Chapter 88: Chapter 88

Ivy POV I had spent most of the day asleep, waking in the late afternoon. Somehow waking to feel more tired despite spending most of the day sleeping. Unusually exhausted, it was an actual struggle for me to keep my eyes open as I chucked on the first things my hands landed on. Not caring what I looked like, my hair looked like a haystack when I looked in the mirror.

Who would have thought shifting would be so exhausting? I hoped it wasn’t like this every time I shifted.

Grabbing Kyson’s phone, I tried to ring Abbie, but she didn’t answer. Chucking the phone on the bed, I pulled my hair into a messy bun, deciding to look for Kyson. Stepping out of the room, Dustin was waiting by the door.

“Morning,” I tell him. Dustin laughs.

“You mean afternoon, my Queen.” My brows furrow as I look to the window to see the sun casting the sky in colorful hues. I sigh.

“How long have I been asleep?”

“Only a few hours, I heard you up earlier with the…” Dustin suddenly looks straight ahead, looking somewhat awkward, and my face flames as my brain registered why he suddenly became awkward.

“Wait, you were outside the…” I looked back at the door.

“I hear nothing, my Queen,”

“Well, clearly you heard something,” I tell him, looking at his blushing cheeks. I don’t know who was more embarrassed him or me. I was mortified. Clearing my throat, my eyes go to the end of the long corridor.

“Have you seen the King?”

“He is in his office, my Queen,”

“Ah, enough with the Queen stuff. I think we are past the formality with what you overheard, more on a personal level, don’t you think?” Dustin chuckles.

“I heard nothing,” Dustin says, his lips hooking up in the corners as he stared straight ahead, trying not to laugh. I shake my head and click my tongue. “Come on then, let’s find this King of mine,” I tell him before stalking off down the hall. Dustin rushes ahead, opening doors, which annoyed me. It then became a race to beat the other to the door; it was annoying having everyone do everything for me. Finally beating him to the next one, I to sit open and smack into the King’s chest. The air expelled from my lungs. It was like running into a brick wall. I stumble back, and Dustin grips my arm to steady me. I clutch my head, and Dustin lets me go, placing his hand behind his back and standing straighter.

“And where are you off to in such a hurry?” the King asks, staring down at me. He had an amused smile on his face as he stared at the pair of us. I rub my forehead where I run headfirst into my mate like a d**n bulldozer.

“We were looking for you,” I groan.

“Well, you found me,” Kyson laughs, and I slap his chest, forgetting how much stronger and quicker I am now that I had shifted, resulting in me hurting my own hand. Kyson shakes his head, draping his arm over my shoulder and tugging me against him, walking me back the way we came and toward the stairs leading back up to our quarters. As we crossed the foyer, Clarice was walking down the steps.

“Ah, there you are, my Queen; I left your afternoon tea upstairs on the table for you,” she says.

“Thank you, Clarice,” I tell her about to walk up the steps when I Beta Damian called out to the King from down the corridor, and we stopped. Kyson leans down, pressing his lips to my head, and I purse my lips.

“I’ll be up soon,” Kyson murmurs before walking off toward his Beta.

“Is something going on?” I ask Dustin, staring off after the King. Dustin says nothing, and I look over at him.

“You’re not allowed to tell me, are you?”

“The King has everything under control,” Dustin says, and I bite the inside of my lip, looking at the King’s office where he disappeared into.

Curious if it was about the missing women, I walked toward his office only to hear arguing. Dustin grips my hand and tries to steer me off back toward the stairs while I stare over my shoulder.

“The King doesn’t want you in there right now, my Queen,”

“Ivy! And I want to know what’s going on,” I tell him when I hear something smash in his office. Dustin tries to grab me when I rip my arm out of his gentle grip. Escaping Dustin, I shove the door open to find the King shifted, and he had Gannon pinned on the desk, who was also shifted. They appeared to be fighting while Damian picked himself up off the floor. His lip was bleeding, and I saw the healing bruising on his chin as someone had hit him.

