The Rejected Werewolf Princess by Didiadeyemi

RYKER'S POV

I had always hated the domino effect. When one bad thing happened, it always felt like others were just at the cusp. It was one thing after another and it just kept falling and falling until nothing was left. It felt like I was inside a domino effect. First was the magic and then this, I couldn't help but wonder if it was finally over or if there was more to come.

“Where are they now?” Camilla asked.

“In the physician's quarters, your majesty."

The guard had barely finished his statement before she took off in that direction and I had no choice but to follow after her. I could sense her panic down the bond, I could almost taste it- or maybe it was mine. I hadn't been able to shake the feeling all day that something was going to happen. I didn’t know what, but it was there, buzzing under my skin and reminding me, keeping me focused. Something bad was at the cusp and I could feel it.

We got to the physician's quarters and sure enough, they were all there. What I didn’t expect was to see that the girl who had been talking to us was the one who had been poisoned. She lay in the bed, her eyes closed and if not for the steady rising and falling of her chest, I would have thought she was dead.

“What happened?” I asked making all of them turn to us. Neither of the other two spoke, they just sat by her bedside sniffling. Camilla rushed up to their side offering silent support but that wasn't what we needed right now, we needed answers. “What the fuck happened?”

“The maid brought us some food and she wanted to taste it first to see if it was safe, next thing we knew, she passed out,” it was the guy who spoke and he was stumbling over his words. It was a miracle I even managed to understand him at all. “The physician says she will be okay but she isn't moving. She is never this quiet.”

“She will be fine,” I ground out. “Who was the maid who served you?"

“She didn’t tell us her name, but she looked young and she had brown hair."

I turned and Caius was at the door. He wasted no time before bowing. “I will find the maid and bring her to you now.”

He left immediately after and I ran my hands through my hair in frustration. Someone was trying to make this extremely difficult for us and it pissed me the f**k off. We were close to finding out who it was, that much was certain because no one lashed out and acted like this unless they had something to lose.

I wished I could offer support to them but I couldn't bring myself to move. My eyes were fixed on the girl lying in the bed. I could see her aura, it had almost become like second nature now, the way my eyes adjusted to seeing people's aura's. It was strong, she was alive and she was a fighter, I knew for sure that she was going to survive this but my question remained “why her?’ Was there something special about her or had she been a victim of circumstance? I wasn't sure which was better and it wasn't as if I could go out of my way to ask when she was confined to a bed and unconscious. Her friends were no help at all, they had spent their time crying and blubbering. I wasn't sure if it was cruel of me to think, but a part of me had wished that someone else had taken the poisoned food first, that way, she would have been awake to ask the questions.

I stood awkwardly to one corner while I waited for Caius to return. While I waited, the physician made his way over to me. “Is it alright if we speak, your majesty?”

“Of course not,” I waved him closer. “Please, go ahead.”

“I just ran some tests and what she was given was an intricately produced blend of wolf's bane," he explained. “I have seen it before but I cannot for the life of me remember where because it was such a long time ago. It is mixed with a special plant that grows just outside the palace gardens.”

“A poisonous plant grows in the gardens and no one thought to tell us?”

He shook his head. “The plant on its own is not poisonous but when mixed with wolf's bane, it is. That is what struck me as odd because it hasn't been used in a very long time. For someone to know this, they would have to either be very good with history or they would need to know this first hand.”

Before I had the chance to respond, the door opened and Caius returned with a maid in tow. She matched the description perfectly but what had me convinced was when the friends looked up at her and their eyes burned with anger.

“She is the one who tried to kill us!” they exclaimed at the same time and that was all I needed to drag the maid by her elbow out of the room.

I could hear screams of indignation behind me but I ignored them and turned to the maid who was cowering in my hold. I knew instantly that although she might have been the one to give them the food, she was definitely not the mastermind behind it. Someone else had used her as a pawn.

“Who did it?" I asked but she said nothing. “I don't have time for games and I am sure that you do not want to be the one to take the blame for all of this because the real culprit has killed and attempted to kill another”

“I can't,” she whispered in a broken tone. “He has my sister. I can't tell you or he will kill her”

I let out an exasperated sigh and ran my hands through my hair in frustration. “Is your sister in the palace right now?” she nodded. “Where?”

“I don’t know, but she is with him."

“I will get your sister back, I swear it," I promised her. The moment the words left my lips, I knew I should not have said them but it was too late to take it back. I was just going to have to deal with the consequences later. “Who is it?”

“Its one of the elders,” she answered after a while. “He came to me in the kitchen and handed me a vial of a liquid. He asked me to put it into the food. I said no at first then he told me that he had my sister and he was going to have her killed if I didn’t. I just did as I was asked. I didn't want her to die, I promise”

“Which of the elders?”

“I don’t know his name. I don't know any of their names, but it wasn't the one who came to get me. I know his face.”

“Will you point him out for me?”

“Will you save my sister?”

It was too late to back out now. “I will”

I called for a meeting with the elders and explained everything to Camilla and Caius. As it was, Caius was the only elder I could trust seeing as the maid had vouched for and said he wasn't responsible. She stood by my side as all the elders filed in. when the last of them was making his way in, he locked eyes with the maid and I knew instantly that he was guilty even before she spoke.

“It's him,” she whispered just as he took off and ran.

“Catch him!” I ordered the guards. I had no interest in chasing after anyone. I trusted the guards to do their job. While they ran after him, I turned to Caius. “What is his name?”

“Ansel” Caius answered simply. “I have known him since we were infants. I cannot believe that he would do something like this."

We waited patiently for the guards to bring him back. He fought hard against their hold but he was an old man and they were trained guards, there was nowhere for him to go and he knew it. He was brought to our feet and pushed to his knees. I watched him, carefully assessing his aura, there was nothing to say that he was inherently evil, he was just ambitious, that much I could tell.

“Why?” I asked simply and he shrugged. “You didn't do it to be cruel, so why?”

“You were choosing elders. If I created a problem and I solved it then I would stay on the council. It was a fool proof plan, but then you locked down the palace.”

“And you were cornered and scared that they would figure you out. You were on the list of people who was seen leaving the palace”

“Iwas,” he admitted.

“Now what? You're caught, this is over”

He smirked. “Not quite. I always knew there was a possibility I would be caught today, so I put plans in place”

“Where is her sister?” Camilla cut in. “Let her go and we will consider banishing you instead of having you executed for what you have done.”

“I have no interest in dying, your majesty, but you would want to hear what I have to say before making your demands,” he mused. Camilla started to speak but I held up a hand to stop her. I wanted to hear what he had to say.

“Speak, you have five minutes.”

“Have you checked on your children lately?" he asked and fury rose up in me like a storm. “The tunnels are vast and wide so I'll make this easy. Both your children and her sister are in the woods. I have a map to each of them”

“The palace is on lockdown,” I said and he smirked.

“You would be surprised with what an elder can get away with," he mused. “The thing is, the people holding them will only answer to the both of you. If they see anyone else, they will kill them. You can save one and the other dies. I know I'm going to die regardless, so this will be fun”