Finally returning to the palace, Ravenna headed straight upstairs and took a shower. Washing all the blood and dirt off from her little scuffle earlier, she dressed in a pair of black leggings and an oversized white T-shirt. Stepping into her bedroom to grab some socks, she noticed Serena on her bed.
"Can I help you?" Ravenna asked as she walked over to her dresser throwing open her sock drawer and grabbing a pair of white fluffy socks slamming the drawer closed and sitting in a nearby chair.
"We need to talk," Serena ordered in a tone that left no room for debate.
"Can it wait? With Dad gone David is in charge, I need to update him with what happened at Blue Lake." Ravenna stated as she slid the sock over her foot.
"No, no it can't wait. What the hell was that display at Blue Lake earlier? What has got you so worked up?" Serena demanded standing up from the bed looking at her sister with curiosity.
"Serena, I'm not a child! Please don't attempt to use your Psychology Degree on me. What they did was wrong. PERIOD!" She retorted putting on her other sock and standing up. Glaring at her sister, she placed her hands on her hips shooting Serena a dirty look that screamed I don't want to talk about it.
"I know that and I don't disagree with you. But, there's something else to make you this upset, it's almost like you have feelings involved. Does this have something to do with the Vampire prince that was killed?"
Freezing in place, Ravenna turned and looked out her window. She should have known her sister would eventually connect the dots. Not knowing what to say, she just continued to look out the window as she worked out the words in her mind.
After a long silence, Serena stood up defeated and walked towards the door to leave the room. "I'm here if you need to talk." Slowly opening the door she stepped through to head back to her room.
"I met him two years ago at the Rose."
Stopping in her tracks, Serena turned to face her sister and closed the door. Silently, she walked back to the bed and watched her sister carefully.
"He was my opponent one night and it was one of the hardest fights I ever had. I got beat bad that night," chuckling she looked at her hands. "I wasn't even upset about it. He had a fighting style that I've never seen before and I was curious about. After the fight, he offered to buy me a drink, and we talked about his moves and how to counter them. Eventually, he offered to teach me, so we started meeting up and training one on one in one of the clearings in neutral territory. One thing led to another, and I... and I..."
"You fell in love with him." Serena finished her sister's sentence.
Nodding her head, Ravenna looked at Serena as she went and sat on the bed beside her. "We were in the process of breaking it off. We still had our mates to find, and we didn't need to get any more involved than we already were. The night of the Vampire attack I texted him to meet me in the clearing to discuss the Vampire attack, I had to know if he was capable of breaking my trust like that. Turns out, he had no clue about the Vampire who killed Kevin, but he was going to look into it." Tears slowly started falling down her cheeks; she put her head in her hands not wanting her sister to see her cry.
Serena said nothing, just reached over and gave Ravenna a hug allowing her to cry. "So this is the fight you and Patrick had the other night?"
Pulling away Ravenna nodded as she wiped her eyes, "yeah, it was."
"I won't upset you anymore by talking about this, but if you need to talk you know where I am. For now, let's go inform David about Blue Lake then get some sleep."
Nodding as she wiped her eyes, Ravenna left her bedroom and walked down the hall to the King's office knowing David was there. She noticed that the door was open; so she stepped in without knocking. Looking up she saw her brother and his mate and instantly regretted walking into the room.
"EWWW CAN'T YOU ALL CLOSE THE DOOR?!?"
Interrupting David and Rosemarie in their intimate moment, Ravenna covered her eyes and quickly turned around giving them the privacy they needed as they looked around for their clothes. Finally hearing the ok to turn around, she turns around and smirks at her blushing brother. Clearing her throat, she sits down in one of the chairs on the other side of the large oak desk David and Rosemarie were seated at.
"Uncomfortable moment's aside, as acting king, there's something you need to know."
"Ravenna, if you have another alternate ego in the knitting club, I'm going to seriously consider committing you," David said placing Rosemarie on his lap.
Hearing Serena giggling behind her, she rolled her eyes at her brother. "No Brother Dearest, this is a little worse than my knitting habits."
"What's wrong then?"
"Blue Lake may have started the war with the Vampires."
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
King Lucius sat at the head of the table; to his left sat Mathias to his right sat Prince Zane. It was a somber meeting with the five coven leaders to get revenge on the humans who killed their prince.
"My idea is this: burn the surrounding farms. Push them all back into the castle area. This gives them more mouths to feed and less to feed them with, eventually, they will be there starving and fighting among themselves. We then take our opportunity to attack the castle. This plan will not only give us the time we need to make them suffer but it will also give us time to get help just in case the wolves jump to their side." Xavier, leader of the Twilight Coven suggested.
"This idea could work; we will not have to rush, the more time we take the weaker they become. It also gives us time to come up with all that could go wrong ensuring our victory, even if the wolves do help!" King Lucius stated with a sneer, his eyes turning red from the anticipation of the upcoming battle.
Staring at the large map on the table, King Lucius selected the largest farm outside of Alaria. "Xavier take your men, you will be responsible for burning down this farm. It needs to be burned to the ground, and take Zane with you." Lucius stated as he pointed to the first farm on the map in front of them, "You will be crossing wolf territory, take care."
Xavier and Zane nodded and stood up to leave; as they did, a knock on the door stopped them.
"Enter!" King Lucius stated.
"Your Highness," Lilith the head of the trackers entered the room bowing to the king. "I have troubling news. Six wolves attacked and killed one of our collectors tonight. We had one who managed to escape before they harmed her."
Nodding and pointing her towards the door to leave, King Lucius looked ahead expressionless. "So, the wolves have shown their hand in this war too have they?"
∞∞∞∞∞∞∞
"THEY DID WHAT?" David screamed as his eyes turned black in anger. Knowing his wolf was coming to the surface; Rosemarie slowly took his head and put it in her neck to help calm him down.
"We managed to stop them from killing the other, but she left before we could talk to her," Serena stated.
"Then what happened," David asked after taking a deep breath and sitting up.
David listened intently as they explained the scenario: including Alpha Samuels's banishment of those who killed the Vampire, Ravens scuffle with Raul, and her order for Alpha Samuel to appear at the castle the next day.
"Well, the damage has been done. We wanted to knock down the Rogue problem first before we retaliated against the Vampires, but it looks like Blue Lake... "
Before he could finish his sentence, a soft and quiet knock on the door interrupted him.
"Come in," David announced.
In the door walked a very concerned Queen Marian. "I realize you kids are in the middle of something important; but, I have an urgent problem that needs to be addressed immediately.
"What's wrong Mom?" David asked concerned as he saw the worried expression on her face.
"I can't get in contact with your father and I'm so scared. I have called his phone and l tried to use mind link. He's not responding to either, I even called the Alarian castle and was told they'd never let a wolf in there, so I know he never made it to Alaria."
Mind linking Marcus to come to the office, David pulled out a map of the three kingdoms. Once Marcus entered the room, David explained the situation and they set up perimeters to search. Serena and Queen Marian left the room to make phone calls to surrounding packs, while Ravenna mind linked the pack members to get volunteers.
Once the plan was in place, they all went to work. Grabbing Patrick, Ravenna shifted and headed to the pack line closest to Alaria. Signaling him to shift back, they dress and look around.
"Do you see the flames over there on the horizon? I wonder what is going on," he asked as he looked over towards the human land of Alaria.
"We can figure that out later let's look around and see if we can find any clue to the whereabouts of Dad." She stated as they frantically began to search the woods for some type of sign her father is alive.