Vexton roared, his eyes flashing a molten, predatory gold. He lunged across the table, but half a dozen Alphas scrambled to intercept him. They grunted under the force of his charge, forming a desperate wall of bodies between the two men. Axel remained seated, leaning back with practiced boredom. He didn't move to help.
He's doing it again, Axel thought, his thumb hovering over the screen of his phone. Walking right into the bait. It was funny how his father could dish out insults but couldn't handle a fraction of the same treatment. Besides, did he truly think he could overpower Kallos? The man was a freaking hybrid. Axel watched the struggling Alphas with a detached coldness, realizing they weren't just protecting the peace; they were actually stopping his father from going to his certain death.
King Kallos Maximilian Hawthorne, by virtue of his seat in Omnia, was one of the few leaders even the most powerful Alphas in the room would never dare cross. His city was a metropolitan powerhouse, a rare sanctuary where supernatural beings and humans did more than merely survive together; they thrived within a shared civilization.
Unlike the typical territories of most supernaturals, where they lived solely among their own kind and tolerated few humans within their borders, Omnia stood as sprawling proof that all species could coexist.
They never used titles like "Alpha" to address their leaders. To the people of Omnia, such terms belonged to rulers who governed by primal instinct. Instead, they chose the royal tradition of "King" and "Queen," believing them to be the titles best reserved for those who presided over a true society.
Kallos was the apex of this order. A powerful Umbra wolf and a lethal vampire, he reigned as the hybrid king of a city that housed more Umbra wolves than lesser breeds, alongside formidable supernatural beings most in the room had never even heard of. His subjects included humans armed with specialized weaponry, all bound beneath a single rule.
He had ascended to the throne by personally executing the city's former tyrant, a man every Alpha on this council had once feared. A leader capable of commanding such a diverse, volatile population was not someone to trifle with. If Kallos chose to drain Alpha Vexton of his last drop of blood in this very moment, the entire council would likely step aside and watch.
Axel shook his head in silence. His father was truly courting death.
"Stop holding him back," Kallos called out, waving a dismissive hand. "Let him come at me. I want to see him try." He licked a sharp, translucent fang suggestively, his silver eyes shimmering with dark amusement.
Vexton snarled, his face contorting until he looked more beast than man. "I'll tear your tongue out of your throat!"
Axel nearly burst out laughing. He had to fight every instinct in his body to maintain his bored gaze. Is my father stupid or simply brave? He watched Vexton's veins bulge in his neck. Nah, the man's heavily stupid, he concluded.
Dewan and Caelum exchanged a quick, loaded glance. Caelum looked as though he wished the floor would swallow him whole, his face drained of color. Dewan, however, eased back in his seat. A faint, satisfied gleam flickered in his amber eyes as he watched Vexton's humiliation unfold.
There was a grim satisfaction in witnessing someone do what he could not. Part of him wished the other Alphas would simply step aside,he wanted to see for himself whether Kallos was truly as formidable as the rumors claimed. And if Vexton's blood was spilled in the process of satisfying that curiosity, Dewan wouldn't lose a moment of sleep over it.
"You are a blight, Kallos!" Vexton roared, his voice cracking upward into a jagged, desperate screech. "An abomination! A mistake of nature that should have been put to the torch and turned to ash before you even drew your first breath. You think you're something just because you are in charge of Omnia now?"
He let out a wet, hysterical laugh, spittle flying from his lips.
"I will turn that pathetic sanctuary into a graveyard. I will pile the bodies of your people so high the sun won't reach the soil for a decade! I'll ensure that the only thing left of your legacy is the stench of rot and the silence of the dead!"
The room went deathly silent. Kallos, who had been lounging in obvious boredom, suddenly went still. The unserious mask he often wore, mostly to drive others mad, vanished.
He rose. It wasn't a sudden movement, but a slow, predatory uncoiling. His jaw tightened until it looked carved from granite. Without a word, he began to circle the table, his gaze never leaving Vexton's.
A handful of frantic Alphas scrambled to form a thin, trembling line between the two men, but Kallos didn't so much as glance at them.
"Listen to me very carefully, you bitter old husk," Kallos said, his voice a low, vibrating hum far more terrifying than any shout. "Do not ever dare to threaten my people again. If you so much as whisper the word Omnia in your dreams, I will not just kill you. I will unmake everything you ever touched, erase your name from history, and leave you to rot in a hole so deep the Goddess herself couldn't find your soul."
Vexton flinched. The bravado swelling in his chest withered. A cold dread curled around his spine, each heartbeat a warning he could no longer ignore. He had endured Kallos's mockery for months, but with a sinking chill he realized this was no game of wits. He saw it in the icy stillness of Kallos's eyes, the hybrid wasn't playing anymore.
But the other Alphas were watching. If he backed down now, he would be branded a coward, and Vexton hated nothing more than appearing weak.
"You think you're the first monster I've faced?" Vexton barked, though his hands shook as he strained against the other Alphas. "You're nothing but a dog that needs a shorter leash!"
Kallos leaned forward, peering over the shoulders of the nervous Alphas, his face inches from the narrow gap between them.
"I'm right here, old man," he sneered, a dark, predatory grin tugging at one corner of his mouth. "Stop hiding behind them, tossing empty threats, and come at me. I know exactly how to deal with relics that have overstayed their welcome on this planet."
Vexton released a guttural snarl, straining against the Alphas like a caged beast.
"Enough, Father!" Axel snapped, his voice sharp with barely contained fury. "Can't you see he's doing this on purpose? He's baiting you!"
What Axel truly wanted to ask was whether his father had a death wish.
The room fell silent, filled only with the heavy, ragged breathing of the Alpha of Vicious Fangs.
Kallos let out a slow, melodic whistle. "Well, look at that. I didn't know there was a Maximilian left with a shred of common sense. I assumed Vexton's stupidity had poisoned the rest of the bloodline."
Axel didn't give him the satisfaction of a reply. He kept his cold, steady gaze fixed on his father. "Can we proceed with what we came here for? The Pack's awakening ceremony begins at midnight. We need to return in time, and I would appreciate it if this childishness ended now."
Kallos studied Axel's face, searching for a flicker of emotion, but the young man was an impenetrable mask of indifference.
Kallos straightened the front of his pristine white jacket, a faint smirk tugging at his lips. "I can't believe I just wasted an adrenaline spike on a grandfather."
Vexton let out a low growl, and Axel resisted the urge to drag a hand down his face, wondering how he shared half his blood with a man so easily provoked.
Kallos glided back to his seat with a predatory grace that made the leather chair resemble a throne. He lowered himself into it and leaned back, unhurried, while Vexton remained standing across from him. The Alpha of Vicious Fangs trembled with barely restrained violence, his nostrils flaring as he dragged in ragged, heated breaths. His glare burned into Kallos's profile, his jaw clenched so tightly that the muscle ticked.
"Do you need a hand sitting down, Vexton?" Kallos asked, his voice dripping with mock concern. "Because if you don't need assistance, you should stop wasting our collective time and take your seat so this meeting can actually begin."
A vein throbbed at Vexton's temple. For a moment it looked as though he might lunge again. Then he jerked his arms free of the Alphas still bracing him and dropped heavily into his chair. The leather crinkled under the force. He leaned back, his chest continued to rise and fall in uneven pulls, though the molten gold in his eyes dimmed to a dull, resentful amber.
One by one, the other Alphas warily returned to their seats. The long mahogany table once again became a fragile barrier between rival powers.
"As much as I enjoy watching Vexton nearly have a stroke," Kallos said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the polished surface, "can we discuss the actual reason we are here?"