The words jammed into her head and her throat dried up immediately.
This just couldn’t be happening to her.
Gwen looked around, a little lost in the moment.
“It was supposed to be tomorrow but things happen anyway. Soon enough all these decorations will be gone.”
Gone?
“What do you mean gone?”
Gwen snapped her lips shut. It was like as if she was chastising herself in her head for saying too much. Then she started a reluctant speech to get herself out of the mess she was tangled up in.
“The King was supposed to get married tomorrow but you are here now so…” She shrugged and chuckled nervously.
So there would indeed be a jealous lover to help her after all!
“To who?”
Gwen sigh uncomfortably, “will it be alright for you to know that? I mean, you won’t be angry? You know this thing between mates, it can snap at…”
“I will be perfectly fine. Who was it?”
It took Gwen a moment of internal debate before she finally answered, “Lady Delice.”
Zezi nodded slowly.
So there was indeed something beneath that overly wide smile after all.
The next room had been the training room but Gwen didn’t let them go in.
“I heard you are a war general, I assumed you might like weapons.” Excitement danced in Gwen’s eyes.
“I have been saving the best for the last and I hope you like it,” she squealed like a child.
Zize smiled broadly at her. She did love weapons and she did love the idea of this very much, “I do, very much.”
“Oh, this is so great! I will tell…”
“Your kids and husband about this.”
“Yes, I will. They will love to hear everything!”
Gwen chuckled and Zezi found herself laughing too. If only she could just go home and tell her family about this too, like this was some dream that never happened.
How nice would that be?
The rest of the tour was silent. Zezi kept taking notes of all the passageways and the many, many stairs. By the time they were done, she was tired.
She retired back to her room and by now, it was already really late.
“Thank you, Gwen. Your company for the rest of the evening had been great.”
“No. Thank you, my Lady. It was wonderful listening to your heart beat all evening. It has such a wonderful rhythm. I will tell my kids about it, they sure would love it,” Gwen giggled.
“You are a vampire?” Zezi croacked out.
“Of course, we all are. Except you, that is.”
“But…” This was hard, she had been in such a comfortable space with her all evening only to discover that she was the same with them. “You don’t look pale like them.”
“Oh, my Lady. We only look pale when we’ve not had blood. Once we do, we look very much alive.”
The thought sent her stomach rumbling not so pleasantly.
They were all the same, all of them.
Gwen smiled, wishing her a goodnight. Then, she left.
Zezi pulled the door closed, stunned by Gwen’s statement. She had been sure that she was human. Now that she thought about it, she had heard her talk to Delice about having a mate.
How had she not connected the dots?
From now on, she decided not to judge anything by how they looked but instead, study them carefully.
The next day, Zezi came down to the kitchen herself. The kitchen staff were nice but it didn’t shake Zezi out of the fact that she was in captivity. True, she had surrendered herself but she had done that because she had no other choice.
She went up to the Training Room right after that. It was sort of empty.
Maybe people didn’t really train around this time. Back in her pack, the Capital of Teeland, people trained any day, all day.
She missed home, she missed family.
She caressed George’s mark on her neck and she let her promise of going back ring over and over again in her head.
Then she made it into a section of the rooms. There were different weapons hung on the walls, even different types of guns.
“She isn’t the book type, I see.”
A voice drawled with a dark chuckled. She knew that voice!
Zezi turned abruptly to see the one person she had guess it would be.
Laura.
“And she isn’t the pleasant type, I see,” a sly grin crossed Zezi’s lips and it was obvious that Laura didn’t like the tone.
“I am. I just don’t like you.”
“Beautiful and blunt. We don’t get the double B’s often.”
Amusement set in Laura’s eyes at that statement.
“You sound just like the type I would roll with but that doesn’t change anything.” Laura started walking towards the wall, letting her hands brush lightly against the weapons.
“Your place here is wrong!”
She flung a knife towards Zezi who quickly side-stepped it. The knife dug firmly into the wall behind her instead. If she had been distracted for just a moment, that would have been her.
Anger stirred in her veins. She looked up at Laura who looked a bit disappointed.
She had been right, they were monsters.
“You are just a little inconvience. It will only be a matter of time till your luck runs out. Whatever spell you have casted on my brother to make him think that you are his mate will be fading off soon, I can promise you that. Doesn’t it not sound ridiculous? You are a wolf and he is a vampire! How absorb!”
“I agree. It has to be a spell. Break it, I want to be free from all of these too.”
“Do you take me for a fool?”
“You can’t blame me. You did sound foolish a while back there. Because why would I leave everything I love and bound myself to a monster?”
A knife flew swiftly in the air at the mention of ‘monster’. This time though it nipped at Zezi’s shoulder, slashing a little of her flesh. She grimaced at the blood but she had no regrets. The slash had been worth it because she had attacked too.
Laura looked back at her in anger while she nursed her own injured arm which was healing all too quickly. Red flashed in her eyes for a moment before she restrained herself.
“You won’t be so lucky next time.”
“There will be a next time? Sounds like fun.”
Laura siezed her up again before she shook her head, “you are nothing compared to Delice, you will never be able to replace her.”
*****
The wound wasn’t easy to nurse though. A cut from silver healed a lot slower. Gwen had helped her dress it. Something Zezi wasn’t all too comfortable with now that she knew what she was, but the process had gone down well anyway.
Zezi went out again, touring and taking note of every hallway, burning them into her memory.
She must have wandered too far by now but she really didn’t bother, she was determined to have the whole map of the castle in her head by the end of today, and if she came across any problem, she wouldn’t hesitate to shift into her wolf and fight even if she knew that she might not come out alive.
While she toured, Zezi came across one hallway in particular, one that her instincts told her to stay away from. She didn’t need to be told it was a restricted area, it was like she could feel it the very moment she came across it but she went in anyways.
Wasn’t this what she had been hoping to find? Maybe there would be a door at the end that led outside? A passage, perhaps? Now wouldn’t that just be absolutely lucky?
Whatever she had hoped for wasn’t what she got though. There, some distance away from here, in the dimly lit hallway, were four men talking in a hushed tone outside a door. The atmosphere seemed tensed and for some reasons she suddenly felt fear.
Her mind screamed at her to run but she couldn’t. It was like her feet had a mind of their own and her curiosity drove her relentlessly. Asides all these, it felt like there was something there that was pulling her in, tugging at her heart and compelling her. She found herself making her way closer to the little tensed gathering. They hadn’t noticed her yet and she was hoping that it would stay that way.
One of the men suddenly dropped down on his kneels, his hands on his neck while he growled in pain. She couldn’t really see clearly so she moved closer and her heart raced at what she saw.
His eyes had been rolled back, plain white while he jerked vehemently like life was leaving him. His body folding into impossible curls in his struggle.
She looked up from the man and the eyes she saw next stilled her to where she was.
It was him.