*~*Rika's POV*~*
"Nnghyahh!" I shoved the heavy stone statue away with all of my might. It weighed approximately one ton, give or take a little.
*CCRRAASSHH!*
The statue collided with the wall that was thirty feet away from where I was standing. I felt proud of myself at that moment, having succeeded in my task.
"You missed." The angry voice that interrupted me almost immediately stole away all of that pride that I had momentarily felt.
The man that had spoken was Jim, and he was one of the people that had been called in to train me and my brother. Despite the way that his anger inducing words had made me feel, he had not lied to me, of course he was right. Jim never lied to me so I knew that he was right. It just hurt a little.
As I looked across the room, at the place where my statue had crashed into the wall and shattered into hundreds of smaller, jagged pieces of stone, I saw that I had missed by a lot. I had been nowhere near the target that had been painted on the wall.
"Do not fret, Princess Rika. That was quite the valiant and marvelous attempt. I know that you will make it next time, so there is nothing at all to worry about." That was Marino, another one of my trainers that had come to help Reagan and me. He was the kind that never criticized me, so his praise meant next to nothing to me.
"Do not coddle her." Jim snapped at him. "She needs to improve here. Her feelings are not what matters right now."
"But Jim, you simply cannot talk to the Princess like that." Lennox, another of the people meant to make me stronger, was looking between me and Jim with panic in his eyes.
Lennox, Marino, and Shenise, the other trainer that was standing silently nearby, were the type to treat Reagan and I like we were Faberge eggs, or something equally as expensive and delicate. They were all three wolves that were from various packs around the world. That was common for us though, they didn't want to get in trouble with our parents, the King and Queen.
Jim on the other hand, he was a human, and he didn't live by the same rules as they did. He was slightly older, in his mid-fifties, and he had actually trained my mother when she was eighteen. When she was just starting at the university and trying to live her own life. Now, twenty-one years later, Jim was here to train her kids. Specifically, Reagan and I.
"Do it again, Rika." The words were growled as Jim pointed at another statue that was equally as large and heavy as the previous one. "And do not miss this time." His eyes were hard and stern as he ordered me to get moving.
I admit that he was talking to me in a way that I was not used to, in a way that the others wouldn't dare to use with me. It could be seen as disrespectful at times, I knew that, but it was also refreshing. He was treating me like I was just another person. Like he had treated my mom back in her day.
To be honest, I actually liked the way that he talked to me. Since the day that I was born, I had been the Princess. I had been treated differently because I was not like any other baby born in the world, aside from my brother. At least at that time. And no one, aside from my friends, had treated me like I was an actual person. To most people, I was a treasure, and to others I was a tool. I liked that Jim was treating me like an average, normal, everyday human.
"Alright." I smiled and nodded at him as I got ready to do as he told me to. That was right about when I saw that the others were looking on with shock in their eyes.
"Good." Jim's smile was genuine and appreciated.
I braced myself as I reached for the statue. The thing was too big for me to pick up, too awkwardly shaped as well. Not to mention that even as a wolf shifter, and much stronger than a human, nearly two thousand pounds was just too much for me to deadlift. I could, however, push and throw the thing if I was grabbing just right.
With my shoulder braced against the middle of the statue, I gripped the base of the wolf shaped stone. Channeling some of my magic into the thing, I managed to make it move. Lifting it off the ground, just on one side, I slung my arms out and aimed at the target a little better this time around. And after a few moments, the statue landed dead center.
"Bullseye!" I spoke the word with a renewed wave of pride. I had done it, and this time I hadn't missed.
"Good job." Jim's voice was filled with pride as well. His grin that he looked at me with showed that he was truly happy with what I had done. "You need to remember to focus like that at all times. You will not get a second chance in a real fight. If you are not concentrating, or if you lack confidence in yourself, then you will see that the battle does not go your way."
"Did my mother lack focus or confidence when you trained her?" I didn't know what answer I was hoping for when I asked him that question, it just slipped out before I had the chance to stop it.
"No, she did not. She came to me prepared and determined to prove her strength to other people. People that had obviously doubted her, that didn't value her. She needed and wanted to be the best that she could be, and I was always impressed by her tenacity."
Jim's words hit me in a way that I had not been expecting. What was I training for? Why was I here right now?
