A Queen Among Blood: Chapter Fifty-Seven - Yildiz

A Queen Among Blood: Chapter Fifty-Seven - Yildiz
Four outlined figures stand before me. The outline of two wolves flanked by two nagata. Tyson and Mei on the right and Eric and Qiang on the left. I stand patiently waiting for them to make their move. I don’t have to wait long as Tyson and Eric’s wolves Angel and Amo charge at me, but with perfect speed, I leap and flip over their massive bodies as they try to catch me in their jaws. Just as my feet touch the ground the aura of two giant snake tails are flung in my direction. I jump and spin my body managing to narrowly pass between both tails. Once again as my feet touch the ground, Angel and Amo run at me, but this time Angel coming from the front and Amo coming from behind. I duck down into a split and allow both wolves to collide with one another, resulting in their whines and snarls. Gods how I love training.

I roll out of the way, only to see a large tail being swung down at me. I quickly raise my arms and block the attack just as the tail makes contact. I can feel the force trying to be brought down on me, but it doesn’t make my arms budge even a little. Instead, I push the tail off me with minimal effort and flip myself back up. All four circle me and I can’t help but smirk with amusement. They each attack simultaneously. Amo swipes at my side, but I manage to dodge it. Angel tries to take a bite out of me, but I manoeuvre out of the way right into the path of a tail that attempts to wrap around my body, but I quickly slip out of its grasp, only to trip over something. I look in the direction of where I tripped expecting only to see darkness, but instead, I see the outline of Mei in her full-snake form as she quickly slithers up my body, only to then change and turn into the outline of her human form, which quickly begins pummelling me with punches. She truly has gotten faster with her shifting.

I catch one fist and with my free hand, punch her in the face with a resounding crack and enough force to knock her off me, but before I can get up, Angel has grabbed me by the leg with his jaw and is yanking me away from Mei. His bite doesn’t hurt, it only feels like mild pressure since their teeth can’t penetrate my skin. With my ankle firmly in his mouth, I use his weight against him, using his hold on my ankle to lift myself into a standing position and with my free leg, I swing it around and kick him in the jaw. A mix between a yelp and a snarl leaves him as the sound of crunching can be heard when my foot connects with his jaw, which causes him to release his grip on me. I sense Amo running at me from behind just as Qiang swings his tail at me, so I catch Qiang by the tail and swing him around throwing him into Amo.

“Time!” Amelia calls, her announcement followed by a round of applause from the people who have gathered around to watch us spar. I watch as everyone’s auras take their normal forms as they begin to gather their clothes and get dressed.

“I can’t believe even with the four of us taking you on at once, it still wasn’t enough,” Tyson says in bewilderment, as he appears to rub his jaw. He should get that checked out.

“Don’t take it as a fail. I was impressed with how well you all coordinated and worked together to take me on. I can say I’ve never seen different species fight so well side by side and work as a team,” I say proudly, “Not to mention your shifting is getting even faster, Mei. Soon you might even be faster than your mother was. Setia will be thrilled,” I inform her.

“Really?” she says touched, dropping her hand from her face, “Setia said she had amazing speed when it came to shifting between forms.”

“I would say you are as fast as she was, and you’re still in the early days of your training, so you’ll be breaking her record in no time,” I praise.

She jumps and squeals and runs over to her animai, Chris, “Did you hear that?!” she cries happily. I watch as he catches her in his arms and spins her around; envy and sadness temporarily stinging my heart.

“I heard, xingan baobei,” he says proudly, giving her a kiss, “Come on, let’s have a doctor take a look at your face.”

“I’ll be healed soon enough. You worry too much,” she soothes him.

“I make no apologies when it comes to your well-being.”

One downside to being here is being surrounded by so many animais, but I don’t begrudge them their happiness. Even with that, the past few days at Invictus have been the most enjoyable and relaxing experiences I’ve had in weeks. Maybe even months. Everyone has been welcoming and friendly and made me feel at home. Vitali has been a bit down since I gave him the news of Nuray’s passing, but he was very sweet and brought me flowers and offered his condolences.  

Amelia asked me to assist with the training program and I leapt at the chance. It’s been absolutely thrilling; I just wish Nuray was here to enjoy it with me. The nagata who have moved to be closer to their Empress and Emperor are slowly acclimating to their new home. It’s been quite a culture shock for them and for the pack, not to mention the packs visiting for the training program, but I can see the benefits. Invictus High is now offering Mandarin as a language course and many children have eagerly signed up, while in turn, many nagata are learning English.

For the first time in my history I am witnessing – so to speak – species coming together and finding common ground and instead of fighting, they’re learning from each other and expanding their horizons. I admit I’ve been a little bitter lately at the way the Gods handle things but being around so much progress is restoring my faith that sometimes what they do has a lot of wisdom to it. I can only hope other packs and other species can take from Amelia and Mei’s example. With a gay prince about to become King of the sirna, we may see more tolerance spread through that kingdom, but jury is still out on that one.

I’m pulled from my reverie as Tyson walks over to me, “Yildiz?”

“Yes?”

“I was wondering if at some point I could pick your brain? I was thinking of during this program we could better train everyone how to fight other species. I want peace as much as the next Gamma, but I’m a realist, and there’s always going to be a bad egg ruining it for everyone. Look at Mykel, Zixin or that Isolde chick,” he says. I keep my face neutral. After everything Mei told them, I understand why he put Isolde in that category, but I’m not so sure she deserves to be there anymore, but I keep that to myself.

“You make an incredibly valid point. We irshiusts are trained to handle any and all supernatural beings, and if you wish to better know how to protect your pack and loved ones, I have no issue with assisting with that,” I assure him.

