The Troublemaker's Daughter (Royal Romance)

4. Dad

One second, I was just watching, fascinated, Peter and Jeff fight Shane and a few other werewolves; the next, I was being attacked myself.

“You’re the reason this is happening!” Before the young shewolf could land a hit on me, however, Ace stopped her fist mid-air rather easily and said in a sweet voice that wasn’t fooling anyone, “I wouldn’t do that.”

“I’m not scared of p*****s,” she snickered, addressing him, completely ignoring me. “She’s going down.”

“Not if I have a say in it,” he retorted simply.

His stance wasn’t that of someone prepared to fight to the death if push came to shove, yet the expression on his face said he would gladly put his life on the line for me.

He loved me so much, I was left breathless –speechless too.

“Move,” she growled. “My beef ain’t with you, leech.”

“I’m not letting you anywhere near my mate,” were the words he used.

“Your mate?” She snickered for the second time while addressing him, and a strong need to put her back in her place filled me for some reason. Nobody talks to Ace that way! “She’s been seducing our omega since she first laid eyes on him.”

Ace’s eyes narrowed at her but he didn’t say a thing in return, and I felt his pain through our developed mate bond.

Only when emotions are really intense do you get to experience your mate’s feelings before even mating… and it was happening, he must be really sad about what she said.

“Don’t listen to her,” I told him, trying to lift his spirits up.

It was at the exact same moment the words left my mouth that she decided to strike.

Neither her punches nor her kicks landed on Ace. He dodged some and parried some others so effortlessly –without having to even move from his spot, only turning left and right from time to time– I started to wonder if she was really fighting to the best of her abilities in human form.

She is, the sensible part of me said while observing how the shewolf had gotten breathless over time.

Ace was just serious for once, and I realized I had never in my almost two years of life seen him fight seriously someone.

“Back down, pup,” he told her simply. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

One moment, he was solely focused on her, the next, he glanced towards me, or behind me to be more precise, and I sensed a power surge barely a second later.

“Stop!” The deep voice I knew only too much boomed.

“Dad,” I breathed out, partly happy to see him intervene and put an end to this mockery, partly angry because I didn’t get to enjoy watching Ace fighting seriously.

At first nobody but Ace and my bodyguards paid my father’s word any mind, the werewolves thinking they had the upper hand now for some reason tried to fight still against defenseless opponents, but an invisible force held them in place.

“I said stop!” My father repeated, revealing his inner strength, making all the werewolves drop to the ground, head bowed, whimpers leaving their mouths.

Only Shane didn’t react that way. I felt proud to have picked a werewolf strong enough to fight off my father’s dominating aura. But after looking at him some more, I noticed that his posture was stiff, his head slightly bowed, and his hands were fisted by his side, blood seeping from one of his hands.

It was all he could do not to give in to the urge of submitting as well.

Humans, on the other hand, had suffered some disturbing malfunctions. Some had peed themselves from fright, and some others had dropped to the ground, unconscious.

As for Ace and my bodyguards, their reactions were quite different from the lot. Ace held his right hand over his dead unbeating heart, head held high, eyes looking straight at my father’s, conveying his loyalty to him. Peter and Jeff, however, had both knelt on one knee, head bowed, and simply said in quivering voices, “Your Highness.”

One might be curious as to how I felt and reacted… well, I was The Troublemaker’s daughter, I couldn’t be afraid of him. I was only afraid of what he would do. My mother, who stood by his side, didn’t react at all.

Despite the years, she still loved him like there was no tomorrow, and it looked like her desire for him hadn’t diminished one iota for she eyed him like he was chocolate.

“As always, your arousal is distracting, cara,” my dad whispered, breaking the deafening silence.

Mom simply giggled like the love-struck teenager she used to be according to aunt Kelly.

“What do we have here?” My father asked simply after a minute or so of pregnant silence as he eyed the blood on Peter’s and Jeff’s clothes.

“Who are you?” Shane bravely asked, although not meeting my father’s eyes.

“The name’s Blake,” dad drawled, and I feared his next words for they would change the way Shane looked at me, “Blake The Troublemaker as most call me.”

I saw Shane gulp down his fear before he questioned hesitantly, “What might have brought you here, sir?”

Oh, I knew what must have brought him here –a text from Ace, in which he probably told him there was a situation at the gym.

“I’ve worked my ass off to make the world a peaceful place for my daughter here,” he started while approaching me and putting his arm around my shoulder, “well, as peaceful as it may get, with you hot-headed werewolves, us snarky vampires and the nature-loving witches always fighting… I surely don’t want a war to start between werewolves and vampires over trivial matters.”

As he finished, he eyed both Peter and Jeff with what could only be considered as anger.

“Now what seems to be the problem?” He demanded to know.

“He called me mutt,” Shane was the first to snitch, as childish as that may sound.

“He tried to touch the princess.” Peter countered immediately.

My dad c****d an eyebrow at Shane before looking at Ace, looking for something in my pacifist mate’s face who just nodded.

“Well, surely that’s not all there was to the fight?” My dad asked, and I could feel his anger rising with each word he uttered.

He received nothing but silence as a response.

“Are you freaking out of your mind?” He bellowed at no one in particular, making Peter and Jeff drop their heads in shame and Shane grimace openly.

And thus, started a lecture on The Devil’s Pact rules, the pact my father himself had established which had preserved the peace between species for almost seven decades now.