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Trinity
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A group of men that I had never met before came spilling into the room.
"My Queen, please excuse this interruption." They all knelt as soon as they were inside the room.
"What is it, Perkins? What has happened?" Gabriel asked in my stead, knowing these people more than I did.
"The King has found unworthy men among our ranks. And I am afraid things are about to escalate among them?" The man named Perkins responded.
"Escalate?" I made the one word a question. What could possibly be happening among them to cause this?
"Yes, your grace. It seems that those found to be disloyal are not taking this revelation lightly. They have gotten quite upset."
"Where are they?" I demanded before Gabriel could say anything else.
"Please, come with us, my Queen." Another of the men requested of me. That was all the prompting I needed before I was marching out of the room, hot on their heels.
I watched as they led us through the abbey and down to the courtyard. The sandy color of the stone, the bright flashes of the stained glass, the sights were blurring into one giant streak of colors as I hurried out behind them.
We didn't stop once we got to the courtyard out front. We were marched to the right and down toward a path that led down along the cliff to the rocky shore. The path didn't lead us all the way down as I expected but to the docks that were stilted to meet the slightly smoother edge of the promontory.
There was a large number of people gathered, watching the commotion. Reece and the others were standing just before the docks, Ghirald was in between them and two men I have never seen before. But just looking at them I could tell they were powerful men. They had their faces twisted in anger which gave them an unusual looking expression. It wasn't just anger really, it was fear as well.
Were they mad that they were caught and thought they were going to be punished unnecessarily? Or were they mad that they were found out and couldn't accomplish what they had planned? Was it bad that I was already thinking the worst of these people that I had never met?
The group both on and off the docks seemed to be at a stalemate. But I could tell that Reece was at his wits end.
"Gabriel, what kind of men are these two?" I asked him, knowing that he would not hide things from me.
"They are very good men, or so I thought. There has never been any trouble before."
"But what about their relationships with other members of the Sentinelle?"
"They usually keep to themselves within our organization. They do tend to have more contact with the outside world though."
"That shouldn't have caused problems though, should it?"
"I don't see how it could have." Gabriel looked distressed.
I moved closer to the commotion before me. Those on the grass as well as the dock parted before me.
"I am your King, and you will listen to me." Reece snarled at him. I could tell things were about to cross a line that I wasn't certain we were prepared for.
"What is going on here?" I demanded in a loud, commanding voice. The group around me knelt when they felt my anger and frustration. My entourage turned to look at me, all except for Reece and Vincent who were staring at the two suspects with anger. And those two, those who were being accused of disloyalty, just looked at me with angry eyes. They definitely didn't act like the rest of them. Weren't they supposed to treat me like their queen?
"There was no need for you to come all the way out here Trinity." Reece's voice was tense and held a biting edge. I could tell by the rigid set of his shoulders and the stiff way he was holding his back that he had been holding back with these two already.
"I know Reece, I was just curious to know what was going on." I put a calming tone in my voice. "Carry on." I knew how much it mattered to him to be the alpha male. He would bow down to me if I asked him to, but he needed to cement his control of these people as much as I did. If they didn't learn to respect him now then they never would.
"Queen Trinity?" Gabriel questioned next to me but I didn't let him finish.
"Hush Gabriel, this is needed." I looked at him with a firm, determined look in my eyes. Reece would handle this the way it needed to be handled. It was his job after all, not to mention that he was my husband, my mate, my alpha, the fire to my ice, he would be there with me every step of the way and I had no reason not to trust he could do this. And the nod that answered my trust in him was him telling me he understood everything I was feeling as well.
"The people you were waiting for are here and it's still between you and me." Reece goaded the two men before him.
"It's more than just us." The man with bright orange hair scoffed back at him.
"Precisely." The brown hair man added. "Nearly the entire village is here, along with our Watcher and the Queen." They smirked like they thought that this was the end of it all.
"But the issue is between just us. You heard them, we are to continue." I was slowly walking to the side so that I could see Reece's face more and I just barely caught the grin on his face.
"You can't do this." The first man, with the orange hair, spoke out with annoyance.
"We've done nothing wrong." The other one added.
"This can be settled easily." Gabriel called out. "Swear your undying loyalty to the Queen and King right here and now. Make an unbreakable oath to them to follow them until they release you from service."
"How could you ask that of us?" The orange haired man seemed shocked.
"How is it that you would even hesitate Charles? Isn't that why we all joined the Sentinelle? Did you not already vow to devote your life to the Queen when she was sent by the Goddess? That is true for all of us, is it not true for you and Ralph?"
"Gabriel, we will be loyal, but to swear this type of oath, that would put us at their mercy." The man named Ralph looked as if someone had just punched him in the gut when he heard Gabriel's words. Charles didn't look much better.