“Thank you! We know weaknesses, but majority of us have never seen, let alone fought, most of what exists, but you have, so your knowledge would be invaluable to us,” he says passionately. As he says that I can hear Oshmin’s voice in my head. He said the same thing not too long ago. He also said I was invaluable to him, but these days I’m starting to feel I’ve lost some of that value.

“I’m more than happy to help. Getting to be a part of this has been inspiring to say the least,” I say earnestly.

“That means so much to me, and I know it means a lot to Amelia too. This program is just another reason why I’m proud to call her my Alpha,” he says, truth and pride radiating from his words.

“Ty! Come on we’re going to be late!” I hear Tyson’s animai Evalyn call out. I look over to see her sky-blue aura with a dusting of an even paler blue walking over to us, and as she gets closer I can see the gentle glow of caramel brown coming from her stomach. “You need to get your jaw looked at, and we still have to go to my ultrasound appointment before everyone arrives at your parent’s place for dinner. I don’t want to be the last ones to show up again,” she grumbles.

“We’re not going to be late; I was just finishing up. We can go right now,” he says with assurance as he wraps his arm around her and kisses the top of her head. I try not to let the envy get the better of me.

“How did my guy do?” she asks me.

“Exceptionally well, you should be proud.”

“I’m always proud of him,” she says adoringly.

“Eva!” Vitali cheers coming over, “How is our future Gamma doing today? Ready to come out and say hello to us all yet?” he coos as he reaches out and begins rubbing her belly.

“Vitali, don’t,” Tyson warns him, but it’s too late. The moment Vitali placed his hands on Evalyn she started growling threateningly. Now I’m watching as her fist connects with his face and suddenly I can hear the unpleasant sound of crunching bone as she no doubt breaks his jaw, or nose, or both. Poor Vitali is on the ground within seconds and doesn’t appear to be moving.

“Vitali!” Eric cries as he rushes over to tend to his animai. That can’t have felt good for Eric either.

“I warned him what would happen if he did that again,” Evalyn snarls. Even I know better than to touch the belly of a pregnant she-wolf. Pregnant she-wolves are twice as strong as normal wolves since they are now carrying two wolf spirits inside them, plus the added hormones. Pissing off a she-wolf will get you exactly what Vitali got.

“You didn’t have to knock him out Evalyn, or break his jaw,” Eric snaps as he lifts Vitali into his arms. Ah, jaw it is then. Wait, is Vitali unconscious?

Amelia’s turquoise aura calmly walks over to the commotion that has started in front of me. “Eric, take Vitali to get checked out along with the others and see if he needs anything reset. Hopefully, it’s not too bad, but to be fair, Evalyn has warmed people repeatedly not to touch her stomach. He knew better and this is what he gets,” she shrugs, “Tyson you and Evalyn can head off, I can finish off today’s training without you.”

“Thanks, Amelia,” says Tyson gratefully as he leads Evalyn away while she grumbles about people thinking they have the right to touch pregnant women without permission.

It is an odd mentality. I know even humans do this and I don’t understand it. You wouldn’t just walk up to someone and start rubbing their stomach, so why do people feel doing it to pregnant women is okay? It makes no sense. Being pregnant doesn’t suddenly make their body public property and their baby belongs to them, not society. Humans and their descendants are strange creatures, and that’s coming from someone with glitter in her skin.

Eric carts Vitali off to the pack clinic and Amelia resumes the training session, but I decide to excuse myself from the rest of today’s training. I feel like a little quiet time.

As I make my way back to the packhouse following specific scents and sounds, two voices catch my attention more than the others.

“Why are you doing all this, Jane? Isn’t housework beneath you? Isn’t that what you used to mock the packhouse staff for?” the male voice spits in disgust.

“I was wrong, I know that I was wrong and I’m trying to make up for that. That’s why I started working here. I’m trying to be a better person,” she says sadly. There’s so much pain in the young woman’s voice.

“If this is so I’ll accept you...”

“You rejected me, and I accepted it because I wanted to respect your wishes. I would love nothing more than for you to give me a chance, but I won’t force you. Whether you give me a chance or not I’m still going to keep working here, it doesn’t stop me from wanting to be a better person. I’ve hurt a lot of people and I have to make up for the pain I’ve caused,” she says more confidently. Truth rings out through every word she says. I’m not sure what she has done in the past, but she is certainly remorseful and trying to make amends. You have to commend people who see the error of their ways and take action to atone for it. Very few do, so someone who does is very special. Like Luna Marcus.

“It’s going to take a lot more than working as packhouse staff to prove to me that you’ve changed,” he says curtly, but his words bring an unpleasant zap down my spine. I’m unsure which part of what he said is a lie, but I suspect he’s fighting against his own instinct or his wolf, to accept her.

“Michael, if you could just tell me what I did to make you hate me so much…” she trails off, her tone pleading.

“See? You still have no idea,” he says in exasperation, their voices getting louder the closer I get.

“Then tell me! Please, I can’t apologise or make up for what I’ve done if I don’t know what it is I did!” she cries in desperation.

“MY SISTER! You were the one who bullied her all through high school. You called her fat and ugly every single day, only I never knew because she never told me. My sister ended up with an eating disorder because of you! You tormented her and she nearly died because of it. That’s my baby sister and you nearly killed her. So tell me, Jane, how am I supposed to accept the woman who nearly took my sister from me?” he says with heavy breaths and soon I hear his feet walk away. Jane on the other hand I can hear collapsing into a fit of sobs. It seems no matter where you go, someone’s love life is full of drama.

Deciding this is none of my business, I keep walking and eventually make it to the Alpha suite.