Rising from the Ashes

Hatred

Chapter 5

Tybolt’s pov

It is a strange feeling to feel so much hatred for your own flesh and blood. I am not even sure when it started, and I can’t help at times but wonder if my own indifference to her caused her to become as evil as she has done.

After what my step sister and step mother did to betray me, I vowed that I would never let another use and harm my loved ones like that again. Even if that person was a member of my family, they would not get to make a fool out of me.

I didn’t always feel that way when Regina, our little queen, was born. I adored her as much as our other children. She looked identical to my little fire bird, and at the time, it made me love her even more. As the years went on, I resented it.

How dare she look so much like my beautiful, loving, and selfless mate when she was so vile. We knew she held the phoenix just like Crimson did, and I just couldn’t understand it at all. Only the pure hearted contained the phoenix. The gods made one hell of a mistake, and I could only hope she would never shift.

My little treasure Sophia had always clung to me more than her twin and brother. I had loved that she was a total daddies girl. I was excited that Regina was the same at first anyway. I guess she didn’t like to share, so she started to be a brat and upset her siblings.

At the time we put it down to toddler tantrums, we had been lucky that the other three hadn’t gone through that, as we had heard how stressful a stage that was to a parent. They weren’t wrong, Regina was a demon as a toddler.

I thought the best way to deal with it was to deprive her of the attention she was so desperate to get to show her bad behaviour is not rewarded. When things settled down again, she started to get my attention again.

Each time, though, she took advantage and started to act up again, I just couldn’t understand her motivation for it. She was finally getting my attention again, but she just wanted more and more, good or bad, it didn’t matter to her. I prayed she would grow out of it soon.

I have no idea where I went wrong with everything. When she made herself physically ill, I was at a loss. We were so worried about her as supernaturals don’t get ill, only to discover there was absolutely nothing wrong with her.

I knew it was the truth no matter how much she argued because as soon as her game was caught on to it miraculously stopped. Storm was no help he was always buzzing in my ear to be nicer, determined there was more to the story.

I couldn’t entirely blame him for it. Our beasts are hardwired to protect their kin. He just couldn’t stop himself from it, wanting to make sure his whelp was fine. I didn’t want him to encourage her and make her act out more.

I realised that it had gone way too far when my little treasure ran to me terrified. She had blood on her, and I had no idea what the hell was going on. I hugged until she calmed, gave her a drink of water, and drank mine just to encourage her.

The next thing I know, I am seeing red, and I have slapped Regina. I got quickly pushed back into my mind by Storm as he rushed to the hospital with her in his arms. He was so fu.cking angry at me, and I couldn't understand why when he should be worried more about Sophia.

I couldn’t believe my daughter would be so out of control that she would mutilate herself just to get me to hate her sister. What kind of monster were we bringing up. I knew it had to be kept under wraps as my dad and Crimson would never believe she did this to herself they were always worried about her.

I made sure that no one who had seen Regina would speak about it to anyone using my king command to keep their mouths sealed. I made sure she was confined to her room until she recovered, glad that Crimson and my dad were off somewhere else, so they didn’t get suspicious.

I was angry when Crimson then pulled Regina out of school as she was being bullied. Julius told me everyone was calling her crazy because of how she acted with Sophia, and I thought she deserved to be treated that way.

All we were doing was letting her away with the sh.it she done. I had to concede to it when Crimson said she would have to move with Regina so she would have a safe school environment if she wasn’t home schooled.

I was livid that Regina was getting her way yet again. But I couldn’t lose my firebird because of her, so I agreed against my better judgement. It turned out fine in the end, Regina didn’t disturb our work or alone time. She just stayed in her room on the computer.

Her grades even improved, I thought that she was finally settling down, and things were going to be fine. With her making the effort, I tried to as well. She had stopped wanting to be around me lately, and it hurt if I was being honest.

I had just tried to be a good father to all of my children, and it felt like she was punishing me for it. She only spoke to me when I directly asked her something. She was the same with her siblings, so I tried to show her that if she was good, I would show her love.

Yet again, that was a mistake I made. The more I tried, the more trouble she caused. She was harming herself to a ridiculous level whenever her mum wasn’t around. Then she would refuse to be near anyone and eat alone unless forced.

I am not proud of myself when I say I was relieved that she started spending more time away staying with Louis and Liana, but I was. The whole family was strained because of this, and I never thought I would say this, but I genuinely disliked her.

My little Sophia, ever the loving and worried child, told me she was worried that everyone would think we were bad people as Regina didn’t want to be with us. She didn’t want anyone saying anything mean about her dad because of her sister.

It was sweet and showed a level of care and maturity beyond her years. I insisted that Regina had to be present at events and gatherings. From what I had heard, she was an angel for Louis and Liana, so she may be able to behave around us again.

It didn’t work at all, every time she was here there were problems. My relationship with Crimson was being affected by it, and my resentment grew towards her until it turned into full-blown hatred. I could no longer keep it in, even in public.

It pi.ssed me off when all of my friends, who lead their kingdoms, talked to me like it was somehow my fault. I didn’t hold back in telling exactly what a manipulative, scheming brat she was. Yet still, they talked to me like there was something I was doing wrong.

The only blessing was that at least now I didn’t have to put on a show anymore. She could stay away with them as much as she liked now. I just didn’t like the fact that it upset Crimson so much, I hated to see her so sad because she missed Regina so I stopped complaining when she went away for a few nights to be near her

Storm had stopped trying to speak to me a while ago, as I never listened to him and took iron to keep him from taking over. I was worried he would tell Crimson or Ember things, and it would damage our relationship more.

It was fractured enough to the point I could feel the heat from Crimson’s fire, which I had never done before. If it kept going this way, I would soon end up being able to be burned by it. It was just yet another reason to hate Regina. She had ruined my bond with her mother.

I ended up spending more time trying to work on that than the kingdom and agreeing to whatever Crimson wanted to, to try and repair the damage between us. It had seemed like it was starting to work until I got a tearful call from Sophia just after midnight not even an hour into Regina’s 18th birthday.

She just couldn’t stop herself from hurting everyone around her, and now she had landed herself in a cell. She deserved everything that would happen to her. I didn’t tell Crimson about the call as I knew she would go there demanding her to be let out. She could stay there for the night and maybe finally see the consequences of her actions.