The Alpha's Omega Mate-Chapter 111: Dahlia’s age times two.

~Zarek’s POV~

"Alpha, these are all the girls allowed to work in the kitchen." Madame Berlin, the head slave said with a curt bow as she gestured to a long line of young girls behind her. Her blue eyes snagged onto my face for a nanosecond when I grunted, but she quickly looked away, gulping when I took a step forward.

"And which of you amongst you all were the ones on duty yesterday?" I asked slowly, my voice cold as ice, and I noticed how a few of them trembled before bowing even deeper— until their heads almost touched the floor.

Something about their silence irked me immensely. It made an itching sensation grate uncomfortably underneath the surface of my skin. My left eye twitched in annoyance when no one moved and in barely concealed rage, I took another step forward.

Berlin scurried backward; "I placed Pae in charge of the kitchen yesterday... and while I tried my best to oversee them, I was in a lot of places at once."

The itching on my skin intensified and I glanced away from a rambling Berlin to the other girls whose skins now looked so pale one would think they’d been abandoned in an igloo. I asked; "And who is Pae?"

A scrawny brunette with tons of freckles scattered across her face stepped forward, but still made no move to look up at me.

"Look at me!" I barked at her, noticing to my satisfaction the way she trembled violently before lifting her chin timidly.

"Did you make the food yesterday?" I snarled, and to my surprise, she didn’t deny it. She nodded quickly.

"Yes, Alpha."

"So tell me, since you made the food, Pae. How’s it that two people who ate it were victims of food poisoning?"

Pae’s eyes widened as soon as the words left my lips. Her pale lips shook violently but still, words didn’t slip through. I noticed how she shifted from foot to foot, wringing her fingers as she struggled to make sense of what I was saying.

And that irked me even more.

Sighing, I pinched the bridge of my nose in irritation, whilst squeezing my eyes shut as if that would help the growing headache at the back of my skull. It didn’t.

I hated that these people were not talking as fast as I wanted them to. And I hated that Dahlia had been targeted.

Don’t take my words wrongly but I kind of understood why the maids would try to poison Jennifer; she was a bully after all.

But still, it doesn’t change the fact that this was an attempted murder.

Or murders, as the case may be.

"Pae..." I drawled, my voice icily flat. "You don’t want me to pluck the words right out of your mouth, or do you?"

As soon as I asked that, Drogon stepped behind me with a large pruning shear, and as soon as Pae saw this, she went on her knees, crying as she spluttered incoherent words.

"Speak audibly, Pae... I don’t want to strain my ears just to hear you." I drawled and this time, she snapped her lips shut.

Her brown eyes met mine for a very brief second and then she gulped, bowing her head again. "I said, I didn’t add anything strange to the food. I had people who helped me cook, and they can testify."

"Who are these people?" I snarled irritably, watching the way she scrambled to her feet and soon began to point out some girls from the crowd.

She rushed out; "Zina, Chiara, Sophie... Mi—" then suddenly my she stopped, her eyes widening, "where Miranda?"

Berlin echoed after her; "Where the hell is Miranda?!"

The girls trembled when Berlin’s loud voice thundered through the room, but for some reason, her loud voice only made my ear twitch in irritation. Fury rushed through the depths of my being as I watched them talk over themselves in desperate fear. My eyes thinned into slits as I glared at the mini chaos in rage, and then growled at Drogon behind me;

"Go fetch the Miranda girl, and you..." I snapped, pointing at a dirty blonde girl with wide eyes and wide mouth, "go with him."

No one said a word. No one even breathed as the girl rushed to do as told. Now, where Pae once stood, three other trembling girls now joined. Their heads were all bowed and they looked the same with their trembling knees and clattering teeth.

"Which of you dished the food that was served to Dahlia?" I snarled, my lower lip curling backward to expose my teeth.

"I didn’t!"

"I didn’t."

"It was Miranda!" One of the newer girls squealed, her voice breaking like that of an ailing mockingbird. "Pae asked me to wash the dishes, and asked Miranda to serve the runt’s dinner!"

And as soon as those words slipped past her lips, the room descended into an eerie kind of silence. Madame Berlin’s eyes snapped up to my obviously furious ones before she looked down quickly, her head dropping so low, I was sure she was halfway into doing a backflip.

Moartea growled. ’Kill her!’

’Wait, Moartea.’ I rushed out desperately through our shared link. Hell, I was mad as fuck at the name this nincompoop had just called Dahlia, and I knew that I was a few seconds away from losing it completely, but Moartea was the bigger between us psychopath when enraged.

And he was terribly obsessed with Dahlia.

’She just called our mate a runt!’ He snarled, his anger seeping into my already boiling one until my hands into fists by my sides.

"Who did you just call a runt?" The words slipped past my slips before I could help it and as soon as it did, the stupid girl’s eyes widened in surprise— or fear. Not that I cared.

"Al-alpha..."

"Did you just refer to Dahlia as a runt?"

"No... no... please, Alpha."

"Are you saying that I am lying? Or that I am hard of hearing?"

"No..."

"So you didn’t serve Dahlia, that’s what you’re saying right?" I asked, suddenly changing the subject and smirking when she nodded frantically. "And that you only did the dishes yesterday, right?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"Micah, take her away. I don’t need her here anymore." I snapped at the other guard standing behind me.

The girl dropped to her knees quickly, her wide eyes leaking tears as she dropped her head to the floor. Her voice shook with fear as she sobbed uncontrollably, shaking as she cried out; "I’m sorry, Alpha. I was wrong and I’ll never do it again!"

"But how will you remember not to repeat that cowardly mistake if you’re not punished for it now?" I asked her coldly, watching the way her already wide eyes widened even more.

More tears slipped from her eyes as she clamped both of her hands in a pleading gesture, but I looked away, tsking.

"Micah, take her. Make sure she is whipped with silver ropes and left to rot in the dungeons until she’s repentant."

The crowd gasped. Micah stopped to latch his hands around her arms but at the last minute, he paused and looked up at me. "How many times should she be whipped, Alpha?"

"Dahlia’s age, times two. Then finish up by whipping her the number of letters that make up the word ’runt’." I grunted, and with that, Micah pulled her to her feet and began to drag her away whilst her loud cries drowned out the shocked gasps rippling through the crowd.

"Now, let that serve as a warning to anyone who would ever consider disrespecting or bullying Dahlia in the future. Have I made myself clear?"

"Yes, Alpha."

"So—" I began to say but stopped when I saw Drogon approaching us with the girl from earlier. But there was no Miranda with them.

My eyes thinned. Rage like no other swelled up within me and I growled; "And where is she?"

"She’s dead." Drogon answered coldly, his head bowed. "We found her in her room, and from the looks of it, I think she also ate from the poisoned manchet bread and venison."