Fortis

We made it to the throne room. Scarlett and I took our seats. Then I began the interrogation.

"You work for that wolf king across the forest, right?" I asked Ben.

He nodded. "I work for Lord Henry,"

"You aren't a vampire, so I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to be in my kingdom. Were you sent to spy?"

"Yes, I was sent to spy. Lord Henry is aware of new kingdoms forming around us."

"Well, he needs to mind his own business; we aren't starting any wars here." Not yet, at least, I grinned.

"You're a threat to our kingdom, Lord Fortis. He had no choice." Ben argued. "I mean, what would you have done?"

"It's not the fact that you we're spying. It's the fact that you got caught. It seems to me that Henry needs to fire you three and hire better men." They were literally playing with fire by walking into vampire territory.

There's no way a wolf can sneak past a vampire. We know when someone is watching us.

"Well, if Henry wants the intel from you, he's going to have to pay for it. Do you think he'll pay for you? Is your life worth something?"

"I don't know." Ben squirmed. "As you said, if he wants the intel, he'll pay for it."

"Huh, I guess. We'll see," I said as I nodded my head.

Just then, the door opened, Stephen and Maya walked in. I greeted them with a smile.

"What's going on?" Stephen asked.

"Children, please come in. Take your seats on the throne."

Stephen looked at Maya before he took his seat on the throne. Maya followed him.

"Sorry, we couldn't join you two for dinner. We have our hands full at the moment. But since you're here, let me catch you guys up." I told Maya and Stephen. "This person right here," I gestured to Ben. "is one of the three prisoners my men captured today. They were trespassing."

"Forgive me, Lord Fortis; we never established a line between the territories," Ben said.

He's right.

"That's something I will take care of later. Anyways, this is Ben; he was the only one who would speak whenever we asked questions, so to save time, we only brought him out of the cell. Plus, he won't escape without his buddies." I chuckled.

Stephen also smiled. He found my joke funny. That means he's a little fucked up, just like me. I smiled at that.

I asked Ben a few more questions then ordered Brody and Luis to take Ben back to his cell.

"You two should go to bed," I told Maya and Stephen. Then turned to Scarlett. "We should have dinner."

"Sounds good to me." Scarlett smiled.

Maya and Stephen said goodnight then left the room.

Scarlett and I walked to the dining hall.

We sat down and started eating.

"What is your plan here?" She asked me.

"I will write a letter about how much I want for two hostages and where vampire territory starts. Then I'll release one of the hostages to deliver the letter."

"You don't care about the money," Scarlett mentioned.

"Not really. How much do you think we can get for the other two hostages?"

I'm already wealthy, so I'm not going to make this wolf king pay for three hostages.

"I'd say about eight hundred shillings."

"I think that's a great price, thanks love."

She smiled. "No problem. It's what I'm here for."

Katerina

After breakfast, I walked to the armory room. I was quite excited to go into the forest and see the vampire kingdom. I couldn't sleep last night. I had to hide my excitement during breakfast. I know we shouldn't be doing this, but I'm curious.

I wore a black crop top, black leather pants, black leather boots, and a black leather jacket. I grabbed a sword and a dagger. Then put them in my scabbard.

Soon Alexander showed up.

"What took you so long?" I asked him.

He, too, was dressed in all black. A black shirt, black leather pants, black leather boots and a black leather jacket.

"Sorry, dad wanted to talk to me." He said as he placed a sword and dagger in his scabbard.

I nodded. "Ready?"

"Yeah, let's go."

We were so close to leaving the castle without seeing any of our family members. But we ran into mom.

"Where are you guys going, and why are you dressed like that?" She noticed what Alexander and I were wearing.

"We're going into town for a bit. The castle can get boring sometimes." I lied.

She narrowed her eyes at us.

Please buy the lie, please.

"That's fine. Just don't stay out there too long, be back before lunch starts." She said as she walked away.

I let out a breath that I didn't know I was holding in.

"Close one," Alexander whispered.

"Let's go before anyone else sees us," I suggested and we started walking again.

Stephen

Last night as Maya and I were walking back to our rooms, she suggested that we go into the forest after breakfast, which is a good idea because our parents are busy with the prisoners right now. So they won't notice us missing.

We met in front of the castle.

