Chapter 34

“Hey Olivia, glad you’re here!”

Petros gave me a big hug, and that one I returned, but when he tried to kiss me... Yeah, I was going to owe him that one. He noticed and thank God he walked away.

“I smell him on you”

He said with an extremely disgusted face.

“Don't start, okay? Tell me how things are in there? Should I run away?”

“No, I spoke to your father, he just told me he was worried about you. I explained that you just needed some time away, he didn't seem mad or anything.”

"AND...?"

“And…I told him we'd get married. I didn't answer the phone exactly because the meeting was about that.”

“Okay, what then? That's it? He didn't even send someone after me? Serious?"

I didn't believe in the fact that things were like that, my father was the most cunning person I knew, so a reality where he just "let me breathe a little and go my way" It didn't seem to be something reasonable. But that's okay, fuck you, right? I was going to have to face him one way or another.

When I finally got in I didn't speak to anyone, I went straight to my room, I needed a long shower, I needed to somehow get the smell of Josh off me, my father would understand everything, he would feel it, just as Petros had felt it, and that it would be my death sentence.

I wasn't in a hurry, I took a really long shower, and several times I sat on the floor to cry, thinking about my mother, thinking about Josh, thinking about how I was going to hurt my best friend with that wedding story. I thought about all this dozens of times, until I felt like literally sitting up in the fetal position and waiting for that terrible feeling to pass from one moment to another.

A few hours, a shower, and endless crying on my mattress later, my dad walked through the door, he didn't even knock... He just walked in. His look was different, there was something wrong, was it... worry?

It hit me hard, the anger I felt towards him motivated me to be there, but the look in his eyes reminded me of so many unhealed childhood traumas that I was really afraid to give up! He had never, in all my life, looked at me with eyes of clemency, concern and love, that look he saved only for my mother. And I realized, since the day I learned to speak, I think, this difference.

“Ah Olivia, my daughter... What is this idea of ​​disappearing?”

Was that a trick? I was careful, he could stab me with a stake, or even set my body on fire! My body froze as he walked over and hugged me. Because I never got a hug from my father. And I was surprised when he walked away and I was still alive.

"Where have you been?"

I stuttered a bit to lie, because I was so preoccupied with the moment itself that I didn't even think of creating a decent narrative for my disappearance.

“Oh, I needed some time away from the castle, to reflect… especially on my marriage to Petros”

“I was very happy when he told me that you had accepted, this separation did you good! With this news I felt a hope, that maybe... You could really rule in my place!”

And I will! You bet your ass cruel, lying, gold digging motherfucker

“So, are you ready?'

I threw a cynical smile, the cynical one I managed before answering - Of course, I'm back to that my father!

It was about that, it wasn't about concern... it was about legacy! It was about blood and protected lineage! I didn't interfere with that asshole's natural order, and maybe that's why I was kept alive! I smiled as he turned towards the door, finally leaving me alone with my thoughts of revenge.

“Rest daughter, see you tomorrow at the board meeting? With Petros?”

“I will definitely be there!”

I learned in that moment that as long as I didn't kill any kind of love and hope that I held on to having my father's love... I would suffer disappointment upon disappointment, like this last one. None of this would end while Lucius was still breathing! I felt embarrassed for letting myself be taken in by the damn puppy dog ​​look, even though I knew what he did to my mother.

But that's okay, revenge is a dish best served cold... And I would wait for the right moment, so that he would not only have a dreadful death, but a gigantic humiliation.

The awakening for me was difficult, it hurt too much to know what my family was in reality, it hurt to know that my father's love, or the pretense of love, was only conditioned on the fact that I did what he wanted. If yours got out of line once or twice I would be killed. My mother went too far out of line, she crossed over to a place where there was no salvation. But why so afraid? What could a hybrid cause in our midst? Would it be stronger? More intelligent? Faster? Or was my father just a guy so full of bloodlust that he would kill anyone who defied him and went against this pointless millennium war? Any option was valid at that point.

Time was ticking, my chips were running out and I just wanted it to end.

I got up, got ready and walked to the council room, Petros was already waiting for me at the door smiling, and I offered him a smile too. He was a good friend after all!

“Hi, and so… Have you recovered from the spindle?”

he mocked

I just smiled, I wasn't much for jokes!

“You know what we're going to talk about today, don't you?”

He asked me with those blue eyes too wide.

“No, I have no idea what day it is Petros”.

“The festival… You know? The tradition"

I felt like I had been punched in the stomach, I didn't even remember this unfortunate fact, and if I could I would never participate. The most bloodthirsty and cruel festival of our people.

"I don't want any part of that fucking Petros!"

I said too irritated to be able to form a more coherent sentence...

“You don't have a choice, you have to look willing, remember?”

Petros brought me back to reason.

Our people did not attack humans, nothing was like that, we respected everything in the treaty.

Corruption is by all means, monsters or not.

My people treated this terrible festival as an awakening, something unique! An epitome of Aaryn life, tasting the blood of innocent people.

No one was really spared, children, adults and the elderly... Everyone joined in the dance! There were no limits, there were no laws. And I was right in the middle of this antics trying to figure out how I traded running away with Josh from this to staying here in this place. How I traded my goddamn reservation to stay here and put up with this kind of thing. I don't want to put the Lycans as good, and us as bad, but damn... In the time I spent there I didn't know of any bizarre traditions.

“Come on Olivia, we have to go inside... Give me your hand.”

Petros took my hand, intertwining his fingers around mine, I was taken aback by that attitude, but I kept it. When he finally opened the door, everyone was looking at us. My father, sitting on his throne of another looked at me with a smile on his face, Petros and Josh's father, a terribly ugly old man almost enjoying the happiness of knowing that his son would be king. You know, at least Petros was handsome like his ~dead~ mother. The tradition of killing women was incredible in this environment!