SIXTEEN: What do we do now?

Celsitudo – highness(latin)

Rex – (latin) King

Lapis- (Latin) stone

Canutus – (latin) grey

Spriggan (celtic) sprite (another word for fairy)

Ager - (latin) land

Diomedes – pronounce ‘Dio’ like ‘Thio’

~//\\///\\\//\\~

POV - Dorian

I watch as Alpha Brent’s face turns white.

“Hailey told me Aviary went out of town on an excursion a few weeks ago. She gave her permission, but she just rang me and told me she wasn’t on an excursion and not to look for her,” Alpha Brent gulps.

“Is this true? What was the excursion?” I ask. Alpha Brent looks at his Beta, who gulps.

“Danni is coming up,” he then says. I nod, looking at Alpha Brent, who begins to crumble under my gaze.

“Brent, I’ve watched you grow up; how could you let this happen?” I ask. Alpha Brent shakes his head, unable to reply.

A soft knock is heard from the door, and Alpha Brent tells whoever it is to come in. Danni, Gerald’s daughter, walks in, her dark brown hair covering her face as she bows to her Alpha.

“Danni, what excursion is Aviary on?” Beta Gerald asks. Danni looks at her father, fear in her eyes.

“Eh- excursion?” she asks.

“Yes, Danielle, Luna Hailey told me she was on an excursion that she gave Aviary permission to go; where was it?” Danni lowers her head and looks at her feet. Alpha Brent booms at her.

“Danni, you know that Aviary is my mate, right?” I ask her in a gentler voice. Danni looks at me and nods.

“Please tell me where she is,” I ask. Danni looks at her Alpha and then at me. She’s silent, and I can tell she wants to say something, but something is holding her back.

“When Alpha Brent sends me away, can I go with you?” she asks. I look at her quizzically, then look at Alpha Brent.

“Why would you need to go anywhere, Danni?” her dad asks.

“Please? If I say, he’ll send me away. My parents already grounded me when I told them,” Danni pleads, glancing at her father.

“Of course,” I reply.

“When Luna Hailey hits Aviary, she….” Danni begins.

“How dare you! Hailey does not lay a hand on my daughter! You’re lying!” Alpha Brent roars. I raise my hand up to tell him to stop.

“Please, Danni, go on.”

“When Luna Hailey hits Aviary, she locks her in her room. Sometimes when it gets really bad, Aviary stays there for days….”

“No! That’s not true!” Alpha Brent objects.

“Really? Really? Do you honestly believe a girl can have her period more than once a month? Luna Hailey locks her away after she beats her!” Danni shouts at Alpha Brent before turning to me, “I think that may be where she is unless she’s in the dungeons. Luna Hailey would threaten her with that all the time.”

I look at Danni, who looks sad and broken.

“Take me to her bedroom,” I say. Beta Gerald nods, and I follow him and Danni out of the office with Lysander and Alpha Brent behind me.

I follow them to the Alpha wing when Danni turns to look at me.

“I got Aves to write it all down; I can get the book…” she begins.

“Yes, I’d like that; go with Pim, then return to Aviary’s room,” I tell her. A guard steps out from the formation behind us, and Danni nods and walks over to the guard. I look at Alpha Brent, who stares at his feet, before asking Beta Gerald to keep walking.

We walk into the Alpha’s wing, and I follow him to the room. Luna Hailey notices us as we walk past and greets us. When we don’t reply, she stands up to follow us.

“The door is locked,” Beta Gerald says as he tries to open the door to Aviary’s room.

“Oh yes, Aviary doesn’t like anyone going into her room,” she giggles, although it sounds fake. Both Alpha Brent and Beta Gerald growl.

“Guards, hold her,” Lysander orders. Two of my guards step forward and hold her on either side of her arms. Luna Hailey begins to protest, turning to her mate for support, but Alpha Brent shakes his head.

“Where is the key?” Alpha Brent asks Luna Hailey.

“I- I’ll go and get it,” she says. I shake my head.

“No need,” I reply, turning to the lock and raising my fingers towards it. I sense the air around the metal with my fingers, moving and twisting my fingers till I hear a click of the lock disengaging. Nodding at Beta Gerald, he turns the handle on the door, and the door opens.

We walk in, Beta Gerald with Alpha Brent and me following behind with Lysander. The room is clean, with white walls and a shaggy white carpet. A queen-size bed sits on one side of the room, with a light blue cover.

“The room looks fine,” Beta Gerald observes. I nod.

“But it’s what’s underneath that matters,” Lysander comments. He walks further into the room and closes the curtains, making the room go dark. A guard walks up to Lysander and hands him a clear liquid bottle.

“Luminol,” Lysander explains to me. I nod. The room smells clean, too clean.

Lysander begins spraying the room with luminol, and I gasp, holding my mouth as bright blue splotches, streak marks, and spots appear.

