Chapter 2: Forest queen

Pains were what woke me up, adjusting my eyes to rights, I pushed myself up slowly and sat on the bed.

How on earth did I go to sleep with this uncomfortable dress?

I was still trying to recollect the events of the previous night when the door to my room flew open with a disturbing bang.

I flared, adrenaline rushing through me.

I smell the scents of the guards and there is no doubt that I’m in deep trouble. This means that I must have done something grievous last night but what could that be?

“ Orders from the Alpha King of Azeala pack,” the scary voice of the Beta penetrated my room and the sleep flashed away from my eyes. My heart pounds in my chest as the banging on the door won't stop. I rolled from the bed and stumbled on the floor.

An Order from the Alpha King to a princess of the pack as early as 5 am doesn't sound good. I'm in trouble. I panicked.

The door flew open and the aura of the pack’s beta engulfed the room. Anxiety grips me as I await what order my formidable and precious father has for me.

“ last night, you broke one of the sacred rules that govern the princesses of this pack. You involved yourself in a romantic and sexual encounter with Enzo, the second prince of the Sea Pack before your mating ceremony, Not only that, you consented to him airing the intimate videos of both of you at the king’s birthday party thereby bringing shame to the royal family and making the king to lose a lot of his allies.” He read in one breath from what seemed like a scroll and my jaw dropped.

How? How is that even possible?

“ As commanded by Alpha King Ezra, You, Diana Marie Ezra is hereby banished from the Pack of Azeala wolves, and all ties connecting you with the pack are now severed!” He declared and waves of electricity gushed through me, an agonizing scream leaving my lips as I felt the bonds that have protected me all my life snapped into pieces

“ But..” my lips couldn’t form the words I wanted to say. Sweat broke out from my body. How will u survive the world?

“ I don’t remember….doing the things you accused me of. Enzo lied!” My voice broke and the wall of my internal resistance melted as well.

“ You have to leave before the sun rises from the horizon. We will escort you out of the pack.

Where will I start from? Father knows I won’t even survive one day outside this castle.

I think I have to accept the bitter truth now. My father doesn’t love me. Nobody loves me. Even my mother thought it was the best thing to disappear from her daughter's life.

“ Ouch,” I winced when I felt a sharp pain in my toe. I didn’t realize they’d been escorting me out of the castle because I was lost in my thoughts.

“ I would like to speak with my father,” I told them, my heart throbbing but all they could do was shake their heads and open the car door for me.

“ The alpha doesn’t want to speak with a daughter who caused him so much pain than her mother did. You should be happy he didn’t get you beheaded.”

I remained quiet as the car drove out of the house I’d grown up to call home. Hot tears streamed down my cheeks, burning my eyes and a huge lump in my throat that I could barely swallow.

After what seemed like an hour, the car came to a halt and the cruel reality hit me hard. This is where I will be dumbed to find my way. This is the pack’s border ( a forest).

I step out of the car and get welcomed by the cold morning breeze slashing the bare skin of my back and shoulders. I immediately miss the comfort and warmness of the car.

I drew in a sharp breath and flicked my tongue over my dry plump lips.

“ The king asked that you keep this with you,” I turned to face Beta Femi and saw him holding a box, just the size of a ring box.

I reached my left hand forward and on second thought withdrew it back. I sighed softly and shook my head. Why give me something after banishing me without hearing my fucking side of whatever event that happened last night? Why pretend like a father who cares about his daughter?

The more I try not to hate him, the more I try to see the good in him, the more he doubles the reasons for me to hate him.

“ I don’t need it,” I said raspily and coughed dryly to clear the lump in my throat. It makes me sound like a chipmunk.

“ When you get back to the pack, tell the alpha that I forgive him for the years he abandoned me in the south side of the castle without physical contact for seven years,” I paused and fought back the tears threatening to force their ways out of my eyes.

I gulped hard and tried to keep my voice firm but it wasn’t an easy thing to do, was it? Because the more I try to keep it firm, the more it cracks and the power of the tears in my eyes is now overpowering the force of keeping them away.

“ but for this…” I looked up at the sky and blinked away the tears. Guess they won.

“ I will never forgive him. I’m done forgiving him his sins against me.”

“ However, if he can’t forgive my first alleged offense against him, I don’t have to forgive him ever again, and not in the future.”

I turned to face the soldiers who had strange looks on their faces including the beta, but who cares? All I care about is him passing this vital information to my father, Alpha King Ezra.

“ Tell him, tell Alpha Ezra that, I, Princess Diana Marie Ezra, hate him and will never forgive him for banishing me!” My firm voice resonated through the forest.

Ignoring the looks on their faces, I turned to leave but a few steps away, I turned back and returned to where they stood to meet the same look on their faces.

“ For Enzo, tell him that I will hunt him and make him pay dearly for what he did last night,”

I snatched the box from his hands and started walking away without turning to look back.

Pack of Azeala wolves is now my past but it won’t stop me from coming back to have my revenge on those who hurt me intentionally and betrayed me. One of them is Enzo Dabhori whose real identity is Enzo Davis III of the Sea Pack.

I will make sure he goes down to the mud he belongs to with his conspiring partner, My half-sister, Mathilda Ezra.

After walking for what seemed like an eternity, I stopped by a log of the tree that seemed to have fallen earlier the previous day. I sat on it and pulled my shoe from my left leg and whined at the stinging sensation on my toes.

Fuck! I must have been so lost in my dilemma that I didn’t realize how much the shoes had been hurting.

“ Fuck the King!”

“ Fuck Enzo! Fuck EVERYBODY!!!” I screamed and threw the shoe to my left furiously.

“ Oops, that was close, Melanin,”

My heart skipped thousands of beats after hearing the best calm voice I’ve ever heard.

I turned to my left and saw a tall ginger-haired lady standing three feet away from me with a smile on her face and my shoe in her hand.

Those pink eyes, I’ve never seen them before. She looks ethereal.

“ Are you the forest queen?” I blurted out, my jaw almost dropping and she only just shook her head negatively and said in the most calming voice ever.

“ I am Natalie D”

She took gentle steps forward and for some reason, my body didn’t respond hostile to her. Shouldn’t I be running away from anyone I see in the forest as some of them might not be humans? Natalie looks too ethereal to be human.

She stood before me and leaned down towards me and the little openings in my blocked nostrils were filled by her heavenly jasmine scent.

Her warm fingers stroked my chin and I felt my eyes closing as her fingers made their way to my hair.

“ Your hair, it’s as white as snow, melanin,” I sensed admiration in her voice and I couldn’t help the smile that found its way to my lips. People had always criticized my hair color and talked bad about it and for the first time in nineteen years, I finally sensed admiration in the compliment of a strange woman I met in the forest.

“ Poor Melanin, you must have cried a river for your eyes to be swollen this way,” she soothed the skin under my eyes and sighed slowly as if she could feel my pain.

“ Let’s go to my house, I have something to tell you,” Natalie informed me and when I opened my eyes, the look on her face was serious and disturbing.