CHAPTER EIGHT - DERRY

THE EMERAL KINGDOM

DERON

Lyxias elated laughter was the only thing that annoyed me more than the news that had just been reported.

‘Valerie Mo'monte, the to be mate of his Lordship Alpha Emeral attacked and flee the Emeral castle. She was hunted and killed a few days ago.’

I held the newspaper to my face, staring at the boldly written words as my hands shook with anxiety. Lyxia laughed in an excitement I could not understand. How was this funny?

Jack tried to act proud, I looked straight through the ugly mask of boldness he wore as a shadow over his face and saw the fear that lay behind. Even he knew that Valerie would be more of a threat to herself than she could ever be to anyone else. She had suffered and was left like a an empty shell.

Something didn’t add up. Her murder was more suspicious than the mismatched newspaper I held in my hands.

“We’ll all I can say is good riddance!” Jack exclaimed, eyeing Lyxia and hoping to gain some further acknowledgment and favours from her.

“Well, if she’s dead that means the mating ceremony would just have to be cancelled!” Lyxia said cheerily and it was say that moment that I started to wonder, ‘Why did she hate Valerie so much? Why did Jack dislike his sister as if she had done him some grave pain in a different life?

It was true that Valerie hadn’t managed to shift since her sixteenth birthday, it was an abnormally but still it wasn’t reason enough to put her life into such a loathsome and abusive way.

“And how is that any good?!” My voice was colder than I expected. I saw the expression on both their faces change to something more confusing.

“How does the fact that she has finally been killed any good?!!” I banged my hand on the cabinet that sat beside Jacks door.

His room was fairly large, darker blue paint and several oil paintings of his ages fixed to the walls.

Jack was dumbfounded. I could see the look of shame on his face.

“Derry— ”

I cringed at the nickname.

“Don’t call me that!!!” I scolded. The girls heart was as ugly as she was beautiful.

“What’s the problem? You hated her too didn’t you? You taunted her just as much as we did and said nothing when we humiliated her!”

That’s right. I did watch, I was silence, I said nothing nor did I ever try to speak up for her.

Guilt weighed on me like a heavy load and my heart dropped as I felt a wet cold under my skin.

Why was I feeling this way now? Was it because she was dead?

Why was it now that I was realising that I was no different from her devil brother and the witch-tess Lyxia.

“She was your sister!” I say slowly before slamming the door behind me as I tramped down the stairs.

When I got to the parlour of their mansion I was met with a rather glum Mrs Mo'monte. She carried a large box that I assumed had Valerie’s belongings inside. It was custom that a persons things be burnt when they have been deceased, it was believed that it helped them pass on to the after life.

“I’m sorry—”

But I was cut off by her loud sobs. The box fell to the ground and she buried her face in my chest.

“She really loved you Deron…” sob, sob, “she really did!”

I wasn’t sure if she spoke out of grief or she meant true to what she was saying.

I patted her back slowly, allowing the woman to pour away her tears into my plain white shirt.

Sticking out of the box was a small passport. Valerie’s passport. I would recognize her beautiful face even if it was a baby version of her.

Setting Mrs Mo'monte on the nearest sofa I stylishly grabbed the passport and shoved it into my pants pocket. A reminder maybe, some sort of way to escape the guilt I felt or just another strange way I coped with grief, anyone it was I knew the passport would be a nice reminder of her.

I see Lyxia coming down the stairs. I pretended to do more consolation to a grieving Mrs Mo'monte. Even Lyxia wouldn’t dare gloat over Valerie’s death in the presence of her mother.

“I need to…” With that I made for the door. When I stepped out into their large front yard I noticed Lyxia stalking behind me.

“Hey…” I stopped. The sun was high above. It was too much a bright day for the devastating news that I had just received. It was like no one cared that she was gone… no one cared that she was even a person! That she was ever alive. Was this how her world always was? Cold and filled with emptiness? How had she managed to stay alive? Didn’t the full weight of depression totally eat her up till she had nothing left?

