Chapter 17: What Now?

Hearing the voice at the door, I lose my cool. With Arabella in my arms, I belt out at the top of my lungs, “What now?” to the man on the other side of the door.

Realizing that I just scared her when I roared, I glance down into her eyes, and she shrinks back trying to get away from my gaze. “Great, now look what I have done.” I murmur to myself, but she hears me and replies.

“You just scared the shit out of me. What do you expect? You can’t go roaring at the top of your lungs and acting like an animal without someone getting scared of you. You need to learn to stop doing that with me around. Humans are not used to someone who is so violent or loud. Try relaxing a bit and maybe I would not jump every time you do something wrong.” She says matter of fact with bravado in her voice.

I can see that she is strong for her age and really start to admire her. But right at this second, I must place her back on the ground and open this door, to find out what is the matter. Shaking my head, I lower her to the ground carefully, so I don’t hurt her and say more calmly to the man on the other side of the door, “Hold on. I was doing something before you came along. Let me take care of it.”

Smiling now at Arabella, I wink and then lean down for a quick kiss. Her lips taste so sweet, that I could easily get lost in that goodness forever. However, when I remember that duty calls, I break it off and turn to open the door.

The minute I open it, I see Alpha Charles leaning against the wall as he waits for me patiently. He stands up quickly and adjusts his clothing to look more presentable before stating, “I am sorry my king, but this is most pressing. There is a detective here who won’t leave without speaking with you right at this moment.” He apologizes again before we walk down the stairs to the corridor.

When I walk out the front door, I hear the detective in the courtyard speaking to someone else and then I see him. It is Arabella’s father this time and they swear they have a search warrant. I hear them conversing and it worries me instantly.

Before they see me, I say to Alpha Charles, “Move Arabella now. Take her to the hidden room under the stairs, then follow the staircase down to the under basement. They will never find her there or hear her just in case she decides to be trouble. I will hold them off to give you time.” I gesture for him to go now and be quick while I wave my hand at the wrist.

Taking in a deep breath and releasing it, I walk up to them calmly and take my time before they turn around and look at me. The detective opens his mouth first and states, “There he is.” In an official tone before saying, “We have a warrant and will be searching the premises.”

As I walk up to them and stop, I survey the situation. In his left hand is the warrant and in the other his service revolver. He means business and he won’t go home until he has what he came for.

While I raise my hands I say, “You need to put the gun away. We have women and children here. I don’t want any of them shot because you think you saw something, or someone threatened you. Do you hear me?” My voice doesn’t falter the whole time, as I stare him down and wait for him to say something else.

“First of all, I don’t have to do anything you say. I am an officer of the law. Who are you to tell me what to do?” The detective starts to get angry, and I watch the vein on his forehead pop out.

When he starts to come towards me though, I knock the gun clear out of his hand and into the brush on the side of the walkway. There is no way I am going to have this lunatic shooting at my people, even if it is the last thing I do, or it gets me thrown in jail. After all, I am just protecting innocent bystanders from getting shot.

The minute he recovers from the initial shock, he starts to yell at me, “Freeze. Put your hands up. You are under arrest for attacking a law enforcement officer.”

At this point, I tell him calmly. “Sir, you need to calm down. I will do as you say, but you must do this peacefully. No guns, or I won’t go without a fight.”

He quickly asks me with anger in his eyes, “Are you threatening me?” Then he cocks his head and I hear his neck crunch. When it does it, I watch as his eyes roll back in his head for a split second.

As I stand there, I notice that Arabella’s father is silent this whole time and then he clears his throat before saying, “I don’t want any bloodshed. I just want to find my daughter. Her mother is scared that she is dead along side the road somewhere.” He pauses and then continues with sorrow in his eyes, “Please sir, if you know where she is, let me know so I can bring her home to her mother. She has been crying since the night she didn’t come home.”

Feeling instantly bad for him, the remorse starts to eat at my insides. How do I release her without going to prison? If I did, surely, they would put me away for at least several years. Then the minute I turned, they would find out about us all and we all would be dead or worse.

I can’t win, can I? That is, unless I can find a way that she doesn’t go home but she tells them she is still alive and well. It might just work.

The officer stands there staring at me for a minute longer, till Arabella’s father says, “Let’s go home. I can see where this is going. Perhaps we are in the wrong place. I can see he loves his people, and he wouldn’t do anything to harm them in anyway.”

Not being able to believe my ears, I watch as Robert takes a hold of the detective’s arm and tugs at it to get his attention. “Come on.” He states and stares at the officer before the man finally gives in and starts to leave with him.

As they start to walk away, the detective turns his head to me as he stops and says, “Don’t go anywhere. I will be back. I promise.” The devilish look on his face tells me one thing. He is going to cause trouble for me if I don’t do something quickly.

For the rest of the day, instead of having Arabella moved into my room. I situate things so that she can have a bigger room and be freer with everything, but still not leave. This way she doesn’t feel so much like a prisoner and maybe just maybe, I can get her to work with me on my plan.