposed to go to a transit location. And he said that if permission was ever refused, we'd just live somewhere else." Margaret spat sarcastically, "Oh, how ROMANTIC! Risk having the whole pack found and elope with a lover you don't even know!"

Kate shot a glare at Margaret when she countered, "I've known him for two years. He loves me. I know him better than you know your mate you met less than a month ago!"

"That. Is. Enough." Lucianne started to make Kate slowly stop breathing, then made her slap herself on both sides of her face with force, leaving her own handprints on her cheeks before the queen asked everyone around her in a low, shivering voice, “Does anyone have any further questions?"

Zane asked innocently and softly, too shocked to speak any louder, "Did anyone else know about you and your boyfriend?"

Lucianne reluctantly let Kate stop holding her breath, and Kate's lungs began replenishing itself with the sudden air supply. Lucianne didn't allow her to fully recover before compelling her to give a response. Since Kate couldn't speak yet, her eyes went to a fair-skinned man. Zane and everyone else followed her gaze to him before Zane murmured, "Oh, you've gotta be f*cking kidding me."

Azalea managed to land a punch on the guy's jaw before Phelton held him by his arm and brought him before the king and queen, kicking his knees to make him kneel.

With her sapphire eyes, Lucianne began, "Howard, right?”

"Yes, Your Highness."

"How long have you known?"

"A year and a half."

"Why didn't you tell anyone?"

He was beginning to look ashamed. But Lucianne's power eventually made him mutter, "I was promised that I could go with them if they ever succeeded, that I could be in a polyamorous relationship with Kate and Rudolpho."

"Have you met Rudolpho?"

"No."

"But you are sure he is okay with the plan you have in mind?"

"Yes."

"Why is that?"

"Because Kate told me that it was okay."

"When did she tell you that?"

"About a year and a half ago, after I caught her seeing Rudolpho. He ran away before I could meet him. Kate told me to keep it a secret and told me that I could go with her when the time was right, that three in a relationship wasn't a problem for them." "So, you also knew about the plan to 'remove' me?"

Xandar's grip around her abdomen tightened as he waited.

"No. I thought it was a simple escape when no one was noticing, like wandering off to find supplies and just never returning to the pack."

"And the escape during the Blue Crescent attack?"

"I didn't know I was supposed to escape then."

"When did you think you were going to escape?"

"I don't know. I was waiting for Kate to give the signal."

"Which never came, I presume?"

He nodded in confirmation.

"Where did you catch them on their rendezvous?"

"Bordure."

Lucianne turned back to Kate. "Do you have a picture of Rudolpho?"

Her pressed lips were no match for the Lycan Queen's power. "Yes."

Greg swiped through the tablet he was holding and murmured, "There are hundreds of photos of men here," he turned the device to face Kate before he asked, "Which one?"

It was baffling that Kate was still trying to be defiant. There was already no way out. Cooperating would give her better chances of getting a more merciful outcome yet she still chose to remain adamant. Lucianne repeated, "Which. One."

The many random pictures was a precaution that Kate took in case someone went through her phone, a precaution that she didn't expect would backfire. Kate reluctantly studied the screen and muttered, "Seventh row, second one from the left."

Greg tapped into that image, showed it to her again. Once Kate nodded, Greg murmured in Lucianne's way, "I'll deploy a few mavericks to ask around in the rogue world, My Queen."

The duke then handed the device to Toby, who came forward and muttered like he was talking to the screen, "I'll get the lycan and wolf warriors to search the kingdom."

Xandar then said, "If there are others with Rudolpho, retreat. They might be decipios. We're not risking lives for a few bees. Let's see if we can use him to find the nest hiding the rest of his friends."

"Goes without saying." Greg muttered as he swipe through his phone.

"Yeah, will do." Toby murmured casually as he took the picture of Rudolpho using his own phone.

"You'll never get to him." Everyone's eyes darted to Kate, who added, "It'll be a mistake to go after him and the others. You will lose. It wouldn't matter if you brought the empress and her vampires. You all will still lose. Look what happened in Blue Crescent." Xandar's thunderous growl made every other growl in the room inaudible. He lifted Kate by her neck and started strangulating her slowly. When everyone heard the first few crackling sounds of breaking bones, Lucianne stood on her toes and pecked a kiss on Xandar's cheek before she whispered affectionately into his ear, "Thank you, darling. I'll take it from here."

"No," his immediate response came in a low rumble.

"Please?" Lucianne's softened voice and the way her hands circled his biceps made their eyes lock. His animal was trying its best to fight against her doe eyes and tender touch but it knew it was losing.

"Baby, no," Xandar said again, much gentler and with more desperation than firmness.

