77. The Dangerous Encounter

Preparations for Bethanie’s wedding was all the castle could buzz about and Reya had realized that quickly after she had woken up from her one month nightmare. Reya thought the Golden Castle had never been more alive with people, nobles bringing in their wedding gifts early and congratulating the couple on their soon to be union. Lady Bethanie reveled in the attention she was receiving, hanging on to Prince Reagan’s hand with a bright smile and a wild blush to her cheeks.

“She would make such a lovely bride!”

“Oh, what a shame that the most beautiful woman will not become the next Queen,” passerby’s would say, directly implying that Reya was not good enough for the Princes.

The bridal selection had worked in a way that ensured that the princes had to mate with women from bigger clans, rather than the royalty from their own clan. This was because having a wife from the other clans would bring more influence to the Golden dragons and let them extend their power into that clan. Now that Reya had nothing, had abandoned her people and all that was left to her name was the cure and the millions she had made with it, she was not exactly the most useful woman.

Apparently, every one seemed to remind her of that. Still, Reya had bigger problems to worry about.

Even though the Eldest Beta Prince would be getting married, Reya decided that she really needed to pay him back for threatening her. She had nothing but her enemies did not have to know that, at least not yet. She could pretend as though she were biding her time and waiting for the best time to strike.

Reya would need as many allies as possible. She needed those shadows that seemingly belonged to only the members of The Royal family. She would need spies that worked for her only. It seemed marrying the princes was a step in getting them. So unfortunately, herself and Jessica would still have to be a functioning team.

Reya sighed and jumped out of the carriage she had been traveling it and stretched her legs, gladdened by being somewhere that was not exactly The Golden Castle. She wasn’t even certain she wanted to live in the castle so far as she was not marrying The Twin Princes. Unfortunately, getting a townhouse was out of the question. If anyone noticed she was living far off from the castle then the attacks on her life would be worse.

All her life, Reya felt like she never truly belonged anywhere and now, it felt only worse.

With a sigh, she moved towards the incomplete building that would one day be her hospital. The construction was rather speedy, with workers toiling day in day out to get the place ready. Knowing that her cure was in Prince Armani’s possession, she knew that he was the reason why the project was moving swiftly.

Something told her he was also funding it, but she would confront him much later, when she was feeling less ashamed of herself because he knew the truth of her rape.

“And we have the kitchen area! I know that you feel it is uncalled for but the fundings are very generous and we can build as many rooms as you would like! It would be nice to have a break after working so hard!” The architect chattered, showing Reya a cemented but empty vast space.

“It is good. Show me the laboratory please,” she humbly requested.

The Architect sighed, realizing that Reya was not about to encourage his constant boasting of his brilliant stone work and led her there.

Reya ran her hands across the Slabs, thinking longingly of her hospital at home. Everything was gone to her. She had ensured that the architect would get the exact design of her previous laboratory and somehow, make it bigger. So why did she feel so hollow?

“Is the indoor garden going to work?” She asked, turning towards him.

“Most definitely,” he agreed.

“Alright,” she nodded weakly, somewhat emotional at seeing the incomplete lab that reminded her of the red dragon clan.

“Please give me a moment. You can head on to the ground floor if you would like,” she said with an apologetic smile.

When she saw the fall of Architect William’s face, she added.

“What you have started, it is a piece of art. I would love to enjoy this beauty in silence,”

And with what, Sir William beamed and left her to herself.

So many things were running through Reya’s mind. Now that she had abandoned Alpha Charles and his family, the question of her paternity was beginning to plague her.

Who were her parents? Why did they abandon her at the borders? Had Alpha Charles killed her parents and whisked her away, then staged the entire death of her family and his discovery of her unconscious body? Reya wanted a family, to have a father and mother and maybe siblings- even if they were of low birth. Her lack of heritage was beginning to eat her raw.

When Reya lifted her head from the slab and blinked away her tears, she soon realized that something was wrong with the laboratory.

Dark mist was covering all the walls of the room, blocking out every single light. It had even clouded the floor, leaving her in complete inky darkness.

Reya climbed the slabs immediately and reached under her skirts for a sharpened dagger, lifting it in her hand and listening for any sound that could give away her captor.

This was no effect of the shadows sworn to the Royal family. It looked dark, reminded her of-

The hairs on the nape of her neck stood to its pointy tips. This was dark magic.

