I sat in my bedroom as I lent Hailey clothes to change and sent her to the guest room adjacent to the kitchen. My fingers tapped on the small square button in the middle of my mobile, trying to delete Fang’s recently call from my logs, hoping it would prevent him from following us to Greenland. 

Hailey had really been a handful for me in just half an hour and I just wished that we get the entire thing over with. 

“Do you always wear this type of clothes?” Hailey suddenly barged into my thoughts, and I jumped up in my chair, almost losing the grip on my mobile. Her eyes went wide at my reaction, which was immediately followed by an airy laugh, “Pfft, what were you thinking about so engrossed in your own thoughts? I hope you are not sad that you have to leave Winterwells and go away from your boyfriend.” She made a pitiful face and I couldn’t help but narrow my eyes at her. 

I took a good look at her face. This was not the Hailey I knew. I mean, she was still troublesome but when did become someone who would pull others’ legs!

Hailey walked up to me in the baggy clothes I had offered her after she had refused all of my other clothes because they did not suit her taste. Ironically, her sister, Zelda, had some obsession with fashion as well. Since the topic was already starting to go where Hailey would get on my nerves, I changed the subject to her, “I hope the clothes fit well. Though I must say, both of you Cermesi sisters have some weird obsession with fashion.” 

The smile on Hailey’s face immediately found the ground, “what can I say Zelda loves to copy me.” 

“Is that so?” I spoke in an exclaimed tone, “I thought you followed her footsteps; after all, you are the younger one.” I had answered no one in this manner and yet with Hailey, this unknown side of me demanded to surface. 

Hailey squinted at me and the awkward silence weighed on me after realisation of how scheming I had come off. 

She walked closer to me and I felt like the air in the room had changed instantly. This was sure that Hailey was affected by her sister’s name and especially comparing both of them. I took a deep breath as I could feel Hailey trying to bring her Alpha side out to make the atmosphere heavy for me. I got up from my seat and growled at her with my wolf surfacing. She was an Alpha, but so was I, and my wolf was pretty aggressive to be looked down upon. 

Hailey stood face to face with our eyes matching, “I guess you already got to know how much I hate that girl. Don’t you dare call her my sister again.” 

One side of my lip rose up, “Why? I thought you weren’t affected by anything. Wasn’t all you cared about was fighting?” That’s the best impression of Hailey that every person of the pack had: a person with a high bloodlust who liked nothing but fighting. 

Hailey shrugged with a sudden change in her attitude, “Well yeah, that is also true.” Her fingers traced the sharp bone of her chin as she hummed while thinking something, “Now that you have put it like that, I must find out why I hate that girl when I don’t care about her even a least bit.” My eyes froze wide with the amount of character swings that Hailey was showing. I had almost felt her bloodlust surface again when suddenly this different side of her replaced it again. 

It was only shocking because I had never imagined Hailey in this light. 

She sighed casually, as if nothing had happened seconds ago. Like our wolves had not just made an appearance to show our Alpha dominance. 

Hailey sighed before she went past me and picked up the bag while I could do was follow her with my eyes. She shook the bag in her hand while holding it to her ear, “hmm, there is not a lot in here.” My brows creased, not understanding what she meant by that when she threw the bag at me and I caught it a little further from my face. 

“What was that?” I brought the bag down to look at her, but she had already disappeared. I turned around and I was the only one standing in the room with the back door of my bedroom open.

A quick panic settled in the pit of my stomach, realising the fact that Hailey might have just run away from my clutches. 

I hung the sling bag across my shoulder and rushed to the back door. This was bad. I can’t let Hailey run away like that! I needed her and more than that she has just been given bail for a short period of time.

As I got out of the door, I saw a clear surrounding with only the chilled air that made the wet grass dance. “Dam-“

“You coming?” I heard Hailey’s voice behind me from inside the house and I felt a little relieved with the fact that she was still here. I walked back towards the back door and before I could even make it to the door, Hailey shut it in my face. My palms slapped on the surface of the door.