"We are all at their mercy, that is the whole reason we exist. If it had not been for our devotion to the Goddess we would all have perished so long ago. I realize that the two of you are among the younger of our numbers, but you have been here long enough to know what it is we are meant to do."
"I did not sign up to serve a brute like him." Charles pointed at Reece, his hand shaking. "Or a half breed mongrel like her. I will not pledge my loyalty to someone not fit to rule us."
"The Goddess has decreed that she is the only one worthy to take her place, This is not up to you." Ghirald looked stricken by those words, angered and upset to hear such disrespectful words.
I saw the anger intensify on the faces of all my guards, not to mention that rage that flared in Reece's eyes. They were pissed, that was easy to see. These men would not take lightly to me being bad mouthed. Even Dietrich and the Warlocks looked angrier than I could ever imagine.
"You're going to regret saying those words." Reece snarled.
"Really?" Charles looked cocky when he heard Reece's words.
"Do you think you can take both of us by yourself?" Ralph asked.
"Most definitely." The smirk on Reece's face was definitely full of confidence and his voice rang with a note of authority.
"Do you truly intend to fight your king?" The man who had come to collect me and Gabriel was appalled.
"He is not my king." Charles looked even angrier.
"And when he fails to beat us then you all will see that he is not fit to be here and neither is she." Ralph added.
I didn't know what their problem was. Why they would dedicate their lives to this organization if they were not truly onboard with the entire modus operandi. But whatever the reason was, I didn't like them. I didn't know them, but they were the kind of people that reminded me of Caleb. They were not to be trusted. I had learned my lessons. I knew better than to accept this kind of thing anymore, and would sooner throw my life away than let people like this near me again. It would essentially be doing the same thing.
I knew this was going to be a good show. That was why I just settled in and decided to watch. Reece would handle this marvelously, that I was certain of.
"Vincent." I called out to get his attention as he had never taken his eyes off the two buffoons. When he finally looked at me I gestured him over, the others saw this and followed suit. I was now surrounded by all my guards and the Warlocks as well as several members of the Sentinelle. They knew a fight was coming and wanted to protect me.
With a smirk I watched Reece's actions. He didn't waste time on saying anything else. He was definitely ready to fight them right now.
Reece slunk into a crouch, his arms were curved at his sides with his fingers curled and ready. He was planning to fight them both with just his human form. I didn't doubt his ability to do it for even a second.
The two idiots thought they had the advantage of numbers, and when they saw Reece remain in his human form they stupidly thought that Reece was a weak wolf. They shifted and split up, circling around him to come at him from different angles. Ralph was a dirty looking dust color, and Charles' wolf perfectly matched his bright orange hair, they were not the best looking wolves I had seen.
The wolf that was Ralph leapt first, making a dive for Reece's left leg. It was clear he was attempting to bite into his femoral artery. Reece blocked him easily, throwing him to the ground like he was nothing but a sack of flour. I heard the whine escape from his as he slammed on the docks.
Charles attacked next, lunging for Reece's throat. He never even got close. Reece grabbed his out of the air mid jump by closing his fingers around his throat. The growl coming from the orange wolf was cut off instantly. With a flick of his wrist and a light swing of his arm, Reece sent the wolf flying near the rocks that lined the pathway I had taken down here. Charles landed in an inelegant heap.
"Hahaha, had enough?" Reece laughed as he saw the two wolves getting to their feet and glaring at him.
'Not even close.' Charles growled in wolf speech.
"Then come at me, I will teach you the price of disobedience." Reece was fully in his element now. He would teach them and everyone watching what happened when you crossed either of us.
As I watched Reece I was stricken with how wolf-like he seemed to be even when in his human form. He had always been a very sexy and powerful man, and his wolf was gorgeous. But looking at him now it was like the two forms had merged. He was not quite a man and not quite a wolf. It was both beautiful and terrifying to see. But I loved looking at it.
As I pictured him covered in fur, almost looking like a hollywood version of a werewolf, there was a flash of that now familiar light filling the area around us all. Reece seemed to be hazy, like an image in the distance on a hot day. But this wasn't a hot day and that wasn't heat rippling around him, it was magic.
I stood there in shock with everyone else as Reece's entire body seemed to ripple for a moment. He grabbed his head and bent near the ground for just a moment. The two imbeciles that he was fighting took advantage of the situation, running at him at the same time and aiming to attack him as he was hunched over.
They still weren't given the chance to touch him. No sooner had they started to run did Reece seem to grow larger, I'd say twice as big but I know that wasn't the case, it was more like fifty percent, or close to it. He was so much more powerful looking, and when he stood up he was easily eight feet tall and a lot more broad in the shoulders and chest. He was huge.
He was also covered in fur. He was the very image of a werewolf from hollywood.
"A lycan?" Gabriel breathed reverently beside me. "There has not been a true lycan in nearly two thousand years."
"He truly is the king." I heard these spoken many times among the crowd along with affirmations from the others.
