Beyond A King

Witches

The aroma of coffee filled the shop as I entered. Coffee Bean had been my favourite pass time in my teens, I’d often come here with friends or myself, sit here and drink coffee whilst I studied. It was my home away from home.

It was a small family run coffee shop, always had a rustic feel to it before but now looks like someone had been trying to revitalise it. The tables were new and the booths around the windows had been recovered in a deep red leather. Art hung on the walls and what looked like a small stage in the far corner, probably for live music. It still had that old world feel to it but it had definitely had the TLC it needed for years.

People chatted and no one paid me a mind, which I was grateful for. There weren't many older generations in the place right now so not many would recognise me; the place was filled mainly with rowdy teens getting breakfast on their way to school.

A table of girls giggling into their phones had me cringing, reminding me of Sophia giggling to that asshat boy yesterday.

A few warriors sat in a booth, probably just coming off a watch at the border. I didn’t recognise them all, maybe one or two from training sessions with dad but I didn’t know them enough to speak to.

A mother was getting cakes at the counter with her pup, the girl was standing at the glass pointing to each cake. That was when I noticed the male behind the counter.

Curt, Sebastian’s long time friend and the guy that knew all about Sebastian and Delilah sneaking around behind my back, I hadn’t seen him since the day I had caught the love birds in bed together.

For a moment I thought about turning around and leaving and save myself any snide remarks or dig at how everyone knew my boyfriend was cheating and I was the i***t who thought he would be interested in a non wolf like me over the head warriors daughter but then I thought no. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Why should I leave my favourite coffee place?

I watched Curt as he scooped the cakes the girl was choosing into boxes. To my surprise when he lifted his head and saw me standing in the queue his eyes went wide and his hands made quick work to catch the box he almost dropped.

Maybe they all thought I’d never come back. Or maybe they hoped I wouldn’t.

I looked away from him pretending to text Cora back. I really wasn’t in the mood for this, not after my exchange with Penny this morning. I was already sad about it. I always get sad after our bickering, I wish it could be different between us. I really did but it always ends the same way with us.

I felt a hard weight slam into me suddenly “AMERIA!” The woman at the counter scolds the little girl who has just slammed against me obviously not looking where she was going.

She looks up at me sheepishly “ sorry” she mutters but my breath catches in my throat.

The girl is beyond beautiful. Her ash blonde hair that women would pay endless amounts of money to achieve hung naturally down her back in masses of curls. Her eyes were as blue as the ocean and sparkled slightly, reminding me of diamonds.

I’m taken back by the sheer familiarity, I've seen those eyes before, in my dreams but can never place them to a person. I can’t help but think fondly of the child, those eyes are the only thing that ever chases away my nightmares.

The woman at the counter rushed towards the two of us as we stood rooted to our spot. “ I’m so sorry miss” she smiled grasping the child’s shoulders like I would snatch her away “ she tends to run without looking” she continued and I watched as the girls light skin flushed red “mom” she scalded embarrassed. The girl had to have been around ten so becoming embarrassed by your parents was a 24 hour curse at that age.

I couldn’t help but to notice the contrast between the two as they stood side by side. It was like night and day. The woman spoke with a slight accent, I wasn’t an expert and had never been to Spain but I was definitely getting that accent. Her hair was black and cut short but from the way she was nervously fiddling with it, it was a new style. She probably had hair longer than mine before. Her olive skin reminded me of jasmine back in England but where jasmine was tall and slender this woman was short and had beautiful curves, not as short as me but still for a werewolf. They were clearly not related by blood but the pup had called the woman mom,

“ Ameria? Do you know that means princess?” The girls face lit up instantly “ my family calls me princess, but my friends call me Amie” she stated proudly.

“ I’m lyla it’s nice to meet you Amie” I shook her hand and recognition registered in her mothers face. “ your john’s girl the hum….” She covered her mistake with a cough, I didn’t mind being called a human but she obviously thought I would be offended. I’m sure others would mean it in offence but something told me this woman didn’t have a bad bone in her body.