“What the! Open the door Hailey,” I shouted whilst banging on the door. 

How bad can this get? Hailey managed to fool me, then got me out of my own house with my own will and locked me outside. I always thought that Fang was the most irritating person I knew, but Hailey was proving to be more provocative. This was too much. I couldn’t just make a fool of myself like that! I immediately went to the kitchen’s back door but it was surprisingly locked. 

“Looking for something?” Hailey spoke right next to my ear and it immediately made me jump up. 

She twirled the house keys on her index finger as I turned to look at her. In one quick action, I snatched the keys away from her. “Look Hailey, I know you are some trained assassin or something, but you better behave around me.” 

“Sure,” she answered with an innocent smile. 

I raised one of my eyebrows, “That’s it? You are going to agree to it just like that?” 

My question was immediately answered with a burst of laughter and it was more obvious now that Hailey had some other intentions. She huffed out air as she tried to control the laugh while scratching the bridge of her nose, “well good thing you are not as naïve as you look. I really thought I could trick you into it.” 

That sure would have been possible with the temper I had boiling inside me right now and the way Hailey had answered me. 

But all this time, after having being tricked by Fang numerous times, I wasn’t taking my risks with Hailey. “What is it?” I asked Hailey to know what would take for her to be on her good behaviour through this investigation. 

“You already know what I want,” Hailey said while tilting her head to the side and an eerie smile. 

Of course, this was Hailey and I should have known well. There is only one thing she would want and that would be a win or die battle. I most definitely could not offer that to her now. No doubt I was trained and had Alpha blood flowing inside me, but comparing myself to Hailey, anyone could see the end of the battle. Even if I had my healing abilities to carry me through most of the difficulties that Hailey would bring, she was trained enough to be better than any Alpha I had met to date.

“I am not fighting you, Hailey,” I replied as I walked past her while grabbing a hold of her hoodie sleeves and dragging her behind me. 

She did not resist me as I pulled her behind me. 

But her patience had a limit and she was quick to get rid of my grip with a jerk. My eyes went to her and she was dusting the fabric of my clothes she was wearing, as if I had held her with dirty hands. “Selene,” Hailey called out my name, still looking at her sleeve, “Are you actually ignorant with a short memory or are you trying to play innocent here?” 

“What do you mean?” I asked, calculating my response. 

Hailey walked ahead and placed her hand on my shoulder, “Honey, do you think you really have the choice to decide that?” She leaned closer to me and whispered beside my ear in the most chilling tone I had heard in a while, “I hope you haven’t forgotten about the letter I sent your way with that stupid vote for Beta elections. Like it or not, I know you are a Warchild and since you want to keep it a secret and zip my mouth up, I would suggest you fight me and shut me up or who knows how traitorous you would appear to the Winterwells.” 

I gulped at her words. It was true I needed to keep that a secret and the worst was that given her resources, it would not take her a long time to figure out I was the princess. 

The biggest problem was I did not know how she would exploit that information. 

Hailey backed away from my ear and patted my shoulder twice before passing by. I turned to look at her and my jaw clicked. Never had I ever thought that this kind of thought would cross my mind, but I needed to shut her up. Even if that meant it was forever. 

Hailey turned behind to give me a smile and call me with the wave of her fingers for me to follow her. 

I sighed. That was definitely not the way I would deal with people like her. No matter how much I thought about it, I could never bring myself to shut someone up that way. That was something to be looked after later. Right now we had to go to Greenlands in search of Zelda. I am sure I would find something to wager this duel. 

  ——

Note: I had too many things going on in my personal and professional life and I had to unwillingly focus on them. I understand I failed to inform the readers about it and it was not possible for me to put up a chapter note for just that as it is compulsory to write 1000 words in a chapter when a book goes premium.. So hence forth I would be more active about such notices on discord, so please join there to know if there are going to be any announcements regarding my books.