Making her own path

Chapter 14 - Arguments and taunts

Aysha could feel the butterflies in her stomach as she left the tent. She took a deep breath to try to calm herself since she could still feel the tingling sensations all over her body from where their skin touched.

“Why’d you leave mate?” Mel said in her head, and she could hear her sulk.

“Hey, I talked to him, and he knows that we are mates, what more do you want?” Aysha said and rolled her eyes.

“I have a few ideas.” Mel purred, and the ideas she put in her head made Aysha blush.

“How did I get stuck with such a lewd wolf.” Aysha frowned and tried to shake the ideas Mel was putting in her head out of her mind.

“Miss Aysha.” Someone called, and Aysha turned to see Alpha James walk towards her.

“Alpha James,” Aysha said and gave him a small nod in respect. “I would say sorry if I caused any trouble, but I didn’t start it.”

“I’m not looking for an apology,” Alpha James said with a chuckle and shook his head. “Just wanted to ask if you were alright, what Alpha Jian did was way out of line and not how an alpha should behave, especially as a guest in someone else’s kingdom.”

“I’m alright, just a few scrapes that will be healed in a few days,” Aysha shrugged.

“That’s good. Nevertheless, we decided to cancel the final spar since some were a bit agitated towards Alpha Jian’s behavior, and we didn’t want anyone else to get hurt.” James said and rubbed the soft stubble on his face.

“I guess that makes sense.” 

Before Aysha could ask anything else she felt her wristband vibrate and looked down at it. It was turning dark green, signaling that her father was looking for her, and as she focused on him, she could feel that he was angry. Extremely angry.

“Great…” Aysha muttered under her breath. “I’m sorry Alpha James, but my father is looking for me.”

“No worries, don’t let me keep you.” 

Aysha gave him a small nod and started walking towards the castle, not looking forward to her conversation with her father.

---

Zayne walked out of the tent a few minutes after her since he had to calm himself down since it would not do him any good if people were to see his excitement.

“Why did you let mate leave?” Xander asked doubtfully in his head.

“Because we need to give her time Xan,” Zayne said as he tried to stop thinking about her soft lips brushing against his ear.

“But I could feel that she wants us.” 

“Her wolf wants us. We need to give Aysha more time.” Zayne said and sighed.

He wanted nothing more than to claim her as his, but he also understood her point of view. They had just met yesterday and knew nothing about each other, but from what he had seen so far, he knew that she was well worth the wait.

He finally collected himself and left the tent, he could see Aysha walking towards the castle, and Jian standing close to the tent, waiting for him.

“Take it you called off the rest of the fights?” Zayne asked as he walked up to James.

“Yeah, people were angry at Jian’s actions, not that I blame them, and I was afraid that the spar with his beta might end on similar notes.” 

“Jian was way out of line,” Zayne said and thought back to the moment Jian charged at Aysha when her back was turned.

“But for Aysha to defeat him…” James continued, and he did not need to say anything else.

Sure, she was the daughter of an alpha, but managing to beat an alpha that was next in line to the throne in one of the four kingdoms was unheard of. Also, her speed during the fight increased suddenly, and even he had a tough time following her movements. She really was something else.

“So… you and her?” James asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I don’t know what you mean,” Zayne shrugged nonchalantly.

“You really want me to go into the fact that you can’t keep your eyes off one another.” 

“It’s that obvious, huh?” Zayne sighed and rubbed his neck.

“Maybe not to everyone, but I am an alpha,” James said and crossed his arms. “Are you mates?”

A bit taken aback by the bluntness of the question, Zayne wondered if he should tell him, but by the look on James’s face he already knew the answer, so he did not see any point in lying to him.

“Yes,” Zayne said and nodded.

“You’re lucky, it’s really rare to find your mate.” 

“Yeah, it’s something that I did not expect when coming here.” 

“Well, I know we haven’t really gotten to the point of who marries which princess, but you don’t have to worry about me. I’d never get in the way of a mate bond.”