“ You've just come home from your trip to England, how was it? I’ve always wanted to go” the familiarity the woman spoke said she knew my father well but I had no idea who she was which was embarrassing.

“ it was nice although I didn’t get to explore much since I was studying” I answered her politely but still trying to place how she was.

“ that’s right your a doctor now, that must be exciting” she smiled cheerfully “ oh how rude of me I’m Martha, you’ve met my youngest Ameria” she patted the little girl on the head like a baby even though Amie was almost as tall as Martha.

Wait, I did know her. Realisation finally hit me, thank the goddess.

Martha was mated to Ronoldo; he was commander of the king's royal army. He was a good man.

My father would rave about his friend but I’d never officially met the man. Apparently he was very dedicated to his job and any extra time he spent with his family, dad said Ronoldo had never been the party type unlike his other friends. He and Martha had pups late in life but when they had started it seemed they couldn’t stop, dad said they had almost as many pups running around the house as we did.

Martha looked like the type that adopted any pup that needed a home, I could easily picture her bare foot, pregnant, in her kitchen with lots of pups running around. She had a very loving maternal aura around her. It warmed my heart.

“ well we best get these back. We have a special guest coming but it was lovely to see you lyla” Martha smiled warmly but Ameria seemed taken back.

“ Will you come see us sometime?” She asked hopeful. I frowned not sure what to say to her, I didn’t really know her or her family or where she lived for that matter. I didn’t want to impose.

I looked at Martha who sensed my unease at her daughters question “ Lyla’s going to be a pack doctor so she will work at the hospital, it’s a very busy job sweetie but you will probably see her for pack functions” the little girls eyes lit up instantly.

“ Are you going to the ball? Mom and dad said I can go too, my dress is pink, what colour is yours, mom is going to do my hair and said I can wear her makeup too, you're going right, what colour is your dress? ” I chuckled at how fast she reeled off.

“ yes I’m going, I’m actually going to pick my dress out today” I answered.

“ well we will see you there lyla” Martha smiled happily ushering Ameria towards the door.

I waved as they left “ bye Martha, I’ll see you at the ball Amie, I will look out for your pink dress” she beamed at me before following her mother out of the shop. Suddenly I felt a sense of loss which was very strange.

I turned towards the counter and Curt was patiently waiting for me. “Lyla your back, I can’t believe you're here ” he smiled I wasn’t sure if he was being sarcastic.

“ this is my home” I said, curtly missing the pleasantries. Curt stood there looking uncomfortable so I thought I’d help him out since I wasn’t interested in reliving past encounters.

“ Can I get a black coffee?” I asked. Curt nodded eagerly, clearly grateful for the distraction from the awkward conversation. Maybe I should find a new coffee shop, it wasn’t like the pack didn’t have others.

He brought my coffee over and I kicked myself for not asking for a to go cup, I picked it up but Curt stopped me. “ Can we sit and talk for a second?”

I wanted to say no but maybe if I got this over with I wouldn’t have to move coffee shops. I nodded and he bolted from around the counter, we sat in a booth close to the warriors, for a while Curt seemed to be wrestle long with himself and it got awkward again.

Right in the middle of contemplating whether or not I should neck the coffee or abandon it and leave he spoke “ lyla I wanted to reach out to you after you left but I wasn’t sure how, I just wanted to apologise for everything with….you know”

I wasn’t expecting an apology but I immediately doubted his sincerity. Apparently whilst wanting to reach out he’d never heard of email or a phone or a letter “ mmmm your sorry….” I tapped my chin as if in thought “ oh you mean for the fact that my boyfriend and friend we’re screwing behind my back and you knew all about it?”

Curt looked guilty and nodded “ yea that, look I know it looks bad, I was your friend and I didn’t tell you, I wanted to, I should have but seb kept promising he would end it with Delilah and he always seemed so upset after it happened. I just felt bad for him” I scoffed unable to contain it.

