by Kamryn Hart
When we crossed over the bridge, landing on the east side of Wolf Bridge, the kingdom seemed to transform. Some of the buildings here looked like the ones I first saw, but they were quickly getting bigger, and I was starting to see things I didn’t recognize. Tech. It had to be tech. Tall poles had neat rows of wires connecting them and other poles. Other poles had huge lightbulbs inside of them. The roader’s eyes were likely lightbulbs too, I realized.
The roader turned down another street, taking us north alongside the river. That was when I saw the castle. It was the largest building in the kingdom. It was made of mostly tan stones and had a large tower that looked like it had several floors and large verandas to walk outside on from every level. At the very top stood a tree-like object, minus the leaves; it was too high up to know what it actually was, but that was what it looked like.
Just like I was first brought to a castle in Paws Peak, the same thing was happening here. I tried not to replay the events in my head. Maybe this would be different, a good introduction.
I tried to stay positive, but we went to a roader stable, got out of the roader, made our way to the castle, passed by guards, and entered the castle much the same way I had with Leer and his submissives. At least I wasn’t being dragged along. My werewolf entourage gave me a wide berth, and their presence didn’t feel heavy. I held my journal closer, seeking comfort, but it wasn’t comfort from my mother that I wanted. I wanted Babaga. The werea on those pages, the werea who was my “mother,” was a stranger to me. Reading these pages would help me understand things better, but that was all. Judging from that first entry, I didn’t think I even liked her.
We passed soldiers and moved through a long hall lined with ornate silver fixtures that held glowing lightbulbs. The floor was carpeted in dark blue, saving this castle from the fate of being a complete echo chamber. It felt softer. More inviting.
At one point, the hall opened up into a large foyer. When I looked to my right, I saw a silver archway leading into a large circular room. There was something trapped inside a big bubbly glass cylinder glowing brightly in the center of it. It almost hurt my eyes. I didn’t think that was a lightbulb. I blinked and squinted, and then the light dimmed. Some werewolves wearing white coats stepped out of the open room, bypassing a couple of soldiers standing guard at the archway.
“Maintenance is done. You can open the tower again. The Heart looks good,” one of the werewolves wearing a white coat announced. His eyes widened when he spotted us. “Todd! Welcome back. It’s always an honor to be in your presence.”
“Maintenance for what?” Todd asked. His face stayed neutral. I hardly recognized him as the Todd with red cheeks, the one who seemed shy when he was talking to me. This Todd was somehow cold and detached, like talking to these werewolves was a chore he’d rather not do.
“Just making sure the energy chamber can hold all of that electricity. We thought we saw a fracture in the glass, but everything is fine.”
“I’ll have a look at it later.”
“S-sure. Is… is that the Lost Princess?”
Now all eyes were on me. It was like being appraised for my worth based on my weight in gold. It didn’t matter that I was filthy, cut, and bruised.
“Yes,” Caspian replied. “So, if you’ll excuse us, we have to report to the king.”
“Ah, yes, of course. Have you warned him you’re coming?”
“No. He’ll like the surprise. Don’t tell anyone she’s here. The king will want to announce her arrival.”
Everyone was stiff. Rodrick and Aerre were as quiet as mice. Caspian was all formalities. Todd was distant. Did they hate it inside of the castle?
The werewolves wearing white coats nodded and made a hasty escape. The soldiers straightened up and moved out to the far edges of the silver archway, apparently allowing entry into the circular room once again: the tower. The Heart.
“What’s the Heart?” I asked as we began moving forward again.
“The center, the power source of the entire kingdom,” Todd replied. “The big lightning rod at the very top of the castle attracts lightning during a storm and sends the electricity down to a fist-sized lightning stone which takes any electrical energy and multiplies it tenfold. It’s extremely rare, and it’s hard to contain.” He glanced over his shoulder at me, and his cheeks reddened. That was more like it. This was the Todd that I liked. “Sorry, I tend to go on about this stuff. You probably hate it.”
