Filed to story: Sorry Alpha I Am Wolfless Novel
“I know what you’re saying, I do, but I am still not comfortable with this.” He was just worried about me. I knew that, I really did, but I needed him to understand that I couldn’t have him coddling me all the time.
“Joaquin, you’re a warrior King, you can lead, fight, and rule. Don’t you think that I am capable of that as well? I am a Queen, yes, I am a woman, yes, but that doesn’t make me a fucking China doll. I can protect myself. Not to mention that Vincent, Rahim, and Landon will be here with me as well. And there are four knights back at the carriage. Tell them to keep an eye and ear out for things as well.”
“Hahhh.” He sighed and lowered his head for a moment. When he did look at me, I could tell that he had resolved to listen to what I had said. “Alright. I know that you are strong and can protect yourself, but it’s just my job as your mate to protect you. It’s instinct and it’s hard to turn that instinct off.” I saw a forced smile on his face as he thought about that.
“I know Joaquin, I understand that. But, for right now, I just need you to do as I ask, please.”
“I will.” He kissed my forehead after that and took the people that I ordered with him outside. “Come on, the Queen gave her orders, we need to get a move on. Nathair, please instruct the knights to be on guard.”
“Yes, my King.” He nodded and ran off to follow orders.
The rest of us started to search the house then. I wasn’t going to leave here without some sort of clue. I was going to find out what happened here, as well as what was happening in the city.
I started to move things around the cabin with my magic. I was setting things like the broken chairs, shredded couch pillows, and splintered tables in a corner that I had already personally checked myself.
Now that the rest of the area was cleared out a little, it was time for us to look for things around this room and the other rooms. I didn’t want to move too fast through the search, so I had everyone double and triple checking every place that someone might be able to hide. I had them searching for openings to hidden rooms or anything that might just look like it was out of the ordinary.
We weren’t finding anything though, no matter how thoroughly we were searching. We had moved into the rest of the house as well, searching the bedrooms and the bathroom. There was something that I had noticed. It looked like Alloy and Sterling shared a bedroom since there was only one that seemed ‘lived in’. There was nothing wrong with that, all I wanted to know right now was where did they go and were they both safe?
“Queen Riviana!” Nathair came running into the house calling for me. “Queen Riviana, King Joaquin has found something that requires your attention. I am here to escort you to him.”
“Don’t beat around the bush, Nathair, what is it?” Landon asked him, which was good because I was about to say the same thing.
“There is a magical door in the barn. Queen Riviana, King Joaquin would like to see if you are capable of opening it.” He sounded frantic, like there was something else going on. I guess I would find out what that was soon enough.
“Take me to this door, Nathair. I wish to see it for myself.”
Finally, there seemed to be some sort of progress for us. This could be the break in the case that we’ve been waiting for.
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Riviana
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I followed Nathair out of the house, the other three that had searched inside with me were following behind at my back. They were just as curious as I was about what this mysterious magic door meant and where it might lead.
The two buildings that were outside were: a large barn and a small storage shed. I figured that Nathair would be taking us to the barn to investigate this magic door, however, he led us straight toward the storage shed instead. That was interesting, but I guess it made sense. The barn was the first place that I suspected, it was probably the place that most other people would have suspected as well.
The shed was like any other shed you would expect to see. It was designed like a miniature barn, it was maybe ten feet by twelve feet. There was a set of double doors that had half of an ‘X’ on each one so that when they were closed they could form the completed pattern. They also swung out toward us rather than sliding like most barns..
The difference about this shed compared to most others was that it was, just like the house, made completely of different metals. It appeared that Alloy and Sterling have made the house, the shed, and the barn with their magic.
The shed wasn’t exactly big enough for all eight of us to be inside comfortably so Nathair, Kayda and Rahim waited outside while those that were more part of my inner circle stayed inside the shed with me and Joaquin. Still, with large men such as Joaquin, Trevor, Landon, and Vincent, the inside of the shed was quite cramped.
There was blood on the floor in this shed, so it was clear that whoever had been in the house had been in here. It seemed that either someone escaped into this place, or the fight spilled over into the shed, whichever it was this place was an important clue for us.
“So, Joaquin, where is this door?” I asked him as soon as I entered the shed.
“Right here.” He said as he pulled aside a false panel on the wall.
“Well, I am quite impressed with your level of scrutiny. Thank you for not overlooking anything.” I smiled at them all and thought about how many people would have overlooked something like this.
“We didn’t want to disappoint our Queen.” Landon smirked at me. “There is no telling what punishments we might receive if we were to fail her.”
“Yes, I heard she can be quite vengeful. Using animal names for you is just the start of it, it gets much worse from there.”
“Oh, hush you two.” I laughed and shook my head at them. “You’re making me sound truly diabolical and evil.”
“Aren’t you, though?” They asked me together as they laughed. I swear sometimes the two of them sounded more like twins than friends.
“This isn’t the time for this, you know that, right?” I leveled a serious stare at them and watched as the nearly tripped over themselves to straighten up.
“Yes Ma’am.”
“Sorry Ma’am.” I rolled my eyes again and turned away from them.
I walked to the door and let my magic reach out towards it. I needed to get a feel for it, so that I could determine the best way to open it, and find out what was beyond it.
“Have you tried to open the door yet?” I asked them as I placed my hand against the surface and listened.
“We wanted to try.” I heard Joaquin’s words and it took me a minute to understand what it was that he was saying, the thrum of the magic that I was feeling was so much stronger than I expected.
“What do you mean that you wanted to try?” I turned to look at him, letting my hand drop from the door.
