Moonlit Sins - Vol 4. Chapter 6: The Prince

Chapter 6: The Prince

It wasn’t a joke.

Hunter and Maleva had been requested by the prince of the land to come to the imperial castle. They had been invited and Hunter still had no idea why that might have been the case. 

The two of them were brought into this massive and luxurious living room with golden walls. They were told to wait a while and then it turned into a much longer wait… 

“What do you think they’re going to do to us?” Maleva asked  Hunter as they were forced to wait for a long time…    

Hunter anxiously rubbed Maleva’s thick thighs. Why were they brought here? The royal family wanted them alive, so they must have something in mind for them. 

“Maybe they want a sort of peace, or maybe they want to put us on trial for the other night.” 

Being forced to wait only heightened Hunter’s anxiety. All he wanted was to stuff his face in Maleva’s chest back home. Leaving Cherrywood felt like a mistake.

“Right. I’m sorry, but I don’t agree too much with you…”

Maleva didn’t believe that peace ever came easily. No prey would ever give themself up on a platter, no bear would back down if its territory was intruded on, and she wouldn't stand idly by and let the soldiers knock on her door. She used force to subdue the intruding soldiers, and they used force to bring them both here. He might have had the best of intentions, but she likely saw it as blind optimism.

Thump… Thump… Thump… Thump… 

After a handful of minutes stretched into hours, Hunter and Maleva heard loud and booming footsteps from up an upstairs hallway, stepping ever closer to them.

A man in a luxurious and prestigious red and gold outfit stopped on the edge of the stairs and looked down upon Hunter and Maleva. 

“Oh, there you are!” this man said before hurrying down the stairs… “I’ve been meaning to meet you for so long!” He continued to hurry up to them simply so he could meet them and shake Hunter’s hand. He offered to do so, and Hunter was taken aback at first, confused and surprised. He still accepted to shake his hand.

“What is happening…?” Maleva asked, whispering as she did. 

“I am Prince Laurent. It’s an honour to meet you two.” 

He also went on to shake Maleva’s hand, as well… 

***

That evening, they were invited to join the prince for supper. 

“So, I think I might need some good stress relief if we survive this… I believe you might need some too...” Hunter whispered to his dear one, who was sitting right next to him. He kept his voice low to make sure the prince wouldn’t hear what he was saying to her.

“Yeah, sure, later, Hunter…” she whispered back to him.

“You have no idea how long I’ve looked for you…” the prince spoke for the first time since they began having this nice and generous meal together.

“My apologies, but what are you even saying? You know us and you were searching for us?” Hunter reacted quite abruptly about it.  

“Of course! That’s why I sent my men to your little town,” he explained to them.

“So, you were ready to pillage our village to find us? What were you looking for us?” This time, it was Maleva who questioned him.

“Why is it not a mystery anymore… I am interested in you two because of your lycanthropy,” now, as soon as the prince said that one significant word, everything changed for them. 

Hunter couldn’t believe that he knew about them and their lycanthropy. Somehow, he knew about them.           

“What about it? We’re not monsters, y’know? We want the same things as everyone else: safety, freedom, to live without fear.” Hunter was riled up at the Prince’s nonchalance. This monarch simply held so much power compared to the two lovers. The opulence of the room reflected their power disparity. It only put Hunter further uneased. He longed to be back under the stars with Maleva bouncing alongside him as they patrolled the quiet woods. 

It didn’t help that the Prince immediately chuckled at Hunter’s dubious tone.

“No, this is not what I mean, at all. You have it wrong. I want to help you,” the monarch explained to them.

“Help us?” Maleva repeated after him, not certain what this could mean.

The energy in the room suddenly shifted.

Hunter truly was taken by surprise.

They both were, but Hunter was completely shocked. This was like his world had been turned upside down all of a sudden. For a brief second, he began to maybe understand that the prince meant to help, but he still was in complete and utter disbelief. 

Nothing made sense to them anymore…

“You see, this is why I was able to tell my men who to look for. I’ve communicated to them what you looked like. A confidant of mine described to me what you looked like. This is how I was able to find you in the first place, but I want to assure you that I mean you no harm. As I already said before, I want to help you. Those who are affected by lycanthropy shouldn’t be hunted down and hurt, they should be protected,” the prince tried to reason with them and explained his position on all of this.   

“You say people like us shouldn’t be hunted down, and yet, this was exactly what you did!” Maleva immediately pointed out to him, and Hunter thought she was right to say so.

“I assure you… This is not like that… I am on your side…” he continued attempting to make them understand he didn’t mean any harm to them. 

“What I want to know is why your troops wanted to destroy an innocent restaurant or even more importantly, why were they interested in desiring to pillage and massage our village?” Hunter brought it up to him. 

“And—who is this confidant of yours you speak of? Who told you who we were?” This time, Maleva aggressively stood up as she spoke to the prince.

Both palms of her hands were pushing against the dining table as she stood up.

She wasn’t having any of it today and she had every right to react this way Hunter thought.

“You are to meet with my confidant soon. I can assure you of this. I have nothing to hide from you. As far as the commotion at the restaurant and about your village, you have my most sincere apology. Those had to be mistakes from my soldiers and I will make sure this is corrected, so it doesn’t happen next time…”  

“And how long will we have to wait while you string us out? Constantly leading us along, making us seem like we’re important? It sounds to me more like you’re going to put us in a zoo! Not protect us or anything!” Hunter was furious, and seething in rage, and he followed his girlfriend in standing up. “If you truly cared about us, you would’ve just left us and Cherrywood alone! We were perfectly happy and content living our lives the way that we were. Yet you thought we had to be saved or something like that!” Crossing his arms, he stared daggers into the prince. He did not want to spend any time with the other man, especially with how he’d been acting towards them.

The prince stood and his shoulders dropped.

“I… I do understand what you’re saying and I’m deeply sorry again… You don’t have to finish your meal if you want to leave right away… I won’t hold you back and the last thing I want is to make you feel uncomfortable or scared…”