The Rejected Werewolf Princess

CAMILLA'S POV

I should have known. The signs were right in front of me and I should have figured it out earlier but I couldn't look past my own prejudice to see what the hell was going on. I had focused all my attention on the witch being Marie that I forgot to even consider the possibility that it could be Peggy. It made sense now, she was using the dolls to control the dead body, but the other two dolls... what were they for?

“I don't have all the time in the world,” she drawled crossing her arms over her chest. Now that she wasn't pretendin anymore, I could see the similarities, I could see the mannerisms. It was her but it wasn't. “Give me the dagger.”

“I don't know where it is,” it was the truth. I didn’t even know if it had been found or not. “Look, I don’t want anythin; to do with you right now. I closed that chapter of my life a long time ago. You wanted me because of my magic and I don’t have it anymore.”

“You stupid girl, I didn’t want you because of your magic, I wanted you because you were blessed by the goddess,” she crossed her arms over her chest as she analyzed me. “I know your magic is gone. I had more than enough time tc check it out. If it were still here, you would have healed me when I almost drowned in the water. You don’t have thos powers anymore and I suppose it is a good thing because now you cannot defeat me. How do you plan to fight deatt hm?

My jaw clenched in anger but I didn’t speak. Ryker gently wrapped his hand around my waist and pulled me behind him. I saw Reina- Peggy- whatever she was- raise her brow in mild amusement. I could tell she enjoyed this but the honest truth was that I needed her out of the palace. No one in tis building was safe until we found a way to get her out. No one was safe until she was gone.

“We don't have the knife, Reina,” Ryker said simply. “If you want it then you will have to get it yourself. Get out of my pack”

She stared at him for a full minute as the corner of her lips tipped up slowly into an amused smirk. “I see you've grown some backbone instead of hiding behind your mate and her magic. Tell me, Ryker, does it make you feel inferior knowing that she has all the powers? Leanor wasn’t a royal and yet she had powers, do you want to know how?”

“Get out,” he cut her off. “I don’t want to hear this. Leave now, Reina.”

She laughed humorlessly. My eyes found Ryker’s but there was something in them. I could clearly understand what he was telling me- stall her. I wasn’t sure how he wanted me to do that but I nodded.

“Why did you pick them?” I asked and she turned to me in confusion. “Of all the people in the town, you picked then why? You could have chosen anyone else.”

“That is true,” she admitted. “When we both washed up ashore, Peggy found us. She was such a kind old woman. She was seated there, you know, and she looked broken. I know death, I can sense it. All I needed to do was push the right buttons and she told me about her little girl who was dead. Well, all I could do was help her out so I made sure she joined her child and I took over.”

“You brainwashed an entire community into thinking that Marie was still alive.

She shrugged and that was when I realized we might have underestimated her powers. She opened her mouth to speak but at that moment, the door flew open and in came a handful of guards with their weapons pointed at her. There was fear in her eyes for a minute but she quickly wiped it away and replaced it with annoyance.

“This is how you want to play,” she drawled. “That's fine, I'll bite. Get me that weapon in one week or I will burn this entire pack to the ground and you can count on that”

She turned to the window and there was a loud explosion. Ryker pulled me to the ground with his hands covering m: head and shielding me from the debris that was flying around. Dust filled the air and by the time it settled, the window had been blown out and Peggy was gone. Ryker cursed loudly as he realized she had escaped. All I could do was stand there stunned as I tried to process everything that just happened.

Ryker was barking orders to the guards but my mind was a haze. I couldn't hold a thought longer than a few seconds before it was replaced with the reality that Reina was back. Reina whom I had almost lost everything to- my child, my life. She was one of the fiercest foes we had ever faced and she was back. She could have wiped all of us dead in tha room but she didn't, she chose to flee. I wasn’t sure if that was an act of mercy or if there was more to it.

“Camilla,” my eyes snapped up once I heard Ryker’s voice. His eyes raked over me with concern. “Are you alright? Do you need me to-"

“No,” I cut him off. “I think I'm going to check on the girls. I just want to make sure that they are alright, okay?”

