Waking up early is still not my thing, even though I've been doing it for almost the rest of my life. The sun peeking through my closed curtain and it started to hurt my eyes.
"Hurry up! Wake up! Wake up!" Scream Sierra in my head.
"Shut up! I'm tired, give me a few minutes."
"WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!!!"
"A few more seconds then."
"Come on Edith, you know how important this trip is for me."
"Fine fine, I can't sleep anymore with you screaming in my head."
I rub my eyes trying to get rid of my sleepiness. I walk towards my bathroom to take a shower and brush my teeth and head down to the dining room for breakfast.
Within a few hours we finish our preparation and I head straight to our SUV. We depart with 5 guards including Riley.
We usually travel with several cars for protection purposes but this time we are trying to stay low and travel with 1 car instead.
"You better take a good care of my daughter Riley." My dad speaking to Riley while slinging his hand on my shoulder in a protective way.
"Don't worry my king he's in good hands"
"Dad I'm not a child anymore, I can take care of myself, after all I got Sierra with me"
"I know but still, you're a princess and heir to the throne. Some ill intent creature might harm you."
Then he proceed to hug me, we said our goodbyes and head straight for our first pack. Both me and Riley seated ourselves in the middle row while 2 of them sits in front and the rest at our backseat.
"So who's going to be our first pack?"
"According to my list, it's Dawn Mountain Pack."
"Wow is this blatant favouritism? I know they have lots of strong warriors but don't you at least need to hide it?"
"You really need to stop over-reacting, they happened to be the nearest pack from our kingdom."
I show him a pretend disbelief face and he shove a list straight to my face. There I saw a list full of packs name.
In truth I know that Dawn Mountain location located near our kingdom but I just love to tease Riley. Waking up early is quite tiring and soon after I fell asleep.
Several hours later, I'm woken up by Riley slightly nudging my shoulder and telling me we have arrived. I woke up and trying to find some water and soon I head out of our car and do a little bit of stretching.
I take a look around my surrounding and I am surrounded by lots of tall redwood trees. This is a perfect hiding place for a pack to hide themselves from human.
We don't hate human but we prefer to hide ourselves from human's prying eyes.
"Princess Edith it's our pleasure to have you here visiting us." The sound come out from a male and I felt a power behind it.
I quickly turn my back and saw Alpha Mason and Luna Claire bowing their head towards me to show their respect.
"Thank you Alpha Mason and Luna Claire." I smile at them.
"You must be tired after your long journey, please come inside, we've prepared rooms to rest." Luna Claire guiding us inside her pack house.
Riley and the rest of my royal guards let me walk ahead and walk alongside Luna Claire. Alpha Mason stay behind to walk alongside Riley.
"Such a lovely pack house and forest you have here Luna Claire."
"Thank you princess, both our pack house and forest have been passed down for several generations. We only make small changes to our pack house if necessary."
Pride written all on Luna Claire's face. Then she proceed to show me around and lastly send each of us to our respected room.
I enter my room and I found a king size bed in the middle of my room and a simple wardrobe decorating my given room.
Next morning
I woke up changing myself into my training suite and walking straight to Dawn Mountain's pack training ground. On my way there I mind link Riley to catch up with me.
It's been a few days since I train with Riley since things have been hectic. Once I arrive, I saw lots of pack members have started their training regime.
I can't seem to find Alpha Mason and Luna Claire but there are several people overseeing it and from their aura I can tell that they must be Dawn's Mountain head warriors.
I scan the room quickly and find one girl giving me a nasty look. She have a brunette coloured hair and tied into a ponytail.
"That pup dare to disrespect us, let me teach her a lesson."
"I got this Sierra, just stay put."
I saw her walking towards me with a confident smirk and eye full of mischief.
"Princess." She maintain her smirk while sizing me up from up to bottom.
"I heard that you're quite a warrior yourself." As she fold her arm on her chest.
