SWNOVELS Chapter 43 Irritated
Her words stayed with me well after our dinner. Alexus talked the queen into staying even after King Alder left and she agreed, especially to train with my soldiers. Despite how sophisticated and aristocratic the queen looks, she is a warrior and always will be despite not showing all her cards to the king. I am going to rather enjoy her stay here.
Yana is on the bed curled up when I get in it. She decides to talk about my rebirth and trying to be optimistic before I passed out from the days mental exhaustion. I feel Nolan wrap around me in the middle of the night.
Woken up to my phone vibrating, I look at the time. It is 9am with three messages from Lex. I reach behind me to find Nolan’s side of the bed cold, meaning he left early. I knock his pillow out of the bed in frustration with a piece of paper flying to the floor with it. With my body leaned over the side of the bed to pick it up, Yana orbs in suddenly, making me fall out of bed. “Why are you on the ground?” What a smart ass she was. “Well, let me think? Maybe because someone orbed in a threw off my concentration.” Yana clearly caught on fast. “Oops, my fault.”
Elaina, My Love. I didn’t have the heart to wake you, especially after everything we’ve both had to deal with. I left early this morning to ensure all pack security in the remaining isolated packs was in place. See you tonight. I love you till death and beyond. Nolan
If he only knew the true context of his last statement meant for us. I reply to Lex letting him know I’d be at the club to finalize the set up for H.E.R to perform Friday. The new single dropped a few weeks ago and Friday night is going to be packed.
Yana has a ton of questions on why Nolan allows his insufferable father to drive a wedge between us like this. I couldn’t make excuses for the obvious. This was day two of us not really communicating or spending that vital time together .
“After the scrolls are tossed on the table, King Alder should be gone with his tail between his legs back to Canada. Hopefully, Nolan will revert back to my Nolan, and not this mindless bot his father is trying to turn him into.” I get ready very slowly and decide to orb to my club rather than drive.
“Okay, put the piano on my left of the rug. The lamps at the back end with the salt lamps to the front eight feet apart from the mic.” I place the pussy willows around the section for the drummer and improvised with the rest of the foliage. Lex caught my attention, “You’ve always had an eye for detail, boss lady. I should have asked you to decorate my loft instead of paying that pompous elf.” He had a point, that elf was overpriced and totally had no true instinct for a clients style. “I would have done it free.”
“And I would have let you. How have you been feeling, Laina?”
“I’ve been better, still here though.”
“Boss lady, you seem distracted. I mean everything is getting done, you haven’t missed a beat. It’s just you don’t seem like you’re all here.”
“I have a lot on my mind, just need to figure it all out.”
“You know we are all ready to lend an ear or a shoulder if you need it, right?”
“You guys have always been there for me and I hope I’ll have the opportunity to always be there for you all. Having you as a team, a second family has been the biggest gift of my life.”
“Why does it sound like you’re saying goodbye?”
“Don’t be silly, I’m just a little emotional with this new mate thing.”
“If he doesn’t treat you right, you know he will have to answer to us after your parents and Bryant beat his ass first.”
I have to chuckle at how protective he is of me, how protective they all are with me, “No, no. It’s nothing like that going on. Pinkie swear.”
Lex shrugs, “If you say so.”
I walk up the stairs to my office, shutting the door and letting my back slump against it. I replay everything I read and everything I was told over and over again. There was no way around it, no easy way to make this hurt Nolan or me any less. The only thing I could do is research the Lycan that was cast out of the realm. If I could connect why he betrayed his covenant with the realm, it might lead to something that may buy me some time.
I still had the pictures sent to me from forensics; by the age of the dismembered soldiers, the symbols were much older. One thing I do recall from the scrolls that I had studied, certain magic tied an entire bloodline, it was much deeper and darker than a blood oath. No matter if the offspring did not want to honor the binding, the symbol would enforce it. We were told it was forbidden in and out of the realm. They also taught us that this magic was lost to us after the tree was destroyed.
I see why this type of magic was hidden so deeply in the past, I could only imagine the shit storm Allister’s priests could have done if they had access to it. As I look at the images, they almost made sense to me, almost like they are calling to me. Before I could fight it, I am pulled under and into my own past. I am reliving one of the events from the battle in the realm. No one else could see it, but I was beginning to slowly spiral down a rabbit hole, a rabbit hole that placed the blood of thousands on my hands and my soul.
I must be an anomaly; I could kill with ease or any second thought to deter me. It was either them or me. But after each battle it slowly made me almost hate what I am, I am an apex predator amongst the sheep, yet also a ticking time bomb at the same time. I could go off at any minute and there was nothing for anyone to do to stop it.
Footnote****( Historical fact written March 11, 2021. The La Paz is the location of a hidden African Kingdom for hundreds of years outside of the rest of the world. It remained unrecognized for 200 years. Thousands of Bolivians of African descent and one of the last kingdoms left in the Americas. Mururata is the center of the kingdom. It currently is still lead by a king named Julio Bonifaz Pinedo)