I didn’t wait for him to respond before I started to drag myself over there. I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe, I just needed to see my children, I needed to touch them, feel them and know that they were alive and breathing. They were with Riley, at least, that was the last place I knew they would be. When I pushed open Riley's door and I didn’t see them, I felt panic settle in my heart.

I tried to calm my raging breaths. They had to be somewhere in the palace, they couldn't have just disappeared. I forced my If heavy feet to move down the halls and tried to get my brain to bring up the few places they could be bu it wasn’t working. My breath was coming out in pants and my eyes were blurring over every few seconds. I thought I was going to pass out until I felt a hand on my shoulder. In a second, I had the person pinned to the wall with ice around their wrists. I wasn’t even sure where the water came from, it just happened.

“I'm not going to hurt you,” Damien explained in a soft voice and I let out a sigh of relief and embarrassment. It took one flick of my wrist to get him out and he watched me with careful eyes after. “Are you alright? You seemed very jumpy.”

“Where are the girls?” I should have answered his question but I needed to see my children. As long as I could put m eyes on them, I would be fine. “I went to your room and they weren't there. I don’t know where Riley is.”

“She is in their room with them,” his eyes narrowed as he took me in. “Are you sure that everything is okay? You look a little pale”

“I'm fine,” I turned away from him quickly. “I am going to check up on the girls.”

I had hoped that he would leave me alone but instead, Damien walked in sync with me. Every few seconds, I would feel his eyes on me and I could clearly make out the worry in his gaze but I remained silent. The moment he pushed the door open and I saw my daughters, I felt every ounce of worry bleed out from my shoulders. They were seated cross legged on the floor with Riley but as soon as they saw me, they rushed over to me.

I buried my face in their hair and inhaled their scent. They were whispering and talking to me but I could barely hear them over the noise in my head. All I could hear was one phrase over and over again- “they are safe’.

I pulled back only when they started to squirm to get out of my hold and I smiled so as not to show them how worried I was. “l was looking for you. I didn't know you would be here.”

“Are you okay, mummy?” Audrey asked and I nodded. “You look like you're going to cry. Are you hurt?”

“No, I'm just very happy to see you,” I smiled wide. She cocked her head to the side in disbelief but she was a child and there was very little that she actually knew. After a few seconds of a staring contest, she seemed to believe my response because she immediately rushed over to show me what she had been doing.

I knew I had a shit ton of work to do but nothing could have pulled me off that ground. I sat cross legged on the floo with my daughters talking about the most absurd things. Aurora sat in my lap and just buried her face into my chest and it was the most amazing thing ever. They were alive, they were breathing, Reina hadn't gotten to them.

I couldnt help but wonder if part of the reason she didn’t do anything today when she could have was to play with our minds. She liked games, I wouldn't be surprised it if turned out that this was all a game to her. She wanted to drive us to the brink of insanity and it has only been a few hours but I couldn't help but feel like she was succeeding “Hey, is Camilla-" the door flew open as Ryker’s words died on his throat. His eyes met mine and they softened considerably. Both girls rushed up to their father but he never moved his eyes from me as he spoke. “Can everyone excuse us please?”

Riley and Damien didn’t wait to be asked twice before they walked away. Once the door was shut behind them, Ryke! came to take a seat next to me on the floor. I didn’t say a word as I lay my head gently against his shoulder. I couldn” have spoken even if I wanted to, I didn’t know what to say.

“Everything will be fine,” he assured me and I wanted so badly to believe those words. “We did it before, we can do it again. We know better now. She cannot hurt them again.”

“The mean woman is back,” Audrey announced making us turn to her.

“What did you say?”

“The mean woman is back. You're talking about her, right?”

“No,” Ryker lied. “Don’t worry about us, okay? It is just adult talk.”

Audrey just shrugged and went back to her toys. That was the innocence of children and I would be damned if I let Reina take it away from them again.