reporting to the beast king

"It's good to have you back," Kiera said with a smile to her King. He had returned with Gaspar and the Beasts they took with them.

She and Helios had made their way into the guest quarters of their King. She ignored the tenth Beast General and went straight into greeting the King.

"Welcome back my King." Helios greeted as well.

"It's good seeing the both of you again. Kiera, I see you are doing exceptionally well. It seems you took my last words to heart." With a twinkle in his amber eyes, he spoke before taking a sip from the tiny teacup in his hands.

"We can smell that idiot's scent on you." Gaspar could not hide his disgust as he looked at her.

"That is of no importance to you Gaspar. Do well to keep your nose out of it." She said calmly without missing a beat. She did not see the reason why she needed to provide any answers to him.

"Do as she says, Gaspar." King William laughed, taking her side. "I don't want the two of you fighting again. The last time, both of you destroyed a good half of my vases on the palace's west wing."

To her, he turned and said, "we shall speak on this on a separate occasion."

Kiera nodded her head in understanding. The nosiness of her King came as no surprise to her. He surely wanted to berate her with questions about her blooming relationship.

"Now, on to business. Helios, Kiera, report everything that happened while I was away." He gave out his order and Helios stepped up to answer him first.

"The night of the full moon was a success. None of the humans dared step foot inside the Royal Hunting Grounds and we were able to run freely the whole grounds."

King William accepted his report, setting down his teacup on the table in front of him.

"I'm sure it went smoothly. Please give the prince my thanks Kiera, without him, we would have been out of a place to transform."

"You," Kiera's eyes widened slightly, looking to King William in bewilderment, "you had already known of his involvement?"

"Don't look so surprised Kiera. He approached me with a plan and I accepted his help. Our secret is safe because of him."

Gaspar made a face, his lip curling up as the idea of thanking the prince did not appeal to him one bit.

"My King," Kiera ignored the soured look on the tenth Beast General's face, she stepped in to change the topic, "there's something else that has happened in your absence."

"Oh? What else happened? I can tell by the tone in your voice that this news isn't anything good." King William exhaled out in preparation for his twelfth Beast General's news. He had the foresight of knowing Kiera was bringing him another thing to worry about.

"There was an attack at the capital."

At this, Gaspar tensed, straightening up from his relaxed position. His arms moved from being crossed at his chest to hanging at his sides.

"What? Another attack?" He said and looked towards Helios, asking the same question to his friend.

"Unfortunately, yes," Helios responded with a solemn shake of his head. "Kiera was there to deal with the situation."

"A Deranged?" Kiera quickly said no and King William breathed out a sigh of relief.

"A monster then?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. A monster." She grimaced, wishing that was all there was to it.

"It was a Barghest." Helios pushed forward for her after she hesitated.

"A Barghest," Gaspar hissed out, and Kiera nodded after he searched her eyes for any indication she was lying. "Are you sure it was a Barghest?"

"I'm sure." She resisted the temptation to snap back at him for asking such a question. She was a Beast General. She, like the other Generals, had run-ins with the monster population of their homeland, therefore she had some basic knowledge of monsters. Her attention was on the Deranged, but she has dealt with monsters before.

"A Barghest, so far North?" She felt a twinge of pity as she saw her King rub his temples wearily. "It's one thing after the other. What rotten luck."

"King, we need to prepare ourselves before the humans start asking questions. What if they figure out the Barghest comes from our land? We should be doing everything we can right now." It was unusual for Helios to be so anxious, but she understood. Although he did not originally want to come as part of the delegation to Solomon, peace was still important to him. If a war were to break out, the Prey Beasts were the first fall victims as they weren't as strong as the Predator Beasts. He also had a Mate to think about.

He was right to be worried, but King William only waived his hand at his raising tone of voice.

"Keep a cool head, if even you start to worry then what hope do we have on keeping calm?" Kiera nodded her head, agreeing with her King's statement. Helios was rarely ever bothered by anything. If the other Beasts saw him like this, there would be panic.

"How can we not be worried?" Her ears picked up Gaspar's questioning voice. She turned her head to see his worried expression. Lines etched deeply into his forehead.

"There are too many possibilities to be able to draw a solid enough conclusion of how a Barghest came to be here. That said, I cannot stress the importance of showing our composure. Especially in front of the humans." There was a finality to the timbre of his voice, a subtle distinction from his usual informal tone. It indicated he was close to using his Lion's roar to bring them into submission.

"Forgive me," Helios bowed his head, the first to submit to their Lion Lord. "I was too quick to lose myself in worry."

"I'm not angry with you. I only ask that you believe in me, and in my capability to lead us out of the latest predicament we're in."

Helios nodded mutely. Then King William turned his amber eyes back on her.

"What did you do with the body of the Barghest?"

"I couldn't take it with me. The Barghest attacked in the middle of a shopping district." She began to rethink her actions that day but stopped herself. There was no use in regretting the decisions she did not take. Her mind should be preoccupied with thinking of solutions. "It was a miracle that there was no one there to witness my transformation."

"Then the body is in the hands of the knights." She did not speak, as he was not looking at her for confirmation.

"We need to know what the knights are thinking. We need more information."

Information. The word rang inside her head. She immediately thought of the golden-haired, green-eyed prince. His ever-smiling face popped into her mind's eye.

"We could ask for help from Prince Sam again."

"No." Gaspar was quick to shoot down her suggestion. "You are becoming too reliant on his help." His nostrils flared in anger and she thought of the advice he had given her a long time ago.

Was he angry because he truly did not want her to become a prince's pet, or was he angry because he was interested in her but the prince got to her first? She wanted to believe his jealousy was not the main justification for his reluctance.

"Why? He already is aware of our people's secret. Besides, he has given us no reason to distrust him thus far." She turned her head to her King. "He has access to the kind of information we don't. Surely you have already recognized that he is a lot more intelligent than the royal family makes him out to be."

"And," she steadied her facial expression, "I don't believe he would betray us on account that we are," she struggled to remember the mysterious word Sam had used, "courting."

"You are what?" Gaspar exclaimed with derision.

She was grateful for the fact that she could control herself, keeping the blush from creeping onto her face.

"It refers to the stage before Mating."

He scoffed.

"Are you honestly going to pick a weak human for your Mate?" His words aggravated her to great extent.

"As opposed to who else," she shot back, "you?" She said mockingly, glaring with full force behind her azure eyes.

There was a silence after she spoke. Kiera could see he was biting back an angry retort. Other times they would have fought with each other already. But this time wasn't like those other times.

"Pardon my insolence, Your Majesty. I need to go cool my head before I punch a hole into something." Gaspar bowed his head to their King, and Kiera could see his jaw was rigid with displeasure.

After getting their king's permission, Gaspar left the room.

"Why don't you leave Kiera and me alone for now?" The King was gentle as he told Helios.

"Very well." Helios bowed his head respectfully before leaving the room, careful not to make any eye contact with Kiera as he left. Unlike Gaspar, he closed the door with a soft thud behind him.