Welcome To Hell, Dear Wife-Chapter 35: Sharing Toys

Chapter 35: Sharing Toys
The heavy door that led to Lucas’s study clicked shut as soon as he stepped into the room.
There, Callis, Jack, and Aurelian were already waiting for him.
Jack, as usual, broke the silence first. "Alpha, is this even necessary though? Punishing the whole staff over who? Lorena Sanders? That makes no sense to me."
Aurelian stood by the fireplace. Even he didn’t like all that was happening, he secretly hated how his nephew was so confusing these past days. "I don’t get it either. What on earth are you trying to play the protective husband all of a sudden for? We all know that she needs to pay for her crimes anyway, so what’s the big deal if one of the maids tried to do something to her? Who cares?"
"Thank you, Uncle! She should even be thankful that it was just a stomach ache and vomiting, not even poison," Jack muttered as he crossed his arms.
Lucas stopped pacing only to turn and then glare at both men. "You think I don’t want her to suffer too?" he asked in a dangerously low voice. "Or how many times would I explain this to you people? I want her to suffer but only at my hands! Do you not get that? Everything that happens to her needs to be by my design, not anyone else’s. Not a maid with some grudge, nor a guard with a memory. Not even any of you."
Aurelian rolled his eyes as if Lucas was some teenager throwing a tantrum over nothing. "Son, you seriously need to just share. Everyone in this pack deserves a piece of her, and you know that. It’s only fair."
"I have never liked sharing my toys, Uncle," Lucas replied. "And I don’t intend to start doing so now. Anyone who lays a hand on her,
unless I want that hand on her,
is not just disobeying my order. They’re practically choosing themselves over me and over this pack."
None of the men had anything to say to him anymore, so they just remained silent.
Lucas then gave a sharp nod to Jack. "Bring them in again. All of them," he commanded.
A few minutes later, the study was very much crowded. Seven women stood in a nervous line with their heads bowed and their uniforms seeming to swallow them in the dim light.
They all clutched their hands, and all sorts of fear could be seen written plainly on their faces.
Lucas began to pace slowly in front of them as his boots made soft sounds on the Persian rug.
He said nothing for a long time and just let them stand there, as if wanting them to wallow in their own growing fear first.
A young maid at the end of the line had even started to cry, and her soft sobbing was the only sound engulfing the air.
"I will ask this once," Lucas finally started when he stopped pacing. "Who was responsible for the food that was served to my wife?"
No one spoke. Instead, they all shifted their feet and fixed their eyes on the floor.
Jack let out an impatient sigh. "Alpha, this is—"
"Quiet!" Lucas snapped without taking his eyes off the maids.
He walked down the line only to stop in front of an older woman, Martha. Someone he had trusted and known even before the tragedy that had occurred years back. Her face was pale, but she held his gaze.
"Martha," he said as his voice softened. "You have always been loyal, and I’ve always trusted you, so tell me what happened."
Martha’s lips trembled. "I...I don’t know anything about this at all, Alpha. I swear, I was only preparing the bread and nothing more. I saw nothing either."
Lucas nodded and moved on, only to stop next to a younger girl, Elara, who couldn’t have been more than eighteen. She was shaking a lot.
"Look at me, Elara," he commanded.
Her eyes were wide with terror even when she managed to do as her Alpha had said.
"Was it you?" he asked in a low whisper.
"N-no, Alpha. How could I ever go against your instruction? I could never!"
Callis, who had been standing silently by the windows, finally spoke up. "Lucas, this ain’t the way. You’re just terrifying them."
"They should be terrified, Callis!" Lucas countered. "They poisoned her on my watch!"
"It was some sort of laxative, Lucas," Callis retorted at him. "It was just a joke and not a murder attempt at all."
"It doesn’t matter!" Lucas snapped in a very loud tone that caused several maids to flinch.
"I will have an answer. Now."
He grabbed Elara’s arm in a very firm grip. "If none of you confess anything right now," he tightened his grip even more, "I will make an example of this one by cutting off her arm, so that you all would never forget the price of daring to go against your own Alpha and even choosing silence after it."
"Lucas, no!" Callis pleaded, while Elara was crying even more.
It was then that a small voice came from the middle of the line. A maid with a face streaked with tears pointed a trembling finger to another maid standing beside her. "Alpha, it was... it was Clara. I saw her... I saw her sprinkle something into Madam Lorena’s plate just before it was served. I just didn’t know what it was, I swear!"
All eyes turned on
the so-called Clara.
She was a woman in her thirties with a sharp and pinched face.
And instead of looking afraid, she actually rolled her eyes. "You stupid girl," she said as she shook her head. "Alpha was never going to cut off your arm or do anything to any one of us just for that... that bitch? She’s the enemy’s daughter. You just... fell for a very simple trick."
After that, she looked up at Lucas. "Alpha, it was just a little bit of powder from my friend, it’s nothing so serious. I only wanted that... that lady to feel a fraction of the death she brought into this house."
Her eyes didn’t waver once as she continued. "I’m sorry for acting behind your back and against your instruction, but I just couldn’t stand her at all. I wanted her to pay somehow, and this is even nothing. Not even 0.001% of what her people did to us."
Lucas released the other maid, who stumbled back with a gasp, and looked at Clara. He hated how she was so defiant yet bold about this.
He used to think he had a hold on every single one of the people he called his own. But now he knew some of them really weren’t seeing him as their leader like he thought.
He had been too friendly with them all, but now was the chance to put things in order.
He turned to Jack without taking his eyes off her. "Lock her up. No food, no water. Until I decide otherwise."
Several maids gasped at this while one started crying again. Callis, on the other hand, watched with wide eyes.
Jack frowned but nodded still. "Understood, Alpha."
"And just so you know," Lucas said to Clara just before Jack got a hold of her, "I am not punishing you for wanting to get back at her somehow. I am in fact punishing you for going against me. For thinking that your will is greater than mine. And that is a rejection of my authority, a threat to the order I try to put in place for us all here."
"Take her away now, Jack!" Lucas snapped afterwards.
Jack moved toward the woman, who suddenly didn’t look defiant anymore. It was like she hadn’t thought Lucas would see this as a big deal at all. She started backing toward the door.
"Wait. Alpha, I—"
"Now," Lucas repeated, and Jack grabbed her arm, then pulled her toward the door.
Her protests echoed down the hallway until they faded into nothing.
Lucas then turned to the remaining women. "Let me make this crystal clear again. No one harms Lorena Sanders without my permission. Not a hand. Not a glance. Not even a whisper. If you do so, you’re not just being disobedient. You’re committing treason. Against me and against this pack."
He paused as if wanting his warning to sink deep into their skulls.
"And next time," he finished, "it will not just be food and water that I take away from you. It will include the air you breathe. I’m sure we all know what that means. If you don’t believe me, I’d like to see someone dare me first."