Chapter 50

                                    

                                          
Jace's POV
I was at the door of the palace, taking a deep breath of anxiety. I was swallowing lumps in my throat and trying hard to calm myself down as my brain went wild with different thoughts about what could be the problem. 
The way everyone in and outside the royal packhouse was staring at me while I was heading here was something to be worried about. The environment was so tense and odd. No giggling and cheerful discussion by the maids or guards  on duty. 
"What really happened again?" I asked myself, as I kept gathering courage to enter the palace. 
"It can't be that they are saying the truth. It is all a trap and if there is anyone to fall into it, that person will surely be Jace!" I slightly heard Sophia's voice. She must have screamed so hard that it enabled me to hear her voice from outside.
"What are you standing there doing, traitor?" I heard one of the guards huffing at me, and that made me look up to see their familiar faces. These men had been like buddies to me. The one that just huffed those words at me was the same one that I saved from getting beaten up by Torian years back.
"You are afraid to go in because of guilt. You know all the evil you have done to us, and we want to know why you choose to join hand with the enemies to bring down your own members!" Another guard snorted, and I could only hiss at the nonsense they were spewing.
They already have the guts to stand in front of me and say rubbish. Finally, I gathered enough courage to push the door, and the creaky noise it made caused a grunt to escape my lips, as I knew it would draw all their attention to me.
"Here comes the traitor, the man who chose money, power, and authority over the lives of his members!" Sophia spat at me, and it really struck my heart with sadness.
I looked up to everyone there and could see the Alpha and Luna with their son. All had their faces stern, with their eyes laced with hatred towards me.
"So your colleagues, the vampires, sent us a message," the Alpha yelled, and an envelope was thrown at me, which I caught in the air. Hot tears stung my eyes on hearing that he had just called the vampires my colleagues.
They had all believed that, with no single doubt, without thinking of how it sounded. I am not a new member of this pack. After being a friend to the Alpha son since childhood, they still believed strongly that I was working with the vampires to bring the pack to ruin.
With the anger burning in me, I tore off the envelope, bringing out the letter, which I unfolded to reveal every single word written in it.
I read it all the first time, yet I had to reread it because I wasn't understanding the nonsense in it. The words were clearly written and understandable, but no one should expect me to take that into my head as the actual message sent.
It can't be true?
There is no way all this I just read is not a lie.
"They are traps to get our army killed and we all know you planned it with them!" Sophia yelled in exasperation, making me cringe as I pulled my gaze to her, taking a deep breath as everything seemed to be battering my head in a harder way.
The letter had a message informing us that Lola had been brutally killed and that her body was at the boundary waiting for us to come and pick it up. I never wanted to believe the part that Lola was dead, but at the same time, the message stated clearly that her dead body was at the boundary, which means it was pure truth.
"I didn't plan anything with them, and as you said, it must be a trap to get us killed." I sighed, feeling my heart swell in some kind of agony I couldn't explain.