Frederick slams his door shot as he walks inside the room fully. He rummages his hand through his head as he breathes out sharply from his nostril.
Just as he believed happiness would finally shine on him, the reverse occurs. Amaya has a mate who isn't him, but he swears the connection they have, and the way his heartbeat accelerated when he saw her is just as powerful as any mate. He has been looking for her for years. 10 years ago, she was the girl who made him a happy twelve-year-old boy who looked forward to seeing her every day.
The first time they met was during his usual hunt for animals. He saw her in the woods with fake crafted arrows. He remembered how she smiled at him and ran off almost immediately. She ran and he followed. Everything about her was different. As young as he was, he still marveled at her beauty. How her blonde hair shone like the morning sun and how alluring her white teeth appeared when her thin lips curved into a smile.
At first, she didn't want to have anything to do with him, especially when she found out he was a royal, but with time, they became fond of each other, going to the hunts together. There was not a time, Frederick hunted alone. He was like the bow and she was his arrow.
He remembered how they would sit by the riverside, catching the little fish. He hated the smell of the river but would stay just to be with her. Her mother rebuked her from going into the kingdom, but she would go with him into the busy town and he would buy apples for the both of them and eat them in an open field. He used to sneak out of the palace at night just to watch the stars with her.
Young Amaya always loved the pretty dresses princesses wore and she didn't fail to constantly share her thoughts with him. To make her happy, Frederick begged his maid to make a dress for him. It took a while to convince her, especially when he didn't tell her who it was for, but she eventually gave in
On the day the dress was completed, he wrapped the purple dress in a cloth and ran to the cottage to show her what he had gotten for her. He met the shock of his life instead. The cottage was destroyed. There was no building and no Amaya either. Little Fredrick got so confused. The clothes fell from his hands as he ran to the cottage.
"Amaya" he called out, but he didn't get a response.
He never got any for 10 years.
The knock on the door distracts him from his thoughts. He looks up at Ralph who emerges inside the room.
"Is there a problem?" Frederick asks, trying his best to hide how broken he is. His voice is different, more strained, and raspy. Ralph notices it.
"Dianne found her mate. She will be leaving the pack soon and she needs your approval"
Frederick takes some time before he finally speaks. He is exhausted and the only thing he craves is to be left alone. "Who did she get mated to?"
"A chap from the dark moon pack"
"Tell her she has my blessings"
"Alpha Frederick, it will be better if you give her your blessing directly because she went out of her way to tell you about this. Most of them just disappear, carried away by the heat of the moment"
Frederick sighs. "Tell her to wait till dawn. Then she can have my blessing" he says and begins to remove his boot.
Ralph is supposed to leave, but he lingers. He knows something is wrong with Frederick even though he tries his best to hide it. "Did something happen?"
"Do I make it so obvious?"
"You look gruffy enough for me to point it out"
After Frederick finishes taking off his booth, he seats back down on his bed and lets out a distressed breath. " I rode to Santol today"
"You did?" Ralph asks without hiding the astonishment on his face.
"I went there for Amaya. I thought she was in danger and I was going to bring her to the pack house. Turns out she wasn't in danger after all. She is my brother's mate" those words feel like thorns, rolling out down his tongue. It pricks and stings his heart. "She looked just okay"
Silence follows when Frederick finishes. It prevails for almost a minute before Ralph finally speaks. "You love her" he is quick to point out. He has never seen so many bursts of emotions in Frederick's eyes before. At that moment, his eyes are filled with hurt and bitterness as he speaks about her.
"The moon goddess made a mistake," Fredrick says through gritted teeth. "Probably she wants to curse me for my father's crime" he adds.
"And she exempts Lucan? Think again. Some things aren't meant to be. Everything happens for a reason. The fact that she makes your inner wolf happy doesn't mean she has to be your mate. Now you know she isn't your mate, you can start focusing on other ladies and get yourself a mate just like your brother"
Those words make Frederick angrier. He doesn't even know how he can move on and find a mate when she is the only one to whom his heart is tied to. Back in the palace, he saw the same emotions visible in her eyes.
Ralph spoke like that because he doesn't know how long Frederick longed for her. His obsession for her was so strong that he went to the riverside each day, praying to the moon goddess that she would show up so he could see for one last time, but she never did. He longed for her to the extent of keeping the princess dress throughout the ten years of her absence. At first, he convinced himself that she would come back and then he could hand over the dress to her, but when one, two, three years passed, all his hopes were smashed.
********
"You will not free those creatures Lucan" his mother screams at him, but Lucan pays deaf ears to her.
"I am king, I make the rules here!"
"My God, what has come over you? Those people have never been your concern"
"Well, I chose to pay attention to them now. They have been there for as long as I can remember. Fed when it is more convenient for us."
"They are hardly fed, yet they still live. Doesn't that concern you?"
"I am freeing them, mother"
"You are not" she shoots at him.
"I am king!" He barks at his mother. "I get to decide what happens in this kingdom"
His mother is stunned by her son's behavior but tries her best to hide it. "What if they retaliate?" She walks towards where he is seated and places her hand on his shoulder to calm the anger that is already visible on his face. "Those things are powerful and evil"
"And yet they can't set themselves free. If they are so powerful, they would have broken those chains and taken over this kingdom all this while"
Rebecca raises her voice again. "Your father was not playing around when he made the rule of no witches, wizards, or those pesky warlocks"
"I am not my father"
Rebecca sighs. She knew that look in his eyes. No one can convince him anymore."If this backfires" she begins in a whisper. "You will be responsible for this kingdom's downfall," she says and storms out of the palace hall