Caught by the Mad Alpha King-Chapter 129: What the king instructed

Nadia looked up from the tablet when the air changed, a slow shift, like the room had taken a breath and decided not to let it out again.

"Christopher," she said quietly. "Breathe."

"I’m fine."

His voice was too even and flat. The tone that was usually used just before someone broke something.

The light on his arm blinked red again. His scent, usually subtle and calm, had started to thicken, less like rain now, more like a storm rolling in, electricity clinging to the air. The lights above flickered once, twice.

Nadia’s frown deepened. "No, you’re not. Your scent’s spiking."

But he didn’t seem to hear her. His breathing had gone shallow, his hands pressed against his knees. Every part of him was tight and contained, but only just. The control that defined him was slipping away.

She straightened slowly, taking a cautious step closer. "Oh," she murmured, more to herself than to him. "So this is what you’ve been holding back."

Christopher looked up at her, confusion breaking through the tension in his black eyes. "What?"

"Dominant omega pheromones," she said quietly, like naming something sacred. "That’s what this is. Those pheromones aren’t normal, Chris. They’re..."

But he wasn’t listening anymore.

Christopher didn’t hear the rest. All he could think about was Hanna’s face, the soft, polished voice, the false calm, and the way she smiled when she referred to the collar as a necklace.

His chest tightened with a rage so pure it felt clean.

"Where is she?"

"Christopher..."

"Where."

Nadia stepped between him and the door. "You can’t go anywhere like this."

"I’m not asking permission."

His voice was low and even, but the scent rolling off him made her skin prickle. His pheromones weren’t violent, but they could make lesser alphas lower their heads unknowingly.

Nadia’s mouth set in a thin line. "If you go after her, the guards will report you. Dax’s orders..."

"Dax’s orders don’t matter," Christopher said coldly. "Not for this." He stood, and the air seemed to move with him, a faint ripple spreading from where he’d been sitting.

Nadia took a slow breath. She’d faced generals, royals, and alphas twice her size before, but none had made her heart skip a beat like this omega did.

"You’re shaking," she said finally.

"I’m shaking out of anger, not sickness."

He brushed past her, and she didn’t stop him. Maybe she couldn’t.

At the door, he paused, hand on the biometric panel. "If Killian asks where I’m going," he said quietly, "tell him I want to see the woman who lied to me."

Christopher stepped into the hallway, the door sliding shut behind him with a muted hiss. The air outside was cooler, but it didn’t matter; his skin felt too hot and tight. Every sound in the corridor seemed amplified: the distant hum of ventilation, the faint whisper of footsteps two wings away, and the pulse in his ears.

He didn’t know where he was going at first. He didn’t think about it. His body simply moved, drawn by something he didn’t yet understand.

The further he walked, the heavier the air became.

His pheromones, unrestrained and instinctive, began to reach outward like water finding cracks in a wall. They slipped past the biometric seals of the royal wing, through the quiet expanse of polished marble and mirrored glass, carrying his scent like a ghost down the empty hallways. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

And something answered.

It was like a vibration under his skin, a subtle pull toward the lower floors of the palace where the air turned colder and heavier. His pheromones, still raw and untempered from the surge in his suite, reached further than he’d ever realized they could.

Hanna.

She was the reason his skin still burned, the reason he’d been choking on lies that were never his to bear.

The corridor stretched ahead, sleek and pale under the recessed lights. Every sensor he passed flickered from blue to amber as it read his pheromonal field. Guards turned at his approach, uncertain, caught between protocol and instinct. No one stopped him.

"Christopher!"

Rowan’s voice cut through the air from behind him, deep and disciplined, with the authority that only someone who had long trained under Dax could wield. His footsteps followed quickly, long strides that reached Christopher in seconds. "You need to stop. Right now."

Christopher didn’t. "Move aside, Rowan."

"You’re not authorized to enter the detention wing." The guard tried to rationalize with the very angry omega in front of him. The king was on his way back to the palace, and Rowan found himself hoping that he was feeling Chris’s meltdown.

Christopher slowed just enough to look at him, black eyes cold with rage. "Try to stop me."

The challenge in his voice and the change in his scent were both heavy with pressure, like thunder pressing down to the ground. Rowan faltered, one hand twitching near his comm, and Christopher passed him without a sound.

Rowan swore under his breath and fell into step beside him anyway. "You don’t understand what’s happening, Chris. The King..."

"...isn’t here."

"He will be." Rowan attempted to reach out for Chris, who he knew, but was met only by the dominant omega, who tilted his head and responded calmly.

"Good."

The doors to the detention floor parted automatically, reacting to Christopher’s biometric signature. The guards stationed at the far end stiffened, but his pheromones hit before his words did, more heavy with command and cold. They lowered their eyes, stepping aside without being told.

Hanna was there.

She sat in the transparent cell at the center of the corridor, pale in the sterile light. The glamour she wore in court was gone; her hair was loose, her hands were lightly bound in front of her, and she had the look of someone who was certain she would be saved. When she looked up and saw him, her expression flickered, surprise, then something close to condescension.

"Your Grace," she said softly. "You shouldn’t be here."

Christopher moved closer, his voice even but dangerous, making Rowan’s instincts prickle. "You lied to me."

"I followed orders," she replied, lifting her chin with her usual arrogance. "His Majesty wanted the transition to be smooth. I did what was necessary."

"Necessary?" Christopher’s tone sharpened. "You call this necessary? You humiliated me. You stripped my choices away and told me it was custom."

She met his gaze without flinching. "I only did what the King instructed."