Claimed by the vampire prince

Chapter 447: Chapter 447

By the time the guard finished speaking, Nheera was already moving.

She did not wait for Laheir to respond. She did not spare a glance at the guard, nor did she slow her stride for anything. She walked out of the king’s chambers and the fact that she didn’t slam the door behind her was the only indication of the effort it was costing her to hold herself together.

Rage blurred the edges of her vision.

It coiled tight in her chest, threatening to spill over with every step she took. Decades of planning, of patience, of enduring a marriage she had come to loathe—it all trembled now on the edge of unraveling because of a single name spoken from a dying man’s lips.

Ragnar.

The hall outside the king’s chambers was almost always deserted, but today was somewhat different. Servants scurried out of the way as she walked passed, and two guards that were posted at the far end where the hall opened into the wider passage beyond stood up straighter to avoid attracting her ire. Nheera paid heed to none of them. Her focus had already fixed on the figure ahead.

Ragnar was standing just outside the wing, as she had expected. Still waiting to be granted permission to see the king, still utterly unaware of everything that had shifted in the days before this moment.

For a moment, she thought of just walking past him. That was what she had always done. Reduced him to nothing. Treated him as something not worth noticing.

But not today. Today, she turned toward him.

Her gaze found his, and whatever restraint she had been holding onto snapped cleanly in two.

"What are you doing here?" Nheera spat, her voice cutting through the quiet. "People like you shouldn’t even be allowed into this side of the palace."

Ragnar did not react to the insult. Years of enduring her verbal abuse had made him immune to their effect. freewebnovel.cσ๓

"Your Majesty, I am here to speak to the king," he said.

He ignored the venom laced through every word she spoke.

"What makes you think you are entitled to an audience with the king?" she demanded. "His Majesty is unable to receive visitors at present. Anything you have to say can wait. You may leave."

The anger in her tone was unmistakable.

Ragnar did not move.

"Your Majesty, this is important," he insisted. "It concerns the welfare of our citizens. Since the winter solstice, there have been multiple cases of violent beast attacks."

"And you believe that gives you the right to see the king whenever you want?" Nheera cut in, her eyes like blazing infernos threatening to burn him whole. "If you truly care for the welfare of the people, then pick up your sword and deal with it yourself. You are a soldier. You swore an oath to bleed for this kingdom. So go ahead. Do your duty. The king is a very busy man. Leave on your own, or I will have the guards drag you out."

The guards lining the walls had gone rigid, their hands resting on the hilts of their swords, their eyes flicking between the two of them.

But Ragnar wasn’t about to give up so easily. He didn’t leave his sick wife and rode all the way from Amris to the capital just to be turned away before he could even accomplish his reason for coming here in the first place. So he stood his ground, even when faced with Nheera’s hostility.

"With all due respect, Your majesty, fae beasts are rampaging through the streets. Innocent people are being killed. More will die if nothing is done. It is imperative that I speak to my father so that we can—"

He knew that he had made a grave error the moment the words felt his mouth. He knew that she hated it whenever he referred to the king as his father.

"He is not your father." The words cracked through the air like a whip.

Nheera was outraged. Whatever mask she had worn before was gone, stripped away to reveal something far more vicious beneath.

Her eyes burned as they locked onto him.

"You are nothing," she continued, her voice trembling with fury. "A worthless piece of filth he picked up one day and chose to keep. You have lived on his kindness ever since, and you mistake that for something more. The king has three children. Three. You are not one of them. You never have been, and you never will be."

The guards shifted almost imperceptibly, tension coiling through them as they waited.

"I gave you the opportunity to leave," she went on. "Yet you remain. It seems you are eager to return to the dungeons. You have lingered in our lives for far too long and nothing would please me more than to finally be rid of you."

Ragnar could feel tension pressing down on him. He could see the readiness in the guards, the way their hands tightened on their weapons, waiting for the slightest command from their queen.

Ragnar knew he would win if the confrontation turned into a true fight, but he also understood that taking it further, letting it descend into violence, would be nothing more than playing into Nheera’s hands. She would twist it, as she always did, and use it to her advantage. He was not wanted here.

So he chose the only course that made sense. Slowly, he raised his hands, palms open in surrender. Then he stepped back.

And without another word, he turned and walked away. He did not look back.

Even when he could feel her gaze burning into him, he kept walking away.

Only then did the tension ease.

Nheera remained rooted to the spot, her hands curled at her sides. The rage had not left her. If anything, it had settled deeper within her.

Footsteps sounded behind her.

"Laheir." She did not turn around, but she knew it was him.

"He will learn of the king’s condition sooner or later," Laheir said as he came to stand beside her.

Nheera lifted a hand and dismissed all the guards with a simple flick of her wrist. They dispersed until the space was left to the two of them alone.

"Ragnar needs to be dealt with as quickly as possible." She finally said. "Call on the kingdom’s best warriors. They are to form a hunting party to track down and kill the fae beasts. Ragnar will lead the charge, that way the vile creatures have a better chance of killing him. But make sure the men you choose are loyal to us. If the beasts do not finish the job, our men are to kill him themselves. His death is to look like an accident. And Laheir." She held his gaze. "If they fail, they are not to come back either."

Laheir only smiled. "Consider it done."