Chapter 2 | Metallic Silver

My head shot up. I think I heard Xianne's voice; What's bothering you, my prince?

"Good evening, Canidae kingdom!" My father greeted his subjects.

"As many have heard, the Ailuridae kingdom has been ambushed by the rogues. Now we don't know which rogues attempted the attack. We haven't heard from them yet, and we are hoping that many will be saved."

"For now, you will see gammas and epsilons, patrolling the perimeter. The safe house is ready for you to adjust in, again, we won't force everyone to stay in the safe house if you do not feel safe there. Everyone, who works in the medical field, please we need you to standby. Don't worry we will be paying you handsomely."

Then he dismissed all of them and walked out of the stage. Every wolf was chattering, asking for more details. If we have caught the rogue, if he is, where was he?

Speaking of which, I need to find Ahlai, I need to save him.

We followed behind the king, and once the double doors were closed, he spoke.

"Don't you dare do anything stupid again, Xavion? I know you have to learn your lesson if you want to still live comfortably." He gave me a pompous side-eye as he faces his front.

I heard a smirk beside me. "I don't think he learned his lesson, Father. He seems to seize the opportunity whenever problems knock on his door. Just like that rogue, we caught earlier in the hospital."

Alaric faced me, walking backward as he cut into my lane. "You really are stupid, are you? You dare to bring a rogue inside a hospital, where so many people could have been in danger. You never learn." He ticks his head to the right. "And you even bother to call it a friend. What's that mutt's name again?" He mocked.

"He's a person, Alaric. He's just like us. He needs medical attention, just like you do."

"What!"

"His name is Ahlai."

"You're stepping the line, fool!"

"You're the one in my line, Alaric."

"Address me accordingly!"

"ENOUGH!" Father shouted.

We halt on our feet. Mother was looking all bored, like always. She crossed her arms over her chest, watching the three of us.

I sighed, I should have kept my mouth shut.

"Back to your position, Alaric!" Father reprimanded him, our heads bowed down.

"Xavion! You may think about what's best in that situation, but I hope it ever crossed your delicate mind, that you may be helping a were, but jeopardizing many lives, especially the whole kingdom."

"Clearly, his still too immature to think about something like that." I heard my brother's side comment.

"Alaric cut the cackle!"

"I beg your pardon, Father."

"Ahlai, or whatever his name is, he is not a friend. He is a potential foe. He had rabid signs. And tomorrow, his head will be delivered. His rogues of a pack may be waiting for his signal to enter our kingdom." He said calmly.

Ahlai!

"I know you're lonely, I can hire someone for you. So don't act like you need someone's attention."

I held my silence; my throat is cramped. It's so hard to control my tears especially looking down at my shoes.

"Sire, dinner's ready." The butler whispered to my father.

He didn't say anything, I felt his heavy gaze at me from top to bottom, then he sighed, like, he was tired of me.

"Forlorn," Alaric whispered as he walked in front of me. I followed behind him, my mouth shut. He's acting childish again.

The double doors opened, and the maids arranged on each side of the table, their heads bowed.

We all sat after the king and ate after him. The food was appetizing, but it was always like every day, it was bland. I think my tongue is crashing. It was quiet for a good ten minutes, I almost finish my food, while my brother kept asking for more meat. He's really hungry.

The left side of the double door opened. "Your majesty." The king's messenger greeted him and bowed. He also bowed when Mother looked at him and smiled at my brother who was eating heartfully, then his eyes went back to Father.

"Royal messenger, I suppose whatever that news can wait until I finish my meal, don't you think?"

"Ah yes, your majesty. I shall wait for you outside." He said and bowed then immediately left.

I wonder if he had his dinner?

I felt my father's scrutinizing gaze at me indeed our eyes met, he only sighed and shook his head then ate his food.

"Meet me in my office after you finish your dinner, Alaric." Father bid and went to follow the messenger. He still has food left on his plate.

  ☾ 𓆰𓆪  ☽

Where is it? 

Where the heck did, I put it? 

I turned my desk upside down, trying to look for my book. I should've just kept it here. My mind retraced what happened earlier, where did I last stop reading that book?

Of course, in the library, but I dropped by here in my bedroom to read it tonight! 

Aphòdeuma! I hope I didn't lose it! 

My eyes scanned the whole bed chamber, the canopy bed is the only thing in this chamber that's still presentable. My chiffonier is a mess, the carpets are folded in ways it shouldn't be folded. The portière that must cover the windows was laid aside, the blue moon shined inside my chamber. 

