Departure and the return
1556 Words
Eryx:
“Hey Eryx, it’s time we left.” Cassian’s voice came from behind me, lacking patience. I didn’t turn around. My eyes stayed fixed on the palace entrance, watching the heavy doors.
“If you can’t wait, go ahead,” I said.
Aven leaned against his own car, arms folded. “We’re not leaving without you. The roads don’t get safer after dark. Even for us.”
Cassian stepped beside me, hands in his pockets. “Rogues get bold at night. Unless you planned to travel by flight, which you know isn’t possible, we need to move.”
I said nothing. Four days. That was what I had given her. The sun was bleeding out across the treeline now, and the doors hadn’t moved.
“She’s not coming.” Cassian kept his voice low, which was worse than if he’d been mocking. “She made her choice, Eryx. She’s a wolfless omega. She understands her life will be hard.”
Voros, my wolf, pressed forward beneath my skin, more restless now. It wasn’t rage—he’d been like this since our last outburst in the woods.
I couldn’t prove she was the she-wolf I’d bitten. At least not yet. But Voros didn’t need proof.
She is ours, he’d been saying since we saw the bite mark on her shoulder. She is the one.
At the same time, she smelled wrong.
“Alpha King Eryx.”
A small, trembling voice caught me off guard.
Before me stood a young maid a few meters away, clutching a folded piece of paper with both hands. She looked at my brothers, then back to me, then at the ground. She made herself walk forward anyway and held the note out.
“Alpha, Kaira asked me to give you this,” she whispered. She said to tell you she’s sorry.
I took it. Though the paper was warm—signifying she's been holding it a long time.
Please, I thought, and I despised myself for it. Be smart, and let me help you. I unfolded it and read through it.
Alpha King Eryx,
I would rather remain a servant than owe an Alpha King my soul. Do not look for me. Please respect my decision.
-K
The paper compressed slowly in my fist.
Cassian had grabbed it before I could stop him, read it in two seconds, and let out a short laugh. “An Omega just rejected an Alpha King.” He shook his head, something between amusement and reluctant respect crossing his face. This girl got balls. Stupid, but brave. He tossed it back. “Now can we go?”
I didn’t answer. I kept on staring at the note on the floor. As her words kept on replaying in my mind. ‘Do not look for me.’
Something snagged in my chest. An unease I couldn’t place. I knew her pride. I had watched her look me in the eye and refuse charity even when bleeding. But this felt so wrong.
I looked up at the maid. She was still standing exactly where she’d been, watching me. The fear on her face wasn’t the ordinary fear of being close to an Alpha King—it was the kind that belonged to someone who knew what was happening behind those closed walls, and the consequences if she stepped in wrong.
She wasn’t relieved she had delivered the note. She was watching to see what I did next.
I walked to my car, not because I wanted to leave, but because she had humiliated me in front of my brothers despite me trying to help.
“Finally,” Cassian muttered, moving toward his own. Then he stopped, turned, and pulled open my own door instead, dropping into the seat beside me. “I’ll ride with you. Keep you company.”
I looked at him. “Get out.”
“You’re brooding. Someone should be with you.”
“Cassian.”
“It’s a long drive.” He stretched his legs out, completely unbothered. “You’ll spend the whole journey in your head. Don’t worry—I’ll talk. You won’t have to.”
“I don’t want you to talk. I want you out of my car.”
He tilted his head. “See, the thing is—”
“Cassian, I will physically remove you.”
“You could try.” He examined his knuckles with theatrical interest. “But then we’d be even more late, and Aven would be insufferable about it. Besides, you’re already thinking about turning around. I can see it on your face. If I’m in the car with you, I can at least talk you out of…”
“Out.”
He looked at me for a long moment. Then he sighed, deeply and with great suffering, he climbed out.
As soon as the door shut. The engine started and pulled down the gravel path toward the gate.
“You’re making a big mistake,” Voros said in my thoughts.
How is leaving a mistake? She made her choice.
“You’re letting your emotions get in the way. We both know she was forced to write that letter—or didn’t write it at all. The maid’s face should have told you.”
Could you be right?
“I am right. Stop the car and go save her.”
“Turn the car around.” My voice was quiet. Yet deadly calm.
The driver glanced back at me. “What?” My eyes flashed red. The Alpha pressure that followed was suffocating.
“I said,” I repeated, each word a vibrating growl that made the air itself tremble, “turn the f*****g car around. Now.”
The driver flinched. But his shaky hands obeyed.
I passed through the main entrance without stopping—past the confused guards, past the questions I didn’t answer—and stormed straight toward the omega’s unit.
Her room was empty. Her bathroom too. Not even a trace of her scent.
“Hey!” Cassian caught up to me, Aven trailing behind. “What happened? Why did you turn around?”
“I need to find her.” Eryx, we’ve been through this. She said no.”
“I am Alpha King. Get out of my way.” Cassian rolled his eyes.
…You’re impossible.
“Thank goodness you returned.” A small voice interrupted us. The maid from earlier stood in the doorway, breathless. “Kaira is in danger, your highness. Princess Emma saw the letter and…”
God. What have I done? “Lead the way. Now.”
She moved fast, past the main foyer, away from the public corridors, deep into the servants’ quarters.
I paused, picking up a sound from the right side of the corridor—and Voros slammed forward in my chest the moment Emma’s voice reached us, high and tight with fury. The fury of someone who had been interrupted and was not expecting to be.
As we descended, the water stains on the cracked walls and floors thickened the air with rot. This was the kind of place built for filth and punishment… not for her.
The first thing I saw was the knife—the glint of metal catching the thin light, and the mayharm it could cause. The moment my eyes landed on her, I couldn’t see that prideful girl who could measure up to me or look me in the eye. All I saw was a helpless she-wolf with all hope lost.
“Get away from her.”
I halted the instant I reached Emma, eyes locked on the knife, I could smell her fear, I knew she was a rookie—and I used her shakiness against her. I caught her wrist before she could decide what to do with the knife. Fragile. Yet breakable.
She shrieked from the tightness of my hold, my cold gaze locked on hers. The knife hit the floor, a clattering echo in the silence. I released her wrist and stepped between them, placing myself in front of Kaira, watching Emma shake from shock.
She looked helpless—tied like an animal. I took off my jacket and draped it around her shivering form.
At least now, I thought, you carry my scent.
Bastard, Voros growled. Already marking your territory.
My hands trembled as I removed the gag slowly and untied the ropes. I wanted to pause, but I pushed forward, because right now I had no permission to show fear.
Her eyes found my face, and she looked at me the way a person looks at something they’re not sure is real.
“You’ll be fine,” I said quietly. “I’ve got you.”
Behind me, I heard Cassian’s sharp intake of breath. Aven’s quiet, lethal stillness—which was always worse than noise from him.
Emma straightened. When I stood and turned back to her, she had found some piece of her composure. Her chin lifted. “Alpha King Eryx. This girl was caught stealing from my late cousin’s room. She became hysterical when confronted and—”
“Don’t.”
She stopped mid-sentence.
“If anything happens to her, I will burn this entire palace to the ground with you inside it.”
I lifted Kaira off the floor, careful of her leg, and carried her out.
- Writer
