The Rejected Werewolf Princess by Didiadeyemi

RYKER'S POV

He wasn't bluffing, that was the first thing I knew. The second was that it couldn't possibly be this easy. It sounded like an absurd thing to say considering the fact that we were to save both people but it still seemed too easy. There was something else he wasn't saying and until we knew exactly what it was, we couldn't make an informed decision.

I pulled Camila by her upper arm away from everyone else so that we could talk. “There's something he isn't saying”

“I know,” she mumbled under her breath in agreement. “It doesn’t make sense why anyone would just allow the girls walk out of here with complete strangers,” she paused before adding. “Unless they didn't walk out with complete strangers.”

“The only people who could get away with leaving with our kids are Christine and Juan and you know as well as I do that they would never put the girls in danger, not even at their own detriment. Something else is going on here.”

I turned to face Ansel who was still kneeling innocently and without a care in the world. There was something else at play and I felt like I had an idea but I couldn't be sure. I made my way over to him and sat in front of him with my hands crossed over my chest. He had a sly smirk on his face that only seemed to infuriate me but I kept a tight lid on my emotions.

“Who is with the girls?" I asked and he shrugged. “I know it isn’t Christine, it cannot be her or her mate. Why don’t you tell me what is really going on here?”

He just shrugged. “I have said what I am willing to say. It is your job now to figure out the rest. You can spend time torturing me or you can go and find out yourself”

I stared at him for a second but he was right, every second I spent here, they were out there. I held out my hand and he knew exactly what I wanted. He reached into his pockets and pulled out two scrolls of paper. As soon as I had taken them, I grabbed him by the collar of his. shirt.Many sentences in this chapter have been removed because you are not reading them on ) 0 b nib.c(o)m.If either of them gets hurt, I will make sure your death is cruel and painful. You will plead for the sweet mercy that would be dying and you will not get it, am I clear?”

For the first time, I saw something akin to fear flash across his face and as much as I hated to admit it, it felt good to see. I pulled open both maps and analyzed them. They led to different paths of the forest, there was no way that we could get to both of them in time. I couldnt condemn either of them to death.

“Go after her sister," I said to Camilla whose brows scrunched in confusion. “Just do it and trust me,’ I stepped closer and dropped my voice to a whisper. “If anything goes badly, use your powers, kill them all. Do you understand me?”

She nodded. “Where will you go?"

“I'l go after our children. I don’t know about you, but I don’t believe he would put them in actual danger. He knows what the consequences of that would be and he doesn't strike me as a man who wants to die a painful death.”

I could see that Camilla still wasn't convinced. “I don't think we should split up.”

“Take two guards at the most. We don’t want to alert them to your presence,” I could have tried easing her worries but that was going to take too long and there were lives on the line. “We will meet back here, I promise you”

I kissed her temple before grabbing one of the maps and walking out. I didn't want anyone by my side as I did what I needed to do. Something told me that things could potentially get ugly but I was sure I could handle it on my own. I knew I could.

The path was rather straight forward. There weren't a lot of twists and turns. It was dead quiet for the majority of it, until I came to a small shed in the middle of the woods. It was so tiny and so old that I doubted anyone could live in there but it was the final stop on the map. I took a step forward when I heard a snarl close to my right. I

froze and listened, trying to ascertain where the sound was coming from when I heard another from my left. In that moment, I was relieved that I had told Camilla to go with guards because if she was going to encounter rogues on her way then at least she was going to have protection.

“What do you want?” I heard someone ask. The sound came from my right and when I turned, I saw a rogue hidden between the bushes. His hair was a matted mess and his eyes were a bright red color. “You shouldn't be here”

“Neither should you,” I said simply. “This is palace property and you don’t belong here."

“ll take a wild guess and say that the girls inside are yours,” he mused and I gave off a warning growl which only seemed to make him laugh. “Don’t worry, I won't hurt them yet. I have strict orders and I want to get paid.”

“Your employer is dead,” I kept my tone monotonous and cold. “You aren't getting paid. If you leave now, you can still go on with your life. If you don't, you will die”

“There is one of you and so many of us. How do you plan to do that?"

As he spoke, I saw more rogues come out of the woods. There were at least five of them. I could handle one, two was fine, I could maybe even deal with three, but more than five was a far stretch. I would do some damage but ultimately I was going to lose and they knew it. as they drew closer, I felt something stir inside of me- something dark and old and powerful. It almost seemed to purr at the thought of danger. I didn't need to think long to know what it was,

“Let me," I heard audibly in my head. “I will finish this before it even starts.”

“You cannot kill them,” I wasn't going to risk tasting death with shadow magic, it already seemed like a recipe for disaster. “Hurt them, knock them out, I don't give a shit, but do not kill them.”

“You are no fun,” was the last thing I heard before I felt power gather under my skin. It was an electrifying feeling and I could completely understand in that moment why Reina had been lost to it.

It was the kind of feeling where you knew you had power and you relished in that knowledge. I saw shadows gather at my fingertips and the rogues had the sense to halt in their steps. They watched me with careful apprehension.

“What the fuck kind of party trick is that?” the leader asked and all I did was smirk.

“Why don't you find out?”

I waited until he attacked me first. It felt like I wasn't in control of my body as the shadows shot forward and grabbed him by the throat. I could feel the very essence of his life pulsing from his skin and I wanted nothing more than to have a taste. It was inviting, almost pulling me in, but I wasn't too far gone yet that I didn't know that it was absolutely insane. I threw him hard against a tree, snapping it in half before turning to the others.

If they were wise, they would have run away but they didn’t. They also tried to attack and it was a blur of bodies and movement. The rush of power had my head swimming and by the time they were all lying on the floor, the buzzing still hadn't left my skin. I wasn't sure how to pull back and in that moment, I didn't care. There was one thought at the back of my mind and that was to get my children. I took a few steps towards the house when I heard a weapon draw from behind me.

I wasn't sure if it was the power, or my daze to get to my children but I couldn't recognize the person. AllI could see was a being and a sword trying to keep me from my family. I let out a warning growl, it was the only warning that I was going to give before I struck.

“You asked me to kill you if you ever let the power overwhelm you,” I heard and I immediately knew it was Juan. He was the only one I had told that too. “I don't think you're too far gone yet so you have the chance to turn back now but I will not let you go in there like that."

I cocked a brow. “Will not? Do you think you can stop me?”

“I will do everything in my power to do so”

I could almost hear a nagging voice at the back of my head asking me to kill him and just move on. On one hand, I knew I shouldn't, he hadn't done anything to warrant it, it was the magic speaking but the pull was strong. There was almost nothing I couldn't do with these powers, no foe I couldnt vanquish and there was more-

“Daddy?” I heard a soft voice behind me and I stilled. Even through my lustful haze, I recognized my daughter's voice. I couldnt turn to her, couldn't let her see me like this. “Daddy are you okay?”

“Think about it Ryker,” Juan spoke again. “Do you want her to see you like this? See you like the witch who

threatened your family for months?” He threw the weapon to the ground. “I won't kill you, so if you are going to kill me then do it, but know that your daughter I watching you. What do you want her to see?”