Lycan's Fiery Mate

|| Chapter 2 ||

My face burns in shame, eyes welling up once again, feeling those eyes that once used to hold respect for me, but now I see them burn with rage and mockery for me. Yet I am standing on my feet and trying to act strong, adamant to prove to them that I am not responsible for what happened to their emperor. They looked furious. I feel them. After all, I lost my father, too, at a very young age.

"You have known me for eight years." My voice starts getting heavier and raspy in pain in my heart. "I've treated you when you were wounded, hurt. I never cared about the time or place I was in, let alone charge you for anything, did I? How could you even think I can hurt your majesty?" My heart is breaking into pieces, yet I go on reminding them of the things I did for them for this long.

They couldn't hide that from me, the realization. It flashes in the eyes of those who used to come to my doorsteps for herbs or potions when their beloved was sick. Until last night, I checked on those who stopped by my home; with smiles on their faces, they talked to me humbly and showed me their gratitude for the free treatment I had been giving to all, but today, they haven't said a thing in my defense. Following the cue, they laughed at me when Blake, their crowned prince, ridiculed me for my love for him.

"My son paid you for that," His mother shouts at me. "Don't you dare to blame my son when all he wanted to do was to help a peasant like you! He gave you a home, a status in our kingdom. The audacity of you plotting to kill my husband and seducing my son by staying under my roof?" She again marches toward me, but this time, Isabelle, Blake's best friend, holds her by her forearm.

"Benjamin will be fine, Mira. Trust me. Our healers are doing their best. You have to calm down. You know, there is no use in losing your mind on some trivial matters. Let's leave this to Blake. I am sure he won't get his emotion the best of him." Tilting her head to Blake, she says calmly, eyes showing a warning that I know well what she is trying to get with that, "Can we trust you with that?"

It isn't like her or Blake's mother's opinion about me matters to me, but Blake's does.

It was him who brought me here. He trusted me with his father when I was sure about it myself. And again, he was the very man who had hinted many times that he genuinely felt something for me. He never said them in words, but his actions did.

How could he forget everything I've done for his pack? Why did he give me that hope when he already had someone in his life?

Then he says something that leaves me completely shaken.

"Mind your words, Isabelle." Blake spats harshly. "You, being my chosen, doesn't make you my equal without the proper training."

I freeze momentarily.

I whisper, feeling my throat clog tightly with emotions. "Did you just call Isabelle your mate?"

He looks startled and surprised for some time, which lasts for a mere second before his duty as the crowned prince takes over. "Yes,"

You had a mate all along, yet you came to my home every night...,

~ ~ ~ ~

Taking a sip of wine from my glass, I stare at the beach unblinkingly from the balcony of my room.

It's early that I wake up today. No matter how much I tried last night, I couldn't bring my eyelids closer to my restless heart that wanted somewhere to be right now, far away from this coven; my Lunar Coven.

The sound of the ocean and the cool breeze outside soothe my mind, but not enough to make me stop bringing it this early in the morning. Lord, if Kiki catches me right now, she won't hesitate to start lecturing me and say something I don't want to realize about myself. Sometimes a girl doesn't want to know the truth; something that would crack the facade she has built around her heart, being a mental architect to keep her self-esteem. That stings my heart so badly that I want nothing but to disappear for a moment.

"You don't have to go to the Shadowcrest Kingdom if you don't want to, Ruth."

I close my eyes tight and force the liquid in my mouth down my throat to suppress the bubbling anger rising in my system.

The door is closed, and so are the windows in my office. Still, I know Kikira is standing in my room, not alone but with her partner behind me. Was it necessary for Luciana to change every room in her castle, magic proof?

"Have you ever seen me forcing things on myself?" I open my eyes and take the magnificent view of the mountains around the beach. With my back facing them still, I tell her softly, "I do everything my heart wishes. You, all of the people, should know that."

And that's the main issue here..., with me prioritizing my heart all the damn time.

My heart wants to attend the last trial in the court of the Shadowcrest, where the Benettons will be, hoping for an apology from Blake for what he did to us, but my mind tells me that we don't need that anymore, believing the ship has sailed already.

"Take me with you."

Kiki sounds annoyingly stubborn.

Then who will watch over this coven if we are both gone?

However, I do not need to ask her that question.

