*Rafe*
King Axel is quite chatty tonight. He pauses in his description of the house he plans to move to in a few months to take another sip from his goblet. I nod and do the same. Every night this week, he’s gone into elaborate detail about his plans once he retires. While I don’t mind hearing them, there are only so many times I can tell him I’m ecstatic that he’s going to have more time to work in his gardens.
His two daughters sit on either side of us with me across from him. We’re having an intimate dinner tonight, as we do several times a week. No advisors. No other nobles. Just the four of us. “The Royal Four,” as King Axel likes to call us. He is obviously the leader with the two princesses and I as the other ranking nobles. Sometimes I wonder why he chose me all those years ago to be his next in line. All he’s ever said is that he saw something in me, whatever that means.
“Maybe you’ll meet another woman and have someone to share all of this with.” Sophia smiles prettily at her father, brushing her practically white hair over her shoulder. She and Riley look similar, but Sophia is wearing a modest dress, her hair brushed neatly but with no elaborate styling. Her jewelry is plain and simple. Her sister is the opposite, in another low-cut gown, giant diamond earrings, and her hair up in some fancy twist.
“Don’t tempt me,” Axel laughs. “You know I’d like nothing more than to take another wife.”
The girls have had four stepmothers in the last almost-four hundred years. One was killed by lycans, the other three Axel simply got tired of and sent off to remote places, after dissolving the marriages, of course. Neither of the princesses has ever officially married, but I know for a fact Riley has had several lovers. She flaunts them in my face in an attempt to make me jealous. It doesn’t work. Sophia is more secretive. I have no idea who she is seeing. Ever.
“What about you, Rafe?” Riley has a flirty expression in her eyes as she presses her lips together, a smile slipping into place. “When are you going to wed?”
I open my mouth to answer, but it’s her father who provides a response. “Soon.” He chuckles and pats his daughter’s arm. I give them both a tight lipped smile but don’t reply verbally. I prefer to avoid the topic as much as possible because I don’t want to marry Riley. She at least thinks that’s what she wants, though, and her father definitely wants her to be the next queen. We shall see.
“What about the culling?” Sophia wrinkles up her nose. It’s obvious she doesn’t like the idea. I can’t blame her. It’s not a pleasant topic. “I heard Kris talking about it earlier. He said it’s for sure going to happen next week?”
Clearing my throat, I look to Axel for a response. I hadn’t heard anything about a decision being made for certain, but it’s not my domain. I’ll probably have absolutely nothing to do with it.
“Yes, the next full moon is Friday. We’ll be inviting five villages to the arena this time.” King Axel chuckles and takes a sip from his cup. The word “inviting” is grossly misused. Commanding is more like it. Why would any of them want to go?
But then, I think about the leaders of Beotown. Mayor Black certainly seemed to want to move forward with the culling. It makes little sense to me why a leader would want his own citizens to suffer through something so traumatic. No one dies, but they are taken away from their families for the rest of their lives. It’s really a heart wrenching event, one I’m glad I have never had to experience firsthand.
As if reading my mind, Axel says, “Rafe, I’d like for you to oversee this one.”
I almost choke on the drink of blood I was in the process of swallowing. “You would?” Ordinarily, the king would be the one to approve everything, though it’s the advisors and their underlings that actually make the event happen.
“That’s right.” Candlelight glints off his white teeth as he continues. “It’ll be good practice for you. Who knows? It might be the last one before I abdicate.”
Nodding, I realize I have no say in this, much like I don’t get to choose my own wife. People tend to think that royals flutter around and do whatever the hell we want to, but that’s simply not true. We have few choices. Not that I’d trade places with the people I saw suffering in the villages, but it’s a different sort of entrapment.
“Of course.” What other answer can I provide. “What villages are we ‘inviting’ again?” Sophia catches the way I say the word ‘inviting’ and snorts.
The king doesn’t catch it. He rattles off the names of the villages, saving Beotown for last. “They’re adamant that it’s necessary to get more donors,” he explains.
I already know this is the mayor’s position, so I nod. Zeke has done some checking into it, and Beotown’s donations are down over thirty percent in the last year, which makes no sense to me. It doesn’t match with what I witnessed when I was there. Though, I remember the girl saying that her mother is ill. The idea that they may have had some sort of disease pass through town that claimed a lot of lives comes to mind. I’ll need to check on that.
“Well, as fascinating as it is to think of a bunch of werewolves running through the woods as we hunt them down and rip their throats out, I’d rather talk about something else at dinner.” Riley rolls her eyes and then starts talking about a dress she saw in town today that they didn’t have in her size. All of them were too big for her, so she’s having the royal dressmaker create one for her—only better.
She’s wrong about what happens during a culling, but she probably doesn’t know it or care. If we killed the wolf shifters, what would be the point?
At least some of them will have a chance to escape, and if I am in charge of it, I’ll have more control over that. Though I understand the king will be upset if I don’t have a good return, it’s difficult for me to think of imprisoning so many people and taking them away from their families.
“Cheer up, Rafe.” Axel must’ve seen me thinking so hard about the culling and assumes I’m upset. Maybe I am. “At least we don’t do what our enemies to the south do.”
“True.” It could be worse for the peoples we’ve conquered.
“What’s that?” Riley asks, her nose wrinkled as she frowns at her father.
“In Tormentia, their cullings involve one night a month where vampires can pour into the territories they’ve conquered and grab as many people as they like. They take them home as slaves and then drain them. Sometimes, they torture them first, just for fun. Hence the name, Tormentia.”
“Gross!” Riley doesn’t seem quite as put off by this as she should be in hearing it for the first time. “King Croft is disgusting. You should just go down there and kill him, Daddy.”
“I would if I could.” Axel sighs, and I know that will be the one thing he regrets never having done in his reign. He looks at me. “Maybe that will be your legacy.”
I hold his gaze for a moment and then nod. It would certainly be a pleasure to end King Dartmouth Croft, but it would also take a lot of resources. For the moment, our lands are at peace. The only worry I have lies on the western border of our kingdom. That would be the kingdom of Alpha King Karl Striker of Wolfang Kingdom. Whispers and rumors have permeated the castle for months that he’s preparing to attack.
And we are not ready. Our border territories are weak. Once again, I think of Beotown. If Striker comes after us, that village will be the first to go. Then, Mayor Black might think twice about how he treats his people—if he survives.
I wonder why he was ever even appointed mayor. It’s understandable that King Axel would want someone other than the previous Alpha King’s descendants to hold power in their former capital, but if the ancestors of the Blacks I met were anything like these buffoons, King Axel made a mistake.
It makes me wonder how many mistakes I will uncover once I am king.
Something tells me the next few months are going to be full of surprises.