The Shadow Twin

Chapter 3 - New Pack rules

The bathroom was filed with steam when I finally turned off the shower. Water droplets was running down the walls and the huge mirror by the sinks was covered in both steam and water droplets. I grabbed one of the towels by the shower and wrapped it around my body, seconds after the door flew open and Kayden stormed in. He paused as soon as he saw me, his hands holding on to the bowtie he had been undoing. His eyes zeroing in on my hands tugging the towel closer to my body and something, I couldn’t quite describe flashed in his eyes. He turned around and closed the door and when he looked at me again that something in his eyes was gone. He walked across the tiles with menacing movements and stopped in front of me.

“In case you didn’t get it the first time. There is only one woman in my life and there will always only be her by my side. You mean nothing to me. I can’t have you moved to another room, so I will have MY room made into, to separate rooms, so I don’t have to have you any closer to me, than necessary.” He hissed the last part and the hatred in his eyes was way too real. What on earth did I do to him?

“Excuse me?... What gave you the idea that you could talk to me this way?” I took a step closer to him, matching his stance the best I could, while holding on to my towel. If I let him walk all over me now, he would do it forever. He grabbed a hold of my shoulders and pushed me up against the tiles behind me, hard enough that the air was knocked out of my lunges.

“I can talk to you how ever I see fit… And I’m not sleeping in the same bed as you.” He let go of me and took a step back. A tiny step back. I took a deep breath trying to get enough air down my lungs again.

“Thank god for that, cause I don’t want you near me.” The anger was getting the best of me, and it didn’t help when I was pushed up against the tiles again. This time harder than the first one. Pain shot up my spine and tears were treating to break free. I was not going to cry in front of this shithead. Screw the promise to his sister, that I didn’t really mean anyway, because now I was definitely not going to give him a chance. Not after this.

“Why agree to the marriage if you already had a woman in your life?” I struggled against his grip on me, while he tuned out and looked at the tiles above my left shoulder. I wished he had said no to this marriage, because I didn’t want anything to do with him either. His family maybe, but I would take my own horrible adoptive family back in a heartbeat, if it meant I didn’t have to deal with him. He then let go off me and I crashed to the floor, scraping my knees, not expecting him to let go so suddenly.

“I don’t owe, the likes of you an explanation.” He took a step away from me and it looked like he was struggling internally. Like he was debating something within himself. The guy was a total asshole. His eyes swept over my body, which made me feel uncomfortable and hot at the same time, and my grip on the towel tighten. He was clenching his jaw shut and then he looked away, the same weird thing flashing in his eyes, that showed up when he walked in on me. Before I could come up with a clever comeback, there was a knock on the door to the bathroom.

“Come in.” Kayden called, not thinking about the fact that I was on the floor in a towel and bleeding form the cuts on my knees. Or he didn’t care, which was the most likely scenario.

“Sire.” The maid looked around the room, taking the sight that was me and then at Kayden, before she looked at the floor tiles at her feet with red flustered cheeks.

“The King and Queen is asking for you… They want you to come to his study and that it’s urgent.” The maid looked up at him for a second and he then stormed towards the door. She jumped out of the way as he stormed by and was still almost knocked down.

“Get that cleaned up before I come back.” He hissed at the poor maid, who just bowed and nodded at his demand. She then looked down at me, with a sorrowful smile, that she quickly covered up.

“Let me help you, My Lady.” She came to my aid and help me to stand. The pain centered around my knees and my back was killing me, but I was not going to mention it. She helped me to the bathtub, where she made me sit down on the edge. She then walked to the sink and open the cabinet underneath.

“I’m sorry My Lady.” The silent pain and sorrow in her eyes, where just as painful as the pain coursing through my body. She handed me the wet piece of cloth and then made her way to the blood-soaked floor.

“I fell.” She looked at me, while whipping the floor clean. She knew I was lying, not that I was doing it to protect Kayden, but I couldn’t tell her the truth. No, I gave her something else to say when people asked her about the bloody cloth and towels, she was bringing down form Kayden’s room and I gave myself something else to say as well. This was about giving me a way out and not to save the shithead’s good name. She just nodded and went back to whipping the blood of the floor. After that she came back to me and placed bandages on my knees. She then handed me a bathrobe, that smelled like Kayden, which made my senses flare up again.

“You should get some rest.” She took the towel I had been wearing and made her way to the door. She looked back at me with a worried look.

“I will come back in an hour or so, to help you get ready for the party.” She then gave me a small smile as she waked out and I made my way to the couch. No way I was going to take a nap in his bed. The maid was quite clever, I had to give her that. The ‘help’ to get ready to the party, was her way of telling me she was coming back to check up on me and not to help, even though she would be doing that to. She was going out of her way to make sure that the Prince wasn’t going to finished what he started in the bathroom. She was also going to have someone come up and fix the tiles though. The slamming me hard into them twice made sure that some of those tiles broke a bit, which was also the reason the maid knew I was lying. Taking a fall out of the shower didn’t involve breaking tiles on the wall. I laid down on the couch and wrapped myself in the blanket resting on the armrest. I placed one arm underneath my head, and I was soon drifting of. The events of the days taking a toll.

