*Isla*
The six girls standing between me and the exit to the library swivel around at the sound of Trinity’s voice, their mouths dropping open when they saw the woman standing there that they all revere as the front runner in this stupid contest.
The blonde who had been such a bitch to me immediately changes her tune. “Oh, Trinity. Hi,” she says, stammering a little. “We were just… playing around with Iris here.”
“Isla,” Trinity corrects her. “And I don’t think that’s true, Veronica. I think the six of you were going to try to hurt her. Do you honestly think that would be a good idea? Do you think that Alpha King Maddox will even let you stay in the castle now? You’ve threatened to hurt another contestant, you stupid bitches.”
All of the girls stare at her wide-eyed, and it seems evident to me that Trinity knows all of their names and can identify them for Maddox.
“I didn’t do anything!” a dark-haired girl standing near the bag blurts out. “All I did was stand here! Iris can attest to that!”
“Her name is Isla, Margaret. Get it right!” Trinity says, her eyes narrowed. “And just because you didn’t touch her or threaten her, that doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong. You also didn’t stand up for her. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that being an accessory to a crime is just as bad as committing the crime itself?”
Tears begin to stream down the girl’s face. “Please, Trinity! Don’t tell Alpha King Maddox I was here. I really wasn’t going to hurt her.”
“I suppose the rest of you are going to claim the same thing?” Trinity looks them all over. “You are the ring leader of this fiasco, Beatrice. What do you have to say for yourself?”
Beatrice looks a little rebellious still. She’s the one in the front, the one that spoke to me the meanest, except for maybe that last threat from the back row. “I think it doesn’t really matter, Trinity. We all know that you’re the one who is going to end up marrying King Maddox anyway, so why would the rest of us even want to stay here a day longer?”
“Is that what you think?” Trinity laughs and shakes her head. “You are all a bunch of stupid bitches. Get your asses out of here now before I decide to shift and rip you to shreds. In fact, I probably don’t even need to shift to do that.” Trinity’s arms are folded under her chest, and she’s wearing a dress, but something tells me she is capable of doing what she’s just said. I’m not sure why I think that. She doesn’t look dangerous but is definitely confident.
“Let’s go,” Veronica says, gesturing for the others to follow her. “We were leaving anyway.” The girls all storm out, except for the girl who is still crying—Margaret. She follows them, but the other girls are chiding her, calling her a baby.
Trinity and I are left standing there, staring at one another. A simple thank you seems a little less than what she deserves at this point, but I also can’t fling myself into her arms and hug her, telling her how much I appreciate her saving my butt either.
So… I go with option one. “Thank you, Trinity. I appreciate it.”
“Of course,” she says with a shrug. “Why didn’t you call for the guards or for Maddox using the mind-link?”
“I could have called him, and I guess I would have if they would’ve actually shifted, but I was hoping they were bluffing,” I admitted. “I didn’t want to bother him.”
“Isla, if they would’ve shifted, they could’ve really hurt you before anyone got here to help.” She sounds motherly at the moment, scolding me, almost.
I guess I can’t blame her. She’s not wrong. “Do you think they would really do that?” I realize I’m still holding the book I found, and it’s getting heavy. I shift it in my arms, and Trinity gestures for me to walk with her. I grab a couple of other books I assume we are going to my room. “Do you want me to carry some of those?”
Normally, I would say no, but since I am pregnant, I hand her the heaviest book from my stack, and we head down the hallway together toward my room.
As we walk, she answers my earlier question. “Yeah, I do think they would really do that. Listen, Isla, these girls are desperate, just like their fathers. We’re talking about men who want to be Alpha King, who want their children to be Luna Queen, who would do anything for power. None of them fought against Maddox in this latest war, but that doesn’t mean that they’re all about him maintaining his throne. All of them are ruthless. That’s why he has to be so careful in his dealings with them. He can’t just order them to stop being a bunch of dicks and expect them to fall in line. He has to show that he is the authority all of the time, and whenever they try to usurp him, he has to pound them into the ground. But in the meantime, it’s a dance of giving them a little bit of what they want in exchange for their compliance.”
