Royal Rebel

C H A P T E R 1 - Marcel.

The streets were chaos—and the moment that I stepped out of the building, it became a tenfold worse, and I knew that the chances of being able to do anything about the situation in my present form, was none. There was no slim to none. Because it was none. There was no way in hell that a wolf, one of the things that thy feared, would be able to calm them down, especially not when it was the very same thing that they were running away from.

And the fact that majority of them must have seen Hera run out here only moments ago, did not make this situation better. I wouldn’t have held them accountable if they started to think that this was a full-blown invasion—majority of them had never had the chance to see one of us, let alone too, so it was only natural for them to go running into the distance.

But I shouldn’t be worrying about any of them, shouldn’t be worrying about any of them, because in all honesty, how they were feeling at the moment, didn’t mean a thing to me. I didn’t even care if some of them collapsed a mile down the street and died from a heart attack—because I had much more important things to worry about, much more important people to focus on.

And that was Hera.

I needed to find her. I needed to find her and make sure that she was alright, make sure that she wasn’t succumbing to her wolf—that would be even more disastrous than this current situation. I couldn’t even begin to think about the amount of bloodshed that we would have to deal with in such an instance, and although I trusted that Aurora would be able to work through the current situation with little to no repercussions, I had a feeling that the moment a human life was caught in the crossfire, things would become much more difficult.

I picked up on Hera’s scent in an instant, something that I believed to be blamed on many small things—one of them being the fact that it was the only scent that wasn’t human, therefore making it one of the most noticeable scents in the air. And then there was the fact that she was my mate—my body and mind were practically trained to pick up on her scent, on her presence, on her whereabouts. There was no way in hell that there would have been anyone else more fitted to find her than I was.

I took off after her as soon as I was certain of her direction, as soon as I had made the distinguish between her actual direction and the direction that the wind was going. I nearly sunk to my knees and let out a prayer of thanks when I realised that she was running in the general direction of the docks, in the general direction of where Aurora would have made sure that her boat had docked itself—which would be exactly where it had docked when we had arrived here those few days ago.

In all honesty, it felt inaccurate for me to say that it was simply a few days ago, when it felt like it was a literal lifetime ago. So much had happened, so much had changed, and it had all been things that you would never have expected to happen, things that you would never have dared to try and prepare for—because you would have felt like you were preparing for a rainy day in the middle of a decade long drought.

                Where are you, Hera?

I knew that it was a long shot, but it was definitely worth the try, worth the effort—because even if it failed, I would have the peace of mind knowing that I had tried, knowing that I had done the very best that I could to find her before the turn of events was too drastic.

The words bounced around in my mind as if they were nothing more than mere thoughts, as if I was the only person who could hear them, as if I was thinking them to myself instead of trying to communicate with her through the mind-link, through our mate bond—through whatever link it was that I hoped that I had succeeded in tethering to her.

                Why are you in my head?

I could have let out a cry of relief, which this time, would have been likely to end up as a howl of relief, but I somehow managed to keep myself in check, managed to contain it. I couldn’t believe that it had worked. I couldn’t believe it. She was actually able to mind-like, actually able to communicate telepathically just like the rest of our species could—and that was a big development, considering the fact that a few hours ago, she was unable to shift.

                Hera, you need to go to the docks. We need to leave.

                What are you doing in my head?

It was only then that I realised that it wasn’t the usual tone with which Hera spoke to me. No. It wasn’t even similarly close to the tone that she usually used on me. She sounded strangely angry and upset—something that I couldn’t blame her for—but that didn’t mean that I was accepting of the fact that that was the manner with which she was speaking to me.

I was trying to help her. I was really trying to help her, to help us, to make sure that both of us managed to survive this dark night with all of our limbs intact, as well as our lives. I didn’t want anything to go any more wrong than it had, wanted to put a stop to this downward spiral that we seemed to be in.

                Hera, I’m just trying to help. Please go to the docks. I’ll meet you there. I promise.

                You need to get out of my head!

It seemed like her anger was only getting worse and worse with every sentence that we spoke, with every word that she heard me say, and I was forced to start considering the possibility that perhaps it was me with whom she was upset, perhaps she was actually irritated with the fact that I was busy invading her personal space, that I was busy talking to her while she thought that she was alone—and she must have no idea how to block me out.

Knowing that the angrier she got, the more difficult it would be likely to be when I wanted to calm her down, which meant that I needed to tone things down as much as I could. And if that meant that I needed to stop speaking to her, if that was what it would take, then so be it. There were some things that had bitterly expensive prices to pay for them, and this happened to be one of them.

But instead of moping about the decision that I had practically been forced to make, I picked up my pace, doing my very best to go as fast as I could, to catch up to Hera, wherever she was, wherever it was that I was going. Her scent was still very strong in the air, which meant that I had not yet strayed off course—that was one of the few things that made it possible for me to disconnect the mind-link.

I could already see the docks appearing through the opening that was made between the buildings, and I took it as a sign that I was close, that I was nearly there. But that didn’t really help in much terms, because finding the docks, did not mean that I had found Hera.

If she was thinking logically at all, she would be there—her scent was leading there—and she would be going straight to the boat. I just prayed that that was the case. I could not recall ever praying as hard as I was at the moment, because there was honestly not a single thing that mattered to me as much as this, not a single thing that I would have been willing to sacrifice my love for as I was willing to sacrifice it for Hera—as I was busy sacrificing it for Hera.

I finally reached the docks, and when I turned to look in the upwards and downwards directions of the street, I couldn’t help the relief that settled into my bones as I took note of the white blob that was running away from the place where I was currently standing—but then again, it could also be that she was actually running towards the boat, which was docked some ways away from the place were I was currently standing.

I immediately took off after her, because I knew that the moment she jumped onto that boat, they would leave. They all knew what was happening, and even they didn’t they would be bound to notice the two of us and prepare everything that was required for their departure. They had the common sense that was required to know that they had to be alert at the moment, that they were on standby for disaster—and I would dare to say that this was way more than a simple disaster.

I became aware of the vague drone of a vehicle and I couldn’t help turning my head to see why it was close enough for me to hear it, and why it sounded like it was coming closer and closer—and to my complete and utter surprise, it was Hades, with his entire family packed into his car.

And I wouldn’t go as far as calling myself a genius, but anyone with common sense would know that Hades was either here because he was making sure that Hera made it to the boat alright, or it was because he was leaving with us.