“I like it,” I said.
His face turned a brighter red.
I couldn’t help myself. I sped up to him and reached out my hands to touch his cheeks. He flinched, but he let me do it. His cheeks were as hot as a furnace! I grabbed his black cap and pulled it off of his head, revealing a mess of short red hair.
“You’re burning up!” I exclaimed.
“May I have my beanie back?” His voice was quiet, head bowed, and he held out his hand to me, pleading.
“It’ll only make you hotter.”
“Please.”
Something was wrong. Did I hurt him somehow? Confused, I returned his “beanie.” He hastily pulled it over his fire-red hair, hiding every last strand.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Todd is a genius,” Caspian said as he wedged his way in between Todd and me. He was giving me his easy smile, acting as if I hadn’t just done something wrong. “No one knew how to handle that lightning stone before he came along. Thanks to him, Wolf Bridge is the safest place in the world. Right?”
“Probably,” Todd muttered.
Caspian laughed. “He’s just being modest.”
I liked how Caspian praised him. Unlike Leer, Caspian cared about his team. A lot.
“I’d like to see the Heart and learn more about it,” I said hopefully.
Todd glanced at me and then at the dark-blue floor. “Okay.”
“Another time, though,” Caspian added. “We have other things to take care of first.”
“Great, we have another tech-head,” Rodrick teased.
Aerre rolled his eyes.
“What do you like to do for fun, Rodrick?” I asked.
“Fight.”
“Me too. Maybe we could exchange methods.”
Rodrick smirked, and Aerre let out an exasperated sigh.
We went through another hall, shorter this time, and reached large wooden double doors. They weren’t the same ridiculous size as the ones in Paws Peak. But I wasn’t surprised to find a spacious throne room behind these ones as well. A throne. A king wearing a jewel-encrusted silver crown. He was speaking to other werewolves until he saw us.
“We’ll finish this later,” he said. Then he stood and opened his arms wide and smiled. “Welcome home, Phantom Fangs.”
I lagged as my escort took the lead, all four of them bowing down on one knee in front of the king. I stayed where I was. I had no intention of bowing. I didn’t know this king. Did he deserve my respect or was he like the king in Paws Peak?
“Your Highness, I present to you Princess Sorissa va Lupin of Howling Sky,” Caspian said.
The king’s smile broadened. Something about that smile was a bit familiar. As I looked at him, I thought of Caspian. They both had the darkest skin I had ever seen, sunny smiles, curly hair, and dark eyes speckled with light. But the king had a beard, and they were dressed quite differently. The king was wearing a luxurious outfit of mostly dark blue and accentuated silver while Caspian wore black tactical gear. If they were related, they had a very different relationship than the last king and prince I had met.
Warily, I watched the king descend the stairs to his throne. He bypassed Phantom Fangs kneeling on the carpeted floor and came to me. I had the urge to step back, but I stood my ground.
He held out his hand and said, “My name is Philip.”
I didn’t take his hand. He drew back easily like I hadn’t just offended him, and his eyes began probing me. He was likely taking in my state. I was hardly fit to be in his pre
sence right now if the cleaning and dressing routine at Paws Peak was anything to go by. His eyes glazed over my mother’s journal and lingered on my bite. The twinkle in his eyes dimmed.
“It seems you’ve been through a lot to get here,” he said. “Rise, Phantom Fangs.”
My escort stood up in unison as if they were one thinking and feeling body.
“You’re all dismissed except for Caspian. You did good work. Caspian, I want you to take her to her room where she can clean up and rest.”
Todd was the first to leave. His feet moved quickly, just shy of a run. Aerre and Rodrick left at a more moderate pace, but they made sure to time their leave a minute apart. I didn’t like watching their backs. I didn’t like the feeling of them leaving me. I turned to Caspian, reminding myself I hadn’t been completely abandoned.