"No one will dare to pull a stunt here in our absence." Clenching my teeth, I hear her reasoning patiently. "Besides, our warriors' families are here, too. They turn out to be useful for us in our crises. Sidwaz, you and I couldn't possibly take over the ministry, business, and academia here if it wasn't for them extending their helping hand and accepting their husbands' fights as theirs."

Here we are in knee-deep trouble now, and there she is thinking about me!

Furthermore, how did she forget why we wanted to take over this coven out of all the places?

I have been telling myself for months that history won't get repeated, and soon I'll get to free my country from the Shadowcrest Kingdom, but it seems like I can not heed my advice for my anxiousness; a dreading feeling that things are about to get..., gruesome!

And Kikira certainly isn't helping.

"I am not looking down on their wives, but you, more than anyone, know the fact that they are not warriors." I can't help but turn around and face her and Sidwaz. She should know it doesn't change the fact. "It takes over a month for me to hunt my mother's loyal followers down and throw them here in prison. They all went against their words. All of them." My grip tightens around the glass, and my eyes are holding violence as I tell her, "Those who are roaming here freely, I can't put my trust in them, or even in the children, and here you are suggesting that I should take you with me just because the Benettons will be there in the last trial today?"

Before taking the warriors in and building my army, I pledged a few things myself to protect their families and give them a home. The packs, tribes, lands, and small countries we won during our fights in the past seven years, are still not enough to build quarters for them and fields for jobs. I have enemies, for heaven's sake. There is no greatness in death. If we both die, there won't be anyone to protect our people and Merci..., my brother, who I don't know if he feels comfortable among kids his age.

Merci turned two a month ago, but I didn't allow his foster mother, one of my warrior's mothers, to celebrate his birthday. But I heard from my source that they had Merci cut a cake, not caring about my fear that others may recognize him as my mother's son.

"Since you heard my decision yesterday at dinner, you turned visibly anxious." Like the raging ball, I push past the duo as I walk inside my room and slam that empty glass on the counter. "Do you think I didn't get over Blake, Kiki?"

"No, you didn't." Her golden amber shines violet. And this sometimes makes me wonder if she is just a witch, not a werewolf, most of the time. Clenching her jaw, she points her inky forefinger to the bucket on the other side of the counter as she sneers at me, "If you had, you wouldn't have stayed up all night and emptied those bottles yourself in the name of reading your goddamn map!"

Her accusation pisses me off for good now.

"You want to taste them?" Shifting my gaze from her to her partner, who is now trying to control Kiki by patting her back, I say, "Go ahead, Sidwaz. You can take them and share them with our warriors if you want. I checked the bottles, and they were all sealed."

Kiki looks like she wants to pounce on me.

But the wizard is careful enough to hold her back and look at me boringly. "It's not about the drink, and you know that."

Lifting my hand, I press my fingers on my forehead.

Knowing I can't handle these two with them all ganging up on me, I glance at the couch beside the coffee table and mentally pat my back for my underloaded duffel I stuffed with my necessities last night, hoping to discover another state to take under my control.

To grab one more wine bottle to stuff in my bag, I move to the freezer in my wine cellar by saying, "I was away for just two decades. You know. And it is still astonishing to see how my mother has changed everything in this coven so fast. Even after staying here for over eight months, I'm having a hard time believing that this happened to be the same coven I grew up in Luciana's care."

"That's because she is creative by heart and mind that you are not!"

Turning around, I look at Kiki in utter disbelief. "Excuse me?"

Kiki snaps, "Your mother used to change her lover in just a flick of her finger, but you didn't sleep with anyone after your breakup."

That has my jaw hanging low.

"What the--- " I don't know whether to laugh or cry. "Are we seriously fighting over this ridiculous thing now?"

"Enough, Kikira!" Sidwaz snaps at his partner, eyeing her to shut her mouth before taking his position between Kiki and me. I see his face turning red slowly, yet he speaks to me, "They were not in any relationship! How many times do you want her to say that?"

I nod in agreement firmly. "Besides, I don't want Blake anymore. Didn't I make that clear to you years ago?"

Her expression then drops, probably getting flashbacks of those days.

When Kiki brought the crowned prince of the Shadowcrest Kingdom, I agreed with them at the moment they said Nathanial himself would involve the Benettons in our mission as it was Blake's father who Luciana wanted to kill through me, making me a scapegoat. Besides, Nate needed them to push monarch Quentin to agree, who was still very much in love with my mother.

