CHAPTER 17

Alexander's POV

"What happened?" Her soothing voice reached my ear as she spoke cautiously, no doubt seeing my pissed off expression. Her voice was enough to subdue my anger a bit.

"A fight broke out between a demon and a wolf." I said once the anger wore off. I did not want to raise my tone and hurt her more than I already did. I never intended to hurt her but it was getting difficult to push her away when she was bent on knowing the reasons behind my actions.

Before I lost control and told her things that were meant to stay hidden, I moved to open the door but the protective shield made its appearance. "Open the door." Understanding the situation, she walked past me and easily opened the door. I was confused on how she could open the door without having to communicate with the witch on the other side but decided to drop the thought as I followed her outside the room.

I walked ahead of her avoiding any conversation because I was not in control of my thoughts. Especially around her I seemed to do all the wrong things but apparently, she had other plans. "How did you know?" She asked as she fell in step next to me.

"About what?"

"The fight." She stated. "How did you know about it? Nobody came in the room or anything. Mind links?" One thing I learnt about her in the past days was that she was smart and clever. Whenever she was quiet, I thought of it as the calm before the storm because when she did speak, she would state facts and gave little to no points for further arguments. She knew what to say at the perfect time. She knew the exact words needed to make a deal or break it.

I hummed in response before asking. "The werewolves did not communicate about it through your mind link?" She looked taken aback by the question for a quick second but quickly composed herself. She did not answer but there was a far away look on her face as if she was thinking or having an inner talk with herself.

"They must have informed my father directly." She shrugged.

I knew she was lying. As much as her family and her tried to hide it, I knew they were not on good terms. Despite being here for only a few days, I have seen the way her parents treated her compared to her siblings. I had witnessed and heard things they wanted to keep hidden from the eyes of the other leaders. I could not bring myself to interfere with her family problems. Not when I was also hurting her and pushing her away.

"I did not know you had mind links too." She said instead and I knew what she was trying to do- change the topic. I went along with it, getting the hint she did not want to talk about things related to her family.

I explained to her, despite my previous resolution. Whenever I was near her, all my resolutions and control would just vanish into thin air. If my resolutions were a mirror, her presence just caused it to shatter into millions of fragments. "We got a witch to do it long ago to ease our communication."

"You keep it a secret though." It was not a question.

"Sometimes things are better if they are kept as a secret." I simply said.

She frowned as she realised that I was not only implying this for the mind link. "Sometimes it's better to open up. You get different point of views, new ideas, improvements, support and it builds trust."

Exact words needed to re-think my choices.

None of us spoke as we neared the area where the fight was taking place. The place was crowded with werewolves and demons only. They all formed a circle as they shouted encouragement to their kind and profanities to their enemies. Grunts and groans were heard from the center along with punches and kicks.

When they saw us, the crowd fell silent. They parted, allowing us to walk through. Indeed there was a demon and a werewolf fighting but they were too caught up in their fight to register what was happening around them. "What is going on here!?" My voice echoed in the room and the circle became wider as they stepped backwards. The two fighting froze as they looked in our direction.

They scrambled from the floor as they stood in front of us next to each other, heads bowed down. The werewolf guard had a busted lip and his uniform was torn here and there with dust covering parts of it. My own guard, Silas, was no different either with scratches on his face and claw marks on his clothes.

"I asked you something." I reminded them, my voice firm as I looked at them. I felt my eyes starting to change colour as my demon tried taking over. The other demons in the room bowed their head in submission as the aura of Elias- my demon- was felt around the room. "I don't like repeating myself Silas." I saw his body visibly shake at my tone.

Before he could speak, the werewolf spoke as he addressed Analise. "He started it." Analise rolled her eyes at his words, no doubt finding his words childish and immature.

"And how did he start it?" She said sarcastically, crossing her arms in front of her, cocking her head to the side.

"Princess, he started by calling me names because I was of a lower rank than him." He explained. "He and his friends started crashing things and ordered us to clean it up." He motioned to the other werewolf guards who supported his claim before pointing towards the broken pots with soil all over the floor as well as the plants.

"What do you have to say about this?" Analise asked Silas, hearing both point of views.

"He is lying." The demons agreed. "He started it." He accused the other guard. I heard Analise scoff under her breath as I refrained from doing the same. "We were just going outside when they stopped us and started throwing insults at us. They said we are evils and that the King should not have allowed us to stay here. He said we were worse than vampires."

"Right." She said nonchalantly. "And who are we supposed to believe here?" She gave me a look before looking back at the two.

"I would not lie Princess." The werewolf exclaimed. "All these demons are the same. They are lying Princess and they want to hurt us." Analise threw a side glance at me.

"Your highness, I would not lie." Silas said, his eyes pleading as his eyes darted between me and Analise. "Ask anyone here and they will tell the truth."

As soon as the words left his mouth, the crowd started expressing their opinions as they shouted. Everything they said contradicted each other and soon the whole place was a mess. The crowd that was expressing themselves verbally had started expressing themselves physically. Both sides clashed as they kicked, punched and clawed each other while shouting profanities.

"Are you kidding me." I said under my breath at the scene.

I could see Analise getting agitated next to me as she fisted her hands at her side and her jaw was set tight. She was taking in deep breaths as she tried to keep herself under control and I saw the subtle change in her purple eyes as they started glowing the slightest. I remained quiet as I watched her, knowing very well that this was one of calm before the cyclone moments and I also loved hearing her speak with confidence as well as her snarky comments.

