The guard that had pretended to be asleep by the door made a show of stretching and yawning when Captain Dolion kicked his boot as he passed him on the way back in. “Get up sergeant. I have a job for you tonight.”“I don’t want a job tonight. I had to cover for Jackson this morning.”“Does this change your mind,” Dolion asked as he threw a couple of the bills that the advisor gave him. “What’s the job,” the sergeant asked as he picked up the money and began to count it. “Follow me,” Captain Dolion said and he motioned to two other guards as well. They followed him into another smaller side room. “Listen the King’s advisor wants to keep this hush hush. I know that I can trust all of you to keep your mouth shut, right?”Everyone around Captain Dolion nodded. “Good. All we have to do is make sure that no one leaves the princesses rooms tonight.”“What for,” one of the other guards asked.“I don’t know,” Captain Dolion said, “but we are getting paid enough extra not to care, right,”
Gianna hurried to the door as soon as she heard the knock. It was almost time. All they had to do was eat, pretend to go to sleep, and then make a run for it. She had checked over everything that she and Sophia planned to bring one last time to make sure that they had everything that she could think of that they might need. Opening the door, Gianna forced a relaxed smile, and hoped that the maid delivering their dinner took note that she was already dressed for bed. Gianna’s smile almost faltered when she saw a stern-faced guard holding the try with their dinner on it. “I’m so sorry,” Gianna said, recovering quickly. “Let me take that,” she said as she went to take the tray. “Let me carry it. The tray is right heavy,” the guard said, quickly stepping past Gianna, and easily kicking the door shut with his heavy booted foot as he easily carried the tray. “Thank you,” Gianna said as she hurried to move a few of Sophia’s school books off of the table in front of the sofa so that
“Let’s go,” Gianna said with what she hoped was a reassuring smile, as they quickly made their way to the door. Gianna let her wolf come forward just enough to help heighten her senses, but not enough that her eyes would change. Opening the door, she was relieved to see just the guard there, and that he was carefully scanning up and down the hall. “Ready,” the guard whispered. “Yes. We have everything,” Gianna whispered back as she quietly stepped out into the hallway, keeping Sophia behind her. “Good. Follow me,” the guard whispered as he quickly turned and begane to make his way down the opposite way that Gianna had planned. “Why this way,” she whispered as they quickly caught up to him. “Trust me,” the guard said as he guided them up against the wall and motioned for them to be silent, as soon as they came to an intersection in the hallway. Gianna looked down so that she could hide her eyes, and let her wolf come forward a little more. The guard eased a little closer to t
“We can just go somewhere else then,” Sophia pleaded one last time. “I have a feeling that if you go back, you won’t come back.” ““The shifter kingdom is our best bet. They do not like Keres, and maybe I can learn about my father there. There might even be family that will take us in for a while at least. I promise I’ll be back,” Gianna said as she pulled Sophia in for a quick hug. “Stay here,” she said as she slipped off her backpack and put it between a bush and a tree. With one last quick smile, Gianna hurried off, carefully making her way back to the cave that the guard had brought them through maybe fifteen minutes ago. “Please don’t go,” Sophia whispered as she watched Gianna quickly making her way along the rocks. Sophia watched her sister till she disappeared in the cave. Once Gianna was out of sight Sophia slid her backpack off and put it on the ground with Gianna’s. She pulled the rain jacket that Gianna had packed her out, and slipped it on to help block the wind. It wa
Okay. You can do this, Gianna told herself as she let her wolf come forward to help sharpen her senses. She hurried back the way that they had just come, following the rapidly fading scents. With her sharpened scenes Gianna was able to move quicker, and soon found herself back at the door the guard had led them through earlier. Holding her breath, Gianna listened to see if she heard any sounds on the other side of the hidden door. Not hearing anything, she carefully opened the door just a crack to make sure there was nothing to hear over the pounding of her own heart. Once she confirmed that the coast was indeed clear, Gianna pushed back her wolf and stepped quietly into the hallway. Making sure that the door was covered, she quickly made her way back to their rooms. Peaking around the last corner, Gianna was relieved to see that no one was in the hallway. Good, she thought to herself, they have not had a shift change yet. Gianna quickly sprinted to the door and closed it softly b
Gianna sighed as she sat through another meeting that her cousin Keres, excuse me, King Keres was holding. Ever since Keres took his father, King Victor’s, place last month after his very unexpected death, Keres had been forcing her to come to these meetings where he was basically trying to undo everything that her parents and uncle had worked so hard to put in place. After being at war on and off with different kingdoms for the past one hundred plus years, they were finally at peace and most everyone in the kingdom was content. Gianna’s step father and her mother, the former king and queen, had worked very hard brokering peace treaties with many of the other kingdoms. After the accident that took their lives a little over two years ago, her step father’s brother, Victor, had continued on in their place with trying to garner additional peace treaties. Listening to Keres and hearing his greed underlined in everything that he is doing, Giannna knew that it was only a matter of time bef
After another two hours of listening to Keres talk about himself and how great his plans are, the meeting was finally over. Everyone knew to remain seated until Keres had left. Once he was gone, everyone relaxed a little and they slowly began to rise and make their way out of the conference room. Gianna quickly got up with the others and offered a polite smile and nod as a form of goodby at the three advisors that glanced her way. She no longer tried to speak to anyone in the room once Keres was gone. The others had made it very obvious that none of them could or would talk to her. She had made that mistake just once a few weeks ago. Gianna had tried to carefully speak to a few advisors, council members, and generals that had once been very close to her parents. She had wanted to see why they were suddenly supporting all of the crazy proposals that Keres was issuing. The nice ones were the ones that blatantly told Gianna that they would not talk to her or completely avoided her att
Keres turned and slammed the door to his royal office after dismissing his guards. How dare Gianna not pay attention while he was presenting ideas to expand their future again. She never wants to pay him or his ideas any real attention. Why? Does she really think that little brat of a sister of hers can rule any better? Scoffing, Keres stalked over to the large fireplace that was centered on the wall to the right of his desk. Reaching the fireplace, he grabbed a decorative vase from the mantle that upon closer inspection he realized was rather crude. Turning the vase over to see who the maker was of something so pitiful, he saw Gianna engraved on the bottom.Seeing her name reminded him again of her questioning his ideas today in front of his advisors and generals, and his fist clenched around the vase. She was bolder today. Normally she keeps her thoughts to herself. Normally just the contempt shows on her face. With a frustrated yell Keres flung the vase into the fireplace shatteri