His Hybrid Queen

Chapter 31

Victor

Never in a million years, I’d have thought that things will turn out this way when I accepted to talk to the werebear prince. Somehow, I managed to stay calm and collected even when he staked a claim over my mate. I pushed back my wolf and his possessiveness. If I let my beast take the reins, it would turn into a bloodbath in the blink of an eye. I knew that there was too much at stake here and the last thing I wanted was to start off a war between shifter species. But when he brought up my mother, all I saw was red. I never got over her loss or her tragic death. Not completely anyway. And I wasn’t going to let some i***t mar her memory.

The least I could do was to teach him a lesson so he won’t joke about people’s dead mothers in the future. And I did, by beating him up to a pulp. He took my heavy punches well. With the way he was built, he was my favorite kind of punch bag. He landed a few good ones too, but I had the upper hand. When I dislocated his shoulder and sent him tumbling to the ground, I thought that the fight was over. However, he decided to play dirty and pulled up a silver knife. 

I repressed a snort. Maybe he didn’t get the memo that I was a Lycan. Silver and wolfsbane could make me sick at worst but it had to be in a large dose. Not that I would ever let him cut my skin that easily. I realized how wrong I was with my assumptions a little too late. Suddenly, I was frozen and couldn’t move a muscle. The witch had her hands up in the air and she was mumbling too low for me to hear. From the corner of my eye, I noticed that Claire and the men were under the same spell. I wanted to break free, go to my mate and protect her from the attacking werebears. But I couldn’t even help myself as the prince advanced on me with his dagger lifted in the air.

It all happened so fast. It must have been the adrenaline pumping in my veins that prevented me from feeling the pain at first. When the blade sliced through my chest like butter, something crept into my body and spread through me like wildfire. As if evil invisible hands were shredding my flesh to pieces. It was a pain like I never felt before, even when I was training to build resistance against wolfsbane. It did hurt like hell back then, but this felt as if acid was being poured on my open wounds.

Nicolai didn’t stop until I heard Claire’s scream fill the air. After he dropped the dagger and retreated, whatever was restraining me vanished and I could move again. I lifted my hand to check the wetness on my chest. When I looked down it was covered in blood. It was jarring. I’ve seen blood before, but it was usually my enemy’s. And there was a lot of it. I didn’t know how much 5 liters of blood would look like until today. My shirt and trousers were already drenched and I started to feel dizzy. My legs couldn’t hold me anymore and I fell forward.

Instead of the hard ground, I was welcomed by a warm and soft body. Claire’s scent wafted in my nose and all the pain was forgotten. I didn’t mind dying now if her face was the last thing I’d see. I hated to see her cry and I reached to wipe the tears from her face, but I ended smudging her cheek with crimson marks. However, I couldn’t leave before telling her that I loved her. I managed to say the words through our mate link and she whispered them back to me before I started falling. 

I was somewhere in between awake and asleep. I was surrounded by darkness but I could hear distant growls in the background and I could feel the cold ground beneath me. I was trying with all my might to not surrender and drift away. I clutched desperately at consciousness. Saying “I love you”  wasn’t enough. There were so many things I wanted to tell her. Claire wasn’t just my mate. She was my everything and I didn’t want to leave her behind. Not after I worked so hard to earn her love and trust. But I wasn’t in control anymore.

I don’t know how long I was unconscious, but when I came back to myself I felt a warm body against mine. Before I even opened my eyes I knew it was Claire laying by my side. Her scent was a curing balm to my aching soul. Though I wasn’t in pain anymore. My arms curled around her and I hugged her tight with a strength I didn’t know I had left. I was surprised to feel her skin under my touch. When I looked down, she was naked and covered in soot.

I glanced around and I saw our men looking down at us. Their faces were pale and their eyes wide open as if they just saw a ghost. I sat up and cradled my mate in my lap. I noticed the amount of devastation around us. It didn’t look like any other battlefield. It was as if a tornado and forest fire has ravaged the place. Small fires were still burning and smoke filled the air and swiveled with the wind.

“What happened?” I asked.

*****

I gave Claire a bath and dressed her before tucking her in bed. The doctor has checked on both of us and told me that she was just resting. It was the way her body recovered after shifting under such intense emotions. I, on the other hand, felt better than ever. If it weren’t for the barely visible scars I would have thought it was all a terrible nightmare. I still couldn’t believe what the warriors who witnessed the battle had told me about what happened a few hours ago. I’ll have to see it with my own eyes.

I was propped on my elbow, looking at my mate and thinking what a badass she was. Her face was contorted as if she was about to cry or she was seeing a scary dream. She sat up abruptly and started screaming at the top of her lungs. 

“Hey, what’s wrong.” I put my hand on her shoulder and she snapped her head to my side before lunging at me.

“Victor!” She called. “I thought I lost you!” She said then she started weeping.

“You didn’t. I’m right here.”

It seemed as if my words has made her sob even more. I curled my arms around her and she nuzzled at my chest. I rested my chin on the top of her head and rubbed her back soothingly. We stayed like that for a few minutes until she stopped crying, though she was sniffing a bit. I held her shoulders and had to peel her away from me so I could look at her face. Her eyes were red-rimmed but she was as beautiful as ever.

