Their Hidden Princess Chapter 90

I didn’t see Maximus again until we had training with Valentin. He kept his distance, sitting away from myself and Loren at lunch and barely acknowledging me in our classes. Yet, he was an ever-present figure in my life. I’d catch him looming during Basics or walking behind me as I went home from dinners. He wasn’t gone, he just wasn’t near.

It actually shocked me to see he’d come to training the following Monday evening. Thorne was there as well. He stood begrudgingly; arms crossed over his chest like there was anywhere he’d rather be. Maximus held a similar stance, eyes shifting back and forth between Valentin and I like a hawk.

The headmaster looked as he usually did, completely unphased by anything either of the younger Alphas were doing. He stood with his hands behind his back and watched as I tackled Thorne to the ground. The two of us landed on the mat and I immediately got up to pin one of my knees into the center of Thorne’s chest.

He grunted, trying to throw me off with his arms. I sunk one claw into the mat near his hand, pinning his arm down to the ground by the sleeve of his shirt. My other hand wrapped around his wrist and held it at an awkward angle behind his head. I had him pinned.

“Good,” Valentin commented. “Blythwitch, tap out.”

“Not yet,” Thorne panted. He jerked his hand that I’d trapped under my claw. “I can – I think –”

“I said tap out, Blythwitch,” Valentin said, more commanding this time.

Thorne continued to struggle under me. He yanked once more, and the fabric of his sleeve started to rip. Unfortunately, my claw was also right there. If he pulled his hand up, the razor-sharp edge of my nails would shred through his skin. He yanked again.

“Thorne, don’t—!” I cried out.

But it was too late. Thorne yanked his arm free of my grasp. At the same time, my claw slide over his skin like a hot knife through butter. Thorne roared in pain and I dropped his second hand. He bucked me off of him, I landed to the right with a thud. I felt the blood from his arm dripping down my hand as my claws retracted into my human fingers.

Thorne sat up, hand immediately slamming down on his forearm in attempts to stop the blood from pooling out of him. I jerked my head away from the sight, stomach curling in on itself.

“Fuck!” Thorne yelled. “Why isn’t it healing?!”

I almost threw out my neck, snapping it back towards Thorne. I’d been around enough injured Alphas to know that his skin was supposed to be starting to knit back together. Or at least, not bleeding as much. But the blood soaking the gym mat was still pouring out of him and his skin was still saggy and limp above the blood.

“Gods be damned,” Valentin groaned. “Wolfham! Take Blytwitch to the infirmary. Tell the nurse it’s a mate wound.”

My blood sunk from my face as I looked at Maximus. His entire face had hardened as well when he realized what Valentin was saying. He rushed Thorne, yanking the other Alpha to his feet, before slinging Thorne’s non-hurt arm around his neck. He gimped with Thorne, still holding his insanely bloody arm, out of the gym.

Once the door slammed shut, Valentin heaved another sigh. He looked at the disaster on the gym mat as if it was the floor that a puppy had peed on. He waved his hand at it and slowly, the mat turned from its deep red back to the dark blue it was supposed to be. The marks where my claws had stabbed into it had woven themselves back together. It was as if we’d never been there.

“I always thought there was some sort of cleaning lady,” I said. I turned towards Valentin. “Turns out, it’s just you.”

Valentin snorted a half a laugh before running a hand through his hair. He looked towards me with another blank expression. His face had a softness to it that it didn’t have when Maximus and Thorne were around. But under his eyes were deep, dark circles that told me he wasn’t getting any sleep.

“It’s just me,” he said softly. “Only me.”

I tugged my lower lip into my mouth as I pondered that. It sounded like he was lonely. I ached to touch him, to bring him to me and tell him that he didn’t need to be lonely. He had me. I dug my teeth further into my lip before I finally spoke.

“I feel like I know nothing about you,” I said, gently prodding.

“Give that I am your Headmaster, I’d like it to stay that way,” he said. It had none of the spice that his threats/taunts of being the Headmaster had when he used them against the boys.

“You’re not just my headmaster,” I whispered. Valentin jerked his gaze to meet mine. I tugged my lip back in my mouth and shrugged.

“You’re also my mother’s friend and fellow war hero,” I clarified. “If you’re as much my family as my mother claims, it’s weird I don’t know anything about you.”

Valentin hummed. He walked over to sit down on the bench next to the locker room. I followed him and stopped before the bench, hands crossed over my chest. He sighed again and shoved his long ash-brown hair off his forehead. He turned towards me.

“What do you want to know?”

Everything.

I shrugged again. “Do you have siblings?”

“No,” Valentin shook his head. “I was an only child.”

I stepped closer. “And your parents?”

“Couldn’t tell you,” he murmured. “I don’t have many memories of my childhood. Probably for a good reason. They weren’t very happy.”

I hummed and sunk down on the bench next to him. He seemed far more like a person than a wolf at that moment. His hair was all messy, shoved off his face haphazardly. His sleeves were pushed up to his elbows, tie undone at bit at the top. The vest he usually wore under his robes was buttoned a bit. He looked younger like that. Like he wasn’t war ravaged and tormented.

He looked beautiful.

“How did you befriend my mother?” I asked.

Valentin snorted. “That’s a good question,” he said. “I don’t know if I ever actually did. She and Za—your aunt, I met them when we were kids.”

He shifted, as if uncomfortable. Then, a small smile spread across his face.

“One of the only memories I have of my childhood is of two girls with fiery red hair amongst the drab garments they vampires made us wear. They had this glow about them. They walked right up to me and declared we were friends,” He stopped to snort another laugh. “I figured being with them was better than being alone. So, that was it. We grew up in the castle together.”

“My mother’s castle?” I asked, eyebrows knit together. “How did she have that castle if the vampires were in charge?”

Valentin gave me a smirk that lit my insides up and sent a jolt into my low belly. He hummed then looked back at the floor.

“Not paying attention in histories I see,”

“Professor Highman speaks so slow—”

“I know, I know,” Valentin assured. “I suppose I could give you a quick lesson.”

I pulled my legs up to cross in front of me on the bench. “Please do.”

“Alright,” Valentin sucked in a gust of air. “Wolves existed peacefully with vampires. It wasn’t until the first millennia that they decided to take the wolves as slaves. They ran us dry, kicked us out of our homes and used Dark Magiks to stop our powers from reaching their full potentials. The vampires took the Luna Castle. In exchange, they enslaved everyone in the castle. That included all the orphaned children of the wolves they’d killed. Which was me, your aunt and your mother. It was how we met…”