"Stop it! All of you get away from each other! Right now!" I knew she would have an outburst but this was not what I was expecting. Her voice came out firm and strong. Firmer than I have ever heard. The presence of her wolf could be felt in the room as when she spoke, it was two voices combined together which resulted in her using her commanding voice that could easily be on the same level as the other leaders. Regal iciness radiated from her as her intimidating aura spread across the room.

Her authority could be clearly sensed around the room as the fighting stopped and the room went completely silent. Only their ragged breathing from the fight was heard. Looking around, I saw the werewolf guards submitting to her, their necks bowed in front. Looking on the other side, I was stunned at the sight.

All the demons were also submitting to her, their neck bowed.

I looked to my side, seeing the surprised and confused look on Analise. She looked at me, unsure what happened and what to do next. A small, proud and impressed smirk touched my lips before I hid it. She looked away from me, back to the crowd in front.

"You can stop now." She used her normal voice and everybody raised their heads. I met the eyes of several of my people who looked at me with a questioning look mixed with confusion.

"Now that I have your attention, let's get one thing clear." She said firmly. "I don't care what happened or who started this fight. The only thing I know is that the next time you get in fights, not only among yourselves but with the others, there will be consequences. Also, get one thing straight. You will be seeing a lot of each other whether you like it or not. So keep that in mind and act like grown ups instead of a bunch of immature." She paused, letting her words sink. "Am I clear?" They all looked down, staying silent.

"I said, am I clear?" She used her commanding voice again and a chorus of 'yes' was heard from the crowd. I felt a strange sense of pride growing in my chest at her. "Good. Get back to what you were doing." She said before turning on her heels and leaving.

"Way to be on time." I heard her say sarcastically. Turning around, I saw Gabriel with the rest of his families heading this way. Seeing them, I also left before another fight broke out. Only this time it would be between me and Gabriel.

'She is hot' Elias said as I headed towards my room. 'You are stupid for not wanting her'

"Elias you know I want her." I reminded him. "But we cannot have everything we want in life. You know very well I can't be with her."

'You don't know about that.' He retorted. 'You never tried talking to her. Maybe if you explained it to her? She would understand'

"Maybe. Maybe not." He did not say anything further, knowing where this conversation would lead to again.

Honestly, I never knew about her. I never came at the werewolf castle and I never heard anything about Gabriel having a daughter other than Rayna.

When I first set eyes on her at the meeting, I was shocked. The possibility of having a mate never crossed my mind once but there she was, sitting next to Gabriel, looking me up and down. I still remember her cute red, tainted cheeks as she realised I caught her checking me out. When our eyes locked at that time, the buzzing sensation in my body was something I never experienced and my body felt alive. For that split moment she was the center of my world.

She was the most beautiful person I ever laid eyes on. Purple bewitching eyes and lush pink lips set in a heart-shaped face and her dark locks falling over her shoulders. Her outfit was bold but confident. The laced top hugged her torso perfectly and the bits of golden skin exposed through the lace was enough to make my throat go dry. In short, she looked hot.

I never wanted anything more than wanting to be with her. I wanted to live with her, make her my queen, make her happy, protect her and have our own family together but later I realised it was more complicated.

She was Gabriel's daughter and even if I did not care about our family's history, I knew Gabriel would never let me near her. Then my own dark past, decades-long burden and guilt got involved into the mix which led me to take a decision- a stupid one.

I decided to push her away.

Ever since I made that decision, everything went downhill. I thought I would have control over how things would turn out but I was in for a surprise for Analise was not one to just obey orders.

The night of the party, I had heard what Rayna had said to her. I wanted to go comfort her but decided against it- another stupid decision. Instead, I went and hurt her more. What I had in mind was simple. Tell her not to tell anyone about us. Keep distance between us. In the meantime, I would try to figure out what to do.

But then, Analise Royal was a tenacious woman.

Not only would she not agree to do what I said but she would also need answers and reasons. As much as I wish I could provide her with both, I could not. I already had an idea that this would be hard when she destroyed my blazer, not to mention, smiling after doing so.

As time went by, it became harder to keep my feelings in check around her especially when she would try and talk to me. Around her, I had no sense of what's right or wrong. I was not in control of my feelings, of my thoughts, of my actions or my words. Being desperate to keep our distance, I hurt her- a lot. I would shut her out.

I hated hurting her, her wolf and Elias but I did what I thought was right. I would rather she view me as someone mean or asshole as she said rather than the monster I was under my mask.

Then again, she was bent on knowing the truth and would not hesitate telling me exactly how she felt about me. About my actions. She was one of the few people who pointed out my flaws and mistakes. I loved to hear her voice, even if it were profanities or at meetings.

What I hated was seeing her broken. Especially if I was the reason behind it. And as much I hated to admit it, I did hurt her. Even if she would not show it, I could see it in her eyes when she would look at me. I hated to be the one having to break her hope of us being together.

Despite everything, I really admire her. Her humility, intelligence and honesty. She is resilient, genuine, independent, compassionate, supportive and strong-willed. The way she holds herself- her self-confidence- makes her really attractive.

She may not know it but everyday, with her little snarky remarks, her facts, her questions and her simple words, little by little she is breaking all the walls I have built over the years. Every time she asks me 'why', I start asking myself a thousand more questions as to why I am actually doing this and if it is all actually worth it. It keeps getting harder to maintain my resolve.

'You have to give this a chance Alex. Trust me' Elias said. 'Otherwise it might actually be too late.'

"Maybe I will."