Chapter 23
Kendrix
When I gave Arielyn my contact, I never expected her to call me in the first place, I was shocked when I got her call right after I dropped a call with my dad, he called to query me about the fight with Jordan and I told him it was his fault that we were fighting, if he had raised Jordan right, he would not be so disrespectful, he had threatened to pass the ultimatum to other people and I was so close to telling to do as he please, heck no one will take him serious once they find out what he wants in exchange for the throne, even I am finding it hard to believe the orient is what he truly wants, he had ended the call after telling me to focus on what’s more important instead of petty fights, if I didn’t know my father, I would have assumed he was rooting for me, but I know him enough to know that those exact same words are what he used or will use for Jordan too, for me, if he didn’t want us fighting, he would have just let the eldest be king and I was the eldest, by right I am supposed to be king, if he wasn’t so greedy, he would have asked for something else but no, he had to go for something as huge as the orient, Jordan on the other hand was lucky Arielyn had been present because I would have dealt with him even more than I did, he had it coming for his stupid offer and for talking nonsense about I and Arielyn.
I took a break from my thoughts and watched the woman in the car with me from the side mirror while I drove towards my house, of course, I had a lot of questions but I didn’t want to ask just yet, not with the way she looked, whatever happened it must be really bad, maybe that’s why she had been walking on her own when I met her earlier, and to crown it all, that loser called her names to her face, the woman obviously had a lot going for her, the fact that I am the only she could call explains a lot, I didn’t know much about her yet and I wanted to protect her from everything that made her sad.
We got to my house in no time, and I helped her out of the car and lead the way into the house, she looked around wearily when we stepped into my living room, I knew what she would have said if she wasn’t in such a bad mood, she probably would have commented on how basic looking it was, I have gotten a couple of comments from the few people that have been here and none have been nice.
“Thank you for bringing me here,”
She said.
“You can stay here for as long as you want,”
I responded, I wasn’t much of a people person but I couldn’t keep being a loner, I needed people around me and I already liked Arielyn a lot, having her around would not be a problem for me.
“Thank you, I am only going to be in Owhen until my best friend’s wedding is done and then I will go back to where I was before.”
“That’s okay, you are talking about Jayden’s fiancée right?”
I asked to make sure I wasn’t making a mistake, Jayden and I weren’t really close but we are cool with each other and he even gave me an invite, not like I was going to attend, I wasn’t a fan of crowd especially not where werewolves are gathered because I always end up feeling inferior to them because I wasn’t I full breed like the rest of them.
“She is,”
“Right, if I may ask, why didn’t you call her instead of me? Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying it is bad that you called me, I just, you guys are best friends, it is only ideal that you call your friends in times like this right?”
I asked, I knew I should not have asked as she must have her reasons but I just wanted to make sense of the nature of their friendship if she can not call her in times of need.
“That was Rose’s house, I have been living with her since I got here, I just, I had to leave, I am sorry I can’t ta,”
“It is okay, I am sorry I asked such a question,”
I said, cutting her off when I saw how hard it was for her to get the words out.
“You should rest first,”Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org exclusive © material.
I said, running out of words to say to her.
“Yes, thank you for coming to pick me up,’
She said, I could tell she wanted to be alone and her voice was almost gone from trying to stop herself from crying, it was so obvious that she didn’t want to cry in my presence, and honestly I didn’t want to see her break down as I knew there was nothing I could do.
“You can use my guest room upstairs,”
I said leading the way, she followed me wordlessly.
“I will have the help leave your bags outside this room, when you are ready you can get them, there is an intercom in the room too in case you need anything,”
I said when we got to the room, she nodded and I stepped out to give her some privacy, I had another issue to deal with anyway, a certain young man was refusing to eat again, I walked a few steps to Raul’s room and knocked, the room was locked as always and the young man was pretending not to hear me knocking.
“Raul, I know you are in there, open the door while I am asking nicely, you know I can break the door if I want to right, don’t make me do it,”
I threatened, according to the help, he hasn’t eaten anything today, a vampire starving himself can only lead to disaster and I didn’t want that, I waited and he finally opened the door, the lad looked worse than he had been last week and if I don’t do something fast, he might get worse, the problem is I don’t even know what I am supposed to do to make a mourning teenager feel better.
“Can I come in?’
I asked and he wordlessly let me in, I walked to the chair in the room and sat down, despite how sad he was, he still manages to keep his room clean which was admirable, I just wish he can stop beating himself up because of what happened to his family, his father had done a great job trying to hide the fact that he was a vampire, but that hadn’t lasted long, the way people he lived close to and had been friends with before they found out he and his family were vampires ganged up against them and set their house on fire while they slept, binding them in the house making sure they couldn’t make it out alive, it was pure evil, I wish I had gotten there faster, they would not have died, I was only able to save Raul, I still felt guilty but it was above me.
“I know you are mourning the loss of your family Raul, I know how it feels to lose the people you love, but you have to eat and stay alive to fight for them, if you starve yourself to death, it would be giving victory to those who destroyed your family, you have to eat and get better, I promise, I am going to become the alpha king and make our state safe for all breeds,”
I said. I had every intention of keeping that promise, yes, I will become the king and make sure the only people that need to suffer are the evil people, not harmless ones, if I needed any motivation to win, this was it, I will become king so that the likes of Raul won’t have to lose their family, so that no one would have to lose their mate as I did, no child would be declared cursed at birth.
“That’s what you say until you become king and decide we are no good, why do we have to be the ones to suffer? Why do we have to be the ones getting killed? Mom, Dad, and my siblings never killed anyone, never did anything bad, but we get killed, we have to hide, we have to be the only ones to remain unknown because the moment we are found out we are killed, easy for you to say forget, easy for you to say don’t grief, I can’t, I don’t want to live, stop trying to save me,”
Raul cried.
“I can’t bring your family back but I am going to keep you safe,”
I responded hoping he would believe and have a little faith in me.