Filed to story: The Rejected Werewolf Princess (Camilla & Tyson) by Didi Adeyemi >>
“Do you want to have lunch now?” she go I’m starving.”
asked and Audrey nodded. “Let’s
Christine walked past me leaving me to follow behind her but she knew I was nowhere near done with my questions. Lunch might be a temporary distraction but believe me, I will get those answers out of her even if I have to lock her in my room to do it.
We made our way to the dining room where my mother was just finishing up. She ran her hands through Audrey’s locks softly but then she gazed at Christine and I and she must have felt the brewing tension and unanswered questions.
“Where was she?” mother asked
“In the gardens,” I answered not wanting to tell her the real truth and hoping she wouldn’t notice but she did.
She hummed in disbelief and looked at me with an expression that had me feeling like she could see inside me and see every decision and thought I had made. For a while I actually thought she could and that her powers were mind reading but I was disappointed, she just has very piercing eyes.
“Okay then,” she said finally and then without another word, she walked past me.
The three of us ate lunch together with Audrey doing most of the talking. She droned on about Ryker and how nice he was to her and how he picked the flower for her. I tried my best to keep a neutral standpoint as I listened to her but I wanted nothing more than to just ask her to stay as far away from him as possible and to never speak to him again.
A part of me wondered if I was being selfish. If I was punishing Audrey for her father’s mistakes by not letting them know each other. I wondered if I was being the villain in their story and if I was doing the wrong thing. I also wondered if my actions were unjustifiable. He may have cheated but he didn’t hurt his daughter. If anything, I know he will love Audrey with all his heart. Maybe I am doing the wrong thing. “Mummy,” I was snapped out of my thoughts by Audrey’s voice, “You’re not listening to me.”
“I am,” I forced a smile on my face, “What did you say?”
She went back to talking about Ryker and I noticed Christine staring at me. She had a look that told me she knew exactly what I was thinking of and I shot her a look that told her that we needed to talk.
After we all finished eating, I cleaned Audrey up and walked with her back to her room.
I know her and I know that she will fall asleep within thirty minutes. She cannot eat without taking a nap right after. She has been like that since she was a baby and I have found it very useful because once she sleeps, I can go ahead and start planning my day and doing the things that I have to do.
Once she was carefully in her room, I had to sit with her and play dolls. It is the only way I’ll be able to get her to sleep. This time however, she added an extra doll and called it Ryker and made up a plot line about. Ryker saving the princess from a dragon. I played along even though my heart was pumping a mile a minute and the moment she yawned, I carefully plucked the dolls out of her hands and carried her into bed.
It didn’t take long after that for her to fall asleep. Within the next ten minutes I was out of her room and looking for Christine. I didn’t find Christine in her own room or the council room, I decided to check the library because I know it is her favorite place in the castle and I found her standing between the shelves browsing through the books.
She sensed me when I walked in, I saw her shoulders stiffen but she didn’t look up, not even when I was standing next to her. She kept on browsing books like she didn’t have a single care in the world and I knew she wasn’t going to make this easy.
“What did he mean by he recognized you?” I asked but she didn’t respond. “You never told me that you had met him.”
She still didn’t respond and I finally took the book out of her hand and turned her to face me. She had a resigned look on her face and she sighed as she took a seat in one of the empty chairs there. She gestured for me to sit opposite her and I did hoping it would spur her into speaking.
“After you told the Queen that you didn’t want him to find you, she asked me to go back to the packs, to the exact spot where you found us,” she explained, “While I was there, he came around and he was asking of you. Obviously I told him I had never seen you before but he was adamant that he finds you.”
“He didn’t even care about you being a princess, he didn’t even mention it once. He just kept talking about how his mate was missing and he suspected she would come here first. He stayed there for a week hoping you would show up and at one point I almost told him the truth but the Queen came and she spoke to him. I don’t know what promises she made him but he left soon after. That is all there is to it.”
As I looked at her, I knew that was a lie. There was more to the story or at least, more than she was letting on. There was something else hidden in her eyes and I searched them trying to figure it out for myself but it was like she had her emotions on a tight leash and I couldn’t read them.
“What aren’t you telling me?” I asked and she couldn’t meet my eyes. “Did he say something to you? Did he do something to you?”
“He wouldn’t dare,” a small smile grew on her l*ps as she spoke.
It isn’t pride or anything, Christine is one of the best fighters that I know and there isn’t a werewolf alive that I know who can best her except for our trainer, he is the palace’s official general and trainer. He is the fastest. and strongest wolf I have ever come across. I was honestly terrified of him the first time I met him.
“What aren’t you telling me Christine?”
She sighed and looked me deep in the eye, “I know you’re upset with him. and I know that he hurt you. But the man who came looking for you did not look like h could hurt a fly.”
“Are you saying I’m lying?”,
“No,” she said quickly and she looked offended that I would even suggest that. “What I am saying is that there has to be some kind of explanation to this. He is either an amazing liar or he truly made a single mistake and he wants to fix it. At the end of the day, it is your choice because you’re the one who is going to spend the rest of your life mated to him or not.”
I didn’t see Ryker again after that. It has been two days and I had started to wonder when next I would come across him. I tried my best to hide my curiosity about him but my family knew me way too much and Christine ended up telling me that he was staying in the palace guest house.
It felt weird knowing that he was close by and all it would take would just be a few minutes journey and I would see him. I finally understand what people mean when they say out of sight is out of mind because I never worried about Ryker this much until I was faced with the prospect that he was merely a few feet away from me.
There has also been the issue of the dress and I have been exceptionally worried and disturbed about it. For the life of me, I cannot think of anything to wear and although the designers have been showing me different sketches, nothing seems to stand out so much. The entire prospect is frustrating and I know I have to give them an answer by tomorrow.
The only good thing in my life so far is Audrey. She somehow manages to help me forget about whatever is plaguing me and keeps me in the moment. Currently, she is lying against my lap while I read her a story. I looked down only to see that she had drifted off to sleep and I smiled softly.
There was a knock on my room door and Christine poked her head in. she gestured for me to step out and I had to quietly life Audrey from me. She is a heavy sleeper but sometimes, especially if she falls asleep on you; one wrong move can wake her and she is going to be cranky as hell.
Once I managed to lay her gently against the pillows, I slowly exited the room and closed the door behind me quietly while I faced Christine. She was wearing a simple blue dress that matched the bright sky and she pulled me down the hallway before she started to speak.
“The Queen sent me to ask if you are done with the preparations,”
I raised a brow, “Why can’t she ask herself?”
“Something along the lines of not wanting to feel like she was pressuring you and not wanting it to turn into an argument. with you,” she shrugged and I rolled my eyes, “So, have you?”
I shook my head, “I’m still stuck on the dress, I don’t know what to do, I don’t what color to use. I don’t know what design to use and I am just confused.”
A look crossed her face as if she wanted to say something but she quickly hid it and her expression went back to neutral.
“You have to get back to the designers soon,” she said simply, “They need to start working on your dress and it seems the Alphas are arriving early because another one crossed our borders today.”
“I didn’t know about that.”,
“It just happened a few minutes ago,” she shrugged, “I think people are just excited to see the long lost princess.”
“The lost princess who doesn’t even have a dress.” That same look crossed her face but she still didn’t say anything so I turned to look at her, “Say whatever is on your mind.”