Almost everyone stop their training and direct their attention towards us. Some have a frighten look some with confusion and some with interest.
"I prefer to let my actions define what I am" as I replied. This pup is just trying to prove herself to her pack by challenging me.
"I'll gladly help by being your spar partner," as she walks ahead of me with her smug look.
I walk straight to a training circle and a head warrior approach us with a hesitant look. He bow his head to me and inform us that he will be overseeing our match.
We will win the match if one of us step out of the circled line.
"Ready, start!"
As soon as he finish his sentence I went straight to punch her throat. While she is still in a shock state I kick her leg and put her arm on my shoulders and pull her body up and slam her to the ground.
I found this technique harsh but she dare to undermine my authority in front of her pack members.
"I won't let you out easy the next time you dare to disrespect me again pup." I let Sierra gave her a warning.
She is still lying in the ground while holding her throat. Fear is visible in her eyes. I notice all of her pack members now have a different look in their face.
"They respect us, both their human and wolf counterparts." Sierra is satisfied with their action.
Among the crowds I saw Riley and he immediately approach me.
"Since you have done your warm-ups let's start our training."
"What do you think of my technique earlier?"
"You shouldn't head straight for her throat. If your opponent is faster than you, you're putting yourself in danger."
"Fine I'll take note of it for future reference. By the way, could please keep this little incident from their Alpha and Luna?"
"What do I get in returns?" Riley just love to mess with me when I'm in a bad mood.
I glare at him and giving him a pissed of look but it only widen his grin. I just sigh in return knowing that I won't win if I continue this up.
I continue my training with Riley and familiarise myself with other pack members. As expected they are all friendly, for the exception that brunette hair girl.
We decide to depart towards our next pack the next day.
"This is going to be one hell of a month." I complain to Sierra as I open my car's door and thinking about the list of packs that we still need to visit.
For the last 1 month we've been jumping from pack to pack. As expected my body started to feel sore.
"For the love of good please just let me straighten my leg in this crammed up car."
"We will arrive at our next pack in the next 4 hours, then you can stretch your leg as much as your heart content." Riley giving me a "stop complaining, we also don't want to be here" look.
I realise that all of us are stuck in the same situation and there's nothing more I can do. I just sigh and continue looking outside our car window.
Suddenly I saw a lone wolf running alongside our cars on the forest pathway.
"What's a lone wolf doing running alone in an unmarked territory?" I try to nudge Sierra awake but to my surprise she is awake and alert.
"It's a rogue." She stands and reply me with a voice filled with anger.
"He's alone which means he is scouting us."
Realising my sudden discomfort and alertness, Riley follow my gaze outside.
Running in the forest pathway is a dark brown coloured wolf that have light brown strips in both of his ears. As he start to realise our gaze, he runs deeper towards the forest and disappear.
Riley immediately grab his phone and make an urgent call towards my dad and informing him of our situation.
After the phone call ended, his order is to stay for a few days in our next destination. Since we only have 2 other packs to visit, my dad will send more warriors to ensure our safety.
We finally arrived at Phantom Light pack. I take in the view of their pack and I just felt familiar to this place. There are no significant difference between this pack and any other packs but I just feel more relaxed.
I saw a man stand in front of a huge house, which I assume is Phantom Light's pack house. He introduce himself as Beta Grayson and he apologise for the absence of his alpha.
There have been an emergency meeting between his alpha and pack elders concerning my security as soon as my dad inform them. I greet the Beta and I decide to take a stroll alone in the woods.
"Don't stray too far from the pack house and stay away from pack borders." I feel Riley's concern through the mind link. But he come to realise that I'm in need to be with myself.
"Thanks Riley, don't worry I won't." I walk straight to the forest and all sort of thoughts start to invade my mind.
I keep walking without paying much attention to my surrounding. Within a 50m radius I saw a person standing alone. Curiosity got the best of me and I approach that person.