The Lost Queen

Chapter 12. A soft murderer

Ace

When I thought that everything couldn’t be worse, Vincent dropped the bomb right on top of my head and after leaving the school grounds I felt like I was going to faint. Every sound was annoyingly pitchy, and the sun was too bright. I thought I understood everything in a different way than Vincent told me, but no. Everything was the same, every word which slipped from his lips rang like truth and I was helpless to resist that f*****g and terrible truth.

My father, the softest man I knew, was a murderer. He slaughtered innocent people just because he felt uneasy with their autorotative genes. I didn’t even know that there was some royal pack amongst werewolves. Well, I was too young to know that. I felt so lost because everything that my father taught me was to be nice and merciful to others. To have compassion and understanding because everyone goes through their life at a different pace.

How is this man the same who arranged to s*******r innocent men, women, and children? Even children! It was madness. I didn’t want to believe it, but Vincent was so sure about every little detail when he talked about the agreement, and the incident three years ago… Not only did our pack suffer from the ambush. It was all those packs who participated in slaughtering the royal pack.

Vincent was sure that some people survived s*******r sixteen years ago and came to take vengeance on their loved ones. They were determined to eliminate all the alphas who participated and also kill their pups, so they wouldn’t be able to take over.

Even if I didn’t want to believe that my father was a murderer, everything fit in the missing puzzle. If it was the same people who killed my parents and attacked Zaven, then everything would become clearer. They want me because they couldn’t finish their job the last time. They didn’t think that I would fall asleep in my father’s office and not in my bed. Why didn’t they take Kade’s life? Where the hell was he that night?

But even if they couldn’t take my life that night, why did they let me live peacefully for three years and didn’t do anything? Why do they come now and take my beta? Even if some questions were answered, I had much more now than yesterday and I was exhausted.

I still thought about everything and didn’t want to believe it, but the world is a cruel place, and we must survive at all costs, even if I had to believe that my father agreed to s*******r innocent people for his pride and power.

It was a long day; the hours were longer than they should be, and I had a ton of different tasks to complete before a new product had reached the market. When I got a call from the unknown number, I thought that everything couldn’t be worse, but then a soft voice filled my phone and I couldn’t contain my astonishment. I didn’t know why I was this excited, but my heart pounded in my chest, and I forgot all the tasks that needed to be done.

I should have met up with Kayla in half an hour and when I thought earlier that I could manage to sit through one of the meetings, I was wrong. All the time, I nervously glanced at my watch and followed with my eyes golden arrows urging me to move faster and I didn’t hear a single word from the executive director who was responsible for the new project.

“Are you here?” Zaven’s voice filled my head and I turned to him. His blueish eyes were studying my face and I smiled apologetically. I brushed my fingers through the dark waves of my hair and I leaned into the chair searching for moral support.

“Sorry, I have a lot of things on my mind.”

“Care to share?”

“Later, when I have a glass of whiskey in my hand,” I grinned and looked at the watch one more time. Only ten minutes left and then I could go and find out what Kade did this time. Even if I was intrigued by hearing Kayla’s voice, I was also disturbed by her slightly dejected voice. I want to believe that my brother wasn’t brainless and didn’t hurt this girl, but if he did…

Nor growled in disapproval and I agreed with him. Kade had to become more responsible for his actions because, from what I saw, he was suffocating Kayla in a way that she didn’t have an escape and I wasn’t sure why he acted like a wild animal. My brother, even if he was free-spirited, wasn’t a bad kid and didn’t hurt anyone on purpose. Maybe he was a little too aggressive sometimes, but he was part of a wolf and males were more ferocious than females, but it wasn’t an excuse to harass a girl from the school, especially if she’s new to the town.

“I need to leave, and I need you to take care of things in here.” I linked to Zaven and he gazed at me expectedly.

“Will you tell me about it later too?” my beta teased me, and I smirked, rolling my eyes.

I scared the presenter by standing up and he looked at me kind of sheepishly. His bulging eyes were wide, and his forehead was covered with small drops of sweat. While I said that I needed to leave to take care of some things, the middle-aged man’s cheeks were beetroot red and small blood-vessels visible on the aged skin. Mr. Coriano's fingers trembled while he tried to control his emotions, but I gently asked him to continue and while he skimmed through his notes, I slipped through the doors and went straight to my office to gather my stuff before leaving.

