After Dusk

Cassie.

"Cass, help!" Elowen's cries were the first thing I heard as soon as I stepped out of the bathroom. My head snapped in the direction of her voice only to see a guard pulling roughly at her hair. The guy looked up at me and gave me a cocky smirk.

Must be new...the jerk thinks we are all helpless little queens. Willow, my wolf, snorted in my head making me smile a little.

His mistake. I said and without losing a beat sped towards him and hit him hard, sending him to the floor before turning to Elowen.

"You okay sweety?" I asked whilst pulling her into my arms and holding her tightly. I felt her shudder but she still nodded her head anyway.

Elowen was the youngest amongst the four of us. She just turned fourteen so she didn't have enough time to train before that excuse of an uncle ki-

Okay tiger, let's not finish that thought yeah?

"Cass, I'm scared...and worried about Leonardo, he's not back yet," Valeria said coming towards us from the balcony.

"I'm sure Leo is fine." I comforted pulling her into the hug, "And you've got me to protect you so don't worry okay?"

Just then, I felt the presence of the guard behind us so I relaxed my grip on my sisters and quickly turned around and sent a punch to his gut making him double over. Without waiting for him to recover, I sent a roundhouse kick to his jaw which sent him flying to the floor once again.

I looked down at the guard who was now lying flat on his back while holding onto his probably dislocated jaw. He looked up at me with shock, anger, and shame.

The idiot probably thought we were weak... Willow huffed if wolves could even do that.

Again, his mistake.

"You must be new here so I'm guessing you don't know the rules of this place," I said simply looking at him.

"What rules? You're Lord Declan's prisoners and I'm a guard. I just thought of disciplining you a bit princess." The idiot said with a glare.

I rolled my eyes before staring down at him. "Listen here mutt, if you even dare to think about stepping foot into our quarters again, so help me goddess I'll personally eliminate any chance of you having children," I said, coldly looking at him while moving my foot pretty close to his family jewels. I made sure my voice mixed with Willow's and my eyes were pitch black.

The guard's face turned pale and he stared at me slacked jawed with his eyes wide. My sisters always say that my pitch-black eyes looked creepily like two huge black holes.

He must be frightened. Willow said sounding very smug.

We did just promise to physically make him a eunuch.

The guard quickly got to his feet, tripping in the process, before beelining for the door like his butt was on fire.

"You okay?" I asked Elowen once again and she smiled up at me.

"I'm fine Sis."

"Sure?"

"Yeah...thanks." She mumbled making me roll my eyes.

"Hey now, none of that okay? It's my job to protect you." I said, leaning towards her and gently rubbing her head. She dropped her head, refusing to meet my eyes.

"What's wrong Elo?" I asked quietly but she only shook her head.

"Elowen. What?"

"I...it's all my fault. If I wasn't so weak...I..." She stuttered, looking up at me with a teary gaze.

"Elo." I said, softly pulling her towards me, "It's not your fault okay? You just turned fourteen. You were meant to start training when this happened."

The poor kid must still blame herself because she was left in the panic room along with her mom while we were out fighting.

Normally, wolves start training by the age of ten. That was so we would be physically fit by the time we shifted into wolves for the first time when we turned sixteen. But for Royalty, it wasn't necessary to start by that age as we were learning different skills, languages, and etiquette. Combat training started at age fourteen for us.

"Yeah but-"

"Shh, none of that now okay? How were you supposed to know that this will happen? You're not a witch are you?" I asked making her giggle before shaking her head.

"Yeah Elo, it's not your fault. You've got Leo, Cass and I to protect you." Val said with a little smile.

"Uhuh, so don't worry okay?" I added with a smile.

"Okay." She replied before leaning into my hug. Just then, the door opened making me tense up but soon eased when I caught a familiar smell.

"The idiot must be new," Leo said as he entered the room.

"Yeah, the mu-" I started but stopped when I caught sight of his face.

"What happened?" I gasped in surprise as I took in his black eye and bruised jaw. Leo was the best fighter I knew. He was trained personally by my dad and the leader of the empire's soldiers who was a hellhound.

