PAUSED | The Red King's Wrathful Mate

Chapter 6: Susan's POV

I watched as yet another messenger crossed the kingdom's boarders and left the protection of the magical barrier.

It was dark, quiet and the young man was smart enough to shift into his beast the second he left the kingdom.

Watching one of my people actually shift is quite remarkable. We're inklings. We're not supposed to be able to shift. I'm an Easterner and even I can't shift. I don't have a beast.

Inklings don't have beasts, and yet in the past few days, we've discovered that the inklings from my kingdom have beasts - huge elvin-like beasts that stand as tall as a fully grown gryphon. They have long tails, massive angel-like wings and long pointy ears.

So far we've only seen two of these beasts. The first messenger also shifted into a tall elvin-like creature the second he left the kingdom's boarders. Although his beast was similar to the one we just saw, his was navy blue, whereas this one is green.

We watched the beast's eyes glow yellow while he sniffed the air, trying to detect any foreign scent. He wouldn't be able to do that though, well he shouldn't be able to do that. A very powerful good witch promised us the potion we all drank masked our scent. It only lasted for a few hours, so we had to keep drinking the disgusting liquid every few hours, but so far it's proven to be effective.

Leave it to a determined good witch to come up with something that should be impossible.

"Don't worry." I heard Sebastian's mindlink. "He can't scent us out. Just stay still. He'll take off in a minute."

I swallowed the huge lump in my throat nervously and prayed to Nayala that that thing wouldn't scent us out. I'm the only one here who can even use magic. The Northerners will have to rely on all the machinery and gadgets in their armour. However, even they can tell that it would take at least five or maybe even ten of them to put down that beast.

Only a werewolf, a were-bear or a gryphon would be able to go head to head with that thing.

"Clear." I mindlinked the signal to everyone once the beast had taken off into the sky.

I couldn't hear them, but I felt all the warriors we came with take a collective sigh of relief. They were scared of that thing, and rightly so.

Six months ago, a few of the Northerners watched me shift on the battlefield. Although, I wouldn't really call it shifting because I don't have a beast.

I just tapped into my magic and suddenly the most beautiful blue wings sprung out of my shoulders. And then the black clothes I was wearing were suddenly replaced by a beautiful blue gown that felt as light as air. Those who saw me say my beauty made them freeze for a few minutes. Apparently my skin glowed and I resembled the pictures of how humans depict us - I looked like a fairy; except I was still my normal size.

Everyone here expected me to explain why the two messengers we've spotted since casing out the kingdom look nothing like the fairies the humans have drawn. And most importantly, when did Easterners become shifters?

Of course I can't answer that question because I fled the kingdom when I was only sixteen years old. Evil witches attacked us, killed my parents and I was left to be an orphan. I would have died too had it not been for three girls who fought with all their might to protect our kingdom.

It seems odd thinking about them now.

They were orphans, but they protected the kingdom like warriors. One put herself in the line of fire and fought the witches.The youngest of the three created hiding spots using some sort of camouflage and the eldest one created a trap for the witches and burned them to death.

I wonder if those three girls are also shifters.

"Are you sure you don't know anything about this magical barrier?" A warrior asked me. "I mean, when did they even get the thing? We've attacked this kingdom before and it wasn't here last time. How on earth-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence because I had him pinned on the ground and had his throat in my hand to shut him up.

"I remember how you f*****g Northerners attacked our kingdom!" I reminded him. "You killed us like we weren't people ... like we're not the same kind!"

"Susan...", I felt my mate's warm hand on my shoulder. "He's still young. He shouldn't have said that. Let him go."

I heard Sebastian's words, but I still tightened my grip around the boy's neck. He couldn't be older than twenty. I was younger than that when the Northerners first attacked us and I was still younger than that when they attacked us for a second, a third and a fourth time.

They call us animals, but they way these people kill and steal territory from others makes it very clear that they are the f*****g monsters; not us.

Some of the young ones here like to let their imagination run wild. They secretly think we were sent here to watch the East so we can prepare an attack; as if I'd let them do such a thing ever again. I would kill their Queen with my own two hands before I let them hurt my people ever again.

"Susan..." Sebastian pleaded when the boy's rose-coloured face turned blue.

"Apologise." I demanded. "Apologise or I swear, I will kill you."

"I'm...I'm.." He gurgled and gasped for air, but I refused to let go. "Sorry ...I'm sorry."

I let go of him and he coughed and heaved while trying to get up.

They were all staring at me, but they wouldn't say anything about what I just did. They didn't even try to help the boy to get back up.

I spent three years in their kingdom after finding out Sebastian is my fated mate. We met while we were both in the human world. I thought he would reject me because my scent gave away where I'm from. However, Seb proved that he's different from the other Northerners. Where I come from never mattered to him. Even when Queen Merrida demanded that he reject our bond, he refused and told her he'd leave the Northern Inkling kingdom if she didn't let me stay.

So I stayed. They let me stay.