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----Kayden POV----

As soon as I was able to leave the weeding scene I did and made my way to the Pack house. Sitting in my chair I waited until the rest of the Pack showed up. It was the longest ten minutes in my life, and I started pacing around with no real purpose after less than a minute of waiting. My mind wandered back to Leigh as she walked in on me and Sheila. The look on her face was soul crushing and made my wolf howl in my head. Deryn, my Beta showed up in the doorframe looking at me while I paced around the room.

“Everyone’s here.” He crossed his arms in front of his chest and gave me one of his looks, that silently asked if I was okay.

“Let’s do this.” I stopped pacing and went through the door to face my Pack, that had gathered in the main room. I took my place in front of them and Deryn followed closely behind me. As my Beta and right hand, his place was always a step behind me and a bit to the right. Deryn and I used to be thick as thieves, but lately we have been drifting apart, not that I was going to appoint someone else as Beta, because of this. I turned my attention towards the Pack.

“This sudden meeting is to discuss the arrival of Princess Leigh and the fact that she will be staying in the castle. She’s unaware that we are werewolves or that fact that they exist, and I want to keep it that way. Therefore, nobody can shift in her present, get near her in wolf form or mention something related to your werewolf nature. She is going to stay in the dark. Everyone is to show a high level of caution around the castle and the ones patrolling the castle ground is to stay human. The ones patrolling the forest can do so, in their wolf form, but there will be no shifting on the castle ground. Meaning you’ll have to shift in the forest or here in the Packhouse.” I ended my announcement to the Pack members and took in their facial expressions. They were not happy, and neither was I. Leigh f****d up everything by begin here, and I hated her for it. I didn’t care about the fact, that not knowing wasn’t her fault. Or I at least though that she didn’t know about werewolves.

“Why are we doing this for an uninformed? How is it our fault that she doesn’t know?” Jack looked at me with a demanding glare. That guy was always against everything I did, so his outburst didn’t come as a shock. The rest of the Pack slowly started to agree with him, and I growled, bringing them to a halt.

“It’s a pain in the ass for sure and it’s going to take time to get used to, but the princess is the reason our Kingdom was saved. I don’t like it any more than you guys do, but it’s the truth and we can’t have her finding out about us. It’s in the Pack’s best interest not to let her know and it’s for our safety.” I tried to be the voice of reason and it did bring most of them to look at me again. Their support and understanding were clear, but Jack wasn’t going to let it slide, it was clear to see on his face.

“Alpha, we have a problem.” One of the patrolling guards, came running in and interrupted. Now everyone was on guard.

“What kind of problem?” My body was fully awake and ready to attack if I need to.

“A Rouge Wolf was spotted on the loose in the forest and making its way closer to the castle. And a second unidentified Wolf was spotted within the borders of the castle walls.” A chill ran down my spine, but he was holding something back.

“What are you not telling me?” I growled at him, not in the mood for games. I never was when it came to something like this, so why he intended to make it one was beyond me.

“Your sister is no longer escorting Princess Leigh around the castle. She’s on her own Alpha and we don’t know where she is.” The guard looked around the room, trying his best not to look at me. Wise choice, because I was one wrong look away from ripping his head off. How could you lose a bloody human? My wolf was restless, and a hint of fear hit me, when the guard mention that Leigh’s location was unknown. My wolfs fear struck a nerve because he was never scared, and I don’t remember him ever being so. I needed to find her and fast.

“Take care of the wolfs, I’ll find the princess.” With that I ran out the room, excepting the Pack to act fast. I was sprinting towards the castle garden and fighting my wolf, who wanted to come out. He wanted to take over and find Leigh as fast as possible, because he wanted to know she was safe. He was acting so strange towards that human, and it was eating away at me. I hated her for the way she made my wolf react and pissing me of over and over again, by just being here. Guess I figured out that hate wasn’t that strong of a word, to describe how I felt about her after all. I stormed down the hallways and up and down staircases trying to pinpoint Leigh with the help of her scent.

“The unidentified wolf was gone by the time we got to the location, and we lost track of the Rouge somewhere deep within the forest.” Deryn’s voiced echoed in my head, and he was letting me know, about their task though the Mind-link. Knowing that the treat was over I stopped running around like a crazy person.

“I want more guards patrolling the grounds and I want to know how they managed to get that close, especially the one that got all the way up to the castle walls.” I massaged my temples and tried to calm myself. The f*****g human had only been here a couple of hours and she was already causing way too many problems.

“Did you find the princess?” Deryn’s voice echoed in my head again and I rolled my eyes, not that he was able to see that trough the Mind-link.

“She’s fine Deryn.” I was not going to admit, that I was yet to find her. The castle was huge god damnit and I had no idea where she was at. And it didn’t help, that her scent was everywhere and therefore making it harder tracking her down. Irritated I made my way to my room. If she was bleeding out somewhere it was on her, not me.