Bonded to Her Triple Alphas

87

Kaya’s POV.

I stand so close to the windows that I stare through them to the outside. The sky has darkened in response to the sadness in the aura, choking the whole kingdom.

As I narrow my eyes, lost in deep thoughts, I watch the scene before me unfold.

In the distance are the pack members. They each have a candle in their hands, surrounding the compound of the kingdom in a circular shape. In the very middle is the body of Emilie, the clone, thought to be the triplets’ mother. She’s dressed elegantly like the royal that she is, with a flag that bears the mark of the triplets’ kingdom’s crest on her chest. She’s placed on a pyre, ready to be burned.

And not far from her are the triplets, who are standing with a torch in their hands. Even from this distance of mine, I can still feel the weakness in their muscles and nerves and the way they struggle to stand rooted to the ground. But that aside, I can also feel the sadness in their being.

It could never have been easy. After all the pain they’ve passed through, they only recovered on the same day, or probably even at the same time that their mother died. Perhaps it was even the news of her death that called them back to earth.

“Aren’t you coming down?” Chester’s words call my attention as I peck up and turn my face to meet with his.

Shaking my head as I smile softly, I say, “nah, I can’t go down there. Seen there? It’s the pack’s mother who’s died, so I believe only werewolves should be there to honour. It would be disrespectful for me to join you guys.” When I explain my point to Chester, he hums in understanding.

“All right.” But before he leaves, I quickly turn to him. “Why are they burning her and not burying her?” I just needed to understand that part because I believe her life is worth more since she was a royal. I mean, everyone else believes that the late person lying on that pyre is the triplets’ mother, including the triplets themselves, so it’s only natural that they treat her body well.

Chester chuckles. “Has these libraries been of waste all this time without you curious at all to want to check out our histories?” Well, maybe he’s forgotten that I used to be a slave here, and there was no way I had the authority to pick any books. I’d probably spent one more night at the dungeon during those dark times. “Just like witches bury their dead in hopes and believes, according to the wheel of time, that they’d sink into the ground and grow back into this world as a reincarnation, we hope that when we burn ours, their life source remains in the air, watching over the ones they love and we keep their ashes in believes that they’d come back to this world, reincarnated.”

Chester is about to leave again, this time at the threshold, when I speak, “I will find out what really happened to Emilie. I want to get to the root of who Jared really is. I plan on using this chance of his absence once he’s joined the triplets at the pyre and entered his chambers. Maybe there is anything I could find.”

Chester flares his eyes at me. “What? He could sue you for trespassing.”

“The triplets won’t punish me.”

“That still doesn’t mean it changes the fact that you’ve offended.”

I roll my eyes at him as I wave my left hand, right after puffing air into the air. “Well, maybe you’ve forgotten that I’m just here to help the kingdom. I’m not bound by the rules of this land. I don’t care much about anything or anyone. No one is my boss or master anymore. I’m free.” Spilling with so much pride inside me, Chester laughs.

“Aye, Kaya.” Then he points his finger at me. “Speaking of Emilie, I thought you wanted to just get the kingdom back to normal, not help the triplets find out any cluster with their uncle or what or what-not their mother is.”

Now, Chester is starting to get on my nerves with the way he reminds me of what I had said I was only going to do, but then I’m already doing more than that.

Before I can reply, he nods his head at me after his tease and leaves the room. I’m back to watching the scene below me when I see Chester appear down there.

But wait… I narrow my eyes even more to check out all the royals there, only to see that Jared isn’t around yet.

Where could he be?

I place my bottom lip between my teeth in suspicion of him when he suddenly appears down there too, joining the triplets. A few minutes later, Kade, Kyle, and Kieran throw their torch at the pyre all at once, and as it catches fire, roaring up to her body, I leave the windows and hurry to Jared’s room.

I’m hurrying up the stairs, my head darting from left to right, not wanting to be seen by any guards, when I arrive at Jared’s chambers and realize that there are two guards there, watching his door.

“Oculos tuos falle et somnium dulcis phantasiae.” I whisper into my palm, and as I blow the spell into the air, a low, tinkling sound sprinkles within the air, traveling like a soft tune that causes the guards to start feeling sleepy. “Sleep well, lovelies.”

A soft smile lands on my face as the both of them slide down the wall till they hit their buttocks against the ground, far from consciousness.

With my lips shifted to one side, I make my way into Jared’s room. There’s nothing to see here except the same boring paper work that I used to clean from the triplets’ room. Although there’s something about Jared’s room that hasn’t made me give up, I can feel some sort of confusing energy in there, and then a sensation tickles my nerves as I get closer to the bookshelf at the end of his study room.

With my brows ached downwards as I walk slowly closer, I make use of my magic again, “nihil mihi detege, et nihil abscondas a me.”

Beckoning at the shelf, from the left side, it drags through the ground and flips like a leaflet of a book, except it stops midway for my entrance.

Hesitation holds me down for a brief moment, but when I want to enter, I hear someone’s footsteps nearing the room. My senses heighten in anxiety, and I reverse the spell before hiding behind the study table with my hands covering my mouth so I don’t make any sound.

The door opens, and the clicking of the presence’s boots stops. It leaves me bewildered. A minute or so passed, still not hearing anything, and then, suddenly, Jared appears in front of me.

“And what are you doing here?” Oh, he sounds very pissed.

In the next moment, Jared calls two of his guards, who come to pick me up and drag me with him to the council room, where the triplets are.

Entering the room, I jab my hands at both guards, fuming at the way they had handled me. I should cast a spell that shrinks those arms into nothingness.

“Uncle, what’s happening?” Asks Kade as his eyes shift from me to his uncle, Jared.

“First, she was given a space in the council. A witch at that. A creature that we detest, and now she trespasses into my chambers, looking for what exactly?” Jared throws dark glances at me. A few months ago, I would have shrunk, but not this time around. I glare back. “She doesn’t even deserve to live freely in the kingdom, much less roam about. Who knows, maybe she’s trying to cast some evil spell on me.”

Well, that would be better. My subconscious makes a joke that causes me to smile outwardly, and Jared gives me the eye.

The triplets go silent for some time before they speak. I’m ready to listen to whatever decision they’d make, as it would make me judge who they’ve really become. “Uncle, the kingdom and its rules have changed. Kaya is as free a person as any other witch out there. And that’s why my brothers and I have called this meeting even at such a sad time as this. We must focus on the future if we want it to be bright.”

“I demand…”

“Uncle, that’s all.” Kieran chimes in, causing Jared to keep quiet and bow his head lightly.

I smile at the triplets before I follow Jared outside too, and immediately we are. He grabs me and pushes me against the wall. “Don’t go further in whatever it is you have in mind. You’d get hurt.”

I squint my eyes at him as he walks away. I’ll find out the truth, and that’s a vow.