One

Stars glint in her eyes as she stares at his side profile.

Whether he can feel her gaze burning through the side of his face or not, she doesn’t know, nor does she care. She’s just happy, a feeling that always rises in her whenever she is with him.

 

In her world shaped by responsibilities, restricted movement, and repeated routines, he is her ‘something unusual, but satisfying’. He is her ‘something different and refreshing’.

 

He finally rolls his head to the side. The edges of his lips slowly rise into an amused smile, and her gaze immediately follows his dimples as they come into existence. Those dimples always catch her attention and make her lose in awe.

 

The sense of almost-freedom, admiration, and comfort she feels whenever she is with him? She calls it ‘love’.

 

The lips of the twenty-year-old princess curl into a shy smile.

 

“I’m that handsome?” Kylo asks, raising one of his brows.

 

Princess Caralyn swivels her head to the front, away from him. “I’m just happy.”

 

Kylo’s smile widens.

 

He takes her right hand in his, caressing her fingers, which prompts her to look at him once again. “I can’t wait for us to finish school. I will take you away from here, and you will never have to be sad again.”

 

She knows he meant every word; she can see it in his eyes.

 

“I can’t wait,” she smiles with anticipation.

 

She lays her head against his shoulders, and they just enjoy the cool breeze the night brings, sitting on the boot of Kylo’s beat-up car.

 

However, she had doubts. ‘Happily ever after’ didn’t seem to be for someone like her.

 

Someone with a… curse.

*

“Are you sure he won’t suspect anything?” the Luna of the Lycan Dominion pack, Queen Jesse, asks cautiously.

 

“Put your mind at rest, I have everything under control,” The Alpha of the Lycan Dominion pack, King Brooks, assures his wife.

“I still can’t wrap my head around this, though. The Moon Legion pack really reported us, the mighty royal family, to the supreme ultima. The audacity!” Princess Dora fumes, noisily dropping her cutlery on the table.

 

Princess Caralyn almost flinched at the sound. She doesn’t care about their conversation; she just wants to eat in peace.

 

Princess Caralyn is the daughter of King Brooks, born to his late wife. He remarried only five months after his wife’s death; his new wife was already heavily pregnant then, meaning he had been cheating on his late wife.

 

Caralyn was only two years old when she got a step-sibling.

 

“I wonder what made him grant their request, though. He is known for loving his solitude. Do you think he heeded their call because he already has it out for us?” Queen Jesse asks.

 

‘Guilty minds with no rest,’ Caralyn mentally snorts.

 

King Brooks is quiet, patiently enjoying his food.

 

The Brooks royal family was sitting around the dining table, having their breakfast.

 

“And Dad had to go invite him to stay with us for the five-week investigation period!” Dora expressed her dissatisfaction.

Caralyn’s head whips up at the news. She had heard several rumors about Riccardo DeSantis, the de facto Supreme Ultima without a mate. He was said to have killed his mate just because she spoke too loudly.

 

Some said he had no roots and was a god thrown down from heaven because of his evil deeds. People also believe he buried the heads of ten late kings under his mansion to render his fortress sorcery-proofed.

 

The rumor Caralyn finds the funniest was that he is an abomination born of a sorcerer and a cursed werewolf, and he ended up eating his parents to acquire incomparable supernatural powers.

 

The fact that she finds it funny doesn’t mean that she didn’t think it was possible. She doesn’t trust anyone after all, except Mrs. Hale, the household’s head attendant and the closest thing she has to a mother.

 

Caralyn has known Mrs. Hale all her life, and the woman is the only one who treats her like a person, and not a cursed princess.

 

“Calm down, princess. Keep your friends close, and keep your enemies closer. You know about that, don’t you?” King Brooks smiled.

 

Eighteen-year-old Dora only huffed, not convinced.

 

Then, her eyes moved to Caralyn. “Heard you met Kylo last night.”

 

Caralyn stops eating, and the food in her mouth suddenly feels like it's choking her. She chews slowly, hoping that by some miracle, the topic will be changed.

 

“I told you I will never let you be with that wretched boy, mate or not. You are betrothed to Alpha Jason, and you will marry him. Stop playing around with that kid, Caralyn,” King Brooks warns.

 

“Just make sure you keep yourself. You will be dead the day you make a mistake and lose your virginity before marriage. That is what Alpha Jason is obsessed with, anyway,” Dora speaks nonchalantly.

 

It isn’t a lie. Alpha Jason, who is almost as old as her father, is obsessed with her. He even thinks he can control her curse, her rage fit. Caralyn hates him with everything in her.

 

“You will be married to Alpha Jason after you finish school,” King Brooks reminded her.

 

‘Dream on. We are going to elope with Kylo after we finish school. You and your frog-looking daughter can marry him yourselves,’ Caralyn’s lycan mentally mused.

 

Just then, the head attendant, Mrs. Hale, came to place a tray of cut fruits on the dining table.

 

“It’s the last day of the month tomorrow. Make sure she stays locked inside her room. I don’t want anything that will make the supreme ultima look down on the royal family,” Queen Jesse orders.

‘Will gladly stay in with pleasure. Though I wish I could break free tomorrow and tear you all to pieces, including your guests,’ Caralyn says in her head.

 

‘Careful what you wish for,’ her lycan teased.

 

“Noted, Your Majesty.” Mrs. Hale tilts her head in a small bow.

*

Princess Caralyn can feel it; it is starting. Tears cloud her eyes; the only question on her mind is ‘why me?’

 

She is a kind and honest princess, not losing her identity even with all the cruel treatments and undeserved fate. Why couldn’t the higher powers look upon her with mercy and rid her of this curse already?

 

Every month, she hopes, waiting for a miracle, till the rage fits start and all her hope dies again.

 

Her body shakes violently, and her palms ball into fists. She tries to control it, like she does every month. But she always fails, every month. The rage comes upon her in waves, and she feels her body burn in it

 

There is nothing that can be broken in the room she is in; they had made sure of it. She is locked in an empty room with nothing to vent her anger on. That only makes her rage grow stronger.

 

She paused momentarily when her eyes sighted the glass window.

 

Where real rage is involved, all sense of rational thinking flies out the window, outweighed by the uncontrolled desire to act out and let it all out.

 

The guards hear a crash a few minutes later and hurriedly open the door to check in on her. However, what they meet is an empty room with broken glass fragments scattered around.

*

Caralyn enters through the main door and slowly walks into the living area. How she got there, no one knows. Dora was the first to sight her; she screams and leaps up from her seat, running behind the couch.

 

Her parents soon noticed Caralyn and did the same with fear. They know she is having a rage fit, and no words or order could scare her at that moment.

 

The white gown she is wearing has patches of blood here and there, and clutched tightly in her right palm is a glass that drips blood onto the marble floor. Despite the wound, she isn’t feeling any pain.

 

Not yet, at least. The effect of whatever she goes through during the rage fit only comes crashing down on her whenever she’s back to herself.

 

The only person who remains seated is Riccardo, relaxed like a king with no worries. His men were about to make a move against her, to stop her.

 

“Fare marcia indietro,” he ordered them to stand down.

 

His eyes are on her, gray orbs intense enough to scare her. But at that moment, she isn’t herself.

 

She feels another rush of anger at the sight of him and walks toward him furiously. Her hand jerks up into the air, and when she is about to bring down the glass against his chest, his hand shoots out and holds hers swiftly.

 

He rises to his feet, and he slowly places his other hand against her cheek.

 

Her eyes widen in shock, and she lets out a prolonged audible gasp as she feels the life being sucked out of her.

 

“What is he doing to her?!”