54. Death Is Inevitable.
Narrator’s POV.
After two hours of journeying through the forest, they finally got to their destination; just by the edge of the vampire territory rested an old shed. It was extremely small and also covered in dust, “It has been years since this shed was used, the owners died over a century ago”,
“I thought vampires were immortal?”, Daphne asked as she surveyed the tiny space, a complete contrast to what she was living in a few days ago,
“Yes, but once a vampire gets mixed up with the wrong crowd, death is inevitable”, he shrugged, leaving out the fact that he had killed the actual owners of the shed, they had offended him and just like the alpha king, he also did not treat offenders with kindness or mercy.
Daphne nodded and examined the shed further, dust coated every angle and object in the house, “This place is really dusty”, she pointed out,
“I can get my maids to clean it up for you”, he suggested, resting on the wall, he quickly jumped off as he remembered that he was wearing white; he was already stained, of course.
“Thank you, but that would not be necessary. You have already done so much for me, it is time for me to learn how to do things on my own. I really appreciate all this, it is more than enough”, she told him sincerely, although the shed was not up to standard, it was still shelter. Much better than living in a cage.
“Do you want me to check up on you? I can place guards around here”, the vampire lord really did not want anything to happen to her, especially not in his territory; his friend would kill him if anything happens to her under his watch,
“I am fine, Eric, I do not need to babied. Thank you”, she smiled at him,
“But you are pregnant, I do not want you to stress yourself”, he pointed out, if anything happened to Daphne or the baby, the baby that Dwayne did not even know about, he would never be able to forgive himself.
“I am serious Eric, nothing will or can happen to me. I am pretty tough you know”, she laughed as she tried to convince him, was it so bad that she wanted him to leave so she can start another round of crying?
“You realize that you cannot shift during pregnancy?”, she actually did not know this and she mentally cursed herself for not paying attention in Lycan School, there was a lot she did not know about and it was because of her disability to pay attention to things that involved intimacy.
“I can fight perfectly in human form”, it was not a complete lie, as she could do some damage even without her wolf, having a wolf was just a bonus to her.
“Very well, I will be going, but I will be seeing you very soon”, he walked out before she could say anything, not wanting to hear her decline another one of his offers.
Once he and his guards were gone, she sighed in relief and slumped onto a chair, the large amount of dust that emitted from it had her flying to the other side of the room, “This place is filthy”, she said to herself as she looked for the broom, mop and dustpans. She seriously could not recall the last time she had actually done a house chore; it felt so weird and foreign sweeping the floors of the shed.
Meanwhile, in the castle, everybody was very confused and cautious; it had been three days since Daphne had left been cruelly chased out of the castle. Everyone wondered what was wrong, all the staff seemed uncomfortable as they wondered one question, ‘Where was Daphne and why was Emilia here?’.
They found it weird whenever she would refer to herself as Daphne, or had they started seeing things? Most people had no idea of what they should do when they saw her; should they refer to her as the luna queen? Should they bow at her? What should they refer to her as in front of the alpha king?
The alpha king, he believed no one when he was told that severally that Emilia was taking the face of Daphne. Why should he believe a word they said? He had chased out ‘Emilia’ days ago and he hoped she would not bother him and his mate any longer.
Now, as the alpha king typed furiously on his laptop, a firm knock sounded on the door, “Come in Fredrick”. His nervous looking second in command slipped into the room and locked the door shut so no one could disturb them,
“Can I talk to you, your majesty?”, he asked warily, he knew the alpha king would not like a word he was about to utter, he had told him many times to drop this particular case.
“I am quite busy Fredrick, but you can go on. Take a seat”,
“I would rather stand”, there was no way on earth that Fredrick was going to stay close to the alpha king while he said what he was about to say; it was cowardly but wise.
“Very well, I am listening”, he urged, moving his laptop to the edge of the table,
“Are you okay?”, Fredrick’s voice was laced with worry,
“Of course, I am, why would you ask that?”, the alpha king was genuinely confused, why would his second in command ask him such a question? Did he look wary or tired?
“It is just that…”, he paused and let out a sigh, “We are all worried about you, you have not been yourself for the last three days. Plus, you keep referring to Alpha Roland’s daughter as Daphne”, he explained.
The alpha kings figure became rigid and he clenched his teeth tightly, “I thought I told you to drop this?”, to the alpha king, every other person was mad and he was the only sane one in the whole castle,
“I know”, Fredrick huffed in frustration, “But you have me worried”,
“I said I was fine, there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Now, it is all of you that should get yourselves checked; I have no idea of what that filthy Emilia has done to you, but I know that my Daphne is still my Daphne”, he finalized, letting Fredrick know it was once again the end of their conversation.
“Thank you for listening, my lord”, Fredrick said, sarcasm dripping from his tone. The alpha king chose to ignore the rudeness of his second in command as this was the first time, he had ever acted like that.
Fredrick left the office and decided it was time to take action, he had to do something about this before it got out of hand. He knew something was seriously wrong with the alpha king, and he also knew he had to find out. But this was not something he could do on his own, he needed somebody he could trust, somebody that was close to Daphne, somebody that worked in the castle.
A lightbulb came on in his brain as he thought of the person who fitted this role, who else could it be other than her personal maid? He had seen the way they interacted with each other, it was most definitely not the way a usual maid and boss acted. They acted like good friends; he was sure she would want to help him.
The only problem was that he had never held a conversation with her, he had no idea of how she acted, how she would act towards him; but it was worth the try.
“You there”, he called the attention of a guard who was standing by the stairwell, the guard went to him after realizing who it was,
“Yes sir?”, he bowed at the alpha king’s second in command as a form of respect for his office,
“Do you happen to know where the luna queen’s personal maid resides?”, he questioned the guard.
“Sarah?”,
“I believe that is her name”, he found it extremely awkward that he did not even know her name and he was looking for her,
“She resides at the west side of the castle, along with the other maids. She probably would not be in at the moment as she is tending to the lu… her needs”, the guard found it hard to refer to anybody other than Daphne as the luna queen, as long as he was not seeing Daphne’s face, she was not the luna queen.
“Very well then, thank you. You can go back to your post”, Fredrick dismissed the guard; he had noticed the man’s reluctancy to calling Emilia the queen and he knew the man too might come in handy very soon. He went to the western axis of the palace and asked for directions to Sarah’s room, of course, he received some weird looks and glances for none of the higher ups ever bothered to show their face around the maid’s chambers.
Once he got to her door, he stood there for a moment and knocked. When no one answered, he turned the knob and walked into the tiny room that consisted of a single bed and a small dresser. He surveyed the room and wondered how anybody could live in such a small space. As a beta, he had grown up with money and a silver spoon to feed him, he had never in his life lacked anything- except from love.
Suddenly, the door opened and Sarah slipped into her room facing backwards and unaware of the uninvited visitor in her room. “Hey”, his thick, masculine voice filled her ear drums and she let out a scream while turning around to see who is was,
“Goddess, you scared me”, her hand was on her chest to stop her heart from beating rapidly.
“I am very sorry about that”, his eyes could not leave her face and he could not help but wonder how he had not noticed how beautiful she was before then.