Captured Princess

Grandfather Samael

Shanaia sat at a long dining table with her brothers while looking at all her uncles and their families. The tribe’s main house houses all of her uncles and their families, and that included her snobby cousins, Stella and Samara.

She sat there quietly as Samara and Stella glared at them. Her other cousins from her other uncles are still young, their ages range from ten down to two she is the youngest.

While they wait for the old chief to sit at the other end of the table, everyone engages in a conversation. Seb and Crane converse with their uncle Seve and Samuel while Shanaia remains quiet, still thinking about what happened earlier.

“Shanaia,”

Shanaia was pulled out of her thoughts when she heard her name being called. She looked up and saw her uncle Siegfried looking at her.

“You didn’t join us for lunch earlier. Where did you go?” he asked.

“Uhm, I was out. I walked around the territory and somehow, I got lost,” she answered.

Just as she said that she heard a scoff and snicker coming from Samara and Stella’s direction. Shanaia looked at them and rolled her eyes. Such reaction made Samara glare at her but Shanaia ignored her.

“Didn’t you memorize every street here? How did you get lost?” Styx asked.

“Yeah, but I was lost in my thoughts while I was walking that I ended up really lost,” Shanaia answered.

“Where did you go then?” Siegfried asked.

“I remember seeing the stream, and there was even a statue of a cheetah there,” Shanaia answered and everyone looked at her.

“Statue of a cheetah?”

Her uncle Stephen asked and Shanaia nodded.

“You’re a liar. There is no such statue here in the territory,” Samara sneered.

Shanaia looked at her.

“I know, that’s why I was surprised to see it,” she told her and Samara rolled her eyes in response.

“What Samara said is right, Shanaia. There are no statues here,” Siegfried said.

Shanaia heaved a deep sigh before speaking.

“I know. Maybe I was just imagining things that time since I was sort of panicking.”

“You were gone for several hours. You could have informed your brothers at least, so we didn’t wait for you during lunch,”

Enola, her uncle Siegfried’s wife said.

Shanaia lowered her head as she apologized. Her aunt was right. She should’ve contacted her brothers through their mind link to help her when she was lost earlier. Why didn’t she do it? And why didn’t they contact her? She asked mentally herself.

The servants began serving food, and at the same time, they announced the arrival of Samael, the former chief’s arrival. The huge man with long gray hair in a ponytail sat down at the other end of the table. He has that serious look on his face, but a broad smile appeared when he looked at Shanaia and her brothers.

“I am delighted to see you again, Shanaia, Crane, and Seb,” Samael spoke.

The three of them grinned as they looked at their maternal grandfather.

“How are you, Grandpa?” Seb chirped.

“Very well. How was your mother? Why didn’t she come here with you?” Samael asked, sounding like a whine.

Siegfried and his brothers smiled as they knew how much their old man missed his favorite daughter. Since their sister Sahara joined the Elites, she was rarely home and her absence was more noticed when she married the Queen’s son and now Alpha of the biggest pack.

“Mom was busy running the hospital, Grandpa,” Crane answered their grandfather.

Samael sighed.

“That girl should have come with you,” he mumbled, and then he huffed before looking back at his grandchildren and smiled.

“Let us talk about the reason you were sent here after we have our dinner. Let us all eat,” he said.

Shanaia and her brothers nodded before they started eating their dinner. While eating, Samael engaged in cheerful chatter with Sahara’s brothers while Shanaia quietly ate her food.

After they ate, one by one, they got up and left the dining table.

“Shanaia, boys.”

Shanaia and her brothers looked at their grandfather.

“Follow me,” he said and then he led them towards his small library.

The small library has been Samael’s favorite room in the main house. He stores all his favorite books, files, and his antique collection in that room. He rarely let anyone enter, since it’s his safe place.

Once they were inside, Samael told his grandchildren to sit on the couch while he sat on a huge armchair.

“So, about why you were sent here,” he started and he looked at them seriously.

Shanaia and her brothers immediately lowered their heads as they knew they would be receiving scolding from their grandfather.

“My daughter told me what happened and all the grievances she felt.” Samael paused as he looked at his grandchildren.

“All I can say is that it's disappointing at the same time I understand. You are all young and want to have fun. But fun should have its limitations and each one of you needs to be responsible,” Samael spoke and the three of them nodded while keeping their heads down.

“Crane and Seb,” he called, and immediately, the boys looked at him.

“Yes, Grandpa?”

“You two will be training under Seve and Stephen for the rest of your stay here,” he told them.

“I know you were being trained by a wolf teacher but in here, you will be taught how to fight like a cat. Speed and incomparable reflexes are our advantage, and that is what you will learn,”

Both Crane and Seb nodded. Then Samael narrowed his eyes on them.

“Crane,”

“Yes, Grandpa?”