Poor Curt couldn’t be this dumb, yet his look of confusion said he was. He had no idea Sebastian was manipulating him.

“ Oh Curt please tell me you didn’t fall for the act?” He frowned clearly having no idea what I was talking about.

“ let me describe a scene for you” I sipped my coffee savouring it, so much better than Cora’s.

“let me know if this sounds familiar” I put the coffee down looking at the poor guy across from me.

“After a few sobbing sessions Sebastian started asking you to cover for him when he was going to be with Delilah” he didn’t need to confirm after that day I’d gone over every painstaking moment with sebastian and remembered a few occasions I was supposed to meet seb but Curt had turned up instead telling me seb was held up with one thing or another.

“ his sob story’s story started getting old after a few months and you told him you were going to tell me the truth the next thing you know an hysterical sobbing Delilah’s at your door saying she feels awful for what she has done to me and wants to tell me herself, that sound about right ?” Curt’s face flushed and he seemed deep In thought for a moment, then finally morphed into one of anger.

“ They played me?” He shouted.

I nodded, I felt bad for Curt, he’d been put in a tough position, he hadn’t hurt me yet I’d held him to the same standing as Delilah and Sebastian “ yes Curt they played you, so you wouldn’t tell anyone but my guess is by the end everyone but me knew what they were doing” I had no doubt about that a few of our old group had all but confirmed it when I’d called them, one girl Crystal even said ‘ oh so they finally told you’ that phone call had been why I’d cut ties with the others. I couldn’t trust any of them any more. I was grateful none of them had been at my party.

I’d directed so much of my anger towards Curt because he knew now I felt bad, he said we were friends but that wasn’t true, he was seb’s friend and I was seb’s girlfriend we hung out together all the time because of seb not because of friendship, it’s nice he felt bad but the truth was me getting hurt wasn’t on him “don’t beat yourself up about it Curt, they played me too”

Curt and I made our peace and I actually felt better about the whole thing. We chatted for a while while I drank my coffee, I learned that Curt had bought Coffee Bean a year ago and had worked hard to bring it back to life. It didn’t surprise me he had not gone down the warrior route like my brothers. Curt had always been more of a tech whizz in school anyway, he still had muscles like any werewolf but he wasn’t built like my brothers that trained relentlessly. After our chat, Curt got back to work and I had finished my coffee. I still had to go and register with the hospital.

“ honestly who do they think they are setting foot on our turf” I paused exiting the booth, listening to the warriors behind me talk.

“ she must have a death wish after everything she’s done to this pack” another agreed, I wasn’t sure who they meant but I was sure it was to do with the alpha sumit.

“ she murdered our queen and heir” they were talking about king magnus and his mate who died in childbirth during an attack on the palace by witches, though it’s unclear if she died from the birth or if she was murdered. There were many theories. Only thing we knew for sure was she did die that night along with her pup.

“ If you ask me, we were better off with her dead, she was one of them, the pack would never have accepted a witch as queen” my stomach dropped at the direction of the conversation how they spoke of the king's fated mate just because she had not been a wolf. It didn't matter that she was the goddess’s choice.

“ That's witches for you, they think they own the place” another growled his hate clear and that was the bottom line, this pack hated witches. Hated my kind.

“ If only we could eradicate them all” they laughed in agreement. I could feel tears in my eyes but wiped my face quickly keeping my back to them. Some of these men were my fathers friends. What would they do if they knew their friend's daughter was a witch?

“ maybe it’s the kings plan with this alliance, bring them in and kill them all once they let their guard down”

“ Count me in, the only thing I hate more than a witch is an alliance with them” they all laughed, I couldn’t listen anymore. I know this pack has a history with witches but they put all witches in the same pot with the worst kind.

