Chapter 2: Bitter Mornings

 

Aria sat at the breakfast table, her gaze fixed on the dark coffee swirling in her cup—it reminded her of the prisoner’s eyes. He had looked straight at her, unflinching, until the soldiers dragged him away. The intensity of that stare still lingered, unsettling her. And why hadn’t the sedatives worked on him?

“Aria, are you alright?”

Her uncle’s voice pulled her back from her thoughts.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” she replied quickly.

“You should eat. You haven’t been eating much lately,” he said, pointing toward her untouched plate.

“Don’t pressure her,” Queen Meredith interjected. “If she wants to stay slim, let her. At her age, finding a suitor isn’t getting any easier.”

Aria picked up her cup of coffee to wash away the bitter taste in her mouth. God, could she dislike this woman any more than she already did?

"But Her Highness has extraordinary beauty," princess Yvaine began and Aria prepared herself to puke in her own mouth. "She only needs to be more… soft-spoken. I could help with that." She faked a smile.

Aria put down her cup with a sigh. "I am sure you can be of great help. You are after all an expert in uttering kind words with no sincerity and wearing a pretentious smile that doesn't suit your face."

"Aria!" Yvaine's husband looked up from his plate with furious eyes. "Speak with respect to my wife," he ordered her.

Princess Yvaine wore a satisfied smile that she tried to hide from the others, but made sure Aria was aware of it. Aria remained calm and indifferent because she knew this annoyed them.

"Father, I will not tolerate such disrespect anymore." He told the king.

Her uncle chuckled. "You can not rule with such a temper. Remember, never show your true feelings."

Her cousin, Prince Andrew looked back at her with a hostile gaze and Aria sipped her coffee nonchalantly in response. Her uncle was the only one on her side in this dysfunctional family.

"Your Majesty, I saw the new prisoner." Aria began putting down her cup.

"You should not meddle in men's business." Her cousin spat. "You should focus on finding a husband. Father, how about Sir Lancelot?" He suggested one of his own loyal men to the king.

Sir Lancelot was a respected knight but not the one for Aria. If she was going to get married, she would make sure to pick a man that would help her stand tall against her enemies and her cousin was one of those enemies. All because of the nonsense his mother fed him and he so willingly consumed. Aria would not marry one of his own and become his puppet. She knew he was trying to disarm her that way. Being the previous king's daughter, he saw her as a threat.

Pathetic. For her to be a ruler, there would have to be no male relatives of the king alive. The tradition has always passed on the throne to the king's closest male relative. So for her to be a ruler she would have to kill him and his father. Right now, she was tempted to.

"I can find myself a husband." She told Prince Andrew and then turned to the king. "Your Majesty. If I may be brash, I think Lord Steele would make a good husband."

Prince Andrew paused and looked around, scarcely panicked. Aria tried not to show her satisfaction with his reaction. Lord Steele was a wealthy trader and a governor of large estates in the lands across the sea. He was trusted by the king but not much by the prince. Mainly because Prince Andrew couldn't use his title to frighten the man who had once been a vicious pirate.

Lord Steele was known to be sharp and upfront. Relentless in his pursuits. He had also shown interest in her despite her age. In fact, her age was never a problem like the queen and her daughter-in-law seemed to make it. Most men didn't care as long as they found a woman of their liking. It was often their family members, especially the women who convinced them otherwise.

Lord Steele had no family she knew of and he wasn't a man to bend to people's will or care about gossip. He was the perfect candidate.

Her uncle chuckled, amused by her suggestion. "Most women fear him." He pointed.

But they also wanted him. If he had shown interest in any of them, then they would think of themselves as lucky.

"Well then, I think he is a good choice." The king voiced.

"But love, that man used to be a pirate. I would not trust him with our Aria." The queen said pretending to care, again.

"He is a trustworthy man and if Aria wants to marry him, then so be it." The king said with finality.

A few resentful looks were cast her way but Aria ignored them and continued to eat her food.

Thankfully, the topic changed to what she wanted to discuss when Yvaine expressed her concern about the new prisoner. "Your Majesty, I am frightened. What if he escapes? The soldiers had difficulty controlling him." Her husband gave a look to remain quiet and she looked down at her plate.

Aria wished she had an immortalizer. She couldn't kill the prince but she could at least sedate him so his wife could speak freely. Not that she liked his wife but the woman certainly made more sense than him.

"Do not worry. Everything is under control." The king assured her.

"They couldn't sedate him. He could be a real danger, Your Majesty. Why do you wish to keep him?" Aria asked.

"He is rare. He is a katharos. Probably why the immortalizer wasn't effective. We need to keep him alive and find out the weaknesses of his kind." The king said chewing on his food.

So his blood was the reason? Having royal blood had a different meaning to werewolves. Rulers were picked based on the purity of their blood.

They took the rule because their blood allowed them to. It made them stronger, more dangerous, and feared. It made them almost immortal. Being of pure blood meant being closer to their ancestors. The real beasts. The ones that couldn't take the shape of a human.

"He might also lead us to find your sister." He added.

Aria stiffened. Her sister?

"What- what makes you say so?" She asked.

They had been looking for her sister for almost six years now. Many had told her to give up and grieve because many years passed and she hadn't been found, but her Uncle had promised her he would keep looking.

They never suspected werewolfs to have anything to do with her disappearance. Then they would have found her dead somewhere. Why would the werewolfs keep her alive when they had killed the rest of her family?

Her uncle sighed, a sad expression settling on his face as if he was about to deliver bad news.

"During the years that we have been hunting werewolves, we discovered that they take human females as hostages. Because we killed their kind, they abduct our women and use them to breed."

Aria's stomach turned. She put her cup down with a slightly trembling hand. Her fingers turned cold.

"No." She breathed and her uncle looked at her sympathetically. Her sister was only sixteen when she disappeared. "Excuse me." She said standing up hastily. She felt sick as she hurried out of the room not wanting to empty her stomach where the rest of them were having breakfast.

She hurried through the hall, her nausea growing with each step as images of her small innocent sister surrounded by those large male beasts filled her head. Tremors of fear went through her. Please no!