Lycan King's Regret: Punished The Wrong Daughter

Arabella Toussaint:

Goddess. I couldn’t feel my arms anymore. Not even my legs or my back. Every part of my body had long ago surrendered.

I sat motionless on the thick branch of a massive tree while Zara rested against my chest, in my arms.

Two days. We had been trapped here for two days. The herbs might have hidden our scent, but I didn’t dare to climb down. Every howl in the distance sounded too close. Every rustle of the leaves or branches made my heart jump in fright.

So, I did the only thing that looked easier. To stay there and wait. Wait for the help to arrive. Surely, they must be searching for us, right? Then what was taking them so long?

My gaze dropped to the little girl in my arms, who hadn’t spoken to me in the last twenty-four hours. At first, I thought she was simply exhausted, but now...

Now I wasn’t so sure. Her tiny body felt limp against mine.

"Zara?" My voice came out in a hoarse whisper as I gently brushed her mud-covered hair away from her forehead.

As expected, there was no response. I had no idea if she was sleeping or if she had fainted from thirst and hunger.

I didn’t know anything anymore. Last night had been the worst. A snake had somehow found its way onto the tree. I had forgotten that snakes could climb trees. For a moment, my blood had turned to ice. Zara noticed it too. The odd thing was... she hadn’t cried. She only lifted her trembling finger towards it before closing her eyes again... as if... she was too exhausted to be scared.

I had spent the entire night holding my breath and praying that it would leave. Thankfully, it had. But the fear never left. It stayed with me.

Goddess. I don’t know if I’ll ever return to that palace. But this girl is so full of life. She doesn’t deserve death. She deserves to live among her loved ones. Please unite her with her family.

I made a sincere prayer in hopes that the Moon Goddess would hear me. For Goddess sake, Zara was too little. She didn’t deserve to die like this in a tree.

I looked through the branches towards the endless forest below.

Where was the fucking Royal army? Why hadn’t they found us? Zara’s mother, her grandmother, and her uncle...

They were powerful people. Why hadn’t they reached us?

Please come to us before those rogues do. I pleaded with them silently.

And what about my friend? That beast...

The first time I had been abandoned in the forest, he found me. Where was he?

I squeezed my eyes shut and pulled the child closer to me.

"Zara. Please stay alive for me. Please..." I whispered to her small frame, "Please wake up, darling."

I placed my cheek on her head and started crying like a fool. Of course, they would have difficulty finding us when I had rubbed so much herb paste on our bodies to hide our scent. I raised my face to the sky and made a silent prayer to the Moon Goddess, and noticed a star shining brighter than all the others. For some reason, it felt as though it was watching over me.

***

Lucien Volkov:

We sat in a circle on the rocks overlooking the search area. Nobody spoke much anymore. What was there left to say?

The third day had begun, and still there was no sign of them. We had nothing. No footprints, no scent.

Inside my head, Zorro was becoming unbearable. He had spent the last three days slamming against me, demanding I let him take over.

The odd thing was, he wasn’t able to sense the direction where Arabella might have gone.

"I think... she took her away," At last, my mother broke the silence, "You all don’t agree with me, but mark my words... After taking away my Anika, now she has ..."

She was trying so hard to ignore my glare.

"Mother... can you..." Aliya tried to stop her.

"No... seriously. Think about it," she straightened, "That girl posed herself as innocent. She ran after Zara so everyone would think she was saving her. And then she disappeared with her on purpose."

Warriors who were sitting around us exchanged uncomfortable glances.

"Can you stop it?" I hissed, closing my eyes.

"Lucien. She fooled all of you," she grew louder, "What if this was planned from the beginning? To kidnap Zara and..."

"For Goddess’s sake, mother!" The stern voice didn’t belong to me. It came from Amy. There was exhaustion on her face that had replaced much of her grief.

"Amy dear," mother said tiredly.

"Enough, mother. We are already scared. I don’t want theories. Okay? Nor do I want blame. I only want Zara."

My head warrior, Jasmine, got up and hugged Amy, but my sister’s silent cries kept piercing my heart.

Every night, I used to take on my beast form and jump over the top of every tree in hopes that Arabella must be sitting on one of them.

My heart was still telling me that she was still somewhere there, in a tree.

"I know you’re scared, darling. But come to think of it..."

Their argument was now giving me a headache. I looked up at the sky in helplessness, asking Moon Goddess silently for a sign.

Just then, a star caught my attention. I didn’t blink and saw that tiny star moving slowly across the evening sky... towards the north... leading somewhere. The next second, I was on my feet.

"Lucien?" Bradley called me with a frown, but I ignored him.

"Y...your Majesty?" Jasmine called, but without answering, my bones cracked, muscles expanded, and black fur burst through my skin. Within seconds, Zorro had taken over my body.

When my paws touched the ground, I lunged forward and followed that moving star. Zorro’s heart kept hammering with wild hope as it leapt from one tree to another. The moving star suddenly stopped hovering over a massive tree and then slowly faded.

A low growl rumbled in my chest, and then I smelled it. The weak scent of croissants.

Arabella!

My head snapped towards the higher branches, and there she was. Curled against the trunk with a small child resting in her lap. She slowly lifted her head, and I saw her pale face and cracked lips. For a second, I wasn’t sure she recognized me. Then her lips trembled as a weak smile appeared on them.

"I ... I hope I’m... not imagining things..." she said in a hoarse whisper, "I knew... I told Zara that you’d come."

Her arms tightened around Zara before her eyes rolled shut.