Nadine

32. Alibi

"Princess Nadine?"

Dipak answers, "Yes King Ronion, it's Nadine. She's safe here. Under contract she is safe. Correctly, we are on your land?"

"Yes sir, she is safe here."

"Nadine, look at me. Look sweetheart." I make eye contact with him. "You are safe. Do not run. Do you understand me? Do not run."

I nod and he lets go. My entire body starts shaking.

"We need fresh killed animals now. She's going into frenzy and I can't hold her back long."

They give us some rabbits within a minute. We suck the blood of a few of them.

Dipak tries to stand up but I scream again, then hold him down.

He lays on his back and pulls my head down on his chest. Then he rubs my hair. "It's ok now. You're ok."

After a few minutes, he puts his hand up. "King Ronion can you send a message for me please?"

"Yes, of course. Write something out and I will send a couple guards with it."

"How fast can they get there?"

"We might be as fast as you, sir. Are you 2 just going to lay in the yard and not move?"

"Yes I believe so sir."

"What are you doing?"

"Trying to come up with our alibi."

A bunch of them start laughing. "Why is the poor girl traumatized?"

"Found a cave of her brothers where people were... She went in and seen something."

"Is this brother a current threat I need to be aware of?"

"No, we sent him away already."

A woman speaks. "Why would you need an alibi for finding a cave?"

"We left yesterday. We found the cave this morning."

She laughs. "Maybe we can help you 2 out. We know what it's like to need a night away every now and then. Especially when you're supposed to be with another."

"Where was your campsite? We will go destroy it. You can say you got there later than you did. We will say you arrived earlier than you did. Other than that, you 2 were searching for the cave until really late. When you found it, she ran. You chased her half way through the night and got here at like 4 am. Tried to keep her calm for hours."

"It's only a fire and a few dead animals. A boar from this morning. But you can not go in the cave at all. We are going to need it for evidence. We can't have any other scent in there. I'll say you sent some people to check our story but stayed out of the cave because I asked. That will explain the scent outside."

"The girl is safe but you haven't asked about yourself."

"No matter what you do to me. It will be a hell of a lot better than what her father is going to do to me."

All of them start laughing at that.

Dipak explains where our camp site was. They leave first. It's really not that far. Then he writes a note and sends it with the werewolf guard.

"Why don't you let us try to feed her. She is to skinny."

"That sounds good." He picks me up and carries me into the biggest house. He sits on the couch and holds me on his lap. After 10 minutes, I calm down. "Thank you both."

I lay my head on his shoulder and relax. He's so warm like always. He feeds me a couple bites of the meat. It's really good. I sit up and eat some on my own.

Then a few more werewolves come in. "The fire is out and cold. And we got rid of all the animals. We did not step toe in the cave."

Dipak rubs my back. "Thank you. Do you need anything? I can offer you something."

"Nah we don't need anything. Maybe one of us will need an alibi sometime." They all start laughing.

He slouches back on the couch to get more comfortable. I cuddle my head into his neck and start drawing shapes on his chest with my fingers. "Do you think my dad will kill us?"

"Only me, sweetheart."

I look at Ronion. "Do you have a jail here?"

"Yes we have a few cells."

"I'm the only one safe on the land." I smile at him. "You threw him in the cell immediately and you couldn't get me to talk for hours. I was so traumatized. You thought he chased me here to attack me at first. You were being safe and protecting me from a crazy person. He couldn't get a message out from the jail cell and I wasn't talking."

King Ronion's mate smiles. "One smart princess. You should lock him up now though. Verify with the king that he was really not attacking her before you let him out. Because the poor child is to traumatized to be trusted. And we would never want to let a crazy person out."

"We better hurry and lock you up. Let's go."

Dipak kisses me on the head. "You saved my life. I owe you for this."

"You can pay me in boar." I get off him so he can go to jail. "Oh wait, what time did we get here?"

He stands up. "2 ok?"

"2 is good for us."

"Princess 2."

"I was to traumatized to know what time it was. It was dark."

Dipak kisses me on the head again and whispers in my ear, "I will repay you for this." Then he leaves with Ronion. "Ok you're going to have to punch me a few times. I wouldn't get taken away from her without a fight."

"Not a problem."

About 30 minutes later, there's a knock at the door. King Ronion opens it to greet my father, Frode, and all the kings guard.

"You are King Sandu correct? Please come in. I believe this is your daughter?"

I run to him crying. I hold him and cry.

"Yes sir I am."

"King Sandu, I am King Ronion. We had a little issue about 2 o'clock this morning. We are still a little confused about what happened. It seems there was a cave the girl found. She was horribly traumatized. She didn't speak for hours. All she would do is scream and try to hide from us. We had no idea who she was. A man chased her onto our land. We thought he was trying to hurt her. She was screaming and running. It was horrible the way she came here. Anyways, we got the man away from her. He's been in a jail cell all night. We were trying to get the girl to speak. She finally said who she was. We talked to the man, he said he was protecting her. We let him get a message out to you. We still don't know if he speaks the truth. I refuse to let him out of the cell until you can verify he's not going to harm her. And we did verify the cave he spoke of was real. But he asked us to stay out of it because of evidence. But if you tell me he's lying. We will check the cave."

His wife stands up. "You will verify that this is your child sir?"

"Yes she is mine." Daddy has tears in his eyes.

"Daddy."

"I am very happy you are reunited. She was in my care while she was here. As promised no harm will come to her in my care. I'm sorry we did not listen to the prisoner and get word to you sooner. Now I must sleep. 2 am was to early for me to wake up for the day. Good night gentlemen."

"Good night ma'am. Thank you for keeping my daughter safe."

"My pleasure sir."

"Would you like to verify the prisoner King Sandu?"

Daddy shakes his head. "Well I guess I'll have to now that I know he's been in jail all night."

King Ronion laughs. "I've got a few like that as well. It is your choice. But I would advise against bringing the princess to the cells."

"Of course. Kings Guard take Nadine outside and stand with her."

"Yes, sir."

5 minutes later, my dad comes out with Dipak and Frode. Dipak actually looks really good considering he's covered in dirt, blood, and got some swelling going on. But I think he's going to be fine.

I ride in the carriage with the 3 of them. I stare out the window. I hear Dipak tell them the story over and over. I have it memorized by the time we get home.

"I have 1 question for you, Nadine."

"Yes."

"Why did you run screaming out of there to begin with? Why not stop when Advisor Dipak told you to?"

"I can't explain it."

"Try please."

"I remembered how to get to the cave advisor. When I knew we were close, I told Dipak that. I am the one who took him there."

"We understand that Nadine."

"But my brain changed it somehow when I went in. My mind flashed to me being in those cuffs and chains. My mind thought he took me there to kill me. I ran because I was scared of Advisor Dipak. Not because of what I saw in the cave. I was trying to get away from him. I thought he was trying to chain me up and kill me. I ran screaming into the werewolf camp. He caught me. He was trying to get me to calm down." I peek at Dipak. "I'm so sorry. It must have looked terrible for you. It's all my fault." I put my head on my knees and start sobbing.

"Princess."

"What is wrong with me?"

"Nothing princess. Your mind is working through some trust issues. You got scared when you seen the chains. Your survival instinct kicked in and you ran."

"I ran from Advisor Dipak. I'm so sorry."

Frode laughs. "Worse things have happened to that man than spending the night in a werewolf jail. I assure you he will be fine." He puts the paper he was writing on in the folder. "Few things to go over at the meeting but nothing major."