"What is motivating you, Rika?" Jim asked me as if he were reading my mind. As if he knew what I had just been thinking.
Just why was I here? I asked myself the question in my head so that the others wouldn't hear me. What is it that is motivating me to get stronger? I knew that it wasn't to prove myself to anyone else, I didn't need to show them that I was capable and strong. No one in my life doubted me. Well, no one except…
"I need to prove myself to myself." I finally answered Jim, but it was almost like I was in a daze when I said it.
"Rika?" I heard Reagan call out to me, but I ignored him for the time being.
"I want to prove to myself that I can cut it. My mom, my dad, Reagan, Talia, Zaley, they are all so amazing, and I'm just so normal. I want to prove to myself that I belong here, that I belong with them."
"Of course you belong with us, Rika." Reagan sounded slightly upset and angry with me. "You are powerful and strong. You are smart and brave. And you are crazy if you think anything else. You are a leader, a great sister, and a good listener. I love you, Rika."
I couldn't help but smile and blush a little at his words. I had not been expecting it at all. Still, the words that my twin brother had just said to me were what I had wanted and needed to hear. Even then, I wasn't able to change the way that I had been thinking. Not so suddenly anyway.
"Thank you, Reagan." I gave him a smile though, I felt like he deserved that much from me at least.
Not for the first time, I started to feel like there was something wrong with me. I wasn't able to accept a heartfelt compliment from my family. I felt so insecure. And I had not felt connected to my wolf, my inner beast, in over a year. I felt so broken and incomplete.
"Rika?" My brother called out to me as we were leaving the training hall later that day. It was just one of many rooms that had been recently repurposed in the castle that we had grown up in. The castle that had always been our home. At least, it was the only home that we remembered anyway.
Well, technically speaking, it was still the same home. It was just that our mother and Athair mòr had used concentrated Fae magic to completely rebuild the place when we were babies. It had gone from the Alpha's mansion to the Queen's castle in a matter of minutes.
Our mother, and consequently me, Reagan, and all of our younger siblings, all six of them, are tribreds. And what that means is that we were a blend of three different species, none of which were human.
The most concentrated was obviously werewolf, but we were also Fae. Of course, why else had our mother been able to use the magic on the castle. And lastly, we were witches. Well, me, Mom, and my three sisters were witches. Reagan and our three brothers were warlocks. If any of them chose to grow up and be non-binary or anything like that, they would just call themselves a magic user, it was a blanket term for all magic using species.
"Yes, Reagan." I gave him a smile as I finally answered him, and I was trying to pretend that nothing was wrong.
"What is going on with you lately? What is happening to make you say those things?" He was probing me with his light blue eyes, the eyes that were so much like Mom's. His mahogany hair, sweaty and falling across his forehead, was also like our mom's.
Reagan and I looked nothing alike, despite us being twins, he had our mom's hair and eyes, but our dad's face and complexion. I was the opposite. I had Dad's honey golden eyes and jet black hair. And of course, I had our mom's face and her pale, white complexion.
Even with as different as we were though, we almost always understood each other perfectly. Not right now, but most of the time. Reagan didn't know what I was feeling at the moment, and I just couldn't bring myself to tell him about it.
"Nothing, Rea." I forced a look that he could likely see through, but he understood that I wasn't going to elaborate. Not right now anyway.
"You would tell me if it was something really bad, wouldn't you?" At times like this, I felt much more mature than Reagan was. Not that he behaved like a kid or anything, he just seemed to be a little too vulnerable at the moment.
"Yes, Reagan, I would tell you before things got too bad." I liked to think that this was the truth, and that I hadn't just lied to him.
"Good." His trusting smile lit up his face. He was so genuine and honest that I couldn't help but feel the familial bond that linked us.
Here I was, Rika Gray, nineteen years old, daughter to Queen Trinity and King Reece, one of the most powerful and influential people of my generation, and I felt broken, incomplete, and scared. I felt like I didn't belong with anyone anywhere, but I was good at faking it. I was good at pretending to be a version of myself that seemed happy and normal. Well, as normal as someone that was so different from the humans could ever hope to be. And if I pretended this way for long enough, perhaps I would be able to make it into my new reality.