An image suddenly materialized in front of her, it’s body radiating.

Reya remained hunched, sweat swelling on her forehead, her heart beating wildly and veins pumping adrenaline into her blood.

The image finally materialized completely and as she looked into those unforgiving eyes, she saw Alpha Charles glaring at her.

She swung at him with her dagger- *carelessly* might she add and found that his image was only a projection- mist. He wasn’t here and this image wasn’t real.

“I should have killed you when I had the chance,” he seethed, his eyes red balls of fury.

“You should have,” Reya agreed angrily.

“Maybe my life would not have been this miserable! Maybe you would have died from Draconoma too, anyway,”

Alpha Charles blinked and tipped his head back before mocking laughter rolled out of his mouth.

“You really do not know anything, do you?”

Reya staggered back, confused. She wanted to ask what he meant but he went forward.

“Exposing all that I am to The Parliament... Did you really think that I would have not found out? That I do not have a few allies faithful to me in court?” He asked her.

“I figured it out,” she folded her arms, stilling her heart.

“And I risked it anyway,”

“You will be dismissed. No one will check for anything,”

Reya laughed and rolled her eyes.

“The King and The Queen know. They will bring you down themselves,”

Alpha Charles stared at her for a quick moment, his eyes scornful.

“You are a fool. You don’t know the way the court works,” he scoffed.

“What do you mean-“

“Did you really think The King would not be aware that I have Diamonds and gold? That I may not be as wealthy as he is but my wealth sure can make a dent to his? We have cohabited for hundreds of years, Reya- even though we hate each other. It is called a truce if you don’t understand. The King stays in his turf in England, rules his puppets in Wales and Ireland while I rule Scotland- independent of the Parliament. And while I admire that you want to bring justice upon my head, I suggest you stop. It will reduce the amount of targets you have rained down on your head,”

Reya was dizzy with the information. The King, The Queen.... they supported Alpha Charles?

“You are lying,” she spat.

Alpha Charles simply shrugged, cool and calm.

“For that lost puppy look on your face, perhaps I wish I was,”

“You said you had a truce with the dragon king. In other words, no one harms or interferes with the other’s territory is that not?” Reya asked, narrowing her eyes at him.

She would show him that she was no fool, that she had been doing her homework.

“What about it, Reya?” He smiled softly at her, almost sympathetically- as though he were talking to a fool.

“You crossed his territory. You crossed it the moment you started to steal from his Queen. Don’t think I do not know how I ended up with dark magic in my system,”

“They inspected us,” Alpha Charles simply shrugged.

“There was no evidence. They put down the claims and left us,”

Which meant that Queen Aprilina was not part of the truce with Alpha Charles. King Erik had to be hiding something....

“I wonder what they shall do when they find out that you were behind Draconoma,” Reya shrugged, trying to look carefree.

And that was the moment that the cool facade on Charles’s face dropped.

She had no evidence for the ever developing virus, but from the look on his face, Reya was certain she was right.

He was in fact, behind the deaths of so many in the Dragon Kingdom.

“Whatever truce you had with the dragon king will fall. He will rain down his wrath on you. What you did certainly does not benefit him- nor anyone. Good luck,”

“You have no proof,” he hissed, his nose flaring and his face red with rage.

Reya grinned. Alpha Charles did not know just how cunning she was. She certainly had the entire encounter with this man on a mirror Crystal, a weapon created by the Queen to spy on her enemies.

Alpha Charles did not know that she knew he was going to ambush her, that she was willing to get evidence of his treason by striking deals with the Queen and that she, a single spinster would bring doom on his head.

“Why are you doing this?” Alpha Charles raged, his chest rising and falling with every angry huff of breath he inhaled and exhaled.

“Is it because Castiel took your maiden head? Are you truly that petty?” He thundered.

Reya blinked at him in shock before anger swelled in her chest.

“Is rape a petty thing?” She cried out, clenching her fists with white hot fury.

“You took everything from me! You let Castiel break my leg! You watched him defile me along with your children! You let him chain me to a bed and rape me, day in and day out. I cried out to you. I begged you. I asked my father to make it stop and what did you do? You encouraged him to spill his seed in me so that I would get pregnant for your bastard! You told him that he wasn’t doing it enough, that he had to increase the amount of times he took me so that I would become with child in no time. What you did, I will never forgive,” she swore heatedly, wiping her eyes to hide all her anger.

