The Alpha Queen and Her Rogue Kingdom

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ELINA

As I walk from one side to the other of the small hall in the rogue castle, I wonder if this is really a good idea, if I shouldn't better leave before everything can get worse, what if I put myself in danger by doing this? What if I prepared everything for a trap?

No, I shouldn't have done this.

What happened to Camille? Why does it take so long for them to get here?

Oh, Moon Goddess, this is happening to me because I let myself being guided by stupidity.

I am turning to get out of here before any of the Red Army warriors see me and start to suspect things, when I hear footsteps approaching and my entire body goes into a state of alert, almost helplessly, I sniff the air to see if I can smell Bastian's scent, but only Camille and August's are present in the air, although there is something different in their scents that I still can't put my finger on, for some reason they feel stronger than normal, and although I try in vain not to worry because Camille had already sent me a mind link a while ago to let me know that everything was in order, I can't get out of my head that something is not right.

A few minutes later, Camille enters the room and her face has a strange expression which makes me frown immediately, her cheeks are slightly flushed, and she seems to be trying very hard to focus on something but I can't figure out what, and a couple of seconds later, August walks into the room and he looks strange too, I see him throw furtive glances at Camille, and I wonder if something happened on the way, after all, there are about three hours from their meeting point to here.

I pass my gaze from one to the other waiting for someone to say something, but it seems that that is not going to happen, and strangely enough, I feel like I am a spectator in a show that the two of them star in, as if something is happening between them and I was not allowed to enter there.

"Does someone want to explain to me what is happening here?" I tell them and they both startle, as if they just noticed my presence in the place.

“I… nothing is happening, Your Majesty, I was just catching my breath,” Camille responds immediately, as she bows her head, and I notice August staring at her.

"Welcome August," I tell him, and he quickly turns his head towards me.

"Elina, hi, it's been a while since we last saw each other, and even longer since we last spoke," he tells me with his characteristic smile, and I notice Camille's expression change instantly.

"Well, you were the one who requested this meeting, you said it was life or death," I remind him, and he nods.

"Yeah, well ..." he splutters before looking at Camille again.

"Camille, could you leave us alone, please?" I order her, and she nods immediately before leaving.

"That's not what I wanted to say, she can stay if you want ..." August starts to say, but Camille has already left, and we are alone.

"You can speak freely, no one will disturb us here," I tell him, and he nods.

"Ellie ..." he starts to say, and I frown.

"Sorry, Elina," August quickly corrects himself.

“I have nothing against you, August, but I don't want you to think that because we were once friends, we will continue to be, now we are on different sides, and although you can rest assured that neither I nor my warriors will harm you, we are not in confidence, this is a meeting between opposing sides of a war and just that,” I tell him, and he looks at me with a mixture of sadness and acceptance that almost makes me want to apologize for the harshness of my words.

"I know, you know that I always tend to go overboard, I apologize for that," he replies, and seeing that I offer him a slight tight smile, but I don't answer anything else because I am waiting for him to say what whatever he came here to say, he starts talking again:

“I know that you are upset, more than upset and that you are hurt by what happened between you and Bastian, but you know him and you know me, you know that we would never order any attack on you and much less on innocent people, you have to believe that we didn’t do it, we didn’t order your family to be attacked,” he says vehemently, and I purse my lips, but I refrain from saying anything to him, so he continues.

“We have no idea who may be behind this, but we have been investigating this matter very seriously, I swear to you that as soon as we find the culprit of attacking your family and blaming us for it, we will send it to you to take care of bring justice yourself.… I have heard you have gotten pretty good at it,” he adds at the end with a playful tone, and for a moment I feel like laughing at his jokes like I used to do before, but I remember the position we are in now, and I hold my laugh.

"They had the symbol of the Varks, and the man who survived confessed that the order came from you, the evidence is overwhelming, August, I don't see how you can pretend that I believe otherwise," I tell him, and he shakes his head.

“Isn't it too convenient that they had our symbol? What would you have done if you wanted to attack an enemy camp by surprise? Would you use a symbol for everyone to see or would you go incognito?" he asks me, and I frown.

"It doesn't make sense, why would Bastian want to hurt your family?" he asks me, and I feel my blood boil when I hear his name used in the same sentence with my family.

“I don't know, should we ask my father? Oh, wait…” I reply while raising an eyebrow, and he seems to be regretting what he just said.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean that, it's a different case, your family hasn't done anything to make us want to attack them," he says, and I cross my arms over my chest.

"They haven’t, but I have, so it makes perfect sense that you want to hurt the people I care about the most, starting with my babies," I say in an annoyed tone.

“Oh no, Bastian could never hurt his… your babies, that is completely out of the question,” he says, and I feel my annoyance grow.

"They are MY babies, let it be clear to all of you, they are not his or anyone else's, they are mine, and I will kill anyone who dares to even think of hurting them," I reply with a scathing tone, and I feel my wolf fighting to get out to the surface.

"Wow, wait, I didn't mean it that way, please don't get upset," he replies while raising his hands in the air apologetically.

"I know this is probably going to upset you, but are you sure Bastian isn't the father?" he asks me, and I feel the little patience I had, to completely vanish.

"I think this meeting is over, please leave immediately," I tell him, and he seems sorry for his words.

"I am sorry, I really didn't want you to be so upset, but I had to ask, you know if that's true then Bastian will protect you with his own life, you and the babies, no matter what happened, you know he would do anything for you,” August tells me.

“Anything but sparing my father's life? Anything but facing his own subjects so as not to hurt me? The only thing Bastian cares about is his damn throne that isn't even his, so since you are here send him a message for me, will you? Tell him not to get too fond of that throne because soon I will go and take what belongs to me by right, and that if he does not want to die in the same courtyard in which he killed my father, he better surrender now, leave MY PALACE and MY THRONE, and come back here to his family's castle with all his people,” I say, raising my voice, which attracts the attention of Camille, who rushes into the room.

"It’s everything alright?" she asks urgently.

“Yes, everything is fine, please could you escort Mr. Cross outside? The meeting is over,” I tell her, and she nods.

"Elina, please don't do this, it's an absurd war," he tells me, but when Camille walks up to him and takes him by the arm to lead him out of the room, I immediately see the way their pupils get dilated, and it feels like a moment frozen in time, they seem so engrossed in each other that they forget what they were doing.

So, I clear my throat to get their attention, and they both jump, then Camille lets go of August's arm quickly and looks nervously away.

"Uhm ... I ..." August starts to say but can't seem to find the words.

"Yes?" I ask annoyed.

"Could you at least give us a little time while we search for the culprit of the attack?" he tells me, and I frown.

"Time?" I ask confused.

"Yes, well, we noticed that some Crimson Woods troops were mobilized to the border closest to our kingdom, I just came to ask you that before starting anything, you could give us some time to clear up all this misunderstanding," he tells me, and I try in vain to hide my surprise at his words, as I had no idea that Zane had started anything without consulting me first.

"Okay, tell your king that he has a month to search for proof of his innocence, otherwise he will see us at the gates of My palace trying to take back what belongs to me," I tell him, and he nods solemnly before leaving after Camille.

And just when they both leave the room I notice it, the strange scent in the room was the arousal of one of them, or both.

What the hell does this mean?

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