I’m not sure I know exactly what she is talking about. My experience in these sorts of dealings is limited because I didn’t grow up the daughter of an Alpha, even though I could have grown up a princess under different circumstances.
In the back of my head, the thought that Trinity would be a perfect Luna Queen comes to mind. I wonder if that’s the way Rebecca was when she was the queen. Did she know all of these things? Did she handle situations the way Trinity just did? With authority?
I had just stood there, assuming that they wouldn’t really hurt me because they had to know there would be consequences if they did so, but it turns out people like them didn’t care and assumed they could get away with anything.
Even murder?
I am glad I didn’t find out.
“I will be letting Maddox know about this,” Trinity tells me. “I’ll tell him I told you I’d do it because I know all of their names and packs, and you don’t. But you can expect him to be livid about this the next time you see him.”
“Good to know.” I swallow hard. As long as he’s not livid at me for not telling him, I guess that’s okay.
We arrive at my room, and she brings the book in for me, setting it on my table. Poppy isn’t here, so it’s just the two of us. I’m not sure if it’s the first time she’s looked at the book or just the first time I’ve noticed, but Trinity raises an eyebrow at the cover. “Doing some traveling?”
Shaking my head, I tell her, “No. Just some research. I just realized I don’t know a lot about the world outside of our kingdom and thought I might need to learn a little more about it.” I think I sound confident, but she doesn’t look convinced.
Trinity opens the book and looks through some of the pages. “Maatua,” she mutters and then looks at me. I say nothing, pretending like I don’t know what she’s talking about.
She closes the book. “Well, with everything going on around here, the safest place to be is this castle. I wouldn’t want to leave it. Especially not with a baby.” Her eyes drop to my abdomen and then back to my eyes.
I’m not showing that much, but she knows about the child. Obviously. I nod. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Good. If you were to leave now, I think it would make matters much worse for Maddox. He would probably be forced to choose someone else, and since the logical choice is me, please don’t go anywhere, Isla. I can’t tell you how much I don’t want to be Luna Queen, even if it would be completely fake.”
“Why is that?” I can’t help but ask her. “You’d be so good at it.”
She makes a face at me. “I am really tired of being compared to my cousin,” she says. “Don’t you ever get so tired of something, you don’t want to do it, even if everyone else is telling you it’s for the best?”
I have no response to that, so I only nod. Yeah, I’ve definitely felt that way before.
“See you later.” Trinity leaves, and I am alone now, with my books. I guess I shouldn’t let Maddox see them since he may have the same lingering questions that Trinity just did. I decide to only look at them when I know that he isn’t likely to be around. Granted, two of the books are historical and about this kingdom, but he might want to know why in the world I am looking at those, and there’s just no reason for me to have to try to explain all of that to him.
I assume that Trinity will tell him right away about what happened in the library, and I assume that the moment he finds out, he will be down here to check on me. So I take the books to my closet and secure them.
I’ve just gotten them hidden away when the door opens. My pulse escalates, but when I turn around, it’s just Poppy with lunch. She has a strange look on her face, though. She sets the tray down and says, “I just heard there was some sort of a confrontation in the library between some of the candidates. Do you know anything about it?”
“Yes,” I tell her, being honest. The scent of grilled cheese sandwiches has me heading to the table. She can interrogate me while I eat.
“What happened?” she asks, assuming I was involved.
I tell her, and by the time I am done, she is ready to go find those girls and punch them in the face. It’s lucky for them that I don’t know all of their names. “Well, I am at least going to go break that Veronica bitch’s nose!” she declares.
“No, don’t do that,” I tell her. “Let Maddox handle it. There’s no sense in you getting yourself in trouble.”
“I don’t care what they do to me. If she is an ugly, crooked faced monster for the rest of her life, it’ll be worth it.” Poppy’s hands are fisted as she walks back and forth near the table.
“Trinity handled it,” I tell her. “And Maddox will put an end to it. Now, calm down.”
Poppy growls under her breath, and I have to think, if she is this mad over the incident, how mad will Maddox be?
He’d better be livid.