Conquering His Cold Heart

300 Warning

“What do you mean by there aren’t many wolves who are stronger than Slayer? How does that narrow down the culprits?” the arrogant elder who was still looking for reasons to talk down to Regulus asked a bit rudely.

Regulus crossed his legs and then looked at that elder straight in the eyes. And he corrected that elder, “Culprit. Not culprits. If you had gone down to the dungeon and looked around instead of coming to me and asking stupid questions, then you would have known that the assassination was carried out by a single person.”

“How can you be so sure that it was just a single person?” that elder asked another question just because he didn’t want to back down and look like he was giving in to the young lord. He wanted to look tough in front of all the others.

Regulus didn’t show it but he was starting to lose his patience as that old man wasn’t giving him a chance to speak and explain things in his own pace.

Thus, he gave a mirthless smile to that rude elder and said without munching his words, “Another stupid question again! That’s why I am telling you that you should have looked around the crime scene yourself.”

“But I just–”

That old man was about to defend himself but Regulus interrupted him in the middle and gave him a cold glare. And he warned that man in the most chilling voice yet, “I might not look it but my anger is dangerous than that of my brother. So, if you don’t want an untimely death like my brother then I suggest that you hold your tongue until I finish my explanation.”

Everyone in the room felt goosebumps running down their bodies when they heard that warning.

The arrogant elder adjusted his coat and then looked away while producing weird noises from his throat. He felt a little ashamed as well as scared when Regulus gave a warning without filtering out a word.

.....

When the room fell awfully quiet, Regulus took a deep breath in to calm his anger and then casually threw a satire at everyone, “If you all had spent some time to inspect the crime scene of your alpha instead of gathering somewhere else and spending the whole night talking then maybe you all would be aware of the gravity of the situation by now.”

All the elders as well as Jake held their heads down in shame.

And Regulus finally explained what he had discovered by now, “I know that the assassination was the job of a single person because the pattern of wounds that were inflicted on the victims were similar. And the way how they were killed was almost identical. Everyone died because that culprit plucked their hearts out. And the size of the hole in their chest is almost identical, meaning the holes were carved out by the same person.”

Regulus leaned a little forward and then looked at everyone’s faces. Then he asked them, “And one of you were asking me how I narrowed down the culprits, and blah blah blah. How do you think I narrowed them down?”

None of the men dared to answer him because he had just warned them that he would kill them if they didn’t hold their tongue.

Regulus smirked at that absolute silence and answered his question himself, “Just think about it yourself. There were five of them in that dungeon. One of them, Slayer, is the undefeated wolf of our clan. And for a single person to finish all five of them that easily, I don’t think someone weak would have been able to attain that feat.”

“That’s why I was saying that the culprit is someone who is stronger than Slayer.” Regulus got up from the bed and started to pace back and forth with his hands held behind his back.

He narrowed his eyes as he got lost in his deep thoughts for a while.

For the first time, Jake noticed a hint of anger on Regulus’ face. It seemed like he did indeed care about his brother’s death, and that he was doing all he could to get to the murderer of his brother.

Regulus suddenly stopped in front of Jake and then asked while looking into his eyes, “Tell me, Jake. The only ones who are stronger than Slayer are the alphas of the other clans, aren’t they?”

Jake panicked for a second when Regulus suddenly asked such an outrageous question to him. But he quickly regained his composure and nodded his head. “You are correct, Milord.”

The others were looking at Regulus with wide eyes, trying to think if he was being sarcastic or serious. If he was indeed being serious then that was a very bold thing to say.

“I don’t think you should be accusing other alphas without having a hard evidence on hand.” The arrogant old man couldn’t resist talking. He didn’t want Regulus to go around accusing the alphas of the other clans and give birth to an inter-clan war.

Regulus turned his head to look at that old man, almost scaring the soul out of him. However, instead of punishing that man for speaking when not asked to, he agreed with that man, “Yes, I cannot accuse them without being a hundred percent sure. That’s why I need proofs. And I want all of you to help me collect that proof.”

All of the elders agreed with Regulus. If they worked together then they were sure that they could catch the culprit sooner.

“Okay, I think the discussion is complete for now.” Regulus ended the meeting after asking, “See how you can contribute to the investigation and tell me what each of you will be doing. That way you all won’t be repeating the same task.”

Although the elders had come to the manor for a completely different reason, none of them dared to raise that issue since they didn’t want to get on the bad side of Regulus. And since Regulus was now taking the investigation seriously, Jake also didn’t want to raise that issue and anger the young lord.

After everyone exited the room, Regulus grabbed a hold of Jake and then softly asked, “Jake, how much do you know about the new King?”