Chapter 82: Just a Paranoia

Rosia's POV

"What?" Rhea scoffs as if I have said something funny. "This is not your palace. You don’t get to decide who stays and who leaves!"

"Yes, I do," I snap. "I brought you here, and I will throw you out if you don't shift into your wolf in the next three seconds. So stop wasting my time, and shift!"

Panicked, she looks at my mates with tear-filled eyes, begging them to intervene, but my mates remain silent. Her eyes snapped back to me.

"Is this even about a monster? Or is it that you are so utterly jealous of my beauty?" she accuses.

I am amazed by her sheer audacity.

"You think I haven't noticed it?" She continues. "You have been looking at me with bitterness ever since I arrived here. You can’t stand the fact that there is someone more beautiful than you in this palace. That's why you are accusing me of being a monster!"

"Nice try," I sneer. "Guards, would you show her the way out of this palace? Make sure you lock the gates behind her."

The guards eyes dart from me to my mates. Of course they wouldn't carry out my order without the kings approval.

"Love, I think you are taking this entirely a little too far," Aerion says. "It's the middle of the night, and we are not entirely sure she is what you are claiming she is."

"Are you blind?!" I yell at him. "She can't shift because she can't. She is the monster, and you need to get her out of this palace right now, otherwise more people will die!"

"No one is getting kicked out of the palace in the middle of the night," Aeries declares then turns his gaze back to Rhea. "Why don't you just shift and assure your sister that you are not the monster?"

My sister seems to freeze at his demand.

"O... okay," she stemmers.

We all wait expectantly for her to shift into her wolf and she seems to be taking forever, while sweat coats her forehead.

Suddenly, the bones in her right arm start to violently twist and elongate, right before our eyes, the beautiful skin of her hand begins to rupture, and gray fur sprout from her flesh and claws break free from her fingertips.

She really has a wolf!

But before she can fully shift she lets out a bloodcurdling scream of pain and collapses on the floor, holding her half-shifted hand to her chest.

All three of my mates rush to her aid, their faces filled with surprise and panic. Aerius drops to his knees and cradles her shaking head off the stone floor.

"Hey, look at me, what's wrong?" His brother demands, his voice laced with panic.

"Where is the doctor?!" Aeries questions angrily and one guard rushes out of the chambers to go trace the doctor who is yet to arrive. Aerius scoops Rhea up into his arms and carries her quickly into the adjoining bedroom, laying her gently onto the plush mattress.

I follow after them, completely shocked and utterly speechless by what has just happened.

"I can't fully shift because my wolf is injured." Rhea sobs. "Alpha Nolan's guards beat me and hurt my wolf. Every time I try to shift... it hurts so badly... I was warned if I try to force shift , I might die... please don't kick me out of your palace."

Guilt fills me. I now regret demanding that she shift.

"You don't have to prove anything else. Shift back." Aerion says and strokes her hair.

The gray fur on her arm slowly receeds back into her skin and her bones come back into their human form.

Right at that moment, the bedroom door opens and the guard rushes in followed behind by the palace doctor. "I apologize for my lateness, Your Majesties," the old man pants, quickly opening his medical bag. "I am an old man who has been abruptly woken in the middle of the night."

We make our way out of the inner chambers, leaving the doctor to his work. My mates must be furious at me. But how could I not have suspected that Rhea is the monster while all the glaring evidence points towards her.

"I... I'm sorry," I say to them. "I truly believed... with everything that happened with the maids and her sudden changes, it felt like too much of a coincidence. I had a misunderstanding of the situation."

They stop pacing and turns to look at me.

"We are not the ones you are supposed to be apologizing to, Rosia," Aeries says.

"He’s right," Aerion adds, crossing his arms over his broad chest. "You owe your sister an apology. That is if you still want to keep your family whole."

Their demand wakes up my defensive instinct. The guilt is there but so is my intuition. She has proved she has a wolf, but it doesn't explain the dead servants.

"I am not apologizing to her," I say stubbornly. "Not until the actual monster is captured and I see it with my own eyes."

She's no longer my number one suspect, but that doesn't mean it still can't be her. There is still too much left unanswered. Like her growing breasts.

My mates let out a collective, frustrated sighs.

"What else do you want her to show you so that you will finally believe she is not the monster?" Aerius demands. "She literally risked her life just to appease your paranoia!"

"It will only be disgraceful if you do not apologize to your sister, love," Aerion intervenes. "Everyone in this palace will be gossiping that the Kings' mate branded her own traumatized sister a monster. How do you think that will make you look?"

"Jealous. I know." I scoff.

"Dear, we are just saying your behavior tonight has been completely irrational—" Aerius start to say and I cut him off.

"I do not care if anyone else in this damn palace thinks I am jealous of my sister's beauty....unless it’s what you think?"

None of them speak.

I let a humorless laugh, "You actually think I am framing my sister because I am jealous of her beauty, huh?"

"That's not what we're saying, Rosia. Just calm down and let's think about this logically," Aerius pleads, stepping forward with his hands raised in a placating gesture.

"Don't you touch me!" I spit. " And hope it doesn't turn out that I'm right."

I storm out of the before they can say more.