Chapter 25 Argument

"Excuse me, sir. Have you seen a girl with blonde hair and about this tall?" Fred raised his hand to his nose to show Rose's height. The old shopkeeper shook his head.

"I haven't seen that girl of 'yers, Prince Fred. I'm sorry." The man then gave them an apologetic look before proceeding to doing his work.

His face fell as he said his thanks. Prince Dan, still in wolf form, let out a sigh.

"If Rose is here in this town, she must still be wearing the cloak because I couldn't get a whiff of her scent." He winced. Fred gave Dan an apologetic glance. He wanted to find Rose as much and he did.

"We'll find her." He said. But it was more to convince himself than to convince him. Luckily, it did the trick when Dan wagged his tail and let out a toothy grin.

"Yeah. I hope so." he said. "But what if Rose isn't here in this town?"

Now that is a question that he had long considered after hours of asking the town's people. "I don't know. Let's just hope that Ace, Nate, and Ren can find her." He said honestly.

"Me too." Dan then looked to the side with an annoyed expression on his face. Well, as much annoyed look that a wolf could portray. He followed Dan's gaze to see a group of teenage girls looking at them with admiration.

"Being in wolf form increases our sense of hearing." Dan grunted and flocked his ears. "And I am really not enjoying my perks as a werewolf when I can hear the gossips from those girls over there."

This suddenly sparked his interest. "Is it about Rose?"

Dan then rolled his eyes at his question. "Psh! No. These girls are talking about us."

Fred raised an eyebrow in question. "What is it about us?"

"It's just that we are so dreamy and perfect and blah blah blah. They wanted to marry us and have our kids as much as we want. Oh! And don't forget that they're still arguing about whether I'm Ren or Dan." Dan let out a low growl in annoyance. "Here's what they sound. 'Holy Thalia!! Isn't Prince Fred soooo dreamy and wonderful!?!?! *Squeal*. He's so handsome!! And look at his eyes!! You can drown in them any second!! Oh.My.Gosh!!!*Squeals* And Prince Ren/Dan in wolf form. So hot!! It's a once in a lifetime! *Squeals*. Just think how soft his furs will be!! *Squeals* He looks soooo cool!! Is he naked right now? He is right? *Squeals*. But seriously....is he Prince Ren or Dan?" Dan imitated the girl's voice in his mind. Dan then rolled his eyes after that.

Despite the thought of Rose's whereabouts, he laughed. "So which Prince are you? Dan or Ren?" He joked and patted his head.

Dan didn't seem to find this funny when he snapped at his hand. Luckily, Fred was able to pull his hand back. "Shut up." He growled and glared at Fred. His ears then began to twitch as he averted his gaze to the ground in concentration.

Finally, his head perked up with an angry look in them before he dashed towards the girls and snarled at them. The ladies all shrieked in terror and caught the people's attention.

Fred panicked and ran after Dan, who was still snarling at the girls who were now cowering in fear. He quickly pulled Dan back. He had to put all of his strength on pulling the large brown wolf.

"What the heck, Dan? I know you're upset but do you really have to snarl at them?" He gave him a disapproving look.

Dan shook his head and turned to me with a frown on his face. "It's not that! These bitches just said something about Rose." He then turned and growled at the girls who quickly shrieked and backed away. One of them even tripped and fell.

"Dan!" He yelled and stepped between him and the girls. They were already starting a commotion here. He doesn't want the people to look at them badly for their behavior. And he's pretty sure that this news will be brought to the Queen. "Tell me what they said about Rose." He quickly said to distract him.

He let out a breath to his nose and gave me an irritated look. "They were hoping that we would never find her." A low growl escaped from his snout.

He frowned. Not because of Dan's behavior, but because of what he heard. "Why?"

"They hate her for seducing us. No - scratch that - they despise her because they think that she has seduced us all. It's a very low reason."

He recalled the time when they brought Rose in this town once. It was the day when they found her unconscious on a field. That day, the queen had brought us to the town to assist her to shop. They were confused at first why she wanted them to assist her when she had servants at her disposal.

But now. He knows why. And he was glad to have come and assist the queen.

Dan is right. It was a low reason for them. But unlike Dan, he doesn't want to go all wolf on these ladies. It seems that his temper is short when he's in wolf form. "Are you sure that it's what they said?"

"I don't know. Who has the enhanced hearing between us? You? Of course I'm sure! Ask them yourself!"

He rolled my eyes at Dan's attitude and turned to face the ladies. He offered them a smile to calm them down and to show them that he meant them no harm.

For now.

"My friend here," He pointed at Dan. "Prince Dan, told me something disturbing. So I wanted to ask you myself if it's true or not. Will you answer me honestly?". Their eyes shifted from one another before they finally nodded. "Prince Dan told me that he overheard you girls saying that you wanted Rose's demise?"

The girls fell completely silent. One, he assumes is a witch, has sparks flying up and down her arm.

"Is it true?" He asked once again. Finally, one of them dared to answer.

"Y-yes, your highness." She looked at the ground in shame. Beside me, Dan let out a growl.

"She's a Were! I can't believe that one of our people would even dare to say those things!" said Dan. He hit his head as a warning to shut up before he looked at them once again. This time, he was giving them a disapproving look.

