Alpha Jaziel came down from the stairs, his eyes were fixed on the girl standing beside her mother.
Something seems off with her scent.
He walked closer to her, taking slow steady steps, his eyes didn't leave her for face a moment.
Why did she run away from him like that?
Did she frighten her that much?
He stopped when he was in front of her, they lowered their head and greeted him.
Sebastian stood beside his Alpha, he had doubts that something was wrong and he wanted to see how the Alpha would react to finishing his chosen mate.
"Lift your head, not you woman. Amira, let me see you." His voice sounded cold, Lady Georgia shivered under the sound of his voice. This was the first she was standing this close to the Alpha King and in his palace.
It was nothing to her but a precious moment.
"Alpha King." Isabelle lifted her head and stared at the King. Her gaze faltered, she was a bit scared that he would see the fear in her eyes.
"Sit." He ordered.
She glanced around her. Sebastian brought a stool and placed it behind her. Isabelle muttered a word of thanks and sat on it.
"Why did you run away?" Jaziel asked staring at the girl that seemed to have gotten some inches taller.
"I was scared, Alpha King, that's why I flee from your presence. I realized it was stupid of me to leave your palace and bring you shame." Isabelle said.
She spoke so fluently, that Jaziel was surprised and he couldn't help but furrow his brows at her. Amira couldn't speak coherently in his presence, she stuttered a lot and went on to apologize.
Who is this girl that bears the scent of his mate and looks like her?
"I apologize, my King." She bowed.
Jaziel cleared his throat. "Sebastian, will you wear the single pair on her feet?"
Sebastian turned to the Alpha, was he referring to the shoe he kept on his desk in the study room?
He glanced at Isabelle's feet she was wearing sandals and not the shoes that Alpha had given her.
"What pair?" Isabelle mumbled and stared frantically at her mother. Lady Georgia was confused as well and didn't know what shoe the King was talking about.
"Bring it..." Jaziel sighed.
"Yes, Alpha King."
Sebastian scurried out of sight and returned shortly with the only pair that Amira left behind. Jaziel ordered him to place the shoe on her feet.
"It's yours, you left it behind. Where is the other pair?" Alpha Jaziel asked.
"I must've lost it while I was running." She chuckled nervously.
Jaziel clenched his jaw but said nothing. Sebastian squatted and took off the sandal from her left foot, he noticed that the sandal was smaller, and her toes were shooting out.
He kept silent and tried to wear the shoe but it didn't fit.
"It didn't fit, Alpha." He announced.
Alpha Jaziel folded his arm on his chest and placed a finger on his jaw. He stared at the flat shoe and the face of Isabelle who was just like his mate.
He knew something was off when they came in, an odd smell accompanied them to his palace.
"What do you mean it didn't fit?" Isabelle snapped. "You didn't wear them well." She snatched the shoe from Sebastian's hand and forced it on her foot. She groaned when it refused to size her foot, her heart drummed on her chest, and Lady Georgia didn't lift her head.
She mind-linked Isabelle, that the King must have caught on their act, and they needed to run away from the palace.
"Close the gate," Jaziel ordered in a calm voice. "Bring the guards, take the shoe from her hand Sebastian."
"Yes, Alpha." He dragged the shoe with Isabelle who had refused to let go of it.
"It will fit, give me some time!" She shouted in a panicked voice.
Jaziel snorted. "Some time to make your feet smaller? What kind of spell did you intend to do? Or is it sorcery?" His hands were still folded, and his demeanor remained unchanged but his victims were already trembling in fear.
Isabelle fell on her knees and placed her head on the ground. "No, Alpha. I am..." She glanced at her mother and took her gaze back to his feet. "...I am your mate, Alpha!"
"HOW DARE YOU?"Jaziel growled.
Isabelle clasped her hands together and began to plead for mercy. Lady Georgia planned her escape and started for the door.
She collided with the palace guards and was captured and brought back to the King, they forced her to her knees.
"Only my mate's feet could fit those shoes, it was made by a powerful shoemaker in the country and they were protected against theft or anyone that tried to get to attack my mate, I would be aware of it. It's repelled a feet that's isn't mate even if it's the same size." Jaziel explained to them, that his eyes were blazing flames, but he just stood there.
Nothing scared them more than the Alpha King reacting this way to them.
He knows nothing has happened to Amira and she was still hiding somewhere in the pack or might have gone out of his borders through a cave. He had sent his warriors to search everything, and it was only a matter of time before she was found.
"...why did you try to deceive me? Identify yourself."
The spell that was on Isabelle fades out, and the witch tells them, that if the King finds out about their deceit, it is going to fade, and her face will be revealed to the King.
"Oh!" Sebastian pointed a finger at Isabelle. He remembered he had seen such a face before. "Alpha, I know her." Sebastian gasped.
"Did they cast a spell on her? Who could have done it?" He thought out loud.
Jaziel took his gaze to Sebastian. "You know her?"
"Yes, Alpha King. She came with Amira to the Ball, she was the lady Amira was with. The one that they said Amira served in her mansion. She's the daughter of Beta Vahaan of Snowdrop Pack." Sebastian told him.
Jaziel took his gaze back to them, and he pointed a finger at the Lady Georgia. "Then, she must be the mother."
"I think so, Alpha."
Lady Georgia feared that their identity was exposed.
"Did you think you can deceive me?" Jaziel asked. "You engaged with the witches and wanted to take the place of your servant. How despicable?"
"Forgive us, Alpha King. We wanted to..."
"Not a word from you!" He snarled at Georgia. She clamped her mouth shut.
"I will have you executed at night, and show it as a lesson to everyone that defies my orders and tried to meet with the witches. Guards take them!"
"Alpha, you can not do this!" Lady screamed.
"Mother, do something. I don't want to die!" Isabelle cried, gripping her mother's shirt.
"Amira is not a servant!" Lady Georgia blurted out, Alpha Jaziel who was about to leave, halted on his track and spared the woman a glance.
Lady Georgia went on. "She's not a servant, Alpha King. She's my daughter, and what will she do if she finds out that you killed her mother? She will hate you forever, Alpha King. Please consider your judgment!" She bowed, her hands were on the ground.
"Her mother? And you treated her like a servant, what kind of a mother is that, she would be glad that I helped her to get rid of a nuisance like you." He uttered flatly.
"Amira is softhearted, she's kind and the meekest of all in our pack. She will never harbor hateful thoughts about her mother."
Jaziel chuckled, stuffed his hands in his pocket, and stared at Lady Georgia.
"What is your name?"
"Georgia your King, and this is Isabelle the elder sister of Amira." Lady Georgia muttered.
She watched as the King's face twitched, his eyes were dark red, and she could see the shadow of his wolf behind him through the help of the moon that had glinted into the room from the long narrow window with a drape that was drawn.
It was never heard of that the shadow of a wolf could be seen from a werewolf that hadn't shifted, and was standing on his two feet.
But King Jaziel was different, even before they came in, he was about to sense it. The witch warned them to be careful that the King was more than what they seemed.
He was more powerful than they thought.
"I will declare that Amira must return to the pack else I will kill you both in front of everyone. I don't want my claws stained with your dirty blood, I will use my sword." His words sunk to their stomach, and cold shivers ran down the spine of Isabelle.
Their lives were in the hands of Amira.
"Before dawn." He added before he sauntered out of sight with his Beta.
The guards grabbed Isabelle and her mother out of the palace, taking them to the King's dungeon that was beneath his palace.
"Find the witches and give them my warnings before I wipe out their entire clan from the earth!" They heard King Jaziel's thundering voice.
"Nobody messes with my 'MATE!"