“Gannon snarls and shoves the King before swinging at him only for Kyson to punch him, and Gannon hits the ground. The pungent aroma of alcohol in the room emanating off Gannon told me he was drunk.

He growls, trying to get up but stumbling, and Damian goes to get between them when Kyson glares at him, and Damian back away with his hands up.

“Stand down. She will see sense soon and come back, stop this,” The King ordered Gannon.

“This f*****g b******t, s**t, and you know it,” Gannon snapped at him.

“My hands are tied, you know this,” Kyson says, letting him go, glaring down at Gan.

“You’re the f*****g King. You can make him give her back.”

“I wonder what Ivy would say to that. Would you give her the same excuse?” Gannon sneered at him.

“If I knew what?” I asked. Stepping through the gap in the door where the King could see me.

“Nothing, Ivy. Go back to our room, Love.” Kyson says before glaring at Dustin behind me.

“Don’t glare at him. I want to know what’s going on and why you are all fighting,” I demanded to know.

Gannon goes to say something, and the King turns a furious growl tearing out of him, but the look on Gannon’s face shows he didn’t care what the King would do, or maybe he was too intoxicated to realize the trouble he was about to get in for speaking out after the King clearly didn’t want him to.

“Dustin, get her out of here and keep her out!” Kyson snarled, and Dustin grabbed my arm, trying to pull me from the room when Gannon spoke, making me stop.

“Kade is mistreating Abbie,” Gannon said. My heart sank at his words, but just spoken to her the night before, and she seemed fine. Turning to face him, Dusting tried to yank me out, but I shoved him off, feeling terrible when he smacked into the wall. I turn to Kyson, wanting to know what he talking about when the King snarled, pivoting and punching Gannon so hard it knocked him out cold. I gasped, my hands covering my mouth as Gannon was suddenly sprawled on the floor.

“Ivy out!”

“Where is Abbie Kyson?” I asked. My shock turned to anger.

“With her mate where she chooses to be!” Kyson says. My brows pinch together, and I look at Gannon, who was on the floor.

“Then what is Gannon speaking about?” I ask him.

“It doesn’t matter; I will be up soon.”

“You’re lying,”

“Excuse me?”

“I said you’re lying. Now, what is going on with Abbie?”

“Go back to the room, do not make me order you, Ivy,”

“Then answer the f*****g question?” I snap. My mind frantically raced as I tried to figure out what was going on because she was fine the other night.

“Abbie is with her mate, you know this. You spoke with her last night,” Kyson says, and my eyes dart to Gannon.

“I find out you’re lying to me or something is wrong with her?”

“You’ll what, Ivy. I would advise you not to finish that sentence, Love,” Kyson says, walking around his desk to come to stand in front of me. He folds his arms across his chest. I glare at him despite the tremble in my hands, which didn’t go unnoticed by him. But this was Abbie. She wasn’t just someone to me; she was everything. More than my life, and that still stood even against my mate.

“Don’t forget Kyson, I have other places I can go now,”

I tell him, and he growls.

Excuse me, Ivy?” Kyson snarls, and his eyes flicker dangerously. His hands clenched into fists.

“You dare address the Queen of the Landeena Kingdom so casually, King Kyson,” I growled. I know it was petty, but if he wanted to pull rank, so would I, and despite not wanting to be a Queen, I technically am one and have a kingdom with a population of zero, but still, it’s mine. My birthright! And for Abbie, I won’t back down when it comes to Abbie, even if it gets me k****d.

“Is that so, Queen Ivy?” Kyson says through gritted teeth.

“Queen Azalea,” I growled, and he seemed taken aback. If I am going to make claims, I might as well claim it all, including the name. We stood staring at each other, neither of us willing to back down from the other, and I saw the muscle in his jaw clench. Though I was fearful of him using the calling or ordering me since I wasn’t even sure how to fight his aura. However, being a Lycan Queen by blood, surely l would have one?