Hellhounds were sort of like werewolves. Only five times our size in both strength and well, size. They were eternal, or at least have a longer lifespan than us which was something because a normal wolf could live to the age of at least a hundred and fifty. Not to mention that our age was way slower than people.

The fact that Leo was no ordinary wolf but a wolf with Alpha king blood, it was safe to assume that I was a great lot shocked that he was hurt.

"Jasper." He said simply.

"Ah, that explains it," I mumbled. Jasper Valtor, our cousin was the only wolf apart from my father and Sir Finn that I knew could keep up with Leo. Even I had a tough time keeping up with him. And I was the best female boxer in the land.

Sir Finn and Dad did train him along with Leo.

Yeah, and his bastard father repaid them like this.

At least he's been neutral since Uncle Lunatic started this whole attack thing.

Uhuh, until Leo's face happened. I rolled my eyes.

I doubt he left him much of a choice...

True...

"So I guess that means you were caught sending out a messenger falcon." I thought with a frown.

"Yeah, Uncle Crazy saw me. The fucker couldn't get one on me so he made Jasper do it." He rolled his eyes.

+

"Watch your language," Val said with a glare before looking at Elowen.

"I didn't hear a thing." Elo raised her hands.

"Sorry," Leo said sheepishly.

"So what now?" I asked.

"Honestly, I don't know." He sighed, running his hands down his face, "Our only hope is the meeting happening in three months. Maybe we can convince one of the kings to help. But I'm not even sure if we'll be allowed to attend."

I nodded carefully at what he said. The meeting was where the Alpha Kings met to keep the relationship between the four countries cordial. My dad was usually the one in charge of that. The fact that Uncle was in charge made me wonder whether the event would even take place more or less us being able to attend.

Wonder how Uncle Lunatic is going to take care of it.

Probably going to leave it to Jasper, I swear the dude has it rough.

Well, he does have a crazy for a father so... Willow muttered making me shake my head a little with a small smile.

Damn right.

"Why is this happening?" I heard Elo say under her breath. I was about to answer when Leo beat me to it. He picked her up bride style before turning around making her cry out.

"Leo! Put me down!" She laughed. I let out a small laugh as I watched them. A few seconds later, he put her down before lightly stroking her cheek.

"Hey, don't worry about it. You just have to make sure you stay out of every one of the guards' way. The only males you can talk to are Jasper and I. Let me and Cass do the worrying." He said softly looking at her.

Elowen nodded before hugging him tightly, "I miss Mom and Dad." She muttered making all of us freeze.

The death of our parents was something none of us had come to terms with. We never were given the chance to grieve them and move on. I guess we all just locked it away in our subconscious minds. We were aware that they were gone but the truth of it hadn't fully hit us yet.

"We all do baby. We all do. But you've got us. We just have to stick together." I said, coming from behind and hugging her. I turned towards Val and motioned her to come towards us.

For a few minutes, we hugged tightly, settling ourselves with each other's familiar smell when the door suddenly opened.

"Who is it gonna be this time?" A voice we were all too familiar with said from behind us. Turning around, we came face to face with Ryder, the head guard of Lunatic's security team.

"You still doing this?" Leo snapped staring at him. He only shrugged and said he was, 'just doing his job.'

"You know, all this can stop. Just surrender to His Majesty and Princess Cass, and marry Lord Jasper." He said easily. Like he did not just ask us to betray everything we stood for. I could feel Willow growling in my head and scratching at me to let her out.

"You insane or are you just naturally stupid?" Leo asked with a raised brow making me smile.

Ryder just raised his hands in submission and only said "Don't hate the guard, hate the Master."

"Whatever," Leo said before moving towards him to which I quickly caught his arm to stop him.

Let me handle this. I mindlinked him.

What? No Cass. You went the last time. He said, looking down at me with a frown.

Yeah so? Just let me handle this. We need you strong and healthy for when we take back the kingdom. Can't have a dead king.

You can always be queen. He said lightly making me snort.

Sure. And burn the whole palace down. Thanks but no thanks. I'm more battle stuff. Besides, I didn't get the right training.