I hated that I could never be the real me in my own home pack. They would never accept me in my true form. A witch. They would have me locked up or burnt at the stake before I could even show them I was not like the ones that had raged war on them 30 years ago.

Becoming a doctor was a way to serve my pack as the human I had to pretend to be. I could only hope no one ever found out my secret. The only ones who knew my secret here were my family but England had been a different story. I’d never told my father but I had screwed up. I'd not been as careful to disguise my magic as I had been here and had gotten sloppy.

Someone in the crescent moon pack had let alpha Harrison know of my little secret and he had exploited me for his own gain. I’d handled it without telling my father because he was already trying to handle aunt Mira back here.

I thought for the most part I had things handled but then Harrison the snake told Alpha Mitchell about me and I got roped into helping him and his pack. Thankfully the birth of his daughter had encouraged some kind of turn around for alpha Harrison. He apologised and released me from my service to him. Another reason I hadn’t returned when dad first asked me to, also a reason I never trusted alpha’s, in my eyes they were only out for power, it is what alpha Harrison had used me for and when he needed help so had alpha Mitchell. I still remember walking into his office that day and he’d just assumed I would help him, he offered nothing in return for my services and neither had alpha Harrison. I wasn’t looking for money or anything merely just to be treated as a person and not an instrument in their business.

I may have later become friends with Alisha Mitchell’s Luna but I still didn’t trust him or any alpha for that matter. It was why my secret needed to stay hidden as much as I wanted to live in the open and stop with the secrets it just wasn’t meant to be, not if I wanted to build a life here.

( Gwen pov )

I looked down at the dead naked worlock on the ground with little emotion. I had liked Kyle; he was kind and his lust for power hadn’t been as apparent as my other chosen beloveds.

However looking back to my bed where my daughter nerva lay with a smug grin on her face filled me with rage. She was like a spoiled child pining for my attention every time I found a new male, she would eventually seduce him to her bed or rather my bed knowing full well I had no choice but to kill them afterwards.

I had many men lining up for the chance to be my beloved even with the clear threat of death hanging over their heads. Kyle seemed different, he had genuinely liked me or so I thought, It was always the same though. They could never resist my daughter. Kyle had known what it would cost him if he bed her just like the otters had, she always succeeded though, just like her father.

“ You look so much like him with that stupid grin on your face” I muttered emotionlessly, her face instantly morphed into anger at the mention of her father, she hated being told she was like him because it brought to the surface how much of a disappointment she was to him.

“ are you upset about your beloved mother, funny I really thought that one would resist me he really did try if it’s any consolation” it wasn’t, he may have tried more than most but he had still bedded her.

I didn’t love Kyle, I had never loved any of them. I wasn’t even sure I was callable anymore; Julianna had given me a harsh lesson in love when I was young and nieve with dreams of my fated beloved in my head. She would never have allowed it she already had plans for me and non of those plans involved love.

The only man I’d ever loved was my fated beloved. We had met. He was a warrior for the crimson cove pack. I had fallen in love instantly. When I moved towards him and he took me in his arms I felt joy like no other and tingles ran up my arms making me want to stay in his embrace forever.

Juliana had ordered a rejection immediately, when I refused and begged her to let me leave to be with him she had called me weak. I hadn’t been able to stop the energy ball she had launched at my mate. I watched in horror while he burned to nothing but ash. I still hear his screams in my head.

There hadn’t been a body to mourn over, nothing for his family to bury, all because of me, because I wouldn’t let him go. I was selfish and emotional and she showed me how having a beloved was bad. If I’d just rejected him like she ordered he would be alive. I never even knew his name. His alpha refused to give me any information since my beloved had been a dear friend of his. He hadn’t hidden his hate for me and I couldn’t blame him but nothing could make me feel worse than the heart break I had felt that day.

The feeling of the bond snap as my beloved left this world was pain like no other. I traced the rough skin on my arms, a permanent reminder of what I’d lost. I hadn’t even noticed the flames had caught me as well when I wouldn’t let go of him.

