A guard opened the door for Lilac, where Kaitsa, Maximus's mate, had been waiting for her.
She had been asking for Jedrek's presence ever since she heard about what happened to her mate and because of Jedrek's condition, Lilac would be meeting on his behalf.
Once Lilac entered the room, there was a young woman with curly brown hair that reached her h.i.p.s, her pale skin looked sickly with a pair of grieving eyes that stared at Lilac in displeasure. She wished to meet Jedrek, not some random woman.
Beside Kaitsa was her firstborn, a boy in the age of three with innocent eyes, which looked like Maximus with curly brown hair that framed his round face. There was no mistaken, it must be Ed.
Lilac was informed enough about the pair mother and son.
"Kaitsa," Lilac called her name softly, but the woman scrunched her brows.
"Who are you? I want to see the king," Kaitsa stated sternly. She pulled her son behind her back, as if Lilac would hurt him. "Not a little silly girl, who will talk nonsense about my mate's treason act!"
"I am the king's mate." Lilac could understand with the hostility that Kaitsa showed to her, after all, she just lost her mate, thus she didn't take offense of it.
Kaitsa narrowed her eyes and observed Lilac, before the understanding dawn on her. "The king's mate? You are the rumor guardian angel?" she sneered, didn't even bother to hide her disdain.
"I am not a rumor, I am indeed a guardian angel," Lilac said firmly. Thanked to those generals, she started getting used with the people who underestimate her as a guardian angel.
"I don't want to talk with you. Where is Jedrek? I need his explanation!" Kaitsa screamed, she held Ed's hand too firm, until the little boy flinched.
"You can talk to me, or come back later when Jedrek's condition has gotten better." Lilac tried to be patient with Kaitsa, but the woman was only getting angrier.
"I DON'T WANT TO WAIT! I WANT TO TALK TO HIM! NOW!" Kaitsa's brown eyes turned red and beside her, Ed whimpered. If Kaitsa shifted now, she would hurt the little boy. However, despite her effort to hold herself, her body started trembling.
"Kaitsa, you will hurt your son." Lilac reminded her and nodded at Ed. "You will hurt him."
"BRING JEDREK TO ME AND LET HIM EXPLAIN IT!" Kaitsa roared, ignoring Lilac's warning and Ed started to cry and called his mother. The little boy was frightened.
Upon hearing the commotion, a few guards burst into the room, three of them had turned into their beast and snarled at Kaitsa.
Lilac raised her hand to stop them from moving closer. "Stop it Kaitsa, or someone will get hurt."
"And that someone is going to be you!" After saying that, Kaitsa shifted into her brown beast and charged forward, in the process, she hurt Ed just like what Lilac had expected.
And there were a few things that happened at once; roots sprang from the ground, breaking the hard and solid tiles. The guard, who had shifted into beasts rushed forward to protect Lilac from the imminent danger. Ed was thrown away with bleeding hand.
However, Lilac didn't budge. She stood there calmly. The only movement that she did was to control the roots that surrounded her.
First, Lilac created a wall between her and the guards, to prevent them from intervening and then her roots slithered on the floor to meet with the brown beast and tackled her easily to the ground, yet she put up a fight really well and struggled for a few minutes before Lilac could tame her.
"Mommy!" Ed shrieked and was about to rush to get to his mother, but Lilac caught his body first and hugged him. "No! I want mommy!"
"Ssh…" Lilac hugged him a little bit tighter while talking to him. "Your mommy will be fine, she will not get hurt. I promise you."
However, the roar and howl from the beast made the little boy became more and more anxious. He was crying and trying to kick or hit Lilac, so she could free him.
The more the beast whimper and the harder Ed became. He didn't listen to Lilac and was very anxious to get to his mother, but Lilac couldn't allow that. Not now when Kaitsa was only a step away from wrecking some havoc.
In the end, Lilac put down the wall that she created between her and the guards.
"Bring him to the healer," Lilac said to one of the guards. Ed was too young to have the ability to heal himself like an a.d.u.l.t shifter, thus his wounds were still bleeding now. "All of you stay outside," she said sternly when no one moved.
"We are ordered to protect you, your grace." The guard who was carrying Ed answered Lilac.
"Do you think I need your protection?" Lilac asked. She stepped aside to reveal Kaitsa beast. "Thank you for your concern, but I am fine on my own. Now, stay outside until I call you."
After seeing how Lilac handled the beast, all of them looked surprised, especially when they only heard about what Lilac had done when she came to find Jedrek a year ago and didn't witness the event themselves.
"We will be outside if you need us." the guards lowered their head respectfully and walked out of the room.
Once, there were only her and Kaitsa's beast, Lilac approached her and crouched down two steps from her.
"I want you to shift back so we can talk," Lilac ordered her, but instead of listening to her, she snarled viciously.
Lilac sighed deeply.
"All right, if you want to have a conversation like this, I don't mind." Lilac waved her hand and covered the beast's snout with the roots, so she could stop snarling at her.
"Now, listen to me…" Lilac crossed her legs comfortably, as she sat down on the floor, ready for a long monologue.