Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
It was difficult enough to swallow after Dad’s lie. I wouldn’t be able to take another betrayal today.
I stared at Torin, searching for every little twitch of muscle. He grimaced.
“Anna,” was all he said.
I rubbed my temples. “For how long?”
Torin’s hand shot to my face, but I pushed it away.
“For how long have you known, Torin?”
“Since you were born,” he said.
I sucked in air, but it wasn’t enough to breathe. My lungs constricted, and I struggled to calm down.
“I saw your birthmark when you were a baby. Your dad told me the truth back then and asked me to never tell you.”
I stared at him. “Were you never tempted to tell me? Like when Cordelia showed up to kill us?”
“Nothing would have changed, Anna. It’s not like I could have taught you how to cast spells. We also don’t know of any other witches to help us.”
I walked backward until my back hit the wall. Leaning on it, I took deep breaths.
“Didn’t you or Dad think it was an important detail to tell me as I grew up? I could have studied to become a witch…from books so that I could live in less danger in the supernatural world. I could have searched for my biological mother. I could have had a different life, Torin.”
Torin dragged his hands over his face. “I have many regrets about my earlier choices, Anna. I’m sorry.
I understand how you feel, but you must see our side too.
Your dad must have been scared that you’ll think less of him.
He wasn’t brave enough to tell you.” He paused.
“I wasn’t brave enough to tell you, Anna. ”
Regret dripped from each word, and guilt passed behind his crimson eyes. My heart fell to my stomach.
“Your dad didn’t want a certain destiny for you, so he kept you away from anything that had to do with witches. What if the dark witch took you away to teach you the craft and mold you into her weapon?”
My eyebrows furrowed.
Cordelia must have realized by now I was a witch. Was that why she didn’t want to kill me, at least right now? She was having difficulty killing one of her own, especially since not many witches were left.
“Yeah, Dad’s idea for my so-called destiny is for me to become a placeholder Queen that the King can manipulate so the Alphas can do whatever they want to,” I said.
“Anna, you must understand—”
“No. Why wouldn’t anyone here understand how I feel?
I was told I was a human. I am still a human since I don’t know any spells.
But at least I know now where my heritage comes from.
” I paused. “Do you know what it was growing up without knowing why I was the way I was? Not belonging in the kingdom? The less I knew, the more outcast I felt.”
I raised my hands, palms out.
“It doesn’t matter. You were a part of the lie. Keeping me in the dark. I need you to leave me be right now, Torin.”
Torin swallowed as if he had pain in the back of his throat. His gaze on me wavered as if searching for ways to turn back time and to have a re-do on his decisions. Glancing one last time over his shoulder, Torin turned around and exited the cave.
After this conversation, my cave sanctuary felt tainted. I had to get out of here. Outside, the shadows were thickening, and a purple night sky fell upon the forest.
I pulled out my cell phone. I had some time to check on the vampire spy, distracting myself before I drove to the airport.
I had to stop my thoughts from spiraling. I made my legs take me faster to the north dungeon, and as soon as I faced the guards in front of the vampire spy cell, I dismissed them.
I looked through the small opening of the door and gasped. The beaten-up man lay on the ground in a fetal position, underneath him a puddle of blood. His eyes opened, and groaning, he sat up. He crawled to the wall behind him and leaned on it.
“Hi, Princess,” he said in a strained voice.
The werewolf guards must have hit him just now. The vampire’s wounds and bruises were fresh. I didn’t know what to say. Apologizing on behalf of the werewolves would do nothing to help him. He didn’t need my pity.
The worst part was that the vampire would heal fast, but the werewolves wouldn’t stop beating him.
I took a step back, wanting to dash to the guards and shout at them, forbidding them from hitting the prisoner anymore. But then it hit me that the guards must have followed the Alphas’ orders. I would change nothing.
Big changes would require more radical actions, like bringing the vampire’s mate, an enemy, to our territory. That would shake off the Alphas and the King. Something in me awoke and fueled me with determination to right the wrong.
My pulse sped up. What would the Alphas order next—to move the prisoner to the torture chamber? I had already been given all the information from the vampire spy. What else did the Alphas want from him?
I sighed. The werewolves wanted to see the vampire suffer.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
The only thing I could do for this man was to bring him his mate for one last visit. He wouldn’t survive much longer, and my heart went out to him.