We were both dressed in black and armed.

"We can't do this often," I told Maya as we walked into the forest.

"I figured, wouldn't want to get caught."

We talked until we got to the bridge over the river.

"Do you see people over there?" Maya asked me.

"Yeah, I do."

They were dressed in black just like we were. They were armed too. I put my hand on my sword.

"Are you guys wolves?!" Maya asked them.

They turned around, startled. It was a boy and a girl. They looked around our age. I took my hand off my sword and relaxed a little.

"Yeah, we are." The guy answered.

"I'm Alexander, and this is my younger sister, Katerina," Alexander said.

"I'm Stephen, and this is my sister Maya. We're vampires."

"I find it crazy that we just happen to be in the forest at the same time," Katerina said. She had brown hair and green eyes. She was beautiful.

"Right, like what are the chances?" I replied.

"Anyways, we have some information. I feel that we should meet regularly to exchange information and to chat." Maya said.

"Agreed." Alexander nodded.

"Sorry to say this, but we have three of your men. I believe their names are Ben, Dave, and Matthew." I told them.

"Yeah, they were trespassing, in vampire territory," Maya added.

"Hey, you do what you got to do," Alexander said, understanding.

"I'm sure we would've done the same. We've got vials of blood in our castle just for that purpose; in case we ever capture a vampire, we wouldn't want them dying if they have vital information." Katerina explained.

"Yeah, they feed the prisoners meat and other things," I told them.

"You know us wolves; we got to have meat as the main course." Katerina joked.

"I know that's right," Alexander said.

"So, how many of you are there?" Katerina asked.

"Just four of us. My Brother and I, then my parents." Maya answered.

"You two seem very smart," Alexander said. "There are six of us in total. I've got another Brother and another Sister, then our two parents. My Brother, James, is an idiot. But I'm first in line for the throne." He bragged.

"Same here," I said, referring to the last line of his sentence.

"So you know how the pressure feels then?" Alexander asked me.

"Yeah, but I can handle it."

"Same. I know I'm first in line for the throne, but if I were to die, it would go to James next. I couldn't imagine what would happen if he was ruling it."

"You'd probably be turning in your grave." Katerina joked.

We all laughed.

"Probably." Alexander agreed.

"They'll probably see him as unfit to rule and find someone else to rule," I answered.

"True, but who would take his place?" Alexander asked.

"Probably our uncle," Katerina answered.

"Damn, see, this is why nothing bad should happen to me," Alexander said. "I don't know who's worse, my brother or my uncle?"

"Well, then I guess we're counting on you, Alexander. Because neither of them can be trusted to rule." Katerina said.

"I know right," Alexander replied.

"This is why I'm glad I have no responsibilities right now," Maya said.

"You may have to marry into a different kingdom," I told Maya.

"No, not all royals end up on a throne. But they can marry other nobles and buy estates." Katerina argued.

I smiled. "True. I forgot about that."

"We've been gone way too long; if we aren't back by lunch, we'll get in trouble. But it was nice talking to you guys; we should meet again." Katerina said as she smiled at me.

I returned that smile. "We could try tonight after dinner," I suggested.

"Sounds good; we'll be there," Katerina said.

We waved goodbye and went out separate ways.

Maya nudged me. "What was that? Huh?"

I smiled. "What are you talking about?"

"You were looking at Katerina a certain way." She said.

"So what if I did?"

"You can't fall for her. They're the enemy. You got to keep your guard up, brother." She told me.

"Yeah, you're right. But the least I could do is keep providing her with information about what's going on in our castle."

"True," Maya said. "Maybe you'll earn some cool points from her." She joked as she nudged my arm.

I smiled and mumbled a yeah, whatever.

I felt a connection with Katerina, one that felt like we could be more than friends. But considering that we could become rivals, I probably shouldn't fall for her. I don't see her as an enemy, even though I should.

Katerina

Alexander and I walked back to the castle.

"You shouldn't develop feelings for Stephen." He spoke.

"I'm not. That would be dumb; our families could become rivals." I rolled my eyes.

"I'm serious." He told me.

"I hear you, Alexander."

That's a shame; I like Stephen. As soon as we met, I felt that we had a connection. But I guess we're just going to have to leave it at friends. I can do that, right?

~Dominique