“Do you feel better now?” I held her chin between two fingers and I looked into her eyes.

“Don’t you ever do that to me again!” She warned giving me a playful slap on the chest.

“I didn’t exactly plan to die today,” I said rubbing my chest feigning getting hurt.

“You’re so mean. Don’t joke about it!” She complained and her eyes filled up with new tears.

“I’m sorry.” I apologized. I thought I could lift her mood with a little humor, but she was still troubled by the events of today. I hugged her and kissed the top of her head.

“The dagger was enchanted and you couldn’t heal. I was so lost and terrified. My worst fear became reality. I thought you were going to die and I lost control.” 

Claire was still new shifting and to our violent world. She was probably carrying some guilt for killing her uncle, though it was completely justified. Nicolai and the sorceress deserved to lose their lives. The werebear prince trespassed on my land and provoked me to fight him and then used dark magic in order to win the challenge. 

“Is this why you broke up with me?” I dismissed her fears before, thinking she didn’t believe in me. But perhaps she knew something that I didn’t back then. She has been manifesting some new powers lately and it ended up with the grand reveal of her true form.

“At first I wasn’t really sure why. I had a gut feeling that he’d come after you if he found out. Then his threat letter confirmed that he was using black magic. I tried to call you to apologize for what I said and explain everything but you never called back.”

Although we made up, we didn’t really talk about the reason for the break-up. Listening to her now, I should have given her the benefit of the doubt. Nicolai turned out to be a bigger threat than I had anticipated. Somehow it made sense why she pushed me away, despite how much it tore me apart when it happened. I should stop blaming her because I would have done the same if it was the only way to protect her.

It was useless to mull over the past, though. I wanted to look at the future that we can build together and think about what kind of life we’ll have from now on. Being royalty was nice and all, but it was never part of my pans when I’d have found my mate. I had pictured leading the pack with my luna and our litter of pups animating the packhouse with play and laughter.

“I wanted...I want us to have a house just for the two of us and our children.” She said all of sudden as if she was reading my mind.

“You want to have my babies?” I asked, feeling a little incredulous. I had thought I would have to work extra hard to convince her after she lost her first pregnancy.

“Maybe one at a time. But yes.”

It was all the reassurance I needed to feel confident again. We wanted the same things and it was all matter of time with the help of modern medicine for me to hold my firstborn. It was a natural need for any Alpha to procreate and bring to the world his heir. It wouldn’t matter to me if it was a boy or girl as long as they were healthy. 

With my lovely mate in my arms, pressed against my chest, and bathing in her scent I felt complete. I had come up with the perfect plan to give her what she wanted. I held my mind from drifting to that little box in the drawer of my nightstand. She could hear my thoughts sometimes and I wanted it to be a surprise. We settled into a comfortable silence until we fell into a peaceful sleep, entangled in each other.

******

Unknown

Something strange was happening. I was overwhelmed with a wave of anger and fury before it left the place to an immense sadness and grief. It reminded me of that fateful day when we lost our commander and most of our people. Other than the queen, the commander was the only one capable of communicating with the whole clan or transferring her emotions. I wasn’t the only one who felt it because our Matriarch rose from her hibernating-like slumber and her growl echoed throughout the hallways.

I abandoned the experiment I was doing. It was failing like all the thousands of times before. I went to see my old friend. He might be able to enlighten me. His chamber was dimly lit with a couple of candles. He wasn’t the same since he got back from his last trip fifteen years ago. He aged far beyond his years and I could only guess what has happened to him. Because he never spoke about it, until now.

“Did you feel that?”

“Yes, I was going to call for you.” He said his green orbs shining through the darkness.

“Do you think a new Queen has finally emerged?” It was what we were waiting for, for hundreds of years. It was the reason why he scoured the earth relentlessly. In our clan, the crown wasn’t a birthright. It was passed down to the chosen one. A new queen was born every millennium or so, and we wouldn’t know her identity until she came to maturity.

“Maybe. You’ll have to find her first.”

“Why do you think I could find her now. You spent decades searching. Yet you came back emptyhanded and old!” It was an impossible quest and I didn’t have the slightest clue where to start. Also, I didn’t want to end up like him if that was the price to pay.

“Because you’re the only one who spent as much time as me with the humans. Besides,” He leaned forward and a part of his wrinkled face became illuminated with candlelight. “I couldn’t find her because she wasn’t born yet at that time.”

“Good assumption, but it could take me a hundred years to find her. Especially if she wants to stay hidden.” I complained crossing my arms over my chest.

“No, you won’t.” He reached into his pocket and pulled a photograph that he handed to me.

It was an old crumbled photo of a little girl with the most unusual eyes I had ever seen. 

“She went to the school written in the back. The humans named her Claire Parker. She has one green eye…”

“And one blue.” I interrupted him as I looked at the picture. “How do you know all this?” I questioned.

“I know because she’s my daughter.”