"Rose is a beautiful and kind girl. Whatever is your issue with her, I suggest that you drop it. She's the king's niece. A princess and yet your badmouthing her? She's a part of their family and if you love your king and queen then you will respect her." He began to face the crowd that had formed around them. "All of you should respect her. And if we hear another rumor that threatens her life, rest assured that you'll have to face us. Right now, our princess Rose is missing. I don't require you to help us. We want you to volunteer for yourselves if you care. If any of you has any information regarding her whereabouts, then we would deeply appreciate it and will be in debt to you." He said. "That will be all. Thank you." He nodded at them as they went their separate ways. Except the girls who were still looking at us.

"Your highness?" One of them spoke. Dan and Fred looked at her. She was a petite girl with her black hair in a fine braid. "Why are you looking for the princess? Was she kidnapped or something?"

Dan and Fred quickly looked at each other. "You don't have to know." Fred snapped. "We'll be taking our leave now." He nodded at them. Dan and Fred were about to turn our backs when the girls suddenly called on them.

"Your highness!" Both princes turned to them. "We're sorry." They then bow their head. Once again, Dan and Fred looked at each other.

"You are a witch, right? If I even hear you badmouthing her again I'll do more than just banning you from our kingdom. You may stay in Thalia, but you will no longer be welcomed in Hazel." He said and then we left to try our luck in another part of the town.

"Nice work back there." Dan snorted.

He shrugged. "I just did what I have to do. And I don't really appreciate their point of view towards Rose."

"No. I want to talk about that." Dan chuckled. Wait. Chuckled? Can wolves do that? "What I mean is that you just gained more admirers than you already have." Dan gestured his head to the side.

Fred followed his gaze to see the women were still looking at them. When they saw him, they quickly squealed.

Despite the incident earlier, he couldn't help but laugh. "Well, not all of them are my fans. It seems that a handful of them are into short-tempered werewolves." Fred tilted my head to the side where the girls were gazing at Dan. And believe it or not, there are a few oldies too.

Dan frowned when he saw what he was pointing at. He laughed harder when he saw the old ones were blushing when Dan faced their way. But some of the girls did squeal a little.

"Don't get me started, Prince Fred!! And stop laughing!! It's not funny!! Let's just go to the southern part and look for Rose. I SAID QUIT IT, PRINCE FRED!!!!!"

***Meanwhile****

Ace and the others have been searching for hours now and they still have no clue as to where that annoying little brat might be.

I swear. I will kill that girl.

The other bastards there with him aren't helping either. All this time they kept on blaming each other regarding Rose's disappearance.

"If you hadn't shown her your fangs then she wouldn't have run off!"

"Well excuse me but who said to show her some proof!"

"I did. But I didn't instruct you to scare her with it!"

"Well what if she ran away because she had had enough of you and Dan!"

"Shut up you two." He grumbled. If anything, they just continued to fight as if he hadn't said anything.

"Us? Please. She was probably freaked out by your continuous flirting!"

"Guys." Ace tried again.

"Those were harmless. At least they made her laugh!"

He finally decided that words won't break them apart so he took his bow and two arrows then shot at them. It was just a warning shot wherein the feather of the bows just brushed their neck. They both paused and gave him a terrified look.

"The next one will be at your throats." He warned. "If you guys would just blame each other, then do it elsewhere!! Or better yet, argue through your minds and don't share the alpha link to me when you argue!"

Both swallowed hard. They then made their way on each side of him so couldn't argue anymore.

Well finally!

As they continued their search, he couldn't help but notice the silence thickening. Great, having these two argue for almost an hour had made him not used to this silence.

"Ren." he called the brown wolf.

"Have you heard anything from Fred and Dan?"

Ren didn't speak for a bit. His guess is that he's now talking to his brother.

"Dan said that the town's people didn't see anyone last night. He said that they will keep one searching. Fred got some of the people to help them look."

He looked at the sky and cursed. They were running out of time. They have at least a few hours left before the sun will set.

Stupid little wench!! Where are you?!

And his head hurts. He can't think clearly and he wasn't sure why but for some reason it seems as if he has to remember something.

"Are you okay, Prince Ace?" Nate asked beside him and gave me a curious glance. Now what does this freak want?

"Fine." He said before turning back to Ren. "Tell Fred our location and ask him to come. We have to think this through if we want some assurance that we could find her." He told the dog.

What? Wolves are part dogs so I have the right to call him that. Plus, he is very pissed.

That's all because of these idiots, including Fred and Dan, who are so eager to find the princess without thinking it through. Idiots indeed. They didn't even bother to search Rose's room in case she might have left something that could give us a clue as to where she had gone to.

Pain once again swallowed his head. Why does his head hurt?

"Fred said to wait here. They'll arrive in five minutes." Ren informed them and shifted his gaze at him for further orders. So what? The leader hat is on him now?

"Fine. Settle your horse, Nate. Let's wait for them here." Nate nodded as he climbed down from his horse at the same time as Ace did. Ace pulled his horse by the reins and tied it to a tree. He then sat on a fallen tree trunk. Nate only leaned on the tree in front of him.

He can tell that he wanted to go and search for Rose on his own right now since he was tapping on his foot impatiently.

Ren was worse though. He kept on pacing back and forth in my wolf form. Oftentimes, he would sniff the air in hopes of getting a scent of Rose. When he doesn't get any, he would growl in frustration and would continue his pacing.

Looking at these two makes him have another wave of headache. He quickly clutched his head and closed his eyes to ease the pain.

What is wrong with me? It's like I have to remember something really important but I couldn't recall what it is. He thought.