Arabella Dimitri

It had been four days since I woke my brother and Obi up from their comatose state, and since I had told Jason I was planning on leaving at some point soon. My plan was already formed in my head, and bits were already set in motion. I also gathered that Jason had not told Logan yet, otherwise Nick would know, and I would be chained to his bed and probably marked by now. Luckily, we aren't at that stage yet.

However, Obi and Chase have been more annoying than ever. There have only been two more attempts on my life, in the last four days, and they are acting like as soon as I leave their sight I will be assassinated or kidnapped or something. They seemed to have forgotten both attempts, I killed the person attacking me myself. I don't know if that helped my case or not.

If it isn't Obi and Chase following me around, it's Logan or Nick, sometimes even Owen and Skye, the gammas. Skye is a lovely girl, she really is, and we seemed to have gotten close recently, after travelling all the way to The Unknown and back, but now I feel like the only reason she wants to hang out with me is to keep an eye on me, and it makes me want to hang out with her less.

If I didn't have enough enemies, I made a couple more today. All I wanted to do was go to the kitchens and get some food, because I was starving. I didn't know there would be three wolf-sluts there, who seemed to want to fight me about everything.

"I introduce to you Brittany, Ophelia and Gracie," Skye said to me, as we walked out of the kitchen, away from them. If I had it my way, I would have broken the other two's noses as well, but I was dragged away before that could happen. "I think it's their life's mission to sleep with as many warriors as they can."

"Don't they have mates?" I asked.

"If they do, I've never met them," she answered.

"Has Nicholas slept with any of them?" I asked. "Not that I care," I added quickly.

"It isn't really my place, but, seeing as you don't care at all..." she winked at me, "I think maybe Ophelia, not sure about Grace, definitely Brittany."

"Oh, so all of them," I said, slightly seething.

"I thought you didn't care," she raised an eyebrow at me.

"I don't," I clenched my jaw, and my hands, to stop myself from running in there and giving them all matching black eyes, and matching missing throats. Maybe matching missing limbs...

"Owen slept with Gracie, before he met me," Skye told me. I am definitely breaking her nose soon. "Believe me, we argued about it a lot. Then I realised I was better than them all, and Owen only wanted me, so I had nothing to worry about."

"Sounds good for you," I grumbled.

"Alpha only wants you too, you should hear him when he talks about you, and the way he looks at you, believe me, he isn't interested in anyone else," she tried to reassure me. It went all out the window when we turned the corner, and saw Nicholas talking to one of the wolf-sluts. I wanted to tear the hand that was placed on his arm into tiny little pieces and scatter them all over the castle walls so that everyone knew not to mess with me, or him. Unfortunately I don't think that is allowed... yet.

As soon as Nicholas noticed us, he locked eyes with me, his face lighting up. "Arabella, I was just looking for you," he said, starting to make his way over to me.

"Oh really, you look busy?" I said, with a cold tone to my voice. I could see it affected him when his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine Nicholas," I folded my hands over my chest. I wanted to rip the annoying look on that wolf-girls face right off it, but again, probably not allowed.

"Are you busy?" he asked me.

"Yes actually." With that, I turned on my heel and went into the opposite direction of where we were going, which was Madison's room. I knew Nicholas was following me. He was annoying; whenever we had a problem he wanted to fix it right away, if ever I was angry or mad or sad he wanted to fix it right away, but sometimes I just need to be angry for a bit, or wallow in my sadness for a bit, before I am even in the mindset for it to be fixed.

"Wait, Arabella," he grabbed my arm and turned me round as I was ascending the stairs. Even though I was three steps higher than him, he was still somehow taller than me. "I know there's something wrong, talk to me."

"I'm busy," I tried to turn around again, but he wouldn't let me.

"Arabella, come on," he pleaded with me.

"That girl, what's her name?"

"Ophelia?"

"Did you sleep with her?" I asked.

"Um," he scratched the back of his head. "Yes."

"And what about that Grace and her friend, um Brittania?"

"Gracie and Brittany? Umm, yeah, okay, why?"

"Why? Why sleep with them? You could have at least had standards, you fucked the same girls that have been around the whole Kingdom."

"In fairness, I fucked them first," he said. Wrong thing to say, I let him know that by slapping him.

"How many others have you slept with?" I asked him, practically fuming by now.

"Let's not play a game of numbers."

"How many, Nicholas?"

"Fuck sake," he ran his hand over his face, "twenty-two. Okay, you?"

