Miranda jolted screaming from her bed. Sweating profusely, her heart pounding. Something wasn’t right… Something terrible had happened. What was it again???
The dream!
Camila…! Damian…!
Damian was right beside her; he was still asleep. They were both in their chambers, it was like nothing had
She jumped down from her bed in a haste and went in search of Camila in her room.
“Camila? Camila!!!”
Just like she’d expected… or rather, feared. Camila wasn’t there.
“Camila?”
She searched frantically everywhere for the cub, in and out of her room. Camila was nowhere to be seen.
“What is it?” Damian asked as he walked in, seeing her panicked state.
“Camila is missing…”
How is that possible? The packhouse gates are well guarded and there’s no way a young cub could just make her way out.
“Damian… I’m not sure she was just a young cub….”
He raised his brow, “what? What are you talking about?”
“Do you… do you remember anything that happened last night? Anything at all???”
Damian shook his head, “no… I don’t think anything enough happened last night for me to remember but you… it seems as if you’ve been keeping secrets from me. Who was that child you brought in here, Miranda? I thought you said she was one of you!!”
Miranda frustratedly placed both her hands no her head in defeat, “I’m not sure she was even a child… I’m sorry, Damian… I swear I’ll tell you everything, but please, this is more important… the royalty stone….”
She could already hear the anger in his voice, “what about the stone??? What did you do, Miranda?”
“Please check… check if the stone is still where you kept it… send the guards… let them check….”
“Miranda…”
“Damian… please, you can accost me later, but please… this is more important… let them check if the stone is still in its place.”
“Guards!”
They ran in, “yes sire!”
“Send the stone keepers to go to the packhouse vaults. Let them check if the stone has been removed.”
“Right away sire!”
Miranda nearly swallowed her heart waiting for the outcome. Her head was placed down the entire time… she couldn’t meet Damian’s eyes… didn’t want to see the anger he had directed towards her.
A few moments later, the guards returned with the saddening news; not only were they unable to follow the tracks of the culprit, but the royalty stone was also gone without a trace.
**********
Samara.
What do you know? So, Samara is the one responsible.
Of course, it would explain the night shadow guards that Hilda saw at the hideout. Samara had many of Walden’s men at her disposal to do her dirty works.
Sandy now knows that Samara is up to no good, but she needs to know more. She needs to know what Samara is planning. Through her influence as princess, she’s been able to get one of Samara’s men on her side. Jaffar’s loyalty lies more with night shadow royalty than Samara, so getting some information from him wasn’t so hard.
For two days now, he’s been helping Sandy spy on Samara. He might not be fully aware of what Samara is planning, but he does know about her movements every now and then.
“Hello Jaffar,” Sandy said as he walked into her room that morning.
“Hello, my princess.”
“So, what have you been able to get so far?”
“Samara is very secretive with her planning, ma’am, and only those in her inner circle can be fully aware of what she really does.”
“I know that… you’ve told me before that you don’t know her true motive. What I’m asking now is if you’ve been able to get anything new from carefully watching her the past days.”
“Not much, ma’am. I do know that she sneaks out of night shadow borders every once in a while, and she does a good job at making sure that no one… absolutely no one… especially your brother finds out.”
Sandy’s eyes shone. “Jaffar…! Why didn’t you tell me this before???”
“I’m sorry ma’am… it just slipped my mind….”
“Please… try not to let important stuff like that slip through your mind without telling me.”
“I’m sorry ma’am,” he apologized again.
“How often does she sneak out, and when does she usually do it?”
“There’s not a certain time, but I think it’s usually when your brother would least be bothered by her absence. I also did eavesdrop on her conversation with her assistant. She said she might be going out tonight if she gets a confirmation from her connivers.”
“Thank you for this, Jaffar. I want you to keep an eye out for her. If she’s going to sneak out tonight, then I’ll be following her.”
**********
This time around, Samara didn’t go to meet with Rakur in the rogue territory, but instead, it was a secluded location, as Rakur had already begun assembling his troops marching straight for battle.
“What’s the progress now, partner?”
“Everything is set for sail. We have weakened the silver pack to their knees, there’s no way they will ever win a battle against us now.”
“Oh, really? You sound like you did something terrific. Mind telling me what it is?”
“My secret weapon… the silver alpha was so clueless as to what I had planned for him. Who would have ever thought that I had been saving a sly cub’s egg for decades, waiting for a special moment as this one?”
“A sly cub? So, they still exist. Woah… you never told me you had one of those, Rakur! So how did you use it to our advantage?”
“I used it to attain the royalty stone from right under their noses. They are weak and defenseless now, because not only did they redirect their army to the wrong terrain, they also gave the sly cub the ultimate weapon in seeing to their own downfall, to weaken their barriers.”
“What is it?” Samara asked.
“Trust, my dear. They trusted the wrong cub, and now, our plans can forge ahead to attack them while they are defenseless. Nothing stands in our way now; we attack them at dawn.”