A Knight's Purpose (Book 1) ✔️

Chapter 9 - A Quick Change

"I didn't do anything to your daughter." I spit the word, finally sick of how I'm being treated.

 Yeah, he raised her, I get that but I'm her blood. I held her as a baby, I fed her bottles and changed her diaper. I am just as important to that girl as he is, hell more so given what I can teach her about herself.

"She's not in pain she's terrified! She can probably see the vein throbbing in your head from where she's standing. Bugs are everywhere, everything is sharp and blinding and bright." I lower my voice until I'm coaxing instead of yelling. "I didn't hurt her, she's just scared because it's new."

Camden has already lost interest and is slowly walking towards Sereya.

"Maia, how are you?"

"Cam, why are you so bright? What's going on?"

"You're seeing out of your beasts eyes, not your own. I don't know how you've managed that but just stay calm." He kneels down and stares into her eyes. "Take a few breaths with me and focus on relaxing. Don't worry about everything else, just look at me, there's a good girl." Her eyes still spark occasionally, but it's enough to calm Camden.

From my position, still held down might I add, I watch her eyes slowly slip to a dull green. Not the bright green of her beast but not the brown of her own eyes either. They take a few more breaths together before he rises back up and stalks back over to me.

"How did you do that? She's never changed before and a partial change is almost impossible to pull off." He stands glaring down at me.

Yeah, that's it. I'm definitely done playing nice. Still, I manage to hold back my more aggressive urges, like the ones urging me to rip out the throats of those who hold me on my knees, arms twisted painfully behind my back.

"You going to let me up to talk to you? I don't really feel like saying much from down here." I raise an eyebrow and wait.

He finally gives in with a nod of his head to the two wolves holding me. They let me go and I surge up, turning to knock the gun out of April's hand. She growls at me as it flies to the grass, reaching for the knife at her hip but surprisingly Cam growls back at her for me. Or maybe it was at me but I chose to believe he was on my side for once. Either way, April stops and simply glares at me. 

"Answer. The. Question."

"Fine! Sereya can't shift because she's been blocked, but she can access parts of her beast just like I can. She couldn't maintain the shift so I ordered her to partially change but the suddenness was frightening. That's it. That's the sum total of what happened before April got trigger happy." I glare back at the woman in question for good measure.

"She was in pain!" April snaps, taking a step towards me which I respond to with a smirk before turning to talk to Camden again.

"Listen, if she can get her eyes to change on command it's a start. I thought we'd be able to go for a run today but maybe that's too much to ask for a first time. She can't even remember what her beast looks like, how is she supposed to access its powers? So, we'll take it easy this morning, see if she can shift her eyes reliably and then afterwards we can work our way up."

"I don't like it. What she did already scared her."

Has this idiot forgotten who I am?

"That girl is my niece! Have you forgotten that? Do you honestly think I'd push so hard that I'd hurt her? She's all I have left!" I push forward into his space. Though I'm shorter than him I manage to push my face up to his chin. He leans back but manages not to take a step away.

"You know nothing about her anymore! You claim to be her aunt but there's nothing to prove that. How do I know you don't want to use her or take her away!" He yells right back at me and suddenly we're in a glaring match. I'm going to win, of course, he just doesn't know it yet.