“We will speak again, Sorissa,” Philip said. “Please, make yourself comfortable until then. This is your new home, and I want you to enjoy it.”
I nodded. So far so good, I supposed. This was definitely a step up from Paws Peak.
Caspian stood patiently until the king walked away from us and ordered a guard to bring back the werewolves he was talking to so they could finish their business. Even then, Caspian waited. His jaw was clenched. He was looking in the direction of the king, but not at the king. I hadn’t seen him look directly at the king the whole time since we entered, I realized. There was an angry vein pulsing in his throat.
“Caspian?”
He held out his arm to me, exactly how Leer had at Paws Peak when he escorted me to George all properly cleaned and dressed. I hated that the action alone dredged up the sour memory, and I hesitated.
“Take my arm?” he asked.
I bit my lip and shook my head. “No.”
“Okay then.” He dropped his arm and walked past me. “Let’s get going. I’m sure you’re dying to get washed up. I can put an herbal remedy in your bath. It’ll sooth and clean your cuts.”
If he was offended by my refusal, he didn’t show it.
“Thank you,” I said.
I followed him out of the throne room, keeping one step behind him. We eventually made our way up a couple flights of stairs and down a hall lined with doors precise distances apart. I figured one of these doors would lead to “my room.”
“Caspian, is this bite Charles gave me really no issue? And don’t treat me like I’m stupid or fragile. I can handle the truth.”
“I didn’t lie to you before, Princess. I don’t think it’s a big deal. I’ll explain to King Philip that the Mate Claim wasn’t fulfilled.” He looked straight ahead as he talked to me. “In the worst-case scenario, I’m wrong and you are bonded to Prince Charles, but that’s not a problem either. We’ll just have to hunt him down and kill him.”
I stopped dead in my tracks. “Why are you talking like this? Your voice was so warm before we entered the throne room. You haven’t smiled since we entered or since we left.”
Caspian sighed and finally turned to face me. “I’m tired. You probably are too. Yeah, you slept in the roader, but that thing is not comfortable.”
“You’re avoiding my question.”
“This is what I can tell you: I promise to get you out of the Mate Claim that was forced on you one way or another. I’ll see to it personally. We can’t very well have you ‘mated’ to a werewolf you don’t love, right?” He gave me his easy, warm smile.
“That sounds more like you,” I noted. “Thank you for helping me. I mean it.”
Caspian’s grin broadened. He held out his hand and made a big show of bringing it to his chest, palm flat against his heart. Then he bowed. “It’s my pleasure, Princess.”
When he straightened, I shifted my mother’s journal to one hand and grabbed his arm with my other hand like he asked me to earlier. “Let’s go,” I said. “I trust you.”
CHAPTER 15
CASPIAN
THERE WAS A ROOM all prepared for the Lost Princess. The king made sure that was taken care of as soon as Phantom Fangs verified she was real, from that intercepted conversation in Paws Peak, and that we’d be bringing her back to Wolf Bridge in a week’s time. We couldn’t very well let the Moonlight Child fall into the hands of King George ve Paz of Paws Peak. King Philip never even made that sound like an option. He all but assured Wolf Bridge that the witch had reached out to us. He was that confident Phantom Fangs would deliver her, and it did.
We did.
I wasn’t stupid, I knew Princess Sorissa wasn’t here for strictly her own benefit, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t work in the shadows to try and make it so.
She said she trusted me.
I was glad the castle was carpeted since the princess was forced to walk barefoot at my side. She hadn’t complained about the lack of shoes, but I felt bad. Her feet probably hurt from all the running she did back in Paws Peak. I saw cuts. Luckily, they didn’t look too bad.
I would have volunteered to carry her if I didn’t think she would refuse me without even considering it. The fact that she was holding my arm at this moment was a huge accomplishment. I wished my arm hadn’t been covered by the long, tight sleeve of my Phantom Fangs uniform so I could feel her skin. It was probably for the best that I couldn’t, though. My mind kept wandering back to her naked underneath me.
