Charles

Chapter 20

Alpha Charles was wondering what else the creature had come for. The prophecy of his doom had already been echoed in his ears enough. What else did the creature want from him? Did it just derive joy in making him scared of what was coming.

"What do you want?" Alpha Charles was trying his best not to show how frightened the appearance of the creature had made him. He swallowed his spittle as though he were trying to gulp down his fears with it.

There was a protracted silence, as the creature said nothing to him. He had gone halfway through the door when he had caught the hind view of the creature.

The presence of the creature seemed to have left him paralyzed with fear, as he couldn't tell why he was just unable to move from there.

"Why do you keep showing up here?" Alpha Charles inquired yet again. But he got no reply from his uninvited guest, who seemed to have its focus on the view outside the window.

Alpha Charles was unable to explain how he felt that moment, but his emotions seemed like a mixture of fear and annoyance. "What do you want?" he asked plainly.

"Are you taking to me?" Lucas's sudden response had Charles frightened out of his senses. His beta happened to have been taking a random walk in the corridor and happened to have seen him.

"What are you doing here?" Alpha Charles growled at Lucas, who was about coming through the door, forcing him to halt. "I didn't ask you to come in."

"Oh… I apologize, Alpha," Lucas blurted out frightfully, as he saw the disapproving look of anger on his alpha's face. "You were all alone in your room taking, so I thought you were talking to me. I didn't know you weren't…"

"Get out at once!" Alpha Charles ordered, having regained his composure. He had gone from being scared and intimidated to his usual authoritative demeanor in a hurried instant.

After Lucas had gotten out, he shut the door after him. He looked back to the window to see that the creature was still there. It was all an immensely scary experience.

It was even scarier, as he seemed to be the only one that could see the creature. Lucas hadn't seen it at all, and that had been why he'd thought he had been speaking to him.

"I guess you have proved your point now, so I guess it's a good time to tell me what you are and why you're here." Alpha Charles was expecting a reply at that moment.

But he ended up getting a short and scary reply. "Prepare…" the creature said to him, before it disappeared into the darkness.

What was the meaning of all that? He wondered, as he couldn't wait for morning to come.

***

"Nothing seemed to have changed ever since I got here," Amelia said to her company of two, as they took a walk in the garden of the fortress.

The long-awaited morning had finally come. The three queens were already out on their usual morning walks, but they carried on with it without Queen Maya.

They slowly, and idly paced the walkway, with their respective maids trailing behind them.

"Well, you're quite observant," Elizabeth remarked, as she walked in-between the two younger queens. "And I guess you've also been observant enough to notice Queen Maya's recent awkward resolution to secrecy."

"I have noticed that as well," Queen Charlotte spoke up, much to everyone's surprise, as she had been quiet up until that point.

"Who would have known that you had some level of smarts in-between those ears of yours?" Elizabeth said, with a hint of sarcasm.

"Well… I'd take that as a compliment," Charlotte replied with a forced smile. "But then, why would she desire being in her own much more than being with us?"

"Maybe you're asking the wrong question," Elizabeth cut in. "You should be asking what she could be up to?"

"Does everyone have to be up to something within these walls?" Charlotte asked.

"That's just the way it is," Elizabeth answered, as she was seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the three. "These walls aren't just the alpha's fortress, but also a fierce battleground."

Charlotte seemed a bit startled by those words.

"That's just the way it is, Charlotte," Elizabeth continued with her grim tales, of which neither of the queens could muster the audacity to tell her that it was inconvenient for such a beautiful, sunny morning. "If you're going to live here, then you must learn to…"

Queen Elizabeth suddenly stopped as soon as they spotted the two incoming concubines.

"I just can't stand the sight of those two," Amelia declared to her two-man audience without hesitation. "I'm almost nauseous at the sight of them."

"Too bad that we can't just can't wake up one day and find out that they're gone," Charlotte remarked in a whisper as they were soon approaching the concubines.

"They are really nothing to be bothered about. They are just one of Alpha Charles's many play things," Elizabeth reassured them. "Just be cool."

The two concubines seemed to have been in the middle of an important conversation, which they had stopped because of the queens who were coming. They seemed to have been coming from the maids' quarters.

Elizabeth took note of the details of their disposition. They seemed to be in a hurry with the way they walked, but they slowed down significantly as they reached the queens.

She could sense that something seemed a bit off, which they were trying so hard to conceal. But then, she couldn't quite lay hold on what it could have been.

"Hello," Charlotte said to them, with a forced smile, but neither of the concubines stopped for a moment to pay any mind to her salutation.

The queens watched as the concubines walked by without a show of regard or respect. They passed from the middle of the queens, who had stopped for at least a greeting. But they got none.

"Those bitches…" Charlotte fumed. "They couldn't even—"

Charlotte's complaints were abruptly interrupted by a sudden, shrill, terrified scream that seemed to come from the maids' quarters.

"No…! Freda!" the voice screamed, reverberating throughout the whole fortress.

Elizabeth turned to the concubines, whom their steps had hastened remarkably. "What have they done?"