“Holy fuck, what is all that?” a voice can be heard behind me. I turn and see Danni gaping at the room.

“That... is blood,” Lysander says, walking back to us.

“Wow, shit,” Danni adds, tears visibly falling down her face.

“But- but I got her to clean it up with bleach….” Luna Hailey says. I’m about to respond when I hear Alpha Brent growl, lurching his body towards her.

“Guards!” Lysander orders. A guard with the power of air raises a hand, and the Alpha is held in position, mid-pose.

Beta Gerald watches this all happen, and his eyes glaze over. A few minutes later, a group of werewolves in uniform walk into the suite and down the hallway, collecting Luna Hailey to take her away.

“What do we do now?” Beta Gerald then says, looking at me.

//\\//\\//\\

What do we do now? Those words have been echoing in my head ever since they were uttered. Beta Gerald put Luna Hailey into their dungeons, and she was stripped of her title.

The book Danni had brought with her was damming. Almost every incident where Hailey Smith-Redclaw had hurt Aviary had been recorded in it, right down to the names she called Aviary- written in Aviary’s handwriting.

When questioned why Danni had never reported this, she admitted that it was a known fact amongst the lower members of the pack that if they reported Luna Hailey abusing Aviary, they would be transferred to a different pack. And when Aviary tried to tell her father, she ended up staying with the Beta family.

I needed to leave, distraught at what had been happening with my own mate. I can only imagine what happened to Aviary when she was caught returning from my hotel when I wasn’t there. If mum hadn’t been thrown off her horse… If I hadn’t rushed back to see her… maybe she would be here with me. Safe.

I remember next being in the Alpha’s office. I don’t know how we got back there, only that we were there.

“I didn’t believe them; I thought Hailey was truthful….” Alpha Brent kept on repeating. I should be angry at him. I should be yelling at him, telling him it was all his fault. But he had marked Hailey, and she had marked him. I knew the pull of mates, even chosen ones. Once you’ve marked them, to see them negatively, no matter how evil they really are, is like seeing through fogged windows.

“Your Highness, we need to contact King Diomedes and Queen Saphire,” Lysander begins. I look at him and nod.

“Why must we contact the werewolf, King and Queen?” Alpha Brent’s Gamma, Peter, asks.

“Because Major Greystone’s official title is Celsitudo Rex Dorian Lapis-Canutus de Sprigganager,” Lysander states.

“His Highness King Dorian Greystone of Fairyland,” Danni translates, looking up at me. I nod.

“Which makes Aviary…” she then begins, thinking.

I watch the high-blood wolves in the room absorb this new information. Alpha Brent is the first to break out of his thoughts.

“I agree with General Birch,” he says, looking at me.

King Diomedes and Queen Sapphire arrived at Redwood Pack a few days later, much to the awe of its members. Immediately we had the best trackers from the Werewolf Kingdom and Elite Guard try to track Aviary down. Still, we got as far as the City Connect transport terminal in Worthington City, where we lost her.

We found out that she had bought a bus ticket to Sefton, which I soon learned had a few packs nearby that took in runaways, but even with my connections, they couldn’t tell us whether she had entered their lands. I spent a few weeks down there, visiting those packs, hoping, praying that she would come out of the woodwork. But she didn’t.

Lysander had our men go to each town the bus Aviary took stopped at, but it led to more dead ends. It had been months since Aviary had gone missing. We couldn’t find her, but it didn’t mean we won’t stop.

The best I could do now was wait. Hope and wait for her to return.

//\\///\\\//\\

The years passed, and still no sign of my mate, my Queen. I frequented Fairy Clans around the country in this realm to catch a glance of her. I visited the wolf packs near the stations along the bus route again. Nothing. I know my mate was growing older without me, and it hurts. I waited over a hundred years for her. I kept telling myself that she’d be gone for two or three years, which would feel like a blink of an eye. I kept telling myself we’d have our whole lives together; fairies live a long time. If I had marked her, we would have had hundreds of years together.

I have so many regrets. I regret not marking Avairy. I regret not walking in with her when I returned her home that day. I regret not going back and checking in on her. Knowing what I know now, I would change things if I could do it all again.

As each year passes, I feel the pain of her loss. She must be feeling it worse than I, with her wolf. Wolves struggle when distanced from their mates, especially in the first few months. She could lose her wolf, making her weak. Making her vulnerable. I could lose her after only seeing her for mere moments.

Everything I do now is on autopilot. I am a shell of the man I once was. I head for my office in the castle and begin my paperwork. Another day, another paper to read, sign or decline. Nothing changes.

My mobile rings, and I answer it without looking.

“Hello?” I ask as I answer.

“Your Highness, King Dorian?” A voice I haven’t heard for a long time asks. I scowl. Only a few have my phone number.

“Alpha. What can I do for you?” I ask.

“She’s here. My daughter is back,” he replies.

~

Edited with Grammarly.