I had hoped that Blake would come to apologize to me. He could have if he wanted to after asking my location from Nathaniel, but he didn't, not seeing the need for it. So, I let it go. I no longer want someone like Blake, who has no respect for me. My people adore me now, not two-faced like the wolves in Blake's clan.

"Then why did you stop healing the wounded?"

I choke on my spit at Kiki's comment behind me and do not even check the bottle before stuffing it in the side pocket of my bag.

That would be one of the questions I have been avoiding for as long as I can remember after Blake threw me out of Basville.

During my stay in his kingdom, I devoted myself to my practice with Kikira, the niece of those Peruvian mage sisters. But when the Basvillians accused me of the attempted murder case of Blake's father--- I started doubting my pure gift and capabilities. I couldn't just do that, and I no longer can. My hands don't save lives anymore. They take lives, and I strangely like my hands tainted red.

I think I am getting sicker every day.

That has to be the reason, or else I wouldn't have liked the blood on me.

Maybe that's what Kiki is worried about, and she blames herself for my condition and looks desperate to bring the old me back. I want to change, too, but I don't want to be the old me. I don't want to get myself killed or anyone who I have taken as my family.

My tongue feels heavy about giving Kiki a reply, but then Sidwaz beats me to it.

"Our warriors would have started their training or practice by now if you had treated them on your own, but you kept your distance."

"Fine, I am not going to attend the trial. Happy now, you two?" I see relief flashes in their eyes, which is quite apparent now. They don't want me to go there alone, and I know why, but that doesn't mean I will change my other plans. So, soon as the next thing I say, both of their expressions become comical. "But I still have to leave as we need to expand the land of our coven."

Putting my trust in the Shadowcrest will be my stupidity. Anyone can backstab us anytime. We need to start owning more lands, states, and countries, then take the fighters as our warriors. Of course, Luciana's army is strong, but we do need a strong backup.

"But- "

Before the duo can refute it, I walk back to the balcony with my bag in my hand. "Send Raven to me. He will know where to find me." Tilting my head, I shift my gaze from Sidwaz to Kikira and tell her warningly, "If only it is necessary. Do mind my word."

With that saying, I climb up the balcony, jump from the fourth floor, and shift in mid-air in my golden eagle form before flying back to the level of the balcony of my office with my duffel hanging from my strong talons.

"What the--- Ruth!"

Kikira's panicky shrills ring my ears. Her astonished look matches with her partner's in which I only shake my head left to right and fly off, spreading my wings leisurely, but not before giving them a look that makes it clear, "I will have my eyes on you all. . ."

Opening my wings, I rise above the clouds higher and breathe in the air that doesn't weigh me down with its pressure. The view below me blows my mind, helping me to make my vision clear and think straight, but I won't right now. The birdy within me wants to fly and hunt down its prey, so I keep my gaze down and watch the mountain peaks as I fly past them after crossing the ocean.

I had a great time watching over the traitors/my mother's loyal followers/two-timers, or whatever they were in the last few months. They thought I had given them an empty threat that night when I took down Luciana. So, those who tried to reach the land of my enemies, I had to take them down and kill them on the spot instead of throwing them in prison of my coven.

Many witnessed that gruesome sight from the horror I intentionally inflected into their minds.

But the Starcrest Hollows stayed rooted in their place, looking unfazed, which I truly liked on many levels. They are my neighbors, after all; a terror themselves who even Shadowcrest fears but fights head to head when the war breaks in.

Turning my direction, I lower down slightly and catch a pair of blue eyes of a fellow of the Starcrest Hollows out of the hundreds who gather on the land at the sight of me. For some unknown reason, I can not find it myself to break the stare and circle around the area, keeping a fair distance above the now light clouds. They are hollows and can be some deadly witches/wizards, all I know.

His eyes glow golden, and I see his beast coming to the surface has me wonder if the twinkle in his eyes means that he wants to eat me up after hunting me down or if he wants to kill me for trespassing. Who knows?

To mock him, I let out a screechy noise, and I catch his expression change slightly.

They can be intelligent; hunters by nature but don't have eyes like me or the ability to fly high and dance in the storms.

One of the reasons I got to escape from Basville's prison and break into my mother's castle, where one could only imagine breaking into to catch her.

I fly over the Starcrest Hollows like the ruler of the sky for one last time and then disappear behind the dark clouds, laughing at the thought that they would come to hunt me down on my way to the north.

Little do I know I will run into a war between two supernaturals, and someone I have never seen will follow me straight to the battleground in the name of protecting me from those deadly creatures!