Think about something else, I silently chastised myself. Gods knew I didn’t want to deal with another hard-on and these pants.
“Here it is,” I announced when we reached the wooden door leading to her room. I opened it and presented the large room to the princess. The color scheme was the same as the rest of the palace. There was a large circular bed in the center with delicate white lace draping down from the ceiling. It was meant to be soft. Feminine.
“What do you think?” I asked.
“It’s really big,” she said.
She let go of my arm and walked over to the bubble-glass doors sealing off the balcony. She slid them open and stepped out, allowing sunlight to trickle unfiltered into the room. I joined her as she leaned against the silver railing.
“I like this view,” she said. “You can see the mountains in the distance.” She was still holding that book. She pulled back her hair with her free hand when a gust of wind blew, tucking the dark curly strands behind her ear. I could have stared at her for hours, filthy or not. She was literally as beautiful as a painting. This moment had all the dynamics and colors needed for a masterpiece.
I followed her when she went back inside. She touched the edge of the circular bed and sighed. “The bed is too soft. So is this floor. I don’t feel like I fit in here.”
“Once you’re cleaned and dressed up like the place, I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine,” I said. I walked over to her closet, which was basically another room, and presented all the different dresses the king filled it with. At the very least, I was sure one of them would fit her for now. Her measurements could be taken to replenish the closet with only dresses that fit her now that she was here.
The princess joined me in the closet and crinkled her cute nose. I had to laugh. What was that reaction? Any other werea I knew of, albeit elders or young cubs, would have died at the sight of these dresses. They were the best of the best, befitting only a princess.
“I definitely don’t fit here,” the princess concluded. “If I have to wear another corset, I swear to the Gods I will tear every last one of these dresses to ribbons.”
“Is a corset that bad?” I asked.
“The worst. I couldn’t breathe and all because they wanted to make my waist smaller and force my breasts to reach my chin.”
“Gods.” That earned her another laugh. Her frankness was refreshing. “No corsets then. You certainly don’t need a skinnier waist and your breasts reaching your chin would be a sight to behold.”
“I’m glad we agree.”
“I’ll send a maid in to assist you shortly, but I’m going to get your bath running so that the herbal blend is perfect for you.”
“You’re
not going to have the maid do it?”
“I’d like to get you into that bath sooner rather than later. Don’t your feet hurt?”
“A bit.”
“Then please allow me to do this for you, Princess.”
“Sorissa. You can call me Sorissa, Caspian. That’s who I am, not some princess.”
“I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one.”
She grabbed my hand before I could escape the closet. “We’re friends, aren’t we?”
I hesitated before saying, “I sure hope so.”
“Call me Sorissa.”
I sighed and slipped out of her grasp to make my way to the bathroom on the other end of her quarters.
“Caspian!” she exclaimed, chasing after me. “Why is it so hard?”
I ignored her for a moment to consider her question. I looked at the variety of bath salts and herbs stored in jars on silver shelves lining a wall. The large bath in the center of the room was more like a pool. It was a downgrade into the floor and took up most of the room. If the princess really wanted to, she could swim in it.
I turned on the faucet, sending water out from the miniature waterfall connected at the head of the pool. I checked the temperature and made sure it was perfect before moving on. The princess was determined to be my shadow, standing right behind me with her arms folded and a defiant expression on her face.
“It’s not so hard. It’s just improper,” I explained.
“Why? What is your title?” she asked.
“I don’t have one.”
“Don’t lie. You’re at least a captain or something similar.”
I took a jar of mild lavender-colored salts, a collection of herbs, and sweet-smelling flowers. I placed them on the edge of the bath and started sprinkling in the proper amounts.
“I’m like a captain, sure, but I don’t have the title. Phantom Fangs is treated as one entity,” I explained. “It’s the only title I have.”
“You resemble Philip.”
I finished prepping the bath and started screwing lids back on jars. “I won’t deny it.”
