The Alpha King's Princess
The Alpha King’s Princess – Chapter 45

I had never considered there being anything beneath the academy. Was every academy like that? My heart pounded in my chest.

“Miss Hedy, it’s time to….” He frowned and turned, likely hearing what I was hearing. Something rumbled nearby. I darted back towards the table.

He came closer to me, and I snuck forward, following the sound beneath us. I heard something rumble and the soft sound of stone sliding against stone. I peered through a stack of books as the large portrait covered most of the back wall of the library slid aside slowly, revealing a large gaping hole.

“Miss Hedy, we should go.”

I ignored him, watching the entrance for something. The sound from below us grew louder, coming out of the entrance. My heart raced. I felt something coming out from below. He grabbed my arm, then the air went cold. A gut of wind swept out of the darkness. The lights flickered and went off.

Then, a large hulking beast lumbered out of the darkness. I thought back to the large creature that had been slain in that clearing years ago. My powers hummed beneath my skin as if remembering it. I could see flashes of claws in the moonlight from that night, but nothing concrete.

It lumbered out of the hole with a soft, grumbling sound. Its eyes were dark, but I could tell that it wasn’t looking at us or even in our direction. It lifted its head as if listening for something, then lumbered forward, stumbling.

Something was wrong with it. From what Allen told me about the creature from that night, it was usually lightning fast. Seeing it stagger around made my stomach churn. It shuffled past us towards the doors. The door opened with a loud, groaning creak before it reached the door.

Those doors were not automatic, so how were they opening on their own like that? Was it related to how the portrait was moving?

Maybe the doors were automatic for werewolves. My stomach churned. All the research I’d done until now pointed towards vampires and werewolves being connected to each other through the moon goddess, but how connected were we?

Had we once attended the academy together? What had changed?

Was there a chance we could go back to that if some sort of deal was struck, or were we too far gone for that to be possible?

A soft, grumbling sound filled the air. As the creature reached the door, one of its large furry arms reached out and dragged its claws across the walls as it exited.

The claw marks were the exact same as most of the other claw marks I had seen.

I looked back at the entrance of the cave and crept towards the portrait. The Team Gamma-2 member followed after me, hissing that I shouldn’t be getting any closer, but I didn’t enter the opening. I didn’t know what was down there or if there was another creature coming.

All I could do now was figure out as much as I could and get some evidence.

I looked into the darkness and heard nothing. I took out my phone and snapped several pictures before the portrait began to shake and close. I took one last photo of the path before it closed. I looked up at the portrait and frowned. In the darkness, it was a different painting.

“Miss Hedy?” He asked, “I have to get you out—”

“This painting is different in the daytime.”

He looked up as I stepped closer, checking the frame of the painting. I took a photo of part of it, certain that there was something about the frame that I should look back on.

I stepped further back to get the entire portrait in one shot and frowned. I wasn’t crazy. The portrait in the daytime was of a large forest with a pack of wolves running through it.

Now, there were no wolves to be seen. The sky was dark in the photo. In place of the wolves was a group of people with flashing eyes running through the forest. The one in front had eyes of gold. The one behind him had silver eyes. In the air was a swirling script of gold that looked a lot like the text in the book about vampires.

I took a closer picture of that before turning around and following the path the creature took out of the library.

“Miss Hedy,” he called, but I darted out after the creature. It was so dark that I wasn’t surprised that the surveillance couldn’t track it down the hallway. It went left, heading towards the locker rooms. I followed it several feet behind, watching it scratch up the walls and floors as it passed. It bumbled past the tape into the locker room.

I thought I heard the laughter of that man for a moment, but I trudged forward after the beast. The smell of b***d hit me in the face. The team member grabbed me by the arm as I froze.

“You shouldn’t be here, Miss Hedy.”

I felt my b***d running cold. I could feel the fear. The glint of something caught my eye, and I thought I was lying on the ground again under Bella, but I kept going, avoiding the b***d and everything else around the area as I chased after it, trying to keep my calm. I chased it out to the door that led outside to the practice field. It lumbered under the dark sky heading into the forest.

I rushed after it the Team Gamma-2 member darted ahead of me and cut me off.

“Miss Hedy, that’s far enough.”

I glared at him, looking around him, but I had lost track of the creature through the trees. I set my jaw. I turned back, retracing our path through the school to the library to grab my things.

Those symbols meant something. I stared up at the painting again, trying to figure it out. I hoped that something else happened, but the painting didn’t more.

I waited and waited, but I heard nothing else.

Then, my phone started to ring. I ignored it. My thoughts turned to my life as Pandora and Armageddon.

If I was alone, I could have followed the creature. Candido’s protection was wonderful when it came to things like Bella, but when it came to my duties as a member of Moon Shadow it was a hindrance.

How funny that my dedication to supporting his wish to unify werewolves against vampires was being undermined by the man’s wish to protect me.

“Miss Hedy,” he said. “It’s His Majesty.”

I turned and took the phone. Before I could speak, he was growling at me.

“Get in the jeep and get back here. Now.”

I narrowed my eyes and turned back to the portrait. I wanted to hang up and ignore him, but he had taken the Moon Goddess book. He knew something that I needed to know as a member of Moon Shadow.

Maybe he knew something about the glyphs on the painting.

“Hedy!”

“I heard you the first time,” I said and hung up, giving the man’s phone back. He looked uncomfortable as I walked past him towards the front gates. The jeep stood alone in the parking lot. He got in as it revved to life. Something roared in the distance and I looked back towards the forest.

“Miss Hedy,” someone said. “Please… Please don’t make us chase you.”

I turned back and laughed. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Candido can chase me on his own.”

I climbed in and sat back in my seat, staring outside the window, hoping to catch a glimpse of something.

Something flashed in the forest, and I pressed against the window to get a better look. I swore that eyes of gold glinted in the darkness.

Vampires. I had never seen one in person, but if the painting was accurate, it had to be a vampire. What did their eye color mean? Was it like the color of wolf fur?

“Miss Hedy?”

I narrowed my gaze as we drove away.

“Yes?”

“His Majesty has called back.”

I took the phone, but I didn’t bring it to my ear.

“Hedy—”

“I’m on my way home. If we’re going to talk about this, I want to talk about it, but if you’re not going to be honest with me, I’m going to bed, and I want my book back.”

I stared down at the receiver. It was a gamble, but I didn’t want to fight with him. I was so tired of having information withheld from me. He was never going to see me as a woman, even after I turned twenty until I stopped letting him treat me like a little girl.

It was a hard line in the sand. I waited for him to say something, to respond or deny, but he said nothing.

I could almost feel his irritation over the line.

Then, he hung up.