Warrior Princess
Chapter 21

Gemmas POV

I didn’t want to hurt my mate. I came back to talk to him. Figuring I may have over reacted. But I saw him trying to kill Sam and me and Ashanti lost it. Mate or not! Seeing jake there on the ground in cuffs brought tears to my eyes. He’s yelling for Sam, even accused me of doing that to her. What is his deal? He’s acting like he doesn’t even remember doing it.

“SAM!!!” he yells as Kasen takes her away. Josh finally punches him.

“You are done you’re going to the dungeons!” he yanks him up by his cuffed hands.

“Why do I need to be there for my sister? You don’t understand she’s dying!” we all stop. How can my mate be so stupid! “

“Of course, we understand. We saw the whole thing. YOU are the one who did this. YOU are the one who may have killed his sister. YOU are the one that ripped her stomach open and almost snapped her neck. GEMMA IS THE ONE WHO STOPPED YOU. If she hadn’t returned from running off and tackled you, you would have snapped Sam’s neck! You almost killed our queen! Her b***d is on your hands!” Josh yells out and jake stumbled.

“No, no, no, no, no! That can’t be true!” he looks at me, but I just stare at the ground. “I don’t even remember anything after your shift! The last thing I remember is seeing your wolf and realizing you’re my mate.” Pack Warrior Todd came out of the crowd.

“Beta josh, we found this at the scene of the fight next to the Koi Pond.” He handed him a clear evidence bag with a dart in it the size of a bottle top.

“Let me see that.” I ask. I open it and sniff it. “He’s telling the truth. He didn’t do it.” I say.

“What are you going on about we all saw him!” Marcus growled.

“Check him. Check him for any marks that would resemble a pinprick.” Everyone searches for him.

“Look at this!” Marcus moved the hair right behind Jake’s ear and sure enough, there is a red spot with a pinprick in the middle.

“Want to explain what’s going on?” jake yelled.

“You did this, but you weren’t in control of your body. Everyone sniff this. What do you smell?” some of the warriors shrug but Josh, Jake, and Marcus and a couple of the trackers all Tense.

“He was under the control of Dark magic. Someone did this. It would explain the amnesia, the anger, the rage, and inability to control himself or his wolf,” Marcus says. Everyone goes still.

“Who wants to tell Kasen…?” I ask and no one volunteers. “Pansies.” I mutter.

“How did you know?” jake asked. I explain to him that since My brother was king, and my other brother was supposed to be beta and I am of royal b***d I wanted to learn as much as I could about any potential threats I also learned during that time that I have some magical capabilities… Therefore, I studied magical history and studied under the Royal witches.

“What have I done? I just killed my sister.” Jake’s knees gave out on him and josh supported his weight. I feel so sorry for him. He wasn’t in control of his body. Someone did this to him. Someone wanted this to happen. Who would want to hurt Sam? Jake passed out and we decided to take him to the hospital as well.

As soon as we walked through the doors with an unconscious Jake, Kasen was right on us. “WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING BRINGING THAT TRAITOR HERE?!” he says, his eyes flickering between that of his and Atlas’s. I link dad to come to help us and he appears quickly with David, Jake’s dad. They all look at us questioningly.

“He didn’t do this.” I say calmly. Kasen laughs manically.

“That’s funny little sister. A cruel joke. My mate is in there no clue if she is going to even live. You saw what happened at the end!” he spits.

“WELL, WHO LET IT GET THAT FAR? WHY DID IT GET THAT FAR? WHY DIDN’T ANYONE STOP THEM?!” I yell. I love my brother, but he needs to listen to me. That, and I have a point. It shouldn’t have been allowed to get that far. Everyone stops and just looks at one another.

“Exactly. Truthfully, everyone in this room or that was there has partial blame here, and don’t even try to tell me otherwise. You know I’m right.” Kasen just scoffs and starts to walk away towards the waiting room. I tell Josh to take Jake and place him on a bed.