"Two, you idiot."

"It's not like you waited either! Who were they?"

"I was together with one and I had a fling with the other. I didn't just stick my cock in anything that moved," I was shouting at this point. "I bet a couple of them have their eyes on the Queen's place as well, don't they? Now I'm going to have to fight them if I want to become queen."

"You are going to become queen, right?" he asked, getting serious.

"Fuck off Nicholas, this isn't about that. Just leave me alone," I started walking off. Of course he continued to follow me, so I used my powers to create an almost impenetrable wall of plants, that would take him ages to rip through, and I left him there, growling away.

I had been hiding from Nicholas ever since, as well as everyone else who would immediately tell Nicholas where I was. Luckily, there were thousands of rooms in the castle, and I had the ability to hide my scent; there was no way he was going to find me, unless I wanted him to, which I absolutely did not want.

After a couple of hours sat in some room with a load of sofas, a fancy coffee table and a fireplace, as well as a TV, which I had been channel surfing the entire time I was here, in walked Elena Anderson, Nicholas' mother.

"Arabella?" she asked, not believing I was here. "You know the whole castle is looking for you, Nicholas really wants to talk to you," she said.

"I don't want to talk to him, please don't tell him where I am," I pleaded with her, fully prepared to get down on my knees and beg.

She pondered for a couple of seconds, before nodding her head, and sitting down next to me. "I won't say a thing," she winked at me. I think I made a new friend. Three enemies, but one new friend, today has been interesting.

We chatted together for a bit, about nothing in particular. I didn't want to talk about Nicholas, and I think she could tell, so she didn't ask. I appreciated that. At some point a sleepy Madison came into the room, I have no idea how she found us though. She decided to curl up on the sofa next to me, and fell asleep cuddled into my lap, whilst Elena and I watched some reality TV. I had no idea the ex-Queen of the Werewolves liked reality TV, but I guess people surprise you.

"Arabella," and there he was. My mate, he had found me. I slowly turned my head to lock my eyes onto his. I couldn't decipher how he was feeling, or what he was thinking. He was probably angry with me, because I hid from him, maybe frustrated, probably sad because we had an argument, relieved that he found me. This is all just guessing though, based on his demeanour, I had no idea.

Elena gave me a look, I had no idea what it meant, but she cleared off pretty quickly. I was left there, with Madison cuddled up to me, and with my mate, who could potentially be a ticking time bomb before he flips.

"Are you okay?" he asked me, taking a seat on the same sofa as me, but leaving a comfortable amount of distance. I was unsure whether that was because he didn't want to sit close to me, or because he thought I didn't want him to sit near me.

"Yeah, I'm alright, are you?"

"No, you know I hate arguing with you," he ran a hand through this already messy hair.

"I know, I'm sorry," I said. His head turned to look at me so quick, he must have whiplash or something. I think he wasn't expecting me to apologise to him, or to be mad, or to not want to say anything to him at all. "I don't care how many girls you've slept with, as long as if they bring it up I can break their faces."

"I think I can allow that," he gave a slight smile, but it didn't meet his eyes.

"The Alpha King's permission to break someone's face, I feel honoured," I joked.

"You would have equal power, if you took your role," he slipped in, and my heart fell slightly.

"I-I don't think I'm ready yet..." I was trying to be as honest as I could with him, I wanted to be able to communicate my feelings to him, even though there was a lot I was still hiding, and I still had many of my walls up.

"Is there anything I can do? I don't want to rush you, but one day I am going to need you by my side."

"I guess just a little bit of time."

"How long, a week, a month, three months?"

"A year," I suggested, not wanting to turn to look at his face, not wanting to see how I had hurt him.

"A year? Done. Fine, done," he held his hand out for me to shake.

"In one year, give or take, I'll take my crown and my seat on the throne," I held out my hand and shook his. He didn't let go of my hand though, he transferred it to his other hand, which was closest to me, shuffled up closer onto the sofa, and cuddled up to Madison and I. A few moments later, one of the butlers came to carry the sleeping Madison off to her room, and Nicholas brought me even closer to him.

As we sat, in eachother's embrace, I thought about the deal I had just made. I could do a year before settling. Of course, Nicholas doesn't know I won't be with him for the year, and that our mate bond would be paused, but I just needed this time to sort myself out, and then I would able to fully be able to commit to my role, to the Kingdom, and to him.

It was settled, I was going to be leaving soon, very soon.