“I’m going to the airport right now. Lucy is on her way here, so hang on.”
He smiled and grunted at the same time.
His lip was busted, blood dripping down his chin. His mate was going to see him like that.
“Something came up, so I didn’t have a chance to get the King’s approval for Lucy to enter the kingdom. But I’ll protect her as much as I can.”
“The King wouldn’t have given you his approval anyway, so don’t feel bad, Princess,” the man said, barely moving his lips. “I’m grateful to you. You’re taking a big risk. Your disapproval rating will skyrocket.”
“Let them talk and punish me.”
A cold chill sliced down my spine. If the kingdom disapproved of me as the next Queen, so be it. Dad wouldn’t get his placeholder Queen, which he had likely dreamed about his whole life.
I wiped my eyes one last time. I pulled up at the arrival curbside and got out of the car. Lucy had texted me that she was waiting for me there. She sounded reasonable over text, but so did serial killers. You could sound like whatever you wanted over text messages.
She might have decided that her mate would be murdered by the werewolves anyway, so why not take revenge and kill the princess? And I was about to be alone with her in a car.
She could have forgotten her humanity after being turned, as most vampires did.
I rubbed my neck with my fingers, feeling my escalating pulse under my fingertips.
I shook my head. No, Lucy would let me take her to her mate. She would show me respect and restrain herself from drinking my blood.
Goose bumps rose on the back of my neck. I twisted around and stood face-to-face with a tall woman with short blonde hair, pink lipstick, and blue eyes that flashed red.
Her thin lips pressed together. Of course she wouldn’t be happy. Her mate was in werewolf prison. Or was she angry with me since I was the werewolf Princess? I had to reveal my identity when I texted her earlier. After all, I would use my royal status to break the rules.
“Princess Breanna?”
“Y-yes?” I swallowed, and a pinch of extra adrenaline infused my veins, probably to alert my body to choose between fight or flight.
“Shall we get in the car and get started?” she asked.
The young woman didn’t carry anything besides a small black purse strapped around her chest.
“Sure.”
I had an hour and a half of driving in the car, alone with the vampire woman. It was nightfall, and my stomach churned after driving for a while in silence.
Soon, we headed down the dark two-lane small highway that led farther into the forest to our territory. I glanced at Lucy. She sat so still that she appeared to not even be breathing.
The road became more twisty and darker. The only light ahead of us came from my SUV’s headlights.
Now would be the perfect time to take revenge on the werewolf Princess. I glanced at Lucy again. Suddenly, she snapped her gaze to me, red eyes piercing me. My body jolted, and I gulped for air.
“You’ll get a heart attack at this rate, Princess Breanna,” Lucy said.
I drew in a deep breath. “I guess I can’t even hide how nervous I am.”
Lucy attempted to smile at me, but it came up short. “You smell great, but I won’t hurt you, Princess.” She looked out the window. “I just want to see my mate again. One last time.”
I squinted at the dark road ahead of me. “You are brave for coming here and agreeing to enter the werewolf kingdom.”
“Once I see him, even if your people kill me, it wouldn’t matter. I don’t want a life of eternity without my fated mate,” she said, her voice shaking.
She turned to watch me again. “Do you have a mate?”
“I do… I’m not on the best of terms with him right now. He lied to me…about something.”
I sucked in a sharp breath as realization hit me. I’d first thought of Torin as my mate, and my answer was about him. I shook my head.
“Ah, that’s understandable, but if you knew he would die today, wouldn’t you want to make up with him immediately?”
I swallowed hard. I couldn’t think about a life without Torin, but I couldn’t imagine a life with him together, as it didn’t seem like an option anymore.
“I would make up with him.”
Lucy gave me a full smile. “A life without love is not worth living. An eternity without my soulmate is even worse.”
I didn’t know how to respond, so I only nodded.
“Thank you for allowing me to make one last memory with him,” she added a moment later.
At the checkpoint, a guard waved at me to slow down. He gave me a small bow after I rolled down my window. His eyes flashed his wolf as soon as he saw the woman.
“Princess—”
“Call your King immediately. Tell him to wait for me at the north dungeon,” I said before rolling up my window and driving away.
I glanced at Lucy. “We’ll run into problems, but I’ll get you inside.”
Lucy’s crimson eyes didn’t change back to her human shade. She was on high alert, and probably scared.