“He wasn’t in control of his body, Bubba. Someone did this to him. Someone wanted this to happen. Look at this. Todd and the other warriors found it at the scene next to the koi pond. We checked and he does have the wound to prove it hit him. Smell it tell me what you smell.”

Kasen freezes and turns around. He stalks back to me and looks at the bag. He unzips it and inhales, flaring his nostrils. His eyes flicker between his and Atlas’s and he growls. “Dark magic.”

I nod my head. “See bubba. He didn’t do this. He would NEVER hurt Sam. When he snapped out of it, he couldn’t even remember anything after my shift. He didn’t remember me running off, he didn’t remember sam slapping him nothing. When we told him that he did it, he lost it.” Daddy, mom, David and Lucy all put a hand on Kasen’s shoulder.

“Who would have done this to my son? Who would have done this to sam? Who would want her dead?” Lucy says with tears in her eyes.

“I don’t know, but I have a feeling it has to do with this upcoming war. I am going to go talk with the bear prince as soon as we get Sam stabilized.”

“Would you like me to bring him here? We know he’s no threat to us.” Josh asks. Kasen nods and josh goes to grab him. This birthday went from great, to bad, to awful, to just completely crazy. Kasen collapses into one of the waiting room chairs and I sit next to him and rest my head on his shoulder. I feel his body sobbing. I feel his tears hitting my head. I grab his hand and squeeze.

“She will be okay, Kasen. She is strong.” He just sighs.

“The last thing she told me through the link was she loves me. She was saying it as if she was saying goodbye. If she doesn’t make it, I don’t know what ill do. I can’t live without her. I cannot lose her.”

I send a silent prayer up to the goddess to spare Sam’s life. She hasn’t done anything wrong. Her time here isn’t over with.

Everyone sits in this waiting room so quiet you can hear everyone’s heartbeats. We see a nurse rushing down the halls with her arms full of bags of b***d. She runs into Sam’s trauma room and you can see and hear everything. The walls are soundproofed, but they left the door open. Kasen perks up at the chance of getting information about his mate. I sniff and pick up a new scent.

I look up to see josh has returned with a guy roughly my age. He must be the bear prince. As soon as my eyes meet his, I hear the Heart monitor in Sam’s room flatline.

“She’s Crashing!” I hear and Kasen stands up and throws a chair and growls. The doctor realizes that the door was left open and the king heard his mate was dying. He started chest compressions and Kasen is fighting a losing battle with his wolf. This young bear prince approaches a raging Kasen slowly.

“I wouldn’t. Not when he’s not in control.” My daddy tells him. He just looks at my dad but continues his approach. Kasen and Atlas scent him and he turns and growls.

“Your majesty.” he says and bows low as a sign of respect. “I know how you can save your mate. I’ve seen it happen before with other shifters, even wolves.” Kasen stiffens at this and takes control over atlas. He just looks at the bear shifter.

“You need to mark your mate. Mark her now. Bring her wolf out of her dormant state. It will help her speed up her healing.” The doctor comes out.

“He’s right. We’re fighting a losing battle. She has just sustained so much damage and lost so much b***d. If you don’t mark her now, she is going to die as soon as we stop compressions and take her off the ventilator.“

Lucy screams and falls to the ground, her mate comforting her. She might be losing her pup.

“Kasen, you need to mark her. She will forgive you. But she won’t be able to if she’s not alive!” My dad says to him softly.

The bear prince just nods his head and the doctor says, “We’re running out of time, this needs to happen now, or you’ll be planning a funeral instead of a war.”

Samanthas POV

Everything hurt. After everything went black, it felt like I was floating in a dark and soundproof room. It felt like I was there for hours. I felt this stinging in my neck, almost as if it were on fire.

I rubbed my neck and clenched my eyes closed. When I opened them again it was so bright. It was absolutely beautiful here. It had an ethereal feel to it. As I was looking around, I felt a cold, wet nudge against my arm. Craning my neck, I see a silver wolf. Her coat shining in all its glory.