“Thanks, but I’m not worried about you,” Zayne said with a bitter taste in his mouth.

“Alpha Jian,” James stated as a matter of fact.

“Do you know much about him?” 

“I have heard some rumors, but since our kingdoms are the furthest apart, we haven’t crossed paths before.”

“Well, if the rumors were about his possessive behavior, the rumors are true. He got this infatuation on a human girl a few years back which resulted in her death.”

“He killed her?” James said with a frown.

“He tried to turn her against her will.” 

“He what!?” James said shocked.

It was frowned upon for werewolves to try to turn other races since it most often resulted in the death of the one being turned. The process was tricky and complicated compared to how vampires turned humans.

“Got off the hook since his father was king of their kingdom.” 

“No wonder I got a bad feeling about that guy when I met him.” 

“What worries me is how he’s been looking at Aysha ever since she talked back to him this morning.”

“I’ve noticed that too,” James nodded in agreement.

“But, she’s clearly shown that she can take care of herself,” Zayne said and looked back towards the castle.

---

Aysha walked towards her father’s office, and as she got closer, she could feel her father’s anger clearer. He was furious. She was about to knock on his door as it opened, and Matthew walked out with a frown on his face that was a mix of anger, and disappointment.

“Matthew…” Aysha began but was cut off by her father calling her name.

“We’ll talk later,” Matthew said with a small smile and walked away.

Aysha walked into her father’s office and noticed him standing behind his desk, looking out his window. Aysha walked to the chairs in front of his desk but opted not to sit down and waited for her father to say something.

“Would you mind telling me,” her father said with a threatening tone as he looked over his shoulder. “Why Alpha Jian is currently in the hospital wing, getting stitches in his shoulder?”

“Well, he…” Aysha started, but once again her father cut her off.

“Cause from what I understand, you are the reason he’s there.” Her father said with anger plastered all over his face.

“You can’t seriously be protecting him!?” Aysha said a bit louder than she planned. “He’s the one that was a sore loser and attacked me after I won fair and square.”

“Fair?” Her father said with a scoff. “You really think that you won fair and square. He was going easy on you since you are an alpha’s daughter, and the least you could have done was not humiliate him in front of the other alphas!” Her father slammed his fist on his desk as he made the last point.

“He humiliated himself by attacking after the fight was over! He did this to himself!” Aysha spoke with a tone she knew she might regret, but she was not going to stand there and let her father blame everything on her. “Matthew can verify that.”

“You had no business being on the training field today, and Matthew had no right to put you out there.” Her father said as he rubbed his hand and looked at Aysha with an angry look on his face.

“They wanted the best fighters, and as much as you hate that I train so much, that doesn’t take the fact away that I’m one of them.”

Her father started laughing in a mocking tone, making Aysha bite the inside of her mouth in frustration.

“You really think you are one of the best?” Her father said in between laughs. “It’s the same as the fight with Alpha Jian, people go easy on you since you are an alpha’s daughter, and that has made you overestimate your abilities.”

“That’s not true…” Aysha said, hurt that her father would step so low.

“You are not to train anymore while the alphas are here, are we clear? Besides, Matthew will no longer be your trainer, so you are in no rush to go back there.”

“What? Matthew had nothing to do with…” Aysha tried but her father raised her hand.

“And you are going to apologize to Alpha Jian for humiliating him, and for your unladylike behavior.”

“I’m never going to apologize to that misogynistic ass.”

“YOU WILL APOLOGIZE TO HIM!” he roared with his alpha tone.

Aysha looked down on the floor in submission, but since his alpha tone did not work on her, it was mostly for show. She bit her tongue so she would not argue more with her father and share her secret. Not that she knew what to say since she was so stunned that he was disregarding her feelings like this.

“And tomorrow night at the welcoming ball, you are to dance the first dance with Alpha Jian and be on your best behavior all night.”

