Chapter 6 - Back As A Princess

Regina’s POV

“Gray…” I murmured.

Tears blurred my eyes again. I struggled to blink them away just to get a clear sight of him.

It was really him.

Those deep-set green eyes, that straight nose, that perfect jawline…Everything about him was exactly how I remembered him. He hadn’t changed a bit.

Yet he did become more formidable. I could see that Alpha aura in him even more clearly now than when I left home.

I knew girls at my age all thought that Nigel was the handsome one. But they were wrong. That was because they hadn’t met my brother.

My dear brother, Gray.

The current Alpha of Ever Moon Pack.

He was the most handsome man I had ever seen in my entire life.

“Regina…You are bleeding!”

He caught my hand and put it on his cheek. I could feel his whole-body trembling.

“I will kill that fucking bastard!” he hissed frantically, “I swear—I will thread him into a million pieces!”

I shivered and was intimidated by his burning rage. Just then a soldier ran close and cried, “Alpha! They are running back into the Shadow Valley territory! Should we pursue?”

Gray straightened his back at once and roared, “Hunt them down! I want them all tied up by my feet within an hour—”

“W—Wait!”

I grabbed him by his shirt and tugged. He immediately bent his back and caught my hand with his. A worried look appeared on his face, “Don’t move. You are injured. What do you need? I’m right here.”

“L—Let them go…”

I breath heavily while bearing with that throbbing pain on my leg.

“Don’t go into the Shadow Valley. It’ll raise territory issues. You are an Alpha now…You don’t want that…”

“I don’t care!” His iron grip tightened. And he snapped, “Look what he had done to you! I’ll start a war if that is what it takes to kill that bastard! So just tell me, Regina—is that what you want?”

Was it what I want?

Did I really want Nigel dead?

I didn’t know how to answer his question. My mind is a total blank.

All I could do now is to shake my head with tears in my eyes.

He stared at me. His jaw tightened. And after a long pause, he breathed out a heavy sigh.

“Fine…probably now today then.” Gray gritted and stood up with me in his arms, “But I am taking you home. There is no way I am letting you go back to that shithole.”

He carried me in princess-style and walked towards his car. From a peripheral look, I could see his warriors gathered nearby.

And they all bowed to us humbly as we walked by, “Alpha…Princess Regina.”

Princess Regina.

When was the last time I heard somebody called me that?

It was too long ago…I couldn’t even remember.

Gray gently set me down in the backseat and closed the car door. Pulling me into his arms, he whispered to me lowly, “We are going home.”

Home.

I was finally going home.

Feeling all my stress had been dislodged, I closed my eyes and leant against his shoulder, closing my eyes.

I hadn’t felt this safe for a very, very long time.

***

I slept all my way home.

After a very long time, I vaguely heard some noises in my sleep. It was like people were gasping in shock, yelling and running around. Then I heard Gray’s low and stern voice, telling people to keep quiet, and everything went back to silence.

I could feel him carrying me across a long hallway. Eventually, he set me down on a soft bed and tugged me in.

“Have a nice sleep.” He murmured by my ears, “I’ll be right here with you when you wake up.”

So I drifted into the darkness again as he said.

It was a long, sweet and dreamless sleep.

When I finally woke up again, I didn’t even know where I was. It took me a minute to remember what had happened before I fell asleep and finally realized that I was at home now.

Home.

I sat up on my bed and looked around the room.

This wasn’t my old bedroom. It didn’t have my pink walnut dresser, gauze curtains and four-posters bed with lace hangings.

But this room was as large and gorgeous as my old room. I was currently lying on huge King-sized bed. The mattress and beddings were soft as cottons. I hadn’t slept on something so soft in ages. All I got in Nigel’s house was a wooden board with a thin layer of cloth on top.

There was nobody here right now. I gently slipped off bed and walked to the window, drawing the closed curtain open.

Bright sunlight shone through, and I finally got to see the view outside.

I saw crystal clear sky and hills undulating in the distance like incoming tide. I could see garden underneath my window. It was rose season, so all flowers were at full blossom. I had no doubt that if I opened the window, I could smell fragrance of roses in the breeze. And there was also that water fountain at the center of the garden, where Gray and I used to have epic water fights during the summer when we were little.

This was the royal palace of Ever Moon Pack, the strongest pack in the world.

My home.

I tightened the clasp on the curtain as a strong wave of emotions washed me over. I felt an urge to cry, to laugh and to yell out loud to celebrate this long-lost moment.

Just then, the door opened up behind my back and a maid walked in.

“Princess Regina!” she cried in excitement when she saw me by the window, “You are awake!”

I turned around and saw her carrying a tray with food in it.

For a gut reaction, I stepped up and wanted to take the tray over from her. But she quickly dodged, and my hands froze.

“It’s OK. I got this, my lady. You just sat done and rest,” she smiled giving me a curious look, probably wondering why I rushed to do a maid’s work.

She didn’t know that I had spent my last year in Nigel’s house as a slave. I was so used to serve people now. I had begun to forget how to be a princess.

This maid set the tray on the table and looked down at my bare feet, “Let me get your slippers, my lady. The doctor said you should keep warm.”

She ran to the bed and returned with my slippers. She crouched down and put on my slippers for me. I had to try very hard not to wince away from her.

“What’s your name?” I asked lowly. She didn’t look familiar to me.

“It’s Maya.” She beamed at me, “Alpha asked me to serve you by your side from now on.”

“From now on”?

I was stunned.

But I was married. I didn’t belong to this household anymore. I couldn’t stay here for long.

What was Gray thinking?

“Where is Gr—Where is Alpha?”

“The old Alpha summoned him,” Maya said. “They are in the counseling chamber right now.”

The old Alpha was my grandpa Vince, whom I missed very much as well.

I immediately asked Maya to help me get dressed. I wanted to go see grandpa right now.

20 minutes later, I was changed into elegant pink dress with my long hairs braided behind my back and traveled down the corridor with Maya.

We ran into many maids and servants on my way but none of them I had met before. They all bowed to me as I walked by, but nobody said anything to me.

“These are all new servants. They didn’t know who you are,” Maya explained. “Alpha hasn’t announced your return yet. So please excuse their rudeness.”

I smiled and shook my head.

Honestly, I didn’t care about these curtseys.

We arrived at the counseling chamber shortly after. Maya talked to the guards by the door and got us in.

The door to the inner room was shut. Yet when I walked closer, I could hear conversation from inside.

“…What were you thinking, Gray? Regina was married. She deserved to be with her husband. You couldn’t take her back like that!”

My heart sank. Then I heard Gray’s ice-cold voice, “I am the Alpha. I can do anything as I please.”

“Even so—”

“Regina is firstly my sister, the princess of Ever Moon Pack,” Gray said with a formidable tone. “If she isn’t happy elsewhere, she can come home anytime she wants. I won’t allow anyone to question this.”