16 Chapter Sixteen

Clearing her throat, Angelique murmured, her tone scratchy with annoyance.

“Then who attacked my Kingdom?”

“It was my commander.”

Rapidly shaking his head, he denied his statement.

"No. It was my former commander. He has been stripped of his title when he questioned my authority to rule my Kingdom."

The beautifully shaped eyebrows of Angelique arched upwards.

Slowly studying him, as she swallowed his words like a sponge; Angelique's head slightly turned to the side, as if she was listening to something.

Observing her, Ryanne suddenly saw the unicorn, whose name he had come to know as Diana hitting the ground with her hoofs and her head shaking as if saying no about something.

Quickly, his eyes jumped to Angelique, who watched Diana with sad eyes.

“You can speak to Unicorns?”

Unconsciously, he voiced his discovery and wished he did not, for Angelique whispered for the sharp vine to travel quite dangerously close to his throat.

“Do not change the subject!”

Gulping, he slowly lifted his hands to grab the vine, and without wincing, pulled it away from his neck.

“I apologize for my insolence, Princess.”

Sighing heavily, as she closed her eyes to control her sudden anger, her voice was soft and astute.

“You say it is your commander who destroyed my home, but you are the one who hurt me that day. What were you doing there if you were not part of such an uprising?"

He did not hesitate to answer.

“One of my messengers had overheard Rolando was infiltrating into the Fae Kingdom. I do not know what his goal is, but knowing his personality, it meant something bad. So, I had personally come to investigate. But my people and I got separated. Soon, something I could not see had attacked me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up near your side with a pounding headache and no thoughts of what had transpired."

Nodding, as she attentively listened to his reason, she frowned.

“So this Ex-Commander of yours, your royal highness, wanted the Fae Kingdom to think the Lycan Kingdom, you, are their enemy? He framed you?"

Growling, for her statement, had added fuel to the reality he had encountered the time of the betrayal, Ryanne quickly rushed to the side when the vine had shoot towards him. It was a slight movement on his feet, but it saved him the bitter reality of being impaled by the nasty-looking plant in the heart.

Watching as it went flying into the ground, where a few dirt and cracking occurred, Ryanne's widened eyes turned in the direction of Angelique, who looked incredibly frightened.

“I… I…”

Stuttering, she quickly dismissed the vine because it seemed to have a mind of its own.

Sensing that it was his sudden growl that had produced such dangerous killing intent, Ryanne placed a hand on his chest while forcing a reassuring smile on his face.

“It is quite alright. You did not mean to hurt me.”

Judging from the frown that soon transformed Angelique’s lips, he knew his smile was more of a grimace.

“I think you should leave. your royal highness.”

Hearing her trepidation through trembling lips, Ryanne was discontented.

“I will not. You are not safe. Please come with me. I will protect you."

“Please leave me alone!”

Narrowed eyes, Angelique turned away.

“Wait!”

Rushing back to the hole, he watched with bitter resolve, a smiling woman, most likely a Water Nymph, had materialized within the barrier through a water portal. Her voice was sugary sweet.

The message she brought made Ryanne lift an eyebrow.

Persuasive smiles in hesitating Angelique's direction, the Water Nymph beckoned her towards the portal.

“Princess! Princess!”

Fighting the urge to change into his beast to lung onto the smirking woman, he watched in pure horror as they both walked through the portal.

Once again, he was left all alone.

Striking the barrier to smithereens with a loud growl, when her sweet scent had disappeared, he was breathing heavily to calm down his raging beast. At that moment, he caught various Water Nymphs' overwhelming scents traveling in the air.

Suddenly, the woman from earlier had rushed towards him.

Quickly bowing, she sagely relayed news he already could depict.

“Nymphs materialized and wounded our warriors but left me unscathed.”

Rolling his shoulders to ease the tension, Ryanne briskly nodded.

“They wanted you to tell me this. That is why no one harmed you. A Water Nymph has taken my Queen as well.”

Aghast, the woman voiced her opinion.

“Should we start looking for the Queen, sire?”

Ryanne quickly recognized she was faking her concern.

Waving his hand, he dismissed the idea.

“No need for that, Commander Crystal. It seems it is the doing of the Water Nymph Queen. We should think about the wounded instead. I have confidence that my Queen—your future Queen— will protect herself. Is there any news about the Fae King?”

With the affinity to sense different species' emotions, thoughts, feelings, and actions; Ryanne closed his eyes to disrupt the undying love secreting from Crystal. It overpowered the dissatisfied and slowly boiling anger also radiating from her.

Bowing, Crystal nodded with understanding.

“Yes, there is. A Pectyle gave this to me before it entered a portal a few minutes ago.”

A Pectyle were tiny, short little hairy urchins who always traveled with the Nymphs. They were ancient creatures who created their Portals and were famous for delivering messages.

Humming as he tried to make sense of the information, Ryanne nodded as he took the tiny piece of parchment from Commander Crystal’s hand. Reading the single word on the parchment, he frowned.

The word written on it was ‘observe’.

Gripping the parchment in his hands, he shoved it back into Commander Crystal’s hand.

“Burn it.”

A calm silence erupted around them as she nodded. She placed a red rob around his naked and tall form. Tying its strings around himself, Ryanne quickly stepped away, his eyes still closed, for he refused to look at her. Her oblivious advancement had become incredibly annoying, for she knew he would never love her in return, especially when he had a lifemate.

Since Crystal is a pure-blood female Lycan, she had concluded in her mind that she would be his lifemate, but alas, nothing went the way she wanted. Earlier, he had sensed her slight envy directed towards his Queen, something he would have to rectify when he returned to his Kingdom.

“Have there been any sight of Rolando?”

Bowing, Crystal shook her head as she shoved the parchment back in the pocket of her pants.

“The last report of him was that he commissioned his followers to attack the Sprites Kingdom. Numerous Lycans are beginning to follow his propaganda of new rulership in the Lycan Kingdom. They have left the Lycan Kingdom, including one of the aspiring enforcers’ young sons a few hours ago.”

Gripping his hands into fists near his side, Ryanne was furious.

“Also, there seem to be rumors that a Nymph and Sprites are working with him, but it is from an anonymous source."

Nodding, as he pondered on that fact, Ryanne swiftly opened his eyes.

“Very well, follow me. I need to get to the carriage. The Cold Sprites Queen deserves an explanation and apology."

Muttering, he turned around and walked out of the destroyed area.