Tracked: A Valkyrie Saga Book 2

Chapter 22 - Affirmations of Love

Now that is how a Queen should act.

My entire life, I have acted as a faithful Hunter for the Collins' Royal Clan yet I have never witnessed power and conviction like Ray had just demonstrated. My father and grandfather were Hunters within the Blade Clan before me, so I knew my place in this world. I even fully embraced my high ranking and sometimes go out of my way to demand the respect that I have always been taught to expect. But that doesn't mean that I don't see the blatant racism and classism that plagues our Kingdom. I fully understand that our Royals are doing our Territory no favors by encouraging such beliefs and I know that the Collins' Line is starting to lose the respect of their subjects.

As I stood in the wreckage at the airfield, I couldn't help comparing Ray to Queen Florence and Princess Regina. When Ray had spent time with our clan at the park, I had found her to be down to Earth enough to be approachable yet undeniably powerful. It was a little hard to connect the powerful woman who had just beheaded the hated King of Russia with the playful teenager that played tag with our kids, but I had seen both with my own eyes.

Instead of demanding my respect, Ray earned it.

I knew it was a treasonous thought, but I couldn't help wondering what our lives would be like if Ray rose to power.

-Noland Smith, Hunter of the Blade Clan

When I woke up, it felt like my eyelashes were glued together. I reached up and rubbed my eyes with my hands to find that they were crusty from dried tears. Once I was finally able to tear my eyelids apart, I looked around and saw that I was in my bed at the rent house and it was dark. I must have passed out after my breakdown and now it was sometime in the middle of the night. Movement against my right side caught my attention and I looked over to find Amy was tucked into my front.

Seeing her sweet, innocent face relaxed in sleep made my heart squeeze. An echo of the panic I had felt when she overdosed flitted through me and I gently swept her hair away from her face. Amy was just a little girl and didn't know how to deal with what had happened to her. I hadn't been there for her. Right now I should be comforting her, not the other way around. I was going to do better. We were going to give her all of the support, understanding, and help that she needed to come to terms with her trauma. Amy was going to make it through this.

Jack was fast asleep on the other side of Amy with an arm slung across us both. I took a moment to study my best friend's face. Jack had deep circles under his eyes and his skin looked pale. I thought back to everything that had changed between us since the Three Musketeers found me at school and a wave of sadness crashed over me. The bond between a Valkyrie and their chosen protected was unlike anything else that I have ever felt before. Jack and Amy were more than just my friends. I had a soul-deep need to protect them. To care for them. To love them.

If I ever had children, I assumed I would feel a similar unconditional love for them.

But we had all been through a lot in the last three weeks. Our bond was being tested. I still felt a little betrayed by Jack. I knew that he hadn't done it maliciously, but I still found it hard to believe that he had fooled around with the guy that I was interested in. That action just didn't fit into the unwavering support that Jack has always given me in the past. As I studied his strong features, I tried to put myself in his shoes and understand why he had done what he did.

Before I met the Oakland Clan, my world had been pretty small. I went to school, I worked at Polly's, and I hung out with Jack and Amy. Maybe Jack was lashing out at me because I had discovered another facet to my life and I was still figuring out how to balance everything. I knew that he didn't like that I was keeping secrets from him. Maybe the way he treated me when Amy was in the hospital was because he was giving me a dose of my own medicine by refusing to communicate with me.