Marked By The Mad King Alpha (Phoebe and Perry) novel Chapter 198

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**His Mercy Tastes Like Hunger**
**Chapter 198: A Traitor Among Elders**

**Perry’s POV**

“Bring them in,” I commanded, my voice slicing through the heavy silence like a sharpened blade. The fleeting joy I had felt moments ago in the presence of my mate vanished, replaced by an inferno of rage that intensified with each heartbeat. The air was thick with tension, and I could feel the heat radiating off my skin, fueled by betrayal.

Five warriors entered the room, dragging their captives behind them—shifters shackled with silver bracelets that stripped them of their ability to transform. The metal seared their skin, but the agony they felt paled in comparison to the fury that was building within me.

I advanced toward the quaking traitors, their eyes cast downward, unable to meet my glare. Their pitiful pleas for mercy tumbled from their lips, desperate and hollow. Forgiveness was a luxury they would never receive from me.

“Tell me who else was involved,” I demanded, my voice low but laced with menace.

“No one else, my king… I swear it!” one of them stammered, his voice trembling like a leaf in a storm.

These were senior border guards—warriors I had once trusted with the safety of our territory. Instead, they had betrayed everything we stood for, selling us out to the Barlukans, accepting bribes to allow enemy forces to slip past our defenses like shadows in the night.

Elder Tricia had uncovered their treachery when another warrior had confessed to witnessing the sordid exchange.

“How many got through?” I pressed, my anger barely contained.

“Five…” he mumbled, his voice barely above a whisper.

“Five what?!” I roared, my control slipping as I felt the weight of our kingdom’s safety hanging in the balance. These fools had compromised everything, dishonoring the memories of every warrior who had fought and died defending our realm.

“Five thousand,” he finally admitted, his voice cracking as he began to plead for his worthless life.

“Five thousand?!” My voice echoed off the stone walls, disbelief mingling with rage.

The room erupted into a cacophony of shocked murmurs.

“That’s a full army!” someone gasped, eyes wide with terror.

“They could tear us apart from within!” another voice chimed in, panic rising among the onlookers.

“How could this happen?”

I silenced the room with a single, piercing look before turning my attention back to the trembling traitor. “When?”

“Royal Beta Allen arrived a few weeks ago with two thousand,” he confessed, confirming the rumors we had heard from the landslide site. “Three thousand more came last week.”

Another shifter, desperate to save his own skin, interjected, hoping that throwing his fellow traitors under the bus would somehow earn him a reprieve. “How many died in the landslide?”