2-112 “Well it took you weeks to heal and you returning to health was everyone’s main priority and then we were all told to leave you alone and let you focus on training. Everyone was really worried about you and your safety. I was actually surprised that the Alpha King let you go to school and train.”
“I see it differently. No one wanted me to train, but they also didn’t want to ‘waste my skill.” I rolled my eyes. “Just because I was too young to do the full training. So the obvious choice was the hybrid thing, that no one else does, which brought even more attention, negatively, to me. Audrina saw fit to spread rumors that I slept my way into the training program and even went so far as to try and haze me out on my first day. That was super fun. Then it got more weird when I started attending functions at the castle, again something no other warrior does, inciting more rumors both in the castle and on the training compound. No one knew I was related to Alpha Reggie, so some of the rumors I heard were a little gross. Then, I was sent on a mission because my age and intelligence conveniently fit into a bracket that served their purpose, so then my age wasn’t an issue and I was allowed to be branded. Oh and I went into the mission with the intention of getting captured, might I add.”
I took a deep breath in slowly and out slowly.
“I know I sound like I am complaining, and maybe I am a little, but it just feels like I am a walking contradiction. Everyone is worried about my safety and wants to keep me in a bubble, but my skill set requires me to be on the frontlines. I’m too young to participate, but my knowledge is needed. Things need to be kept from me because it’s assumed that I might be triggered, but no one thinks to ask if I want to know and everything comes back to me dealing with it anyway. Oh and to top it all off I am related to the royal family and have special abilities, but no one can really explain them because I have multiple, again unlike anyone else before me. It’s like a bad pattern. Like I told the guys, I know you all mean well, and it’s coming from a place of love, but at some point I really do want a say in what I am going to do with my life. Do you realize that the only thing I actually asked for was to do warrior training when I turned 18?”
I sit down in a squishy reading chair by the window and rub my face again, leaning my elbows on my knees and pressing so hard into my eyes I see colors behind my eyelids. It’s the first time I have said any o these things out loud before. All my worries, all the jumbled thoughts in my head. Everything that is overwhelming me. I feel drained all of a sudden.
She comes over and pulls me up and into a hug. We just stand there for a few long minutes. “Come on, we need to run, you need to burn some energy. Maybe some sparring for old time’s sake and we will make sure to take extra warriors with us because you seem to be a magnet for trouble. Call Wyatt and Nathaniel, oh and Lillian and Jena. You all need a break. None of you have really had down time that didn’t include being unwillingly unconscious.” I huffed a laugh into her shoulder. She isn’t wrong.
We meet up at the sparring grounds on the warrior compound, because as much as I said I want control over my life. Sierra is right and I have become a magnet for trouble and I will not be caught off guard again if I can help it. The compound is the safest place for me to let go and just be.
Sparring was fun. We laughed and gave each other a hard time, but actually worked and got sweaty too. Jena and Nathaniel told us about the information they found on some members of her pack and once everything has been confirmed she might be able to go out and see them and give them the invite to follow her back here or officially join the pack that took them in.
They have actually done a really good job working together. We have located about twenty people. Only five families have taken her up on her offer to come to the Royal pack, but they were all ecstatic to see her and promised to reach out as well, letting people know she is safe and looking for them. Many of them found homes and even mates in other packs, but the more people we talk to the faster word is getting out to her pack members who want to come home to her. The reunions have been heartfelt and tear filled.
They have also been searching for signs of the rogue king’s operation, now that we have a better idea of what their needs are we have started tracking those things. Like ingredients that are specific to the spells they are using or large quantities of food being sent to what seems like the middle of nowhere. Many witch covens are on our side as well, now that they know what is being done to their kind. “So did you figure out Mina’s brand? Do you know what happened and will it happen to you guys, since yours are temporary too?” Lillian asks Sierra, Jena and me as we are stretching.
“We have some theories about that, but I think my parents agree with Sky and it was the proximity to her mates and the fact that the bond to the Alpha King is so strong, it literally disintegrated the brand.” SHe looks at me. “The both of you were spending so much time here too, between all the c*ckblocking events and actual learning, you were with him more here than you were ever with me back at Blue Crescent.