And as Reya stared into his eyes, she noticed that not once did his expression soften. Instead, he only looked irritated.

“You’re saying you want to bring war down on an entire clan because you were claimed by my heir? Those princes and all the royalty they brought with them has gotten to your head. Did they find out you were no virgin and are now delaying a wedding? Is that why you are so upset?” He taunted her over and over again.

Reya hated the way he made her feel small, the way her rape mattered so little to him, as if it was a fly he need only to swat.

“I wouldn’t be trying to attack me if I were you. I have all of your money, all the affluence, all the right allies and all the equipment to start a war. I can snatch you right now and deliver you right back to Castiel’s bed,” his evil eyes gleamed with meaning, then satisfaction as he saw the pale expression on Reya’s face.

“And do you know what would happen the next time he fucks you until you faint, Rey Rey?” He smiled.

Vomit piled up in Reya’s belly as she considered his words.

“You will get pregnant. Castiel will have his heirs. Your dragon’s consciousness has been completely wiped out. I see it in your slow reflexes, in the way you have to pile up clothes because you catch a shiver so easily,” he said, surprising her.

Alpha Charles was far more influential than she had thought, going so far as to know the state of her well being.

“Do you want to anger me Reya? Do you want me to deliver you right back into Your lover’s arms?” He taunted.

“Frankly, I don’t understand why you are so disgusted. He made it good for you. He made you like him. He made you enjoy it. Don’t tell me you never once considered being The Next Clan’s Luna,”

“You will choose your words wisely when you speak to me,” Reya willed for her voice and her face to be as hard as stone.

“And you will also choose your fights and who to pick it with wisely, Rey Rey. Women get raped all the time. Our ancestors and gods did it so often and the women considered it an honor,” he said Coolly, picking at his nails.

“Medusa got raped by Poseidon and Artemis punished her for it by giving her a head full of snakes,” Reya spat bitterly.

This was not the biblical times. They had evolved past the times of humans who had to be the softest most compassionate living beings with a soul and schools, parents and everyone else taught their generation that rape was far from being okay.

And yet, this was the response Alpha Charles had for her when she confronted him about making his son rape her. For Reya knew that this was not a thought that had been developed by Castiel. They needed white dragons for something and it had to be a plan concocted by the evil man.

How quickly people changed, Reya realized, when you were no longer supported by them.

“Think about your options, Reya,” Charles ignored the tale of Medusa she had pointed out.

“It is just one woman that got raped. Do lives have to die for this? Do you have to make enemies of the most powerful men in our kingdom just because of something that happened years ago? Think again Reya, About those lives,”

And then Alpha Charles’s image blurred out and soon she was seeing a clear mirror of the dungeons underground of the Crimson estate. People- a sizable amount of people that had never occupied the prisons where laying in it.

Reya soon realized that she knew the first face, despite the mud streaked across it. And she knew the second face- and the next, and the next.

Oh God, Reya quickly realized with horror.

She knew the faces of every single person in the dungeons. Tanaya’s family, Gale and Daria and their children, and the employees from the Red Cross hospital- Alpha Charles had imprisoned everyone that she loved.

“Is one maidenhead worth their deaths, Rey Rey?” Alpha Charles’s voice echoed.

“Let them go,” she whimpered.

“Please- they have nothing to do with this!”

Alpha Charles simply chuckled, satisfied at the tears that streaked her face.

“You should have thought better when you decided to attack me,”

And then everything vanished- the image, the dark magic, the dark clouds and the taunting sound of Alpha Charles’s voice.

Reya collapsed to the floor, a loud sob escaping her throat. This was horrible, so entirely horrible.

Just when she thought she had gotten enough, a hand pushed through the door of her laboratory, smothering the woods to pieces by the sheer strength of his arm.

Arms pushed the rest of the door- or what was left of it and suddenly, Prince Aidan was standing before her.

Never in her life had she seen him so furious, with his eyes a glowing gold that reminded her of the sun on a hot day.

The scales of his dragon were already rippling across his cheeks, covering them with its thickened hardness.

“I heard what Castiel did,” his voice was animalistic, deep and guttural with pure rage.

“I will kill all of them,”