Chapter 10- Strawberry
A season has changed, and 4 months have passed in utter bliss. The national holiday Independence Day would be celebrated in just two days. They had been dating for the last couple of months, enjoying every bit of each other. During the springtime, they spent their time surfing, watching movies at the theater and doing other such things that normal human couples did. Today also happened a big leap in Rhiannon and Ragnar's relationship.
Rhiannon woke up in her bedroom, rolling out of the bed with a refreshed expression on her face. She headed straight to the bathroom to start her morning routine. She has been spoiled by her mate with new makeup products and other beauty products. She had a bright smile on her face. Her cheeks were rosy, her emerald eyes shone like gems. She put moisturizing cream in her hair as she manually celebrated her curls to make them shiny and bouncy.
She finished her beauty routine, went into the closet and chose a pair of faded blue jeans and a brown pattern shirt and a pair of brown pumas for matching. Her dangling earrings swayed as she walked downstairs, headed towards the breakfast table. The couple smiled as they sat at the table. Breakfast was served in less than a minute. The table was filled with food fit for a whole football team.
After breakfast, the couple readied themselves before walking out and getting in the backseat of Ragnar's Rolls Royce Ghost. One of the male pack members that Rhiannon had seen off and on for the past couple of months drove the car out. They drove outside the city to Ragnar's personal air strip before boarding the plane. The plane took only 30 minutes to land in an unincorporated town that was 3 hrs. away by car. The landing strip was in the backyard of a massive castle.
The castle had been magically constructed and cloaked from human eyes since the early 1200.
The castle looked very similar to the Heidelberg castle in Germany. The castle was nestled in the Strawberry Mountain range, obscured by the forest. The entrance of the castle was hidden from the humans, so that even the tourists did not stumble upon it. The outside of the castle was inlaid with copper and gold with 5 floors in all. It didn't have statues or figurines like the castle in Germany. Actually, the castle was built in simplicity and majestic in a way.
The castle took 15 years to be built on the mountain range, even with the help of the witches of the old. Unfortunately, after it was built a conflict broke out between the witches and vampires and the entire magical community went their separate way. For the long time the numbers of the shifter community started to dwindle as they went mate less.
Even the Lycans were strong and abundant, only mating between each other. It wasn't until some centuries later when the travelers of Africa migrated over to the Americas and became mating with the werewolves. Thus, creating the first American Indians; this also created the first shifter kingdom that was presided over by the four Lycan Kings.
Lycan King Ragnar was the 2nd Lycan king of the North American continent, a title he inherited from his ancestors. He ruled over the current United States with the different Alpha's and other shifters of the area ruling under him. He was equal to the other Lycan Kings and only the Lycan emperor Dimitri Petrov empress Natasha ruled over all shifters.
The couple walked through an underground tunnel that led to a side door of the reception room. The reception room was grand and homey with many soft leather couches, end table, coffee tables and two separate mounted flat screens on opposite sides of the room. The room was filled with young adults and teenagers, who sat around watching tv, fighting over the remote like little children. The moment Ragnar entered the room it went silent, and the other members silently stood up with wide eyes in astonishment.
"Welcome back Lycan King Ragnar!" The crowd in the room echoed. The chandelier swayed with the vibration.
Ragnar smiled awkwardly as he wrapped his arms around Rhiannon's waist. He didn't expect to meet the youngster right when they arrived but then again, they were supposed to be in school by now. The pack member behind them held their luggage; Rhiannon had finally gotten to know his name which was Richard, and he was a wild cat warrior shifter. He was mated to a Lycan warrior name Rachel, together they had 3 kids.
"Shouldn't most of you be going to school?" Ragnar asked with confusement in his eyes.
Rhiannon laughed loudly, breaking the silence. "It's July… don't you remember summer break?"
Ragnar slapped his forehead in exasperation, nodding his head in understanding. Rhiannon nestled in his arms with a bright smile. Her green eyes gleamed in amusement.
"Hi, everyone, I am Rhiannon-Ragnar's mate." She smiled brightly as she introduced herself. She scanned her eyes around the room taking in everyone's expression.
She saw many excited people except two women that stood closer to the entrance of the foyer. One had long brown hair and the other had short red hair like a boy. The one with the short red hair had on a mini shirt and tank top, wearing high heels, dangling earrings and heavy makeup that made her look older than necessary.
Her black eyes spit fire in jealousy and her average face twisted in anger. Her body shook as her friend wrapped her in her arms to calm her down. Hair sprouted out of her skin while a low growl erupted from the back of her throat.
The growl stopped the excitement in the room and all eyes turned to her but she didn't notice. All she could see was the man she had liked since she was young hugging another woman in front of EVERYONE! This could not be done, an evil glint passed through the woman's eyes as she looked at Rhiannon with dark eyes. She turned around in a huff, stomping away.
"Oh great, another firefly. How many do you have?" Rhiannon asked as she was led past the crowd and up a large and grand staircase.
The staircase was large enough 4 at least four to five people to move up and down simultaneously. The handrails were made of marble, the coloring resembling a dark opal. The castle had three magical elevators that went to every floor and to each bedroom. It was a lazy feature that a technology witch, installed when the internet first came about.
Ragnar had the entire 5th floor to himself; it was decorated like his house in San Francisco. Elegant, dignified and minimalist. The bedrooms were separated for the Lycan king, Lycan queen, concubines and the royal children. Usually, the rooms for the concubines were just for decoration unless the king had no choice but take a chosen mate alongside his fated mate. Such as if the king or his queen were infertile.
There have been cases where the concubines were used as surrogates rather than actually bedmates and if the king just so happens to be infertile and he was the last in his line then he would allow his mate to take in a male concubine and then raise those children as his own. But in that instant, there was only one King who did such a thing, which is why Ragnar's last name is MacAulaysen instead of the biological fathers' surname Eley. In that case the Lycan King at that time loved his mate so much that he didn't want her line to go extinct just because he couldn't. He allowed her to have exactly six children, 2 boys and 4 girls.