Chapter Two: Family Reunion

Stacie’s POV

One of the things that came with being a shifter was not liking water. And my father told me it was something about what it did to our fur.

It was also one of the easiest ways to know how close our wolf was. Like now, for the last week, I had been a little uncomfortable with my morning showers and didn’t even want to take the night ones.

I knew for certain that my wolf was coming soon and I couldn’t wait to get it. At the very least, it could have helped me right now.

Jamie had to stay in his human form because he had to save me and guide me since we couldn’t link in our wolf form. And so despite being stronger in his wolf form, he had stayed weak to protect me. 

But because he had given his life to save mine, I was even more determined to escape from these bastards and betrayals. So that someday, I would come back and make them pay for what they had done to him. 

To my Jamie. 

“Ouch!” I cried out as my foot smashing against a hard object sent me falling over. I cursed out, pain shooting through every part of my body. But this was not the time to pay attention to my pain or how I was feeling. 

And so I got up in less than a second, dashing forward towards the tree house that Jamie had told me about. I had a feeling that when I got there, I was going to find a way out of here. A way for me to get the vengeance that my heart was burning for. 

“A family reunion at last,” A familiar voice rang out behind me and I froze because I knew exactly who that voice belonged to. 

“Uncle Daniel!” I turned back and lunged into the arms of my godfather and my father’s right-hand man. His Beta. 

Since Uncle Daniel wasn’t married, he spent more time in the palace than anywhere else and he spoiled me to the nine heavens. And so, despite not being related by blood, he was dearer to me than any of my biological uncles. 

“Uncle Daniel, they have betrayed us,” I cried, allowing all of the pain and anger I was feeling to show now that I was in his embrace. 

“My darling princess, who are they?” Uncle Daniel asked softly, his hands rubbing soothing circles on my back. 

“I don’t know, but I think I saw one of the pack elders killing a palace guard. And then…” My words trailed off as I realized that I had no idea what exactly was going on.

One of my uncles had killed a palace guard but just now, the palace guards had harmed Jamie.

Who exactly was the enemy?

“My little princess, still as naive as ever.” Uncle said as he pulled away a little, his hands cupping my face.

“Even now, you still don’t understand what’s happening here.” Uncle Daniel said and this time, his face morphed into a smile that had goosebumps rising all over my skin.

“Uncle Daniel, what are you talking about?”

He crackled with laughter, letting go of me so he could bend over to laugh.

I look around properly now, realizing that I had arrived at the tree house but Mom and Dad were nowhere to be found.

Did they send Uncle Daniel? Something about Dad felt weird and uncomfortable.

My dad was not the type to trust someone completely. Besides my mom, me, and Jamie, there was no one else that he gave his full trust.

But since desperate times call for desperate measures, it was very possible that Daddy had no choice.

“Aren’t you here for your parents, little princess?” Daniel asked and I nodded.

“Yes, a little family reunion, unfortunately, you my princess might have to stop being the princess today.”

I looked back at the palace I had just left behind,  and I sighed.

Not being a princess was not a big deal. The most important part was being safe with my parents.

“Grab her and let her see where that father of hers is!” Daniel barked out from behind me. I turn, wanting to see what’s happening but he was faster than me as several men grab my two arms and force me to yield to their command.

Daniel stalked off, and the men holding on to me followed him. I didn’t stop struggling, the understanding of what exactly was happening here was already real to me.

My godfather, Uncle Daniel, had betrayed my father. Had betrayed me and betrayed his pack.

“I’m tempted to keep you, my little princess, and maybe even Selina. But that’s going to be such a risk. I can’t have the two of you hating me. I’d rather you both are happy underground than having to live with the sad and bitter memory of what would happen to your father.”

Daniel rambled on with every step he took and there was a part of me that desperately wanted to grow some superpowers, superpowers strong enough to take him down right this moment.

He walked back into the palace and several palace guards bowed as soon as they saw him.

“Bastards!” I cursed out, my words earning me a kick on the back of my leg.

I scoffed, while I tried to think of the best way to get out of this.

Unlike when I had left the palace with Jamie, the palace hallways were silent now with dead bodies loitering the hallway.

As we neared the palace doors, I started to hear a great deal of noise again and I frowned subconsciously.

What was going on here?

