Kings and Queens

*Rafe*

King Axel looks smaller than usual behind his desk, though I’m not sure why. His graying hair, long and thick despite its change in color, hangs loose around his shoulders. He leans back in his chair, listening to our reports, saying very little until we finish going over everything we’ve discovered while we were on our mission to collect data about the status of the wolf shifter villages.

“I feel the only way to get some of these territories back under control is through a culling,” Kris is saying. “Leadership in several of them told us just that. I saw such unruly behavior, such blatant disrespect for the crown.” He shakes his head, clearly still irritated with what went on in Beoutown.

“Disrespect for the crown?” King Axel doesn’t hesitate to speak up now. “In what way?”

“Well, in one town, an insipid girl called Prince Rafe all sorts of horrible names and nearly attacked him in the streets just for bumping into her.” Kris exaggerates the story, and I find myself growing irr