Ravenna woke up from another broken night's sleep due to a constant feeling of danger that was kept her up throughout the night. Jumping out of bed, she threw on her training clothes and walked downstairs, walking into the kitchen, she noticed her father was preparing to head to Alaria. Walking up to her father, she gave him a huge hug and looked at him with concern and worry.
"Dad I feel like something bad is going to happen please be careful."
"I will dear, you need to get to training now," he gave her one last hug and released her nudging her towards the door.
Smiling at him, she left the kitchen and made her way to the training field.
"Two laps around the kingdom, let's go!" Marcus yelled.
Beginning the run; she was quickly caught by Serena, Maurice, and Patrick who joined her in her running pace. As they turned the corner, Ravenna stopped and watched her father's car pulling away. As his tail lights fade away into the distance, she can't help but worry more that something bad is going to happen.
"Ravenna are you ok?" Serena asked setting her hands on her sister's shoulder with concern.
"Yeah, I just have this nagging feeling that something bad is going to happen." Brushing it off as unnecessary worry, she shrugged her shoulders and began to run again.
"What are we doing today?" Serena asked looking at the group.
"Let's go to the pond after training. We have nothing else to do," Patrick suggested.
"Sounds like a plan," Serena said as the others nodded in agreement.
Training progressed pretty uneventfully, they worked on survival techniques and tracking. Raven enjoyed doing something new, while Serena spent most of her training working with the pups.
Once training was finished, the girls ran into the house to change into their swimsuits as the boys' made snacks and got drinks. Once everyone was ready, they began the walk to the pond. Located on the border of the Royal pack and the Blue Lake pack, the pond was beautiful, it was surrounded by lush green trees which made it super shady. The area was also not that well known, so it was usually never occupied.
Relaxing on a towel, Serena laid back reading a book, while Ravenna and the guys went in the water having water fights and looking to see who can find the strangest rock off the bottom. Finally, after a few hours, Ravenna got out of the pond and stretched out on her towel next to Serena.
"So, I think I'm going to try to go back to get my Doctorate," Serena said looking at her sister.
"Uh you realize all the colleges in the area are in Alaria, we are kind of banned from entering there." Ravenna pointed out.
"Hopefully, Dad will get through to the king and get us permission to go back so I can enroll for next semester."
"I'll keep my fingers crossed for you." Ravenna crossed her fingers for effect as she got comfortable lying on her towel.
As the day progressed, the group continued to relax and enjoy the break from the stressful events that have clouded their life as of late.
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The ride to Alaria was long, but King Alistair didn't mind. He was riding in the back while his bodyguards were in the front. Looking at the passing scenery, he couldn't help but be envious of those who could enjoy the outdoors. Thinking he may try to do that more once the war is over, he closed his eyes.
Suddenly, a loud pop broke his train of thought as his guard pulled the car over. "It's just a flat Your Majesty, please stay in the car. He relaxed and closed his eyes as he heard the trunk open and the guard reaching for the jack. The swaying of the car as it got raised helped him relax even more. Starting to feel sleep overtake him; he was suddenly awoken to the door opening and pain in his neck, then everything went dark.
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"Are you all ready to head back, it's starting to get dark?" Maurice asked the girls.
"Yeah we should," Serena replied as she closed her book.
Packing up their stuff, they began to follow the shared border with Blue Lake towards the direction of their castle, when suddenly Patrick stops. "Do you hear growling?"
"This way," Maurice says as he began following the noise into Blue Lake territory.
Sprinting as fast as she could, Ravenna quickly gasped at the sight that is before her eyes. Three Werewolves are tearing apart one Vampire, who was just covering his body in pure terror. A Vampire woman is being forced against a tree by a wolf, watching in horror.
"ENOUGH!!" Ravenna used in her royal tone forcing all the wolves to unwillingly cower and bow before her.
Serena ran to help the female Vampire, before she could get there, the woman shimmered away.
"DAMMIT, YOU LET HER GET AWAY!" One of the wolves yelled.
"Lower your tone or you will soon be a Rogue," Ravenna stated without any room for debate. I am Princess Ravenna; this is Princess Serena and our guards. You will walk us to your pack house and we will discuss this disgusting display of events with your Alpha... NOW!"
The wolves paled at the order and turned around to start walking to their Pack House in silence. Getting to the Pack House, Ravenna's royal aura was on full blast, causing the surrounding wolves to cower in submission as she walked by. As they stepped up the steps to the pack house door, Alpha Samuel came out to greet them.
"Your Majesties." He said bowing to the sisters. "What exactly did I do to get this unexpected visit?" He stood up and looked at Ravenna, feeling his wolf cower in the back of his head. As he showed his neck in submission, he knew this was not going to be a good visit.
"You have two minutes to tell me why these men were ripping apart a Vampire as they forcefully had another against a tree making her watch!"
Getting even more aggravated, her royal aura started radiating again, to calm her down Patrick lightly grabbed her arm and looked at Alpha Samuel. "I understand that you lost your father and they lost their Alpha, I also lost my twin brother to these Leeches. But even I could see that was not a fighter, probably a Vampire sent to collect blood. That was murder, not retribution."
Alpha Samuel looked at the group of wolves who were hanging their head in shame. "Well! SPEAK!"
The outspoken wolf from before looked at his Alpha and cleared his throat. "We were walking through the woods and we came across them. They looked at us evilly and we thought they would attack. So, we did what we had to do which was attack them first!" The two-standing next to him nodded their heads uneasily.
The Alpha looked at the other three. He noticed one man cowering a little more than the others. Looking him directly in the eye and letting his Alpha aura project, he directed the same question to him.
"John, there's an extremely pissed-off princess to my right who hates liars. And I have had my share of them today too. You had better tell me the truth because you all just started a fucking war with this little stunt!" Alpha Samuel was getting angrier and angrier at the situation. After all, if the man who watched his own brother's throat getting slit by a Vampire called this murder, obviously it was not self-defense.
Looking at his feet, John stretched out his neck in submission. "We were walking through the woods when we saw them. They were following a buck to kill it. Raul decided we would get our revenge for the Alpha getting killed. So, we cornered them and started attacking the man. I told the woman to not run or it would have made it worse, and I kept her against the tree. Then the princesses showed up."
Alpha Samuel took a deep breath looked at Raul and punched him in the face. "Liars have no place in my pack Raul, and that's exactly what you all did." Therefore, I Alpha Samuel Robinson, hereby banish Raul Stone, Jeff Watson, and Timothy Berger from the Blue Lake pack. From this day forward you will be Rogues. You have one hour to vacate my pack lands or you will be executed on sight. If you return at all, you will be executed!"
"This is all your fault you Bitch!" Raul ran towards Ravenna and knocked her to the ground. Kicking him off of her, he rolls backward and to his feet resuming the charge towards her. Lowering herself to her knees, she slid her leg across the ground sweeping his legs out from under him. Straddling him, she began throwing massive punches to his face and chest. Finally, Patrick pulled her off Raul and held her in a bear hug trying to calm her down. Breaking free of Patrick's grasp, she quickly turns and sends one last kick to Raul's stomach.
"This was all your fault you murderer, now you have 45 minutes to get off Blue Lake land before you are executed for attacking a princess."
Hoping to make her point clearer, she gives him one more kick to the groin and turns around to look at the audience that had gathered to watch their fight.
"We have bigger problems than picking fights with Vampire blood gatherers. If I ever hear of this happening again what will happen to you will make this look like child's play."
Patrick put his arm around her and whispered for her to calm down. Taking a deep breath, she looked at Alpha Samuel. "Tomorrow, you will be needed at the palace. We need to figure out how to fix this mess!"