“Where’s the Queen and King?” I asked one of the guards. I hadn’t seen them by the treehouse and they were not around here also.

So where could they be?

The guards pulled the large mahogany doors apart, revealing a crowd right in front of the hall.

Some people were tied with ropes while some were kicking at the others.

There were also some people that just stood idly, watching the whole thing that was happening.

As soon as they noticed our group come in, most of them curtsied and parted ways for us.

I wanted to speak and ask for help, to let them know that Uncle Daniel was a traitor and an evil schemer but before I could say a word, the crowd in front of us parted to the center and revealed the two most important people to me.

Father and mother, tied up together with their backs against each other.

Everything around me became a blur as I felt my knees hit the ground.

“Father!!!”

“Mother!!”

I screamed with all my heart as if my scream was going to make the people here realize that this was wrong.

They couldn’t abandon their Alpha. Father had fought so many battles for the pack.

He had grown the pack from a pack no one had known to a pack that a lot of rogue wolves wanted to join.

A sharp kick pulled me out of my thoughts and I raised my head to meet Uncle Daniel’s cold gaze.

“Why are you making so much noise? My patience for you is quite thin, princess.” He barked and I shivered from the suppression that was coming from his body. 

“Please save them..” I begged.

Revenge could come any other day as long as my father and mother were safe.

But Uncle Daniel sneered as he glanced at the two of them that were tied.

“Your father is too weak to be our Alpha. We can’t let him have that position and rule over people like me who are far stronger than me…” He paused, looking at the crowd.

“If you support saving the old Alpha, step forward. Perhaps if there’s enough of you, I might consider your pleas.”

Hope filled my heart as more than a hundred people stepped forward.

“Save the life of the Alpha. He lived his life for us all!” Someone started and soon all of them that had stepped forward were chanting it.

“Good! Good!” Uncle Daniel clapped. His action immediately made the whole place quiet as people didn’t understand what he was doing.

“Guards, kill all of them here! We don’t need them in my pack.”

I don’t know if it was my scream or the scream of the hundred that had stepped forward that was loudest. All I knew was piercing screams filled the air.

Right in front of everyone, heads started to roll on the floor while blood splashed everywhere.

With every slash and scream, there was more blood soaking up the sand. At one point, I became numb and my body trembling was the only reaction I had.

By this time, Uncle Daniel had walked away from me to where Father was.

“Alfred, see me taking down all these lives that you have built so carefully. All of the walls that you have built. Everything would go down with you tonight.” Uncle Daniel boasted and his followers hooted in excitement at his words.

I looked at his supporters, marking their faces in my mind because if I somehow managed to get through this alive, every single person that was killed here today was going to be avenged by me.

My father was stronger than Uncle Daniel. However, he was all bound up right now and could barely do anything.

The chances were as low as they could get.

“Who should I take first, your daughter or wife?” Uncle Daniel asked. He bent down and removed the tape that had sealed Father’s lips all this while.

“You bastard!! If you dare to lay your hands on either of them, I’ll make your life a living hell!!”

Uncle Daniel sneered, unaffected by his threat.

“Your life is in my hands, you dare think that I would be affected by some threat? You are a dead man already, Alfred. All you have to do is pick…”

Uncle Daniel paused and looked over at me.

“Your Queen or your princess??”

Mother raised her head up as though searching for something and her eyes met with mine. The intense emotions in her eyes had me tearing up immediately.

“Mother…”

“T..take me first.” Mother’s hoarse voice rang out and in what seemed lesser than a minute, Uncle Daniel pulled out a sword and sent her head flying in the air.

Dread and emptiness filled me and I felt everything around me start to fade.

First, it was Jamie and now it was my mother.

Everyone that mattered to me was being taken away one way or the other and the tears that rolled down my eyes could barely show the heart-wrenching pain I was going through.

Father’s shoulders sagged while his body was still connected with Mother’s body was stained with blood.

Uncle Daniel walked towards me and every thought of revenge left my body. There was no point in living anymore.

There was no reason for me to be alive anymore. Being dead was the better choice at this point.

Perhaps Uncle Daniel sensed my dread but his blood-stained sword stopped right above my head while one of the men walked up to him and whispered in her ears.

“Ah! In that case, tie her up tighter and take her along with them.”

“I’ll finish Alfred up.” Those were the last words I heard before the darkness took over.