For a short moment, I stopped in front of a mirror and fixed my hair. My eyes were darker, reminded of an amber with blackish bands around the pupils. Black circles were visible under my eyes and I looked shitty, but I didn’t have time to fix my appearance, but then I paused to think about the reason why I needed to dress up. Kayla called because my brother was an irresponsible i***t, not because she wanted to go on a date with me… She’s still a minor, I think, it’s not reasonable to think about her in that kind of way.

My dreams were one thing, but in real life I couldn’t forget that she was still a schoolgirl and was bullied by my brother. I will talk with her; we will drink a cup of coffee and I will try to deal with whatever problem she has. Nor paced in my head unhappy but I still wasn’t sure why because the feeling wasn’t the same as it was with Celeste. With Kayla, my wolf was agitated but she’s already seventeen, so if she were our mate we would feel it now, but with her everything was very unclear; caramel scent mixed with some annoying herbs was distracting me and I didn’t have any explanation for my feelings. Also, she looked clueless about all the non-human species around, so maybe I just felt some false signals and I was too tired to understand them in the right way.

When I left the office, a gloomy sky threatened to break through, and I hurried to the Artemis café which was across the street. I didn’t even make my way inside when I spotted Kayla’s delicate body near the window. It was framed between the white café panel wall and a wooden table but her brown, kind of antique uniform didn’t match the interior and for that reason she looked more mythical there than human. Kayla’s face was lowered onto the phone, and her black hair cascaded over her shoulders. She was gorgeous and I felt nervous. I didn’t feel that spark in so long that now it was overwhelming.

Nor anxiously whined in my head and my eyebrows furrowed of uncomfortable feeling, I needed to go inside. The bell chimed when I opened the doors and Kayla’s eyes immediately shot up. They had so many emotions that I had to bite my lip, in order to avoid showing my own. Her eyes were a light shade of green, the hair that I saw cascading over her shoulders was a little bit messy, but the most concerning thing was her gaze; it looked lifeless and tired, maybe even shock was evident.

I caught a glimpse of two paper cups on the round table in front of Kayla and sighed annoyingly. She outrun me at the same thing twice. While I moved towards her, I could feel how everyone’s gazes bore into our little meet-up, but instead of chasing other glances, I was looking around the small, contemporary café and smiled at Delilah who stood behind the counter. She nodded to me, and a small smile crept onto her face when she recognized Kayla and reminisced about our last meeting. Even if Delilah and all her family were werewolves, they lived in the town, near this café. As I heard once from a girl, life in a packhouse didn’t suit her and her parents.

When I returned my focus to Kayla, I saw how tense she was, but nevertheless, tried to smile shyly and I thought it was the most alluring thing that I had seen in a long time.

“Hello Kayla,” my voice sounded way huskier than I was used to. She locked her phone with slender fingers, and I caught a glimpse of a golden ring around her thumb.

“Hi Ace. Thank you for meeting me,” Kayla said politely and motioned with her hand to the cup in front of me. I was still standing but was too nervous to sit down. “I bought coffee as a thank you, so please, sit down.”

I didn’t like her talking manner. It was so formal, that for a moment I thought I misunderstood her call, but then remembered my brother and his stupid behaviour. I was here to take care of his mess, not to flirt with a minor. When I sat down on the bright, minty coloured chair, I gazed at the black cup and saw steam coming out of it.

“Double espresso. Last time you ordered that, so I didn’t want to make a mistake buying the wrong one.”

“You didn’t need to do it. You did the same thing last time, and with that behaviour you are hurting my gentleman's ego,” I pouted, still smiling softly at Kayla.

“I just thought it would be appropriate to buy drinks because I was the one who invited you here,” her voice on the last words was a little bit shaky and I eyed her a little intensively because her cheeks flushed, and she lowered her eyes to the cup in front of her.

I gazed down at her school uniform, trailing my eyes from her neck to her arms, and when I saw a trail of red on the white blouse, memories flooded my mind immediately. The white sheets in front of my eyes were crimson and stained with random splashes. On the light grey walls were red handprints and bloody squirts. I tried to snap out of it, but in my mind mom’s glassy eyes stared at me and her open throat was still leaking. Blood dripped on the wooden floor and everywhere was so quiet, I could hear my rapid heartbeat and rigid breathing.

When I remembered where I was, I looked up and found worried Kayla’s gaze piercing into my skull. Her hand was on top of mine, and I admired her small palm. I didn’t even feel it when she touched me, but I was enjoying the warmth flooding my body, and pushed away all the terrible memories back to the corner of my mind.