“I’m sorry for how I… was behaving about the news…”

Her fake show of sympathy angered me even more and I clenched my fists in annoyance to keep myself from throwing my hard knuckles at her perfect face.

“Yeah right, you’re just saying this now… you don’t really mean it!” It was impossible for Lyxia to actually feel anything like sympathy towards Valerie, I probably had a better chance at giving birth than she would ever at feeling sympathy for her.

“Does it really matter? Your father is the one who killed her! Shouldn’t he be blamed?!”

“You dare?”

“Or what you gonna do Lyxia?” I barked. “Tell the damned Alpha Emeral to kill me too?”

I saw the defeat in her eyes. Lyxia had a soft spot for me, one which I had constantly used to gain advantage and getting favours from the ruling house of our kingdom.

“You know I can’t do that…” Her voice was small.

“Yeah, just as I thought! Doesn’t this all sound too suspicious even for you?!” I turned around, staring at her in the eyes.

“One day she was forced to your father, and the next she ‘attacks and flees?’”

Lyxia looked at me expectantly, like there was a lot more I should add and nothing seemed too suspicious to her from what had happened.

“Yeah, I should I have known…”

With that I walked away.  If no one else was going to figure out the truth behind this all then I guess I had to do it myself.

Taking out the crumpled up passport I had hid in my pockets I carefully placed it under my tongue.

I feel the vibration within my being. The tingling sensation and somewhat electric impulses inside my bones before my skin rips like a ballon and body morphs into a more powerful form.

My wolf was a large night-black colour with a prominent white patch around its left eye. I gave Lyxia a long stare before trampling off back in the direction of my family manor.

It was unusual to see a shifted wolf trotting in broad day light but I didn’t care, the citizens of the kingdom could all go to hell for all I cared.

When I reached the back of my family’s manor I let go of my wolf. I leaped for the windows and helped myself into my room.

The familiar scent of my pack family filled my nose once more. The new gory smell of the Mo'monte house was now enough to make me sick.

I quickly drew on a new pair of pants just in time as the room door was pushed open. My junior sister stood at the door. Myla was a ten year old younger, the girl might have been young but she was already able to perform a full shift under a full moon. It was something she was glorified for and it made her too proud for age.

I removed the crumpled paper from my mouth and tucked it under my pillow.

“Mom was worried about you!” She scolded, her hands akimbo.

“I was at Jacks, and Lyxia was there too…”

I collapsed on my bed. The weight of the recent evens finally taking its full toll on me. The building  my up emotion that I had been holding back was slowly becoming overwhelming.

“Mom doesn’t trust the Mo'monte anymore… she said that they have secrets…”

It was hard to tell if what Myla said was babble or if she was just exaggerating the extent of my mothers words.

“Yeah, we all have secrets now don’t we Myla?”

“Come down for lunch! Dad would soon be back from work and you know how he gets when we haven’t eaten…”

She left without another word, I stared at the matching green top and shorts she wore as she walked away.

Once I was alone again I took out the crumpled up paper I hid under my pillow. Looking at the baby passport of Valerie it warmed my heart just knowing that she once had a smile on her face even if it was she as a baby.

Flicking the passport in my palm it opened. Curious, I pulled it apart and realized it wasn’t just a a passport it was a larger piece of document.

A birth certificate.

My eyes zoom to the date. It was a ‘9th July, 10:00am’

My heart skipped a beat, this must have been a typo.

Ninth Julywas Jacks birthday the only difference being that he was born at 3:00pm. He had made us know the exact moment of his birth during every birthday celebration.

I scanned the document. This couldn’t have been fake.

Does this mean that the Mo'monte house had somehow raised Valerie as the year younger child to Jack?

My head almost spun as I sat up, the sudden dizziness made me feel nauseous.

If this was real that meant that Valerie was the actual heir to the house Mo'monte.