The Rejected Werewolf Princess by Didiadeyemi

RYKER'S POV

I stared at Camilla for a few seconds wondering if I had heard her properly. I could tell that she was embarrassed and felt guilty about the entire situation but what I couldn't tell is if she would have done things differently if she had the chance. She opened her mouth to speak but I held up a hand to stop her because I wasn't ready to listen to any excuse that she had to make up.

“Why didn't you tell me?” I asked but she said nothing. “Camilla, I need you to say something or anything right now.”

She let out a sigh and looked down. “I don't know, I just didn’t want to bother you. I just wanted you to focus on the actual problem which was your powers. I thought I could handle it." “Clearly you couldn't,” I mumbled and when her face fell, I realized I had said something wrong. I reached out to her and ran my hand through her hair softly. “I'm sorry, baby, I shouldn't have said that, today has been a very weird day."

I was still reeling from what had happened outside with the sirens. I couldn't understand what was going on, I could feel the magic buzzing under my skin every second. I couldn't help but wonder if this was how Camilla felt when she had her magic and if this situation wasn't happening right now, I would have asked her about it or spoken to her but right now, I needed to focus on Audrey's vision.

“Tell me exactly what she said,” I told Camilla and this time, she didn't hesitate.

“I can't remember it for sure, she just said something about the front of the palace being bathed in blood. I was more focused on trying to make sure she wasn't panicking anymore. It was one of those days you went out with Juan and I didn’t want to bother you when you came back."

“You should have, she is as much my daughter as she is yours. It is mean to be our problem to solve.”

She sighed. “I know, I just- when she came to me, she didn't even want to talk to me. She wanted you and it was so hard to just get her to open up to me because it is always the both of you. Many sentences in this chapter have been removed because you are not reading them on J o b nib.c(o)m.I know it sounds stupid but to me, it isn't. It always feels like you both put me on the sidelines and for once, I just wanted her to know that I could help her and that she could come to me."

I never realized that was what we had been doing but as I thought about it, I could understand where Camilla was coming from. Whenever Audrey had a problem, I always led her away and it wasn't because I was trying to hide her from Camilla, I just wanted her to feel more comfortable. I never stopped to think about how it could have been affecting Camilla especially seeing as I never told her about it after.

“She knows that,” I whispered cupping her cheeks. I placed a soft kiss on the top of her head. “She loves you and she trusts you and I'm sorry if we didn't show it to you properly.”

“I just wanted to help.”

“You are helping, we can do this together, okay? As long as we are open with each other, we can handle this," I pressed a lingering kiss to her head. “We need to talk to Audrey and figure out if there are any more details that she left out. She tends to do that sometimes.”

“What next?”

“Next, we find out everything we can on these sirens. Ansel has served up his usefulness, he doesn’t know more than what he said before.”

Her brows furrowed. “How do you know that?”

I thought about her question and the honest truth was, I didn’t know. I just knew on my inside that he didn’t know any more.

“Call it a gut feeling,” I said finally and she just nodded. She didn’t ask for any more explanation, she just nodded and thread her fingers with mine.

The girls were with Christine when we got there. Christine was lying on the bed while Audrey and Aurora poked her growing belly. Their giggles filled the air and I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the scene. I remembered how Audrey had been when Camilla was pregnant, the idea fascinated her, probably because she couldn't quite understand it at the time. She loved poking Camilla’s stomach so that Aurora would kick and she would giggle about it.

Christine noticed us first and once she did, the girls did too. There were squeals as our daughter scrambled over to get to us. I wasn't surprised by their reaction, we hadn't come by to see them in about twenty four hours which was more than unusual for them. We were always there, whether it was at night time or in the morning, but we always made sure to see them.

There was a lot of squealing and kisses involved but we finally got the girls to calm down. Aurora was happily nestled in Camilla’s arms, her head lying on her shoulder. She had always loved her mother more, although Camilla would have disagreed with you in an instant. Her eyes were drifting shut as Camilla swayed and stroked her hair away from her face and I turned to Audrey.

“Princess, your mum and I wanted to talk to you about something,” I began slowly and her smile fell but she didn't look surprised. “You knew we were coming, didn’t you?”

She nodded slowly. “I wanted to warn you, but I couldn't. The goddess said it was your test and you had to do it yourself. I'm sorry."

“You have nothing to worry about,” I assured her and I could visibly see my words take a weight off her shoulders.

It had been clear she had been carrying this around for so long and I was pissed, pissed because she was my child and she wasn't meant to worry about me, I was pissed because she was too young to be handling all of this. I was pissed because she deserved better and I couldn't do anything about it. If I could take the powers away in a second, I would have.

“You told your mum about blood in front of the palace,” I began slowly and her shoulders sagged. She glanced over at Camilla who had been quiet the entire time. “We need to know everything about that.”

“I told her everything,” Audrey began but I knew she wasn't telling the truth.

Camilla sighed before taking a step towards our daughter, she was still holding Aurora. “Audrey, I know how scary it can be, but we need to know. People might be in danger and what you tell us could make a very big difference. I just want to know and I don’t want to put so much pressure on you, but I would really appreciate it if you spoke to us. At the end of the day, the choice is yours."

Audrey was quiet for a full minute. I could tell she was mulling over her mother’s words and after a while, she took a seat at the edge of the bed. “I saw a woman, she was crying and she was singing and the blood started coming and it was everywhere. That's all I saw.

“Are you sure?” Camilla asked and she nodded.

“I pinky promise,” she didn't even hesitate before speaking. “'m sorry I didn't tell you, mummy. I was scared.”

“I know,” Camilla leaned forward to kiss her hair. “It's okay to be scared, we all get scared sometimes but that's why you come to us because we will make everything better."

Audrey's eyes lit up. “Do you promise?”

Camilla held out her pinky finger and I saw Audrey beam like she had just won something. She hooked her finger with Camilla’s and grinned from ear to ear. I couldn't stop myself from smiling at the both of them. Despite everything that had happened today and how today started, it was turning out to be a good day.

I lingered for a while, interacting with both Audrey and Camilla. Aurora was fast asleep and had been for a while when I offered to take her to her room. Camilla thought nothing of it and didn’t hesitate to hand my daughter over to me. Her room was directly opposite Audrey's so I didn’t have to walk far.

I was laying her in bed when something shifted. My vision became hazy for a second and then I felt it, there was something in the air, something that almost screamed danger. The air seemed to pulse with it, seemed to vibrate with it and I heard it, like a shrill scream. Thank the goddess I had already laid Aurora in bed because I couldn't stop myself from clamping my hands over my ears.

The scream was ear splitting and I felt it within the corners of my soul. It was over within a second and I was stunned that Aurora had slept through it. I had expected her to wake up bawling but she didn't, she just lay in her tiny bed completely unaffected by what had just happened.

My entire body was still shaking and reeling from what had happened that it took me a few seconds to gather my bearings again. I managed to get to my feet and stumbled over to Audrey's room where Camilla and Audrey sat. Neither of them looked affected.

“Did you hear that?” I asked but they both looked at me with confused expressions. “The scream, it was like my ears were being blown out. Did either of you hear it?”

“I didn't hear a scream,” Camilla said carefully. “Are you alright? Did something happen to you?"

“No,” I shook my head. “Sorry, I must have been lost in thought.”

“Ryker-"

“Don’t worry about it," I forced my lips into a smile. “What were we talking about?”