“Your mother and father said you spent so much time in the hospital’s laboratory that you often ditch your training,”

Crane pressed his lips together.

“You cannot do that here. You will solely focus on fighting,”

Samael said and Crane nodded.

“Sebastian,”

Seb looked at his grandfather with big round eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that, it won’t work,” Samael started and Seb looked down.

“Blackmailing people with their weakness is a desperate kind of move but I admit it's effective. But it doesn’t mean you should do it, all the time. For heaven’s sake, blackmailing the people around you is just too much. You can’t have everything go your way, sometimes, you need to understand that.” He continued.

Seb was about to respond but one look from their grandfather silenced him. Then Samael looked at his eldest granddaughter.

“Shanaia.”

“Yes, grandfather,”

“I know you are smart and you are quite gifted when it comes to controlling the gifts that you inherited from your father. But abusing the power you have is what villains do,” Samael said and Shanaia nodded.

“You’ll be helping me with that, right?” she asked and her grandfather nodded.

“How?” she asked again.

“You’ll know tomorrow when we start,” Samael replied.

Samael looked at them. They all possessed a power that none of the people in their tribe had, but he could teach them how to utilize their own bodies and turn them into weapons.

“The training will start early tomorrow so, I suggest you go to bed early,” he told them and his three grandchildren nodded.

“You can go,”

The three of them said their goodnights and made their way out of the library. Shanaia was about to leave when she remembered something.

“Grandpa?” she called.

“Hmm?”

“When did the tribe put up a statue?” she asked and Samael looked at her confused.

“Statue? What do you mean?” he asked back.

“Earlier when I got lost while walking around, I saw a cheetah statue in the middle of the stream. I was just wondering when it was placed there,” Shanaia told him.

Samael clenched his teeth before he let out a sigh.

“Don’t think about it and rest for the night. We have an early session tomorrow,” he told her.

Shanaia nodded and left the library. After the door closed behind her, Samael crossed his legs and his eyebrows knotted as he thought.

‘Could it be?’

When Shanaia came back to her room, she brushed her teeth and changed into her pajamas. She was brushing her hair when the statue came to her mind once again.

She then put her hairbrush down and quickly grabbed her notebook and pen. She began drawing the statue that she had seen earlier. Once she was done, she looked at the drawing.

“Were you real or was it just a figment of my imagination?” she asked the drawing and then she also remembered the woman and thought about something.

“Geez. She might also be my imagination, or worst, a ghost,”

******************************.

The next morning, Shanaia came downstairs early for her training with her grandpa. She made her way towards the outdoor mess hall where everyone in the main house and some youngsters ate breakfast.

The breakfast was like a buffet in a hotel so she went in line with her plate. She took the food she liked and when she was about to sit, she walked past her cousins’ table and it took a lot in her to just ignore them.

Shanaia sat down and started eating, but as she ate, she could feel eyes on her. Unfortunately, she looked up and her eyes met her cousins’ taunting eyes. They would whisper to each other and giggle while looking at her.

Shanaia held herself down as she felt herself getting annoyed by her cousins. But when she heard the word ‘mutt’ coming from Samara’s mouth, Shanaia put her fork down and stood up. Then she marched her way towards their table.

Once she got there, Shanaia slammed her hands on the table and glared at her cousins while they glared back.

“You just wouldn’t stop huh,” Shanaia hissed.

Samara scoffed and then she stood up.

“So? What are you going to do about it?” Samara said, her voice sounding like she was taunting Shanaia.

“Look, I know we are not close but the least you can do is show some common courtesy and shut your mouth. My mom, my brothers and I didn’t do anything wrong for you to bad mouth us every chance you get. I’m telling you now, stop it,” Shanaia spoke.

Samara crossed her arms over her chest.

“What I say or do is none of your business. I can speak anything I want and there is nothing you can do about it.” She sneered.

“It is my business when you are disrespecting my mother, your aunt, and your father’s sister,”

Stella stood up.

“Your mother might be our dad’s sister but she chose someone different. She chose a mutt over her own kind,” Stella said and Shanaia’s eyes flashed from blue to red, to blue and then red.

“Don’t call my dad a mutt,” Shanaia said through her gritted teeth.

“He is a dog, making him a mutt. And you cannot tell us what to do. You are in our territory; the territory that our father leads,” Samara replied.

Shanaia frowned.

“Are we talking ranks now? Well then, the man you call a mutt is a prince. Ranks higher than anyone in this tribe.” Shanaia paused and then she poked her cousin’s shoulder.

“And you know what? Despite that, he is humble and does not let his position get to his head. Unlike you who ride on your father’s coat tail and has the audacity to look down on others and disrespect people,”

Samara gritted her teeth.

“b***h,” she hissed and then she pushed Shanaia before slapping her and pulling her hair.