Chapter 2 - The King's Banquet

“You should have told me you were coming home! How could you betray me, Louise!” Charlene hugs her tight. Louise laughs at her as she taps her shoulder.

“There, there, my crybaby little cousin. Get back to your seat. Can’t you see how cramped the carriage is?” Louise chuckles as Charlene sits back. Louise and Charlene are on their way to the King’s banquet. 

Charlene tried her best to avoid attending the event, but she did not win against her father. Upon hearing Louise’s presence, Charlene had no choice but to follow. After all, Louise is one of the reasons she goes out of the mansion.

“We’re here, Lady Charlene,” a knock from outside disturbed her rants. Charlene breathes in and opens her eyes. She looks out and bites her lip.

“Can I go home?”

“After you greet the King,” Louise caressed her cheeks and pulled her out of the carriage. 

A couple of pairs of eyes set their place on the two young ladies who had just arrived. Some are admiration, while some are discontent.

‘The unlucky wolf,’ they call her. Charlene, the youngest child of the Alpha of the Red Moon Pack, could still enjoy the privileges of most, albeit not being able to wolf out. 

The King of this nation is known to be brutal to the werewolves, who could not show their strength in the seasons they should have had. A werewolf who could not awaken their counter is just a useless pawn for him.

And Charlene Samarah Adams does not fall short in those descriptions, but how is it that she’s still here in the kingdom? How is it that she still holds the title of being the youngest daughter of the duke?

Even that princess was thrown away when she was defeated by the prince of vampires because she was not able to wolf out. The King despises the weak. He could not fathom having such a weak link in his kingdom that he threw the princess across the borders… only the Moon Goddess knew what happened to her.

A decade had passed, and even to this day, no one found her corpse nor news of her being alive, so most believed she was killed by the hunters. 

“I thought it was just a banquet for the werewolves?” Louise looked at Charlene when she blurted that out, then to the hall where everyone was gathering. And alas, different species are gathering in one place.

The tension she was feeling earlier was not because she was attending the King’s banquet. Louise felt a pair of eyes that were piercing her entirety. She need not look around to find out who those belong to.

‘They could only belong to you,’ Louise maintained a straight face while walking down the hall with Charlene. The servant announced their arrival, and eyes started swarming their way.

Charlene took a step back, but Louise held her arm tight. “Keep your head high, Char,” she whispered to her cousin. Charlene followed suit and kept a straight face while Louise started smirking.

She’s a pretty well-known wolf across the kingdom.

Who would not know her? Louise the ‘conqueror’ — no one in this kingdom feared not this woman. The King’s daughter who overthrew her siblings and is now one of the best candidates for the throne.

“Louise,”

“Char, I’m telling you, you can go after you greet the King,” Louise told her once again. Charlene looks down at her feet as they make their way to the throne.

Silence filled the banquet hall when they reached the king. The king is currently talking with another esteemed guest… the Lycan King — Sebastian Frost.

The air around them is heavy. The werewolves and Lycans had signed a treaty long ago to maintain peace between each kingdom. 

The Lycan King’s presence in this banquet is proof that they hold that agreement on high grounds. 

“Oh, look who we have here,” the king, King Gonzalo Abel the Third, looked at Charlene and Louise, who bowed immediately at the presence of the king.

“Frost, if I may, this is the youngest daughter of the Alpha from the Red Moon Pack, Charlene,”

“Aren’t you forgetting to introduce your daughter first, Your Majesty?” King Gonzalo smirked at the sharp tongue of his daughter. The Lycan kept silent, watching the two glaring at each other.

“And this is my daughter, Louise,” The Lycan King glanced at her and then looked at Charlene. He stared at her for a while. His gaze brought shivers down Charlene’s spine.

She was not looking at his eyes directly, but the pressure he was giving was enough to make her knees weakened.

Louise and Charlene excused themselves in front of the kings, especially when the vulgar king — the vampire king, Samon, entered the crowd. It was not long since the treaty was signed with them, but news about another war with them was waving. No reasons, exactly — war with them simply depended on the mood of their king.

Many lives were killed, and the poor were trampled on just because they had such a childish head leading them. No one could question the King’s authority, though. King Samon, albeit young, brought victories to their kingdom when he was still a prince.

Louise and Charlene went to the balcony to get some air, but a familiar figure was already standing there.

“Louise,” he calls her name. Charlene recognized his voice. She looked up and saw the familiar pair of ash eyes. Charlene looked at Louise when her grip tightened.

“Bro, I’ll borrow her for now,” before Louise and Charlene could react, Charlene was already pulled from the balcony.

Charlene furrowed her brows as she looked at the tall figure pulling her from the place.

“Hey!” He did not look back nor show any sign of slowing down.

“Hey! Stop! Where are you taking me?” Charlene tried pulling her arm from his grip, but it only tightened. Charlene winced in pain. The grip of a Lycan like him is enough to bruise a weak werewolf like Charlene.

The man only stopped when Charlene voiced her pain. He let go of her arm and stared at her. Charlene glared at him and was about to shout at his face when she noticed his ash almond eyes and the amethyst earring on his left ear.

‘A royalty…’ she thought, then looked down.

“You should not have done that, Your Highness,” Charlene stood straight as she rubbed her arm. It’s starting to bruise.

“Now you offer formality, huh?”

Charlene looked at him with questioning eyes. “I see that you’re just like the rumors about you,”

“What?” Charlene asked him with contempt. 

“Must I tell you? Why should I?”

“Forgive me, Your Highness, but I can’t understand a thing you’re saying,”

The prince sighed and sat on the fountain. He lazily looked at Charlene and furrowed his brows, “What? Your first time seeing a prince sitting on the side of a fountain?” Charlene looked away and sat beside him to show courtesy.

The prince chuckled, “You don’t have to sit with me if you’re that uncomfortable,”

“It is rude to hold my head higher than you, Your Highness,”

“You’re not even my kind,” the prince put his chin on his palm and glanced at Charlene. “A werewolf like you need not show respect to a Lycan prince like me,”

“Why is that?”

The prince stretched his limbs and put his arms behind to support his body. He looked to the moon, “Because I would not mind at all,”

‘His eyes look like the moon,’ 

“So you’re Louise’s cousin?” Charlene looked away when the prince looked at him.

She nodded, “I am,”

“Then why are you weak?” He asked without much thought. Charlene blushed in embarrassment. She could only thank that the only light on them was the moon above.

“Oh, I don’t mean to be rude. I just happened to hear some nasty whispers from other houses earlier… hmm,” the prince faced Charlene, tilting his head a little.

“But you do not look weak at all,”

“Pardon?”

“A normal werewolf should have run away with their tails between their legs if they saw me,” Charlene’s lips parted at his confidence. She could not reckon if the prince was kidding around or if he was honestly blurting out what was on his mind.

“My name is Adhler,”

“I would not dare to call you as such, Your Highness,” Charlene told her.

“Hmm, then I give you my permission,”

“What?”

“If not as a prince, then just an older fellow. You’re younger than me, right? And you attend the academy,”

Charlene’s eyes widened, “Why the surprise? Ahh, you’re a homebody, so you must not see me a lot,”

“You go to the academy, Your Highness,” the prince furrowed his brow. “A-Adhler… you go to the same academy?”

“Well, my father forced me to,” Prince Adhler stood up as he tapped his back to clear the dust from sitting by the fountain.

He looked at Charlene, then smiled, “I’ll see you around the academy, junior,”

Charlene stared at his silhouette as the moon shone brightly above him. ‘He looks like the moon,’