“You can’t be serious, making me apologize for his mistakes is bad enough, but to allow him to put his hands on me after the way he’s been treating me is outrageous,” Aysha said while trying not to yell at her father, since she knew that would not yield her any results. “And if I have to dance to one of the alphas, I’d much rather dance with…”

“ENOUGH!” He growled loudly as his eyes turned black, meaning his wolf was also angry. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them again, they were his regular blue eyes. He walked over to her and looked down on her with a scowl on his face. “It’s clear to me that it was a mistake allowing you to train like any other soldier. You have forgotten your place in this kingdom and are way out of line. You are not going anywhere near the training field, you will talk and dress like a proper princess, you will show the alphas the respect that they deserve, and be on your best behavior. Are we clear?”

“Can I just…” Aysha said while trying to hold back the rage that was threatening to come out.

“Are we clear?! Her father said again with a stern voice.

“Yes… Father…” Aysha said with resentment and made sure that her father heard that.

“Good. Now I have a meeting with the three alphas, so you are excused.

Aysha turned on her heel and left the room with so much anger in her body she thought she might explode. Not once was her father concerned that Jian had hurt her or attacked her while her back was turned, he did not even ask her if she had seen a doctor for her wounds. Some father he was.

She left the room and closed the door behind her and allowed herself to lean back on the door while she got her feelings under control. She could feel Mel pacing around in anger in her head, but she did not say anything, she did not need to.

“Look who we have here,” someone said next to her, and Aysha was greeted with a face she was hoping she would not have to see for the rest of the day.

“Alpha Jian,” Aysha said with a sigh and reminded herself that punching him would cause more problems than solve. “How’s your shoulder?” She said and allowed herself to give him a little smirk.

“It’s nothing serious.” He said and glared at her. “The hospital visit was just a precaution,” he said and shrugged.

“If you say so,” Aysha rolled her eyes at his attempt to save face, not in the mood to deal with him. She tried to walk past him, but he placed his arm on the wall, blocking her in.

“Isn’t there anything you want to say to me?” He said and raised an eyebrow.

“Sorry, nothing comes to mind. Now can you please move your hand?”

“Is that so, then I guess that I have to tell your father that maybe this arrangement won’t work after all, and our kingdoms shouldn’t join.” He said with a smirk.

“Seriously, you’re going to tell on me. What are you, five?” Aysha said with a scoff. “Besides, last time I checked, we were not going to be paired until after the ball, maybe my older sisters can handle your misogynistic ass, although I doubt that any woman that has even the slightest of respect for herself would want you.” Aysha could see Jian’s jaw tense in anger at her words, and even though she knew she should stop, she just could not help herself. “But if it helps you sleep better; I’m so sorry for my behavior Alpha Jian, I had no intention of hurting your fragile ego, but you just made it so… easy.” She said with the most innocent smile she could muster. 

Jian’s eyes turned black, and he pushed Aysha back, slamming her back against the wall, and placed his hands on either side of her head. She knew that she might have taken things a step too far, but she did not regret one word. 

“You are going to regret taunting me like this,” he said with a threatening growl, his eyes still pitch black.

“I suggest you keep it your pants for a while longer, not that I think you have anything of value down there, people are looking,” Aysha said with a bored expression.

Jian looked around and noticed a few maids close by, not to mention a couple of guards that were standing there looking at them.

“Besides, I already said I’m sorry,” Aysha said with a smirk and ducked under one of his arms and started walking away.

She could feel Jian’s glare dig holes through the back of her head, but she just looked over her shoulder and gave him a little wave. She took a deep breath when she was around the corner, thinking about how she wanted to punch his arrogant face, but reminding herself of how much trouble she would have gotten into.

“I wanted to do more than just punch his face,” Mel growled in her head, and she could feel how tense she was.

“How about a run to let off some steam?” Aysha suggested.

“That sounds like a plan.”

After all the drama that had happened over the last day, Aysha needed to clear her mind, and the best way to do that was to go on a run. 

Besides, it has been a while since she snuck outside the kingdom's borders.