For three years, I endured being called a cockroach, a leech, a worm, vermin, a rat. I endured being denied jobs I was over qualified for. I endured being denied access to some cities, buildings, towns and even some hospitals in the mighty Northern kingdom.

I endured all of that because I didn't want Sebastian to lose his home. I know what it's like to miss the smell of your favourite bakery or a cuisine that only your people can make. I know what it's like to look at the sky and miss the sunset you grew up looking at. I didn't want him to go through that just because of me.

So I stayed in the North for my mate.

"I'm sorry." He repeated once he stood up. "I didn't even realise ... I'm really sorry."

I nodded my head at the young warrior and tried to focus on that peculiar magical barrier again.

I saved a boat load of his people in the great war a few months ago. Not a single one of them can say anything other than 'I'm sorry to me'. It's only after the war that they started treating me like a person.

I'm still trying to decide whether they're a little too late.

"How did they manage to shield themselves like this?" Sebastian muttered under his breath. "We can't see a damn thing that's going on inside their kingdom. We're blind."

I got out my binoculars again and had a look.

All we saw was wilderness, unoccupied by anyone. In fact, I even thought I forgot how to find my own home when I led everyone here. However, lucky for us, a few naughty kids decided to step out of the protective magical barrier. We watched them step out of nothing and once they were done exploring the outside world, they stepped back into that nothing and disappeared.

If it hadn't been for those kids, we would have gone back with no answers. We wouldn't have figured out that the kingdom has a magical barrier that hides them and that outsiders can't penetrate.

"I don't know, Sebastian." I whispered back to him. "Our job is to help those three women the seers told us about. As soon as they make an appearance, we'll whisk them away. Maybe..." I steadied my breath, "Maybe afterwards I'll come back. I think they've rebuilt."

He could sense the hope in my voice. I thought my home was gone. I thought we'd find rubles and people pretending to come from the royal bloodline, but it seems I was wrong.

I still have a home to return to.

"We'll both come back." Seb smiled like we weren't on some dangerous mission. "Then you'll show me all the things you're always telling me about."

I tried to return his smile.

I'm glad to see that the kingdom hasn't fallen to ruins, but I know everything I once held dear is probably gone by now. When I fled, there were no more than ten buildings that were left standing.

"One is hidden by the glimmer of the moon. The other, hidden by the glimmer of the sun and the other by the glimmer of a sword." I repeated the words the seer said to us.

We have no idea what these three women even look like. All we were told is that the second they step foot out of the kingdom, they'll need our help or else they'll die.

The vision has changed since we first got here. A few days ago, we received word that we might only get to save two of the women. The third one wouldn't make it. However, the vision might change again and then our mission would also change.

That's the thing with seers and their visions. They keep changing because circumstances keep changing and people keep changing their minds.

"Please don't say those words ever again." A warrior groaned next to me. "I still shudder when I think of how that one seer screamed in agony. She almost died while getting that vision."

The others chuckled, but he and I didn't join in.

I've seen seers get visions plenty of times. Their eyes glow, sometimes they cry and sometimes they'll have a huge grin on their face. However, their visions hardly hurt them physically. I've only ever seen something like that happen twice in my life - the first time was when all seers received a vision for the Werewolf King and Queen to be reunited. That vision started burning the seers and healers had to step in to save their lives.

The second time was when a seer received a vision about these three women. Her eyes glowed like they usually do when she gets a vision, but then she screamed in agony as if someone was stabbing her heart. She kept shielding her stomach, trying to protect it, but that didn't seem to be working. Then she collapsed, screamed again and started writhing in pain.

It was horrible.

After that, she said words that will forever be engraved in my mind.

"The one who walks as three, severed through time by Selene, Maru and Nayala. Gold will walk as silver and break the chains that hold Leviathon."

No one has any idea what those words even mean, but they shook us all to the core; so much so that when that seer demanded that we send a rescue team to the East, even Merrida didn't object.

"Sorry, Oscar." I whispered back. "I just can't stop thinking about it. That one vision triggered a whole bunch of other seers to get visions because here we are trying to save people we know nothing about."

"I don't really mind that." Someone else chimed in. "What irks me is that the gryphons are also involved in this whole thing. Those people are still so pompous despite everything they put us through in the war."

There were collective groans scattered in the field where we were hidden.

They all agreed with him.

The gryphons sided with the enemy in the war. They killed thousands of people. Granted, the only reason they did that is because they were under the influence of some ...I'm actually not sure what was influencing them. Point is, something was controlling the invincible gryphons and although the people they killed in the war were brought back from the dead, the magical world doesn't see them the same way anymore.

They have a lot to make up for, but they're still gryphons. They're one of the strongest shifters and they'll kill us if our mission fails because one of those three women is their King's fated mate.

I'm pretty sure King Killian would have come charging with his entire army if he could. However, he can't do that; not a single gryphon can go anywhere near these women. If they do, all three of them will die. That's what the seers say.