Chapter 49

I think it's a completely unreasonable thing for you to simply think that a woman can't really handle something, and it was that look that Josh threw me when he stopped staring at my father's movements for a few seconds. A look like "didn't I tell you to stay in the fucking room?" But I didn't care, I kept talking to my father, trying to cause some frenzy inside him, something in his conscience to make him regret doing all that, and this whole ugly, misplaced, bloody story would have a meaningful ending, you would close the page satisfied knowing that I, Olivia, forgave my beloved father, he played with his Lycan grandson, and loved him while he combed his white hair, until he gave himself up to death in one of our ceremonies to live next to my mother, dead too.

And believe me, I really wish I could tell that truth and walk with it, carrying my heart of forgiveness and understanding about life.

But I after all, always, since my birth, I was this side effect that my father couldn't control, and it was like that from the day I first opened my eyes in this world, until that sordid moment where he had his cold hands on my head,

Josh with that lifeless look in his eyes, fearing that I would end up the same way as his mother, and me knowing that none of it would have that ending made me gasp too much.

"You know Dad... I forgive you."

I said quietly

"I forgive you for my mother's death, I forgive you for the miserable life you must have given my mother, I forgive you for the times you were never really my father, for what you did to me in that dungeon, for the humiliations and all the times you made me cry. I forgive you... You should let me go, and we can talk about all this in some civilized way. Or is it really your intention to kill another person of your lineage?

"No Olivia, I just need this to be done, what you carry inside you is an aberration, it will change the flow of things!"

"All this because you are afraid?"

I said raising my voice, again he seemed to soften. When I felt his hands loosen, the same silver dagger I used to kill Petros I used against my father, and I stabbed the dagger into his arm, he screamed at the same moment he felt the pure silver enter his skin.

And in a distance of at least five seconds I took the spear from Josh's hand and placed it against his chest, who was kneeling down on the ground.

"Daughter... I thought you had forgiven me."

He said looking at me for the first time with some respect, but I knew inside me that it was a deception.

"And I forgive you dad... But that doesn't mean you don't have to die!"

I said that and forced the spear against my father's chest even harder, and that was my moment of insane courage, and just like Petros I watched his decline before my eyes, felt his blood-based life vanish from his face. But the haughtiness was there, and before he fell completely he still smiled.

I dropped the spear to the ground, but I couldn't cry, I was just shocked at what had happened, and wondering how I could carry that burden that was to have killed someone of my blood. But I had no real choice, I breathed a relieved breath and wished that Vivian could now rest in peace. Her death now remained painful. But it had meaning.

I fell to my knees on the floor at the same moment, and Josh hugged me tightly. And as I saw blood being spilled, I also saw the creatures turning to the hill, Lycans celebrating the death of a natural enemy of their species, Aaryns knowing they had lost a battle after all.

Some loud echoing voices saying "It's over" "Long live Queen Olivia" were heard, and my head was spinning so much that I didn't know if I could stand to stand there. Josh had a proud look on his face, but he still didn't celebrate. It was his way of showing respect for my "grief" and I thanked him. I felt, that even though my father was a branded jerk, he would still always remain my father.

I stood up still without strength, but holding tightly to Josh's hand, and it was hard to see how many creatures were lying dead on the ground, losses on both sides. Something unjustifiable and terrible to me. I lifted my head, and as they approached the hill, I thought of myself as a crooked deity, and the thought made me laugh at myself for a second, a wistful smile but still a smile. I cleared my throat, looked at Josh who nodded for me to begin what would be a new era among our people - I have never been as sad as I was today, wasted lives, wasted forces that could have been used only to protect our territories from hunters. I am ashamed to come from such a prejudiced lineage, and to spend so much time within a system that only imprisons and does not liberate people.

I hope that today will be a symbol of intense shame, and not of pride for either people! May it not be remembered as a day that deserves revenge, nor the day when one people defeated the other. And yes, as a sad day where we will remember as mourning for the lives that were lost in the middle of a senseless guerrilla war. I want to declare today, that as queen I withdraw the law that Aaryns cannot relate to Lycans, because that is imbecile as was my father! The Aaryn council will be destroyed, and women forced into marriage are now free!

To my father's supporters, you can try to bring down my house and my reign, but you won't succeed. So don't stand up against me, because I'm worse than my father!

One of my father's subjects knelt down, being joined by another, and then another, and then others, and then the Lycans followed and everyone else, cries of "Hail Queen Olivia" were heard, but I wasn't dazzled, I wasn't that kind of person, and never would be!

Josh looked at me proudly, and when he came closer to me he put his hand on my belly, and there was the symbol of our love. But I didn't see it as a symbol of a movement. And I would never admit that.

I turned and walked back inside the reserve castle, and like soldiers with no thought of their own the crowd dispersed, mourned their dead, and suddenly the much feared war was only in everyone's imagination. Something that happened for a better ending.

I was not a fan of this hollow talk that the end justifies the means, but I swallowed it. Because it was much better than raising a furor that I didn't need.

I felt a sharp pain, the fever again rising through my body, I lay down on the bed I shared with Josh, I felt inside my heart that Petros was still alive.

" Did you really kill him?"

Josh said still shocked

"Yeah, I mean it was necessary. It wasn't like I really wanted him to die. Josh, I'm scared, where is his body?"

"It's okay, it'll get easier at some point! But no one has found his body."

"What will get easier?"

"This feeling! I promise! We'll figure it out if he's out there."

Josh was the mirror I couldn't ignore, at the point in time of our relationship full of mishaps we learned to know each other in the worst possible situations and also in the best.

Our love was forged in blood, sweat and tears indeed, and I felt that now nothing even in the world could separate us. But it was inevitable to think that I was an orphan in this crazy world.

I took a shower, and I simply wasn't ready yet to deal with the whole reign thing, I hadn't been prepared for it. But there was also absolutely no one who was knowledgeable enough to lead a people without inciting hatred. So I forced myself to go to my old dwelling, accompanied by Josh I could now feel a less harsh aura, a little happier. As the children ran in the corridors, couples in love kissed in the garden, everything seemed to be in place.