“Akira!” she wagged her tail, and I threw my arms around her neck.

“I always knew I paired you with the right wolf.” Akira bowed her head and I looked to replace the source of the voice. When I see her, my jaw drops.

“Selene.” I whisper. She smiles and nods her head.

“Am I dead?” she takes my hand.

“Yes and no. Walk with me.” we walk for a bit. “Why do you think you are here child?” I scoff. The goddess of all the moon’s children should know why I’m here.

“Yes, I do know why you’re here, I’m asking if you know why you’re here.” Wait, can she read my mind, or am I speaking out loud?

“Your mind is speaking very loudly, my dear.” My mouth makes an “o”.

“I am here because my brother killed me. My brother finally showed how he really feels.” I can feel the tears brimming. I can’t believe my own brother would kill me. My twin.

“Oh, dear child. You couldn’t be more wrong.” Is she on crack? She’s got to be. I was there. I was the one who was killed.

She giggles. “Crack that’s a new one.” Crap, loud mind. “Yes, you were there, and yes your brother did physically deliver the blows. Let me think. You are a seer. For you to believe, you have to see. Would you like me to show you exactly what happened from my point of view?”

What more could it hurt im already kind of dead. She takes my face in between her hands, and it reminds me of the time Kasen showed me his memories.

We’re back at the place of Gemma’s first shift. Watching myself and everyone else like this is so weird.

“She did shift into a beautiful wolf. Ashanti is one of my favorite royals. She’s a spitfire for sure.” The goddess feels so relatable. She acts like the sister I never had. I know she hears my thoughts because she flashes her pearly whites at me.

“What do you see?” she asks me.

“I see Gemma shifting, Jake and her embracing as mates. Everyone was happy here.” She nods almost beckoning me to follow the memory reel. “Jake is asking what this means for his precious f*g beta position. Excuse my French.” She pats my shoulder.

“What else, Samantha.” I look again.

“Jake practically rejected Gemma, she ran off, then I confronted him, and we fought.” She shook her head at me.

“You missed something.” What did I miss?

“I don’t recall missing anything. I just saw it too. He asked about the positions, and he didn’t say anything. He practically rejected Gemma by not saying or doing anything. Almost like he was trapped in his own mind.” I spit out. She smiles.

“Exactly, trapped in his own mind. Now I am going to replay that memory, and I want you to pay extremely close attention to jake, and your surroundings. No other person.” She does as she says and we restart the memory.

We get to the section where jake first freezes and I ask her to pause. I take in Jake’s facial expressions, his body stance, his scent. He looks pained. I touch his face, he doesn’t feel feverish, I run my fingers through my brother’s hair when my hand touches something behind his ear. I walk around him and take a look. It’s a dart.

“What is this?” I clearly see it was a dart. I pull it out and sniff it. I know. I recognize that smell. I look to Selene and she just smiles knowing that I understand.

“He was spelled…who would want to hurt him?” I think hard. I don’t know of any of his enemies. The dart must have gotten knocked loose when I slapped him and that’s why no one noticed it.

“Samantha, I think the question is who would want to hurt you? Yes, the dart hit jake, but who did jake attack?” there are a few scenarios that pop into mind. Too many people don’t like me, and I don’t know why. I have never done wrong to anyone. She looks sad.

“I know you haven’t had the easiest of lives, but everything happens for a reason. You wouldn’t be who you are today if things didn’t happen the way they did. I didn’t like it one bit, but it was necessary.” Who am I to argue with a goddess? she just motions me forward. She told me to take in the surroundings.

I take in the trees, the flowers, everyone else in the garden, until I spot a reflection glaring in a short distance. I stalk to it and I see someone crouched in a bush with a dart gun and an evil glint in their eyes. I know this person. I knew they didn’t like me from the start, but I didn’t think they were this crazed.