The Titan Queen - Levi X Reader

Chapter 3 - The Forest

Reiner sent a silent grimace to Orion as they both watched the girls creep past their hiding place in the undergrowth. Orion was biting on his lip – whether to stop himself laughing at his princess's poor attempt at remaining unseen or to contain his wrath, Reiner didn't know. Didn't want to know if it was something else, either.

It was a rare thing to watch another without them having a clue that one was doing so. An even rarer thing for it to be Y/N L/N, a thing that had unrivalled instincts that she'd honed to the breaking point.

Reiner watched the two females closely, marking them carefully. He noted that where Annie shone with insanity as though it were her one saving grace, the princess practically glowed with it. Even the forest seemed to hold its breath as she set a sigh loose and dove to the ground, her movements calculated and smooth; in the space of a single second, she was behind a bare oak tree that was previously five meters away from her original hiding place.

Annie swore softly as she realized that her companion was no longer behind her. "Have you seen them?"

Reiner felt Orion tense. In the emptiness of the surrounding woods, the words felt as loud as a shout. But the beast with the twin daggers just snarled in displeasure and bared her teeth at the other girl. "If I'd seen them, do you really think that I'd still be here, Annie?"

Her voice dripped with sarcasm, and Reiner watched Annie swallow before she smiled. "No, I suppose not, Princess."

The Princess looked nothing like her title suggested - she was dirty, and there was no golden crown on her head, and she was currently running her tongue along the tips of her teeth as though she could taste something particularly satisfying. She was wearing leather boots and her clothes were all black - no traces of gowns and jewels besides the ones in her daggers.

And a black cloak was tied around her neck, the broach showing a wicked symbol engraved within a silver ring. It didn't exactly match a black tattoo that marred the skin on her collarbone, but the two symbols were near enough in their threatening message that it didn't seem to matter.

And Reiner knew that, whilst Y/N looked nothing like a princess, royalty echoed in her essence.

The royalty in question stretched her muscles as though they were sore and stood up, the cloak flowing in the bitter wind that whipped its way through the trees. "You know that we shouldn't be doing this," Annie carefully stated, as though she knew that she was treading on very thin ice. It seemed that this particular argument had been waged before, as the Princess' stature tensed in an unspoken warning. "Your uncle stated that the hunt was for the males alone."

The Princess snarled. "I don't care. If I want to join the hunt, then I shall. No one will stop me; not if they want to keep their heads."

"What's your plan?" Annie insisted, as they started lightly treading through the frosty wasteland. Orion nudged Reiner's side slightly, and both males started slowly, ever so slowly, following them.

"I want to find the little hunting party, who think they're too good for me, and teach them a lesson where my uncle and mother aren't in a position to stop me."

Reiner repressed the shiver that crawled up his spine at the uncaring, lovely voice. All knew that their princess would bestow death on those that displeased her, because their princess was a true titan in every sense of the world.

Not that it had been easy to get to this point.

It had taken so long for Reiner to mask the jealousy that he practically radiated every time Annie Leonhardt appeared in Y/N L/N's shadow. Annie had gotten her back – not him, not Bertoldt. Annie. It hadn't been just someone to retrieve the girl - it had been her who had gifted her people with Y/N L/N, the titan Princess. It hadn't mattered that he or Bertoldt had been right there with Annie, marking and protecting their princess as they saw fit.