Every single creature in the room knew who was going to be the ultimate winner. Toby was just waiting for his best friend to win again while he sent out Rudolpho's photo to every Gamma and lycan warrior with attached instructions. Christian was counting the seconds before his cousin gave in, wondering if the queen was going to break her record again, making a mental note to tell Annie if that happened.

Funnily enough, Dalloway was secretly counting the seconds too. He couldn't be more thankful that the queen always calmed the king whenever he or his colleagues had to deliver bad news, and when it wasn't him that she was saving, he found it entertaining to just know how long the queen needed to cool the angry king.

"Please? For me?" Lucianne asked in a small voice while innocently blinking her large eyes.

After Xandar pinched his nose bridge and sighed, he placed...or rather threw Kate back onto the chair, and Greg's ready foot tilted the chair back so that Kate didn't fall off.

While Kate took her time to heal and catch her breath, Xandar was rewarded with his wife's smile and a quick kiss at the corner of his lips before she whispered, "Thank you, darling."

His frown eventually turned into a smile when he linked, 'You didn't play fair, sweetheart.'

With a cheeky smile, she replied, 'I know. Thank you for letting me win again, my love!'

Her response made him kiss her forehead in return before he whispered into her ear, "Anything for you, Lucy."

Despite still being slightly breathless, Kate choked out, "What? You stopped your mate from choking me to death just to make yourself better by doing it yourself?"

Even Toby paused from replying to a long line of incoming messages, looked at Kate and said, "You and the cult you want to join takes recklessness and ruthlessness to another level." "Says the ones who support an empress whose father set out to slaughter hybrids!"

Lucianne insisted, "That isn't confirmed. There are no records or evidence showing such a thing. If Rudolpho told you that..."

Kate cut her off, "If the f*cking empress told YOU that, you're dead stupid!"

Another round of growls followed as Lucianne used her Authority to mute Kate and to make sure that she didn't move from her seat. Lucianne's finger and thumb lifted up Kate's chin and she began squeezing it so tightly that Kate felt her fingernails digging into her skin as the queen conveyed a chilling promise, "I'm not going to kill you today, Kate. Unfortunately for you, I'm not that nice. As promised to the government and to you when the offer was spelled out, I'm going to break you slowly until I'm satisfied. I'm going to find Rudolpho, and the three of us are going to have a private rendezvous to get to know each other. On that day, you're going to wish that I killed you."

Kate's eyes shot wide open. She wanted to scream but nothing came out. Lucianne's force on Kate's chin increased to the point where the bones there cracked and broke. Kate's fingers dug into the flesh on her thighs on her own accord to cope with the pain. Tears and cold sweat were evident on her face but no one cared, not even Howard or Phelton. Lucianne's fingers then rested on Kate's right cheekbones and the t*****e continued there. Even when Lucianne smelled blood from the area where Kate's slightly protruded claws dug into her own skin, the queen still didn't stop.

Lucianne said, "You think this hurts? How do you think the creatures who trusted you feel? How do you think the creatures who gave you a chance feel? You didn't just make us look stupid, Kate. You turned against everyone who has been protecting you. You turned against all of us over someone who can't even guarantee your safety. You'd best pray your boyfriend's theory on hybrid-slaughter isn't fiction, or you'd spend a long time behind bars in a never ending cycle of torture and recovery."

After her cheekbones broke, Lucianne broke Kate's nose and right ear, which made her continue screaming voicelessly. The queen then instructed Dalloway, "Take her into custody and start running through the archives for any crimes which left a scent trail that matches hers, Chief. The prosecution can start building their case against her."

"Duly noted, My Queen. And the...other one?"

Lucianne's eyes went to Howard, which was when Xandar answered in a commanding voice, "Same procedure."

"As you wish, My King."

As Dalloway and his forces took Kate and Howard away, something beeped, and Greg went to extract the thumb drive from his laptop before handing it to Toby as he muttered, "Your copy."

"Uh...thank you, Your Grace," Toby blinked in shock before accepting it. He then locked eyes with a much calmer Lucianne when he linked her, 'I haven't lived very long but that was, by far, the weirdest shit that's ever happened to me in my life - Greg Claw handing me information without being asked.'

Lucianne simply responded, 'It just shows that he can be nice if he wants to'

Toby replied, 'If he's doing this because he's in love with me, I'm going to kill myself.

Lucianne narrowed her eyes and shook her head as Toby chuckled at his own joke. Xandar decided to ask what that was about later. Lucianne had been making more time to speak to Toby lately just to make sure he was okay, that she was there if he needed anything, so Xandar kne better than to interrupt them, especially now when Toby needed her more than ever.