That’s what I told myself over the years, that he died because of my choice not to reject him but something tells me that julianna would have killed him either way because I hesitated. She wouldn’t have trusted me to stay away.

That day had taught me a valuable lesson, love nothing, you will only lose it. I looked back to my daughter still laying in my bed not bothering to cover up her naked body, her smug expression was back as she looked down at my feet where Kyle's mangled body lay, like it was so hard to tempt a man to cheat when he was ruled by lust. She was a spoiled brat of a child. She always had been like this. Throwing tantrums when she didn’t get her way or wanted attention.

Her look always reminded me of her father, the man only known as ‘ the kraven’ . My rage spiked just thinking of him.

After Juliana had murdered my beloved she ordered me to mate with that monster. It was mere days after the meeting and I was still devastated for losing my beloved . Not that my misery had affected Juliana she only cared about power. And Nerva’s father came with that. With his alliance the coven would be unstoppable. Only problem was the guy didn’t want a beloved in his words ‘ she’s lovely but not worth tying myself to’ asshole. Not that it had stopped him from taking me to his bed.

He didn’t r**e me I went to his bed willingly because what other choice did I have but great mother did I feel violated after. I held in my pain still remembering his violent thrusts into my untouched body and laughing as I screamed for it to stop while he tore away my innocence.

I had been bedridden for a week after, every time I tried to move my body screamed in protest. It was only by the grace of the great mother I had become pregnant with nerva that night, who knew how many times Juliana would have forced me to endure that monster.

When nerva was born I tried to love her, tried to be the mother I had dreamed of being, had wanted to be but from the moment nerva was placed in my arms I knew she was just a copy of her father.

He of course was disappointed seeing immediately his daughter was not the hybrid he had wanted, he left and never returned only leaving behind the offer of putting another of his offsprings inside me.

Never! I had vowed, he would never touch me again.

Over the years nerva proved me to be right with the assumption she was a replica of the sperm donor and left a trail of misery in her wake.

My child enjoyed hurting people, no one more than me. This wasn’t the first time I'd found my daughter in bed with one of my chosen beloveds. It was such an obvious routine with them now it bordered on boring. That’s what nerva was, bored and looking to hurt me.

I wasn’t sorry for killing Kyle he knew better, had promised me so many times he would be better than those before him. Everyone in the coven knew what happened if I found my chosen beloved in bed with a woman that wasn’t me. Yet it never stopped them, maybe they were stupid because it certainly wasn’t because I wouldn’t follow through, Kyle was not the first beloved to meet this end nor would he be the last.

I didn’t care, i felt very little, but when nerva

hurt other coven members it was eveything in me to remind myslef nerva was my child. Sometimes I think that I should have killed myslef while she was still in my womb to save the world from her misery.

“ what?” She shrugged like she didn’t know why I was staring at her.

“ I liked him” I lied, when Nerva’s smile grew I knew I’d given her what she wanted. I could tell her I didn’t care but that would only fuel her anger, at least this way the damage would be minimal. I hadn’t cared, he was good in bed and that’s all I needed from a male, I had others lined up for the chance to come to my bed. In Fact I would have a new one in there tonight.

“ If you're done with your childish games, get dressed and get my sheets changed” I looked down at Kyle's body again. “ I want the body gone when I come back as well” I didn’t need this after the s**t Juliana had pulled with the new werewolf king. She had come out of that palace ready to start another war. I didn’t need to deal with Nerva as well. I needed to calm the situation before Juliana escalated things.

“ what am I the f*****g help?” She complained. I just rolled my eyes. I was already late for a meeting with the coven elders. I needed to fill them in

“ You made the mess, you clean it up, you have had enough attention for one day” I scolded her like the petulant child she was. Something needed to be done about her acting out but drastic action requires a unanimous decision from the coven elders. What I had planned for nerva, it was something I would have to get permission from them to do.