I felt hot and changed into my pants, leaving my top—topless

I lay hold of the sconce and opened the double doors to my veranda.  The rays of the moon dazzled my eyes, on top of the glass table in my veranda was the book I have been looking for all this time. 

How did this get here? 

I immediately sat and opened the book, a message caught my eye: What's meant for you, will always come back and return to you.

Then I guess you're mine, are you not? I smiled, at least I have something to run to. 

Flipping onto the next page, there's a painted picture of him, his head is of a wolf, canines blared his ears perked upwards and a shaggy mane outlined his face. His shoulders down to his hand were muscular as of a person, but instead of nails, he has long sharp claws. His body displayed abdominal muscles, serratus anterior, and external obliques. 

My eyes trailed on my body; it doesn't have any visible muscles. I'll be just happy that it's flat like my back. I shook my head, comparing myself to a Lycan in such a mood. 

He has well-defined quads and calves, but instead of toes, he has the hind legs of a wolf with long and curved claws. His whole body is consistently covered in black fur. He sure has been cursed by Zeus, that his fur is darker than the night's. 

He's wearing nothing but gold jewelry. He doesn't have his crown but he has this long chain of gold on his neck, intertwined on his chest, then my eyes caught a metallic silver engraved on his chest, what is this? 

"The curse he saw for himself," The text on the bottom said. 

On the back page of the picture, I continue to read: 

According to the legend, Lycaon, the son of Pelasgus, and former king of Arcadia wished for its kingdom's glorious days. He built a statue of Zeus to please him and asked for his blessing. Indeed, Lycaon restored Arcadian's golden days and Zeus came to visit his kingdom as a stranger. He noticed this and asked Zeus to sit and served him a meal.  A meal made from the remains of a sacrificed boy which angered the god Zeus. As punishment, the enraged Zeus turned Lycaon and his sons into wolves.

Woah. Even I'd be angered if remains of whoever they were, was served to me. 

I looked at the stars, the shining bright stars. Even the shining is just a whole bluff. Nevertheless, they are beautiful. I wonder if Levina sees me right now.

Is she mad?

Is she happy?

Who does she side with?

Is it me?

Or is it father and brother?

Her silver eyes like the thunderbolts flashed through my mind. Her intoxicating smile when we were along the dandelion field. 

If only I could save her from that moment. 

"Father, when are you going to put that rouge's neck into the guillotine?" My ears perked and sat right when I heard my father and brother talk about Ahlai. They were on the ground floor, my veranda overlooking where they are. 

I couldn't hear my father's voice; I close my eyes to concentrate and use my supernatural hearing. 

"We still have yet to investigate. Right now, he's not yet turning into the roguelike we expected him to change." 

Of course, how many times should I say this? He is not a rogue! So why would Ahlai change into something he isn't? 

They don't believe me. 

"What about the Epsilons patrolling near the perimeter?" 

"They sniffed rogue and bloodhound's scent, they surely had passed here and came from the previous kingdom." 

"If that's confirmed, then why are you not giving him his verdict?" 

"We'll announce it early tomorrow. For now, I want you to rest, you'll be the one who'll announce it." Father put his right hand on his right shoulder, congratulating him. 

"Really!?" His grin widened when Father nodded his head. 

"May I read the reports?" 

"Yes, come with me." 

They walked off and I hurriedly ran out of my bedroom. Leaving the book where I found it. I need to save Ahlai! 

The maids didn't bat their eyes when they saw me approaching and running the hallways, they continued to gossip and thought I was losing my mind again. The guards just let me pass through the gates and I went down to the basement where the prisoners are. 

"Oi! Look who's here." One of the prisoners mocked. 

I looked at him, his awfully deranged and dirty. He was one of the thieves caught last quarter of the moon, and today is a new moon, he's been in here for 8 days yet he looked like he lived here for a decade already. 

I wonder what he'll look when a decade has passed.

"What are you looking at?" He smugly asked. 

"I thought you were bluffing, but he's here alright. Friends! Get up!" 

"Did your father know you're here?" A man's voice caught my eye he was standing against the windows, and I can tell he has a Grecian nose from his silhouette. 

"You mustn't be here, prince. If you still want to live comfortably." 

I stopped at his jail cell, and he walked forward. He's old but still healthy his white hair unkept, and wrinkles around his eyes become defined when he stepped into the light. 