When Reece had stood up he instantly defended himself, or was it a counter attack? He had grabbed the two wolves out of thin air again, effectively cutting off their growls and eliciting whimpers and whines from them instead.
Reece swung the two stupid wolves in his massive, claw tipped hands. I watched as they circled helpless in his grip momentarily before he slammed them to the ground. The two assholes who had dared to challenge my mate to a duel yelped in pain and didn't move.
The wolves he was fighting had effectively given up, or were KO'ed, but Reece was still filled with rage and anger. That was something I would associate with this lycan form from Hollywood, but I needed to bring him back to his senses.
"Reece?" I called out to him, but he didn't answer.
When I tried to step forward I instantly had nine hands reach toward me. It seemed that all my guards, Gabriel, and the Warlocks were intent on keeping me in place.
"It will be fine, stand down gentlemen." I smiled at them all. "I can't let him kill them. They're stupid, but that's not a crime that deserves death." They nodded that they had understood that I was not intending to join the fight, every hand receded almost instantly. Vincent's was the only one that lingered as he looked at me with concern.
"Be careful." He told me before he too took his hand away. I nodded at him before I stepped away and moved closer to my mate.
Reece had knelt on the ground between the men he had been fighting, his hands firmly gripping their throats. They were no longer in their wolf forms, instead they were lying on the ground in their full glory. Or lack thereof. Was it bad that no man I saw could ever come close to Reece's naked body? Granted I hadn't seen many, but still.
"Reece." I called out to him again just before I placed a calming hand on his back. His snarling instantly stopped as he turned to look at me. Reece was completely different than I had ever seen him.
It wasn't just Reece's build that had changed and gotten bigger. His hands, tipped as they were with lethal looking claws, were now large enough to cover half my arm in their grasp. His head, larger than normal, was now more wolf-like than human. There were pointed ears on top of his head, sticking out of his hair. He had a snout that stuck out of his face with a mouth full of long, sharp, wolf teeth. His eyes, larger than they usually were, were shining at me with their golden light.
I noticed that he wasn't completely covered in fur. His face seemed to be at least ninety percent covered, but there were places that weren't. The center of his thick, broad chest and the center of his back were the same honied tan I loved so much. There was even a bare patch on the back and palm of each hand, the tops of his shoulders, and down by his feet.
Likewise there were places where the fur was thicker and places where it was thinner. His chest, where it had fur, was thinner. But his arms, legs, and head had thicker fur. It seemed that it started to taper near the places that had no fur at all.
Ok, I could still see him in there. in those eyes, and definitely in that god like build of his. He was still sexy and gorgeous. I couldn't help it, just looking at this new form of his made me smile.
"Reece, that's enough." I tried to soothe him with my words and voice but he seemed to have a hard time listening. "Reece, get control of yourself." I urged him. "You don't need to kill them.
I watched as he looked down at his hands. He obviously didn't remember when he had taken his hands off of them. When he looked back at me he was confused.
"What happened to me?" He was not scared, he merely sounded curious.
"You've become a lycan." I told him. "Gabriel will explain it all to us later." I smiled at him.
"A lycan?" He looked confused. "I thought they were a myth. An actual man wolf?" I could see the smirk even on that wolfish face, it was adorable because his tongue lolled out of his mouth when he made the look.
"You are a legend Reece." I told him with a grin. "The Alpha King, The Warlock King, and now a lycan. Is there anything you can't do?" I laughed.
"Win against you." He laughed as he put his arms around me, they easily swallowed me whole. This was an exciting form, but it also gave me pause. He was simply too big this way.
I held his hand as he shifted back to himself. Oddly enough it was almost like the movies. His pants had mostly stretched with him. They were ripped, sure, but as long as he held onto them he wouldn't be naked. Everything else shredded like it always did when we shifted in our clothes.
Together we stood and faced the crowd that was gathered watching us.
"My mate is indeed your Alpha King, as I am indeed your Luna Queen. To be so blatantly disloyal and dishonest-."
"Not to mention disrespectful." Reece interrupted me to add.
"Yes, not to mention disrespectful." I smiled as I repeated his words. "To be so openly hostile toward us may just result in punishment. Did I want, or intend for this? No. But these two men were scanned with a Goddess given ability that told us that they were no allies of ours. The rest of you have been deemed to be honest and loyal so you have nothing to fear." I was hoping to make them respect us but not outright fear us.
"We will not take action of this nature lightly. Those who are here with honest intentions have nothing to fear." After we had both spoken, everyone knelt before us. And I do mean everyone, my guards, Dietrich, and the Warlocks included. They knew how things were with us first hand and their show of respect meant more to me than the other one hundred and fifty combined.
Looking at Reece I smiled, squeezing his hand firmly. This was already starting to be an interesting trip. I would have to ask Reece about the rest of his day later.