Last Resort

Chapter 8

Eventually, we got through the crowd, and I had been escorted to my room by the blue-eyed female warrior. I was now in my room and I was about to thank her for helping me find my room, but the door was slammed, and I was soon enveloped in a bone-crushing hug.

"Oh, Accalia! I've missed you so much! I thought you were dead!" The warrior sobbed. Sobs racked through her body and I wrapped my arms, awkwardly, around her, comforting her.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" I questioned, surprised at her sudden outburst.

"I wouldn't expect you to. You were too young to remember anything."

"But how do I know you?"

"You're my sister."

"What?!" I tore myself away from her, too stunned to say anything longer than that. "How?!"

"Well, Convel, our mother, Queen Nokomis, gave birth to me two years before you were born, but they hadn't been married yet, and our father was the one with royal blood and mother was a serf, so they had kept it a secret from the previous King and Queen. Our mother endured nine months of torture from her parents, chastising, beating her because of her "carelessness". They were ashamed that she was pregnant and didn't know who the father was, which is what she told them to protect the father of her child." She wiped away a stray tear that streaked down her face.

"So, she put up with all of that because our father couldn't own up?" I spat, despising our father, due to that.

"Yes, but you don't understand. Don't be angry at father. They couldn't come out about the pregnancy because they would both be put to death; neither of us would've been here, talking to each other."

"Oh, so father did that to protect her?"

"Yes, and himself. Now," she took off her helmet, straight, golden locks cascading down the back of her armor. "is there anything else you would like to know?"

"For starters, what is your name?"

"Ayame-Ralphina Nokomis, a member of Sköll's Gunnolf, in other words, Sköll's warriors, but nobody knows my name, except you, of course. It would be a danger to our father and me to even utter my last name to any of my colleagues. You would be left alone to deal with this realm... Have you even met your mate?!"

"Well... I know that Keegan Wselfwulf is supposed to be-"

"Keegan Wselfwulf! That Hati scum! He made you think that you were his mate?"

"Well, yeah. I have known Flint- I mean Keegan, since I was four..."

"Yeah, well! It doesn't matter! He's an idiot, who betrayed his pack, the Lykaios Pack. That's the pack that took me in when mum died."

"Keegan's not the Heir of Hati? Dad didn't try to find you after you were born?"

"No, he's not. And dad didn't even try to look for me," she said, quietly harshly. So, this girl is my sister, who was born two years before me, our father abandoned her and our mother, and she happens to be in the same pack as my true mate? I wonder if he knows him?

"Oh! I have a surprise for you! Wait here." She dashed out of the room, dropping her helmet on the way out. I'm think I'll call her Ralphina as a nickname. So, Ralphina slammed the door behind her, and her heavy boots clapped the floor, as she sped through the carpeted hallway, a child at heart. Soon enough, the heavy boots returned, but slower now, like something was resisting the pull of Ralpina. Murmurs came from the other side of the door, Ralphina's higher pitched and a lower pitched voice talking to her. They were out there for about three minutes, so I decided to rest my eyes. My bed was made of luxurious velvet and satin, and the colours, silver and black. The throw pillows were black with a silver, crescent moon and were too silky to touch. I laid my head down, melting into the duvet on top of the fluffy bed, forgetting completely about the two people standing outside the door. My body was too exhausted from today to resist the clutches of sleep that ascended from my soles, through my torso and into my skull.