Right before Xandar was about to say something, large metal floor panels covered by sand and rusty construction materials folded upwards to reveal a route which seemed to lead to an underground tunnel. They followed Greg’s car and came to a well-lit parking space. As soon as Laurent and his followers were in, Greg shut the panels.
After Xandar parked in a random lot, he turned to his wife and asked, “Weren’t you only annoyed on those shopping trips because the books, clothes or shoes weren't to your taste?”
Lucianne furrowed her brows and exclaimed with elaborated hand gestures, “Are you kidding me, Xandar?! You want to talk about shopping when your cousin just opened a freaki—”
“Yeah yeah, that was all very impressive but really, baby, it wasn’t the material things th
Would you want that type of security system? If the story is going well for you so far, do leave comments and gems 💎 to let me know :)
Lucianne shoved aside the thoughts of how good the reception was underground as she turned around to pick up the empress’s call.“Pelly?”The response came out ominously, “Aunt Lucy, there’s been another abduction. Twenty adults and two children have been taken from another village, Saber Vagary.”Lucianne’s facial expression squinted in despair before she asked, “How far was this from the Falling Vines?”“23 miles north.”“Without bloodshed?”“Without bloodshed,” Pellethia confirmed, and added, “We&rsqu
When the introductions were done, Xandar and Lucianne followed Greg through a cream-colored corridor which had so many turns that it felt like they were in a maze. There were doors the whole way in but some were actually red herrings - certain doors open up to walls, not rooms. This was a precaution taken to buy time to escape, if they were ever found.They finally entered a room with the same cream walls with a rectangular glass table placed in the middle. What was odd about this room was that there were no office chairs. Not one.After those who followed the royals from the police station entered, Hailey closed the door. Greg placed his palm flat on the table. A faint blue glow scanned his handprint horizontally, vertically and around the shape of his palm before the blue words “ACCESS GRANTED” appeared in the middle of
Xandar continued linking, ‘He knew where the third supplier was but didn’t tell us.’‘Can you blame him?’ Lucianne retorted.A pause. Xandar linked in disbelief, ‘You’re taking his side?’‘No, Xandar,’ That simmered down some of his rage as Lucianne continued, ‘I’m taking the side of whichever creature has been scarred for life because of ONE legally punishable act that the law says they committed, which might not even be wholly their fault to begin with. If they’re wrong, sure, punish them. But there’s an endpoint in making them carry the blame that is, sadly, not practiced in this kingdom. We have to change that.’‘And
Lucianne’s eyes cleared to find Xandar holding her to his chest and drawing comforting circles on her back shoulder, soothing her earlier inferno. She parted their bodies and looked him dead in the eye as she said firmly, “We are NOT putting anyone in the kingdom around the Forest of Oderem.” Xandar blinked as he thought about what she said before suggesting with a cheeky smile, “Well, we could put them IN the forest instead, it’ll b—” “XANDAR!” Xandar chuckled and pecked a kiss on her forehead before assuring her with a smile as he stroked her forearms to soothe her, “Okay, okay. Until we know more about the forest, we’ll keep the experiments in our mental archive.” Another kiss on her cheek before he muttered, “Over-responsible Queen.” Lucianne sighed with relief, and turned, only to have a still-thinking Greg say, “Instead of lycans and werewolves, I suppose I could get a few willing humans to exper—” “NO!” Lucianne exclaimed even before he finished. Her volume and ferocity ma
Greg didn’t answer the deputy. His sights fixed on Lucianne, giving her time to figure it out because he knew, without a doubt, that she could. Lucianne was pondering deeply before her sights went back to the hologram. She pinched the screen to reveal the whole werewolf and lycan territory. Her eyes squinted slightly to see if there was anything underneath the familiar geographical area everyone was familiar with.Greg came over to tap on the ‘routes’ icon, and hundreds of red lines appeared on the hologram that Lucianne took a shocked breath as she stared blankly at what she was seeing, taking a step back to get a fuller view.Greg murmured, “It’s good news because the underground territories connected by those hidden passageways are limited. If no one saw them aboveground, then the search s
Lucianne thanked a smiling Christian when she took her daughter from him and started speaking animatedly in a hushed tone to her little girl. After mind-linking her husband with her large orbs, Xandar glanced at Greg in concern before giving into his little freesia. Lucianne smiled and pecked a grateful kiss on his cheek before approaching Greg with Reida in her arms. Stella stayed with Xandar and Christian, who watched the queen take hasty steps towards the other duke.Ivory and Desmond stopped looking around; Hailey stopped talking; and Alissa’s gum-chewing came to an awkward pause, but no one was as shocked as Greg was.When Lucianne was right in front of Greg, she positioned Reida to face him as she spoke to her, “Reida, this is Uncle Greg. Want to say ‘hi’?”
When Lucianne saw Tate and Margaret holding hands, she instinctively touched her husband’s arm as her eyes sparkled when they met his smiling ones. After pecking a light kiss on her forehead, Xandar muttered, “Looks like it went well.”Margaret’s surprised eyes shot to her daughter, and Lucianne motioned Stella to go to her. Although hesitant, Stella obeyed and took careful steps towards them. Margaret let go of Tate’s hand when she pulled Stella into a relieved hug, and Tate came over to embrace Lucianne and greet the king and the duke.When Tate saw Greg holding Reida a small distance away, he stared for another three seconds before he asked, “That’s the other duke?”“Yeah, why?” Lucianne answered simply.
‘Aunt Lucy?’ It was Lucianne’s favorite nephew.‘Liam, sweetheart. You can mind-link!’Liam had just turned four. Wolves could only mind-link when they were six or seven, with a few exceptions like Liam. His voice shook a little when he said, ‘I t-tried so many times. Um…Aunt Lucy, a-are you coming home soon?’That was a very unusual question. The fact that Liam forced himself to mind-link her was another thing to be worried about. She tried to mask her anxiety when she continued speaking to him in a soft, assuring voice, ‘Well, I’ll have to ask Uncle Xandar. We’ll discuss it and make the trip there with little Reida soon, okay?’‘N