"Live comfortably?" 

"Yeah right. He's one hell of a clueless prince!" The prisoner's voice echoed through the hall. They all laughed except for this man, who eyed me with a formidable look.

"Because if you do anything wrong here, you'll get a beating!" Another one answered and they all laughed again. 

I shook my head and walked past his jail cell when he said: "What's meant for you, will always come." 

That line, it's almost identical to...aha! What's meant for you, will always come back and return to you. From the book that I have been reading! 

"To haunt you or free you." 

But what he said has a different ending. 

"What?" I stopped in my tracks. 

"What's meant for you, will always come to haunt or free you." He repeated. "Keep that in mind, my prince." 

My prince...?

"Oh boy, the prince you should be my-ing must be Prince Alaric."

"Oi, I'm convinced this prince is adopted!" 

"I don't even shiver whenever I see him!" 

"Yeah, I bet he's not even royalty!" 

I only sighed. And went to walk further down, from my peripheral view I saw the old man smirking. 

"Oi! Prince! Where are you going? Come back!" 

"We want to be entertained by you!" 

"What's his name again?" 

Their mockery and laughter echoed through the stone walls of the prison. 

Since they treated Ahlai as a rogue, he must be from the very down of this basement. I took a torch and walked deeper. 

"Ahlai!" 

I heard his growl. I'm nearby!

"Ahlai! It's me, Xavion!" 

"What are you doing here, Prince?" His voice was ruffed, and his breathing uneven. 

"Are you okay?" A metallic clang rang into my ears. It was so high-pitched I thought it will hurt me. "I'm going to save you." 

"Get me out of here, my friend." He begged. Holding the bars with his hands. 

"You know I'm innocent." His eyes turned to a different shade. He immediately closes it. 

"I should call the doctor." I backed off. 

"No." He opened his eyes; they came back to their original color. "Accompany me to the doctor." 

"Okay." I put down the torch and opened the lock. The lock has a lot of scratches on it. His breathing become more uneven, a silver metal slid across the bars and touched my shoe. Picking it up, the metallic silver, I don't know why but why did it glow? 

My eyes flickered back and forth from the bars that are almost open, his eyes flickering with excitement. 

"ROGUE!" 

"MOVE!" Ahlai growled. 

I didn't catch my breath, the rails burst open hitting me on my forehead, his claws out scratching my chest down to my stomach, the metallic silver pushed into my bloodied flesh as he ran out like a mad dog. 

"N-no!" 

He slobbered and ran like a hound, howling. I lost consciousness.

  ☾ 𓆰𓆪 ☽

*Trigger warning, grotesque descriptions ahead* 

Poor Xavion! It only takes a 'friend' to make his miserable heart, happy. 

Now, where am I off to? 

Ah yes...! 

The queen said, "Attack the stronger man, and leave the strongest to me." 

This means I'll attack the stronger prince, Alaric, and leave the king to the queen! 

Clever, clever Ahlai, clever. 

"But don't forget, do not kill. Just attack, not kill." 

Where should I find him? 

Oops! One Epsilon caught me, I have to kill him real quick! 

I growled, baring my slobber out, I'm finally having my dinner. He's not too fast to catch me. I hid behind the trees and eyed him. What a dumbass he didn't even ask one of his senior epsilons to help him. 

Well, he wanted to prove something for himself, and proving his wrong, that I will deliver. 

"GRRRRRR!" He screamed like a girl. 

I clawed his head off his neck to silence his scream and ate his head heartily. I unwrap my food and left his genitalia out in the open. I don't want to eat that; I have that one too! 

Then went straight for his heart, ugh delicious organs! His heart freshly pumping, I easily gobbled it down and picked: pancreas first or the lungs? 

Hmmmm, I'll eat his right lung and then his pancreas, and leave the other one when I escape. I got his bladder and toyed with it for a while. It looks like a balloon with a lot of pee! hee-hee-hee

I used my index claws to pop it and sprinkled it on his clothes and then gobbled it like a mad wolf. 

"Hmmm, grilling his intestines will be yummier, but I have to get going or I'll be late!" Then snacked his large intestines first and left his left lung, small intestine, liver, and the rest of his body near my exit route. 

"I promise I'll come back for you darlings; Daddy just needs to finish a mission first." 

Never bothering to wipe my bloodied mouth, I followed Alaric's scent. 

Sniffing it from the hallways I found my target

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